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thenovelartist · 1 year

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Ikemen Prince boys as fathers - Jin, Luke, and Clavis

I've done the twins already, and that post surprisingly took off. I know the other boys would be different, AKA less heartbreaking, but I still got inspired to do them.

And this is only Jin, Luke, and Clavis as I've played them recently. I'll get to the last three boys once I play Yves' and Leon's routes.

Jin

When he learns Emma is pregnant, he's surprised but earnestly happy.

Of all the boys, he's the most prepared to be a father. He's already Second Dad to all his brothers, anyway. (The first being Sariel; I will not hear otherwise.)

That eagle eye is 100% on Emma throughout her pregnancy. He'll have anything from tea and sweets brought up for her to a doctor called before she even asks for them.

And he'll always make sure there's a bucket for her morning sickness as well as a chair designated for her in every room she frequents.

Jin about had a heart attack when Emma was surprised by the first kicks of their baby.

The way she clutched at her stomach, her eyes wide with surprise had his heart racing in fear for a good moment before she insisted the baby was just moving.

"You're gonna make me go gray early, aren't you little one?" he teased, resting his hands on her stomach even though the baby wasn't moving by then.

"I'm shocked your brothers haven't made you go gray now," she teased back.

Of course, he's got the normal worries about becoming a father lingering around in the back of his mind.

However, there is one fear that overshadows them all. Sadly, he's too good at hiding it behind either a smile or long winded rambles of how excited he is to be a father.

But his pupil is too good at catching things like his true inner feelings.

"Hey, you're gonna be a great dad. Just like you're a great king. And no matter how fat I get, I'll still be able to shoulder your burdens. It's the least I can do as your wife."

He chuckles, because the love and concern she constantly pours out for him reminds him just how indulgent a luxury true love is and how sad he is for his parents to have been torn apart.

"You're not fat," he'll always point out. "You've just got a little extra sand in your hourglass."

"A lot of extra sand," she'll correct with a smile, resting her hands on her bloated stomach.

Jin sometimes wonders if his mother looked like that: excited for him, a child made and born out of love, to come into the world.

The thought always makes him want to reach for Emma, as his father likely would have wanted to do with his mother before they'd been torn apart.

"But Jin," she'll always finish as he took her into his arms to hold, "I want you to know I'm not going anywhere. No one is going to make me. And I'll be right by your side as we watch this little one grow up, together."

She always got to the heart of it. Because, yes, he was worried about how people would perceive their king knowing he'd fallen for Belle like his father. The nasty rumors were already circulating, no matter how he tried to quench them.

But he was more worried that, like his father before him, there would be a group of people ready with a plan to chase his commoner bride away from him at the drop of a hat.

Sariel, faithful minister he was, was always there to assure Jin that he'd do everything in his power to make sure a tragedy like what happened to Jin's parents never happened again.

Jin was already prepared to go to battle, metaphorically, to protect what was his. But Sariel's support and moments like this only served to strengthen his resolve.

When Emma goes into labor, Jin is in silent worry the whole time.

Everyone knows it, too. Because Jin stays close by the room, getting mounds of paperwork done at a rate unheard of.

Yves bakes his favorite chocolate spice cake, Leon is there for moral support, Sariel continues bringing him paperwork while assuring Jin that the more he gets done now, the more free time he'll be able to spend with his newborn.

The moment Jin is informed he's allowed into the room, he promptly abandons everything to Leon.

(Leon doesn't mind. He just watches his older brother with a soft grin as he cleans up the paperwork to take back to the office.)

With quick but sure steps, Jin hurries inside the room, where he's greeted by his tired wife and newborn daughter.

The first thing that comes out of Jin's mouth was praise for Emma, how amazing is and how thankful he is to have her in his life.

Which turns into spoiling his little girl with words of how happy he is to have her in his world now.

"You'll grow up here with me and your mama," he whispers to her. "I promise."

Growing up

Jin ultimately has his one eldest daughter... and the rest are boys. (I'm thinking 3).

His poor daughter, she is the watchful eye over all of them and the cleaner of all messes. She has the patience of a Saint.

She's a lot like her father, actually. Minus the rebel streak of sleeping around or not believing in true love. She has her mom to thank for those things.

She's the reason Jin teaches all his boys to not be like him and have a bit (read: a LOT) more respect for women than he had.

Sariel is her favorite honorary uncle, actually. It used to be a tie between Yves and Leon, but as she grows up and matures, she connects with Sariel.

She studies under him as a teacher, but she also likes learning about his work.

"She's much more productive than you were, Jin," Sariel will occasionally tease over a drink.

Jin just smiles proudly. That's his little girl.

And she'll always stay his little girl, even when she's of marriageable age.

No man is going to be good enough for her.

"You can do better than that." "Trust me, dad, I know."

While still strong and kicking in his old age, he and his daughter come to an agreement about the next Belle process.

Due to the rules, it's unclear if she as a woman has right to the throne.

So he appoints her into Sariel's position, and she will have the task of choosing the next Belle.

Secondly, it is her job to ensure that Belle does not fall love with a prince a third time around. Though people may be more receptive to it than they once were, it will still be met with hardships and questions about fairness in the system.

But if it does happen despite all her best efforts, she is to fight tooth and nail to make sure that transition happens smoothly.

And he fully believes she will make that happen.

As for his sons, he loves all them even though sometimes... they take after him a little more than he'd like them too.

Yes, they make him go gray early...

But he's still a stud. ;)

Luke

Luke's world revolves around Emma and Emma alone.

So when that world changes and Emma announces she's pregnant, he's got some mental reconfiguration to do.

Because there's not just him and his wife anymore. There's another little life that Emma is bringing into the world. He's going to be a dad, and he's going to have another person to protect.

Once that clicks, protective bear mode activated. He stays within a certain radius of Emma at all times.

Not even honey works to lure him away. Those green eyes of his just turn dark as he stares them down with a ferocity that makes said unsuspecting person duck away with their tail between their legs.

It takes a combination effort of Emma and Jin to get him to do other duties out of the castle away from Emma.

And that's only because Jin and Luke have a gentleman's agreement that Jin personally watches over Emma while Luke is away.

For his adorable little brother, Jin agrees. He also is sure to add that he will protect Emma with his life as well as swear to give his life to Luke if anything were to happen to Emma.

Their relationship is still a little strained, but for the most part, they've gotten to the point they're on good terms.

And if Luke was being honest, Jin is the one person in the castle he trusts Emma with the most. He's not sure how to reconcile that in his mind, so he kinda just ignores it best he can.

On the other hand, Clavis is not allowed near Emma. There was a very... interesting meeting between a bear and leopard in the darkest hours of the night towards the beginning of Emma's pregnancy.

And Clavis has since decided to... well, not poke the bear.

He's much more adept to dealing with a brutal yet predictable tiger than a bear on the edge of it's sanity. And he'd like not to die today.

As Emma gets further along in her pregnancy, Luke uses her as an excuse to get out of work. Because she needs a break but she won't take one, so he's gotta make her do it. And it's valid because he's got to protect her and the baby, right?

Emma quickly becomes aware of this tactic and hence has had to either make a show of taking breaks frequently so Luke does not have an excuse to stop working or get creative and do work behind his back. She's enlisted many princes and Sariel to assist her in this.

It's a task and a half to get Luke to keep working, nowadays. But the one time she does let him take a break is when the baby is kicking. He gets a couple minutes to feel it move around before she forces him to go back to work when the baby settles.

At night, he always has an arm draped over her belly. He will protect this little life and his wonderful wife.

There is no getting work done when Emma's in labor. Luke is right there outside the door, waiting for the news.

And when he is allowed in the room, everyone knows to step out of the way of the towering bear making his way over to his newborn cub.

Emma hands him his baby girl, one with the beginnings of red hair like him.

He can't help but stare at her with reverence, a new love surging through his heart as he cradles her close as if he could protect her from the world.

"So, I was thinking," Emma starts, saying this only after she gave much consideration to this throughout the course of her pregnancy. "Is Leyla going to be her first or middle name?"

Luke is shocked to say the least, as Emma had never let on what she'd been thinking.

But as Luke looks down at his daughter, the name rolling quietly off his lips, tears start to from in his eyes.

"Either way," Emma continues, soft smile on her lips. "You're required to live the best you can for her, you hear me?"

It takes a moment for Luke's mouth to catch up to his mind, but when it does, he's crying when he responds. "Understood."

Growing Up

Leyla is spoiled with more teddy bears than one could fathom.

And she's always carrying one around with her. Furthermore, she gets bigger ones the more she grows so they're always very huggable.

Her dad is wrapped impossibly tight around her finger.

But it's not just Leyla; it's all Luke's kids.

Leyla was followed by a boy and then another girl.

Can you spell spoiled, because these kids are doted on by their dad.

It's up to Emma to make sure they don't become brats about it and actually do their work.

When he's not spoiling them, Luke is extremely protective. Heaven have mercy on anyone who messes with them because Luke won't.

Their honey sweet tooth runs deep. They start a bee farm in the back gardens. The special castle honey is basically a delicacy when foreign princes come to visit.

Yves and Emma both are constantly thinking of new honey recipes.

As the kids get older, Luke tells them about their aunt and how he wished he could have introduced them to her, how much she would have loved them, and why he's so sad during Bloodstained Rose Day.

But the exact circumstances around Jin's part in that are never told. All that's known is she passed in the action that day.

It's not until Leyla is much older does she question why Jin comes with them to Auntie's grave every year.

And while Jin's hard to crack, Leyla is persistent and doesn't give up. She's a red-headed Belle, through and through.

Eventually, she wears him down, and they go together to the grave for Jin to confess the whole story.

He tells her he's not seeking forgiveness for what he's done. He knows the gravity of what he did.

Leyla doesn't look at him for a while as she processes everything. She lays roses on the grave, roses she grew herself from the gardens she loved so much.

"Why."

"Huh?"

"You said that you did. But you've never said why."

"I took a life. Is the reason going to make that better?"

"I just want to know, because I just can't believe that my uncle is simply heartless."

The only reason Jin gives an answer is because this is his precious niece whom he can't say no to. "I thought there was no way to save her, and I didn't want her to suffer."

Leyla simply nods. Just as Jin thinks she's going to run from him, she hugs him instead.

"I forgive you," she whispers. "I can't force my dad to do anything, but I hope he'll forgive you, too."

Jin's heart breaks in ways he didn't know was possible. It takes him a second to regain his composure, but he'll eventually wrap this girl in a bear hug. Not that he can give bear hugs like her dad, but he tries best he can.

"Right, dad?" she calls out, very loudly.

Jin chuckles. So he's not the only one who knew Luke was around.

As Luke comes out of hiding from behind a tree, Leyla lets go of her uncle to give her father a hug.

"Don't kill uncle, okay, dad? He's trying."

Luke props his chin right on top his daughter's head as he stares Jin down. A weak "okay" is all he can muster.

When they get back to the castle, Leyla disappears off towards Sariel's office for her lessons, leaving the two men alone in the foyer.

"Her love is wasted on both of us," Jin says, deciding not to beat around the bush and just cut straight to the heart this time.

As much as Luke wants to deny it, he can't. "Yeah. I know."

His world may only include his wife and children, but there is a part of him that thinks it's for the best his children aren't like that.

And that's because of the small, heartbroken part of him that believes his sister would truly be proud of the people her nieces and nephew had become.

Clavis

When Emma learns she's pregnant, she does not tell her lovely gentleman of a husband, the King of Lelouch (provincial) immediately,

No. Instead, she ropes a poor, unsuspecting Cyran into her chaos.

He is nervous, not because he does not like the idea of pulling the wool over Clavis' eyes for once, but because he was the first to learn the Queen of Lelouch (provincial) was pregnant.

This would not bode well for Cyran later, he knew full well.

Emma swears to cover for him.

Anyway, they somehow pull this prank off without Clavis learning about it, and neither Emma nor Cyran knew how they did it.

After all, they took all the furniture out of the master bedroom and turned it temporarily into a nursery.

So, when Clavis comes in at the end of the day, a little before Emma so he can set up a bit of a prank for her, he stops and takes in everything.

At first, he's amused. The furniture was completely gone, and he had not a clue.

Good gracious, he was definitely overworking himself if he missed this.

He's clued in immediately that Emma had help doing this, and it was likely Cyran, considering all the heavy lifting and the small list of people who would dare to pull a prank on Clavis himself.

But then he kinda got offended because... were they calling him a baby? Yes, he was whining about work lately, and Cyran was joking that he was exhausted from hearing a baby's wailing, but...

Emma appeared right as her husband was about to have a mental breakdown. And she only knew something was off because that smile said "I'm hiding behind a mask".

"Sweetheart?"

"I've been betrayed!" Clavis cried dramatically, that mask of a smile still not leaving his face. "You went to Cyran, didn't you? My wife is sneaking around with another man. I'm hurt."

He made a show of pantomiming being stabbed through the heart.

"Clavis," Emma deadpanned, cutting past his dramatics and simply resting her hands over her abdomen as she glared at him.

"If you're so lonely that you're seeking out the arms of another man—of my closest companion, even!—then I..."

He trails off, realizing by Emma's glare that she's done with his theatrics, but his mind slowly starts working.

Hand over her lower abdomen, the bedroom turned nursery, the image of "Welcome, Baby Lelouch," on the wall.

His smile disappears, and now he's looking at Emma in wonder. "Are you..."

As much as she wants to, she can's stay mad at him when he looks at her like that. "Well," she says with a smile. "There's only one man I spend that kind of time with."

The smile he's wearing as he scoops her up into the air is a genuinely happy one. No mask in sight as he holds the love of his life tightly while spinning her in circles.

Clavis is in such a good mood that he even forgives Cyran for being the first to learn. "But it better never happen again." And despite his smile, that was a valid threat.

It's not announced to the province, yet. First, he'd like to announce it to his brothers.

That, and rub in King Chevalier's face that his dashing gentleman of a younger brother got married AND produced an heir before he did.

Emma knew that she had to follow closely along... as damage control.

As the news is announced, there is a round of congratulations, but mostly, there is a cloud of terror hanging over the castle.

A little Clavis... lord have mercy on them all.

"May you be blessed with a daughter," Sariel commented, watching as Clavis pranced off to find Chevalier.

"No, no, no," Emma warned. "Have you ever heard the wives tale that first-born daughters are a copy of their fathers?"

Sariel blinked a couple times, and Emma simply nodded.

"May you be blessed with a son just like you."

"Thank you."

Chevalier does not give Clavis the attention he desires. Most he gets is a split second of maybe surprise, but that is all.

When Emma finally makes an appearance, Chevalier does turn to her.

"My condolences for having to bear his child."

Which, with that smile, was as close of a congratulations as they were going to get.

When they return home, it is announced that a royal heir is on the way. Which the town is happy for... but also terrified. The King and Queen of Lelouch (provincial) are still swarmed with genuine well wishes whenever they go out, though.

It takes Emma some time to realize that Clavis' pranks, traps, and chaotic shenanigans have disappeared since she'd told him the news.

He'd actually cleaned up his act for her sake, and for that, she makes a point to reward him with attention and love.

To the point there are times he reconsiders this whole "pranks on Emma" thing.

In reality, he simply doesn't have time for pranks and traps when he's busy researching nutrition for pregnant woman as well as any baby information he can get his hands on. There's so much to learn in so little time.

He will not fail as a father, that is for certain.

He's constantly cooking Emma food with medicinal herbs to help her along through the various stages of pregnancy.

He's honestly in awe watching Emma grow and progress. He does make fun of her a little when she waddles or struggles to do things with her belly, but for the most part, he's a doting gentleman husband.

He does a lot for her, but she's the one who's always having to drag him to bed at a decent time. Otherwise, he's going to stay up late working on a self-rocking crib or delving into more research.

When Emma goes into labor, it's one of the rare times that Clavis' smile disappears. It is not a frequent occurrence, as he can smile through anything. But the longer time wears on, the less he's able to keep that fake smile in place.

However, upon hearing the news that a healthy son was delivered and Emma was fine, a real smile crossed Clavis' face that wasn't going to disappear any time soon.

He practically skips into the room, excited to see his son.

But once he's there, he softens because of the love that overwhelms him upon seeing the tiny baby in his wife's arms.

And when it's his turn to hold his son, he actually grows worried.

No longer does he have to beat his brother to prove his own worth, but now, he has to be better than Chevalier for his son's sake. He would not disappoint his child, that's for sure.

But that's... a lot of pressure to put on a broken man.

Luckily, he is married to an incredible woman who somehow knew how to make him feel like the best and only in the world when he felt inferior to everyone.

And that woman was telling him now, "you'll be the best father ever."

Growing Up

The First Prince of Lelouch (provincial) was very much like his father: incredibly hard-working, persistent, and, most proudly, a gentleman.

However, a reign of terror, he was not.

The provincial kingdom rejoiced.

The First Princess of Lelouch (provincial) however...

Oh, she would charm you, prank you, then make you feel guilty for hating her all in the span of half an hour.

Clavis is very proud. Of both his children, of course.

He spends a lot of time with them, so they pick up his habits. Like that of always smiling, of pulling pranks, and of the value of hard work.

Clavis' son wants to help people and be the best second king of Lelouch (provincial) he can be. Because they are a tiny province between Rhodolite, ruled by the scariest uncle around, and Obsidian, a kingdom with a... reputation.

But because of that, he's constantly pushing himself to be better and better for the people he's come to love that inhabit the kingdom. They will not suffer if he's got anything to say about it.

He will be the second gentleman-liest gentleman (second only to his father) there ever was.

It brings a tear to Clavis' eye whenever he sees such a marvelous spectacle.

Clavis' daughter, despite her chaotic streak, becomes the inventor of the century.

It actually becomes a security issue as Obsidian has their eye on her. Not that Clavis or Clavis's son would let anyone lay a finger on her.

She has accidentally blown up parts of the castle more than once. And Clavis is always so proud, though he can't understand the high staff turnover rate after every incident.

Because of those... unforeseen incidents, she is only allowed in Rhololite castle under specific conditions.

Emma is sure that between her kids and her husband, she will go gray early. Clavis assures her he is working on a potion to keep her hair that color forever.

Chevalier is the preferred uncle.

You see, Clavis' daughter is a bookworm at heart, thanks to her mother. So she stays on Chevalier's good side to gain access to his impressive library. And she's allowed to stay if she's quiet and un-destructive.

Clavis' son takes after his father in one other specific way: he's determined to be the best. So he's constantly challenging uncle Chevalier, partly because that's what he's seen his father do, too.

"Fool, you think you can beat me?"

"No, but I'll never get better if I don't test myself against the best!"

At that, Chevalier's stunned, but he'll entertain the boy for no other reason than amusement now.

"Of all the uncles they have, and they chose you as the favorite," Clavis has bitterly commented more than once.

"If you were any smarter, you'd realize why."

"Go to hell."

#ikepri #ikemen prince #ikepri headcanons #ikepri jin #ikepri luke #ikepri clavis #partly hurt/comfort; partly fluff

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bluepeachstudios · 1 year

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Wait no i also wanna hear the fun facts!

There now that I've sent you another ask you are requested to fulfill the rest of the post. It's okay though if you don't i just want more nuggets of information!

Let's see what I can scrounge up!

The Skittles are physically six months old when the turtles find them. The effects of the accelerated growth process fades over the course of the next six months, so by the time they're a year old they are physically two. After that they age normally.

All the Skittles love meat The Most but Bardi has the terrifying ability to sniff it out from a mile away. If there is meat, he will find it.

In a similar vein, Bardi has the best sense of smell, and his snoot is the longest!

Bardi has a long tail due to dormant "scarred" genes that Donnie has from mutating again in the Good Genes arc. Donnie actually hasn't mentioned this fact to any of his brothers because he doesn't want to worry them, but it does worry him.

Because of Davinci's heart defect, until he's old enough to do full heart surgery to repair the defect, he can't be super active without risking a heart attack. Leo does little baby exercises with him instead so he still grows up strong!

The reason I skipped the first two months with the Skittles was because it was just a lot of everyone worrying if they'd even make it, a lot of late nights taking shifts to watch over them to make sure one of them didn't stop breathing or have a seizure or a heart attack, and I didn't want to start out on such a depressing note.

The Skittles call Cody "Coco" and Serling "Sowi". They call Splinter "Jiji". Cody gets upgraded to his full name later in life but Serling always stays Sowi.

The fastest way to get the Skittles to sleep is different for each of them. Davinci likes being sang to, Sanzio likes being read books or told stories, Bardi likes being talked to, and Simoni likes being laid on Mikey's chest and Mikey pulling up his arms and legs to hug Simoni while Mikey rocks on his shell.

Skittles' nicknames are as follows: Davinci is Vinny or Cici, Bardi is Birdy or Didi, Simoni is Momo or Nini, and Sanzio is Zizi, Zio, or San. The Cici, Didi, Nini and Zizi names fall out of usage as they get older except for teasing.

Bardi has the loudest voice because he's got the strongest lungs. He screams and cries a lot because it's easier for him to than the other three, who all have breathing problems. He also learns early on that if he starts screaming, the turtles will also check on his brothers, and ends up alerting the turtles a few times to problems his brothers are having.

Sanzio has shitty eyesight, but not as bad as Bardi's, so the turtles don't actually know how bad his eyesight is yet.

Simoni tears up every stuffed animal he is given like a dog but cherishes a blanket with little turtles on it that Mikey got him like a dragon with his hoard.

Bardi learns how to speak early on and by the time he is physically a year old can speak in small sentences which startles a lot of people because he's so LITTLE.

Simoni and Bardi are the most nimble and the best climbers, having claws and Bardi having a tail to assist.

Simoni has little to no taste on most of his tongue. Most of his taste comes from the part of his tongue that's in his mouth, so he has a tendency to like spicy things a lot.

As Simoni gets older, his tongue doesn't grow but his mouth does, so he's able to tuck it in and 'retract' it.

When the Skittles are adults, they will be smaller than their canon counterparts because they weren't given a slurry of genetic tweaks and steroids that the Dark Turtles were given to bulk them up. A lot of structural issues will also be corrected by that time, resulting in Sanzio, Bardi, and Simoni losing their back, neck and hip braces.

Bardi gets osteoarthritis as he gets older (and by older I mean like 15).

Davinci's favorite thing is when Leo cradles him in one arm and hums while he makes tea. Davinci will pass out every time.

Leo gives Davinci a little bonsai tree to sleep under to bring some more nature into his life and that becomes Davinci's Tree. Leo cares for it until Davinci's old enough to start doing it himself. Davinci will attack anyone who attempts to touch his tree if it is not Leo or Splinter.

Sanzio is very quiet and peaceful unless you mess with one of his brothers. Then he turns into a small spiked, growling bowling ball.

This turned into more than just a few fun facts I'm so sorry-

#asks #tmnt #tmnt 2003 #tmnt fast forward #tmnt au #dark turtles #tgsh

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essayofthoughts · 1 year

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Relevant to our convo: wedding HCs for the AUs? Do any AUs result in the Perc'ahlia elopement and/or wedding changes? Elope earlier or later, or actually spill the secret deliberately, or Sylas not crashing Dalen's Closet, etc.?

I haven't decided for all of the AUs yet! And some are.... complicated in various ways and by various things. I'm going to be ignoring the ones which are entire new universes or significantly altered timelines and instead stick to the ones which maintain some semblance of the canon timeline and tell you what changes in the Perc'ahlia's for each.

Ghost Cass - So. We all remember when and how Perc'ahlia got together, right? Namely, after slaying Vorugal. And, as we recall, they put off fighting Vorugal for a day because Percy had very recently died. He was still recovering from resurrection.

So uh. In this AU, Cass flatly refuses to let Percy go fight Vorugal and he isn't there after that fight. Percy and Vex don't even get together til the year break. I'm not sure when they get married - I don't think they elope over the year break in this AU, and I'm inclined to say they get married after Vecna. As I've still not decided every detail of the end of the final arc of this, I have no idea if Sylas makes it to Dalen's Closet or not.

Soulmate AU - So. In Soulmate AU, for various reasons, Percy and Vex get together shortly before the Briarwood Arc really kick off and then break up at the end of the Briarwood Arc for Reasons (No, I Will Not Explain; sufficeth to say, there is Angst and Irony in play).

They nonetheless get back together after Vorugal. Given that they'd broken up earlier and actually cleared the air, there is no year break break up in this AU and I'm inclined to say they don't elope? They've rushed things before, they're more willing to take their time.

Evilest AU - So uh. I'm not entirely set on how things go in this AU yet, but the leading idea currently is that they get together on their first trip to Marquet. Given events after the Briarwood Arc in this AU, they may not? Break up during the year off? But they also just as easily might, but for different reasons than I posit in my Year Break Break-Up Fic. I suspect they do still elope in this AU, however, though it still isn't fully determined.

Happier Evilest - They actually get together and start figuring things out way earlier in this AU which ... in this specific circumstance makes me inclined to say that they do elope or come very close to it in this AU?

Sylas Briarwood Gets To Live Bitches - This probably treads the closest to canon... though I don't know that they break up the same way/for the same reasons as I posit in the Year Break Break-Up Fic. I think they realise just how Briarwoods-y they can be and take a break from each other just to be sure, and I think, having confronted it, they pace themselves a bit more and possibly discuss with others (Vax for Vex, I'm inclined to say Keyleth for Percy?) their worries about the similarities. So if they do get married over the year break, I don't think they elope. And of course, in this AU, the Briarwoods are working to be better people, so no Sylas crashing any fancy re-wedding at Dalen's Closet!

Fem!Percy AU - So. Due to various things they have a really really solid friendship as a basis for their relationship here? It's not just trust it's that Vex made an active effort to reach out and make Persy feel welcome from relatively early on, and to comfort her with regards to what she saw as lingering anxieties from trauma (she was correct; Vex is very perceptive). Consequently, when they get together they've got an awful lot of trust in each other and an extremely good understanding of each other; I don't think they'd break-up over the year break. I do think that they'd get married, but it wouldn't be an elopement: I think they'd inform and invite the others.

Masc!Vex AU - Hey. Hey @blorbologist. You remember that delicious piece of angst you wrote me for my birthday? Well-versed in wishing? I am almost inclined to say that happens in this AU, though I'm not certain. It's just that Percy has a lot of baggage to unpack about certain things and while he gets with Vex on the same timeline as canon in this AU, I think Vex is perceptive enough to register his hesitancy and personal issues regarding other things and so their break up may last uh. Longer? I don't want it to; that feels very angsty and kind of unfair in this AU, so I'd like them to get back together before the decades long pause of your lovely fic, but what exactly causes-

Oh no. Oh Blorb, you give me the best ideas. *runs away cackling*

Wolf Siblings AU - So on the one hand: Percy knows he's into Vex and is in a much better place mentally and emotionally! Plus, I don't particularly want to play out like. The Vecna arc or even necessarily the whole of the Conclave Arc for this AU? I may do things like the Tomb but with a different plot? Undecided. No Glintshore because Ripley gets ripped apart by the wolf siblings. But anyway, so in this AU, Percy is being wingmanned by Vesper and is generally doing better so on the one hand some things go more smoothly!

On the other hand, having his siblings involved and invested in his romance stalls him a lot, so it ends up being on about the same timeline. There is no elopement: Percy's siblings are both nosy and all have had five years of being extremely nosy in his life - if anything, they figure out Percy and Vex are planning to get married before the two even manage to propose to each other.

Of course, given I don't intend to do the Vecna Arc in this AU, no Dalen's closet crashing for Sylas. If Percy and Vex do elope, Vesper is dragging them back to Whitestone for a formal wedding as soon as she finds where the hell they've gone.

Tiefling!Percy AU - So. Percy has some issues with the fact he's a tiefling? And one thing I have actually written ahead is him and Vex having a conversation about the possibility of children and Percy specifically asking that they wait because... well. He's a tiefling and he's not sure how he feels about that basically ever. And. Given he's a tiefling, that means good odds that their children will be tieflings - and the last thing he wants to do is have those same conflicted feelings about his own children, or for them to feel unloved.

So I think because of that they might well impulse-propose to each other, but I think they wouldn't elope. Percy's wedding to Vex ends up being the first time Whitestone's citizens get to see him fully decked out in all the shiny horn rings and such that Vox Machina give him.

Sylas may still crash Dalen's Closet, though, and now I'm wondering what impact Percy's tiefling spells might have on that.

Elaina Lives AU - You know what? Good damn question. I actually have no idea? This story is told primarily from Elaina's POV with a possible dip into Vax's - no Vex or Percy planned thus far. I genuinely have no idea.

Canon Vampercy AU - Likewise genuinely no idea. I've only got a couple of scenes down for this AU and it's more vibes than anything. I don't even know if this would end up as more than a oneshot.

Werewolf’s Soulmate AU Continuation - Reasonable odds they try to elope in this AU - however how secret that remains... I don't know. Thanks to @rightpastnowhere I had the idea that they would at some point each get half-bracelet tattoos, each getting one half that matches to the other, so it shows as a full bracelet between them? I'm wondering if, as soulmates, this ends up part of their marriage ceremony, in which case everyone finds out pretty quickly. That said, I may do it as just... something they get at some other point as a mark of their commitment to each other so - yet to be determined!

Daemon AU - I have not plotted this one far enough ahead to be sure yet. That said, you asking this has given me the delightful image of Vex's magpie daemon shattering into Dust over the ocean at Dalen's Closet so uh.

Enjoy that!

PercyRipley Soulmate AU - Percy has so many fucking hangups in this AU. After all, if even his soulmate would reject him, what kind of a person does that make him? (An infinitely better person, obviously, Ripley is the worst.)

Anyway, I think Percy's issues may fuel a year break break-up in this AU, though I'm not 100% sure on that yet. That said, seeing how much it hurts Vex would absolutely buck Percy up and they could well elope after that. I'm not certain though: I've only really got an outline down for this so far.

Syldor Isn’t A Dick AU - Vex has so many fewer issues in this AU. On the one hand this means she's in a much better place! On the other hand it means it takes her and Percy a bit longer to get together, I feel? An awful lot of Percy's actions in canon that seed their love for each other are things that remind Vex of her worth, both as an individual and to him specifically, and in this AU she doesn't need that so much? So they get together much more based on personal connection and shared interests.

That said, I think that means 1. They're less likely to break up during the year break and 2. There's good odds she and Percy elope almost as soon as possible in the year break and then end up spilling the beans to just about everyone in their thrilled-ness about it and end up getting married again during the break.

Sylas may still crash some other event at Dalen's Closet a year on though.

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the-phantom-otaku · 2 years

Note

What if Albedo had ultimate baby chills and what would Ben's reaction when he found about Albedo's babies also How would Rook interact with the baby chills?

I've thought of this before, and I really like the concept. I don't necessarily think they'd be ultimate versions since that's like a temporary upgrade that Albedo can only access when he has an Omnitrix. But Ig it doesn't really matter much. You could envision them as normal or ultimate Necrofriggians.

I actually thought up a scenario on how this would go. Basically, Albedo's imprisoned in the Plumber Base and he begins to act strangely. Those who check on prisoners note that sometimes he changes into his Necrofriggian form and stays that way for an extended period, all the while being more aggressive and demanding to be let out. When he transforms back, he doesn't seem to recall what happened. This behavior is a bit troubling and they're planning to bring Azmuth down to Earth to look into the problem, but Albedo miraculously escapes before then. They basically thought that was impossible given that the door to his cell is the most reinforced.

Anyway, Ben and Rook are put on the case immediately. They follow him, just missing him a few times, until they eventually corner him in the outskirts of town. Ben had taken notice of the strange places Albedo had hit up. They were all places related to the production of metal. That combined with Albedo only being in his Necrofriggian form, he's already got some idea of what’s going on. His suspicions are confirmed when they find Albedo. He's just turned back and is confused as all hell as to how he got there or why there’s an assortment of metal lying around the area. He sees Ben and Rook and asks them what’s going on, taking note of how smug Ben looks (he’s never going to know something that Albedo doesn’t, so he’s gonna revel in it). Ben then fills him in on what’s going on, shocking his enemy. After thinking about it for a moment, he realizes that Ben is correct, though he doesn’t have a clue how Ben of all people knows this very specific information. After that, they take him back to Plumber Base and fill Grandpa Max in on everything, prompting them to make the necessary accommodations until everything’s over.

Tbh knowing Ben, he’d probably take the opportunity to make fun of Albedo despite knowing what it feels like. But in the context outside of my little story, I think he’d be shocked at first then quickly realized that it’s not all that shocking considering it happened to him as well. Of course it would happen to the villain who has the same abilities and aliens as him. And if they were ultimates, then his shock would be understandable. Also, a little thing I’m throwing in here: Albedo’s Little Chills inherited his hatred of Ben so they do not get along with him.

And how would Rook interact with the Little Chills? I love to think that Rook is quite fond of kids. He has so many little siblings after all and a lot of the time, older siblings act as caretakers, too. As a result, he’d used to dealing with kids and even enjoys it. That would definitely carry over to the Little Chills even tho they’re an entirely different species. Past that, I don’t think I’ve thought on it a lot. I think he’d be protective of them from any threats and would enjoy seeing them, but I think that’s about all I got on that, at least for now. If I happen to think of anything, I’ll be sure to post the idea here tho.

And I think that’s it for this one! Sorry about the excessive babbling lmao.

#ben 10 series #ben 10 #ben tennyson #ben 10 omniverse #ben 10 alien force #ben 10 uaf #big chill #little chills #necrofriggian #big chill's offspring #albedo #answered asks #asks open #ask away!#ask me things #ask

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tobiasdrake · 7 months

Text

At last, the secret lab. Allegedly.

Honestly, yeah. Yes, please. Give me one of your masks. If the goal is to sell the illusion that I'm your private secretary, that's all we need. Someone sees me walking around in a Makoto mask, they will assume "Weird Makoto Thing" and pay me no further mind.

That's brilliant. Do that.

At the very least, a change of clothes would be good. I didn't think about this before we got here but Yuma's still wearing the Standard Master Detective Uniform. It's easy to forget 'cause all the Master Detectives are mavericks who screw the rules and dress how they please. But to anyone who knows the WDO, these clothes are a neon sign that reads "MASTER DETECTIVE".

This is like going undercover in a Galactic Empire base, but wearing your white/orange Rebel Alliance Pilot jumper while you do it.

Ooo, maybe there's a murder to solve.

Which. I. Should not. Solve. While I am undercover as a not-murder-solver...

...

But... mystery....

Maybe it's Halara. Maybe this is the same Restricted Area somehow, and now they're halfway through trashing the entire Peacekeeper army to find evidence of malfeasance.

They'd need to get past the biometric scanner to get here, but it's Halara. Remember that time they successfully drew a floor map of a place they'd never visited before? Halara could glare sternly at the biometric scanner, and the scanner would blink and give them a green light.

Yeah, I was thinking that too, Shinigami. The both of us being here at the same time may not be directly related but it's unlikely to be entirely coincidental.

It's okay. We go in, we see what's up, maybe high-five the intruder if they are who I think they are. Everything is fine.

Everything is not fine. We are doomed. This is the worst possible scenario that could ever have occurred. Yuma, why didn't you take the mask when it was offered!?

Going straight into business mode and pretending I'm not even here. Completely ignoring the elephant in the room. That's certainly a choice, Makoto, but I'm not sure if Yomi will go for it.

Makoto strongly implying that Yomi's presence here is suspicious. Would Yomi descend from his ivory tower to catch some burglar?

...

I mean. He sure does descend from his ivory tower to chase after us a whole lot, so this doesn't seem that OOC for him. Though that could be my bias talking, as he's taken a personal interest in our organization specifically.

So maybe it is OOC for Yomi to care about a break-in, but not if it's a WDO-related break-in. Which. If it's Halara. Then.

He's weaseling so hard to get me into that crime scene and I have no idea where he's going with this. I can feel the play being made but cannot for the life of me fathom what maneuvers it will involve.

If you have to tell people that you're charismatic then that's a tacit admission that you're not very charismatic. It's one of those things that can't be self-diagnosed.

Power and numbers, I'll grant you. He's got four armed men with guns while Makoto's got one out-of-place Junior Detective struggling not to pee himself.

Ooo, appealing to Yomi's ego. Yomi is the Scar to Makoto's Mufasa. Putting pride on the line and offering him a chance to prove he's better than Makoto is a genius play.

Yomi has no practical reason to accept Makoto's offer. But Yomi is not a practical man. He's jealous, spiteful, and desperate for validation. How could he possibly resist a dick-measuring contest against the central focus of his ire?

Weird name for a guy who only KO'd a couple guards. I would have expected a Slaughter Artist to. Y'know. Slaughter.

Also, fantastic job subtle-interrogating Yomi there, Makoto. An effective technique for extracting information is to avoid asking questions and instead make false statements. People love to correct people. It's reflexive. If you assert something that's wrong, you're more likely to get a right answer in response than if you merely asked about it in the first place.

Ask someone, "What's John's role?" and he'll tell you to eat shit. But tell him, "We nabbed your boss John," and he might go, "Fuck you, John's a glorified delivery guy. He just moves supplies. You dumbasses think I answer to JOHN?"

Makoto isn't doing that, but what he is doing is that-adjacent. He's playing civil and offering Yomi opportunities to bark information at him. Playing on their rivalry to make Yomi uncooperatively forthcoming with information about the situation taking place.

He's a corporate arms manufacturer so I'm not surprised he's made some deadly enemies. So now we have another serial murderer targeting corporate assholes for retaliation.

Clearly, Fink the Slaughter Artist must be Halara. :P

Okay but why tho. Why send a letter to the cops going, "Hey cops, I'm going to be coming to kill one of your cop scientists soon so you better CLOSE RANKS!"

The existence of this letter is extremely suspicious. A hitman who calls the police to report on himself does not sound like a very good hitman to me.

Just like that, Yomi's snared in the psychological trap Makoto laid for him. He's so eagerly chomping at the bit to prove how much smarter he is than Makoto that he completely forgot he was going to have Yuma dragged away and waterboarded.

This is what a master class in manipulation looks like.

...oh, yeah, I guess he landed that too. Master class in manipulation. This is unsettling, in fact. Makoto, did you hire Fink to break in for the express purpose of providing us with this smokescreen?

...

Hold on. Breaking into a secret government lab. Conspiracies wheeling within conspiracies. Searching for secrets related to homunculi. Out-of-control serial killer running amok. Something about this scenario seems familiar.

...

No, I can't place it. Must have been my imagination. Anyways, let's go see if we can hunt down Barry the Chopper before Yomi does.

#master detective archives: rain code #drake plays rain code

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bread-roses-and-chrome · 4 months

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Contractual Obligation (3)

"I mean it this time." The man's voice was earnest. Desperate. As non-threatening as he could make it, because he knew how it would sound. He hated how it would sound. "This isn't just some gut feeling. These requests, they're something else, they're..." "And we don't have anything to do with any of that shit." She stood firm. He liked that about her too. "Don't be stupid. They don't know who either of us are, and according to the state's records, you don't have a wife. You'll be perfectly safe. I'll be perfectly safe. And we can get Teodoro those textbooks he still needs. We still have a lot to get through, Kurt." "But why even bother with all this, if they're not concerned?" He pressed back. He had reasons for it. He felt like he had them. He felt like he had to have them. "You can find this on the Internet, or whatever. All you need is 150 pesos for three days' data. Why go through you?" "Because the sewer schematics were banned! Counterinsurgency legislation! Recalled! Nada! Nothing!" "Why!?" ... A silence came over them both. Then a soft thump on the glass of the tank. A strange, spindly hand came over it, behind it. Touching it. Fingers melting together, nails elongated from skin contraction. Flesh falling off bone. Kurtis could still barely trace it out. The hand of that beautiful morena he'd taken to wife all those years ago. The wonders of the last years of the twenty-first century. The weird thing is, Kurt made things like this all the time. Twenty-three years between them. He put his hand to the glass. She was still wearing their ring. He couldn't, anymore. How they'd given up so much. "All this. For sewers. Huh?" Her soft laugh still came through. But he could never help but notice how her voice was never all there. Not anymore. "50,000. For sewers. You have no idea how much I had to get through to get this info. Sewers. I can't believe it." "Sewers. Sewers. That's all they are." He realized what she was trying to do. Reassure him. That it was all mundane. But he was right, too; few people would pay 50,000 just for sewers. "...Look, hun. We need the money. You know we need the money." Her voice was earnest, too. As calm as she could make it. "I won't let our children live like this. I won't let either of us live like this. In this sort of world. You remember what I promised Brennan and Chris and Teodoro and Jaylan, when I first sent them out to sell bibingka on the road? Poor little kids. I was gonna make sure they didn't have to do that too much, that they should just finish school and get themselves out of here. That was six years ago. And...what did you tell me? Brennan dropped out?" Kurt nodded. There was bitterness in her voice, too. "That was in elementary, love. He dropped out in elementary." She was the one forgetting things now. She was quiet for a while. "Y-Yeah. Elementary. But...this is the most money we've had in a while. We were finally able to change apartments. We were finally able to send Chris and Teo back to school. Talk Rosa out of the casa." "Don't you see?" There was conviction in her voice. "I can actually do something for them. For us. For all of us. Just give this a chance. Please." "...Shay." Kurt was using her real name now. She'd always corrected him on that. Nobody should know. He'd forgotten. "If this doesn't work out. We'll leave them with nothing." Handling illegal information for cash. Both of them knew that. It didn't have to be said. She knew the implications. "...You think you should be doing this, don't you?" It was almost teasing, the way she said this. Kurt couldn't help but smile. A little. ================================================

Previous. Next.

#cyberpunk #dystopia #writing #sci fi #philippines

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gwydionmisha · 8 months

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Personal: Scam or No Scam, Cats, Gothmas Phase 1 Begins

Wednesday I was dragged out of a particularly interesting supernatural adventure dream by a different person calling to tray to get me to move out of my apartment. It was 10AM, less than two hours into what was already a short sleep cycle. I started my Do Not Call List banishing chant and he hung up. (Saturday's asshole was a woman.

In my exhaustion I could not remember the block number code before a person who could have either been a Medicare person or a medicare scammer called me. I had to engage them in a long dialog to tell which, which was unusual. Scammers are usually faster and more transparent. This one had enough information about who she was calling to keep me on the line, because medicare makes a ton of annoying and intrusive early sleep cycle calls including one last week trying to talk me into a home inspection I don't need or want. I can't afford to accidentally block Medicare, so I needed to trick her into disambiguating. she sounded a lot like last week's lady. Very similar voice, identical regional accent, but her background sound was slightly off. Her reason for calling was plausible. I did my usual thing where I make them tell me my own details, which she could do, but so did the try to make me move person that had just called, so I'm guessing an online registry or bought data base. No social security number or other id number though.

Then she tried to talk me into going to get my medicare card out so she could "verify my information was correct." Me, internally: Aha! Got her! So I pressed her on why she needed me to do that when she could just read me what's in her computer and I could say if it was correct or not. She tried the hard sell. I hung up. Very tricksey, she was. Sometimes real medicare wants proof I'm me, but I can also get them to mail me things or call them back on an official line I verify myself.

I am annoying as fuck to the endless people from assorted departments and subcontractors and what have you, because I don't trust shit. I know the scripts for the annoying flock of intrusive mandatory wake me up phone calls Medicare does. Every time a new department or service contacts me they get the third degree because I get so many identity theft attempt phone calls. I once hung up on the same new bullshit hassle call thing multiple times a week for approximately three months, because instead of properly identifying themselves as medicare and explaining immediately what they wanted, they started a long byzantine thing that sounded like half sales pitch and half identity theft fishing and after the first time I wasted five minutes of sleep trying to play scam or no scam and getting no straight answers as to what they actually wanted, I would recognize the opening sentences and hang right up. I didn't block them because they were ambiguous. I figured if it were actually important they'd contact me and tell me what they wanted instead of wasting my time. Eventually, I got a frantic sounding lady was like "This is medicare. Please don't hang up, it's important." And then she actually told me why she was calling specifically and demonstrated and actual knowledge of who she was calling. It was real. I've no idea why they were trying to sound like scammers when the thing was something straightforward we were able to clear up in less time than their opener took before I gave up on it the first time they called.

If this thing Wednesday morning was real, bet I'll get a letter. Betting it's not though. I am 95% sure it was a scammer who was doing a well above average job at mimicking medicare.

…And then I got a couple more calls spaced to prevent REM sleep for medical things. Sigh. So I started out tired. People still have not remembered how to drive with other cars on the roads particularly at dusk and i nearly saw a car T-Boned when I stopped at the bank drivethru ATM, but the car stopped inches from the driver side door. There were lines everywhere. There were cars and people everywhere. It was so loud and crowded at the grocery that every baby and toddler under the age of four that we saw started screaming because it was so overwhelming and we didn't blame them.

We ended up skipping two stops and going back to my place the fast way. Poor New Millennial was waiting in the dark as i haven't gotten them a key yet and spaced turning on the Millennial Signal lights before I went out. Goth Millennial had alerted them we were coming but running late and had pizza making stuff for dinner. We all worked together to square things away and while we were waiting for thing to cook, we were sitting quietly in the living room chatting.

There was a moth that had gotten in! Imagine the excitement amounst the feline population of the apartment. The Imperial couple were so excited that they hunted it together in the living room. This is a thing that does not happen. Tavy loves catching bugs, but his balance issues mean he basically has to corner something against the screen where it is damaged or confused enough not to fly away. Livia is, of course, a first rate hunter of any and all live prey that foolishly enters her domain, so even though New Millennial was right there on the sofa, she went right past. She managed to damage the wing, which meant Tavy had a chance! He could hunt too! He ended up having the best time hunting it. Meanwhile, Livia spotted a Live Thing on the Porch, so she got really into menacing whatever it was, then they both sat on the widow bench to watch outside things and wonder what that noise was, which is a thing he does when visitors are here, but she doesn't normally do because she has to turn her back on the Visitors. So Brave!

Goth Millennials got great pictures which I will post when I have them.

After dinner, Goth Millennial did crafter surgery on poor Geoff Peterson Jr. who is starting to come apart. He's a fifteen year old cheap plastic skeleton and these things happen. They redressed him and were taking him outside when his bottom half came off. I was like, we should try displaying him like that as a Beetlejuice tribute, so we are experimenting with that.

Meanwhile, New Millennial put the plastic cloth we are trying this year on the widow bench and secured the Halloween trees against cat panic. Prezzies started arriving this week, so they displayed them there as is the custom. None of the other decorations were up, but this was a lot for us given the givens.

#Personal

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braintapes · 10 months

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man i know ive been reblogging a lot of posts abt how awful the job hunt is but truly. genuinely. the whole thing is just so utterly thoroughly completely fuckin Borked dude. fully just Does Not Work

job listings are either fake, scams, inaccurate to the role they want filled, poorly written, written by someone who doesn't know what the job is supposed to entail, are either way too short or way too long, and/or by and large don't include the actual information you actually for real actually NEED to know whether the job is worth your time to apply for, such as, i dunno, the salary. your actual everyday job duties and what you Actually need to perform them. an absurd amount go out of their way to specify just how able bodied you need to even Think about Breathing on the job listing (very) even when that's blatantly false because fuck anyone with a disability i suppose.

assuming some of the jobs are, in fact, real jobs that someone would like filled by a human person to perform a series of tasks, you still may not have a good selection. depending on location you could be out of luck for any halfway decent work. there's a billion positions open for things you Know you can't do. the jobs all seem to come in the following flavors: entry level (but you must have 1-2 years experience in this field) entry level (must have a masters degree a phd and 6-10 years experience) and entry level (must have 5 years experience and be willing to lift an entire house's weight in manual labor every single day with no break)

if you don't have experience having a job well. sucks to suck i guess!

but whatever. okay. find some promising (read: seemingly not fake/scam) listings. go to apply. upload a resume you spent hours poring over to make sure ATS wouldn't mangle it while also keeping it professional and with all the relevant information to make you look as good as possible to prospective employers. the company website then takes the resume you uploaded (in the correct format) and dumps it in the trash. manually write down all of the information in their little text boxes please! oh and also make an account with all your personal information to even have the privilege of getting to fill out this application. mandatory work history information required. fill out this questionnaire - just be sure not to step on the mines and answer a question Wrongly. "why do you want to work at this company?" write an essay for us detailing the most personal aspects of yourself. dont click the buttons that masquerade as offering accommodations and diversity inclusion because theyll actually just set all of this on fire if youre actually honest. grovel in our uncaring text boxes about how badly you want to be part of our team and how YOU can best serve US you worthless dog. slowly crawl your way out of the last circle of hell so you can be done with the application. click the last button. write the last bit of forced-smile text so your teeth dont feel like they're going to shatter apart anymore

wait for weeks. then for months only for a rejection long since youve moved on. assuming you get a response, as the standard now seems to be ghosting. repeat process again and again and again and AGAIN. endlessly. scraping and clawing and begging. youre not grovelling enough. youre not kneeling and cowering and pleading hard enough. the people in your life who Do have jobs cant seem to understand why youre so distressed by it all because, well, They got jobs so Why Can't You? repeat process. repeat process. repeat process.

on a rare occasion, get a response (!!) and make it to the interview stage (!!!!!) which as it turns out is not actually a discussion about the job and how youd fit into it but a vibes check where you prostrate yourself once again to the hiring manager and they decide if they personally like you enough as someone they'd want to hang out with on the weekends to let you in. high chance to fail this immediately if you are some kind of minority, but because they dont want to get in trouble for discrimination, they instead Make Up A Reason not to hire you which then makes it perfectly fine because you can't prove the real reason. browse through your email to see the other rejections. repeat process.

remember that for every application you send out youre competing with hundreds of other desperate people who just need some money to god damned Survive. try to go find advice and find that everything is so heavily weighted in favor of employers it might as well be a fucking black hole (which would be apt considering everyones applications magically disappear) so the only advice anyone can give is pithy little platitudes about how you should look and act and speak and dress and behave and make sure youre grovelling! have you tried grovelling!! are you doing that enough because if you arent well it really is your fault isnt it then!

god and like even if you GET a job it's still a shit job and there's still no ladder any more. there's no Progression it's just moving horizontally across various shit jobs. even the "easiest" jobs to get hired at, customer service jobs, retail, food service, etc, are so terrible you arent treated like a human being by basically anyone from customers to managers. you arent allowed to sit down. you need to grovel STILL. to your boss. to customers. constantly. for 10 dollars an hour, probably less depending on location. but you have to agree to work all their horrible shifts for 10 hours a day on your feet no sitting 2 15 minute breaks fuck man. fuck. FUCK. WHAT IS ANYONE SUPPOSED TO DO AT THIS POINT?????

#sorry this is so long im just. so fucking fed up. this is horrible #and the thing is. getting the political will to get anything done about it is practically impossible #i dont know how this shit is supposed to change #ubi is a start as it would mean ppl dont have to beg corporations to please please please let me have a penny sir. just a penny to pay rent

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aniamra · 10 months

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Federated Privacy

Lately I've been checking out Misskey-based instances, specifically misskey.io and a fork of misskey called firefish.social. They're a microblog system but with additional features such as 4K character limit, 16 images per post, emoji reactions with even additional custom reactions per instance, a gallery feature that is unique, not just a media tab of all your media posts, built in custom color themes with the ability to make your own, and the choice of 3 layouts that are full screen with customizable widgets: a twitter-like layout, and a tweetdeck/mastodon-like layout with the multi-column view. It's one of the few services that doesn't just try to make twitter again but tries to do something its own and I very much appreciate that for it. I almost want to use it despite my aversion to microblogs.

However, when I was discussing this service with other people there were a lot of people were like 'that's great but it doesn't comply with GDPR so I can't use it.' And I thought that was kinda odd so I looked around and a LOT of misskey instances say this and I thought this was curious but then I started to think about it more and…. I'm not sure any federated service is GDPR compliant, even if they claim to be.

So, my only frame of reference is Mastodon, I can't speak for any other federated services, but I know when one Mastodon instance was just taken offline with no warning the history of those accounts still remain on my account on a different instance that follows them. To be more specific, this happened with snouts.online. The instance was very popular among furries and shut down without notice, giving the users no time to initiate profile transfers or deletions. But, my account that follows some of those snouts online accounts? I can still see their entire post history. And there is nothing the account owners can really do to get those deleted. If I understand correctly, (correct me if I'm wrong if you're familiar with the tech) they would have to go to every instance that had followed their account, and request the data be removed. But even then, if someone with less technical knowledge is running the instance, I don't know if they'd be able to. Because as far as I can tell, nothing is in place on mastodon to be like 'hold up, this server is no longer around' and auto-scrub the info. And if that's the case, that would mean no mastodon instance is GDPR compliant, either. I hear they have flags to send to other servers in the case of an account deletion request, but it feels like nothing is in place for a server just straight up being taken offline, is an egregious oversight.

It's just really getting me thinking that privacy on a federated service might be even worse than privacy on some of the less above board private services. So many cases of the information being available on multiple services leaves so many more issues with privacy being breached or circumvented. What if someone is following you on an old mastodon instance that has a vulnerability that isn't updated and it exposes your followers-only and or 'direct message' posts? You wouldn't even know it's happening because it's not the instance you're using personally. Server owners are only responsible for contacting the people directly using the service, they have no obligation to contact to any other instances that are also interacting with their service and could also be effected by the breach. And how are they even supposed to know who to contact? I'm sure there's access information buried in the server but that's not something everyone is going to know how to find, especially since Mastodon in particular is 'marketed' as something everyone can set up.

Federation is a cool thing, and even with this issue I'm pointing out I don't want this to be taken as 'federation bad'. But I do think people need to be more technically educated on what they're working with. I also don't like when federated services are seen as inherently 'better'. They're side-grades, another way of communicating with one another, with it's own pros and cons as any other service. But for me, personally, I'm not much keen on making any federated service a 'home' or anything I can rest comfortably in. I can use it, I guess, but I just don't want to 'live' there, if that makes as much sense as it does on the internet, lol.

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gaycey-sketchit · 2 years

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(Gary anon) Yup, it makes those rare moments where a fandom comes together that much more special. Right before it goes back to its nonsense. :P (On the topic of ships, have this: sinn hoes / status / 1591 01271 0883 512 321) I still think it was a miss opportunity to have that "3rd" spot occasionally filled by somebody and getting two different reactions from the experience via the duo.

(Part 2) (It sure did, along with the rest of the game. It's always like clockwork. As far as the Pokedex, it seems like it was a similar approach akin to SW/SH/Arceus, but with some tweaks) Yes, the last was back in DP.

(Part 3) (Okay, we sorta got a small summary for JN134, where apparently the group gets split up into two. And if my hunch about JN135 is correct, some folks got a bit too worried about it possibly being the last JN episode. Even though I understand why; an Ash and Goh reunion, a Leon epilogue, any loose ends to wrap up, what happens to TRio, etc. does not sound like something that can be squeezed into one episode without being rushed or a montage)

Yeah, that's the bright side of it I suppose. The frustrations of dealing with hostility in fandoms makes the times when things are peaceful and everybody's having a good time all the sweeter. And it's a relief to find some good people to vibe with so you can ignore what's going on in the rest of the fandom.

Yes!! Love that this random (former) nevermet with a handful of supporters has suddenly been brought to the forefront and gotten so much traction, via something so blatantly sapphic as these girls holding hands while wearing matching outfits in the colors of the lesbian flag. A win for rarepair fans! And lesbians!

True true. It really is unfortunate that Chloe got shafted when her personality had potential to form a good group dynamic.

How does that keep happening? I guess Pokemon being the highest grossing franchise in the world there's a lot of attention on it and a lot of places leakers could come from, but the fact that entire games have been leaked multiple consecutive times is just... I don't know.

Thought so! It really has been quite a while!

Ah! Information! Should be interesting to see how those things play out. Yeah, that does seem like a lot to cram into a single episode, though I understand where people were coming from considering JN135's title (calling back to the very first episode would make for nice bookends). Also! Since I highly doubt the anime itself is ending any time soon, they'd probably have to have time to tease the next season too--giving us some idea of where Ash intends to go from here!

#Andrew answers #Gary anon

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utilitycaster · 2 years

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I saw a take that was like, Imogen’s reaction to FCG was overblown and hypocritical (bc she mind reads npcs and frequently talks to party members in their heads) and I’m not sure I agree? There’s definitely *some* hypocrisy, but I have a hard time seeing it as an overblown reaction. It ignores how differently Imogen’s powers are framed from simple spellcasting, how there’s a further distinction between telepathic speech and detect thoughts, and how there’s definitely a diff b/w doing it to a stranger and doing it to a friend who trusts you. Do you have any thoughts on this? A lot of the discourse seems really superficial

Yeah you're right and they're wrong and fortunately I haven't seen this discourse.

You're correct on the distinction between telepathic speech and detect thoughts: Talking to people in their heads is the default means of magical communication. Sending works that way. Message works that way. Vox Machina's earrings worked that way. Telepathy means Imogen can do it without revealing that she's doing anything to a enemy. This is literally just magical texting. Comparing telepathy to detect thoughts is just stupid.

You're correct that using this on NPCs is different than party members. Imogen does use detect thoughts but first, that's the key: on NPCs. There is a general code of conduct for a D&D party that you'll use tools like charm or detect thoughts you can to get the job done, and not on your party members unless it's dire (eg: Scanlan casting Friends on Percy to get the demonically cursed gun away smoothly falls under 'dire circumstances'; wanting to know if you have...feelings about being or not being blue does not.)

FCG and Imogen talked before when they cast detect thoughts on each other. They agreed it would be cool to try. This was not that. This was a blatant violation of boundaries for stupid reasons. Like, the rationale was "just to make sure it worked"...what the fuck does that mean, she's visibly not blue anymore. Have you ever interacted with someone and you're like "I'm fine" and they're like "you seem angry, are you mad at me?" and you're like "no, sorry, just a long day" and they're like "are you sure" and you're like "yeah" and they're like "are you SURE?" and you're like "yeah" and they're like "but are you?" and you're like "well now I'd like to stab you in the hopes of it shutting you up"? FCG is that "are you sure" person.

And so that's the difference: Imogen is trying to get information from NPCs who may be lying. FCG is trying to get extra information from someone who was started to trust them. At worst this breaches the "trusted companion" relationship that they'd started to build, and at best it's just kind of a dick move. I think people forget that like...therapy techniques are actually really obnoxious outside the context of therapy. Like, talk therapy tools like mirroring (rephrasing what someone is saying) can be immensely condescending if used outside of a setting where that's the expectation, and frankly, can be really irritating in the setting too. Your psychologist or psychiatrist is trying to help you get to the bottom of issues that you may not wish to explore and may need to gently push you. Your friend should not do this. The boundaries in therapy and in friendship are inherently very different which is why in turn there should be a ten foot high barbed wire wall between "friend" and "therapist".

[note: this is also why I'm so salty about people who act like the Nein not digging into whatever Caduceus had going on was being bad friends. Have you ever considered that sometimes, even if people are lying about their feelings, they still want to be treated as people and don't want their literal words to be ignored? Sometimes "I'm fine" means "I'm not but I really don't want to talk about it with you and if you're not an idiot, you'll respect that" and also sometimes it means "No, really, I'm actually fine, this is just how my face looks" and so expecting people to assume it means "I'm not but I'm *deflecting*, please ignore what I'm saying and break through to me like we're in Good Will Hunting or some shit" is BANANAS.]

#critical role #imogen temult #fcg

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tetrakys · 3 years

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did you see what serena and MJ said about you from dulcet games?

Yes, I saw. I didn't want to get into it, but the person who made that post censored everyone's names but mine (?), so I've been receiving several messages, and now I feel compelled to reply at least once. I'm putting this under spoiler so people who don't want to read drama can easily skip.

(For context, since I'm sure more people are going to ask me what this is about, you can see it for yourself here.)

I'm not going to address all the accusations Serena and MJ received because frankly it's their business. Everything looks pretty bad, but it's also true that screenshots taken out of context can be manipulated to fit some narrative. Granted, there are A LOT, so it's not very likely (the part about deporting and killing immigrants while at the same time thanking countries for the cheap labour they provide for their business particularly upset me, being an immigrant myself), but one never knows and everyone has the right to defend themselves.

The things that are indeed my business, are the comments on me, my friends and our discord server.

In the part about our discord, they are saying that we are "toxic, make shit up and create rumours" which leaves me very perplexed. People who have spent 5 minutes in there or here on my blog know how much I hate fake news, so I would absolutely never condone something like that in my own server. Also, MJ was in there for quite some time and never intervened to say anything about it, so I really don't know why they would think this of us. Moreover, the Dulcet Games channel is quite dead, it's mostly the place where my friends gush about Kortia, they are big fan of the game (which MJ also admits and Serena goes "cool let's just take their money" lol.)

Serena has never been in my server (at least not that I know of), so how can she call it toxic I have no idea. But she has the tendency of commenting on things without having any clue about them, and this brings me to the second point: the comment MJ made about me entering a channel just to reply to some old stuff.

First of all "old" in this case means 3 days old, lol. Discord usually shows slightly older conversations when you access a channel you hadn't accessed in a while, so I ended up seeing a convo where Serena said something along the lines of "MCL LL is just p0rn, Candy has sex every other chapter." (not exact quote)

Anyone who has played the game knows that it's not true, so I pointed it out, along with the fact that it's not very professional for the coo of a company to spread false information about a concurrent company (see my hate for fake news) . Yes I did it 3 days later, not 3 months nor 3 years, but days. I was accused of fishing old conversations just for drama, but Serena seemed to understand my point, although she commented saying that she never played that season of the game and that people don't go on DG server looking for correct info on MCL... which still doesn't justify the spread of fake info? But I let it drop and no drama came out of it. And in the end I wasn't active in their server anyway because of how offensive they'd always been towards Beemoov's games and players, which is primarily my fandom, so I often felt quite uncomfortable.

This is pretty much it. I'm also tagging @dulcetgames not because I'm asking for a reply, but because I never say anything I wouldn't have the guts to say to people directly, and I don't know Serena and MJ's current personal accounts.

#dulcet games #sweet elite

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iclaimedtobethebetterbard · 2 years

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I HAVE MORE QUESTIONS. How much older is remus 2 roman again & does roman not like remus?? He knew abt remus & was so. Aggressive(thats not the right word) When logan asked if he had any other family members. I am assuming that romans parents fed him lies ? Abt remus? Does roman rmbr remus getting kicked out? Does roman KNOW why remus was kicked out?

1 - how much older is remus than roman? remus is 12 years older than roman!! they do not have any other siblings—their parents intended for remus to be their only child for a long time, but as their marriage deteriorated and they began becoming such terrible people, they did the really weird messed up thing where instead of working on fixing their relationship, they just had another kid and expected that to fix things. and obviously that did not fix things at all.

so the parents have been really awful people for almost roman's whole life, but they were not as bad when remus was a small child, so he had a better understanding of just how messed up things had gotten by the time he hit his teens, and he knew things at home weren't normal or okay.

and by the time he turned 18, he'd been starting to teach roman that too. and their parents hated that, and wanted him out of roman's life, to allow them to try and control as much as possible what information roman had access to and make him easier to control. they did not want roman to know the way they treat him isn't normal or okay, and remus was trying to teach him that.

2 - does roman dislike remus? no no roman loves remus so much and misses him so much!!!! </3

remus tried to keep him as safe as was possible, and. i don't know if you've noticed, but remus has a strong tendency to try and take the fall for people he cares about if there is trouble. which 100% comes from trying to protect roman. he put himself in harm's way to protect roman a Lot, and would frequently intentionally provoke their parents when roman was about to get into trouble, so that instead remus would get in worse trouble, and then sometimes roman's punishment would get entirely forgotten.

so roman remembers remus as having been the one person who really protected him and cared about him.

3 - did the parents feed roman lies about remus after kicking him out? ohohoho yes you are Correct, his parents fed him a Lot of lies about remus. specifically, they told him, over and over again, as soon as they'd kicked remus out, that he was a bad person and had done something very bad (they never bothered to make up a lie for what he'd done, just "something very bad we can't tell you about"). and they told roman that if he ever told anyone about remus, then remus would "get caught" and "get what he had coming to him." and they really drilled this home, until roman believed it.

so roman is terrified of talking about remus, because of all that. he doesn't want to be the reason that remus potentially gets hurt (and. he has witnessed how badly remus would get hurt for him in a heartbeat). his parents convinced him that the one thing he could do to protect remus was never ever talk about him to anyone. :))))

4 - does roman remember remus getting kicked out? yes, roman remembers!!!! it was extremely traumatic for him!!! :D (that's actually. going to be the chapter im about to post, if i have time. my schedule is very tight rn, i have to walk out the door in a lil while, but im trying to get the flashback angst chapter out first.) roman's life got significantly worse immediately after it happened. </3

5 - does roman know why remus got kicked out? not really, no. as he got older he did realize it had been remus's 18th birthday and sort of put those pieces together, but he also thinks it might be related to the lies his parents made up about the "bad thing" remus supposedly did (which obviously it is not, bc that never happened). so he's not sure. and his parents refused to answer questions about that, obviously, and would get very angry if he asked, so he quickly stopped asking.

#peregrin answers #ghasper tag!!#iygmw lore #child abuse tw #if you're going my way i'll go with you

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shihalyfie · 3 years

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Hi :) If it's not too much trouble, could you please share your take on why they'd continue the Adventure brand after tri. was such a flop? (and a tangent: what does "dark history" even mean?). We got Kizuna, the reboot, and a 02 movie. Logically, it doesn't really make sense they'd keep investing in it.

This is a thorny topic, and I'd like to reiterate that although I've ended up making more posts related to this series and the discourse surrounding it recently (probably because it's even more on the mind now that another movie is on the horizon and a lot of people are apprehensive for various reasons), I do not want this blog to be making a brand out of being critical of this series. I’m writing this here and in public because I figured that there is a certain degree I need to clarify what I mean about audience reception/climate and how it might impact current or future works, and I’m admittedly also more than a little upset that I occasionally see Western fanbase criticisms of the series getting dismissed by people claiming that the only people mad about it are dramamongering or ignorant Westerners (which could not be further from the truth). However, this is mainly to address this and to answer your question, and is not intended to try and change anyone's existing opinion or impression of the series as much as it's me trying to explain (from my own personal reading of the situation) what practically went down with critical reception in real life; no more, no less.

The short summary of the matter is:

The series was a moderate financial success (albeit with some caveats; see the long version for details) and definitely outstripped a lot of prior attempts to revive the franchise;

However, the overall Japanese fanbase-side critical backlash from tri. was extremely and viciously negative to the point where even acknowledging the series too much could easily result in controversy;

Kizuna’s production and the PR surrounding it very obviously have this in mind with a lot of apparent “damage control” elements.

The long version is below.

Note that while I try to be diligent about citing my sources so people understand that I’m not just making things up wholesale, I’m deliberately refraining from linking certain things here this time, both because some of the things mentioned have some pretty crude things written there -- it’s not something I feel comfortable directing people to regardless of what language it’s in -- and because I don’t want to recklessly link things on social media and cause anyone to go after or harass the people involved. For the links that have been provided, please still be warned that some of them don’t really link to particularly pleasant things.

I am not writing the following information to suggest that anyone should agree or disagree with the sentiments being described. I know people tend to take "a lot of people like/hate this" as a signal of implication "it is correct to like/hate this" when it's not (and I especially dislike the idea of implying that Japanese fanbase opinions are the only correct ones). There's a reason I focus on "critical reception being this way" (because it influences marketing decisions and future direction) rather than how much this should impact one's personal feelings; this is coming from myself as someone who is shamelessly proud of liking many things that had bad critical reception, were financial failures, or are disliked by many. As I point out near the end, the situation also does seem to be changing for the better in more recent years as well.

Also, to be clear, I'm a single person who's observing everything best I can from my end, I have no affiliations with staff nor do I claim to, and as much as I'm capable of reading Japanese and thus reading a lot of people's impressions, I'm ultimately still another “outsider” looking in. These are my impressions from my observation of fan communal spaces, following artists and reading comments on social media and art posting websites, and results from social media searches. In the end, I know as much as anyone else about what happened, so this is just my two cents based on all of my personal observations.

A fanbase is a fanbase regardless of what part of the world you're from. There are people who love it and are shameless about saying so. There are people who have mixed feelings or at least aren't on extreme ends of the spectrum (as always, the loudest ones are always the most visible, but it's not always easy to claim they're the predominant percentage of the fanbase). That happens everywhere, and I still find that on every end I've seen. However, if I'm talking about my impressions and everything I’ve encountered, I will say that the overall Japanese reaction to tri. comes off as significantly more violently negative on average than the Western one, which is unusual because often it's the other way around. (I personally feel less so because the opinions are that fundamentally different and more so because we're honestly kind of loud and in-your-face people; otherwise, humans are mostly the same everywhere, and more often than not people feel roughly the same about everything if they’re given the same information to work with.)

This is not something I can say lightly, and thus would not say if I didn’t really get this impression, but...we're talking "casually looking up movie reviews for Kizuna have an overwhelming amount of people casually citing any acknowledgment of tri. elements as a negative element", or the fact that even communal wikis for "general" fandoms like Pixiv and Aniwota don't tend to hold back in being vicious about it (as of this writing, Pixiv's wiki refuses to consider it in the same timeline as Adventure, accusing it of being "a series that claims to be a sequel set three years after 02 but is in fact something different"). Again, there are people who openly enjoy it and actively advocate for it (and Pixiv even warns people to not lord over others about it condescendingly because of the fact that such people do exist), and this is also more of a reflection of “the hardcore fanbase on the Internet” and not necessarily the mainstream (after all, there are quite a few other Digimon works where the critical reception varies very heavily between the two). Nevertheless, the take-home is that the reputation is overall negative among the Internet fanbase to the point that this is the kind of sentiment you run into without trying all that hard.

I think, generally speaking, if we're just talking about why a lot of people resent the series, the reasons aren't that different from those on the Western side. However, that issue of "dark history" (黒歴史): there's a certain degree of demand from the more violently negative side of the fanbase that's, in a sense, asking official to treat it as a disgrace and never acknowledge it ever again, hence why Kizuna doing so much as borrowing things from it rather than rejecting it outright is still sometimes treated like it’s committing a sin. So it's somewhat close in spirit to a retcon movement, which is unusual because no other Digimon series gets this (not even 02; that was definitely a thing on the Western end, but while I'm sure there are people who hate it that much on their end too, I've never really seen it gain enough momentum for anyone to take it seriously). If anyone ever tells you that Japanese fanbases are nice to everything, either they don't know Japanese, are being willfully ignorant, or are lying to you, because there is such thing as drama in those areas, and in my experience, I've seen things get really nasty when things are sufficiently pushed over the edge, and if a fanbase wants to have drama, it will have drama. This happens to be one of those times.

(If you think this is extreme, please know that I also think so too, so I hope you really understand that me describing this sentiment does not mean I am personally endorsing it. Also, let me reiterate that the loudest section of the fanbase is not necessarily the predominant one; after all, as someone who’s been watching reactions to 02 over the years, I myself can attest that its hatedom has historically made it sound more despised than it actually is in practice.)

My impression is that the primary core sentiment behind why the series so much as existing and being validated is considered such an offense (rather than, say, just saying "wow, that writing was bad" and moving on) is heavily tied to the release circumstances the series came out in during 2015-2018, and the idea that "this series disrespected Adventure, and also disrespected the fanbase.” (I mean, really, regardless of what part of the world you’re from, sequels and adaptations tend to be held to a higher bar of expectation than standalone works, because they’re expected to do them justice.) A list of complaints I’ve come across a lot while reading through the above:

The Japanese fanbase is pretty good at recordkeeping when it comes to Adventure universe lore, partially because they got a lot of extra materials that weren’t localized, but also partially because adherence to it seems to generally be more Serious Business to them than it is elsewhere. For instance, “according to Adventure episode 45, ‘the one who wishes for stability’ (Homeostasis) only started choosing children in 1995, and therefore there can be no Chosen Children before 1995” is taken with such gravity that this, not anything to do with evolutions or timeline issues, is the main reason Hurricane Touchdown’s canonicity was disputed in that arena (because Wallace implies that he met his partners before 1995). It’s a huge reason the question of Kizuna also potentially not complying to lore came to the forefront, because tri. so flagrantly contradicts it so much that this issue became very high on the evaluation checklist. In practice, Kizuna actually goes against Adventure/02 very little, so the reason tri. in particular comes under fire for this is that it does it so blatantly there were theories as early as Part 1 that this series must take place in a parallel universe or something, and as soon as it became clear it didn’t, the resulting sentiment was “wow, you seriously thought nobody would notice?” (thus “disrespecting the audience”).

A lot of the characterization incongruity is extremely obvious when you’re following only the Japanese version, partially because it didn’t have certain localization-induced characterization changes (you are significantly less likely to notice a disparity with Mimi if you’re working off the American English dub where they actually did make her likely to step on others’ toes and be condescending, whereas in Japanese the disparity is jarring and hard to miss) and partially due to some things lost in translation (Mimi improperly using rough language on elders is much easier to spot as incongruity if you’re familiar with the language). Because it’s so difficult to miss, and honestly feels like a lot of strange writing decisions you’d make only if you really had no concept of what on earth happened in the original series, it only contributes to the idea that they were handling Adventure carelessly and disrespectfully without paying attention to what the series was even about (that, or worse, they didn’t care).

02 is generally well-liked there! It’s controversial no matter where you go, but as I said earlier, there was no way a retcon movement would have ever been taken seriously, and the predominant sentiment is that, even if you’re not a huge fan of it, its place in canon (even the epilogue) should be respected. So not only flagrantly going against 02-introduced lore but also doing that to a certain quartet is seen as malicious, and you don’t have as much of the converse discourse celebrating murdering the 02 quartet (yeah, that’s a thing that happened here) or accusing people with complaints of “just being salty because they like 02″ as nearly as much of a factor; I did see it happen, or at least dismissals akin to “well it’s Adventure targeted anyway,” but they were much less frequent. The issue with the 02 quartet is usually the first major one brought up, and there’s a lot of complaints even among those who don’t care for 02 as much that the way they went about it was inhumane and hypocritical, especially when killing Imperialdramon is fine but killing Meicoomon is a sin. Also, again, “you seriously think nobody will see a problem with how this doesn’t make sense?”

I think even those who are fans of the series generally agree with this, but part of the reason the actual real-life time this series went on is an important factor is that the PR campaign for this series was godawful. Nine months of clicking on an egg on a website pretending like audience participation meant something when in actuality it was blatantly obvious it was just a smokescreen to reveal info whenever they were ready? This resulted in a chain effect where even more innocuous/defensible things were viewed in a suspicious or negative light (for instance, "the scam of selling the fake Kaiser's goggles knowing Ken fans would buy it only to reveal that it's not him anyway"), and a bunch of progressively out-of-touch-with-the-fanbase statements and poor choices led to more sentiment “yeah, you’re just insulting the fanbase at this point,” and a general erosion of trust in official overall.

On top of that, the choice of release format to have it spread out as six movies over three years seems to have exacerbated the backlash to get much worse than it would have been otherwise, especially since one of the major grievances with the series is that how it basically strung people along, building up more and more unanswered questions before it became apparent it was never going to answer them anyway. So when you’re getting that frustrated feeling over three whole years, it feels like three years of prolonged torture, and it becomes much harder to forgive for the fallout than if you’d just marathoned the entire thing at once.

For those who are really into the Digimon (i.e. species) lore and null canon, while I’m not particularly well-versed in that side of the fanbase, it seems tri. fell afoul of them too for having inaccurately portrayed (at one point, mislabeled) special attacks and poorly done battle choreography, along with the treatment of Digimon in general (infantilized Digimon characterization, general lack of Digimon characters in general, very flippant treatment of the Digital World in Parts 3-5). If you say you’re going to “reboot” the Digital World and not address the entire can of worms that comes with basically damaging an entire civilization of Digimon, as you can imagine, a lot of people who actually really care about that are going to be pissed, and the emerging sentiment is “you’re billing this as a Digimon work, but you don’t even care about the monsters that make up this franchise.”

The director does not have a very positive reputation among those who know his work (beyond just Digimon), and in general there was a lot of suspicion around the fact they decided to get a guy whose career has primarily been built on harem and fanservice anime to direct a sequel to a children’s series. Add to that a ton of increasingly unnerving statements about how he intended to make the series “mature” in comparison to its predecessor (basically, an implication that Adventure and 02 were happy happy joy series where nothing bad ever happened) and descriptions of Adventure that implied a very, very poor grasp of anything that happened in it: inaccurate descriptions of their characters, poor awareness of 02′s place in the narrative, outright saying in Febri that he saw the Digimon as like perpetual kindergartners even after evolving, and generally such a flippant attitude that it drove home the idea that the director of an Adventure sequel had no respect for Adventure, made this series just to maliciously dunk on it for supposedly being immature, and has such a poor grasp of what it even was that it’s possible he may not have seen it in the first place (or if he did, clearly skimmed it to the extent he understood it poorly to pretty disturbing levels). As of this writing, Aniwota Wiki directly cites him as a major reason for the backlash.

In general, consensus seems to be that the most positively received aspect of the series (story-wise) was Part 3 (mostly its ending, but some are more amenable to the Takeru and Patamon drama), and the worst vitriol goes towards Parts 2 (for the blatantly contradictory portrayal of Mimi and Jou and the hypocritical killing of Imperialdramon) and 4 (basically the “point of no return” where even more optimistic people started getting really turned off). This is also what I suspect is behind the numbers on the infamous DigiPoll (although the percentage difference is admittedly low enough to fall within margin of error). However, there was suspicion about the series even from Part 1, with one prominent fanartist openly stating that it felt more like meeting a ton of new people than it did reuniting with anyone they knew.

So with all of that on the table: how did this affect official? The thing is that when I say “violently negative”, I mean that also entailed spamming official with said violently negative social media comments. While this is speculation, I am fairly certain that official must have realized how bad this was getting as early as between Parts 4 and 5, because that’s where a lot of really suspicious things started happening behind the scenes; while I imagine the anime series itself was now too far in to really do anything about it, one of the most visible producers suddenly vanished from the producer lineup and was replaced by Kinoshita Yousuke, who ended up being the only member of tri. staff shared with Kizuna (and, in general, the fact that not a single member of staff otherwise was retained kind of says a lot). Once the series ended in 2018 and the franchise slowly moved into Kizuna-related things, you might notice that tri.-branded merch production almost entirely screeched to a halt and official has been very touchy about acknowledging it too deeply; it’s not that they don’t, but it’s kind of an awfully low amount for what you’d think would be warranted for a series that’s supposed to be a full entry in the big-name Adventure brand.

The reason is, simply, that if they do acknowledge it too much, people will get pissed at them. That’s presumably why the tri. stage play (made during that interim period between Parts 4 and 5 and even branded with the title itself) and Kizuna are really hesitant to be too aggressive about tri. references; it’s not necessarily that official wants to blot it out of history like the most extreme opinions would like them to, but even being too enthusiastic about affirming it will also get them backlash, especially if the things they affirm are contradictory to Adventure or 02. And considering even the small references they did put in still got them criticism for “affirming” tri. too much, you can easily see that the backlash would have been much harder if they’d attempted more than that; staying as close as possible to Adventure and 02 and trying to deal with tri. elements only when they’re comparatively inoffensive was pretty much the “safe” thing to do in this scenario (especially since fully denying tri. would most certainly upset the people who did like the series, and if you have to ask me, I personally think this would have been a pretty crude thing to have done right after the series had just finished). Even interviews taken after the fact often involve quickly disclaiming involvement with the series, or, if they have to bring up something about it, discussing the less controversial aspects like the art (while the character designs were still controversial, it’s at least at the point where some fanartists will still be willing to make use of them even if they dislike the series, albeit often with prominent disclaimers) or the more well-received parts of Part 3; Kizuna was very conspicuously marketed as a standalone movie, even if it shared the point of “the Adventure kids, but older” that tri. had.

(Incidentally, the tri. stage play has generally been met with a good reputation and was received well even among people who were upset with the anime, so it was well-understood that they had no relation. In fact, said stage play is probably even better received than Kizuna, although that’s not too surprising given the controversial territory Kizuna goes into, making the stage play feel very play-it-safe in comparison.)

So, if we’re going to talk about Kizuna in particular: tri. was, to some degree, a moderate financial success, in the sense that it made quite a bit of money and did a lot to raise awareness of the Digimon brand still continuing...however, if you actually look at the sales figures for tri., they go down every movie; part of it was probably because of the progressively higher “hurdle” to get into a series midway, but consider that Gundam Unicorn (a movie series which tri.’s format was often compared to) had its sales go up per movie thanks to word of mouth and hype. So while tri. does seem to have gotten enough money to help sustain the franchise at first, the trade-off was an extremely livid fanbase that had shattered faith in the brand and in official, and so while continuing the Adventure brand might still be profitable, there was no way they were going to get away with continuing to do this lest everything eventually crash and burn.

Hence, if you look at the way Kizuna was produced and advertised, you can see a lot of it is blatantly geared at addressing a lot of the woes aimed at tri.: instead of the staff that had virtually no affiliation with Toei, the main members of staff announced were either from the original series (Seki and Yamatoya) or openly childhood fans, the 02 quartet was made into a huge advertising point as a dramatic DigiFes reveal (and character profies that tie into the 02 epilogue careers prominently part of the advertising from day one), and they even seemed to acknowledge the burnout on the original Adventure group by advertising it so heavily as “the last adventure of Taichi and his friends”, so you can see that there’s a huge sentiment of “damage control” with it. How successful that was...is debatable, since opinions have been all over the board; quite a few people were naturally so livid at what happened with tri. that Kizuna was just opening more of the wound, but there were also people who liked it much better and were willing to acknowledge it (with varying levels of enthusiasm, some simply saying “it was thankfully okay,” and some outright loving it), and there was a general sentiment even among those who disliked both that they at least understood what Kizuna was going for and that it didn’t feel as inherently disrespectful. (Of course, there are people who loved tri. and hated Kizuna, and there are people who loved both, too.)

Moreover, Kizuna actually has a slightly different target audience from tri.; there’s a pretty big difference between an OVA and a theatrical movie, and, quite simply, Kizuna was made under the assumption that a lot of people watching it may not have even seen tri. in the first place. An average of 11% of the country watched Adventure and 02, but the number of people who watched tri. is much smaller, in part due to the fact that its “theater” screenings were only very limited screenings compared to Kizuna being shown in theaters in Japan and worldwide, and in part due to the fact that watching six parts over three years is a pretty huge commitment for someone who may barely remember Digimon as anything beyond a show they watched as a kid, and may be liable to just fall off partway through because they simply just forgot. (Which also probably wasn’t helped by the infamously negative reputation, something that definitely wouldn’t encourage someone already on the fence.) And that’s yet another reason Kizuna couldn’t make too many concrete tri. references; being a theatrical movie, it needs to have as wide appeal as possible, and couldn’t risk locking out an audience that had a very high likelihood of not having seen it, much less to the end -- it may have somewhat been informed by tri.’s moderate financial success and precedent, but it ultimately was made for the original Adventure and 02 audience more than anything else.

I would say that, generally, while Kizuna is “controversial” for sure, reception towards the movie seems to be more positive than negative, it won over a large chunk of people who were burned out by tri., and it clearly seems to have been received well enough that it’s still being cashed in on a year after its release. The sheer existence of the upcoming 02-based movie is also probably a sign of Kizuna’s financial and critical success; Kinoshita confirmed at DigiFes 2020 that nothing was in production at the time, and stated shortly after the movie’s announcement that work on it had just started. So the decision to make it seems to have been made after eyeing Kizuna’s reception, and, moreover, the movie was initially advertised from the get-go with Kizuna’s director and writer (Taguchi and Yamatoya), meaning those two have curried enough goodwill from the fanbase that this can be used to promote the movie. (If not, you would think that having and advertising Seki would be the bigger priority.) While this is my own sentiment, I am personally doubtful official would have even considered 02 something remotely profitable enough on its own to cash in on if it weren’t for this entire sequence of events of 02′s snubbing in tri. revealing how much of a fanbase it had (especially with the sheer degree of “suspicious overcompensation” Kizuna had with its copious use of the 02 quartet and it tagging a remix of the first 02 ED on the Hanareteitemo single, followed by the drama CD and character songs), followed by Kizuna having success in advertising with them so heavily. Given all of the events between 2015 and now, it’s a bit ironic to see that 02 has now become basically the last resort to be able to continue anything in the original Adventure universe without getting too many people upset at them about it.

The bright side coming out of all of this is that, while it’s still a bit early to tell, now that we’re three years out from tri. finishing up and with Kizuna in the game, it seems there’s a possibility for things improving around tri.’s reception as well. Since a lot of the worst heated points of backlash against it have a very “you had to have been there” element (related to the PR, release schedule, and staff comments), those coming in “late” don’t have as much reason to be as pissed at it; I’ve seen at least one case of a fanartist getting back into the franchise because of Kizuna hype, watching tri. to catch up, casually criticizing it on Twitter, and moving on with their life, presumably because marathoning the whole thing being generally aware of what’ll happen in it and knowing Kizuna is coming after anyway gives you a lot less reason to be angry to the point of holding an outright grudge. Basically, even if you don’t like it, it’s much easier to actually go “yeah, didn’t like that,” not worry too much about it, and move on. Likewise, I personally get the impression that official has been starting to get a little more confident about digging up elements related to it. Unfortunately, a fairly recent tweet promoting the series getting put on streaming services still got quite a few angry comments implying that they should be deleting the scourge from the Internet instead, so there’s still a long way to go, but hopefully the following years will see things improve further...

In regards to the reboot, I -- and I think a lot of people will agree with me -- have a bit of a hard time reading what exact audience it’s trying to appeal to; we have a few hints from official that they want parents to watch it with their children, and that it may have been a necessary ploy in order to secure their original timeslot. So basically, the Adventure branding gets parents who grew up with the original series to be interested in it and to show it to their kids, and convinces Fuji TV that it might be profitable. But as most people have figured by now, the series has a completely different philosophy and writing style -- I mean, the interview itself functionally admits it’s here to be more action-oriented and to have its own identity -- and the target audience is more the kids than anything else. As for the Internet fanbase of veterans, most people have been critical of its character writing and pacing, but other than a few stragglers who are still really pissed, it hasn’t attracted all that much vitriol, probably because in the end it’s an alternate universe, it doesn’t have any obligation to adhere to anything from the original even if it uses the branding, and it’s clearly still doing its job of being a kids’ show for kids who never saw the original series nor 02, so an attempt to call it “disrespectful” to the original doesn’t have much to stand on. A good number of people who are bored of it decided it wasn’t interesting to them and dropped it without incident, while other people are generally just enjoying it for being fun, and the huge amount of Digimon franchise fanservice with underrepresented Digimon and high fidelity to null canon lore is really pleasing the side of the fanbase that’s into that (I mean, Digimon World Golemon is really deep in), so at the very least, there’s not a lot to be super-upset about.

#tri negativity #shiha's ask box #springcrafter

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