#honestly i have no idea what the actual quality of the game is going to be but by god am i gonna play it anyway because C'MON
Note
Hello!! I followed you for your absolutely amazing Twisted Wonderland comics (thank you for making them, by the way-) but I saw you posting about something called Ride Kamens? I haven’t heard of it before, what’s it about? Or if that’s a bit much to ask, where could I find more info about it? It seems right up my alley 👀
Thank you!
thank you! :> :> :> (this is also for the other anon who asked about where to find it, I am honored to be infecting the world spreading interest in this silly game)
Ride Kamens is still doing prerelease marketing and isn't out yet; it's set for "early summer 2024", so a bit yet to go! similar to Twst, it's a mobile game about anime boys loosely based on an existing franchise (Kamen Rider), although it seems like it's going to be more standalone/won't require familiarity with Rider going in.
the (very) basic premise is that your player character has just taken over their late father's role as a secret agent, supporting the city's superheroes by running a secret base disguised as a cafe (plus you have a personal butler for some reason) (the reason is because it's amazing). you also have to help the heroes regain their lost memories, and it looks like it'll have a bit of a route/choice aspect there (not romance, just different endings to the character episodes depending on what you do). the details are kinda hard to tell at this point but the characters seem like a really fun bunch; there's definitely big "idiots with emotional problems" energy which I am extremely into.
all the official info is in Japanese only at the moment, but here's the website and the ride_kamens twitter! (though the twitter is sort of overtaken by posts about the AnimeJapan exhibit right now, whoops.) and I believe some people are already planning on doing translations for it too? lots to look forward to! :D
#ride kamens#joseimuke games are serious business#this is why like 99% of my posts about it so far have been just 'hey it's that guy' :')#the characters look like fun i'm just waiting to properly meet them!#i suspect they're doing a bit of a reverse-twst where instead of familiarity with the source drawing you into the game#they're aiming to get people into rider via handsome animes#we have officially reached the zany gambit phase of the franchise#honestly i have no idea what the actual quality of the game is going to be but by god am i gonna play it anyway because C'MON#i do think it looks like fun though! based on the op it looks like the villains might be turning people into monsters?#and the chaostones are from space or something WHY NOT#(also i was SO happy to see that there's a background that looks like our old friend the Wireworks and Explosion Factory)#(you made it in! can't wait for a character to dramatically explode in you ❤️)#(man i hope nijigao city is just full of toku landmarks)#(round up all the boys for a field trip to the local quarry surely nothing will go wrong there)
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Enhypen as Subs (OT6 only)
Pairings: sub!members x fem!reader
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Heeseung
We all know he has a praise kink, it’s cannon at this point. This boy would just melt if you told him he was doing a good job.
His moans would be so pretty, because we all know, being able to sing means he definitely has a good voice. He wouldn’t be loud though, he would be on the quieter side, like the polite boy he is, but he for sure does loose control every now and then.
He would love having his nipples played with–he'd be such a sensitive little thing, begging you to keep going and that he feels so good.
He would call you mommy on accident, muffled by pillows or your skin, and not even remember when you bring it up later, feeling humiliated about it.
Heeseung would be the type of sub who just wants to be taken care of and showered with love. He would beg you to peg him and he’d whine into the pillows as you do so. And when he's sub!topping, he would want you to ride him while he nuzzles into your neck or chest, holding onto every part of you he can.
He would want to make you feel good so badly, but he can’t do two things at once. He probably gets overstimulated very easily. He’s legit a pillow princess when both topping or bottoming (which I guess lives up to his nickname, Princess). But he’d make up for it afterwards if you didn’t cum and would eat you out just the way you like it because he just wants to be the good boy he knows he is. He’s just so sweet honestly.
Jake
Don’t even get me started on this man. It could go one of two ways, Jake could either be the brattiest sub or the sweetest sub ever. But one thing's for sure, he is needy as hell which overrules pretty much everything.
He may start off with slow and soft kisses, wanting to savor every moment, but he can't help but rut against you like a desperate little puppy. His sex drive is endless and he can cum over and over again, but still beg for more.
Bro would not be subtle whatsoever. He’d be LOUD loud, letting out whiny moans left and right, basically screaming curses, and he wouldn’t give a shit. In fact, he might even enjoy the idea of being heard by others.
Now, when he's feeling bratty, he becomes a total menace. Not in a teasing, tempting way, but more like borderline annoying. He'll push all your buttons and run you ragged until you're begging him to let you touch him. It's all just a game to him, and at that point, he's just messing with you for his own amusement.
He’ll ask to take things slow but he’ll end up humping anything he can come in contact with until he gets his cock in you. Sure, he might be up for getting pegged every now and then, but let's be real, he loves pussy too much to pass it up.
Let's not forget his insane oral fixation— this man would give the best head you've ever had. It's like a mind-blowing, life-changing experience. He loves to look up at you while he's doing it, hoping for some hair pulling or praise because he craves your validation, even though he knows he's doing an amazing job.
Sunghoon
Okay despite my first post, I think Sunghoon could actually be a really good sub. He's just such a sweet and considerate guy, and that quality would definitely translate into bed.
He's the type to shower you with affection and want nothing more than to please you beyond measure. Unlike Heeseung and Jake, Sunghoon would beg for you to use him for your own pleasure. He loves the feeling of being at your mercy and would eagerly give control over to you.
This possibly shifts over into more service!top territory, but the sub is definitely still there. He enjoys giving up control and letting his partner take charge. He'll never make demands or ask for something, but instead he'll wait for you to tell him what to do. He likes the feeling of not being in control of himself for once.
He would love to finger you with those pretty hands of his because you love it. He loves anything you love. If you love the weirdest shit ever, so would he, just because it makes you happy. He’s not even the most into pegging, but if you wanted to make him fall apart on your fingers, he’d let you.
Sunghoon would likely be more on the quiet and calm side, but not because he's shy like Heeseung. Instead, he's focused on paying attention to your needs and reactions. He loves seeing you feel good and it brings him joy to be the source of that pleasure.
Jay
I'll be honest, I have a hard time picturing Jay as a sub. But if he were, I imagine he would also be head over heels for you and would do anything to make you happy.
He would constantly crave physical contact and would be the clingy type who wants to be pressed against you all night long. He would even whine if you try to separate from him.
Contrast to Sunghoon, he wouldn’t wait for you to tell him what to do every time—he’s more desperate and beggy than Sunghoon is. If he wants to touch you, he’ll beg for it. If he wants to eat you out, he’ll beg for it. He’ll take initiative for himself and beg you to ride his face.
He would be more reserved than Sunghoon too. He may not be as open to letting you try new things on him, but when it comes to trying new things on you, he'll do you want him to.
He would be open to being tied down though, and quite likes it when he gets the chance to be. He would be quieter too generally, and not make much noise—but that depends on the situation. When he’s tied down and has no control over what happens, his inhibitions die and the moans flow right out.
He would want to see your face at all times, always needing to make sure you’re okay and happy. Again, just another sweet guy.
Sunoo
While Jake may seem like one of the only bratty ones, but Sunoo would take it to a whole new level. He would be the brattiest brat ever and tbh, it's great. It’s not annoying, and he would do it in a way that, unlike Jake, would be tempting and teasing.
He would initiate it with small touches and when you eventually react, he would act all innocent. He loves it when you take control and would like things a little rougher too. And we all know he would be loud asf, as his singing voice is no joke. So, you can expect him to let the whole building know how good you're making him feel.
He’s definitely more of the sub that just wants to be taken care of. Another pillow princess indeed. His thought process is that you wouldn't do anything to him that you wouldn't enjoy yourself. And let's be real, he's probably right. And with that reasoning doesn’t think he’ll have to do much work in return.
The whole the brat persona would hold up throughout the whole experience. He would tease and push your buttons, knowing just how to turn you on—like whining phrases he knows you like or pushing you away because it’s “too much”— but then giggles soon after upon seeing how worked up it gets you. He would be able to suppress his reactions when certain things he’s into (maybe if you degrade him a little) affect him, but you can see through him, with the slight falter in his expression and a gulp of his Adams Apple as he tries to ground himself.
Afterwards, Sunoo would beg for aftercare cuddles and snuggles. He would be so sweet, endearing and needy for love and kisses.
Jungwon
With his hardworking and dedicated nature, I can see Jungwon being a service!top sometimes. But I think with him being so hardworking and dedicated, he would find it hard for him to wind down normally, so subbing would probably be his way to be able to do so.
Jungwon would probably be a bit similar to Heeseung in the way that he would turn into a full on sub—like just lay there and whine while you bounce on his cock type of stuff. He would be the type of person to fall into a subspace really easily, as he’s stressed out so much all the time.
He would just want you to take care of him and hold him and give him whatever you’re willing to give. He would be quiet for you too, only able to make out small punctuated moans on every beat.
He’s the type to crawl into bed with you and immediately lock onto your lips, clinging to you, looking halfway to falling asleep and halfway to falling under into a subspace, begging you to make him feel good and to make him forget about his day.
He would also likely have some sort of kink for praise or affirmation, as it would make him feel all comfortable and giddy inside knowing that all of his work and effort is being seen and appreciated.
Jungwon would be a whore for sleepy sex, he would beg you to do it in the morning, if not to just let him slip into a subspace and eat you out to mentally prepare himself for another hard day.
On times where he’s not in a subspace, he would be so eager to please you, he would go to above and beyond to make sure you love every second with him, whether it be sucking extra hard on your clit or fucking into you faster, he’ll do it with out you even asking, waiting for you’re words of approval soon after he does so.
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#enhypen hard thoughts#enhypen hard hours#enhypen smut#sub enhypen#sub!enhypen#sub sunghoon#sub jake#sub heeseung#smut#fluff#enhypen niki#praise and degredation#praise k!nk#rough kink#mommy k!nk#dumb puppy#hand kink#service top#mtl#enhypen
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(Hello! Here’s some incorrect quotes!)
Kickin-Chicken : *Posts a super low-quality image to the group chat*
Bobby BearHug : If I had a dollar for every pixel in this image, I’d have 15 cents.
Kickin-Chicken : If I had a dollar for every ounce of rage I felt in my body after I read this text, I would have enough money to buy a cannon to fire at you.
Bubba bubbaphant : Actually I did the math, Bobby BearHug would have $225, not $0.15.
Bobby BearHug : Fam I’m right here....
Dogday: If I had a dollar I would buy a can of soda :)
Kickin-Chicken : while you’re there could you buy me an apply juice please?
Dogday: Sorry I only have a dollar.
Kickin-Chicken : :(
Bubba bubbaphant : Hey I just realized my friend is right, Bobby BearHug would have $22,500 because it's a dollar for every pixel, not a cent.
Dogday: If I had $22,500 I would buy a can of soda and an apply juice.
Bubba bubbaphant : You can buy anything you want with $22,500.
Catnap: Yeah and they want soda and apply juice.
Bubba bubbaphant : Apply juice to what.
Catnap: Directly to the forehead.
Bobby BearHug : Great chat everyone.
Dogday: I just got the best idea I've ever had in my entire life!
*Later*
Catnap, to Dogday: That was the worst idea you’ve ever had in your entire life.
Bubba bubbaphant : *tapping fingers on table*
Craftycorn: *taps fingers back furiously*
Bobby BearHug : …What’s going on?
Dogday: Morse code. They’re talking.
Bubba bubbaphant : -.-- ..- .-. / - …. . / -.-. ..- - . … -
Craftycorn: *slams hands on table* YOU TAKE THAT BACK!
Catnap: What do you three have to say for yourself?
Bubba bubbaphant :
Craftycorn:
Dogday: Oops?
Bobby BearHug : Are you the big spoon or the little spoon?
Catnap: I'm a knife.
Dogday, from across the room: They're the little spoon.
Kickin-Chicken : Not gonna lie, I'm kind of afraid of Catnap...
Bubba bubbaphant : As you should be.
Kickin-Chicken : No, for real, they're kind of-
Bubba bubbaphant : As. You. Should. Be.
Hoppy hopscotch : Who would you swipe right for? Craftycorn or Picky Piggy?
Catnap: I would delete the app.
Bubba bubbaphant : Do you mind if I slyly mention that you’re single?
Catnap: Do not do that.
Bubba bubbaphant : You won’t even notice!
Dogday, entering: Bubba bubbaphant , you wanted to see me again?
Bubba bubbaphant : Catnap's single
Catnap:…
Dogday: Hey, can we stay in your dorm tonight?
Catnap: Why?
Dogday: Bobby BearHug fiddled with an ouija board and cursed ours.
Picky Piggy: Craftycorn doesn't know how to banish spirits, so they just throw salt at them and yell "DOES THIS LOOK LIKE A HOTEL TO YOU?!"
Bubba bubbaphant : Everyone knows that Santa is an invention designed by the big five corporations to sell tinsel and video games to an unsuspecting public.
Kickin-Chicken : The whole “childhood wonder” stage just blew right past you, didn’t it?
Craftycorn: it’s illegal to look better than me.
Catnap: I guess we’re all going to jail then.
Catnap: Sometimes I get so caught up on being gay that I forget I’m actually bi.
Dogday: Honestly, I am so evil. So full of darkness. I feed of the souls of the living I strike fear into-
Catnap: You sleep with a teddybear.
Dogday: He’s my sECOND IN COMMAND IN MY ARMY OF DARKNESS!
Kickin-Chicken : Ooh, somebody has a crush
Catnap: Pfft, I don’t have a crush on Dogday I just think they’re cool, it’s not like I stay up at night thinking about them.
*Later that night*
Catnap, very much awake: Uh oh.
Catnap: I want to kiss you.
Dogday, not paying attention: What?
Catnap: I said if you die, I wont miss you.
Kidnapper: We have your child
Kickin-Chicken : I don’t have a child? Kidnapper: Then who just asked for warm milk and made us cut the crusts off their sandwich?
Kickin-Chicken : Oh god, you have Dogday
#poppy playtime#catnap#dogday#picky piggy#bubba bubbaphant#hoppy hopscotch#bobby bearhug#kickinchicken#craftycorn#smiling critters#cartoon#cartoon version#catnap x dogday
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Days With U 💘
Requested, reader just tagging along with Jack while he runs errands or does things for work.
You loved spending with Jack with his busy schedule having quality time together was really hard at times, so when you woke up this morning and decided to tag along with him while he ran a few errands he was actually really excited.
“You sure you’re ready for today baby?” Jack asked you as the two of you got into his car.
“More than ready.” You grinned and pulled your little purse out from the back.
“I packed me a few snacks and took like two or three water bottles.” You paused. “What are we even doing today?” You asked him.
“We?” He chuckled. “Well I have a meeting first, then a little photo shoot and lastly I need to do this interview with Druski.”
“Interview with Druski? What’s that about.” You asked him as the two of you drove down the road.
“We’re just going to be playing this game called ‘never have I ever’ for Spotify and that’s it, after I’m finished we can do whatever you want.” He smiled and wiggled his eyebrows.
“So you’ll massage my feet?” He smacked his teeth.
“That isn’t what I had in mind babe but if that’s what you want, I’ll do it.” He grumbled.
After a few minutes went by you both finally arrived to the studio we’re the meeting was going to take place.
Urban did a double look upon seeing you entering the studio.
“What are you doing here? The evil step father finally let you out of the house.” He faked gasped and brought you in for a hug.
Jack rolled his eyes. “Yeah right I can’t even keep her in the house she’s always out spending all my money.” He joked.
“So maybe it is a good thing that you came today.” He laughed but earned an elbow to his side making him hiss slightly.
“Actually I had nothing to do today so I decided to tag along with Jack.” You smiled.
“So go ahead and do your little meeting, I’ll just be on the couch eating my snacks.” You told them.
Once you got settled and comfortable the meeting started to take place. You tried paying attention to the meeting but honestly it was boring.
Jack looked up and saw that you were already looking up at him. He raised his eyebrows and started to wiggle them a bit making you stiff a laugh.
But he could tell by bore expression displayed on your face that you were starting to get bored.
“What’s wrong?” He mouthed.
“Just a bit bored.” You mouthed back. He frowned slightly he didn’t want you to be bored so he knew he had to try and do something to entertain you.
“So for the next tour should we do meet and greet?” Nemo asked the group.
Everyone looked around not exactly sure if a meet and greet was needed or not, Jack looked back over to you as you looked out the window.
“What do you think babe?” He asked you which caught you a bit off guard.
“What? Oh uh I feel like we should do a meet and greet, I think the fans would really enjoy that.” You suggested and everyone nodded their heads in agreement.
“I agree with Y/N.” Urban said you looked up at Jack and he sent a wink your way.
“Why don’t you come sit by us Y/N you can help with a few other things.” Nemo said and you immediately took a seat next to Jack.
“You still bored?” He whispered into your ear.
“Nope.” You grinned and started discussing Jack’s next tour.
Jack was glad he was able to somewhat cure your boredom with allowing you to engage into the conversation, because he loved hearing your ideas and thoughts.
Once the meeting was over you said bye to everyone as you made your way into the car. “So, photo shoot time?” You asked.
“Actually the photo shoot and the interview with Druski got pushed back to tomorrow looks like we can do whatever we want now. You got any ideas?”
You thought about it for a few seconds. “Actually since I ran a few errand with you.” You said in a teasing tone. “You ran one errand with me babe.” Jack piped in.
“Okay whatever but I do need to get a few things at Sephora, Target and I wanna stop by Dunkin Donuts.” Jack mentally rolled his eyes but nonetheless started driving to Sephora.
When you arrived your eyes were literally as big as a kids eyes in a candy store. “I don’t even know what half of this shit is.” He mumbled.
“Want me to show you? Ooo we can see what shade you are in foundation.” You squealed. “In what?” He asked with his eyebrows furrowed.
“Do you guys need help?” One of the employees asked. “Actually yes can you match my boyfriend please?” The employee smiled and nodded.
“You’re being forced to do this?” The lady asked. “Was it that obvious?” He mumbled.
“Of course.” Jack stood there as the lady scanned his face before going into one of the drawers and pulling out a foundation.
“This one would be your match.” She handed Jack the foundation and walked away.
“Damn, you really are pale as shit.” You mumbled as you inspected the very, very bright foundation in his hands.
“Let’s not do too much let’s start heading to Target.” When the two of you finished at Sephora you made your way to Target.
While Sephora was your playground Target was Jack’s playground. You watched with slight wide eyes as he tossed in a few things into the cart.
“Do we really need all of this Jack?” You asked as he tossed in a bunch of random things.
“Look baby I don’t question all the makeup you get so don’t question all of the things I need.” He stated and you raised your hands in defense.
“My bad but seriously let’s go I’m getting hungryy.” You whined. After Jack went and checked out everything the two of you headed to Morris Deli.
“You want what I get babe?” Jack asked. “Yeah that’s fine but also I want a bag of chips and a sweet tea.” You told him.
Jack went in line and waited for the food once it was ready the two you started to dig in. You both ate in a peaceful silence till Jack spoke up.
“So, did you have a good day?” He questioned. “It was a fun day but you wanna know what my favorite part was?”
He raised his eyebrow. “What would that be?”
“When you fell face first in Target that shit was hilarious.” You laughed.
“It’s the way the soccer moms looked so irritated over the fact that you fell!” You laughed even harder as Jack sat there with an annoyed expression.
“Can you believe one of them came up to me while you were looking at pajamas and said that I was interrupting her shopping.” He stated which made you laugh even harder.
“Alright now baby it ain’t that funny.” He grumbled. Even though Jack was trying his hardest not to laugh he just couldn’t hold it in.
He loved little days like this with you just being able to spend a little time together and winding down together was his favorite thing to do as long as he was with you.
#jack harlow#jack harlow concepts#jack harlow imagine#jack harlow x reader#jack harlow x y/n#jack harlow x you
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Chuckle Sandwich || Shopping With Him (HC)
I had this idea while talking to my absolute bestie babe @lvrj4mie 😩 ILYSM
Im also taking requests or just any suggestions or ideas!! Thanks for reading!
❥ Jschlatt:
▷ Would rather die than go shopping… He only goes because he loves you.
▷ Holds all your bags and items you pick.
▷ Definitely will pull some skimpy or revealing clothing off the clothing rack, suggesting you try it on for him.
▷ Trying to encourage him to get outside his comfort zone (Only wearing shorts and sweatshirts 😭)
▷ After some time passes he actually begins to enjoy himself. Well, he enjoys spending quality time with you.
▷ I can see him sharing random yet entertaining stories with you as you walk around from store to store.
▷ He absolutely insists on treating you to at least one thing. Whether it’s a new pair of pants, some new shoes, or even just a pretzel from the cafeteria.
▷ Having to stop his impulse buying of stupid or useless things.
“Y/n look!” Schlatts voice calls, catching the attention of a passersby or two.
“Shh. What is it?” You playfully hush, walking over to where he stood, investigating the shelves.
Suddenly he pulled out the most ridiculous looking monkey replica (the golden ball monkey lmao
“What is THAT?!”
“It’s a beautiful golden balled monkey.” He grins, happily showing off his find.
Together you both shared a laugh. Assuming he’d put the item down you began to walk over to the next shop. To your surprise he didn’t follow you. Turning around you saw him motioning towards the register as he stood in kind.
“Jay, what are you doing? That’s expensive for such a silly thing.”
“Don’t worry y/n, we’re rich!” He jokingly responds (he would say this)
“Schlatt, are you seriously going to buy it? What are you going to do with it?”
“I’ll take him everywhere with me! I’ll tuck him into bed and kiss him goodnight.” He excitedly explains.
You can’t help but smile as you let out a small sigh.
“If you really want it, go for it.”
▷ He definitely makes sure you stop at the cafeteria for some lunch or just to taste test some snacks.
❥ Ted:
▷ Such a gentleman. He holds all the doors open for you, holds your bags, offers to pay (even though you politely refuse)
▷ He’s Low-key quite fashionable. He’d be helping you pick out trendy clothes and even help you put together cute outfits
▷ Always suggesting things for you to try on. He loves to see you happy and confident in the new clothes.
▷ Enjoys trying things on himself as well. He’d definitely throw in a crazy outfit just to get your reaction.
▷ Definitely takes this opportunity to use the Photo Booth or at least get some cute and funny pictures with the two of you
▷ I can honestly see him being the type who enjoys people watching.
▷ You sit in the cafeteria together sharing some food as you watch people walk past, making up little stories about their lives.
“Ok ok, what about him?” Ted questions, motioning towards the passerby.
“Uh, I think he is currently in a big fight with his partner. He’s definitely trying to find them a gift or something… I’m not very good at the game. You go. ” You reply.
“I thought it was a great story. Hmm ok that dude right there. He’s actually undercover right now. He’s an fbi agent called… 770. There is a huge heist going on right now in the store below us.” He seriously remarks.
“Why are you so good at this game.” You playfully sigh.
“Don’t worry, you’ll get it eventually.” He chuckles, placing a kiss in the back of your hand.
▷ Makes you do a try on haul the second you get home, mixing and mating every possible outfit
#chuckle sandwich#chuckle sammy#ted nivison#jschlatt x reader#ted nivison x reader#ted nivison headcanons#jschlatt hcs#hc#jschlatt#ted nivison imagine#ted x reader#ted nivison fanfiction#ted nivison fic#schlatt hcs#schlatt x you#schlatt x reader#schlatt imagine#schlatt#ted nivison x you#ted nivison x y/n#jschlatt imagine#jschlatt x you#jschlatt fluff#ted nivison fluff#chuckle sandwich x reader#jschlatt fanfic#jschlatt imagines
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Kieran is autistic and you can't change my mind!
Okay, I KNOW that I'm not the only one who holds this headcanon...but I wanted to do an analysis on Kieran anyway, especially since my best friend @sinnohanvulpix said she'd love to see me do one. Credit to her for all the screenshots used btw. The GIFs on the other hand were either found on Google Images or created by me using gifrun.com and these YouTube videos:
youtube
I did not use my own footage for this at all...as proof here's what MY character in the game looks like...he has my real name but I tried to make him look like Orange which is why he has the orange eyes 😅
(Sorry for the bad quality btw...taking pictures of my Switch screen is hard 😅)
Okay, now without further ado, let's get started with the analysis!
First, Kieran has a CLEAR special interest in Ogerpon, he admires and looks up to her, he was obsessed with the story of the ogre, he was always trying to go to her den and meet her, he has a meltdown when Ogerpon chooses the player over him, etc. Carmine even says that Kieran "really really REALLY likes the ogre" and that made me think, "Ah! Special interest!"
And then at the end of the Teal Mask he gains a new special interest in getting stronger to beat the player...and he hyperfocuses HARD on that...to the point of it being detrimental to both his physical and mental health, as he was doing nothing but training during that time...he barely ate, barely slept, just trained...and that is not healthy. It's a rare example of media showcasing a special interest being unhealthy and absolutely CONSUMING one's life, and the consequences do actually show for it.
Kieran is very introverted and doesn't know how to make friends very well. I actually think the player is his first friend considering his surprised reaction when the player says they consider him a friend, and following this, he quickly becomes a bit...too attached to the player, as he doesn't quite understand how friendships work.
(This is also such a neurodivergent way to say "I'm so happy I finally have a friend")
He also struggles socially, as is a requirement for autistic people to qualify for a diagnosis. Kieran specifically has a hard time reading social cues, he struggles with making eye contact, he has clear anxiety when talking to people as proven by his little stutter he has at times.
(This is an adorable screenshot 🥺)
He also struggles with social and emotional processing (and might have alexithymia as well due to his sudden huge outbursts of emotion), and he also struggles with initiating conversation as well, as seen when he tries to talk to Penny at the League Club. They both have no idea how to even start a conversation with each other and it's honestly pretty adorable seeing the two quiet adorkable kids trying their best to hold conversation. I get it, you two, initiating conversation is really difficult for me too.
Also the way they try to start the conversation by talking about the weather...that's really funny and ironic to me because that's what NTs do all the time. NTs always use the weather as a small-talk conversation starter but NDs like me (and Kieran and Penny too apparently) just don't get that stuff.
(These two are so neurodivergent it's great and I love them both 🥺)
Kieran also has four in-game animations that I personally see as stimming. The first one is him tapping his fist against his hip when he's thinking or nervous.
(Focus your attention to his hand here and you'll see it.)
The second one is him playing with a strand of loose hair, usually when he's nervous.
(The little nervous side glance at the player is relatable and adorable 🥺)
The third one is a more agitated stim that he only does ONCE in the entire game...and that is tapping the front of his foot on the ground. I do that myself when I'm agitated or impatient, somehow it's comforting, especially since for some reason I really like the way my shoes sound when I tap them on the ground... especially since I got my brand new Infernape-themed shoes, they sound extra satisfying because they're brand new.
(This is not the way most people tap their foot...I've never seen an NT do it like this...only other NDs such as myself and one of my brothers)
The fourth and final one is, unfortunately, a stress stim...Kieran runs his hands very fast through his hair and it also looks like, to me anyway as someone who has self-injurious stims myself, that he is digging his nails into his scalp as well while doing that. I do something similar myself, though on top of running my hands through my hair and digging my nails into my scalp, I also pull at my hair...yeah... self-injurious stims are no joke...and I'm kinda glad Kieran's autism coding brings attention to that aspect of autism...at least in my eyes as someone who does those things myself.
(He's in so much stress here, poor kid 😔)
Another aspect of autism that I'm surprised and kinda glad that Kieran exhibits as an autistic-coded character is meltdowns and shutdowns. Kieran has actual meltdowns in the game! This is something we have never seen in such an in-your-face way in any Pokémon game, and as someone who regularly has meltdowns myself, it hit me in the feels whenever I saw him having them. His first meltdown is in the Teal Mask when he steals the Teal Mask and runs off to Loyalty Plaza where he battles the player. He yells at Carmine and the player for treating him like an outcast...which is unfortunately something that happens to a lot of autistic people, myself included. Kieran screams at the player and Carmine for for lying to him while doing his stress stim, before running up to the Lousy Three's shrine and punching it, without any regard for his safety, which is also something autistic people may do during meltdowns...I know I have no regard for my safety during mine. After that's all over he gives the mask back to the player and goes home, leaving the player to talk to Carmine alone, who says that she's worried and thinks it's just "teen angst". When I saw that I was like, "...Uh, Carmine...I don't think it's just that, I think your brother is neurodivergent and really needs a lot of help and support because he's struggling a lot right now..."
His second meltdown is also in the Teal Mask, when he wants Ogerpon to go with him but Ogerpon wants to go with the player...Kieran can't process that and doesn't understand how to take Ogerpon's feelings into account, instead demanding the player to battle him for the right to be Ogerpon's partner. He collapses on all fours after being defeated again, and it gets worse...he looks like he's crying while the player battles Ogerpon in order to catch her. After the player catches her, Kieran wonders why he can't be like the player, and runs off crying, locking himself in his room for the rest of the story. The end of the Teal Mask has him doing his stress stim while being consumed by a new special interest in a very detrimental way...that interest being becoming so strong that no one can defeat him...including the player.
Kieran's third meltdown is in the Indigo Disk, after the player defeats him in the championship match. That meltdown is a full-on cutscene, where it is CLEAR to see his spiraling mental state through the visuals, and he holds his hands on his head like he has a headache while trying to process the fact that he lost to the player AGAIN (which is also relatable as someone who struggles with processing difficulties myself...it really does give headaches and it is one of the worst feelings when I just can't process what's going on around me or the emotions I feel or anything really)...he collapses to his knees and looks like he's breathing very hard as he is so upset and distressed at this loss. It is definitely one of the most heartbreaking scenes for me because this is a CLEAR CUT MELTDOWN in my eyes and it hits me in the feels like a TRUCK to watch that cutscene.
Also, in the Terapagos fight, Kieran has a bit of a shutdown for a bit, standing there frozen, thinking he's useless and can't do anything right (which is relatable as I have regular shutdowns as well, and I also constantly feel like I'm a failure of a human being who can't do anything right)...but let me tell you, when the player finally gets him to snap out of it and convinces him to help and he opens his eyes revealing that the light is back in his eyes as well as visible tears...I cheered (and teared up myself). My boy was back, and I was so happy.
(When I first saw the tears I was like, "NOOOO don't cry Kieran! 😢)
Also in the Indigo Disk, Kieran seems completely different and "no longer like his usual self". His autistic traits are (mostly) nowhere to be seen as he becomes much more serious, angry, assertive,and aggressive. I personally see this as a persona he puts on by masking, which is common for autistic people to do. I myself can't mask, but Kieran definitely seems to be masking here by putting on this persona in order to get stronger and seem stronger as a person as well. This is NOT his real self, this is a FACADE!
We see him start to drop the mask again in Area Zero when he says it seems like they're in a spy movie or something and how cool that is, but once the crack in his mask is pointed out he immediately puts it back on.
After everything in the under depths ends, and you go back to Blueberry Academy, he drops the mask again completely, and goes back to his real, adorkable, relatable self...and stays that way from then on, which made me so relieved and happy.
(This is my favorite cutscene in the entire DLC because of how adorable it is and also how neurodivergent Kieran is being here while apologizing for all he did 🥺)
In conclusion, I think Kieran is a great example of an autistic-coded character who has many relatable traits, and also does a good job showcasing some of the more "unpleasant and challenging behaviors and traits" (NTs use that terminology a lot, not me... that's how NTs unfortunately view NDs a lot of the time) of autism. I used to be afraid of him during the post-Teal Mask pre-Indigo Disk era but that was my trauma and PTSD talking (I talked about the emotional rollercoaster Kieran's story arc took me on in another post from last year after I finally worked up the courage to play the Indigo Disk...feel free to check that out too if you'd like). Now though I can wholeheartedly say that I love and appreciate Kieran a lot as a character, and his relatability is definitely a big part of why he is a big comfort character for me now (please Pokémon put him in Pokémon Masters EX, PLEASE I will literally cry from joy if he gets added to the game)!
Hope you all enjoyed this autistic person's analysis of yet ANOTHER autistic-coded character in Pokémon! I know I had A LOT to say but that just proves how relatable Kieran is, and I love him for that. Let me know what you think and if I missed anything in the comments below!
#pokemon#pokemon scarlet and violet#pokemon sv dlc#pokemon kieran#the teal mask#the indigo disk#mochi mayhem#post mochi mayhem#kieran is adorable and relatable#he's autistic your honor#and nothing can tell me otherwise#i know i'm not the only one with this headcanon#but i wanted to analyze kieran anyway#because i can#actually autistic#autism headcanons#pika's headcanon#long post#pika talks#Youtube
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In Defense of BioShock Infinite
Although I had preordered BioShock Infinite with all its bells and whistles, I did not actually play it until January 2023. And lordy, I had me another Experience with a capital E. How the hell a bunch of urban Yanks could capture my experience as a queer democratic-socialist atheist struggling with her roots as a rural evangelical-cum-fascist is kinda magical, honestly. As to the game itself, it didn’t hurt how good it looked—the kickass skyhook gun battles—that novel setting—the complex characters—that delicious historical setting—that bloodthirsty critique of America—and to top it all off, they had pulled yet another Cassandra. Hell, speaking of which—not only was the game fun, it was fucking smart. It was intelligent, memorable, and meaningful in a way I hadn’t experienced in video games for years.
Now, back in 2013, when I had realized that I would be spoiled for Infinite, I left the BioShock fandom. After completing the game, I headed to Tumblr to re-engage, wagging my whole body like an excitable golden retriever, only to discover that BioShock Infinite was remarkably absent, and when mentioned, brutally derided.
“I hate BioShock Infinite and all my friends do, too,” someone said in the tags under a post.
I was utterly befuddled and deeply sad. I wanted to talk about BioShock Infinite! I wanted to dig into it, uncover unexpected ideas, learn new things, talk shit, make new friends—the full fandom experience. And instead I kept stumbling into hateful diatribes and super-charged disgust.
Obviously, I first looked at myself and my own judgment. Had I missed some obvious problem or misread some theme or dialogue? This wouldn’t be the first time I’d snapped down on a hook. But the more I thought about it, the angrier I got.
There are two parts of BioShock Infinite that are unquestionably terrible: the fridging of Daisy Fitzroy and the false equivalence of violence between haves and have-nots (lol what are the have-nots supposed to do, ask nicely?). Additionally, one could look at the use of real Native American tragedies as tasteless. Personally, I do not—in the same way that I don’t find it tasteless that real war victims were used as inspiration for Splicer deformities. This is what really happened; this is commentary on events that really happened to real people.
At this point, I’m sure I don’t have to explain why two of these themes are Unequivocally Bad.
Anyway, I thought that perhaps these were the reasons BSI had been condemned to Super Hell.
I was wrong.
How Criitcsim Werk
This wasn’t the fandom I’d made friends in over 2010. Hell, this wasn’t the fandom of 2013. This was a fandom made up of Babies. They were making their first coltish stumblings into media criticism and with it, dredging up the same brain-dead bullshit from Tumblr circa 2008.
Suddenly I was brought face to face with people who seemed to think that if a character couldn’t be likable or good that the story itself couldn’t be likable or good; that one bad element means the story is unsalvageable (lol u pussies); the implication that one is bad for liking it; the destructive juvenile insistence that media accurately measures its fans’ moral qualities en masse like an astrological sign. This goes far beyond simple like or dislike and plunges head-first into Puritanism: praying loudly on street-corners instead of quietly in a dark corner where God might hear you.
At one point I had a kid go off about how they wouldn’t take time to understand Booker DeWitt’s perspective because he had (fictionally) taken part in a genocide. (That same person said the Native American element had been employed for shock value, a thought that sometimes keeps me up at night, because it is legitimately one of the dumbest criticisms the game has ever received.) At another point I saw someone acting personally offended that (fictional person) Dr. Suchong’s (fictional) data was being stolen (in a fiction) by a (fictional) racist who would (fictionally) take credit for (fictional person) Suchong’s (fictional) inventions “while calling him slurs”. Sure, a better question would have been, “Why would the creative team opt to do this” rather than assume intentional racism from a Jewish creative director with an in-office multi-ethnic team in the year of our lord 2013, but why not handwave the choice with prurient moral dismay so your audience won’t beat you to death with bats?
It was as though fans were treating these completely fictional characters as real people whose personal gods had opted to torment them, and that their tormentors merited the kind of censure that psychopaths should receive. As I hope all of you understand, this is fucking madness.
More than once I saw people posting about hating the studio or the creative director in ways that seemed intense, unreasoning, and excessive—notably an “I Hate [Irrational Games creative director] Ken Levine” stamp (rofl the more things change amirite). People get so performatively moralistic about it that I started wondering if I missed something big along the way. Was there some secret Voxophone I missed swearing fealty to baby Hitler or some shit?
Double Standards
At the same time, I was utterly confused. BioShocks 1 and 2 both featured some absolutely ghastly bullshit based on real-life horrors and a thick mix of complicated human beings—many of them victims who have become monsters. The fact they are grounded in historical tragedies is a huge part of their appeal. Hell, I don’t think those games would have had half their meaning without World Wars I and II and the threat of a third.
A gay man who feels so cursed by his orientation that he is incapable of intimacy and systematically destroys his ex-lovers—including the man he loves the most. A Korean who survived Japanese occupation and a Jewish Holocaust survivor repeat the violence and traumas exacted upon them and their people, subjecting a new generation to agonies unthinkable. Chasing the shadows of Bolsheviks, a Russian citizen becomes the brutal tyrant that he loathed. A rich lawyer with an easygoing drawl designs a concentration camp and systematically harvests hundreds, if not thousands of political prisoners, selling them out to medical testing for a quick buck.
But a Native man who destroys his own people and class to ensure his own survival and social acceptability is too far? This character is where people drew the line, so much so that the entire game is disavowed? Hell, if you’re just talking about Booker (rather than Comstock), he doesn’t have anywhere near the largest bodycount. If we were to judge on the metric of human misery alone, Booker wouldn’t even hit the top ten.
Keep in mind that the most-discussed BioShock game on Tumblr is BioShock 2, and that one of the biggest fandom favorites is Augustus Sinclair—the easy-talkin’ Georgia lawyer who sells your character into horrors past all human comprehension, as he sold hundreds before and after you. Sinclair is a motherfucker so vile that BioShock 2 gives you no choice but to murder him. But Sinclair is also pleasant; good-looking to some; spends the whole game making sweet love to your ear; is one of the only true positive experiences you experience in a horror story. Unlike DeWitt, a man who is brutal and awful from step one, Sinclair is smooth and sweet. Unlike DeWitt, Sinclair’s victims are faceless, completely fictional, and carry no political or social baggage.
People fuckin’ ship this guy with Subject Delta, his explicit victim. He’s usually described as a squishy cinnamon roll. In most fanfiction, he often gets to escape to the surface and fuck Delta while helping raise Eleanor as Dad 2. It is rare that I find fanfiction that acknowledges his monsterhood in all its glory. In fact, I can only think of two.
Literacy Comes in Levels
My problem with the over-the-top hatred of BioShock Infinite is along the same lines as my confusion at Twilight and Harry Potter hate: there is so much worse out there (how much do the haters actually engage with media if they think this is that bad—yes, even considering the shitty creators themselves!), the hatred far outweighs the sin committed (in BioShock’s case, the truly bad bits are not central enough to derail the larger narrative), people don’t seem to hate it so much as they want to be seen hating it, fans want to enforce an unspoken rule hating it (bitches this is poison. Stop this), and there’s something about the hate that stinks of poor reading comprehension.
A great metric for general literacy is the newspaper. In journalism, you’re writing for the lowest-common denominator, which for years here in the USA has been about a fifth-grade reading level (about 10-11 years old, for my non-American readers). The AP posted an article a couple years back about how the general reading comprehension of Americans needs to be dropped to a third-grade one (8-9 years), and baby, I’m here to say it’s true.
Most of the problem is that the American education system is shitty as fuck. The rest of it is from an extremely American disdain of intellectualism and the arts. People are not taught how to interpret art or literature—a difficult and subtle skill which involves accepting such truths as “multiple contradictory readings can exist and yet be simultaneously correct”, “the author can be a complete tool and still be right about things”, “the author can be a great person and still write horrifyingly incorrect bullshit”, and “worthwhile works can be ridiculously long and it really is your fault for not having an attention span”.
Media criticism must be learned through trial, error, asking questions, confidently swaggering into a public space to announce your brilliant insight only to have your ass handed to you (usually by your older self ten years later), being willing to admit you swaggered confidently into a public space to state bullshit and then amending your bullshit only to produce more bullshit, and otherwise making a complete and utter cock of yourself. We are taught to fear and flee pain and failure, despite the fact this is how we learn and improve. Because we judge our value by whether or not we are “smart,” we are afraid of displaying that we don’t know something or might be mistaken–better not to try at all than to reveal ourselves to be fools. And yet the best way to learn is to crash up against someone else and be proven wrong!
American parents are terrified of hurting their children to the point that they spare them cognitive dissonance of any kind, disavowing difficult art—without any appreciation for the fact that art is how we provide safe spaces to explore key human experiences, better preparing us to face those difficult subjects when there are real-world consequences (sex, gender and social expression, grief, violence, predation, illness, interacting with people of different ideologies, whatever new issue is pissing off some smooth-brained old motherfucker somewhere).
If parents and teachers aren’t teaching us how to interpret art, we’re probably never going to develop the skill at all, or crash unsubtly into it in a piecemeal fashion (hello it me). Another unfortunate side effect is that these readers tend to be blitheringly superficial: they are literally intellectually incapable of reading deeper than the uppermost layer of a text. The curtains are always blue.
And let’s not forget the role moral performatism plays in media criticism, which although faaar from new, has reached hilarious levels in the age of social media. What’s important isn’t understanding something, it’s finding something to symbolically burn at the stake so everyone knows God loves us: please keep loving me, please don’t hurt me, please don’t throw me on the fire—for performatism is not for outsiders. We long for human connection so fucking much that it’s more important to destroy what might point out our fallibilities than it is to let ourselves stand in the furnace and burn out the dross.
What do you think the point of BioShock Infinite was?
Emotional Machines
Let’s face it. Human beings give a lot more credence to how something makes them feel than they do its complex invisible reality. We are not logical creatures; we are emotional ones. Our logic is too new a biological mechanism to override something as powerfully stupid as our primal lizard brains.
Knowing this, let’s take BioShock’s most popular characters. The first two are Subject Delta and Jack Wynand, the protagonists of BioShocks 2 and 1, respectively; and why not? They’re the characters we play. In the first two BioShocks, whether or not you kill Little Sisters determines the ending you receive. In other words, Delta and Jack can only be as “wicked” as the players are.
How do people want to see themselves? As good. What do people want to see around themselves? Good. (What is “good”? Uh, well,,,,,,) What do they want? Simple moral questions with simple moral answers. And in the first two BioShocks, what is moral is obvious: don’t kill little girls. It’s actually kind of insulting once you say it out loud.
In-fandom, Jack and Subject Delta are almost never painted as murderers or monsters, but as victims and heroes; I saw someone musing about putting Subject Delta on a “gentle giants” poll and I nearly choked on my own tongue. I only saw that musing because someone put Subject Delta and Jack in a “Best Fathers” poll. Nobody in-fandom really considers the “evil” or “complicated” endings as canon choices, despite those versions being fully understandable alternate readings, with a story that doesn’t make sense without them. (I don’t believe Burial at Sea is necessarily canon; in fact, I would bet good money that it is a huge middle finger lol, mostly because a number of brain-dead motherfuckers won’t take unhappiness for an answer.)
Most fandom art and writing is gentle, sweet, good: the symbolic healing of the damaged, the salvation of innocents, the turning of new leaves. These things are not just saccharine sweet—they tend to be unrealistically sweet. Now, far be it from me to demand these works cease. There’s a reason they exist. People write them because they need hope and happiness; I have enjoyed them greatly myself and intend to enjoy them in the future. But if y’all get to have your dessert, I demand the right to have my dinner.
The Colours Out of Earth
Let there be media where the opposite can also be true: where everything is unbelievably complicated and unforgivably fucked-up. Let there be characters who slide slurs into their speech without thinking. Let there be characters who destroy themselves in a thousand different ways, not all of them obvious, some of them horrifying. Let there be well-meaning people struggling with all their mights to do what is right only to destroy everyone around them and then completely miss the fact it’s all their faults. Let there be wickedness painted as goodness, superficial appearances accepted over essential and inherent values, denial of change and transformation, failure to accept that what is old must die and what is new must live, human stupidity and short-sightedness and cruelty in all their flavors. Let’s smash it all together and see how it plays out.
Oh, badly? No shit! But “badly” isn’t the point. How does it play out?
Let there be a world of gradients—a place I can float from color to color, hue to hue, value to value, while attempting to figure out where, why, how, and by whom they transform—to taste concepts in a hundred different ways, test their textures by a hundred different mediums, insert them into a hundred different contexts. I need to understand why I feel the way I do; I need to understand morality in all its hideous, fragmentary glory. For I have been sold to a ideology of blacks and whites, and let me tell you: it prepares you for nothing, and it will always destroy what is most precious about human life.
I can no longer believe in a world where what is lost always returns, because that world does not exist. I have a reflexive need to come to terms with Finality: what I have lost, what I have destroyed, what will never return, what will never be better. I have a reflexive need to understand Transformation: what I am now, what is as of the present, what has risen shambling from the ashes, what turns to gaze upon me in the darkness. I need to understand what is wretched about me as much as I need to heal myself. How can I heal if I can’t understand how I have hurt and been hurt?
I need to shine a light in the dark. Not to remodel it, not to destroy it—because I also can’t believe in a world where the wicked is destroyed forever—but to behold it, to learn from it, to view my own impact upon it, to accept how it has become a part of me, to learn how to do my best (because that’s all one can do). I must learn to love people more than causes, I must learn to love people rather than the act of winning, I must learn to love people rather than battle. I need to stand in that endless black with the lamp off and my eyes closed, letting the agony roll over me, burning with a fire that throws no light, rolling back and forth from an intense self-loathing to a fury at a society that destroys what is most valuable because it didn’t make them feel the way they wanted.
The Unforgivable
I believe that there are only two differences between Booker DeWitt and his equally cursed cohorts.
In the Hall of Whores: The Unmarked Slate
First, unlike the previous two games, where you enter the world as a tabula rasa and might roleplay as what you perceive as a good person, you are explicitly put into the shoes of a monster, and nothing you do can save you.
With other shitty BioShock characters, you are passively watching other people, and you are able to hold yourself apart. Sure, everyone else is crazy as fuck from using biological Kryptonite, but you’re too smart to end up a crazy fucking asshole like them! Sure, you are now technically a mass murderer, but those fuckers deserved it, damn it!
“Look at this crazy bastard!” you say, rolling your eyes at the Steinmans and Cohens and Ryans and Fontaines. “It sure is a great thing I’m not a crazy bastard!”
You are able to escape acknowledging that you, too, in certain circumstances, might be the crazy bastard. You are being challenged to stand in the body of a person who has committed unforgivable sins. Imagine if you yourself committed those sins. Imagine what sins you have already committed. Imagine what brutalities you cannot take back. Imagine what horrors you have wreaked just by breathing.
“Ahhhh!” said players, probably. “What do you mean I’m not allowed to be good?”
Because that’s what the game was designed to do. Because “good” is a fucking cop-out and if it’s how you live with yourself wait until you find out you’ve been doing horrifying bullshit all your life without question. You can be evil by association through no fault of your own.
Original Sin
Second, the plight of Native Americans is a sin that non-Natives will always carry, and the socially conscious are aware of this even if they don’t know how to put it into words. The state of affairs being what it is, it is unlikely that First Peoples will ever be treated humanely, much less have their land returned. They must struggle for scraps of what is rightfully theirs while we lounge on their corpses. We cannot help but benefit from their destruction; we are made unwitting partners with our forebears; we steal the fruits of their lands and make mockeries of their faiths and identities. We have destroyed part of what made this world fascinating and unique and most of it can never be returned. Even if everything were to be made right tomorrow, their genocide is a sin that we will carry until we die, because the only reason we could be here at all is because they were killed.
The obvious solution stands before us, but the powers that be are so much greater than we that we are effectively powerless, and achieving anything less than total restoration smacks of anticlimax.
This is unbearable.
How can one think of oneself as a good person if one sees the good that must be done, but cannot achieve it? If one’s actions are meaningless? Goodness without action is pretension.
We are all Booker DeWitt. We have all set fire to the tipi. We swept the ashes away, we ignored the sizes of the bones, we built a CVS on their graves, and then we made statues and holidays commemorating Native Americans like the world’s cheapest “Thinking of You” card. We have de-fanged them, transformed them into cardboard cutouts, and set them up as cute little side characters in our sweeping American dream.
Booker is not a man. Booker is America and Americans—and America and Americans are monstrous: one part hypocrisy, two parts incessant violence, three parts constant peacocking, and four parts dumb as a stump.
The Monsters We Make
Outside of the message about “choice,” an enormous part of BioShock’s thematic ensemble is the creation of monsters. How are monsters created? Who or what is responsible for creating them? What do the monsters think made them the ways they are? Can a monster be saved? How? Is it enough to acknowledge you did wrong and want to be a better person?
Maybe most people are aware on some instinctive level of what facing one’s own monsterhood means. No one wants it. It’s not fun. It hurts. It’s embarrassing. It’s destructive. It’s admitting you don’t have it all together and might never, ever—that despite your best actions, you can have it horribly wrong at any point. In an age where we demand moral perfection, it demands vulnerability: you must admit that sometimes you’re the racist, the transphobe, the sexist, the nationalist, the classist, the homophobe, the violent, the wrong, the dumbfuck.
Human beings are not built to be moral; human beings are built to survive. We so rapidly learn how to deal with our contexts at such young ages that we don’t have the time or capabilities to question why those contexts are the ways they are or why it is demanded we perform the ways we do.
In a very real way, BioShock Infinite demands vulnerability of us. It demands you look in the mirror and see what is monstrous in you—how you have been created—manufactured—a tool, a machine, a trained animal. It asks you to recognize that you can be a monster simply by association. And if we can’t look into the mirror and truly acknowledge that monsterhood, we run very real risks of becoming or enabling those monsters in one way or another.
Worst of all: perhaps monsterhood isn’t optional. Perhaps the monster was inside of us from the very beginning. It’s not a matter of if you become a monster, but when, under what circumstances, by whose hand. What is more, believing the “right” moral stances will not save you. Monsterhood can afflict anyone, in any ideology, any political stance, in any social movement, in any faith. The only element that can save you is to truly love other people, and even then, you can fail, for there can be states where there is no winner and ways to misread how best to treat another person.
Environment and Society: Context Will Not Be Denied
BioShock 1’s original ending is Jack-as-monster, regardless of how many children he saves, regardless of your feelings as player. He passes through the gauntlet of Rapture, but he has supped of its poison. And he wasn’t poisoned when he entered Rapture the second time—he was poisoned the minute he was conceived. He was born of it. He had no hope of ever escaping it—he never could have—he’d never had a choice to begin with.
No matter what choices you make in BioShock Infinite, Elizabeth will always kill you. Why? Because she has seen every world—every context—every limitation—every boon. And there is no way to stop what has been; there is no way to undo what has been done. The minute you have committed to a decision, you have split the universe; there is no telling what kind of person it will make you. In fact, there’s no telling which of your decisions will matter at all. Only Elizabeth can see because she is the unlimited future: your offspring stands before you, judge and jury, and you will have no choice but to accept her verdict, for despite your name, you are incapable of controlling how you are interpreted.
Elizabeth sits across from you in the boat and stares without blinking. She sees a million million similar Bookers. Some are a little bit taller, some a little bit shorter, some a little heavier or lighter. Some more-resemble one grandparent or another. They have different colored ties. This one blinks when rain hits him in the eyeball. That one took a brutal beating back on the airship and one eye is swollen shut. That one can’t stop shaking; this one is unable to speak at all; one hasn’t yet lost hope, although even he doesn’t realize it.
They all lowered the torch to the tipi.
The baptism determined Comstock; what determined Booker?
Why Booker Is
In BioShock 1, characters are often stand-ins for larger concepts. Thus Ryan stands in as Ayn Rand’s Objectivist Ubermensch; Bill McDonagh as Andrew Ryan’s conscience; Diane McClintock as the citizenry of Rapture; Captain Sullivan as law and order; Frank Fontaine as the truest expression of Objectivism in its distilled form.
Who is Booker? Most importantly: why is he?
Booker is a fictional character with a brutal background based on historical events, alternative and true. Booker might be Lakota; Booker might have undergone forced Anglicization; Booker might have been ripped from his parents; Booker is a product of violence, perhaps literally. Booker is American exceptionalism distilled. Booker is the past in constant judgment of itself, unable to live with itself and unable to die. Booker destroys what is best in him and around him in exchange for belonging. Booker has sold the future to absolve his sins. Booker has sold his daughter because he is a fictional character in a work of fiction who needs to be propelled.
Booker is a shell, a sluice, an environment. Booker is the broken shape you are meant to fill, horrified. His internal shape should torture you as it has tortured him: the messy slaggy soul of a shitty tin soldier.
Does Booker take the baptism and become Comstock? If so, it might be his second one. His last name literally means “the white.” His first name can mean “author.” It is most likely his second name: an attempt to rewrite himself. And when he was unable to rewrite himself the first time, when the cognitive dissonance boiled at the edges of his skull, he found there was only one way to cleanse himself the second: to remake the world entirely. To force transformation on everyone else. To take vengeance on a world that could never love him, never want him—to create a world that has no choice but to love him. If he can’t change the world’s mind, he’ll change the world.
Note what he opts to do: to take the fight to the environment–to the unyielding universe.
Context Is Everything
It is no mistake that BioShock Infinite occurs in 1912: the sinking of the Titanic is often credited with ending an unfettered optimism, a period when the Western world believed technology had brought the human race into a golden age. With World War I—which would follow a mere two years later—came modern warfare and all the horrors thereof, not the least of which was the realization that humans had created a kind of war that could destroy the entire world. World War I also seeded the rise of the United States: much of the wealth of warring Europe—itself fat on the blood of subjugated peoples and stolen lands—would rattle into America’s coffers.
It is also no mistake that BioShock 1 directly follows World War II. With WWII came a heightened terror—that this war is not the last war, that there will never be an end to war, that war will go on expanding and expanding until it has consumed us all. World War III would not be denied: prettily packaged in the ideals of its children, it simply followed the utopians down to their underwater tombs. According to BioShock 1’s original ending, World War III is not a matter of if—it’s a matter of when.
But even more important than the history in the BioShock games are their settings. Mute leviathans, Rapture and Columbia determine all of your behaviors: from where you can exist in space to all of your desires and goals to how you choose to present yourself to how you opt to behave. Isolated in extremism—whether that extremism is the crushing depths of the ocean or the unbearable lightness of the air—most of their power is that they simply cannot be escaped. You can’t outrun them. They are everywhere. They are everything.
Like Lovecraft before it, BioShock acknowledges the greatest horror of all: you cannot escape your context. Your context does not only involve your immediate surroundings. It is also historical; contains zeitgeists from various cultures and subcultures; is filled with pressures both personal and impersonal, human and nonhuman. Many of these forces can hurt you. Many more can destroy you. What you do to survive depends very much on where, when, and with whom you must live.
Human beings are not built to be moral.
The Death of the Future
In the film Operation, Burma!, a soldier asks Errol Flynn: “Who were you before the war?”
“An architect,” says Flynn.
Who were you? Because that “you” doesn’t matter now. That “you” is irrelevant. So you’re an architect. What the war does to you; what these deaths mean to you; your past, your education, your loves and desires and forward motivation, the you that could have been outside war, the you that slogs alone into the brutal future—all completely irrelevant. Your forebears don’t care so long as you can bleed.
Children are the manufactured tools of their creators—helpless before the enormous strength of their elders and the zeitgeists that enclose them, poisoned by their parents’ insecurities and flaws, utilized like weapons regardless of the cost—often with great love.
Consider something more than the traumatized culture: consider the society filled with traumatized children; consider the traumatized society. Consider channeling children through that trauma over and over and over again, if you can. Poisoned—poisoned—poisoned—all of us poisoned. Poisoned by those who loved us most. Poisoned by the people we trusted. Poisoned by the people who meant to make a better world.
I believe it is notable that creative director Ken Levine is Jewish; I have read from multiple accounts that the European Jewish diaspora was uniquely traumatized from the Holocaust and passed that trauma down upon their own families. I sometimes wonder if he saw that firsthand.
The fathers eat sour grapes; their children’s teeth are set on edge.
Choice: Player Expectations and Entitlement
For players who experienced BioShocks 1 and 2 with their multiple endings (Good, Bad, and “ok bye then I guess” respectively), it must have been jarring to suddenly reckon with being a monster. How often I see players grousing that nothing they do will change their wicked pasts! These players completely miss that the only meaningful choice had already been made, that it had nothing to do with the player at all, and even if they had been there, DeWitt was still unforgivable. The only way to go on was to bow out and allow the future to redefine herself.
Nobody was ready for that shit.
Like it or not, BioShock 1 had set a precedent. Not everyone’s going to read up on creator intentions. If any keyword came blaring through the noise, it would have been “choice.” Most players only recognize choice by the ability to make it, not the absence of it, and most of them weren’t equipped to recognize that its lack was the point. The meaningless choices were commentary, and they were as much about the player as they were about DeWitt himself. Not every choice will be meaningful, will it? And there will be choices you make that will be momentous, but they will seem very small when you make them.
Because most players had experienced what they thought was a basic moralistic tale in the first two games, and would see Infinite not as reflection upon America’s destructive personality, its obsession with a meaningless Good/Bad duocracy, and the infinite, cyclical nature of violence, they saw Booker’s death as corrupted artsy claptrap.
“I did the good schuut,” they say. “I want the good schuut end. Where happy end??? Where treat :(”
Bitch the future is here.
Time to die.
It’s Not Me, It’s You
Generally I despise essays that end with, “But the real fault lay with the clueless motherfuckers who played the game!” Often, if enough people complain, there’s something to it; the message has been obscured somehow. Details or explanations weren’t clear or intuitive enough, some mechanism isn’t working somewhere, some character needs to talk more or less, some setting needs to be transformed. O artist: stop whining and get cracking. If everywhere you go smells like shit, it’s time to look under your shoe.
But sometimes it’s true that a piece of media is on a level folks aren’t equipped for. Think of every literature and art class you’ve ever had, if you’ve been fortunate enough to have one. There’s always someone scoffing in a back row, like here are all these jokers making more of something than they should. Similarly, some of you have been arguing with me this entire time, saying: “I just wanted a video game. I just wanted to shoot something and feel better and instead I get this bullshit ending that makes no sense.”
First of all, smart bullshit (and even fucked-up attempts at smart bullshit! Hi BioShock 2) gets to exist on this Earth along with Gmod and Roblox or Schuut Big Tits 84 (there are 84 tits and you must shoot them all. They explode into smaller tits) or whatever-the-fuck-else you think is a worthwhile gaming experience. Second of all, miserable bullshit also gets to exist, and what did you fucking expect if you played through either BioShocks 1 or 2? When you hear a football player quavering out in the darkness for his mom to pick him up, how’d that make you feel? What did you think was going to happen to Jack after pounding back the entire Plasmid library, the cancer cocktail that explicitly destroys the fuck out of its users? Third of all, if you missed the smart bullshit going on in BioShock 1 and didn’t think BioShock Infinite might be larger in scope in more ways than one, that’s on you. Fourthly, if you were simply satisfied with saving like, 15 kids from a violently-perishing city of thousands and call it good, I mean… is that really where your thoughts end? Are you really that fucking small?
It’s Not You, It’s Me
You ever meet those motherfuckers who talk shit about Shakespeare or modern art? And you’re just left there staring with dead eyes at this poseur who mistakes playing devil’s advocate for intelligence, cheek resting on your fist, thinking about the fanfic you’re writing, wondering who it’s for, remembering that all your smut-writing friends get ten times the viewers, and considering throwing yourself in front of a bus.
Yeah, there’s a personal element to this: the fact that BioShock Infinite is the kind of art I like and long for and want to make myself, the fact that the game was successful and yet the studio was closed, the way its DLC was so rushed that the story plopped out like half-baked mystery meat—realizing that the same forced rush was at 2K’s behest for BioShock 2, as well, and wondering how good art can ever be made in this unforgiving capitalist hellscape. The game was weirdly niche and I’m not 100% sure I’ll ever experience anything quite like it again. And with the whiners in this fandom, the loud ones controlling the narrative, some fresh brain-dead exec in some brain-dead publisher might be like: “We must keep it safer and simpler for these fuckin babby adult!”
Nah bitch nah. Naaaah. Cry some more while I enjoy me my fucking dinner. I’ll eat it while making loud smacking noises and keeping unbroken eye contact. Come here. Let’s look at each other. It’ll be like Lady and the Tramp but we want to punch each other. What truer form of love can there be here in the modern world?
I keep having to remind myself that this response isn’t new. I keep having to remind myself of my place. I keep having to remind myself why I write, why I read, why I like to experience art to begin with. It’s not for the reasons other people do it. Oh, I want the same emotional release as everyone else, I want the same rollicking plots, I adore the same tropes. I seek out everything and anything for a good time; I’ll read Moby Dick today and a smutty 5,000-word abortion with the world’s most suspect grammar tomorrow. I don’t give a shit if it’s low- or high-brow; there are all kinds of ways to have fun and there are all kinds of ways to engage with art, and lord knows I’ve done my share of smooth-brain criticism. The problem is that I’ve always wandered off by myself, sunk into an all-consuming reverie, on tracks that no one else ever seems to be on, and then looked up to talk excitedly about something only to realize I’m alone. And whose fault is that?
By the same token, maybe I haven’t talked enough. Maybe I spend too much time with my mouth shut. Maybe I haven’t stood up enough for things that are worth our time, worth talking up, worth setting on pedestals.
I tell you, BioShock Infinite will stand the test of time. It’s too good for this. It’s too good for you, warts and all. Some of you will grow to understand that; some of you won’t; many of you will shrug and go on with your lives (and this is fine; it is only a video game). But I’ve truly not seen anything like it. I can’t believe a mainstream video game was allowed to be so fucking brutal about the American juggernaut, and what’s more, that it sold like hotcakes. Plus, I can’t think of any works in recent memory that have struck me so close to my own heart. No creative work has made me start beating a monster’s face into a washbasin for ten hours only to lift her by the scalp and see my own eyes looking back.
Look into those eyes. See your own stupid impulses pouring out. Your own stupid excuses, your violences, your sins—your claws, your teeth, your costumes, your hilarious attempts at interpretive dance. The beast doth protest too much.
O, monster—behold thyself—and tremble.
#bioshock#bioshock 2#bioshock infinite#bioshock infinite burial at sea#booker dewitt#subject delta#jack wynand#augustus sinclair#essays#video games#spoilers#vvatchword#vvbsreceipts
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General headcanons for Alfred as a boyfriend (SFW)
Here's my first actual post on this blog, hehe... I can't find the ask but someone requested some Alfred headcanons, so here are my rambles about what I think he's like as a boyfriend!
He’s honestly not the most traditionally romantic person. Your relationship is more like friends who make out sometimes. But he does have his own little ways of showing you he loves you!
He’ll put together playlists of songs that remind him of you. They’re mostly loose connections, like maybe a song mentions your eye color, or the lyrics remind him of a date you went on together, or it just sounds romantic and makes him wanna kiss you. He likes to sit with you while you listen (to every single song), and he interrupts the songs a bit to explain why he chose them.
“This one had me thinking what if we were dancing in a ballroom together, and out of nowhere, bam! Zombies bust in. The door crashes to the ground! Our dance turns into one of those cool fighting scenes with the—oh, this part reminded me of the time I woke up early and you were about to fall off the bed. You had a cute bedhead.”
(You have no idea what the lyrics are at this point.)
Dates with him are pretty casual, more like “hanging out” than anything fancy. Maybe you stay at home and watch movies/play games, or you go out for dinner at a local diner, or you go do awful karaoke together, or you go and prank a friend together.
He’s happy as long as he’s with you. Bonus if there’s food and/or drink.
He occasionally takes you out to a more traditional restaurant and dresses for the occasion. They’re usually expensive, too. The food isn’t his preference (too complicated for his palate), but if it makes you happy, he’s all for dealing with it for just one night.
His primary love languages are acts of service and quality time. He’s always doing what he can to help you out (and feel proud of himself in the process). Whether he helps you run errands, runs a bath for you ahead of time, or fluffs your pillow before you get in bed, it’s all because he wants to make your life easier!
He gets a little jealous if you ever spend time with your shared friends without him, or if you spend more time with others than him.
He’s so excited if you take interest in any of his hobbies. Movies? He’ll ask if you want to co-write a script with him. (He’s very relaxed about what exactly ends up in the script.) Archaeology? He has so many random facts to dump on you, and he’ll be super impressed by any knowledge you have on it. Conspiracy theories? Time to watch a bunch of documentaries! He enjoys them despite their flaws, but lets you know exactly when something is false and what actually happened.
He tries to take interest in your hobbies, too, even if he doesn’t understand what you’re talking about. It could be the most boring thing and he’d still listen and ask you questions about it. If it makes you happy, he wants to know all about it.
Pet names from him consist of things like babe, dude (💀), honey, occasionally sweetie, (jokingly… mostly) prince or princess. It’s all over the place. He’ll call you honey and dude back-to-back sometimes.
He loves debating if you’re comfortable with it! But be warned, he gets very heated about certain topics. His sense of justice is important to him. Otherwise, he’s usually not serious about these debates and doesn’t care who wins.
He tries to keep things light and doesn’t usually let people see his more serious side. He’ll open up to you more over time, however. It’s really him letting a wall down and allowing himself to get closer to you.
Every now and then, he has days where he’s a lot quieter and calmer than usual. He just wants to relax, stay on the couch with you and watch movies or simply chat. Maybe a movie chattering in the background as he tells you about his childhood. He doesn’t try so hard to keep up this energetic, heroic persona.
He’s right back to normal the next day like nothing happened.
Likes to annoy you for fun. Not in a mean-spirited way. He just thinks your responses are cute and has poor impulse control. Poking your cheeks or ruffling your hair or playing an obnoxious song loudly on the stereo while he dances. But he’ll back off if you’re genuinely upset with him. He means no harm.
He loves if you’re willing to play along with whatever he gets up to. Maybe he’s decided he’s going to try and vacuum the whole house while doing a handstand on the vacuum. You can hold onto his legs to help him stay balanced.
This man is very impulsive and has a tendency to get himself hurt. Random bruises all over his body or a cut along his forearm. He bounces back easily, and doesn’t want to fuss over it, but he lowkey likes if you baby him about it. He’ll always say how it’s not a big deal and he can take it, but his heart does this little flutter when you show concern, and even more if you force him to take better care of himself.
He burns himself in the kitchen and you force him to run it under cold water. He’s swooning inside.
He likes to gossip about others, especially over breakfast. He can’t help it; he’s just nosy, and he always has an idea of what’s going on and how he can help out. Huge bonus if you gossip with him!
He loves to feed you, but the majority of the food he brings for you is burgers or tubs of ice cream. He likes to experiment with the burgers’ toppings and seasonings, but they’re all burgers nonetheless.
Every now and then, he does plan some big romantic endeavor. It’s like a surprise. You never know when it’s coming… You wake up one morning and find out he’s booked a week long cruise, your bedroom is filled with balloons, and there’s enough breakfast food on the table to feed an army.
He does this thing sometimes (often) where he swoops in and has to save you. A puddle on the ground? No need to fear! He picks you up and swiftly carries you over it. The safest place for you is in his arms. He’ll even lay down and let you use him as a bridge if you want.
A suspicious penny on the sidewalk? LOOK OUT, IT MIGHT BE A BOMB! Let HIM step on it before you get blown up!
He steps on it. Nothing happens. Better safe than sorry!
If you’re the more independent type, that won’t stop him from trying. He just wants to keep you safe and have you appreciate his efforts. Being disinterested or resistant will just make him try harder.
Says cheesy stuff like “happy wife, happy life” unironically. He’s also the type to use terrible pickup lines to flirt with you. Totally unaware of how bad they are until you start laughing.
He also doesn’t care that they’re bad. He’s just having fun.
Loves to give you his clothes to wear. Seriously. You want one of his hoodies? Try six of them.
You complain when one stops smelling like him so he puts it on, works out, then gives it back to you like :D! Fixed the problem!
He takes so many pictures of you guys. Videos, too. His phone storage is eaten up by it. His favorite thing is to take selfies together. Usually with some silly filter. Or an even sillier caption.
“me and the babe out shopping” and it’s a picture of you, holding a piece of fruit with the dog ears filter
He’s not the most physically affectionate, but he always gives you morning kisses and especially kisses before leaving the house. He also loves carrying you around (mostly bridal style) in his arms for no reason other than he can. A hand on your back, another on your thighs, your head pressed against his chest. He loves it.
He loves knowing you find him physically attractive! He worries sometimes about being too overweight, so any reassurance that you like his body helps. If you think he’s hot, and you’re hot yourself, that must mean he definitely is.
Has a tendency to call you hot, but he’ll call you other things if it makes you uncomfortable.
Occasionally brags about you and how lucky he is. Not as often as you might think. Though he gets oddly competitive if anyone acts like their partner is better than you and starts spouting whatever he can so everyone knows you’re the absolute best. No competition.
#alfred isn't one of my fave characters so i hope i did him justice ♡#hetalia#hetaila headcanons#hetalia imagines#hetalia x reader#aph america#hws america#aph america x reader#hws america x reader#america x reader#reader insert#sugar
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Back with some more thought experiments! This time, let’s talk about the actual worldbuilding of Twisted Wonderland. I mean, this is a completely separate world where fairytales and fantastical things actually exist. It’s functionally impossible for Twisted Wonderland to just be Earth plus some Disney sprinkled on top.
The biggest point that really gets me is that fact that methods to foresee the future exist. Astrology is a valid class in NRC and Yuu suffers from plot convenient prophetic visions. The mere idea that the future can be foreseen should have huge ramifications on how businesses and governments operate. Imagine knowing the effect of a deal or policy before it even happens. Or minimizing crisis by knowing about it before it strikes.
Magic should also affect technological development. We know that there was an age before magic was widespread among humans, thanks to Trein in GloMas. In that sense, I can see how up to a point technological development may be similar… but post-magic the technology should be different due to a different set of limitations.
Language is also an interesting topic. Setting aside things that humans probably can’t event speak like the Fae languages seen in game, what of the languages used in Twisted Wonderland? Would they be similar to Earth as a result of the Disney movies used to create its history? Does that explain why Rook speaks French?
This isn’t accounting for religion either. The Age of the Gods is a thing, drawing from the Hercules movie. That would mean that the Greek gods actually exist in Twisted Wonderland. So how did they fall out of worship? I mean, only Hades seems to be recognized anymore due to the Great Seven, and not even in a religious way.
Look, I’m going to hit the character count if I keep trying to list all of my questions. This is just all so fascinating! And true to my fixation on Yuu, this is all great content for exploring just how alien Twisted Wonderland must feel. Like, Yuu should honestly ask more questions. I don’t buy how easily they adapted in the game.
- 🦐
*cracks knuckles* Shrimp you have brought up stuff I've been thinking about for a hot second, I'm so glad you have come into my inbox ( ๑ ˃̵ᴗ˂̵)و ♡
I agree that I don't think Yuu would have adjusted as easily as they are depicted to in game, but this is a mobile app gacha game licensed by Disney so it's not going to focus as much on stuff like that. Luckily that's what we're here to do anyway~ I am going to go through these points one by one.
Point One: Astrology
The most we learn about how fortune telling works in game is from the Scalding Sands hometown event. There is an exchange between Cater, Trey, and Jamil about using coffee grinds to tell fortunes, and Trey specifically says something I think is interesting: we get two really interesting lines:
From what's said here we can tell two things: A) there is a distinct difference between types of fortunes and B) a distinct difference in the quality of fortune tellers. Someone like Cater is correct most of the time with his divination, but not everyone will be making actively relying on it for major decisions. I could absolutely see older kingdoms having a seer employed who a ruler could call on for supernatural advice, but I don't think that would be common practice in modern day Wonderland outside of maybe Briar Valley. Besides, just because you know something bad will happen doesn't mean you will be able to efficiently mobilize your forces in time to make a meaningful difference.
Speaking of which, not to touch on spoilers too much but Leven seems to be implied to posses the ability to actually clearly see the future, and as for Yuu's visions...
Well Lilia says he thought they might have a curse like Silver's (not that he knew why they were dizzy)... and the ability to see the future IS often handed out in Greek Myths as a curse, but well. Make of that what you will.
Point Two: Magi-Tech
The way technology works in Twisted Wonderland is a bit vague. From how Idia talks, I think there is a distinct difference between technology and magitechnology, with Idia specifically specializes in the latter. I actually went a really long time thinking that since Yuu hadn't a single trace of magic on them they wouldn't be able to ride a magi-wheel because of how Deuce talks about it syncing with your own magic and what not. Even magicless people in Twisted Wonderland don't seem to be completely magicless, they just don't have enough of a mana pool to actually cast a spell.
I think it would make sense to suggest magic and magitechnology probably affected Twisted Wonderland's development in the same way the silicone chip did ours, but the key difference would be that if you put too much magic into a device most humans can't use it. That would bring up a completely separate set of setbacks and issues... while there might not be a difference in the type of things built their internal construction would definitely be wildly different.
Part Three: Language
I think the easiest answer to this is yes. We know there is a "common" language that most places now use... I like to headcannon that language as being unique to Twisted Wonderland but I have seen some people think it is probably English. Which brings out my scrunchy face because the prevalence of English in our world is because of the British Empire... which never existed in Twisted Wonderland.
Rook speaks French because one of his favorite plays is set in Fleur City/the Shaftlands... which as a side note. In his Vampire card vignette he names the play that made him like Neige so much: Kingsroad~ The Sword to Become King!~ which is literally the Sword in the Stone based off of the little song he sings from it. I have been going crazy since GloMas thinking about if this suggests that King Arthur is french in Twisted Wonderland or if Rook is referring to another play... personally I think he's from Sage's Island but that's a crack for another post
Part Four: Greek Myths and Religion
There doesn't really seem to be any religious presence in Twisted Wonderland at all. It's unclear if Hades was ever worshiped or if he was just referred to as a god due to his perceived immortality and power. Given that there is something called the Jupiter group... and the Shrouds are a branch of the Jupiter family... AND that the Titans you fight in Chapter 6 are yelling about getting to and killing Jupiter... I think that it's highly likely there are events in Twisted Wonderland's history that correlate to the stories of the Great Seven, but didn't necessarily involve the Great Seven themselves. It's just that those events are remembered as having been done by them... for some unknown reason. Not to be conspiratorial... but do we have any proof they ever actually lived in Twisted Wonderland at all? (━＿━)ゝSure there are relics and things, and there are apparently paintings in the Land of Dawning Meusuem, but where did they come from? How old are they? I don't need sleep I need answers, is this a primary or a secondary source about the Queen of Hearts Riddle?
The End
I also wish Yuu would ask more questions, but I get why they don't :/ this is a gacha game blah blah blah but also. I don't think Yuu knows what questions to ask, there's a lot of stuff about life you don't think about as being abnormal until someone looks at you funny and I think Yuu realistically does a lot of that, but if you put every single instance of that into a game it would get very exposition heavy very fast. Luckily you, I, and everyone reading this have massive brains and can talk to each other about it!!!
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I'm gonna be real, I'm very worried that Larian is going to try & make AA even more overtly the "bad choice" in their next patch (they promised some epilogue animations). I just really don't understand why the antis have to be so obnoxiously loud telling a company to change THEIR game because of a way they choose to interpret something. Isn't the whole point of an RPG that you're allowed to craft a narrative around the narrative-- but to pressure the writers into editing their hard work because they "don't like it" is just so,,,,..ugh
I just wish people would stop infantilizing the crap out of Astarion as a character. They give him all these sweet HC when half of them are just Wyll.. Like the "I can fix him" complex has rotted our society
Honestly? I'm not worried about it at all.
Mostly because I don't think Larian cares lmao
At least, not in that way.
Get ready, it's 1am, I had my meds, and had some caffeine, so here comes ramble :D
They want to please their fans, and while spawn fans make up a majority of the Astarion side of the fandom, and there may be (speculated) peices in place to make AA seem worse in-game with these updates....I honestly don't think Larian as a whole cares enough to join in on the one-sided righteousness battle.
They made this game for the purpose that most AA fans (at least, ones I know) use it for: roleplaying, as you pointed out. And I'm very sure they aren't blind to just how one-sided the discourse is.
For example, on the official Larian Discord server, AA fans voiced their opinion on the Tav/Durge expressions in the new AA kisses. And from what I saw, the opinions were presently respectfully and with the roleplay experience in mind. How the expressions aren't ideal for evil roleplay. But after that, the same suggestions thread got clogged with anti-AA players begging Larain to "not destroy the narrative" they've apparently been telling and to not listen to us "delulu" AA fans. And the threads were locked by a mod and cleaned up, to "prevent bullying". I think Larian sees clearly who is focused on quality of roleplay and who is focused on arbitrary arguments.
Because the evil endings aren't supposed to be satisfying to those who don't play them. They aren't supposed to be a moral lesson to the player. It's not that meta (no matter how some people want it to be). It's not that type of game. The evil endings are supposed to be satisfying for those who enjoy playing those endings.
It's supposed to be a different experience. Empty and lonely, sure! But it's still meant to be rewarding for the player. Otherwise, it would be pointless to offer as a roleplay style.
I don't think Larian anticipated so many of us would prefer playing evil like this. I think the idea was for it to be a thing you do after you get bored of playing a few good solo runs. It also doesn't make any sense to spend time and money on an ending, just to slap the player on the wrist for choosing it. They see from the stats how often people make certain choices. People play evil in this game for a lot of reasons, but one big one is because it's just good, devious fun! And without any actual, real world consequences. And I think they see that more than anything. I assume you're also talking about the new evil ending updates?
This phrasing from the first article I saw about it is promising to me that these updates will be satisfying for those who actually enjoy playing/romancing evil--as a positive dark romance and not as some abusive romantic tragedy.
I hope "satisfying narrative conclusions" means that the player can enjoy it for their roleplay. And doesn't just mean the endings are rounded out, but the player gets "punished" in the end. I mean, what are you being punished for exactly? Having fun? SERIOUSLY. Any anti-AA fans lurking the tag care to explain exactly WHY you want people to be punished for playing evil in a video game? I really don't get that. And I don't think Larian cares to do that to their consumers.
Truthfully... I'm hoping the new evil ending fixes will fix Minthara's bugs for one thing. But I also am hoping that it will give us some good AA content. I don't even want to speculate... I'm just gonna wait and see!
AND YES. The infantilization of Astarion and the whole concept of "oh what a cute helpless silly lil bby gorl who needs saving from himself, must be protected and shown who he should be because my Tav/Durge knows best for someone they barely know who's a different creature from them entirely" is...just...
They want a mix of Wyll and Gale but with Astarion's face, voice, and body.
#so many people write Spawnstarion as Wyll/Gale in Astarion's body and AA as Cazedor 2.0 lmao BOTH are OOC.#ascended astarion#astarion#astarion ancunin#ask#anon ask
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Need you more than ever.
Click for better quality
A piece inspired by some tags under one of my posts left by @stillangelxx (sorry 4 tag)
Explanation and very long Help Wanted 2 speculation rambles under cut
This rough piece can be taken as just your usual "save Cassie" AU, because it was kinda inspired by that-
BUT it was made with some of the ideas left by Angel in mind, which were basically;
What if Help Wanted 2 was split POV between Gregory n Nessa, and Cassie- where Cassie thinks she's the good guy and Gregory is the antagonist in her POV, only for it to be the complete opposite.
It just,,, became way more disconnected from Help Wanted than it was supposed to- but it'll probably make more since if you read the thoughts I had to flesh out the idea, which are right below the line-
Honestly this whole piece was made as an excuse to ramble about the idea and my interpretation of how it could go as a (current)believer that HW2 is directly after Ruin, but then it got way too long to just add in a reblog- so now we're here with an original post instead!(hope that's alright,,!)
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Wrote all this at like 3am so cut me a little slack if some of it is incomprehensible- I tried cleaning it up but it's still late so I might not get some points across right
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Basic premise:
Split POVs between 3 star fam and Cassie, where the 3 star fam has minigames much more grounded in reality as they venture through the ruined Pizzaplex in search of Cassie, while Cassie's minigames are much more VR/AR based as she finds herself wandering the underground of the Pizzaplex, just barely having made it out of the elevator crash alive, and now finding it hard to distinguish reality from VR/AR.
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Gregory and Vanessa POV ideas
-Gregory and Vanessa's minigames are more Ruin based, little sections of them trying to survive the many threats of the ruined Pizzaplex. Though some fall into more classic Security Breach territory due to VR/AR shenanigans
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-Their "Glitchtrap" is M.X.E.S, and their "tapes" are Parent Nodes. M.X.E.S is not a threat in the same way Glitchtrap was, just a looming figure trying to guide them down to the M.X.E.S room and getting stronger the more Parent Nodes they reactivate.
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-Their POVs main hub and select screen area is probably a cam station near the entrance of the Pizzaplex
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-We switch between playing as Nessa or Gregory depending on the level and the gameplay can switch up accordingly. Sometimes we're Vanessa trying to protect Gregory, sometimes we're Gregory trying to survive on his own, etc. Freddy might also affect gameplay, whether that be for the better like being the thing protecting us in the minigame, or for the worse- like somehow accidentally bringing more attention to us and making the minigame harder.
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Cassie's POV ideas
-Cassie's minigames are MUCH more VR/AR based, way more centered on the past games, specifically stuff like Sister Location and maybe Pizzeria Sim.
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-She's having a hard time differentiating VR/AR from reality
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-Her POVs main hub is probably either the room with the elevator or the Mimics lair where she first encounters him(speaking of which I have no clue where he went here but he's gone for now(physically at least))
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-Her "Glitchtrap" could be Gregory calling out to her, an illusion of him created by the VR world that's almost always there in the "main hub", while the voice is actually him- the echos of his calls just barely reaching her and repeating in her head, being embodied by the illusion of him creeping around in the "main hub". He's being genuine with a concerned tone asking where she is, but she thinks he's trying to trick her- probably back to finish her off after she survived the crash.
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-Not sure what her "tapes" are… maybe things explaining patient 46/GGY/Rab that only further her thinking he's the antagonist?
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-It's kind of hard to tell where Cassie is irl in the heavily VR/AR minigames, but if you look close enough in each level you can piece together where she is and how she's progressing through the undergrounds of the Pizzaplex
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The game has three endings;
It ends with 3 star fam and Cassie meeting up in the M.X.E.S room, and branches from there.
We can see it from either POV depending on what POV we're in when activating the ending. 3 star fam enters M.X.E.S room and go to turn them back on, when Cassie ambushes them, jumping out of the Mimics lair and confronting them, starting a tussle with Gregory.
There's no boss fight, just different outcomes to the confrontation depending on a few factors;
You 100% complete Gregory and Vanessa's POV and activate the ending before finishing Cassie's POV
You 100% complete Cassie's POV and activate the ending before finishing Gregory and Vanessa's POV
You 100% complete both POVs before activating the ending
Ending 1. Vanessa reactivates the M.X.E.S before something bad happens and M.X.E.S intervenes.
Whatever "intervenes" means is up 2 you cause I can't decide
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Ending 2. Cassie gets the upper hand(maybe literally if she has the Mimics severed hand as a weapon) and wins the fight.
Again, whatever "wins the fight" means is up 2 you cause I can't decide
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Ending 3. Gregory is somehow able to convince Cassie that he isn't the antagonist before something bad happens and they make up, turning the M.X.E.S back on and exiting the Pizzaplex
And honestly?
I can't see any of these being canon-
They're just kinda basic outcomes to the fight, but I can't imagine any of them being canon and where the next game would theoretically pick up from-
Most likely it'd be something like "Gregory and Vanessa make it out almost unscathed, but aren't able to convince Cassie to come with them as she's still so stuck in the VR/AR world and the idea that Gregory is a bad guy, and she becomes the antagonist for the next game with this game being the build up to her next appearance and a deeper dive into her as an antagonist"
That's what I think would make the most sense at least!
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ANYWAY!!! UHM-
If you're here then- thanks for reading my rambles!! Saw Angel's tags and immediately my brain started going crazy, and this was the result lmao
Don't really know what else to say other than credit to Angel for the initial idea, anybody else who's reading this should definitely go show them some love because her art is REALLY good!!!
Also hype 4 Pax West lets fucking GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
#my art#chipillustrates#fnaf#fnaf help wanted#fnaf help wanted 2#five nights at freddy's#five nights at freddy's help wanted#fnaf Gregory#fnaf Vanessa#fnaf Cassie#fnaf SB Gregory#fnaf SB Vanessa#fnaf Ruin Cassie#fnaf speculation#I guess you could call it that?#idk I'm just having fun lmao#fnaf fanart#five nights at freddy's fanart#should start tagging scheduled art cause I'm usually not awake when it posts-#THIS IS SCHEDULED
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I am back!
And I would like to request for Error x Reader headcanons! I needs more fluff with my glitchy boi.
Like him getting a crush on reader! How would he act around them? How would he court them? Especially if Reader is a little shit and he’s like oh god I’m in love with this idiot-
SORRY FOR NOT ANSWERING SOONER 😨
manbaby in denial manbaby in denial manbaby in denial
as soon as he finds himself thinking about you he cuts all contact.
or... he tries to.
he is a very lonely man and he misses you </3
he still tries! but when all his thoughts are devoured by your lovely face and your voice and your idiotic tendencies...
URGGG!!! GET OUT OF HIS HEAD!!!!!!!!!
he'll come trudging back all mopey and moody
"what the hell happened to you? aww did you get your ass beat?"
and when he just stares at you with a death glare and you start to get nervous...
"please im sorry for teasing you whats wrong 😰😰"
meanwhile he's staring at you like "why are you stuck in my head. i hate you. what kind of witchcraft did you use on me. why do i want to kiss you. OH MY GOD I WANT TO KISS YOU???"
thus he realizes he likes you. and he crashes. and youre left just staring at him waiting for him to reboot worried as hell because he hasnt said anything to you and why did he crash????
the next few days are :) odd :)
he'll appear randomly. and he'll leave randomly. and he'll crash randomly. and he refuses to give you ANY explanation why he's acting like this
meanwhile he's fighting himself internally the whole time. he wants to spend time with you because he likes you for some god awful reason, but if he were to distance himself this crush would go away wouldnt it?
does he want it to go away? he... isnt sure. he likes how you make him feel, even if it is sometimes nauseating
then things start to appear in your home. small things, most of which you dont notice. until it's things that realistically you shouldn't have. why are there floating rocks on your mantel? how are they floating?
he'll brush it off if you ask him about it.
"don't worry, it's fine. do you like them?"
if you really dont, he'll get rid of them
though, you asking makes him think his gifts aren't good enough for you. you wouldnt ask about them if you really liked them, would you? he has to up his game.
he also gets really particular about his appearance. if he does want to get with you, he has to make sure he's attractive. right? his old, smelly, ratty clothes wont do. he needs new things.
he makes them all from scratch :) and!! he'll perhaps fashion you a few new outfits while he's at it!
he gets very clingy once he accepts it. yeah, he has a crush on you. that means you're stuck with him.
spends more time around you. his love language may be quality time.
dude honestly has no idea what theyre doing. theyve never really felt this way?? about anyone?? EVER??? how do they romance you? do they just tell you?????
simple answer: yes!
they drop in one day, a ball of nerves and probably almost on the brink of crashing because they realize youre actually probably too good for them and why would you even like them? theyre rude to you, theyre rude to others, theyre so selfish...
but when they see you... oh, you're so stunning, even if you are only in your lounge clothes, hair messy and eyes still sunken-in with the look of sleep. certainly not the best youve ever looked, but what do they care? they... they love you.
and they tell you, awkwardly standing in the middle of your living room. they proclaim their love for you, however jumbled in the explanation of their feelings
and theyre so transparent with you in that moment... so vulnerable and open, letting their soul sing out for you, words spilling from their mouth without filter.
and finally, when they say everything
you say "i love you, too"
#pokegalla#jester writes#error x reader#error sans#error sans x reader#error#its a he/him error day#its a new day and now its a they/them error day#the floating rocks are from outertale btw#theyre like. a neat souvenir that keep their magic floaty properties teehee#what the fuck!!! i posted writing!!!
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The older brothers with an s/o who has tattoos
Warnings: none
Note: My first ever imagine/scenario haha. I hope it doesn't disappoint;w;
Lucifer
If you didn't know any better, you'd think the Avatar of Pride hadn't noticed your ink at all. He never made any mention of it verbally or let his eyes longer on it too long.
But it didn't escape you how he would trace his fingers over the body art in your more intimate moments, eyes slightly slanted in appreciation. He almost looked like he wanted to comment on them but settled for quietly admiring them.
Eventually he would beg the question, in the middle of a snuggle session, "Say, what does this one represent? It must have some significance if you're willing to have it permanently etched in your skin."
Lucifer is adorning a soft smile as you give your thoughts behind that particular tattoo, proceeding to trace and ask about the others, listening just as attentively.
"I adore the way they decorate your body. I've heard the process is painful; even more reason to appreciate how far you've gone to preserve what's important to you."
If you're considering getting another tattoo, he would be researching the healing process and reminding you to put on your ointment every day.
If you really want to see him lose his composure, get one that symbolizes him or your relationship. You're guaranteed tender kisses on that area (by a red faced Lucifer) when you two are alone. He will make sure you wear clothing that shows it off, unless it's in a private area.
Mammon
He would find them badass as fuck. Doesn't matter what kind of tattoos they are - full sleeve, minimalist, basic designs, intricate art, a triangle on your finger - the great Mammon gives you plus ten badass points.
Would absolutely brag about you behind your back to his brothers and friends. "Ya think yer tough?! Well my S/O is tatted! Bet ya don't have the guts to do that!" It's honestly silly, but Mammon really does love them.
Would never admit it but has looked online for couple matching tattoo ideas. He finds the idea of you both having ink that proves your strong bond heart-stopping.
"So when are ya gonna get one in my honour? I was yer first so I think The Great Mammon deserves it!"
If you actually go with it get prepared for a very flustered and overexcited demon to deal with. He will insist on being with you at your next appointment and holding your hand through it. It's so you don't get scared, is what he says.
Only for him to be the one passing out in the middle of it, seeing the needle going through your skin. It's a bit too much for your boy to handle.
Somehow his hand is still gripping yours throughout it.
Leviathan
Levi found you intimidating to approach at first. He'd be lying if he said he still didn't to some degree even after getting to know you. Levi knows you're a kind soul when it comes to him, but any time he catches a glance at your ink always makes him think about how secretly tough you must be. It makes him go weak in the knees (in a good way).
Can you blame him? The only exposure this boy has had to tattoos has been through anime and other media; tough characters with a rough past are usually the ones with ink, aren't they?! ... Or ones in gangs! You don't have any involvement in those, right?!
Despite the initial worries, Levi actually finds your body art extremely attractive. So much so he stutters and gets red in the face when he tries to compliment you.
"Y-you know, that one is my favourite, uh.. it's r-really nice and pretty! Ugh, no wait, that's not it! I-I mean, it is pretty!! I just meant- Agh, nevermind! I'm sorry!"
Will compare you to fictional characters that also have tattoos and how you are similar in positive qualities. Bonus points if you have any tattoos related to a certain game or show - that will get him rambling for ages.
If you have or are considering getting a fish and/or snake tattoo, Levi would be over the moon.
Lord help him when you roll up your sleeves or otherwise make a tattoo visable by removing your clothes. He would not be able to handle it.
Satan
Satan has done his homework on (most) common tattoos and their meanings upon meeting you. He finds the symbolism and idea of body art in general to be very interesting. Call him sentimental but the avatar of wrath is suddenly very fond of the idea permanently decorating his skin to show off anything personal to him. (A cat. He wants a tattoo of a cat.)
"I've heard tattoos show what humans hold dear to them; or what they want to keep in their memory. Or something they strongly believe in. So, would you mind explaining the history behind yours?"
You talking about your tats is a whole other level of intimacy for Satan. He feels the art shows sides of you he would otherwise find trouble reaching. He is taking mental notes the entire time, hoping to do further research later.
Will surprise you by telling you random facts about the history of the art of tattooing, ones you probably have never heard of. It warms your heart seeing just how much Satan is invested in learning more about you through this.
Would not mind visiting a tattoo parlour just for the fun of it, regardless if you're getting a new tat or not. If you do have an appointment Satan will stay with you the entire time. It's kind of awkward how intently he's staring at the tattoo gun the entire time.
The rebellious teenager in him wanted to get a "Fuck Lucifer" tattoo on him somewhere, but with your help he decides against it. He will settle with his pact mark. As long as you get that too.
#obey me#obey me x reader#obey me imagines#obey me x mc#obey me shall we date#obey me lucifer#obey me lucifer x reader#obey me mammon#obey me mammon x reader#obey me leviathan#obey me levi x reader#obey me satan#obey me satan x reader
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Honestly, maybe if you were forthright on how the story gonna be like, then the anon(s) wouldn't be so mad. There where a bunch of asks about whether the MC would be competent but instead of giving a straight answer you went about what this story is and isn't without actually answering the questions. Sometimes you make it seem the mC is only relevant because the other characters love the MC, and that's the only merit the MC has. And instead of confirming witch it is, you keep talking about power fantasy like wanting the mc to have qualities other than love interest/siblingtTM is wish fulfillment.
I've scrolled down the whole blog, and don'tknow wha
I know you're probably saying this kindly, but I'm probably going to answer slightly more emotionally than usual. Since you scrolled down the whole blog, you should have a seen idea the kinds of asks I've been answer to and why I might colour my words the way I have been.
But before I do that, I would politely ask you to never try to justify a certain anon's anger or behavior towards me by saying I should do this or that- I'm not here to placate people. I am here to write and produce a story and game. I don't care if people agree with what I say or not, and honestly I don't care if people get angry, but lashing out in anger in THIS fashion is completely unacceptable.
I believe I have been forthright and I already give away more information about the story and plotline than I really should to temper audience expectations.
I zero in on the 'power fantasy' and 'wish fulfilment aspect' because because that's what, at the end of the day, what those anon(s) want. That's what a large majority of fiction sets out to be. Especially popular media. Wish fulfillment. And it's exactly what I say it is:
A power fantasy is wish fulfillment, empowerment and feelings of accomplishment, in all shapes and forms. It’s feeling you have worth, it’s feeling like you did something good or right. It feeling like your useful. It’s all the things that send the happy feelings to your brain. Being “competent” and “useful” can also falls into that category.
How can I not be more clear that the story is meant to be oppressive and disempowering etc?? That it's not going to be that?? I explain, justify with reasons within the MC background. I've already buildt up and fleshed out in the game why the MC is exactly way they are are the beginning of the game. AT THE BEGINNING OF THE GAME. But if larger thematic concepts are too broad, then I've already said the MC is the underdog. Do people know what that even is anymore? I feel like I'm losing my mind.
So I'll be clear on this once again. This story is not going to give you instant gratification, you might not get it all at. The whole narrative is meant to be bittersweet at best and painfully depressing at worse. That is in almost every aspect of the narrative, including the MC.
You're going be used. You're going to be lied to. You're be betrayed. You're gonna be humiliated. And sometimes, you're going to have to gritt your teeth and move on. The MC is going to have to do that. So does everyone else in this goddamn story.
I don't give concrete answer because it's clear what I deem is competent does not match what others deem competent. Because if I do, people are going to come back and be say "but you said this..., you said that..." No matter what I say or do, people have their own expectations and belief and it's probably not going to live up to those expectations because.
And that's too bad. I've already written enough in Chapter 1 that shows mages and soldier MC can defend themselves just fine. I've already written that the MC can have a fruitful future ahead of them with their conversation with the Empress. They aren't the best in their field- they can't. They're barely an adult when the story starts. Do you hear how crazy that sounds? Most of the cast the far is 5+ years older than the MC. They have wars and conflict to prove themselves. The MC has basically finished high school and can already land a pretty comfortable career in the Empire for the rest of their life already.
This story has magic and monsters and kings and queens, but write my characters with a more realistic foundation. A lot of popular narratives have MC that dominate the narrative and I've telling everyone again, that this is not going to happen. The MC is going to have fight tooth and nail, like everyone else. It's on equal grounds.
And I say that the MC is loved and is relevant for simply being alive and loved- its because they are. The whole narrative conflict of the game is a succession dispute with in the family, were all the current successors have equal claim to the throne- including the MC and their older brothers who love them. It doesn't matter if the MC is the strongest, most powerful, capable or if they're passive. This is a constant that cannot and will not change no matter what kind of MC people play.
Sorry, but I'm starting if i'm starting to loose my patience with you, Anon, cause it does seem like you sent this in good faith, but I am getting tired of trying to justify myself all the time, especially after dealing with a particularly obsessive individual, who would not accept any explanation I gave and instead called it 'bullshit plot armor', when it really is a different flavor of realism. So forgive me, if I stop being kind, polite or generous with my time for them. Furthermore, you didn't read the messages they sent to my inbox because I made the choice not make them public and delete them. I only have so much time in the day to write game and answer every ask in my inbox. I wish I could, but I cant. There's 45 messages in my inbox as I'm writing this, but I try to answer the ones I feel are relevant and time sensitive.
Now I've said my piece, I'm gonna go retreat into my writer's den. If people are upset with what I've written so far, then I implore them to go back to pinned post, read and decide for themselves if they're willing to come along for the ride. Because if you people come at me with the same questions, I will answer the same way. If you do not understand what I am saying, than perhaps you may need to see it at a different perspective.
#answered asks#tsr#I was literally going to answer an ask saying I think the blog is done being a warzone#but I'm wrong
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I find Marie’s body language in Return of the Mammalians really interesting because I can use it as Momrie propaganda BECAUSE it’s a really great physical representation of a side of her personality we don’t get to see that much in the game.
There are only a couple of instances this can be applied to in Return of the Mammalians but because I’m bored and desperate, I can stretch it to three, with a fourth scene where I think it could be improved.
Hold on to your tentacles! You’re probably going to think I’m insane after this.
I can’t believe you actually want to read this.
So, the first example I have AND the one that inspired me to write this mess is the scene during the construction of the uh, the machine thingy (does it have a name?) where Callie leaps at Marie to hug her in celebration of completing their task. And I MEAN leaps. We can’t see the whole of their bodies but judging by the suddenly acquired height difference, Callie is completely off the ground at this point. Given that the scene ends in a freeze frame, we don’t see the full force or speed of the hug-tackle either, but what’s clear is that Marie is prepared for it. Just to give myself a bit of focus because I have NO idea where I’m going with this; if the Marie-is-a-Horrible-Cousin Truthers whose splatoon knowledge ends like 6 years ago are correct, wouldn’t Marie have gone ‘Ew. UGH. CAL *hair flip* why are you TOUCHING me?’ or something? Or at the very least be completely unprepared to catch her? And that’s the thing! She doesn’t just hug her back - she CATCHES her. As shown by this here low quality image vv
Marie’s arms come up under Callie’s in a scooping motion. She is fully aware of her cousin’s physical recklessness and is completely prepared to catch her and keep her safe. I mean, the fact that Callie trusts her enough to just… fling herself at her is telling enough.
Alrighty. Next point GO!!
After Cuttlefish (I don’t like calling him that. Let’s call him Craig) after Craig gets Sucked Dry by That Bear, the Squid Sisters seem… mildly concerned, which is probably to keep the upbeat and comedic feel of the game while sacrificing a little emotional realism (coming back to this later!), but after they see he’s fully conscious and capable of floating by himself for some reason (?) everything’s Suddenly Fine Again. Except the world being in immediate danger, obviously. But here’s the thing (did I say that already? Well, there are 2 things)! For the remaining portion of the game this side of the end credits, Marie is just… holding Craig. As afore mentioned though, he can float. She doesn’t NEED to be holding him but she just is. Whether that’s because she’s happy to see her grandfather safe or whether something inside her soggy little brain saw something smaller than herself and told her to protect it is a mystery, but either way, that is some quality… body language… there…(again, lost my point. Weirdly, whenever I think about someone being held by Marie, I seem to lose focus. Huh.)
Anyway, here’s a picture of Marie holding Craig. Look at how she’s trying to engage him in something he could easily be left out of. Does this image not bring you joy???
Moving on briefly from all the Marie-talk, let’s talk a little Callie. I’m honestly thrilled about what they did with Callie’s body language in this game. She’s full of energy and quite hands-on, which is exactly how I expected her to be, even though this is pretty much the first time we see her physically interact with other characters in the entire Splatoon series. It just feels right.
It completely makes sense that Callie would spend the majority (why did that just autocorrect to Major Titty. Why.) of the pre-boss cutscene literally hanging off Marie’s arm, and the awesome thing about that is that Marie doesn’t pull away or look irritated by her cousin’s constant GRIPPING and SHAKING of her arm at all. I don’t know about you, but if I had someone attached to me like that while I was trying to think of a master plan, I’d be pretty annoyed. Unless, of course, it was Callie. I’m getting off track again here. My point WAS that Marie is so, so chill. I hate it when people try to portray her as angsty because she just… isn’t.
What all this body language shows is that Marie is a supportive, nurturing well of patience and ANYONE THAT SAYS OTHERWISE WILL BE FED TO THE BEASTS.
Which is WHY I think that during the scene where Craig is slightly rehydrated by the Captain’s tear, it would make way much more sense to have Marie reach out a hand to touch the Captain’s shoulder, or at least do something other than freezing there with an expression reminiscent of a damp, shocked cat. Now that Nintendo seems to have got their act together a little in terms of cutscenes, it would be nice to have more examples of characters (Marie. Marie is characters) using their body language to visually convey the finer points of their personality which may have been overlooked by some people *cough cough* Marie Trut-💥💥💥💥💥💥💥
Struggling to find the point of this ‘argument’? So am I. What even is this? I’m not reading it back before I post it, that’s for sure. Gnight.
#please don’t unfollow me#actually just don’t read this#leave#go#save yourselves#absolutely dogshit post#long post#if this gets 2 notes I’m main tagging#loz rambles#edit: right then. time to go#splatoon#squid sisters#return of the mammalians#callie splatoon#marie splatoon#pr0shippers please don’t interact with this or I’ll eat you#(censoring that so it doesn’t show up in the tags. I’m not a tiktokker i promise. I don’t even have it)
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I'm honestly rather new to writing.
English isn't my first language but I've been pretty much teaching the language to myself through interacting with other English speakers and so on.
I feel like I'm missing a lot of words in my vocabulary that could lift a story up to a better level of reading.
And, probably my biggest problem, I don't know how and where to start writing. How to come up with a plot or how to find inspiration. I'm incredibly motivated but I feel like I don't know where to start.
Since I want to write horror, as it's probably the thing I read and watch the most, I bought a few English horror books to study the ways of writing, words and plot build up. I also started watching analog horror Videos on YouTube to improve my plots yet I often feel like my head is empty despite all those attempts at improving.
I know this is a lot and I'm really sorry for it, but is there any way I could genuinely try and get more into writing as well as to improve the things I mentioned above?
Want to Write But Head Feels Empty
I want to start by saying I never would have guessed English wasn't your first language if you hadn't told me. You have a better grasp on it than a lot of native speakers, so I don't think you have to worry a whole lot about your vocabulary. You're not further behind in that sense than most other new writers. You can check out my posts Improving Vocab and 10 Tips for Improving Your Grammar Vocab for help with that, though.
Since where you're really struggling is with coming up with ideas and plots, what I would recommend is starting with writing prompts. You can find writing prompts all over--on tumblr, various web sites and forums, and even in books. If you Google "horror writing prompts" a ton of options come up.
Writing prompts are a great way to ease yourself into writing when you're struggling to come up with ideas and prompts. Much like fan-fiction (which is another option I'll get to in a minute), writing prompts are almost like training wheels for writers. They let you do the actual writing without having to worry about the initial ideas. And prompts are super flexible... you can interpret them figuratively or literally, you can combine multiple prompts together, or use what you like from a few different prompts. Whatever works for you. The key is to just open your mind and let it carry you wherever it wants to. Don't stress about it being good or making sense. You're not worried about quality or form, just taking those ideas and forming them into *something*. (And, side note: there are also plot generators that will give you more than just a writing prompt, so that's worth trying, too.)
I do also want to address fan-fiction as being another great way to practice writing when plots and ideas escape you. Since you want to write horror, think of a favorite horror movie, TV show, book, or video game and write a story set in that world. Flesh out a scene or moment that you liked that didn't go far enough in canon. Give a character a different moment or ending. You can even create an original character and drop them into the story to see what happens. Once again, this allows you to focus on the actual writing without having to start from scratch with ideas.
I hope something here works for you! ♥
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