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pawowogic · 2 months

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Hi! Genuinely please tell me about why you are a Utopian defender, I'm new to the fanbase and I'm interested :D cause it seems to be a pretty rare decision and it's often seen that Daniil is either too cruel or too much of a pawn of the Kains.

sorry for such a late reply, i wanted to make sure that I answered this to my fullest ability...

so why am i a utopian supporter? first of all, i have played pathologic 1 to completion and i have NOT played pathologic 2. all of which i am going to discuss will be about the first game. i will also be doing some interpretations of the game itself, which we be DEEP into spoilers.

i also want to begin by talking about the other 2 ending first, and why i do not like them. but again, every choice is right as long as it is willed - none of the three endings are HORRIBLE, just i prefer one over the others.

first, clara's ending. probably the worst one, besides the plague/no choice ending. a lot of the limitations of this ending come from the fact that it was rushed. if i remember correctly, her original ending was meant to be the plague ending. and it very much shows! it feels rushed and stilted. we aren't given a lot of motivation to choose to sacrifice which of the bound you have, over the course of 11 days, fallen in love with. its heart wrenching. and it isn't a long term solution. people will still need to die after their sacrifices. the plague originates from the plague in the earth, which has become unearthed by the polyhedron. without destroying either of these, more people will have to die. and the people that do die - the reason is that they are 'sinners' in claras eyes. i have a bit of bias - i'm ex-catholic and staunchly against the death penalty, so everything about this ending is against what i am. (really, what is lara's sin? she wanted revenge? she is only nice to the living because of her affection for the dead? and yulia? rubin???). generally, i dont think either the polyhedron or the buildings of the town are worth it.

it also does not affect any of the issues of the town itself. the political system, the subjucation of the kin - all of these issues prevented the plague from being addressed will NOT be fixed with clara.

now, for the haruspex ending. the fandoms favorite. most of my distaste for this ending happened towards the end of day 11 and day 12. first, with the udurgh - we are made to be unsure whether the udurgh is the town or the polyhedron. its very unsure! while this ending is much better than clara's on addressing the plague (you destroy the polyhedron, stopping the spread of plague and getting a LOT of cure). but this is an impermenant solution. 10 years or 100 years from now, someone will dig a hole in this town. maybe it will be a well, or another building - but it will happen. and the plague will be unearthed again.

and the political situation that the haruspex ending has? awful. while it does end up getting rid of some of the rulers - they end up just replacing them with their children. it doesn't fix the system - it just makes the cage softer. and again, in 100 years, their might be another big vlad, another saburov family that will be awful for this town. the final cutscene of his ending has a running motif of wheels and gears turning, as if nothing had changed. it's very unsettling.

one thing i think people get wrong about the utopian ending is that many believe that daniil die. while this is a fun theory, it's not really supported by the text. if the game designers WANTED his death to be apart of the choice, they would have shown it. they also are concerned that he is not in his ending cutscene. which is true! but it would be weird if he was. i mean, he's not from the town. he's not becoming apart of the leadership. why would he stick around? maria is becoming the leader.

another reason for people's dislike of the utopian ending is people's dislike for the kains. and yes, they aren't the greatest. they often manipulate you as daniil one way or another. but, almost every character does manipulate him for their own ends. aglaya does it so daniil will destroy the polyhedron (out of revenge for both her sister and the powers that be)

now . i want to talk about teensy and tot and how these endings effect them and what i believe the polyhedron and the town represents. the enitre game of pathologic is just a game by these two playing after losing their grandfather. this is pretty simple - this grandfather they have lost is represented by simon and isidor. both are killed by the plague, just as teensy and tot's grandfather died by sickness. simon was described as an immortal, great man that everyone loved - likely a childs perspective on their own grandparents. each of the endings is a way that these children deal with the death, as they are not allowed at the funeral.

the polyhedron is simon's memory. that is what the kains want to do with it, have him continue to live within it. but this would cause the children to evacuate it, thus leaving the softness of childhood. if the town is preserved but the polyhedron is destroyed, childhood remains (with the soul and a halves and dogheads given more power) but the memory of the grandfather is dead. if both are perserved - well, in my opinion, it's suicide. the town stagnates, nothing changes. people must die for both to survive.

with this whole-dealing-with-grief metaphor, both losing childhood or losing simons memory are awful sacrifices. but i personally believe that memory is more important. ignoring death is not dealing with it - as these children (and all of us) will lose more people in our lives.

also the polyhedron is really sexy sorry.

#im really sorry this is VERY rambly #pathologic #im not the most educated on this and i would like to one day PROPERLY discuss this in either a video essay or a tumblr post #but this is just my raw feeling and thoughts

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p4nishers · 7 months

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can't believe tom hiddleston ACTUALLY interrupted the interviewer to say "one last thing, i think mobius is loki's friend and i don't think loki has ever had a friend before" like king. i love how u felt the need to add that truly

#he's so PASSIONATE about them oh my god like im sorry but w sylki he was literally STRUGGLING to put sentences together and get his meaning #across but with loki he's literally just. rambling for a full five minutes barely taking a breath like he's so likes them together SO much #him interrupting the interviewer after half of a minute was so funny like u can see he's not paying any attention he needs to get this one #little thing in and what he says is just so sweet and i really love how he emphasis that mobius is loki's first friend basically every time #he talks about them bc he knows how very important this relationship is to loki and he wants to get that across. bbg always pulling thru for #us he's a real one #loki season 2 #loki series #mobius m mobius #lokius #loki #tom hiddleston

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critter-covenant · 2 months

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"ooooh thank you! Thank you! Thank you!!!"

They'd be good friends I like to thinmk

#hoppy being very super touchy when happy or excited #catnap being touch averse with some exceptions (and preferring prior warning)#hoppy forgetting this fact and grabbing n' tugging him around when she gets excited anwyas (she'll apologize later)#they're so sillyyy #all the ways the critters get along on a one by one basis is so interesting to me I like to think about what makes them all click #im rambling again oops oops hoppy catnap friendship is also peak i take no criticism /silly #poppy playtime #poppy playtime chapter 3 #smiling critters #smiling critters fanart #catnap #hoppy hopscotch #poppy playtime fanart #sorry for disappearing for half a week I got sick and then just. didn't really draw sorry about that one chat #thats pretty normal behavior for me actually dw if I ever go silent for a while that's my norm unfortunately

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lelelego · 9 months

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had a dream and drew it :o)

#im NOT tagging this as fallout #but i will tag #craig boone #boone/courier #boone x courier #oc: eli #doodly thingy #nebulous slice of life modern au #fallout tag #im not even sure if this should go in my blogs fallout tag but i mean. boone _is_ from fallout. okay i dunno ITS GOING IN THERE #anyway yeah insano mode waking up in a cold sweat jumping onto my comp to draw a boone/eli dream.......... bg3 could never #speaking of bg3 though my tav/astarion also has me in a headlock maybe i should draw some of them :thinkie:#ALSO just a looser compared to what im used to and i really like it! if you know which artist i used as a ref point.. hehe #its hatters/arts her comics are insane i really love the way you can TELL how big her brain is by when she says shes taking shortcuts but #the shortcuts all come from having already done the work. VERY impressive and i love the style derived from it!!#OKAY SORRY IM RAMBLING

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ponchizs · 1 year

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I’m in love with how they are giving so many subtle hints about Alhaitham and Kaveh’s relationship and how important it is to Alhaitham, despite the way they always seem to be bickering.

Throughout the 3.2 archon quest Alhaitham tells us that the reason why he is so interested in helping Sumeru is because he doesn’t want his daily life to change. After that Kaveh starts being mentioned very frequently by him or we hear other people in the akademiya complain about how they daily argue.

Then, of course, we meet them both arguing with each other in the House of Daena, which was quite the argument. We also know many of their casual interactions and how they go to the café/bar frequently together. Furthermore, Alhaitham pays all of Kaveh’s bills (something no one would do for someone they don't care for).

And now, during Alhaitham’s quest, their tones were so soft (At least in JP and CN) and also domestic. Kaveh seems to worry a lot about Alhaitham and exchanges glances with him, which made me melt inside. I also love how Alhaitham is constantly smiling while bickering with kaveh. Remember, we dont see him smiling like this that often. Which means he really enjoys it. I really liked how after the second time Kaveh asked him if he is okay, he replied with a tease about the painting Kaveh had mentioned before. Also smiling.

But most importantly, something I see no one talking about: the moment when Alhaitham was explaining why he resigned from being the Grand Sage to being the scribe again and he tells us that “It’s important to keep your priorities straight”, the camera points at Kaveh.

I know this game will probably never have any canon ship because they need to make everyone happy, but we do get hints like this from time to time and I think this was one of them.

After all, why would they bother to add all of those scenes with Kaveh when the quests had already concluded, if not for showing us how is what is Alhaitham’s daily life he wants to protect that much? We saw how happy he is, how eager he was to get home and go have dinner with Kaveh. We also see how Kaveh had been waiting for him as well.

I’d like to know more about their relationship, even if it ends up not being romantic (though how do you explain that face Kaveh made when paimon asked if they are friends).

#genshin impact #haikaveh #kavetham #but anyways yes I write this and yes its 11pm and yes im obsessing over them #im so happy ngl Its like a fever dream #its so happy to know all of what I predicted from the message boards being true #I hope we see more of them #and yeah really sorry this is really long #i never do meta posts and probably there are some mistakes there im no expert i just ship two very gay men #anto’s rambling #i have to scream everything here because Im probably driving crazy everyone around me with these two #imagine me writing all of this to them #I needed to let this all out because omfg #LIKE LISTEN THIS IS WHERE WE SEE HOW NORMAL PERSON ALHAITHAM AND KAVEH REALLY ARE #LIKE just see how worried kaveh is over a messed up investigation from somebody at the akademiya who has already been arrested #no wonders Alhaitham avoided telling Kaveh the details from the archon quest and no wonder Kaveh didnt believe the little he knew #because they are just normal persons trying to get on with their lives #i understand alhaitham so much I would also want to keep that life

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theriverbeyond · 3 months

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if you’re looking for stuff about necromancy as violation I always considered the cow thing to be a big example of that! Maybe it’s my inner 4-H kid, but it’s such an undignified and horrifying way to slaughter an animal IMO. It’s this drawn out, grotesque death that parallels both Mercymorn’s death and the 7ths blood cancer. It’s just such a disrespectful way to slaughter an animal, and I think you can read it as John’s first major betrayal of self, especially as it relates to his indigenous roots. Anyway. There’s just so much there.

you're RIGHT and i also think this is a case of how this is a feature, not a bug of necromancy.

death fuels necromancy, but it is specifically cruel, violent death that results in the most necromantic potential. gradual death/senescence en masse gives general ambient power (necromancy only works in areas where things have lived and died) but it is a mass of sudden violent death that flips a planet. Siphoning, in both the style of the Second and the Eighth house, lends necromantic power via an exquisitely painful process that can easily end in death. Necromancy itself eats away at the tissues, leaving all necromancers essentially physically disabled (Ianthe barely had the ability to hold her arms up to braid her own hair). Babies give off the largest burst of power when they die, and the Fourth House -- a planet that could very well be filled with only children -- specializes in suicide bombs.

and then of course you have the eugenics that is built into both the Seventh and the Eighth Houses -- and the Heptentary blood cancer specifically fascinates me because of how it is positioned as, essentially, a boon. If you get death-fuel by being in proximity to death, and you yourself are always dying, then you always have access to a very personal well of power. Until you die. "A dying woman is the perfect necromancer"..... An entire House that values short-lived necromantic potential over anything else and breeds their heirs to have this violation embedded into their blood.

and that isn't even really getting into the fact that this is just the violence that the House enacts upon it's own citizens. the majority of people on the business end of necromancy aren't House citizens at all, but non-House civilians whose death and dead bodies are hijacked to serve the Empire's purpose. but that's another essay

#(This is actually why I have a personal headcanon that 7th house adepts who suffer from the Heptentary blood cancer are the only “normal” ne #i.e. the adept who made that giant death spiral ghost ward in HtN could do it because she had access to a very personal source of thanergy)#necromancy #ask #anon #sorry this is sorta rambling i RLLY appreciate the 4H perspective #that's an angle i didn't think about before bc i have such little experience with the like #logistics and standards of practice and such of the animal slaughterhouse. much to think about #im brooding my other essay like an egg she isn't ready yet. she is really getting away from me

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spookygibberish · 2 months

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Dogstock are typical of what are often deemed the ‘evil’ races in many other fantasy works. They were created by some higher force to be slaves, they are carnivorous by nature, they resemble animals other than human in dentition and build. They growl and bite and walk behind.

The Uhasr (a dogstock culture) are descendants of such slave-infantry that was abandoned when the empire that used them to capture the steppes decided the land wasn’t so profitable after all, and more pressing matters drew their attention elsewhere. Like tools left spent on the ground, the unneeded, excess dogstock were left to survive on their own in Hochkiskuph. The native peoples, of course, did not welcome them any more, or see them any less as oppressors when the hand released the lead. To the Hochkiskuph peoples, the Uhasr are a predatory ghost, an echo that consumes them even in absentia. To the Uhasr, one human is much like another, differing in number and equipment, but never in essence. Uhasr are a species of wild animal with a human face. Humans are prey on two legs. Humans smoke and poison uncovered dens on principle, Uhasr abduct and consume men and women and children all the same.

A common trend I have noticed in media which aims to humanize monsters, is that it often relies on passivity. Humanity is contingent upon kindness. The monster that is A Person only so long as they are a harmless thing at heart, something which can be understood and befriended. Their violence is reluctant, their hearts noble. Grace is a concession to the dominated. Only the toothless beast, declawed and pinioned and caged, is one which has earned its personhood. The ontological enemy supersedes the ontological man.

#haven't posted them much (all wips) but been thinking about the sphinxish people in my setting. same world as thrones #different part of the continent like 2 whole seas away #this is inspired by a shitty comic a friend is reading and also thinking some of the writing in the long way to a small angry planet re #hostile aliens really really sucked.#i want to talk abt this more so im posting it if you have thoughts i would like to hear themmmmm #i'm very cynical about this kind of stuff lmao #dogstock #im also reading tollkien rn so im thinking about ORCS #i dont actually like the lotr trilogy all that much but not even bc i think the writing is bad i just think its kinda boring. sorry.#thats not a very interesting reason to not like something i dont even think its not good im just not super entertained. rip #like not saying there is no issue with it at all writing wise there is very much to say abt how it is utterly and uncritically #white good black bad fair elves and dark orcs and shit like that #but i've liked things more that have bigger issues. hi pern. maybe i just like shlock! idk!#rambling. im keyed up hi #the gibberish in spookygibberish

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marysoulpainter · 9 months

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Hello-hello internet! Once again I am trying to post my art, let's hope I don't abandon this attempt! :D

y'all probably know me as @soul-teller, or the Dancing Strabby blog - well this is my new Jam Cat art blog, welcome! 👌

and, of course, I open up with Spamton doodles and some oc/au/headcanon things, for the brainrot is real and I love him (click to see in better quality!)

#deltarune #spamton #spamton g spamton #spamton neo #sneo #addispam #big shot spamton #addisons #oc art #painter's colours #(that's my art tag)#i swear i draw spamton a different way every time #also I'm not very experienced with posting art‚ so i guess this is a learning experience lol #feel free to give tips if smth comes up! (but be nice. im watching ya)#i don't really draw rendered drawings‚ mostly sketches/colored sketches #but that's alright i'm not trying to get famous or anything - my friends just told me so many times already i should post my art lol #ok ok sorry for rambling in the tags!!

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rainbow-wolf120 · 3 months

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Rayman if he was EMO!!1!11

Obviously, I'm joking. So, like, you know how Rayman is mostly Lums and stuff? Y'know how he gets health via Red Lums?

What if he gets spooked enough, his Red Lums turn into Black Lums???

The issue is that you need to scare him BAD. And I mean bad. Like, shit his pants punching hold through monitor scared.

Also, this form is extremely unstable. Rayman is built on light, so when it turns into dark, he becomes extremely fragile and shaky.

Also, Rayman doesn't remember anything while in this form. And he's in it like, 5min max. It's always in short burst, so it's a blink or you'll miss it sorta deal.

When Rayman is in this form, he either fights or flights (he freezes when he's scared normally)

When he flees, you won't see him for like, a day or 2 then Rayman would come back all willy nilly.

If he fights, well some part of you is getting ripped off <33

He's also super fast, so this creature sorta became an urban legend. Something to scare the kiddies from going out into the jungle alone.

(Globox and Rayman probably went hunting for it once or twice)

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temeyes · 3 months

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pfp change!! ft an actual doodle of myself gaspppp!!

#people keep confusing me for Ghost/Simon so yeah #also people think i'm a Guy (I HAVE A PUSSY!! 😭😭)#like guys im flattered and i really wanna have my Very Own Dong- but im so sorry to disappoint #tho.. having a Schlong would make Certain things easier LOL #if you're reading the tags: will open c/mms tomorrow! and will open inbox again next week 💖💖#tim rambles

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carnivalcarriondiscarded · 9 months

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if you do kill wally its gonna ruin me.

the poor man has lived and survived and suffered for so long. desperate to save his friends.

and it just gets cut from under him.

especially if he doesnt die alone.

... *nervously kicks plot document under the rug*

#ok no fr tho im... on the fence about it rn #after arc one wally's place in it all is. tenuous.#like i mentioned im reworking a Lot of it #so ill admit! i was going to toss wally into the (metaphorical) shredder with frank!#but now that ive Considered Some Things... he's standing on the edge of the (still metaphorical) shredder #as i decide on whether or not to push him in #wh lights out au #rambles from the bog #cause i realized that wally... might not want them all to 'escape'#he doesnt want to leave the neighborhood. its their home. he can fix things cant he?#and that adds sooooo many new problems that i have to take into consideration #and really... would he ever abandon Home? if the studio became uninhabitable. would wally leave or would he stay behind?#questions questions! wally is on Very thin ice!#either way its a bad time for him. im sorry to say but its a lose-lose situation

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asylumdwellermoved · 9 months

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YOU! YOU'RE BACK! (you probably don't remember me we only talked, like, once, but hello xjbx)

ANYWAY UM UH what about a reader/PC seducing* Harper and getting more than what they asked for

* (could be intentional or could be Harper going "they are CLEARLY looking at me like that because they want something, yeah?")

(I REMEMBER YOU YOUR BLOG IS ONE OF MY FAVS TO LURK ON

leaning somewhat into the second option bc i love the contrast of manipulative freaks being equally delusional <3

gn!reader, gn!harper, dub/noncon)

"So, how have you been feeling?"

A newfound hesitance replaces your usual quickness to answer. You watch the bright eyes in front of you shift, possibly noticing a dullness in them that you hadn't before. Before you can wonder if it's your mind playing tricks on you, you clear your throat and smile.

"Good...! Been doing a little better lately..."

The doctor smiles back at you, clasping their hands together. "I'm glad! I assume you've been doing those techniques I gave you last week?"

You nod, trying to let the rumors swimming in your head fade to just the back of your mind as you automatically respond to their questions.

You had been seeing Dr. Harper on Fridays for a good few weeks now. Up until recently, you had been perfectly comfortable. It was nice having someone to talk to, even if they were just doing their job. You have absolutely no memory of anything bad happening in any of your sessions. It was only when you had mentioned your recent help to Sydney and saw their skin bristle and received a vague warning in response that you started to worry. Mickey remarking on the doctor's "problems" not long after definitely didn't help. You knew how dangerous this town could be, and you definitely didn't want to be on the bad side of anyone holding your physical well being above your head.

"And that recent spat with that person at your school that you told me about last week? How did that go?"

"Ah, well... they put out a cigarette on me yesterday, so I kind of feel like it's a lost cause..."

If you just... suck up to them it should be fine, right? They seem at least somewhat reasonable. Bat your eyes at them and butter them up a little, and you should be airtight.

Their eyebrows furrow in concern. "Can I see the wound?"

You nod, hesitantly unbuttoning the top of your shirt to give easier access to the burn on your collarbone.

"A few more, please? I'm going to wipe it down and apply some vitamin E gel so that it heals a bit better, I need a little more space."

You oblige, trying not to look bothered, the collar of your shirt now draping over your shoulder. They get to work on gently cleaning your wound. You choose your next words carefully.

"Hey, Dr. Harper..." You don't realize how close they are until you feel the heat of your own breath coming back onto you when you speak.

"Hm?"

"Thanks for everything. Really. I've been doing a lot better lately, and I couldn't have got here without you."

A smile crosses their lips and they hum in contentment. "You're very sweet."

"I appreciate it a lot. At this point, I don't know what I'd do without you..."

You wince a little as that last part comes out, worried you'd be pushing things. You see the look in their eyes change and you freeze. They turn their formerly fixed gaze to your face. It looks almost like it flipped some sort of switch in them.

"I'm very glad to hear that."

You flinch from the feeling of the cold gel on your skin.

"You know, just between us... You're my favorite patient."

You double take.

"A-Am I really?" You feign a smile at their strange remark.

They light up at your reaction. "Yes, really. I'm happy that the feeling's mutual."

Wait... what?

You stiffen a bit, unsure what to say. You notice that their hand is ghosting further and further from the blistering as they touch your skin. And did another button come loose?

"That said, you can come to me for anything. When you're hurt, when you're anxious, when you're upset, when you're... flustered..."

They've gotten closer. The faint hospital smell on their clothes mixed with a slight unplaceable scent feels near suffocating now. When you feel their fingers twitch a bit you notice their hands haven't left your skin.

Ah. So this is what they meant. Not the Bailey kind of scary. Something entirely different.

They hesitate for a second, but waste no time in pressing their lips against yours, pulling you into them and quickly darting their tongue out, trying to force it in. You suddenly feel smothered at the feeling of what control you had being pulled out from under you.

"Dr. Harper-...!"

They pull back, shuddering at the sound of their name on your lips before putting a hand between your legs, a heavy heat of their own pressing against your thigh, grinding softly.

"If I knew I could do this while you were lucid, I would've a long time ago..." They give a breathless giggle like it was some sort of joke, looking straight at you but showing no recognition of the horror on your face.

The look softens as you start to squirm at their touch, watching their eyes flick to your lips again when a gasp slips out. They lean in again, peppering soft, closed-mouth kisses against your lips like they weren't slipping their fingers beneath your clothes to try to get you off at the same time.

"Shhh, I need you to stay quiet for me... Don't worry, when I make sure we have some time all to ourselves soon you can be as loud as you want..." They coo at you almost like they're consoling a child.

The pleasure-induced haze in your brain keeps you from dwelling on what they mean as they keep teasing you, playing with one of your nipples through your open shirt and closely watching your reactions as they pant and moan against your ear. Unable to stop from eventually reaching your peak, you writhe against them helplessly, unconsciously bucking into their hand. A shaky gasp escapes their throat and you notice a warm, wet patch had grown on the fabric against your thigh. Your stomach turns a bit.

They lock their lips with yours again, breathing heavy through their nose, only pulling away when it starts to slow. They stare at you in what looks like a strange sort of... adoration? As they bring their fingers to their lips, slowly dragging their tongue through the mess you made. Their glazed over, half lidded eyes widen a bit when they look at the clock. "Ah- I didn't even notice the time."

They walk back to their desk, nonchalantly sitting back down, rifling through their papers before pulling a pen out. The second you get the chance, you walk out on shaky legs without saying a word.

"Client exhibiting potentially self-endangering behavior. Institutionalize at next availability."

#SORRY IM really rusty at writing and def have trouble with pacing but i hope it was FINE #it was fun though bc harper letting their stream of consciousness flow out loud #bc the relationship is mutual (in their head) was interesting #especially since a part of them very much still knows its not so they still have all the safety locks in place lmao #ok ramble over #harper the doctor #dol #degrees of lewdity

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can-of-slorgs · 1 month

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Final surprise boop attack for @yowassupitsred!!

Faeran would 100% be really obnoxious about Calamari, and would intentionally make others appreciate her boopings haha.

(Secret second boop attack to @starbiology in revenge to the april fools war because even though i didn't know if you had any characters, I think of her as your character by this point and I found this scenario hilarious in my mind)

#neopets #neotag #gelert #vin doods #vin memes #technically at least JKSHSJ #I'm so sorry for the late response!! I didn't want to basically leave u on nothing and I had had this sketch saved for a week by this point #nice gelert my dood had some fun drawing him hahaha #it was only appropiate to draw Faeran for this case #also yeah i just found out Schnellys are cross eyed forever its just a characteristic for them #anyways its very late for me i had a really rough day at the lab lmao #my back hurts so much but i needed to come home and finish this or i'd have gone mad by how late im doing this #also Star Im sorry if i drew her completely off i haven't practice humans in a while D:#ur blog was a great reference on how to draw her when canon images are just... yeah #also idk why i drew my dog so little he's not that short but oh well #she's on a pedestal idk #ok too much rambling i should probably stop writing so much on tags #but year that's just about it hope u like the images!! the boop war was really fun and i just needed to draw something to save that moment

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linktoo-doodles · 11 months

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you've probably been asked this before but if you could change anything (rewrite remove add) about ctntduo (character, dynamic,events) what would it be?

Interesting, haven't been asked this before actually!

One of the crucial issues with ctntduo especially once it was established as an actual plot point during Las Nevadas is that while ccWilbur was focused on his own arc and how he and quackity were paralleled, ccQuackity had his own story to tell. He clearly included cWilbur's influence on his character, but nothing past this. I think it impacted the weight of tntduo's dynamic in the story.

In his finale and pentultimate stream, Quackity focused a lot more on dapuo and his character's dynamic with Charlie. I don't even fully agree with how it went, because he clearly wanted to include more stuff with the whole las nevadas crew and his dynamic with Charlie kind of went into a direction that didn't really fully flesh out their nuances that I would have liked. Charlie was a bit... woobified in his writing. But most significantly for this post, Quackity did not have the same emotional investment for ctntduo for the same way Wilbur did, and it accidentally shifted the character dynamic to being less of equal stance too.

So firstly, I mean this is a common suggestion but to have more streams with Wilbur to intersect the burger arc was one thing. I really like how it was more in Wilbur's POV to make Quackity's role in this more uncertain! But I would have desperately wanted Wilbur to have taken part of the prison break, clearly idolized Dream for saving him, then wrestled with exile after Tommy told him. Pissed off Quackity got to Dream before he did. Wished it was him doing the heroic torturing to gleefully put himself as the hero "saving" his brother. Inconsolable differences, where Wilbur straight up fantasizes killing cDream over and over was one of the most beautiful streams ever tbh.

Another theory that my friend suggested and NEVER got out of my head is that after Wilbur planted tnt detonations to fuck with Quackity, Quackity actively destroys a part of his city and blames it on Wilbur. Vile. Underhanded. No one has any evidence and people are quick to turn on Wilbur -- Tommy believes him though.

And, I've never admitted this but I personally believe Wilbur's finale had initially involved asking Quackity run away with him to Utah. I know. Not Tommy, he'd idiotically choose Quackity. I know that sounds really stupid but for this to work, Quackity would immediately turn him down. It would parallel when Wilbur eagerly accepts the "offer" to join Quackity's Las Nevadas from the very beginning. During that time, Wilbur is so in disbelief that Quackity would turn him down. You can see him convincing himself that he's changed for the better, you can see him really believing he'd be the perfect man for the job. But this time, when Quackity says no, Wilbur accepts it.

They would never work out, bc that is not the POINT of ctntduo. Each have their own arcs that are not resolved by ending up together. They go their separate ways in the end, but respect each other. I never liked him anyway.

so TLDR

More burger lore streams... We really didn't get much of ctntduo

Dream's prison break with Wilbur's slow descent realizing his "saviour" is not to be idolized

Quackity destroys part himself in the process trying to get back at Wilbur

"Come to Utah with me?" "...I won't."

#asks #anonymous #dsmp #tntduo #im just rambling... sorry #I wish I was more coherent I had a whole thread ranting about it but twitter's search method is very bad now #these are thoughts and ideas. I haven't really fully pieced them together #also ctntduo playing chess please lmao #the chess rant is its own thing for another day

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howlonomy · 2 months

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What are your notes looking like after monster Clover blew up?

absolute chaos AHDJFDK regularly waking up to 200+ notes is pretty funny

#asked and answered #ray rambles #a lot ofthe time its just someone who finds the au and goes thru and likes/rbs every mclover post ever #its really funny #i try not to miss fun tags and replies and mentions but its very easy for things to get lost so im sorry if i did!!

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rxttenfish · 6 days

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Asking because I’m extremely curious about this, how did MonProm’s writing get different over time? I remember you saying that the lore and characters feel different, and that it's missing sincere character interactions, too. I know almost nothing about the lore and I’ve only seen a few people mention the characters, so I’d be interested in a rundown of what aspects you think got worse in the series

I wouldn’t mind a very long response since I’m not that active in the fandom, I need to catch up on what happened

sorry for taking so long to answer this! i kinda waffled on it for a long bit, mainly because i started doubting myself again, and whether or not this was me simply overreacting or being tinted by nostalgia or simply being extremely picky and choosy in what i like (the last of which is true, i seldom get into fandoms at all for this reason and stay away from most popular media, but i wasn't sure if it applied here). i've posted about it already, but i'm in the middle of a psychotic episode where i can't feel a lot of pleasure to begin with + most things i do experience ending up solidly in the "very bad" category, so as you can imagine, i really didn't want to mislead and check that i was actually in objective reality.

as it is, this is also when a lot more screenshots started to be posted in the monster prom tag, and that helped me bridge the gap back into returning to the games themselves and feel like i was making a more accurate judgement. if you're one of those people who have been posting screenshots, i sincerely thank you, and i appreciated seeing you in the tag greatly.

for those not in the know — i've been in the monster prom fandom since it first released, prior to even the first additional ending to be added (the "Punch the sun" ending, and i recall the minor fandom drama that happened at that time due to it). my impression of monster prom is very much influenced by this, as what got me into the first game was the fact that the characters genuinely seemed to care for each other and were friends with each other (not merely tolerating each other's presences nor dressing it up, they sincerely thought of each other as friends and were open about that fact), on top of the wide variety of small details and statements that, if taken at face value, could create compounding complexity in the lives of each and every character and had wider implications for their lives.

no, they were not necessarily explored nor even necessarily "real", with so many conflicting events and statements, but i liked this too, because it meant a wider flexibility in what you could imagine, helping to create a more tailored experience for everyone who thought about these characters. this was what i liked about the early fandom too. what was baseline "canon" was so vague and minimal that you could have wildly different interpretations of the same characters' histories and relationships with each other. you would have radically different perspectives on what the world itself looked like, what it was like, that there wasn't really any wrong answers so long as their personalities remained the same. this is where you got the old headcanon of polly and liam being childhood friends who knew each other as humans, or that the world of monster prom was post-apocalypse where humanity itself had gone extinct or only existed in tiny pockets, or my personal headcanon that both monster and human society existed right next to each other and had minimal crossover for petty cultural reasons. this was also prior zoe-as-ro, and there were wildly different interpretations of zoe's personality, with most going for a far more disquieting creepy-cute than the deep nerd we got.

this is why you get stuff like the timeloop theory, where everyone is repeating the same weeks leading up to prom over and over, and are perhaps vaguely aware of it but broadly unconcerned. this is also why it felt like the joke that, the characters were still in high school but were all fully legal adults with most in their 20's, best landed, because it was absurd and strange and didn't quite make sense, but the world itself was inherently absurd and semi-malleable to begin with. realistically, i felt like everyone understood it was making fun of the trope of having adults play teenagers in american sitcoms and wildly casting outside the age range, but for more in-universe explanations it wasn't any different from the way that you would have a large, dramatic ending in which everything changed, but then you'd restart and everyone would be right back at the beginning with nothing different, or even having conflicting events in the same run. it was a dream-logic that fit with the tropes and, thus, diagetically made sense.

to be clear, i don't mind canon having a set, well, canon on which it refers back to itself. i don't mind expanding that or including more things which are set in stone. but there was a perceivable shift in how the games handled this over time, becoming a lot more... bitter, it felt, towards all of these different branching ideas and concepts that, yeah, the people making them knew wouldn't necessarily be "canon" because "canon" already liked to contradict itself so much. most people weren't even sold on any one idea, and there was a much greater sense of enjoying and appreciating all the varying ideas people would come up with even if you personally didn't share them. making the characters be out of character was the real crime, because then it didn't diagetically make sense in the same way, didn't wholly fit.

(again, this is not to say fanon didn't happen and characters weren't smoothed down into a simplified personality that fit these varying fan-interpretations instead of the game itself. certainly damien love/lust was just as bad as it had ever been, and everyone loved to mangle his character into a more stereotypical "bad boy with a heart of hold" all the time. but it certainly felt less set-in-stone about it than it does now, with any deviation from the norm being considered strange and odd and even broadly shunned from the wider fandom.)

all of this is setup for establishing what the writing, lore, and characters felt like in the earlier days. the characters were the strongest part, with their relationships to each other being equally as important. the lore played it fast and loose and was far less interested in setting anything in concrete because that wasn't the important part. the lore wasn't the important part, which was what made it all the more intoxicating to think about, all the more fun to play with.

montrip is easily the biggest offender when it comes to setting everything in all-or-nothing terms and demanding absolutism from the world. broadly i blame the hitchhiker conversations for the worst of it, but i think ultimately the way they handled the entire premise of the game is where this problem stems from. it's not really an exploration in the same sense that you might explore the first game, discovering different perspectives and different people with different relationships to each other. it's an exploration in the sense of a sequel that over-explains the monster, that takes the most boring option out of all those that were possible and floating around and settles on something that was blatant, obvious, typically rejected not because of how novel it is but how trite and par for the course it is in the rest of the genre.

yeah, okay. humans know nothing about monsters and there's a "monster dimension" that exists separately from the human dimension. there's no crossover between the two of them. of course there's a big grand-scale fight between the eldritch powers that zoe used to be a part of, from which not only are slayers the main organization against them, but also the merkingdom has some horse in this race too. it's an urge to make things so universal in explaining them, in revealing connecting threads which unite everything that's ever happened in here, that makes the worldbuilding and lore immediately much more boring than it ever was before.

and it didn't have to be this way! nothing in the first game contradicts any of this too explicitly (see the above, the first game loves to contradict itself), and i would even be happy if this was basically canon but never stated or confirmed to be the big overarching everything going on underneath it all. i believe you should probably know these things about any world that you create and have them in the back of your mind. the difference is that you can know these things and keep them in mind, even focusing on things where its very relevant, and still not reveal them. this is why you have lore bibles, after all. every horror writer knows exactly how their monster works and the full underlying reason for everything that happens, but that doesn't mean the audience will see it or possess this same information too, and leaving it intentionally obscure will make far better stories.

which, this is bad enough, but it wouldn't be the breaking point for me if this was all there was.

but the worst thing of all has to be the slow decay of the very same characters that sold me on this world, this lore, this game in the first place. monster prom is nothing without the characters in it. it's a dating sim, it has nothing but characters to get you to play, and liking these characters are the entire reason anyone would pick up monster prom in the first place.

and the first game pulls this off extremely well. it's all in the tagline: be your worst self. they are, indeed, all terrible people. yes, even that character that you just thought of right now. they all have points in the game where they commit atrocities, where they kill or hurt people, where they do inexcusable things that could not be ignored in a more serious setting.

but that's the point. i think there's something very powerful in creating a character who not only do you love and love their personality and the way they interact with the world, but who also are inapologetically terrible, and to have the humor and the charisma be so good that you don't get bogged down in the "this is awful". likewise, it never feels the urge to really go out of its way to justify what's going on. this is not to say theres no discussion of if someone "deserved it", but usually there's still the sense that the joke is on them, that this is still an extreme reaction specifically for comedy and not necessarily something that can be justified. you can have damien set leonard on fire and have it feel earned, without prompting the needed reaction of what it's actually like to watch someone burn to death.

this is what sets the prank masterz ending apart from the rest of the game, and really establishes it as the first real "bad ending". because nothing that you do or happens in the prank masterz ending is any different from anything else that happens in any other run. you summon evil beings from other dimensions as a throwaway gag on how visiting one location raises your stats. you kill other people and damn them to terrible fates. you watch as body horror happens. the only difference is that, in the prank masterz ending, the laugh track doesn't play.

the rest of the game and the writing echoes this philosophy, this careful interplay of tropes that keeps everything tongue in cheek and yet sincere enough to make sure emotional beats still land when they're needed. the characters feel true to themselves and their own emotions, even when the world is extreme and excessive, when everything else runs on comedy logic.

this is also what i noticed failing first as time went on.

like i said, fanon has always existed and there's always been very specific ideas as to what characters are like in the same way fanon always flattens down characters into the same tropes over and over. scott is stupid and innocent and doesn't know what sex is. damien is violent and hot and too cool for anyone else. miranda is the idiot girl character. repeat over and over and over until you get sick of it.

but it's been an issue as time has crept on that canon has started to approach fanon and began to merge with it. now, scott is so innocent that he can't even curse. polly starts being mean to her friends and saying things that would be very hurtful to hear. the merkingdom isn't really super evil and fucked up, it's just miranda that's like that. they become simpler, easier to digest, streamlined for social media posts and mass-sharing. they become less and less subversions of existing tropes and moreso just another example of them, something else to add to the collection, not their own individual stories.

even further from this, what more complex traits they had are now stated and not shown. polly is stated to be smart and clever in a way that her party girl persona doesn't imply and to be sincerely rather down to earth with the people she cares about, but we seldom ever see this anymore unless its the game specifically trying to make a point about it, in which case it won't let her do anything that implies cleverness and moreso will just outline it in the narration. vera is stated to care for people in a very genuine and heartfelt way, but seldom will get a chance to do so, and every opportunity for her to do so to their faces is missed while she will just outright state it later. it does not feel consistent, it does not feel like any of these are intended reads of their actions. it feels like the devs have something they want to do but no idea on how to actually do so. and forget it if you want these traits to manifest in small ways that show up in unrelated moments and scenes.

the dialogue becomes harder and harder to tell between each speaker, if you are just looking at what's said and not at the pictures attached to it. the characters' distinct voices have been eroded away, so that they speak more and more like each other, relaying the same terms and ideas in the same words. perspective becomes a suggestion, instead of a must.

this is something that started back in monster camp too, as all of the endings in that game felt ultimately the same as every other ending. it's very hard to place or define the full reason why, why there feels like there's no emotional stakes nor investment, why everything feels moreso like selecting different coats of paint and trying to find all the different ending pictures rather than being interested in exploring the characters as characters.

stranger yet, the series that started with the tagline of "be your worst self" has experienced a kind of... softening, for lack of a better word? what i mentioned about being able to handle the balance between terrible people who do terrible things and the light tone of the game starts to change, as abruptly the same characters who were down with violent murder in the first game start to lose their nerve, acting more and more on more typical morality. it's one of those things that feels like it's starting to damage the tone, as abruptly it's not as absurd as it used to be, demands less suspension of disbelief which could buffer and support the rest of the setting on it. there's even a part in one of the endings in montrip which involves current-polly and current-scott looking back on their monprom selves and reacting in horror at how violent and careless their pranks are, in a way that fundamentally felt like it was undercutting and disparaging all the things that felt fun and made monprom what it was.

which is odd, really, because more and more i feel like the characters in these games like each other less and less. the friendships and genuine enjoyment of each others company that brought me to this game in the first place has gone. now they don't mention each other as much, don't care for each other's feelings and reactions as much, aren't as willing to support each other. they are more and more found on their own, relied on their own, seem to seek out contact and interaction with their own friends less and less. it feels like they're all separating out into their own worlds, but also feels like they wouldn't willingly want to interact with each other if they weren't already forced together by some other outside contrivance.

if anything, i'd compare it to every other dating sim out there, where you, the player, are the most important person in these characters' lives, and they only feel ambivalent or antagonistic towards every other character. which, again, is not why i picked up monster prom or why i liked it so much in the first place.

and it's because of this that it feels like the current state of the series has to focus on its increasingly weak worldbuilding and lore, trying to form a more serious foundation without character relationships being so tightly bound together, without the characters themselves being more developed and rich, without an aspect of absurd humor to rely on.

more and more i've noticed monprom has to rely on referencing other series to make itself funny and create humor, which, again, it's always done. it was just easier to ignore back then, if you didn't know what was being referenced, because there was always more going on in the exact same scene to bolster it and give context clues as to the setup and punchline at play. it feels like the current games are much more dependent on you knowing pop culture references in order to have any fun with it, and i'm someone who, again, is very picky in what i like or what i'll seek out. i'm not interested in a stream of references about other things that i would much rather be doing than playing through a game that feels like it hates that i like it at all, when i could, again, just be engaging with the thing that takes itself seriously and knows what it wants.

#all the care guide says is 'biomass'#monster prom #asks #vanillabeenflower #this is. so long i am so sorry.#and its still not my entire thoughts because i have so many thoughts #this is an unedited ramble tbh and im very sorry for that #i have more complaints like #how fucking snide and condescending the narration is to its own characters #which it already had but gets even worse in the later games #which is why despite loving aaravi i dont want to play moncamp at all #where a character says they like something or feel something and the narration has to be so. sarcastic about it?#like how i mentioned about how it feels like how its looking down on them as people #instead of whats probably the intended read which is #more jokingly calling them dumb in an affectionate way like how you might do with friends #and ofc theres the whole miranda rant #i hate what theyve done with the merkingdom and i HATE adrien as a concept i wont lie #just. cool. this female character is too stupid to count as a lore character. we obviously need a MALE character to fill in instead #we cant just have miranda talk about this or center any of the other female characters #and how they feel about this and whats going on for them #no we need to make up a new man to talk to instead #im. im still really bitter about it i wont lie.#like i said i could go on and get way more specific about it #i just feel like any and all emotional weight to this has died and the characters are more and more obviously actors on a stage #for your own self gratification rather than their own people living their own lives #this is so bitter and i really shouldnt put this in the main tag #i am so sorry everyone who will see my rant. but my peace must be made.#dont worry im already asking myself if im just making all this shit up myself #what if some of us liked that the characters were so mean to the player and had no qualms about aggressively rejecting us #because it gave some illusion of them being able to make their own choices and decisions in what they wanted

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