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infernalodie · 11 months

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𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐀𝐩𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 || 𝐓𝐚𝐫𝐚 𝐂𝐚𝐫𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫

“𝘞𝘩𝘺 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘯𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭? 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘧𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘴 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘧𝘰𝘭𝘭𝘰𝘸 𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩 𝘜𝘯𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘦𝘥 𝘑𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘭𝘦𝘵 𝘮𝘦 𝘨𝘰 𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘮𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘺𝘰𝘶“

Inspo: Sleep Token - The Appartition

Pairing: Tara Carpenter x Fem!reader

Summary: A wound unattended to will fester and take its hold on the person’s body...

Warnings: angst, character death, and faint symptoms of schizophrenia (for plot purposes)

A/N: A fic that I finally finished after weeks of not acknowledging it’s existence and Sleep Token’s album motivating me to finish it.

Words: 1735

Tara couldn’t sleep.

Those eyes, those lips, that voice. It haunted her. It sliced at her eyelids, forcing them open for hours until her imagination took hold. Shifting between false and reality-bending that obscured her senses. If it be whispers in her ear, dark figures crossing her vision, or shivers that ran down her spine like the tips of fingers running over each curve. The motion resembling a snake curling around each curve of her body, wishing to experience each spot for itself.

She couldn’t escape you…

Her high school sweetheart. A wonderful human, who had simply been manipulated and twisted from an early age. Crafted into a deluded girl that trauma clung to like a virus. But Tara still loved you, even with a knife driving into a person she thought you considered a friend. Even with the Ghostface mask on and with the dark robe, she loved you. Regardless of your wrongdoings, she knew it hadn’t been your fault. You had no way of knowing that following your sister as you did would turn out how it did for you.

It’d been two years of dating before Tara finally grew curious as to what you did in your spare time. What had been the act of surprising you, she showed up at your house butchering one of the cheerleaders from your class. Much like others that had been found dead miles away from Woodsboro. And Tara might’ve been just as twisted, but she didn’t say anything. She kept her mouth shut and never spoke a word about it. But she was cautious of being alone with you. Tara didn’t make it apparent, but she wasn’t sure if she would be the next victim of your vicious rampage.

But it was the way you sought approval from Amber that told Tara all she needed to know. The way you made a display of what you did hoping to impress her. It was a dead giveaway to Tara who was too late to stop anything further from happening.

Tara liked to think that she lost you that night. She liked to think that your soul went somewhere better than here.

Yet, she still felt you.

She could still hear you. Parading around in the reveries of her dreams. A fresh wound waiting for the skin to heal over.

It was almost cruel the type of games you played. Then again, it might just be the trauma. The image of you laying on your back, Amber stabbing you in the chest repeatedly as you cried out, “I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I’m sorry!” It was a mantra that played like a broken record in Tara’s head when she went to sleep at night. Seeing you reach out for her, for help, for a saviour.

She missed you…

Every time she reached and every step taken, you seemed farther and farther away. But it felt like every time she acknowledge even the faintest possibility you were there in some spiritual form, you grew louder and made yourself known.

And at some point, Tara was going to snap. She would finally break under the torture you were submitting her to. But tonight, after spending so much time with Sam, Chad, and Mindy, she finally felt the grasp of exhaustion take its hold. Ignoring her sister as she marched into her room and slammed her door shut, collapsing in her bed, lazily peeling articles of clothes and replacing them with something more comfortable; grey sweatpants and a white tank top. And before she knew it, the softness of the blankets and the sinking sensation of her mattress allowed her to shift into dreamland.

“Tara~.” The sing-song tone of a voice called out to her through a sleepy haze that clung to her. “Tara, baby. Are you alright?” Fingers glossed through her hair, a gentle hum of approval vibrating through her chest, lips twisting into a small smile. It became enough to stir her to finally recognize someone to be with her.

In the disorientating filter over his thoughts and vision, her eyes slowly peeled open. Half-lidded, stinging with the need for sleep, she squinted slightly to focus her swaying gaze. Her eyebrows slowly scrunched together. Those familiar lips smiled down at her in slight amusement.

It took a few moments for her mind to catch up to what she was seeing. But when she did, she wasn’t holding back. She screamed, scrambling back and out of her bed. Rubbing her eyes roughly, hoping it was just the craftsmanship of her mind. When she pulled her hands away, she found you standing there anxiously, hands fiddling with one another.

You were here, fully. Not in flickering lights. Not a whisper. Not a shiver along her back.

“Hey, baby,” you whispered nervously. “I know this is unexpected, but I wanted to see you-”

“You aren’t real!” Her yell made you flinch, heart slightly cracking. Tara shook her head, eyes clamping shut in an attempt to force reality back into place. “None of this is real. You’re a fraud. This is all my imagination.”

“Tara-”

“Stop talking!”

“Baby!” You yelled, silencing Tara as her eyes snapped open to stare at you. You lifted your hand, fingers curling and knocking against her headboard. The audible sound of something meeting the wood echoed in the room. “I’m here, with you. Right now. This isn’t some fake fabrication of your mind wanting to torture you for what happened.”

Tara pressed the palms of her hands to her eyes. Her mind fractured the longer she tried to differentiate what was real to fake. But she knew this was fake. You weren’t actually here but in some form of spiritual manifestation in her dreams. That could be the only justification for this.

“Why couldn’t you be here?” Tara trembled, back pressed to the wall. Her eyes were glass that never blinked or flickered away from your smaller figure. Those same beautiful eyes stared up at her with a cheerfulness that she missed seeing every morning at school. Now, she was only allowed to see it in the false acquisition of reality. Her mind conjures up fraudulent beliefs in response to a trauma she would never be able to feel or see again. “Why can’t you be real?”

You tilted your head, smiling softly as you slowly closed the space between the two of you. Just like in the movies, Tara expected your hands to phase through. But when she felt the warmth of smooth palms grasps her arms, she nearly sobbed. Legs wobbling as she stared at your hands, absorbing in the warmth as if your touch was a fire in a snowstorm.

“Why aren’t you real? Why couldn’t you come with us? Why…? Why…” She fell into mantras, melting in your hold as you slid your hands up her arms, past her shoulders, over her neck, and stopping at her cheeks.

It stilled her for a moment, long enough that she could take in your smile. “What I did…it was inexcusable Tara. But that doesn’t mean you should allow me to hold you back.” You pursed your lips, tilting your head, eyes blinking rapidly to remove the tears that hung along the brims. “But I…I wanted to be with you for a little longer. See you, feel you, hear you. I wanted it for as long as I could before I had to go.”

Sniffling, you caressed her cheek and smiled. “But I want you to know I love you. I’ll be waiting for you.”

Tara’s eyes welled up with tears, nose stuffed as she breathed heavily. Forcing her eyes to meet yours, her head tilting to sink into your warmth further. “Can I come with you?” She asked, voice cracking. “Please?” She didn’t want to go another day without your innocence in her life. The clueless look on your face whenever Chad made a dirty-minded joke. The purest emotions when Tara first took your virginity. How you looked up at her, afraid. She missed how you clung to the warmth of her body that night and how it seemed to link the both of you in unexplainable ways.

She didn’t want to let any of it go.

Hearing her plead made your heart shatter, swallowing the lump in your throat. You hated leaving her as you did. The way it went was traumatizing for not only her but for yourself. Seeing Amber hurt you as she did, not a day went by that you wished you hadn’t listened to her. You could be living with Tara in New York and going forth with a life you envisioned with her. Which only made it harder for you to deny her.

“You know you can’t, baby.” Tara’s face twisted, head bowing as you held her cheeks. “But-“ You placed your index finger under her chin, forcing her brown orbs to connect with yours. “-I’m always going to be near. I’ll just be…a little more quiet for you.”

Tara couldn’t comprehend how you could smile through those words. How even the faints tremble of your lips didn’t sway the light in your eyes. To be fair, she never understood it even when you were alive. But that’s why she fell in love with you in the first place. You never decided to put yourself first when it came to her or your guys’ friends. You kept a caring and warm glaze in your eyes that anyone would underneath. She just didn’t want to let it go.

“And even when you feel like everything is falling around you. I’m always going to be here.” You pressed your hand to her chest, fingers slightly curling into the fabric. An immense heat radiated from the touch and filled Tara’s body. “I’m always going to love you, Tara. No matter what happens, I’ll be waiting here for you.”

Tara shook her head, watching you step away. “Just let me come with you-!” When she took the first step, the floor gave out. The wind whistled past her, hollowing her senses until she gasped, shooting up from her bed.

“Tara! Hey, hey, hey! You’re okay. Breathe.” Sam’s voice was acknowledged, but Tara couldn’t stop her chest from rapidly falling and rising. Choked breaths restrained and cut in half. Tears began to break through the wall she had placed months ago, leaving her a weeping mess in her sister's arms.

Why couldn’t you be real?

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iconuk01 · 7 months

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youtube

From: "The Lord of the Rings: A Musical Tale" at the Waterside Theatre, Bagnor, near Newbury.

Video is not mine, but this show was AMAZING

When you arrive at the theatre, you don't go into the theatre at first, you all gather in a large garden area behind the theatre, which is set up with wooden benchs and tables, and a large, raised, circular stage.

This is the setting for the opening ten minutes, as the cast arrive, in character, and help set up for Bilbo's birthday, playing ringtoss games on the stage, or just wandering the tables, saying hello to the audience.

Then we start the folk music, and the cast join in on their instruments (Nearly every one of them plays at least two instruments as the show progresses, so they're providing their own music as they go along, with cast not involved in a scene usually providing background music from just off stage) as they have the birthday party, Bilbo gives his speech, disappears, and then the audience enters the theatre for the rest of the show (Well, almost, but that would be telling)

The choreographer, Anjali Mehra, combines English folk dancing, Morris dancing, as well as many elements from various Indian dancing that I don't know the names of, but recognise as being from there, and some just fun random stuff. (See video above)

Sam and Frodo

Legolas arriving at Lothlorien

The Lady Galadriel

I need to sleep now, or I'd try to describe how they did the Nazghul on a budget as well as a stunninly effective, if abstract, Balrog, and an utterly TERRIFYING Shelob, all in a tiny theatre (it only seats 220)!

But I will say their Sam (Nuwan Hugh Perera) is utterly endearing, and at the other end of the scale, their take on Gollum (Matthew Bugg) is astonishing, an utterly physical performance with the actor crawling around the stage, the galleries, the balcony itself, all whilst screeching or wheedling. He even gets a sort of duet with himself... and the later scene where, listening to Sam and Frodo sing "Now and for Always", a song of quiet Hobbit heroism, Gollum starts to relax and smile to himself and somehow visibly starts to come round to his Smeagol side again, before the encounter with the angry, distrustful Sam which drives him away, is heartbreaking.

Sam is singing lead here, with Frodo (Louis Maskell) sitting in front, Bilbo (John O'Mahony) and Rosie (Charlotte Grayson) in the background, with Pippin (Amelia Gabriel) on lute, Merry (Geraint Downing) on cello, Arwen (Aoife O'Dea) on harp and Elliott Mackenzie (ensemble) next to them.

youtube

Just beautiful!

Is it perfect? Well, it crams a lot into it's three hours, but cuts quite a lost of bits out, especially character development and quite a few major characters. As one critic noted, intros and motivation are basically reduced to "I am Xxxxx, I'm a zzzzzz and I'm friends with him but I don't like him and here's why"

So Rohan doesn't feature at all, Theoden and Denethor are sort of combined into one "Steward" and and Faramir isn't there at all... I guess if you're on a budget, the cavalry are the first to go. I also suspect if you don't know the story already, it's a bit of a skip over a LOT of things you need to know.

But that being said, the cast are sincere, the music is great and the staging is STUPENDOUS, so all in all, a great evening.

#The Lord of the Rings: a musical tale #The Lord of the Rings #theatre #Youtube

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bringthekaos · 23 days

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Hot take but I don't think Mel is interested in a pacified Zaun & Piltover because of the good in her heart as much as she wants to do it to prove herself to her mom

I mean. Mel’s mom literally said “let the war unfold,” and if Mel wanted to prove herself to Ambessa, then she would have done just that. We saw through her flashback how Mel tended to lean toward mercy rather than bloodshed, and seemed to be disgusted by her mother’s thirst for it.

Now… there might be a small element of vying for peace to spite her mother, but even then… I think vying for peace for selfish reasons is still vying for peace. Right thing for wrong reasons is still right thing, kinda deal. And I also think that Jayce rubbed off on her, a little. She had been here in Piltover for so long, playing the game of politics for so long, that when she first met Jayce he was just another pawn on her chess board. But I think as she got to know him better, she was reminded of the reasons she came to Piltover in the first place—to escape the warmongering and build something for herself, and she lost herself along the way. He helped her get it back, and I think it made her take a step back and say “what am I doing? This isn’t a chess board, these are people’s lives, and if we’re not careful the warmongering will consume us too. I will become my mother.”

Mel is a complex character, and one that got far too much hate from the fandom (and I think a very large reason for that is that many of us, myself included to an extent, can’t help but project our own distaste for corrupt politicians and “rich people” onto her). But I think it’s important to give characters a chance without dooming them from the start just because they happen to resemble something IRL. And while yes, she is technically corrupt, she is far from the biggest problem on that council. And even if she’s done some corrupt things in the past… she deserves a chance to make it right. I mean that’s the essence of character growth, to realize you’ve done something wrong and seek to change. I really hope she survives the bombing, because I’d like to see what a Mel who has been hurt by the conflict might look like… and how it could swing her to go even harder on the “no war” stance. She may be one of the only voices that still holds to it, Jayce included.

TL;DR—Mel may have voted for peace to spite her mother, but personally, I think her motivations for the vote are inconsequential to the vote itself. And while it may have been too little too late, she deserves credit for trying to stop this.

#arcane #arcane meta #arcane analysis #arcane Mel #Mel Medarda #Piltover & Zaun #asks #ace answers

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hearsayhorizons · 5 months

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Holism’s introduction and the confirmation that there are more ships/intelligences on ART’s level with their own idiosyncrasies and quirks has a real possibility of opening up that coven/school house fertile field of fanfiction that makes people grab other series and hold on tight (not that we weren’t doing that already with this one).

Perihelion’s secret function is in confirming lost colonies and providing initial response for the purposes of safeguarding “”assets”” from predation.

Based on its interactions (attempted interactions) with SecUnit, Holism’s function/special interest is to provide infrastructure after Perihilion’s crew has argued/forged their way into securing long-term protection for those people.

Perihelion is a secret agent ship and befriended Murderbot, who watches thrillers and other media. Holism the infrastructure/”look at this neat thing!” ship is probably going to find a receptive contact in Three, who seems most comfortable with nonfiction and educational materials (some other good poster pointed out that Three’s interests are tied to its introduction to freedom and choice via Murderbot 2.0’s autobiographical files; I want to put a pin in that for later).

This establishes a thematic setup I want to play with. I was going to fiction this up, but I have weather-related migraines and it is WEATHER lately.

My contribution is [namepending]. Once you have safety, once you have infrastructure, you look at connections and community. And you know what would be a great way to jumpstart an ambassadorial program or knowledge exchange? A university where everyone is doing something new, going somewhere new, where you might have interactions that last a few years and still mean a lot to you later, OR they might help define how you choose to live forever—there’s no knowing, even in real life, how experiences as a young OR older person going to school will influence you.

Why does that student wear something no one else does? Why do those hand gestures stand out? That’s an unusual set of facial features. But no one, literally no one, is going to look at a batch of shaky college students and assume they’re all from a/a variety of colonies 40+ years out of contact with the wider world.

So yeah, I know ART is already the Magic School Bus with weaponized pathfinders, but I posit that our next/a great fanfiction point is... [pending], much more a school bus. Maybe ferrying back and forth between colonies to keep the info exchange open too, but I think the university would be SO useful to give colonists a knowledge base without overwhelming them or forcing them to assimilate into other cultures.

Now, I imagine that just like Amena has to do some learning modules before she can join the University, there’d be sims and modules for incoming students or people going between colonies. And just like System Collapse chapter 8, you hit them where it works—right in the media. So this [pending] has a huge collection of, and is interested in, games.

As a side note, part of me thinks a fully mechanical system like ART would be a bit better able to perceive/use games without a SecUnit filter than media; sure, there’s music and mechanics meant to emotionally motivate the player, but non-visual novels non-dating-sims (eg: “game games”) have goals, mechanisms, more hard input than media.

Remember my pin from earlier re: Three’s interest tied to its path to freedom? I posit a SecUnit (either one of the two freed at the end of System Collapse, or someone else if there’s...)

Actually, if I’m already spitballing fanfic bullshit and ComfortUnits presumably have resources for interacting on a more emotional basis with clients, the CU. I want that construct on [pending]. The odds of that happening are miniscule unless it was maybe at a wit’s end, didn’t know what to do with itself like other units after having its freedom foisted on it.

Yeah, so, it has access to surreptitious funds secured by Tllacey. Maybe IDs. It doesn't have weapons and I get the vibe that no one would be looking as hard for a rogue CU, so I don't imagine it's hacking or has to hack anything. Maybe it can't, since it isn't a security system.

But it IS probably meant to be fluent in current events, folklore, random shit random clients care about. Ergo the Ganaka pit bit.

It searches for SecUnit activity in the news. Oh, or maybe info on ART, maybe it picked something up during its last scene. Murderbot does have a whole aside in SC panicking about the news and what info about the kidnapping could mean for the University’s colony-saving scheme, but that doesn’t go anywhere given the timeframes. So, maybe there is something there, some way to pull the ComfortUnit back in.

It finds the University. It finds, or [pending] finds it, and [pending]’s whole schtick is orientating confused people. It introduces CU to some sims, some games, maye interactions in reality or through games with young people.

I posited in previous posts that SecUnit probably wouldn’t be super into games because the ability to passively exist alongside an atmosphere presented by a story or music is the appeal of its media; it is an actor DOING things during its day job. But CU has presumably been always acted-upon in its day job. So now it has a risk-free method to DO things. Maybe it prefers solo games, or it participates in group games where its identity as a CU comes up only as far as it is comfortable.

I’m sure my [pending] would be thrilled to have a contact/friend who can both communicate comfortably with newcomers while also relating really hard to them. Plus, I feel like the CU construct just sort of gets set loose and abandoned by Murderbot and the narrative. Sometimes those loose ends happen, but I kind of see a way we could work it back in now that we know there are more ships and they want filters/friends/units.

Now I just gotta find a name for [pending].

I do think I have the first few lines of the fic, though:

The shuttle came within range of the bigger ship annotated in the smart glass: Perihelion.

This is you. I transmitted an image of a young human and what the news broadcast identified as another human.

Oh, fuck off.

#tmbd #the murderbot diaries #murderbot #system collapse #system collapse spoilers #spoilers

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beebopboom · 3 months

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Words of a Wise Angel

(Intro, part 1, part 2, part 3)

Finally made it to the end - four post later for a character that only has around 10 minutes of screen time - and there was going to be more

Originally this was going to be how the Metatron fashioned himself the king in God's game of chess and was going to relate it to Shakespearean Kings heck we were even going to go into Monty Python and the Holy Grail - but honestly I kind of just lost the motivation……maybe in the future I'll revisit.

However I still got shit to say.

(oh my god how did this get so long - I promise I’m a little sane over here)

So let's look into his actions in the show and maybe fill in some blanks

Disclaimer: just want to say I am focusing on The Metatron (obviously), his pov, and how he twist things - not what happened between Aziraphale and Crowley in the final 15, besides like one thing - just heavy emphasis on that

The Judge

(Of a very weird courtroom)

The trial itself seems to mirror Hell's trial in the way there is no true defense - I’m sensing a pattern

In the trial of Gabriel he is centered in the middle - at this moment neither left or right

He doesn't cut in until Gabriel starts going on about what an angel just gotta do sometimes- and brings up a reminder of what happened to the last angel of his position that started with this way of thinking - it after all is a great story for controlling and best not be repeated because then it looks bad on Heaven's part

This establishes The Metatron as a character whose main concern is the reputation of Heaven - that even though this is an action that is casting out worthy he won’t can’t do it because then it would be an upheaval.

But he frames it as a kindness, as if he was doing a favor - it's manipulative, it keeps the "Heaven is all good, here look we are doing a special favor just for you” narrative going

After Gabriel leaves he moves to the side and brings up that it is taking him a while to come back but for the most part takes a backseat to the happenings around him until they start talking about ringing the alarm bells -

He tells them they are just going to have to find him and he is amused about it. Which tells me a few things

that he doesn't want this getting out yet- fewer that know the better

he didn't actually care about what happened to Gabriel - in fact this might even be a better outcome for him in the way he just doesn't have to deal with him any more

he doesn't actually think they will find him

this might just be a great story - let’s just let it play out

Now this is all happening right before episode 1 perhaps bleeding into the time where Crowley and Shax are talking (which begs the question of how does Shax know) - so it is days before we see him again, a very eventful few days

The First move

When he does show back up he’s in a corporation and getting coffee - second in line behind Mrs. Sandwich.

And his eye is on Crowley - he watches Crowley converse with these two humans and bring Mr. Brown back

Now the coffee shop - I lied I do have something to add

So before even ordering what is he witnessing? Maggie and Nina having a moment - where Nina accepts Maggie's offer of help and asks her to go get milk for her and we as an audience can see this is a big moment for Nina.

Now imagine what it is to a staple of Whickber St. and someone who is not hesitant to tell her opinion about Nina's relationship and just so happens to be first in line, Mrs. Sandwich. I would not be surprised at all if she made a remark to Nina - a remark The Metatron overheard, so now he has the following information

they are friendly with Crowley

something is up with their relationship

But now it's his turn to order - and Maggie is back how long did your order take Sandwich!? - and asks for his oatmilk latte with almond syrup and his whole human picking coffee over death being predictable thing - and yet this isn't the end of their conversation

The next time we see Maggie and Nina they are getting ready to head back over to the bookshop but what got them on this conversation in the first place? That's right I'm suggesting the Metatron said or did something. Nothing to overt but something that got them thinking, talking, and maybe wanting to confront a certain duo about it

But back to the Metatron - he has entered the bookshop and interrupted Michael

Now the Metatron has always been a character that uses human expressions and his funny little words. But he comes right out the gate with balderdash and piffle so lets talk about them

They mean practically the same thing and yet he repeats it twice so why? I think it has something to do with their origins

Balderdash - although it is not certain it is said to originate during Shakespearean times, around this time though would have been used to describe a mixed drink

Piffle - started to appear 1860 - 1870ish

They are also both games and when you search them together it is a british show that goes into the origins of words - so yeah just keep those dates in mind

He uses Crowley to point out who he is - the demon who has a bad history with him, another subtle reminder of what going against Heaven gets you.

Then he starts up with the praise for Aziraphale who actually says his name, and we see a shift in tone from when he is addressing Aziraphale and then ordering the Archangels back to Heaven - which here is another one of the human phrases, spit spot

Spit spot - I don't know exactly when it was created but it is most commonly recognized as something Mary Poppins said, which the books where published between 1934 - 1988 with the movie coming out in 1964

But anyway (I promise there is a point to those) the Archangels reaction to him, Uriel's specifically. They are nervous, they are stuttering, they are praising him - they are groveling in front of him as if he were a king, and it reminds me of the scarecrow in the Wizard of Oz. But the Metatron has no time for them and dismisses them. (Lord I talk about this moment a lot)

Ah, just him and Aziraphale now (not really) and they need to have a chinwag

Chinwag - around the 1870s

In response to Aziraphale saying he has made his position quite clear he offers him the coffee - which we know is not something Aziraphale prefers to drink - he offers another option that Aziraphale would not normally take, foreshadowing much?

well I say offered but really it’s kinda shoved in his face.

He separates Aziraphale and Crowley - leaving Crowley behind with a glare and ominous music which really is the first blatant instance of us knowing that the something that is up - is bad

and guess who enters the bookshop - Maggie and Nina here to talk about relationships and interference - convenient timing almost like it was influenced by someone

We join back with the Metatron when he is telling Aziraphale he doesn’t have to make a decision yet and to go tell his friend the good news and then he blends back into the crowd to walk to Muriel at the coffee shop and encourages them to read books. He proceeds to stand up and look into the bookshop, watching

Now the bits of conversation we see from Aziraphale- I see this as a few possible different things

this is the actual conversation and Aziraphale is telling Crowley an edited version

this is the edited version that he is telling Crowley and something else happened

he didn’t edit it and this is actually what happened and what was told to Crowley

but all I know is we didn’t see this full conversation and it reminded me of the misunderstanding conversation between the Nuns last season - either way it's what we got to work with people

Before moving on there are a couple particular sentences I want to point out from this conversation - and I will get to these later

"It's why Gabriel came to you in the first place, I imagine. There are huge plans afoot, enormous projects, and I will need you to run them.”

"Yeah, I've been looking back over a number of your previous exploits, and I see that in quite a few of them you formed a de facto partnership with the demon, Crowley. Now, if you wanted to work with him again, that might be considered irregular, but it would certainly be within your jurisdiction to restore your friend, Crowley, to full angelic status”

The Aftermath

Upon entering the bookshop and getting Aziraphale to say what they both already know happened out loud - he immediately chimes in with the rhetoric of “this is how Crowley always was, he chose this and his actions are his own doing - you Aziraphale are making the right choice here, you can’t change those who don’t want to, those who are damned”

congratulations Metatron you got what you wanted - pls this is sarcastic I’m still salty

Now that he has basically taken care of everything in his way of getting Aziraphale to come with him - he asks if he is ready to go (at no point yet has Aziraphale actually said yes) and asks if he needs to bring anything with him, a dig and a probe to see if there is anything else. He then just starts walking, not waiting for Aziraphale - a manipulation tactic to pull him along

and on the walk to the lift and in waiting keeps giving Aziraphale praise and then finally revealing The Second Coming as he gets in the lift which makes Aziraphale have to choose - it’s the final one and he still has to make it seem as though he actually had a choice.

But what does this all mean? What was the point of doing all this? Why does he need Aziraphale?? What’s with the word choices?

What’s with your funny words, Magic Man?

some of the dates might have rang a little familiar - Shakespeare? the 1860s? Mary Poppins? They are all around the times Aziraphale and Crowley were meeting up - well duh they’ve been meeting up since practically forever

the Mary Poppins one you could look at two ways - the actual time period they were being released, which would have been the 1941 or 1967 dates, or the fact that Crowley inspired his Nanny look after her

Looking at past exploits indeed you were Metatron, or perhaps you were even there hmmmm…

EDIT

The Metatron just used words that are from some important times,

1601 - discussing their arrangement (them working together)

1862 - their holy water fight and then not talking to each other

1967 (or 1941) - they start working and meeting up again and the holy water disagreement is put to rest.

and then he eventually hits him with, "if you wanted to work with him again”

which interestingly enough seems to hit the insecurities that Aziraphale expressed in the coffee shop, on the head - that loss of structure and purpose.

Aziraphale and Crowley also just did some big moves on their own in the bookshop and heaven - ones they weren't working together on. “You came back” is starting to hit even harder

End Edit

But also The Metatron put emphasis on the word friend when referring to Crowley, for the most part he referred to him as “demon” until then, until he pulled his final card - such an interesting word that had such an impact on Aziraphale in 1941 - well played Metatron well played (I hate it)

Now this could have all been a coincidence - if Aziraphale hadn’t picked up on the same thing.

When he interrupts Crowley he says something along the lines, “what’s that lovely human expression, hold that thought”

Hold that thought - came into play around the 70s through 90s and gained popularity due to the rise of broadcast television, like the News. But there is one definition I want to point out as well - “Used to acknowledge that one's attention needs to be diverted from what a speaker was saying.”

or in other words, “remember all those human expressions the Metatron was saying, yeah those have meaning and so does the one I’m about to say - we are being watched don’t pay attention to my words” but well we aren’t gonna talk about it (pls I’m still coping)

The Metatron has certainly done his research - bringing up words and phrases from important times in their relationship - and The Metatron is certainly watching just like he was now

Why does he need Aziraphale?

Now if you remember back when I discussed who The Metatron was in scripture there is actually an interesting overlap between these two with Tree of Knowledge and The Tree of Life - The Beginning and The End. Aziraphale was always meant to have a special part in The Second Coming for the exact reasons The Metatron said - an angel of his talents, an angel who knows about humans - the angel that guards them

But even just ignoring all that - What literally just happened before he showed up

called for Heaven’s help in a time of trouble - the portal

discoporated a fuck ton of demons

declared War on Hell

took charge and was a mediator between Heaven and Hell

and he did this all on his own (I really doubt he counts Maggie and Nina)

Aziraphale did exactly what Heaven had planned - what Gabriel was meant to sign off on - he started back up the plan he put on pause with Crowley - he made that first move

but also the 25 Lazarii miracle - which set off alarms in Heaven - and the Halo - which also set off alarms in Heaven. That’s twice in one week. One would imagine The Metatron would take notice.

EDIT

Let's switch gears a little and talk about why The Metatron mentions Gabriel coming to Aziraphale in their little talk

Whatever other reason Gabriel may have had for going to Aziraphale, giving him something etc., it was all done under a baseline understanding.

That Aziraphale would get it, be a safe space with an understanding that they don't want everything to end for some similar reasons (their demon partners) - and Aziraphale did help him despite not knowing this exact baseline

He helped the Supreme Archangel hide from Heaven and escape punishment - who’s to say he wouldn't help other angels?

The reason The Metatron doesn't care about Gabriel and Beelzebub running off together is because they went off

Their relationship doesn't have the same level of connection to Earth and humans as Aziraphale and Crowley - they didn't want Armageddon to happen because they wanted to keep seeing each other, the Earth part was optional - a matter of circumstance as it was the easiest place to keep seeing each other. Now that they were gone and together - his reason for objecting is practically void.

That is not the same as Aziraphale and Crowley

But also it works in the Metatron favor - Beelzebub is out of Hell. The Grand Duke of Hell just up and left the same time Heaven is getting their replacement Supreme Archangel - it's now time for Hell to be in shambles.

All while The Metatron just came to snipped away the bud - that seed of safety on Earth if another Angel decided to go against Heaven’s plan.

If he gets the angel that put a stop to Armageddon- that chose the Earth over Heaven - that protected his executioner just at the hint he was on the run from Heaven. If he brought that angel back to Heaven he would not be able to be that anymore, do those things anymore - not with being closely monitored anyway. Keep your enemy close and all that.

And he pulled out all the stops to achieve this - the clothes, the words, the coffee

End Edit

But The Metatron also still needs the Bookshop for some reason - a bookshop he left in the care of an angel he just encouraged to read

So he gets the best of both worlds - The rogue angel back under his thumb and an angel that will listen to him going through the bookshop

What does this all mean? What’s the point?

Well he’s an angel in dark, an angel in reverse

When we went over the tarot cards he’s been linked to, but especially the King of Cups, he seems to represent the reverse side of them while trying to maintain the upright version- which is interesting

He’s an angel in trouble, an angel who needs a scapegoat

The Archangel Metatron is a controversial angel, his existence, his story, his position of power. He even has a story under his name where he is punished and demoted by God when someone assumes him to be another God in Heaven

The Metatron as a character that likes to be surrounded by fours, covered on all sides. And each and every one of those angels has done something to get them in trouble - meaning he has dirt.

After all every scribe needs their soldiers - however backhanded it is

and maybe he has something big he is hiding of his own - using the others faults to hide his - something concerning the Book of Life - either him not having it or at least not having all of it

But anyway he has set himself up to be protected from any fallout - he has not been seen, only heard for centuries probably. Sending angels in his place to do jobs (yes, I’m talking about the change to Gabriel being the one at the airbase - I’m giving it a reason)

Until now - until he walked into that bookshop and made himself known. He put himself in play thinking he knows the game, thinking he just brought in the perfect angel to blame things on if they all go wrong(which they will)

but really he just opened himself up to the start of his downfall. Double edged sword and all that

For the next season I imagine he is going to keep up the pleasantries, take up that backseat role, act as a guide, being subtle in his manipulations - he after all believes he got away with it - just all those things until it all comes crumbling down and he gets exposed, and at the center of it all is Aziraphale (and then Aziraphale gets offered his position which he turns down, saying no to Heaven and choosing to be with Crowley) what? I said nothing.

(I think that’d be funny and this is a comedy after all)

It’s the Punishment of an Angel, the Fall of a King

————————————————————————

and that’s all folks - that’s the end- for now. Hope you’ve enjoyed -I had to watch the final 15 so many times and I’m totally ok

#good omens #good omens 2 #the metatron #metatron #aziraphale #crowley #good omens meta #good omens analysis #good omens character analysis #good omens theory #good omens metatron #maggie and nina

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samssims · 4 months

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Hi Sam! I was wondering if I could ask for some advice on how to make simblr fun again? I love storytelling (it's how I have fun with the game) but lately with writing posts and even in game, I just find myself stressing over if it's good/interesting enough or if I took good screenshots, if my writing is good, etc. I love this game and sharing my stories with this community, so it sucks to feel like this. Thank you sm ♥

Oh Nonny, how I feel this pain. I wish I had a sure fire answer to this but sadly there isn't just one thing that will work.

I will put some advice below for some things that have worked for me in my experience if you're interested in trying them out to try to find that spark again!

Now I have been on tumblr sharing my sims since 2013 so I have seen the community change a lot. Things change, people come and go, it's just the natural way of things. So a lot of the time your community can change around you and so a few years ago sims storytelling was really popular and it was the thing everyone was doing. And I mean everyone.

But now things have sort of fallen off or shifted and there is no shame in that for those who moved onto other things and hobbies. Sims storytelling, at it's core, is a hobby. No one is making money off of it (unless you write it all down and get it published in which case, hell yeah go you!)

That being said, finding your spark again is going to be finding what YOU like about storytelling in the sims.

So here are some tips you can try out in the game to keep it fresh and exciting:

Play the Game

The game has changed a lot and added a lot. It came out in 2014. It's about to be 10 years old. With expansions still being added. Honestly having a family where you can just play through what the game offers you can offer inspiration on how to use in game things for story related things later on.

I have found having a lowkey gameplay (for yourself or even for your blog if you are posting) is an easy way to stay active in the community while keeping things low stakes and casual for yourself while you work on finding your spark again.

Change Up your Post Style

Idk about you Nonny, but nothing gets me less motivated than having to edit photos. If I could just point, shoot, and post, I would have content coming out my ears. Which is what I started doing with my Princess Legacy. All I do is crop it. I add some things here and there but really it's all pretty much easy.

Now I have done it all.

Prose on photos.

Prose under photos:

Icons Only:

Gameplay Only:

And finally just cropped:

Now what is the best? That is personal preference especially for the project you are doing. However I have definitely discovered the crop method to be SUPER helpful.

It makes me not have to worry about the whole photo. Sometimes I have this SUPER awesome detail in the back of a photo but when I crop them I lose all that. Which is not good for storytelling lets be honest but does force me to focus on what is actually important in the shot.

Example: Here is the full cottage photo from above You can see that I cropped out a lot of the cottage in favor of being able to see the deer and swans as i thought that was more a cozy fairytale vibe than just the cottage itself. I lost a lot of this detail yet the point still came across.

TBH the paired crop photos also makes me cut out a lot of access photos if they don't have a pair. It's sort of made me realize how much I don't need to take screenshots of. Though I am definitely an overtaker of photos so I always have plenty to choose from. Sometimes I even queue them then look back and realize they aren't needed and delete. It's humbled me a bit.

I could break down every one of these posting styles but that's a whole other thing you didn't ask about.

TLDR of this section is to experiment with how you post. You can have a lot of fun with that.

If Something is Boring, Skip it.

Do you hate the infant stage? Age them past it. Do you hate the winter months in game? Set seasons to never have winter. Do you hate in game holidays ruining your plans? Delete them all from your calendar. Is it a crucial part to your story? Not anymore. Write around it. Or find some creative angles and dialogue to write over it.

Make the game fit you!

Follow the Inspo

Have inspiration to make a new sim in CAS? Do it! Want to make a whole new save? Have an idea for one scene that could start a whole story but you have nothing else for it? DO IT!!!

The game is supposed to be fun. If you have inspiration for a project, live in it. Have fun with it.

But Sam, what if only lasts 2 weeks and I never touch it again?

Me too, babes. Happens to me all the time. Own it. Keep it around in case you want to mess with it later. Have 10 million saves. It's your life and if it brings you a moment of joy to work on it, then it totally is worth it.

If you want to be like me: Be chaotic and post it too. Then private the posts later when you decide to never touch it again. Never delete tho. I always tend to regret deleted things.

Find Your Community

You should ultimately write and create for yourself, but find others who are doing it too! Lift them up as well! Use one day a week on your blog to give reblogs or shoutouts to your fellow creators and writers! It's all about lifting each other up and making friends who all have the same hobby as us.

Try New Challenges

A lot of my sims storytelling started from inspiration around legacy challenges. I loved to take challenge rules and figure out how to make a story around them. But remember: Rules are made to be broken. Especially in favor of a good story.

If you are working on a current challenge/story, find another to merge with it or to give yourself a heck of a fun plot twist. There are no rules!

Have Fun!

This is sort of the whole crux of it, right? And if you're not having fun then...

Take a Break

You are not beholden to your queue! Let it die out! Disappear for 6 months. Return when you want. Go play Animal Crossing or BG3 or whatever it is at the moment. Sims is a hobby. But it does not have to be your ONLY hobby. Let your brain rest.

In my case, whenever I leave the sims I am always filled with ideas and ready to come back in like 3 days.

This could also mean take a break from your save too. Maybe spend some time in CAS. Or in build mode. Or cleaning out your mods. You can still do sims things while letting your story brain rest.

TLDR:

There is no right answer for this, Nonny. I promise your photos are all gorgeous and your story is wonderful! But creativity like anything ebbs and flows so give yourself that grace to let yourself rest and just enjoy the game again, or enjoy time away from it! You deserve it you superstar creator!

#Sam Speaks #nonsims #looooong post #so sorry I got carried away #had to wait to get to my laptop to answer this one #which is why it took me a minute #hope you find your spark nonny!

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farolero-posting · 5 months

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What the Solstice ending brings to the themes of OneShot

(A.K.A: Why I think Solstice is kinda cool but instead of giving a normal answer I just type like 2k words)

While I think that a reasonable amount of people value the additional content you can uncover by playing again, I'm also aware that other people have their reservation or even dislike it. Despite that, I think there is a lot of value on what it brings to the story, how it gives a new view to some elements from the base game, and the way it is a response to your "abilities" as a player, and your motivation to do those things in a way that speaks to the way people approach stories. With that in mind, I wanna present to you why I think Solstice adds to the overall story, and how in fact "changing" the base themes is coherent for this story, too.

Needless to say, I WILL discuss OneShot spoilers in depth, so give the game a try on your own to get the most out of the experience, but otherwise, keep reading! Now let's get into the real thing.

When you think about what OneShot’s main theme is, the most likely answer is that there is only one opportunity in life. This means that your actions have consequences, and that some actions cannot be undone. From the beginning, the game sets a stage where you, as a player, are responsible for keeping Niko, this child given the role of savior, safe. Going into the game without prior knowledge means that you’re likely to be cautious about your actions, the choices you make, even if small, and your efforts are focused on being successful with the one chance you get.

You soon find out that the world Niko is in is slowly, but relentlessly, decaying, which has made many of the people in this world give up their hope of salvation, and are hanging on by a thread that is getting thinner as time goes by. The quest begins to shift from “doing what you have to do and creating optimal conditions” to “trying to do your best, knowing that some things are out of your control”. Because it turns out that Niko and you are late. The environment has been affected in irreversible ways, some areas are abandoned and others are unreachable by normal means (even Niko themself cannot backtrack), and even if one could place the Sun at the top, the other problems will not be solved, even if the presence of the Sun is helpful. It’s even possible that you have lost your chances to complete certain missions, such as getting the necessary supplies to replant the sacred kernel.

These are all factors that impact the way this chance you’re given plays out. And, in the end, the manifestation of these externally imposed limitations becomes clear, as Niko and you reach the tower, and are presented with the final choice. Whatever you choose ends up being a failure, either for Niko’s quest in this world, or your quest of making sure Niko leaves safely. Your one shot means that you will only get one of these outcomes. and will have to give up the other. It is the biggest exhibit of consequences, and many people can attest to their own difficulties making this choice.

OneShot in the end, becomes a lesson on sacrifices, moral choices, and the limitations of what a person has the chance to do, knowing the consequences of their actions. It’s a heavy theme, and one the story builds up along the journey with the different characters Niko and you meet. Some of them believe letting a natural death occur is the most merciful option, others believe the Sun will make the world a better place, and some believe it is worth returning the sun, even if it’s not a permanent fix. There is no certain truth, no solution that doesn’t come with its drawbacks, and no margin for error.

And then Solstice arrives… shaking the initial themes.

Well, it doesn’t come out of nowhere. That would not be true. OneShot is most often known and praised for its 4th wall breaking features, and the puzzles that go outside of the game window itself. The player of the game is an active part, known as the god of the world they take Niko through. This is a story device that connects you to Niko and to the world itself, and places the responsibility to care for both of them on your shoulders. It makes the experience more immersive and seeks to convince you, for a moment, that you’re not just an invisible hand controlling things, but someone that actually interacts with a world that responds to you.

In a way, one could look at the reset mechanic from a purely practical lens: if you pay for a game, you deserve a chance to replay it, since it is your property. It won’t hurt to relive the same experience again because you will know you’re just looking at what was already coded into the story, and you would just be looking at it again out of personal interest. You could take the original message at heart and never pick up the game again, leaving questions unanswered and some decisions never made, but… if you do want to relive the story again, or maybe see if you can try the other ending, the option needs to exist.

And you have not stopped being an active part of how the game works, even after the ending. So, when you look for a way to reset it, what you find is a letter instead, written by someone who seems to be the very creator of the game. And he begs you to consider the option, if it is within your possibilities, like a brand new puzzle for you to solve and… maybe this world the creator crafted for you. It makes sense that the game places an in-universe message like this, it keeps the immersive theme.

But… one could argue that allowing resets breaks the feeling that some experiences can only be done once. Niko realizes they know a few things that they don’t remember learning. The Entity can tell that activating NG+ is not something that was supposed to happen according to its own protocol, and the restriction it imposed. Which means that this experience is never the same. But it also means that the game is responding to your actions, in a way that indicates that the original suspension of disbelief that you’re a god making choices for a living world can still be made. It also means that the game acknowledges its nature as a program that you’re in control of, and Solstice definitely makes this aspect more blatant, if you choose to take that path.

When OneShot presents itself, it seems that everything within it is equally real, and that you’re roleplaying as some kind of actual deity… but something looms in the shadows. The way decay is presented as squares, the way the paths seem lined up perfectly for a story, the way there seems to be a protocol to follow, that only the Entity acknowledges, shows that this game may be aware of how You are actually viewing it, from a screen in your computer. The game isn’t a real world, it’s just a program you can turn on and off at will.

And this makes even more sense once we have the added context that the Solstice route provides, since it outright confirms this suspicion. Prototype makes Niko aware of the way we have been looking at their world since the beginning, destabilizing the perception they had of their current mission, and the role you play in it, while also making you aware as a player that Niko is not part of this simulation at all. Later on, Cedric explains that the place Niko is trapped in was made to be a facsimile of their dying world, in hopes that there could be proof of their existence after the destruction of said world, and that he and his siblings are the only ones aware of the previous world existing. This part is important, because it gives us an in-universe reason for this world to exist… that brings new concepts into the main theme of the game, “one chance”.

Why would… why would you create a world like… this? [...] Why would you make a world that's doomed from the beginning? …why do you keep bringing me back to it? Niko, talking to the player during the Solstice run

Niko presents an interesting question, not just about their current situation, but also the intent that is implied in the kind of story that OneShot is. It is one thing to be presented with a scenario where people try their best to respond to their circumstances, and be presented with choices that require sacrifice. It is a different one to think that someone willed this to happen, and that Niko has been put in this scenario… that is within your control. Because you’re the one that started the program, and you’re the one that brought them back. And then the events of Solstice create an even more dangerous situation, as the protocol is broken and, most importantly, as the Entity representing the game itself reacts to Niko’s distress.

Here is where the context of the old/real world becomes crucial, because it shows how a scenario like this could be created, not by the will of a detached writer, but different parties with their own motivations and struggles. Because it turns out that the second chance that the people from the old world were looking for didn’t go as planned, of course, we know this. The original choice in the end of OneShot wasn’t intended by the in-universe creators, and yet in a way it still resonates with the way people were divided after the old Sun died. This world, made with the memories of people who lived in a world that would certainly end within their time, is also manifesting that same thing.

What is the point of making a story like OneShot, where this world can be saved, if not to give it a second chance? And what are you as a player doing, by going out of your way to do everything again? As I said, it has the plus side that the game responds to your actions outside of it, but now it adds another layer of it: your motivations to be proactive, may have something in common with the motivation that led to the creation of the game in the first place, at least from the perspective of the characters that are affected by this.

As we can see Solstice recontextualizes the story and provides an explanation for how the game itself comes to be aware of how we see it. But the point of Solstice is that it is alive, in a way. It was created with an intent to share a story, as a means for people to be remembered beyond their time. It’s meant to cause an impression on the person receiving this story. And, as we have established before, the way it is set up treats the player as an active participant in the story, someone who has an influence that is distinct from that of everyone else. The story impacts us, and in a similar way we impact it with our attachment to it, with our actions to do more than what it limited itself to present you with.

Something else funny and interesting happens too… you may realize that the base game doesn’t offer that much in the realm of consequential choices, besides the ending. Your biggest impact is how you treat Niko, and the connection you make with them. They’ll ask about your life beyond the game, look for comfort, and react to both your good and bad ideas. It doesn’t change how much you save the world, but it shapes who you are to Niko, and changes their experience too. You treat them like a good friend, listen to them… you tame them.

Which is the other big theme of OneShot. Taming, in the original Little Prince, is a concept to explain the way people get attached to someone else, and how the bond formed with someone else changes people fundamentally, and makes the tamed individual distinct from everyone else. In OneShot, it refers to the way in which robots gain sentience after forming bonds with people, after being treated as people with their own thoughts and will, allowing them to act beyond their programming. And in the context of a story, it is equivalent to the way the audience takes the story as real, and sees the characters within as people whose actions are motivated by personal motivations and goals, rather than commanded by the writer, even when we know that their nature is fictional.

We develop this sort of relationship with Niko, and through their experiences, we also begin to develop this relationship with the other residents of this world, who begin to make new decisions that make sense for them as characters, in a context that wasn’t predicted by the story itself.

And we, in turn, are the ones constantly interacting with this Entity, the game itself. We get to see the puzzles in which it tries to make it clear that it can do a lot outside of the window itself. We can see the way it attempts to keep us from making decisions that go against parts of its programming, despite the contradictions these actions create. OneShot is a story that didn’t want to put Niko through all of this, that didn’t want to repeat the suffering that brought it into existence, but who doomed itself when it tried to manifest its sentience. The World Machine tries to break the immersion, tries to show you its flaws, and we instead recognize personhood within.

Without Solstice, this sort of relationship never becomes clear, and it never gets the chance to evolve. Hell, one could even say that challenging the initial theme of “one chance”, by proposing that we can do something better this time IS the perfect way to establish a conversation that leads to change, that sets the story apart from others. And in the end, once the run is completed, the efforts done by you as a player, Niko, and everyone else pays off, giving you a more satisfying ending. The message that this sends is that, while some situations are out of our control and we must be careful with the consequences of our actions, we will never achieve change if we don’t act outside of the margins, and that, when we do this, we can provide a second chance.

Final words:

In conclusion… while I can understand that Solstice doesn’t hit everyone the same way, and that it has its limitations in execution (especially if spoiled), it’s a solid continuation. It takes some of the themes present in the initial game, and then proceeds to converse with them, using its resources as a game to create an immersive experience, and reward the player for being proactive. I believe that’s worth valuing, and serves to reflect on the way people interact with stories in personal ways, making them gain a place in their hearts.

#oneshot game #analysis #long post #hi. im normal. i sweaar #what the fuck do i tag this with #described #id in alt text #also like. trust me this isnt an active disagreement for other opinions #i think os is a fine game with tha base. i just also think that solstice adds stuff in a certain direction that i think is super cool #even if not everyone's cup of tea #and this post is for the people who do appreciate it

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ctheathy · 8 months

Text

Rio Ranger Fluff Alphabet 1/4

Rio Ranger x Reader

Alphabet Letter ABCDEFG [Fluff]

Author’s note: Currently obsessed with the biggest bastard in the universe and have been mentally surviving because of Character AI, so I just had to scribble this down.

A little warning that this might be more harsh and unhealthy than your average fluff alphabet. But please remember that we’re talking about a character who quite literally lacks all positive emotions in his creation ... You are his heart. And he just needs to warm himself up to that.

Rio Ranger/Reader [Romantic]

• • • ° ° ° • • • ⚀ ⚁ ⚂ ⚃ ⚄ ⚅ • • • ° ° ° • • •

A ctivities - What do they like to do with their s/o? How do they spend their free time with them?

Because you’re technically both stuck in a killing game where danger lingers at every corner, a lot of the more ‘normal’ activities are most likely minimised. The role of being the third floormaster also puts a ton of responsibility on his hands, so most free time gets reduced to the smallest possible degree. This doesn’t stop you, however. You just keep dragging him along with you against his will. Rio would feel slightly weirded out but strangely amused by your behaviour towards him. Unlike the others, you never treated him as your enemy to begin with. He’d play along with you at first. Constantly watching if you have any hidden motives or goals behind your sickly sweet demeanor. Only to figure out the facts and realise that... You don't.

You’d pull him along to do quite literally anything remotely fun you have the chance of doing in this hell hole, pulling him away from the killing game itself after the said attractions to instead spend both of your time in your assigned room. I especially enjoy the thought of you both doing activities in order to make him feel more human rather than as a doll. This usually just results in you painting his nails, giving him some make-up of your own to enjoy, using some facial paint on his features or brushing his beautiful ginger locks as you both babble your days away. Other fun things would include you both creating more face cards such as the ones he always held with him, helping you make some of your own so you two can twin.

B eauty - What do they admire about their s/o? What do they think is beautiful about them?

Due to him physically being a doll and having this inferiority complex towards humans, he’s most likely going to adore every single inch of you, his low status striking him once again, but he wouldn’t dare show you this. It sadly does add onto insecurity and even potential jealousy. And although the list of things he adores about you is endless, there’s something else in particular that specifically helped you steal his heart with no exceptions.

Your determination to be kind to him.

This is what he admires about you the most. We all know he can behave like an unbearable prick and he made it clear that he wasn’t up for friendships with humans. And yet... You never lost your hope in him. Despite his floormaster title, you still viewed an treated him as you did with any other participant. You still smiled at him. And your lack of resentment towards him might just be exactly what he needed in order to lessen his own towards the other players in the game.

C omfort - How would they help their s/o when they feel down/have a panic attack etc.?

Rio has little to no experience in proper communication, much less the instinctive responses the human body and mind can have towards themselves. As soon as you fall into these little habits, he would at first just stare blankly at you; not knowing what on earth to think. He’d move over towards you, being somewhat awkward with his movements yet being strangely... Caring at the same time. He won’t be too intimately touchy with you, but you’ll definitely get a hug here and there and he always seems to want to entangle his hand with yours.

Ranger has seen the affects of true despair on past participants. And despite his lack of care and empathy towards others, he knows he doesn’t want you to feel the same way. He finds the sensitivity of human emotions difficult to deal with, but ... He cannot help but feel this need to help you. Despite being rather unhandy when it comes to physical contact and affection, it seems like he wants to stay close to you or at least remain in the same room whenever you’re feeling down or are going through an episode. He’d also leave behind snacks and other basic human needs to make sure you’ll still take good care of yourself. He does truly care about you in his own way ...and it will show as long as you keep note of the little details.

D reams - How do they picture their future with their s/o?

He doesn’t really tend to think about the future nor care about it that deeply. To him, the only importance is here and now. Though every now and then his mind will go towards the what ifs. He’s seen romantically involved relationships between other players before you came along and though he never thought much of it back then; he sometimes cannot help but hope for the exact same things to happen between you two. The connections he’s gotten glimpses of before you two became a couple stuck with him and it now sometimes makes him wonder if the same are capable between you and him.

Somewhere deep down, he truly does desire a bond of trust with another that doesn’t require certain motives or gets deeply affected with the current circumstances you find yourselves in. He wants to be understood and accepted for who he is.

He wants to be... Human

E qual - Are they the dominant one in the relationship, or rather passive?

He naturally feels inferior towards those who are human and you are no exception. This mainly results in him trying to boss you around and act like a much more dominant individual than he actually is. He’s always had this facade to keep on in order to live up to his father’s expectations as the third floormaster. He wants to believe that he’ll stick together like glue until the end, with or without being looked after. But he keeps on feeling this damned warmth in his chest whenever you provide the littlest bit of affection, resulting in him melting in your arms behind pure instinct.

Realistically speaking, the boy loves to be babied and has a soft spot for those who are the nurturing type. He’s really just a child in an adult’s body, especially after facing the neglect of his father. He likes to convince himself that he doesn’t need love and care at all. But if anything, he internally craves it more than anything. He finds himself getting shaken up with the tiniest bit of affection and doesn’t know how to handle the sensation of it. He truly is rather sensitive towards it all.

F ight - Would they be easy to forgive their s/o? How are they fighting?

Ah yes. Very fluffy, guys.

It most likely depends on what the fight is about. You both constantly get into little squabbles and contests where you test one another, mainly caused by Ranger’s unending and merciless teasing. But there is absolutely no hard feelings behind a lovers quarrel. Heavier topics however ... are a different story. It most likely ranges between his insecurities getting the best of him and taking it out on you, or you calling out his father’s terrible influence. And if it’s mentioned, Ranger goes mad.

Even if somewhere deep down, he knows that you’re more than right. After a screaming fit is thrown, he’s likely going to avoid you for a while to try and sort his feelings out. Fortunately after this, he will 100% come crawling back like his life depends on it. And in all honesty, it does. You’re the only one out there who made him experience these foreign feelings... he wouldn’t dare lose that now. He seems like the type to never directly apologise because of his stubborn- and pettiness, but he would stop trying to prevent facing you at some point. He’d still dodge questions and reason, but he would try and show he’s sorry by giving you little gifts all around the block.

G ratitude - How grateful are they in general? Are they aware of what their s/o is doing for them?

He wouldn’t share it to the open eye for sure, but he does realise that you’ve always done a lot for him. He sometimes even considers himself undeserving for every little effort you’ve put into your bond with him. He struggles a lot with sharing his true emotions and it has a lot of healing to do in order for this to get better. He shows his gratefulness through physical touch and contact, something he usually wouldn’t allow at all and where one could get highly punished for. Instead, he just shows his appreciation and gratitude for you through his own ways and as much as he possibly can.

He’s absolutely smitten ... Just through his own circumstances.

• • • ° ° ° • • • ⚀ ⚁ ⚂ ⚃ ⚄ ⚅ • • • ° ° ° • • •

#yttd #yttd x reader #rio ranger #rio ranger x reader #rio laizer #rio laizer x reader #rio ranger imagines #your turn to die #your turn to die imagines #yttd rio ranger #yttd rio x reader #your turn to die x reader #kimi ga shine #kimi ga shine x reader #kgs x reader #toto noel

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wondergirl2007 · 5 months

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These five artists have inspired me to do art myself and I really admire their art ~ So I’m going to tell you about them and why they inspired me and they will even be tagged. If any of the artists that are in the list see this, then I just want to thank you for inspiring me.

5. Kika-ila

This artist is known for doing Total Drama art, and I was obsessed when I first saw her art! Her style is so freaking cute and I actually think her Total Drama Kids stories are better than Total DramaRama itself. I actually used to love Total DramaRama, but now not as much. I don’t hate it thought. I love Total Drama, but most YouTubers I watch that do TD content are leaving the fandom, like TotalDramaRicky and Noahh, which really does suck, but I can see why and they want to move on to other stuff. I really like the timeline drawings she did, and she even did it for FNAF (Five Nights At Freddy’s) too! FNAF is one of my favourite horror video game franchises, my favourite is the second one, which is actually a prequel! I didn’t even know that until a few weeks ago! But overall, Kika does awesome art and she deserves more attention!

4. thegreatrouge

I love this girl’s art. She’s known for doing art with rubber hose characters, like Felix The Cat, Oswald The Lucky Rabbit, Mickey Mouse and even Cuphead and Bendy! She has made a whole series called “Bendy And Boris And The Quest For The Ink Machine” and it’s amazing so far! The project is currently on hiatus right now, I’m not sure if she’s discontinued the comic and I really hope she hasn’t. I hate stories that are left on cliffhangers, along with “Two Sides Of The Story” which is a HTF comic by one of my good friends Emmy, she discontinued the story because she believed it was cringe. The art? It was cringey at first, but the art got better at around chapter 4. The actual storyline? Yeah, it was quite cringey actually. Can’t really blame her, but I actually did enjoy the story, I’m even doing a redraw of it and might even do a non canon continuation of it! I won’t do it for BABQFTIM, since there is already some continuations of that story. Rouge has also done a Cuphead In Wonderland project too which is pretty good too! Unfortunately, she’s been losing motivation to do art recently, which really upsets me. She’s an awesome artist, and I’d love to help her feel motivated again. Most of her art is sketched, or digital but without colour, but I can understand that colouring in art can take time. This girl is pretty good at art and she definitely deserves more motivation to continue doing what she loves.

3. The-Wallop-Cat-12

This artist mainly does Cuphead art, but she also does Sailor Moon, Splatoon and Mario art! Which is awesome, since I love all of those video games and Sailor Moon is my favourite anime. I don’t watch anime a lot, but my personal favourites are Sailor Moon, One Piece, Naruto, PPG Z, Yo-Kai Watch, Demon Slayer and Dragonball Z. Cuphead is definitely one of my favourite video games, despite how hard it can be. I got it for Christmas last year at it has been fun playing it. I also love VOAdam’s comic dubs of Cuphead Comics and he even did dubs for Wallop’s Cup Bros In Wonderland comics! I was working on a comic about it, but I discontinued it since I lost interest. I still love the idea of it though. Cuphead X Alice In Wonderland. I love Alice In Wonderland. There’s even some heartwarming comics she’s done with the the Cup Bros comforting each other that are real tearjerkers. I also really liked the Size Shifting Cup Bros comic she did. I like how Drama Days (a YouTuber I like) coloured in the comic too. I don’t know why, but I love a cartoon episode where someone becomes a giant. Don’t ask me why I love it, I just do. Probably because of Alice In Wonderland. Wallop is my favourite Cuphead artist, and she is very good at what she does!

2. ChaoChao0071

Oh my god, this girl… SHE IS AMAZING!!! I’m actually kinda jealous! Her art and animations are so damn good! She mainly does HTF content, but she also likes Invader Zim and My Little Pony. I love her crossover series with HTF and MLP “Everything Is Broken” and I like her Invader Zim series, “Not Your Enemy”. Looking back at when she started compared to now, she has been improving over the years! I really like her fanmade MLP character, Creepybloom. She’s such an amazing and interesting character. Chao’s voice acting for her is just splendid. (No pun intended cos there is an HTF character named Splendid and he’s my favourite character). I love villains that eventually turn good and realise their mistakes, like Sunset Shimmer in MLP: Equestria Girls and Vomitdid in Drama Days’ Splendid series. I also really love him. Definitely an interesting fanmade character. I also love her HTF OC’s Whiskers, Smokey and Holes. They are awesome concepts to EIB. Fun Fact, I actually didn’t like them at first when I first saw them in Part 12, but I eventually grew interest to them in Part 14, since we didn’t really see them in Part 13. Overall, this girl is AMAZING and I hope I’ll be able to animate like her one day. Her animation is so smooth and she is so skilful!

1. EmmyJeanBean

Emmy, if you are reading this, then I just wanna say… Thank you. Thank you so much. You are my best friend. You were the one to inspire me to do the art I do today. You have improved so much throughout the years, and I love every single art piece you have done. I follow you on DeviantArt, Instagram and Amino. I’ll make sure to follow you when or if I get Twitter. You are the reason why I do the art I do today. Everything about you AU makes me so curious and I love the way you made the characters and you OC characters are amazing too. It makes me wish they where in HTF too, like Angus, (Lammy’s ancestor) Samantha, (Splendid’s sister), Tammy, (Cuddles and Toothy’s kid), all of Cuddles siblings, everyone’s moms just all of your OC’s definitely deserve to make it into the show if it ever comes back. I’d love to to anything to bring HTF back. We can bring HTF back together. With all the fanmade stuff people are making, like Amensia, Nemao’s fanmade episodes, Drama Days’ Splendid series, EIB, etc, we can definitely make it possible since that shows that people still care about the show. Happy Tree Friends is my favourite cartoon and programme and I’d love to give it a revival. Let’s all bring HTF back to life, together. Emmy, you have actually inspired me to do some projects and art pieces, like your ‘Cannibal’ comic. It has inspired me to do a comic that I’ll be working on for the whole summer, but I won’t spoil it yet! I’ll keep it a surprise until the cover is out. I love so many of your projects like TSOTSS, Cannibal, Tammy’s Arc, Understanding Nolan, I’m Not Leaving and my favourite is A Stolen Heart, your Lifty X Splendid fanfic and my favourite HTF ship. Emmy, you are the best artist I’ve ever seen and nothing will change that. You art is so inspiring to me. You are the best.

And that’s them all! These 5 artists have inspired me to do the art I do today!

Kika-ila

thegreatrouge

TheWallop-Cat12

Pupster0071

EmmyJeanBean

NONE OF THE ART BELOW IS MINE! ALL CREDITS GO TO THE ARTISTS ABOVE.

#total drama #total drama island #total drama action #total drama world tour #total drama revenge of the island #total drama all stars #total drama pahkitew island #bendy and the ink machine #bendy and boris the quest for the ink machine #cuphead #happy tree friends #htf #htf fanart #thegreatrouge

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steloiv · 1 year

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okay part 2 of yumary post

part 1

mary's gambling style is playing-it-safe. she makes it so that she has the most chances of winning with the least risk, but she also has the choice to bow out if the situation arrives for it. that is why she has been betting the minimum bets up until now. it's basically a surefire way to win.

but what about yumeko? yumeko always want her gambles to include the most amount of risk for thrill of the game itself. however, she has been playing with mary and betting the minimum like her. it isn't until the fourth round when her motives are finally revealed.

yumeko has, after all this time, wagering against terano. she knows that the bookmaker has the ability to acquire the most votes using the student body. the election would be as good as determined at that point.

with this, mary gets completely cast aside!! the people are led to believe that yumeko doesn't care for mary as her rival, that all of mary's feelings and motivations in this game are just a stepping stone just so she can wager against terano.

how can someone who's been exploiting another person like that, can you call a friend, ririka argues. this was an important match for mary, as she has established. it's an awfully selfish and rude move for her part. it's like she doesn't care for mary at all.

BUT THENN

remember that if one of them wins, terano would still have the most votes. the results of the election would be as good as determined and terano would have "basically" be the winner. (the student body votes total up to a thousand and add that up to terano's 649, that's more than half of the overall 3000 votes, compared to a mere five hundred votes). the results of their gamble would have been meaningless.

but what about mary? she would have lost and/or reduced her chances to become president. their gamble would have meant nothing and she would have to strive all over again to go over the top.

what does yumeko say then?

"instead we're going to work together, right? after all, mary-san, you want to become head of the student council president, don't you?"

yumeko, in all of her inscrutable and incomprehending motives, has been helping mary all this time!! she has been respecting mary, being her friend, and rooting for her!! she cares for mary, had cared enough to hear about what mary has to say to her all those chapters back, about what she wanted to do in this election.

if they tied, mary would have better chances of becoming president. yumeko wanted to help her as well as get the gambling thrill she had so long seeked for. a better outcome couldn't have turned up for her.

with that, we get to have this cute, neat panel of them enjoying all of the thrill and excitement everything has been building up to that point AAAAAAAA

it all comes down to their choices in their cards. if mary wanted to win, a rock's clearly her play here. it's surefire and by the book, and it involves the least risk possible. there would be no other reason for her to play a card other than rock.

however, mary had an epiphany. mary KNOWS yumeko. she knows that the girl has the ability to turn the tables upside down in an insane and incomprehending way. mary is familiar enough with her, in all their time together, that she knows how yumeko works, in and out, even if she has no way of understanding it.

and that was why mary had chosen to play paper. she wanted to match yumeko's insanity with her own. she wanted to be equals with her, after all. because she chose that, she finally sees yumeko eye-to-eye, and had a taste of the insanity yumeko has always been accustomed of.

it's like!! they have achieved and arrived at this ultimate connection that makes them able to understand and comprehend the other like the backs of their hands. they contrast each other, and yet they complement each other as well. yumeko and mary's relationship is probably one of the most crucial aspects of the story and i can't wait to see what becomes of it (and them) in the manga 🤧🙏

#kakegurui #yumary #yumeko jabami #mary saotome #thought dumps

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a-model-of-propriety · 6 months

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Quick disclaimer: I drafted this particular post in 2021. part of me wants to go back and edit it to better align with my present thoughts/opinions, but for now I'll leave it as it was.

Since I apparently can’t stop overanalyzing this show, I am Back with More Thoughts. In this session, I will be comparing Warlow!Jekyll to Cuccioli!Jekyll.

The biggest difference in their characters, the “root” of their differences, is their motivation. This was a purposeful change for Broadway, to make Jekyll more sympathetic. If you don’t already know from my dramatic lead-up, I’m referring to the change from I Need to Know to Lost In the Darkness.

This changed Jekyll’s motivations from the book!canon, more selfish motive of discovering for himself (and for science) into the “noble endeavor” of saving his father.

I have mixed feelings about this change, but I’m not going to get into them here

This change in motivations fundamentally changes the character. Warlow is really intense and super dedicated to his work. He would do anything to prove his theories and further his own knowledge concerning the nature of mankind. Cucci, on the other hand, is emotional. He is just as dedicated to his work, but his determination to succeed comes from his desperation to help his father, not his own desire for knowledge.

One of the easiest places to see this is in Board of Governors. When Warlow is denied, he gets frustrated. The Board Members are getting in the way of his work, so they are an obstacle he must overcome. When we look at the same song, Cucci gets upset. In the 95 tour especially, he sounds close to tears in the line “Can’t you see I am not playing games?” In OBC, he gets angry. He physically grabs the Bishop and feels just inches away from attacking the entire Board. Maybe Warlow would have seemed more emotional, more angry in a live performance, but when working with what I have, Cucci is definitely the emotional one.

Another interesting difference lies in their different interactions with Stride, specifically the “I leave pretention like that, sir, to you!” dig. Warlow is much more forceful with this line. He fully means this insult, and he absolutely wants Stride to be offended by it. Cucci’s delivery of this line is very different. In the 95 tour, he doesn’t say it with anywhere near the force of Warlow, and in OBC, he uses this insult to calm himself down. Before this line, he was practically shouting, and he brings his volume back down to a reasonable level for this line. He’s using it to recompose himself. It’s less of an attack on Stride than an effort to recenter himself.

Another difference lies in their opinions of the hospital itself. Warlow obviously wants to help the “doomed, broken souls” within, but he doesn’t have a particularly strong opinion on how the patients are being treated. Cucci, however, obviously hates the hospital. He calls it a prison and says that the patients are “left there to rot”. Because he has his father in there as a patient, he sees the mistreatment of the patients firsthand, and he has this palpable contempt for the hospital. When Warlow focuses solely on his work and the good it could do, Cucci verbally attacks St. Jude’s, emphasizing the mistreatment of its patients.

This got long and rambly. I’ll stop now.

#jekyll and hyde #anthony warlow #robert cuccioli #seph thinks too much #joke addition i was severely tempted to add:#they speed up the Board's collective attack on him after Warlow because of this #they take one look at Cucci!Jekyll #and go 'hurry we need to finish before he starts crying'

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derekscorner · 24 days

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Fated Rantings: Mordred pt2

I have just finished the two Camelot films and my post about them but one part I found too big to leave within it was my thoughts on Mordred.

I made a post on her already way back when I started my Fate journey but I couldn't help but want to add more after seeing these movies and playing through FGO's Camelot Singularity.

That said, for this, you will need some context from the first post so I'll link my part one of Mordred here:

Mordred Part One

Victim of Projection

To reiterate a portion of what I stated in Part One, I think Mordred is a highly complex individual. Her entire backstory is a tad convoluted as well.

I believe that some of this gets lost among fan discussion due to how people project onto her.

People see clips of her threatening to gut her master in Apocrypha because he called her a woman and jump on the trans wagon. And before you rage quit the post, I am not saying that there's no truth to that.

My issue is that her reasons are more complex than just her gender and that seems lost due to surface level understanding. She's also not that way due to surface level "daddy issues" either.

Her issues are far deeper due to her unnatural birth.

By "unnatural" I refer to her magical origins.

At the time, Artoria needed an heir but as a woman couldn't make one with her wife. To fix that Merlin used magecraft to temporarily erm...."alter" Artoria's body.

Morgan learned of this and essentially used her magic to charm Artoria and conceive Mordred.

This was Fate's way of working around Mordreds origins in mythology since Mordred is often cited as Arthur's bastard born of Morgans deceit and incest with their sibling.

Thanks to the magic of both Merlin and Morgan and the sheer level of spite that was the motivation for their birth Mordred was born a humunculous.

Which also meant that they would not only grow far faster than a normal human but live a much shorter life. Even if Mordred wasn't fated/cursed to die on battlefield of Camlann they would've died early anyway.

Mordred was doomed from the start and they know this. They also have a clear dislike for Morgan in other Fate stories for their upbringing.

Then there was Artoria's rejection of Mordred. Mordred perceived it as due to hate for Morgan or due to their gender but Artoria just did not believe they could be king.

Artoria rejected Mordred entirely without even sparing their "petty" emotions like hatred.

The damage on Mordred's spirit and beliefs is far more layered than just gender alone. That's what makes them endlessly appealing and tragic.

But I've already covered the deeper topic in the first post. What caught my eye about Mordred in the Camelot movies and FGO singularity was how Mordred rectified that as a knight of the Lion King.

The summoned knights have their full backstories in-tact. Mordred has all of that baggage seen in Apocrypha but is choosing to serve the king anyway.

And mind you, Mordred isn't treated well in the Camelot Singularity. The film didn't go over it as much as I'd have hoped but Mordred is choosing to be loyal to their father despite being banned from the city itself.

Despite Lancelot himself being there, Mordred is the one treated the worse of the knights present.

The more fucked up part of this info is that King Arthur is the one who decided that. The way she describes Mordred's treatment in the mobile game is cold, akin to the use and abandonment of a tool.

Gift of Rampage

On top of banning Mordred from the city save for certain times or for meetings the Lion King also "gifted" Mordred with "rampage".

All of the knights were given a power or gift upon serving her but Mordred's in particular not only plays on Mordred's angry nature but harms them when used.

Artoria Lancer essentially cursed Mordred to harm themselves in servitude to the Holy City while banning them from it for most of the time.

It's particularly cold treatment from a divine spirit that's lost her humanity. If anything, Goddess Rhongomyniad, aka the Lion King, aka Artoria Lancer shows more hatred/emotion toward Mordred than the real King Arthur did.

Despite that Mordred serves to the point they throw their life away to battle Caster and stop Ozymandias' pyramid.

And I can't help but think about why.

Guilt

And upon seeing her final scene with Caster I think I can understand why. There's a sense of guilt in Mordred. I wouldn't say Mordred wants to atone like the other knights but she does say that they will die "as a knight" as she "should have".

Which rolls back to Mordred's complex feelings for their father. Mordred truly idolized Arthur and Morgan grew frustrated by this and it was only then that she told Mordred of their parentage hoping to spark conflict.

Sadly that ploy ultimately worked but after all the hatred and love and despite Mordred's own unsorted feelings in other Fate works they idolize their father, the king Arthur.

It is almost ironic as well because Artoria Lancer treats Mordred no better than Morgan did in life but given this second chance Mordred would rather die her knight than betray them again.

On some level that love is there and Mordred chose to adhere to it in the Camelot Singularity and its tragic to see. Even for Caster who ultimately takes Mordred down.

Hell, even Agravain feels some sense of pity for Mordred when he questions the Lion King as to why Mordred is banished from the city. Granted, he was seeing it from a wasted soldier example but he still had s semblance of care/respect there.

I think that love also bled into her harsh words toward Bedivere. Mordred makes it clear they were never fond of him and I can't help but wonder if jealous is at the core of it.

Bedivere was Arthurs most loyal knight, a knight the king kept near at most times, a spot Mordred never had. They were never given the consideration and care Bedivere was despite being fare more powerful than him.

On top of that Bedivere was there for Arthur in her final moments while Mordred couldn't even get an iota of emotion from Arthur on the fields of Camlann.

Even in the Camelot Singularity where their roles should be reversed (in theory) they aren't. Mordred is treated like something to be used and left broken while Bedivere is walking around going on about seeing Arthur and fixing a mistake.

He also never argues with Mordred. He accepts their criticisms much to their anger. Mordred can't even get a rise out of Bedivere.

This is conjecture on my part of course, I have no way to prove it but it was something I wondered while watching the movie.

"What about Bedivere pisses her off so much?"

Ultimately Mordred continues to be interesting but tragic just like her father. It's hard to not talk about them or what's running through their mind.

I hope we get Mordred in another Fate story one day. Something to give them focus like Apocrypha or one that has more exploration into their relationship with Arthur.

It was only in bits in the FGO game and some scenes in the movies but it's fascinating to see the knight you'd expect to rebel instantly to die for the cause despite the treatment.

I know this seems to end a bit quick but there's not much else I can think of to say given the first post. I just found Mordred's situation in the movies interesting, I want to know what drives them.

One day maybe we'll get that Mordred route.

=======================

For my other experiences with Fate go here: https://derekscorner.tumblr.com/tagged/fated-rantings

#fate mordred #fgo #fate series #fated rantings

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stitchlingbelle · 10 months

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Oh, I'm SO curious about your Untitled BatB story! Is there anything you're comfortable sharing about it?

I actually posted the WIP ages and ages ago, I just need the motivation to go edit it and revamp the second half-- it's a retelling of Disney's (animated) Beauty and the Beast, trying to merge it with the 18th century court aesthetic and make sense of the royal politics of it all. I'm pretty fond of the first half, which is Belle's childhood and how they ended up in the "poor provincial town". It just needs a pass to work on the language a bit, etc. But the parts of the story from the film itself need work. I think I need to take a few more liberties with the film, especially the dialogue, to keep it in line with the first half, instead of the other way around. (Essentially, serve the fic instead of narrowly reproducing the original.) I'd also like to expand the epilogue, which deals a bit more with the prince and the king...

I admit, one of the reasons I tried this ask game was to try and motivate myself to go back and give it a shot!

This bit introduces Maurice, and mentions the real-life automaton that inspired the whole thing:

Eventually, she found her way to her father’s workshop. Like many others of the great of the land—even, she had heard her aunt mention, the king himself—her father was fascinated by the possibilities of clockwork and automatons. The Princess Royal had just been presented with one fashioned like a great lady seated at a dulcimer, which played several lovely tunes just as a real musician would. Her father, being the son of a wealthy merchant himself, was more interested in practical inventions. But Isabelle found the idea of such animated objects enchanting.

Today, he was working on his little boat—a scale model of a clockwork-driven ship he dreamed of building. “Ah, ma Belle,” he would say, “if only ships were big enough, they would laugh at storms. And with enough power, they would be fast enough to cross the sea in weeks, instead of months. Imagine it!” And Isabelle did.

For once, he did not look up as she entered the room. She had to knock on the wall, and he father startled and lost track of the spring he was holding. It erupted from his hand, followed by several gears and other pieces. He yelped, and Isabelle giggled. “Well!” he replied, “that’s sympathy, is it not? I did not know you were back. Come, help me find all these widgets.”

She joined him on the floor until they had collected all the errant pieces. “And now, ma Belle, what is it you desire? Did you have a nice trip to Mass with your grandmother?”

“It was cold,” she answered truthfully, and he laughed, a little strangely.

“It is winter, Isabelle.”

She sighed. “I do not think Tante likes me,” she admitted.

Her father went quiet for a moment. “Where would you get an idea like that?” he asked at last.

“She does not talk to me, like you and Maman and Grandmere all do.”

He gave her a reproving look. “And I have told you, ma Belle, that most adults will not speak to children as we do to you. You are clever, and we delight in you, but it is not the normal way of things. You should not expect her to share your interests—after all, you do not share hers, do you?”

“I love poetry as she does,” Isabelle replied seriously, “but lately all she speaks of is the Vicomte and other people I do not know.”

There was another moment of quiet. “Someday, you will know many people like the Vicomte, and you will need to understand politics as your aunt does. It is the way of the world. Your mother…” he trailed off.

“When will she be well, Papa?” Isabelle asked.

At that her father put down the tool he was holding and turned to face her. He did not smile, but took her hands and looked into her eyes. And then he told her she never would.

#BatB #fanfic #my work #wip

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ghost-rule0 · 11 months

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Lets imagen the trailblazer had to split his conciousness with the player making it basically guide the trailblazer on their journey by hinting them at the best options and helping with fight strategies.

Now in the case of a HI3 player the trailerblazer has always a nagging feeling when looking at varients of this specific bubble universe.

Imagen seeing a tear roll down tear cheeks, tho unnoticed by all others, as we first see the broken god slayer in hertas collection, how there heart clenches everytime we would to see himeko and how they would already start to see her as a parental figure. Yet unsure why they would feel that way.

A general feeling of happiness and familiarity would cross their mind once they see Seele and Bronya together. Talking to either of them would be always feel nostialgic and relaxing.

The moment cocolia would show up the trainblazer would get un unsure feeling what to do, but due to the players influence he instincifly choose to distrust her.

The player wouldnt be really noticed by the trailblazer since they itselfe didn't have a speaking role since every option in game could somehow come from the MC making nothing really out of character. The Player would be less seen as puppeteer but more as like the trailblazers voice of reason. Who to trust and what felt and didn't feel right mostly was thanks to the players influence.

Since 1.1 isn't out yet I can only speculate how the meeting with sushang and Luocha would turn out but I can say that Luocha would defenitifly would also raise slight alarm bells or just some slight distrust due to the fact he looks like ottos long lost twin.

And if the player already knew that the translation of his name was literally one of ottos alias they would BEG that trailblazer would stay on save distance from him. No matter what actions he would take in game player would just be over protectiv for MC and the team she would BEG to stay as far as possible away.

Sushang is always a ray of sunshin so that's just the same reaction as to bronya and seele, seeing old friends BUT THE PHEONIX?? SHE USES IN HER ULT.

The trailblazer would CLING to that thing player is just so so so so happy to see the dumb fat lil chimk.

Bonus for some minor elements I noticed:

One would be that the player would instantly see Kiana or Kevin (mattering in what gender you picked) since not only both use the iconic Kaslana bat but also the fact the fire MC uses the sword. For Caelus it would remind her of Kevin using the Cleaver of Shamash and Stelle of Kiana in her Herrscher of Flamescion form. (The fact when they shield she uses the EXACT same pose as Kiana in the HOF art makes it even worse sob)

The second thing would be listening to welt, talking once of twice of the fact he has seen "a word where humanity faced against great danger but managed to win" (cant exactly the exact sentaence he said). The player would instincifly think about what would he could Potential mean, beeing the Honkai Impact 3rd Universe he came from but the fact he mentions them multiple times as a example just makes their heart swell. You can clearly read how proud he is of the valkeryies and every human that didn't give up against the honkai that he specifically chooses them to motivate other civilisations to not loose hope (hands his dailoge for the belebog story arc end)

Generally ever player playing Star Rail would be a good guidance for the trailblazer since they already have a good a sense of who to beware or (Yanqing excluded since I just beg they don't make him kill his master or Marshall Hua here too)

#honkai impact #honkai star rail #rambles #idk maybe fic idea #kiana my beloved #I HAVE NOTHING TO DO ANYMORE I AM LV 53 FOR GODS SAKE

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darkx-the-dragon-kn1ght · 3 months

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Pokémon Reborn Screenshot Let's Play: Chapter 10

TEN CHAPTERS, GIVE IT UP FOR TEN CHAPTERS OF THIS-

At the rate we’re going, with seven chapters to get one Gym Badge, 7 * 18 = 126, and so if my calculations are correct we are about ideally 8% through the game with this chapter! Not including any postgame content, and I’m sure there will be a good bit of that.

Non-serious (and non-legally binding) math aside, I do feel a bit proud of myself for getting into the double digits with this Let’s Play. I wasn’t sure how long I’d be going with this project of mine, whether I’d stay motivated this long, whether anyone would even care- and yet, here I am, here we are, still going on with this. With luck, I’ll be able to keep going even further- no matter how annoyed I may get sometimes, I am really enjoying this game so far, and I’m as eager as ever to continue logging my experience and sharing it with everyone.

And this chapter isn’t going to be any different- the praise, the critique, the moments of me forgetting how game mechanics work! But first, as usual, we’re gonna recap what happened in the last part:

Xera continues exploring the Obsidia Slums for Amaria, with…mixed results.

On the way to the roof, Xera comes across a makeshift office of sorts. There, she encounters Corey yet again. Turns out, he provides pro bono medical treatment for the homeless and disparaged of the Slums, but this isn’t exactly…legal, so he asks Xera to keep quiet about seeing him there.

Xera comes across the younger thief who stole the Magikarp from the previous thief- but he already sold the Pokémon to a gang in North Obsidia Ward.

Deeper into the area, Xera is ambushed by a gang of wild Pokémon- a Scrafty and her trio of Scraggy. Luckily, Xera is able to defeat them and is able to continue her search.

Xera finds an abandoned Pokémon Egg in a basket and also encounters an excitable and spooked Spoink, which runs off before she can catch it.

Xera exits Obsidia Slums and finds herself in the far south of Obsidia Ward, which connects to a place called the Byxbysion Wasteland as well as Coral Ward. The former is inaccessible right now, so Xera heads further south to Coral Ward.

Finally, down in Coral Ward, Xera finds Amaria. However, Amaria- a Water-type specialist- is preoccupied trying to figure out how to rescue a wild Popplio that is trapped on a spot of land amidst the dangerously acidic lake.

Cain arrives and greets the two, revealing that Amaria is not just a Gym Leader, but one of the highest-ranking Leaders in the League.

Seeing the Popplio, Cain offers to handle it himself. He does so by sending out his Alolan Grimer, which can swim in the toxic safely; by riding on Grimer’s head/back, Popplio is safely brought onto the pier.

Amaria is impressed by Cain’s skills, revealing that he is Reborn’s Poison-type Gym Leader. However, Cain is quick to correct her and explains that he recently stepped down due to not wanting to be constrained to one Pokémon type (and…other reasons we don’t know yet). Amaria then muses that the Poison Leader before Cain also stepped down, wondering if the position is “cursed.”

Cain is about to leave, but Popplio follows him, evidently wanting to join his team and return the favor for Cain saving it. Amaria soon suggests Xera and Cain battle so Popplio can prove itself, and Cain is eager for a rematch.

Xera ultimately comes out on top; Amaria is surprised that Cain lost, but Cain takes the loss in stride. He then explains that he has business to take care of in the Wasteland and bids the two farewell for real.

Xera, at last, explains why she came looking for Amaria, Amaria realizing she left Florinia waiting all this time. She explains that she was tracking down a Team Meteor agent named “Borealis,” who was spotted in the Obsidia Slums. However, she found no trace of him, and it seems the trail has gone cold.

Amaria gives Xera the TMX for Cut. She makes her way back to Obisida Ward, urging Xera to come with and help once she’s ready.

So that’s where we’re at! I think this part is going to be primarily heading through Obsidia Park and taking out the source of the overgrowth, and after that…we’ll see. Let’s get this going!

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

Part 7

Part 8

Part 9

Part 10

Part 11

#pokemon reborn #pokemon reborn spoilers #pokemon fan game #pokemon reborn screenshot let's play

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