#i also love that the goblin king was fully real and being controlled by like. five different people. | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

averykedavra · 4 years

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alright, you asked. Cue Sanders Sides Swap AU number Five Billion! (original post here)

Morality!Remus:

He is...chaos.

Always has a huge smile on his face.

Changes his outfit every other week, but it always has a lot of flower prints and loud color schemes.

Pure energy.

Owns the room whenever he’s in it.

Has very little self-control and can sometimes come off as rude.

Makes a lot of snap judgments.

Lowkey willing to fuck up anyone who messes with his best buds.

LOVES disney

Pretends to be innocent, but makes a lot of dirty jokes while batting his eyes.

Misleading compliments for days!

“Boy, what an ass...et to your personality, am I right?” is completely him.

He’s actually really afraid of being hurt and takes things really personally.

The breakup hit him hard. He tried his best to move on but he still blamed himself for being Too Much and ruining things.

He’s more self-aware than people give him credit for. He knows sometimes he’s overbearing and hurts his friends but he doesn’t know how to stop.

On the morality side of things, he’s really loose about it. Always asking what Thomas thinks. He’s kind of afraid to be too harsh.

Best friends with Creativity!Logan and Anxiety!Roman. Argues with Logic!Janus a lot.

Intrusive Thoughts!Virgil kind of scares him from a morality perspective. And a personal perspective. He sees a lot of himself in Virgil’s exuberance and wonders if he’s really as rude and insensitive as Virgil is.

As for Deceit!Patton...things are complicated.

Creativity!Logan

Cue engineering montage from Big Hero Six.

Wears a science lab coat, his fingers are always stained with grease, his hair is ruffled from running his fingers through it.

Builds stuff. Loves robots and exploding beakers.

Gets very passionate about everything he creates.

Is lowkey the mechanic of the friendgroup and always fixes broken fridges or washing machines.

If you get him talking, he will NOT shut up. He’ll just jump from tangent to tangent for hours.

Owns a million bajillion books.

Has trouble making a good balance between his friendships and his work

Can come off as cold or disinterested when he’s really just thinking through a problem

Is a huge perfectionist.

Always tries to please everyone and reach their expectations for him. He wants everything to be nice enough for Morality!Remus, safe enough for Roman!Anxiety, and make enough sense for Logic!Janus.

Plus it has to meet his OWN standards, which means it has to be original and flawless and the best it can possibly be. And if it’s bad, then he’s failed as a person and Thomas will lose his job and die in the streets.

He may be a little OCD.

But he tears himself apart trying to meet these standards, sacrificing sleep and food, and it’s only after he finally cracks that his friends catch on.

He’s on good terms with Logic!Janus, although sometimes they argue. He’s best friends with Morality!Remus and is warming to Anxiety!Roman, though they sometimes argue. (Logan argues with a lot of people, he has a temper, especially if he hasn’t slept.)

His relationship with Intrusive Thoughts!Virgil is not great. Virgil represents all the chaos and unhinged energy he tries to avoid, and he feels that if he lets Virgil win, it’ll destroy the rules and boundaries he created. And without the limitations and expectations he’s surrounded in, he doesn’t really know who he is.

Kind of likes Deceit!Patton, though. His jokes are funny.

Anxiety!Roman

Ohhh boy.

Always has two hooked silver swords in his cloak.

‘Cause he’s ready for a fight at the slightest provocation.

Has absolutely almost taken Morality!Remus’ whole face out when he was startled.

Thomas probably has a severe anxiety disorder bc Roman has absolutely no chill.

Thinks up really imaginative scenarios in which Thomas dies or is hated by the entire world.

Insomniac.

Focuses a lot on Thomas being a Terrible Person and Hated By Everyone and Should Just Hide Before He Ruins Everything Else.

He’s accepted now, which is cool, but he’s still kinda insecure about his place in the group.

And before he was accepted? He made Thomas’ life a living nightmare.

Thomas still hasn’t fully recovered from some of the stuff Roman did.

Roman has apologized, and Thomas forgave him, but nobody can forget.

Roman has regular panic attacks. He tries not to let them affect Thomas, but it’s hard. Logic!Janus is the best at calming him down and Morality!Remus is the worst, just because he’s so overwhelming.

Jumps to all of the conclusion. He’s like a freaking frog with all the jumping he does.

Still a huge Disney nerd. Loves all the hero songs and wishes he was a hero, instead of the person born to be the villain.

Lowkey hates himself on a daily basis.

Nickname king.

He’s pretty good friends with Logic!Janus. Morality!Remus would die for him without hesitation and Roman thinks he’s a lot of fun. Him and Creativity!Logan have reached a tentative truce, but Roman always finds himself snapping at Logan. It doesn’t help that he just increases Logan’s perfectionist tendencies.

Thoughts on the Dark Sides are complicated for him. They used to be his best friends.

Now Intrusive Thoughts!Virgil is okay, kind of funny. Deceit!Patton? Can die in a fire for all he cares.

Logic!Janus.

You know that ‘um, actually’ friend? That’s Janus.

He will deliver all the knowledge with the most sass and panache possible.

Always looking for an opportunity to make the others look stupid.

Sarcasm central over here.

Can and will throw down with a bitch.

Self-care is his priority, because it’s logical to take care of yourself. This puts him in direct opposition with the others a lot, but he can handle it.

(No he can’t.)

Gladly plays devil’s advocate at every opportunity.

Debates. For. Days.

Don’t bring up paradoxes or his brain short-circuits.

Makes a million puns with a deadpan expression. No one’s quite sure how to respond to it.

Inside, he is a huge, massive dork. (And not the penis kind, Virgil.)

He really loves Disney, onesies, and fun turns of phrase.

Is really select with what he says. Always poised and ready to roll.

The few times he’s been caught off guard, nobody mentions again.

When he told his name after Morality!Remus did, Thomas laughed, and Janus is still salty about it.

He’s not that concerned with morality, so sometimes his logical suggestions include murder, arson, theft, or blackmail. They’re mostly jokes.

He’s not joking when he actually sides with Deceit!Patton on multiple occasions. Morality!Remus forgives him for it, but Janus thinks he hasn’t actually done anything wrong, and they have yet to actually talk through the growing resentment between them.

He can be a real asshole sometimes, blunt and straightforward. This makes friendship...hard.

But it’s fine. He doesn’t need friends anyway. All he needs is to keep Thomas and the others alive and successful.

He gets listened to--he wouldn’t allow anyone to ignore him--but they discount his advice more often than not.

It’s three against one, after all.

And Janus is the one nobody can stand.

(Even though he counts none of them as friends, he’s actually quite close with Anxiety!Roman and Morality!Remus. Even Creativity!Logan thinks he’s funny.)

As for the Dark Sides? They tolerate him, listen to him (especially Patton) and sometimes he wonders if he’d be better off with them instead.

Intrusive Thoughts!Virgil

Just vibing, let’s be real.

The epitome of Style (tm.) Piercings for days and always rocking killer eyeshadow.

Quotes memes on a daily basis.

Appears on top of the fridge randomly.

Way more relaxed than canon Virgil. Just having fun and living his life.

Loves conspiracies and cold cases, and reminds Thomas of them at one in the morning.

A force of chaos and does whatever he wants.

Can and will drink milk straight from the container, sit on whatever surface he wants, and respond to any complaints with “It do be like that sometimes.”

Societal conventions can go fuck themselves. If he wants to dress in fishnets and commit arson, no one can stop him.

“Vibe check,” he says and knocks Creativity!Logan out with a baseball bat.

Feral goblin child.

Wishes Logan would lighten up and give him more creative control.

His ideas are actually good! Just...not conventional. And kind of creepy sometimes. He likes horror stories.

And he does wreak havoc with intrusive thoughts, mostly the anxious and/or nihilistic kind, so Thomas isn’t inclined to let him stick around.

Deadpan and will slice into peoples’ insecurities with a glare if they try to threaten him.

“Big talk from the guy no one likes,” he says to Logic!Janus after Janus dismantles his claim that reality is an illusion.

“Why don’t you do everyone a favor and think for a fucking second about what you’re saying?” he asks Morality!Remus after Remus condemns Virgil’s ideas as mean.

“Nice to see you again,” he says with a smirk when Anxiety!Roman tries to get him to leave. “But knowing you, you’ll be back soon.”

Basically he tears into anyone who tries to force him into a mold or shut him up.

Except for Creativity!Logan. He’s always begging Logan for more power and Logan always shuts him down. Because he’s afraid of what Virgil means, afraid of how boundless creativity could affect his friends, afraid of the way Virgil can easily smash his carefully constructed standards.

Virgil really just wants the freedom to create what he wants.

And deep down, he kind of wants his brother back.

But he’s got Deceit!Patton, who thinks he’s the best thing since sliced bread, so he’s alright.

Deceit!Patton

Okay so...this is not unsympathetic Patton. But this is maybe morally grey Patton. Fair warning here. I get it if you’re uncomfortable with that. He cares deeply about the people in his life but advocates some harmful coping mechanisms and...yeah.

He’s sunny. He’s bouncy. He’s always smiling and makes the best jokes.

He’s also fucking terrifying.

He’ll silence someone with a smile. He’ll say the most terrible things in the sweetest voice. He’s outwardly kind and supportive of everyone, but there’s steel underneath that.

He can impersonate people, although he doesn’t do it very often. He prefers to simply state his objective and convince Thomas.

And Thomas isn’t used to a Side that is so nice. That takes what he says into account. That doesn’t argue with the others or call anyone names. He loves his main Sides, but Patton makes him feel heard.

So he ends up almost giving Patton way more control than he should have.

‘Cause yeah, Patton is self-preservation. But he takes that in an, um, different direction than Janus would?

He’s the lies you tell yourself to make yourself feel better.

Small stuff. “It’ll be fine. Everything’s okay. It’s not a big problem. It’ll solve itself. I don’t need to study.”

Well, it seems like small stuff. Until it piles up.

Patton creates a facade around Thomas. He doesn’t want to solve problems. He doesn’t even think himself capable of that. Instead, if he hides the problems they have to go away, right?

He’s basically King of Repression.

He’s less about preserving Thomas’ health than preserving Thomas’ happiness.

And preserving happiness isn’t helpful when someone actually needs to work through their feelings.

Patton’s pretty damn terrified of negative emotions. And although he kind of knows that Thomas can’t hide from stuff forever, he’d scraped out a fragile status quo. This stuff gets worse before it gets better, and the kind of painful honesty that Thomas would need to confront this stuff...he’s scared of that.

He doesn’t want Thomas to get hurt. He doesn’t understand that hurt is natural and a part of life. He doesn’t understand that sometimes you need to hurt in order to grow.

He’s deceptively good, kind, and alluring. It’s only after you’ve taken his route that you realize how poisonous his ideas are.

He’s working on being better. And he’s got people inclined to help. Logic!Janus disagrees with him, but enjoys his company. (Patton’s the only one who never insults him.) Creativity!Logan tolerates him. Morality!Remus disagrees with him vocally, though. And Anxiety!Roman would gladly run him through.

Thomas admits that Patton is a valid part of him. However, Patton still needs to understand the difference between protection and suffocation. Repression is bad for you, and right now, so is Patton.

However, everyone’s growing and learning. So maybe Patton has a chance to be...better.

If anyone’s interested, I could write what I think the episodes would be and how they would play out!

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make-it-mavis · 5 years

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got any nsfw headcanons for the shit goblins? :)

OooooOOOoooh sugar, what a can of worms you just opened.

I actually did make a post about the development of their physical relationship here, and how it helps them learn to communicate with each other.

But as for general HCs? Yeah I got a few lmao. Listen, sexuality has been one of my special interests for years, I love using it for character building. It’s so fun.

Beneath the cut will be lots of naughty HCs. 18+ for some explicit/graphic language. You’ve been warned.

Mavis has a huge punishment kink. Her favorite is being caught in the middle of a naughty deed and being forcibly punished for it, being scolded all the while. But scolded in a way that’s still sort of complimenting her on what a slick prankster she is. Things like, “Finally, I got my hands on you. Wait ‘til everyone hears how I finally put the arcade’s biggest problem in her place.” Just as an example. But she never submits immediately – she’s a really bratty sub that likes egging her partner on so she’ll get punished even more.

Along with that, she’s a real big masochist. Mavis loves almost anything that makes her feel a rush, and pain’s a big one. She loves Turbo’s sharp teeth and how bitey he is. She loves being choked, slapped, scratched, having her hair pulled, being tied up too tight, etc. It’s very rare that she comes out of an encounter without at least a few marks.

Turbo, for the most part, loves being in control. He loves having his ego stroked even more than his dick. Winning a struggle for dominance is a big one, so it’s good that Mavis isn’t a pillow princess and fights back. He loves being worshiped in any way – really let it show how much you love touching him. Begging and praise are huge turn-ons, and there’s nothing he loves more than reducing Mavis to the point where she’s mad with desire.

Turbo loves dominant sorta roleplay shit but not the usual "daddy" or "master" kink. He likes being treated like royalty, being called things like "your majesty/grace/highness/flattering word" or "my king/lord", and showered with so much praise, affection, and adoration that it borders on worship. Mav's role in that scenario is the unruly court jester, a snarky playful little shit that's still ultimately there to entertain the king. (Hilarious if you think of Pyrite later)

That being said, though, very occasionally, Turbo’s been known to enjoy being dominated. People constantly in control or with a lot of power tend to like playing into the fantasy of a power shift in the bedroom. It’s a safe, rewarding way to experience losing, which is otherwise so taboo for him. That’s not to say he’s 100% submissive either, he’s less of a bratty sub and more of a straight up spiteful sub. Glares, insults, growling, nipping at fingers. He hates how much he loves it.

With that, the things he tends to “enjoy” the most are being tied up, being degraded, being leashed and commanded. He’s not as much of a masochist as Mavis but he still enjoys some biting, hair-pulling, and a bit of choking. As a sub he often takes on the role of a wild, ill-tempered animal that needs to be broken into an obedient pet. That involves a nice mix of teasing, praise, punishment, and humiliation while still encouraging him to push back and refuse to fully submit. Quite often, those scenarios end with him either being freed or breaking out of his restraints and going wild on Mavis, overpowering her and paying her back for all the rough treatment. Resistance and scolding on her end is all part of the scene, but before long, she’s always pulling hard on the leash and urging him on, praising him for being such a good demon boy. He earned his reward.

I’d like to think that they own a strap on (it’s Mavis’ dildo), but straight-up pegging is not something Turbo’s down with. That level of submission is just a smidge too far for him. Which is fine. But Mavis still likes to make him suck her strap-on dick, especially if he’s tied up and she can knot a fist in his hair and force his head down onto it or fuck his mouth. Turbo’s straight, but he’s pretty secure in that fact (and homophobia kind of isn’t a thing in my arcade ‘verse). He’s sucking a dick, but it’s a girl’s dick, so he’s still into it. (Transphobia isn’t a thing either. Gender’s super vague and unimportant.)

I’ve been asked enough times to remark upon it what Turbo’s dick is like. I hadn’t thought of it too much bc for me, dicks aren’t all that exciting appearance-wise lmao. But it’s inevitable if I’m going to talk nsfw about him. So my answer is…. length-wise, it’s pretty average, but it’s a little bit on the thicker side. I believed I described it as, it’s just nice enough that you might see it and be like, “Goddamn it, such a fuckin’ douche canoe doesn’t deserve a dick that nice.” It’s not all that vascular, it’s grey, and it gets darker towards the head. (I know I’m gonna have to draw it eventually. I draw nice dicks so be ready)

This isn’t relevant to the shitgoblins really but I think that the Twins have similar dicks to Turbo’s since they’re all brothers, but theirs are on the longer side rather than the thicker side. Mavis has seen them, and she just laughed, to the Twins’ displeasure.

No one’s asked me what Mav’s vulva looks like (and thank god actually thats a weird question but at the same time why not???? vulvas are nice) but I guess all I can say about it is… it’s cute? To match her “cute Disney-faced young woman” aesthetic. I have to imagine that if Disney studios ever did porn animations they would draw really idealized labia. ALL VULVAS WOULD LOOK THE SAME. That’s a concept I’ve tried to battle with my own nsfw art where I can, but for Mav I can only picture her with simplified cutesy bits. Soft, supple, pink, blushy, etc. Does not at all mirror how she likes said bits to be treated lmao. But I will gift her with a nice, decent sized clit because you can’t stop me

SHE TASTES tangy and sweet like cherry pie filling

Here’s a fun one. I mentioned that Mav is a masochist. I think she takes that to an extreme in her game. For someone not programmed with in-game death or defeat, dying’s probably almost as painful as DYING dying before respawn. And respawn’s gotta be a dizzying rush of relief from that pain. So… I think she occasionally get off on respawning LOL. She only does this alone, though, as she asked for Turbo’s help with it once and he did not end up having a good time. As it turns out, he’s not into killing his partner in bed, lmao.

Mavis’ brush and paint can are loaded with some of her most dense code, so much that she can feel touch through them, and they’re, shall we say, erogenous zones. Turbo knows this and likes to swipe her brush in public and fiddle around with it just to tease her. She also frequently uses the handle of it to fuck herself.

The shitgoblins are REALLY into PDA. Turbo likes to show off the action he’s getting and Mav just loves the taboo of it. They make out in open public spots all the time, will casually get a little handsy while talking to people, and will straight-up fuck where they can. Tapper’s supply closet is a fave, as well as Niceland’s penthouse, as well as a dark corner of the Qix nightclub. Hidden rooms and alleys in other games work, too. But the best of all is Gene’s closet, with his expensive cashmere cardigans used as cum rags.

Mav is really good at deepthroating. It’s nothing to her.

Turbo has been known to come pretty fast, but he has the peculiar ability to be ready to go again in record time. He’s like the Energizer bunny. He just keeps fuckin’ going.

That’s all well and good, because once they’re fully used to fucking, Mavis develops a taste for overstimulation and likes being fucked past her limit. That’s where communication and a safe word comes in handy.

Since he’s a Speed Demon, Turbo has unusually high body heat. This means… yes, this means his jizz is really hot. Excuse me.

Turbo rarely admits it but he’s obsessed with Mavis’ ass. He loves grabbin onto it while they fuck, and loves casually feeling her up (with her consent of course). A particularly nice view of Dat Ass can throw him completely off what he was doing. Same goes for her legs.

Mavis has a thing for Turbo’s hands. She otherwise never wants hands to touch her so they’re a real special thing to her. He often doesn’t even have to touch her anywhere particularly erotic to get her going – just the fact that she’s being touched is exciting enough. That being said, she loves being fingered, and she loves having his fingers in and around her mouth, to satisfy her oral fixation.

Mavis is of the “try everything once” attitude. Turbo’s a bit more of a princess than her, but probably more adventurous than the average person.

As much as Turbo likes to finish inside her, he’s also got quite a taste for spilling all over her, as a sort of possessive way to mark/claim her. She’s all his, after all.

They looooooove fucking while high.

I think thats enough for now lmao congrats on consuming so much dirt!!

#asks #headcanons #dirty stuff #i love the nasty shitgoblins #i just love them and i want them to have a nice sex life

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phantoms-lair · 6 years

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Just finished the Be Cool Scooby Doo Finale and I have some thoughts

(This is going to have spoilers for it, obviously)

Now, my feelings on this incarnation of Scooby Doo have always been mixed. They’ve done some stuff I really loved and some stuff I absolutely loathed (Not counting the art style, which I think even the Artists didn’t like, judging by how they tried to get away from it as much as they could with the backgrounds, monsters, etc.)

But the 2 part finale, Professor Huh I liked. I liked it a lot. It could have gone the Mystery Incorporated route so easily. Fred’s family situation in MI contained some of the darkest most twisted parts of the darkest Scooby Doo incarnation ever, from finding out his father was a treasure hunter who had kidnapped him as a baby to the clusterfuck that was his biological parents. It seemed so much of the series was designed to hurt Fred. And the revelation that Fred’s Dad was the most feared inmate in a maximum security prison, a criminal who committed incomprehensible crimes and only communicated through a hand puppet, could have gone that route so easily.

But it didn’t. Instead of being a paradigm breaking shock, this was an old wound for Fred, albeit one he’s perhaps never fully come to terms with. And I was very pleased with Daphne’s echoing of my own thoughts “Oh, now you make sense.” because this does explain a lot about Fred’s own behaviors. More so the longer I thought about it.

(under cut, this got long)

One thing I love was, no matter how much Fred would deny it to Rose or anyone outside the gang, it was obvious he still loved his father very much, he just didn’t know how to deal with him. And Donald Jones/Professor Huh clearly loved him too, as we discover, much like Sirius Black, he broke out of jail for the sole purpose of protecting his son. Also the vulnerability Fred’ shows to the gang. Voicing aloud the fear that he might be as crazy as his father couldn’t have been easy, and was likely something he’d been dreading since early childhood. The fact that he could trust them with it was touching.

Unfortunately for Fred, despite Shaggy’s comment to the contrary, I think there’s some truth in it. In MI Both Ex-Mayor Jones and Brad and Judy Chiles were driven by greed. And while Jones would chose his son’s life over his greed (as opposed tho the Chiles who psychologically tortured their son) both put their greed before his happiness. Unlike them, Professor Huh was not motivated by greed at all. He got nothing material out of his crimes, nor were they based in revenge. His motive was never stated, but I think I can make a guess.

I think Donald Jones suffered from a variant of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. That his crimes (which were nonviolent nor, as stated, for material gain) were compulsions. (Why the compulsions took the form of unintelligible and impossible crimes I’ll get to in a bit.) I don’t think it’s a coincidence that he chooses a hand puppet to talk through and his costume involves a hand on the back of his head. When he’s acting out on his compulsion, he’s a puppet, not in control of his actions. He may have responded well to therapy, given his awareness, but he didn’t get that and after all this time its probably going to take a lot of work to bring Donald Jones back to who he was. I think in some ways he’s trying, It was established early on the Professor Huh only communicated through his hand puppet, but we hear him speak otherwise throughout the episodes, but only to Fred and his friends. The sentences are non sequiturs with no relation to anything happening, but I think it’s him trying.

And though it manifests very differently, I think Fred has his own obsessions and compulsions he’s dealing with, specifically centered on solving mysteries and making the world make sense. It’s why Cutler knew that he could take advantage of Fred by dangling a mystery in front of him, when all logic and reason would dictate Fred catching him and turning him in. Because he knew when it came to mysteries Fred physically couldn’t help himself. Not that Fred is aware his thought processes are anything but sane and normal. He doesn’t recognize his own obsession for what it is (Which in retrospect makes me a little less mad at him about the Christmas episode. He wasn’t able to properly recognize Daphne’s problem until he’d dealt with his compulsion to solve a mystery)

In the end, though. Fred’s manages to accept his father as he is. The hand puppet scene was such a good one. It both acted as a bookend to the series, the puppets being introduced in episode one, and demonstrated Fred’s sincere desire to reach out to his father.

While Professor Huh has difficulty expressing himself in an understandable manner, he is easily able to understand the world around him. Fred could have simply said what he wanted. Using the puppet was a bigger message of acceptance than any words could have been. And it reached him. “It’s time I turned myself in” and “But you love the Mystery Machine” were normal sentences relative to the situation, the first time we’ve heard Professor Huh do that.

They may be on opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of order and chaos, but they love each other very much.

As for the why of the crazy nature of Professor Huh’s crimes, we see it in the barber scene, as for the first time ever Shaggy and Scooby’s ruse is turned back on them. When Professor Huh requests them to use a croissant to put his eyebrows on his shoulders, it’s obviously a nonsensical request, typical of the character, right up until he demonstrates on Shaggy and Scooby.

Be Cool had come the closest to calling out what I’ve dubbed Crack Theory A, that Shaggy is a wizard and unaware if it. The thing is, Donald Jones warps reality too, if anything on a larger scale. And I think that’s the problem. Fred describes his father as “...a great father. A computer engineer and one of the most rational people on the planet.” In Goblin King we saw Velma have a total blue screen as being confronted with the supernatural being real. Imagine how much worse she would have reacted if she’d discovered it was real by discovering she was a witch?

Donald Jones pushed the fabric of reality, because he wanted it to push back. He was a man who believed in logic and science and discovered he could ignore them. It’s why his crimes, which were public and elaborate left no clues, they were done with magic. They defied logic and reason, like hotglueing multivitamins to the ceiling of military helicopter carriers, suspending a cruise ship between two buildings, and leaving messages via a llama chewing on a note that would finish eating it the moment it was done being read. They made no sense because there was no objective, other than being as random as possible.

And here’s the kicker. I think Fred’s magic too.

Yes it sounds insane. This is the most ration and grounded we’ve seen since the seventies. Why on earth would I think he’s magic?

The

Mother

Fucking

Mystery

Machine

This isn’t even all it’s forms. Not to mention the built in forensics lab. almost all of which is controlled by a button Fred has on a key fob. Button. Singular. And it can be any mode, or he steer it with ease. And yeah, it didn’t attach itself to a mecha, it unfolded into one. The Mystery Machine must be the most enchanted item in the world.

Fred, however, is even less aware he could be magic than Shaggy (since Shaggy at least joked about it) and I don’t think his father would tell him, if indeed that was what was responsible for his own issues.

Actually there’s one more instance that Fred might be magic aside from the Mystery Machine. The sock puppet Fred was made by Daphne in the first episode. It’s the simplest type of puppet, it can talk and waggle it’s arms, but nothing like changing expression. It’s has those serious eyebrows from the moment of it’s introduction. Except in one scene

Here’s it’s got a more gentle expression

Matching Fred’s own as he uses it to tell his father he loves him,

#Scooby Doo #Be Cool Scooby Doo #I have thought way too hard about this #And spent too much time writing it #I may lay down for a bit

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fidelishaereticus · 6 years

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some thoughts on Labyrinth

OK so after having re-watched this movie for the first time in a while I want to take a moment to appreciate how fucking subtle & brilliant the main themes of Labyrinth are??

I mean...there are Some Flaws, like: mildly clunky script writing in places and: a teen actor struggling to pull off mildly clunky script writing (seriously scenes where you’re talking to yourself and trying to make it sound “naturalistic” are The Hardest Thing, to write or act). And they pull some very Unsubtle tropes (see: Hoggle’s whole character arc, very obvious & predictable, but cute as heck so also excellent) H O W E V E R: When it comes to the core concepts & themes of the movie, the the things it’s really about? After all these years it is still somehow refreshingly nuanced. Shit, it does such a damn good job with its ambiguities. The balance it strikes between both critiquing and uplifting the ways in which Sarah engages with fiction, suggesting a compromise without spelling it out? The way the goblin king is both imaginary and real, both someone she created and an independent power beyond her control? How the whole thing is about negotiating imaginative agency? How on some level Sarah is both the protagonist and the antagonist? How you can take it as literal or allegorical or both? And how dang subtle Sarah’s “romantic” interest Jareth is?* How the movie portrays all of these these things very powerfully without being obnoxiously sledgehammer-y about it? This shit right here. THIS IS WHAT I ASPIRE TO in Cardhouse and the Cage (also one of the few stories i know of that deals with the same themes in a structurally comparable way).

So this has probably all already been said 100 times but, to venture a bit into my personal analysis...

the movie opens with the problem: the dissonance between the reality and fantasy, how being a highly imaginative person in the real world is Hard and not infrequently Problematic, for yourself and those around you. But instead of asking us to condemn Sarah for her romanticism a la “silly girl with her head in the clouds needs to come down to earth,” we are invited to take her fantasies dead-seriously. We are invited, through the stunning artistry of the film, to enjoy her fantasies, to (implicitly) understand why they are so critical to her personhood, and at the same time struggle alongside her to reconcile all of that with the demands of mundane reality. This is not so original, of course: many fictions do this. What’s remarkable is that the film *engages fully* with the problem it raises in such a satisfying, and yet unconstricting manner. Often stories like this conclude with a cop-out where the themes are dropped or ‘reconciled’ with a trite oversimplification, which can result in a very dissonant ‘whiplash’ sort of ending to the story where the main character Sadly Must Return To Reality for unjustified reasons, or an unsatisfying ‘moral’ about the importance of Putting Away Childish Fancy. Labyrinth builds up its themes deliberately and carries them through to the end: it demonstrates the problem and then shows how Sarah triumphs conceptually over her current dilemma in a meaningful and direct manner. But the sledgehammer never hits too hard. It leaves room for interpretation, for thematic personalization on the part of the audience. And most importantly, at no point does the narrative come out with a decisive: “THIS is the Wrong And Bad way to do fiction; HERE is a guidebook for the the Good And Right way to do it.” And god,,,i appreciate that so much. The closest it comes A Directive is the repeated “you have no power over me,” which i’ve always personally interpreted as “remember kids! you have wild fantasies; wild fantasies don’t have you.” But it’s a flexible guideline. It is about agency and empowerment. It’s a reminder that you have control over how you engage with fiction. If how you’ve been engaging with fiction isn’t working for you anymore, you have the power to re-negotiate the relationship. You can keep what you love and discard what has become toxic.

----

*I mean, the fact that he’s sexy is absolutely Not Subtle. But with the exception of the hallucination sequence, Sarah demonstrates zero interest in that sexiness. Which is appropriate---she’s a kid & she’s single-mindedly focused on getting her brother back. But that’s only on one level. On a slightly more meta (& open-to-interpretation) level, when you think about the extent to which her imagination invoked and actively impacts the goblin king and everything about him (how on the outermost level of meta she literally created him) its like,,,,oh. Oh. He is Her Problematic Fave(TM). He doesn’t just happen to look like that. He is the (dubiously) living embodiment of her enthralment with All Things Fantastical and she’s fighting that the whole time, because now it’s threatening something in her Real Life to a point where she’s Not OK With It. I’ve seen people on this site applaud the film for making Jareth such a Clear & Inexcusable Antagonist, but I think that’s a wildly inaccurate. That he exists is neither good nor bad. He’s a fairy! He’s blue and orange. He’s only debatably real. It’s how you deal with him that matters.

#stuff and thinks #labyrinth #fiction #goals

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caraidean · 6 years

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Genealogy of the Holy War: Shadowrun AU

This is very possibly one of the most self indulgent AUs I've ever put together, but the tone and lore of the Shadowrun RPG setting fits Genealogy really well at some points - also I love it, please play Dragonfall or Hong Kong if you have something that can run it.

The first bit is frontloaded with a bunch of general info about the setting, so feel free to skip past it if you already know or don't care that much.

THE PITCH & BASIC CONCEPT

Shadowrun is a tabletop RPG setting taking place in our world, in the 2070s. It's a cyberpunk setting, where corporations have more power than the nations and money (specifically, the 'Nuyen') is king. It's filled with fairly standard cyberpunk tropes, such as rebelling against society, capitalism, faceless corporations grinding people into dust, etc. There's also a lot of advanced technology, with cybernetics and a wireless Augmented Reality based internet replacement called the Matrix permeating the world on every level.

Oh, also magic is real, in a BIG way. Wizards exist. One of the world's biggest megacorporations is run by a literal Dragon. Chicago is a hellscape overrun by unkillable Insect Spirits. People have a chance to turn into Elves, Dwarves, Orcs, Trolls or any other kind of fantasy creature at birth or puberty. The result is a mix of William Gibson, Tolkien and pulp fantasy that results in a setting not quite like anything else.

Players take the role of 'Shadowrunners', deniable assets. Criminals for hire, mostly by the other corporations in covert operations against each other. They can exist to make a quick buck, or to further their own political agendas long-term. In this AU, I fuse this hot mess of a setting with the plot of Fire Emblem 4, with a focus on the second generation.

"Watch your back. Shoot Straight. Conserve ammo. And never, ever, cut a deal with a dragon." - Street proverb.

BASIC SHADOWRUN TIMELINE

In the early 2000s, corporations of a certain size were granted rights as micronations and a great deal of power due to an incident during a trucker strike in New York. The rest of the 2000s was fairly standard cyberpunk fare, with the ascent of MegaCorporations and hypercapitalism taking place, as well as great leaps in augmetic research. Then, in 2011, everything went straight to hell. VITAS, an unexplained virus, took out ten percent of the world's population - and children started being born with strange genetic changes, resembling stereotypical Dwarves and Elves from western fantasy. Multiple civil wars erupt as countries lose more and more power as corporations become more dominant, Scotland becomes highly irradiated, the Korean War resumes, and it just keeps getting worse and worse.

Then, on December 24 2011, The Awakening happened.

The Great Eastern Dragon Ryumyo erupts from his sleeping place underneath Mount Fuji in Japan. Daniel Coleman leads a group of Native American protesters into the desert, while manifesting a magical forcefield that prevents the US Army from shooting them. Leylines and other magical phenomena start appearing. Regular human people undergoing adolescence start to undergo Goblinization, turning into Orcs, Trolls, Oni and other such races. Several other Dragons appear and start attacking or aiding humanity, and everything is descending into outright chaos and confusion until finally the Western Dragon Dunkelzhan lands outside Denver and gives a twelve hour interview explaining what was happening.

Every few thousand years, magic either manifests or leaves the Earth, creating a new Age. In the 2000s, Earth was entering the newest Age, with magic returning in violent form. People began to become mages of various kinds, spirits appeared, paranormal creatures from all kinds of mythologies manifested - and the Dragons were the most important part. Dunkelzhan became known as the greatest ally of humanity, Ryumyo made it clear that nobody was to ever attack Japan, Hestaby became the protector of the Elven race and set up the nation of Tir Tairngire, and most importantly Lofywr - arguably the main antagonist/protagonist of the setting - gained control of one of the ten MegaCorporations forming the Corporate Court, Saeder-Krupp in Germany.

Rather than go too far in detail on what happened between the 2020s and the 2070s in which this AU is set, I'll hit a few more major events. The Internet was destroyed by the Crash Virus, resulting in the creation of the semi-wireless VR based system called the Matrix; the United States fell apart, forming the United Canadian & American States (UCAS, Canada and eastern seaboard USA), Confederation of American States (the south), and Native American Nations (NAN, mostly the western seaboard); The corporation Aztechnology managed to unite all of South America into one nation they called Aztlan, essentially setting up a dictatorship with very good PR; Dunkelzhan was voted President of the UCAS, only to be assassinated shortly afterwards; the other nine members of the Corporate Court and many minor corporations gave Aztechnology a bloody nose with Operation RECIPROCITY, a joint military strike warning them against expanding past Mexico; A second Crash was initiated by a terror group, causing the end of the VR Matrix and its eventual replacement with an Augmented Reality and fully wireless version; and Chicago falls victim to the Insect Spirits, a malevolent magical force that can't really be stopped, only delayed. It becomes a hell on earth called 'Bug City' that nobody ever goes to.

For more detailed information, I suggest picking up one of the Core Books (20th Anniversary Edition and 5th Edition are the ones I use most), listening to a few episodes of the Neo-Anarchist Podcast (an in-character history podcast from the perspective of a Neo-Anarchist Crow Shaman, Opti) or bugging me on Discord because I am always down to talk Shadowrun lore.

SHADOWRUN GLOSSARY

MEGACORPS AND THE CORPORATE COURT: Corporations that are large enough to have Extraterritoriality, which essentially means that while on ground they own, you follow their rules. The ten largest corporations are referred to as AAA Corporations, and have a seat on the Corporate Court - the closest thing the world has to a ruling body or oversight committee with the complete irrelevance of any individual country or the UN. The current corporations on the Corporate Court circa 2070, ranked from most powerful to weakest, are:

Saeder-Krupp: A German conglomerate based on steel, heavy industrial goods, cars, arms and communications, particularly in Europe - where it has a monopoly on all those markets. Its majority shareholder is Lofwyr, a Great Dragon and the most powerful individual in the setting.

Ares Macrotechnology, a Detroit-based mix of automotive, steel and arms companies. Corporate culture is based off the US Military

Aztechnology: Based in consumer goods, chemistry and magical research. Owns South America as a country they call 'Aztlan', steeped in Aztec culture.

EVO (formerly Yamatetsu): Shipping and infrastructure. Originally Japanese, later became Russia- based.

Horizon: The unholy fusion of Disney and Facebook. A multimedia and social marketing nightmare.

Mitsuhama Computer Technologies: A money laundering op for the Yakuza that became succesful enough for them to go straight.

NeoNET: Formed from the merger of Transys Neuronet, Erika, and Novatech following the Crash 2.0

Renraku Computer Systems: Japan-based computer and arms company.

Shiawase Corporation: The first megacorp. Energy production, biotech and environmental procedures.

Wuxing: a Hong Kong-based company based on shipping goods.

SHADOWRUNNERS: Criminals for hire. Actually exist in a quasi-legal state, as mercenaries - and can be hired for entirely legal jobs. This normally isn't the case.

MR. / MRS JOHNSON: The moniker used by those hiring shadowrunners, for deniability. Occasionally changes name based on region.

THE MATRIX: Currently, an Augmented Reality wireless network that replaced the internet and the first, VR-based matrix. Accessed by everyone wearing contacts or other eyewear (cybernetic or glasses) and either special gloves or implated electrodes in their fingers that let them interact with it. May be quasi-magical in nature, but that is still up for debate.

COMMLINKS: Smartphones that let you run your own personal 'node' on the Matrix.

DECKER: Hackers, who use special edited commlinks called Cyberdecks to access parts of the matrix denied to others.

CYBERWARE: Cybernetic enhancements of any kind.

BIOWARE: Biological enhancements of any kind, such as genetically engineered muscles.

TECHNOMANCERS: People who don't need Commlinks to access the Matrix.

MAGES: Magic users who manifest magic in the traditional sense.

ADEPTS: Magic users who manifest their abilities by changing their physical form - shapeshifting, increased strength, changing voice and appearance, etc.

ESSENCE: The 'soul' of a person, which also determines magical ability. Too many augmentations eats away at your Essence, making it harder for you to cast or resist magic.

STREET SAMURAI: The ‘muscle’ of a shadowrun team, normally with cyberware and bioware up to their eyebrows.

RIGGER: Anyone who drives vehicles or pilots drones.

FACE: The member of a shadowrun team who does the talking.

GEN 1 PLOTLINE

The first generation of FE4 is kept fairly uneventful in comparison to the game. Most of the major houses are transitioned into A- or AA-level megacorps, not large enough to be part of the Corporate Council but with a high amount of power in their own rights. These include:

The Grannvale Collective, a collection of A-level corps who manage to operate at the AA and fringe AAA level by consensus. They consist of Friege Energy (an alternative energy distributor), Velthomer MagiTech (magical theory & equipment), Barhara Heavy Industry, Edda Medical, Chalphy Security Solutions (a private police force), Dosel Dynamics (a spinoff of Edda Medical, focusing on augmetics) and Jungby Mobility (vehicles and alternative personal transport).

Silesse Aerodynamics, one of the largest non-Ares investors in the new Space Race.

Thracia Group Solutions, a multimedia company that was on the verge of qualifying for the Corporate Cort before internal power struggles between Thracia itself and its rapidly rising subdivision Manster MMT, a private security force and magitech developer.

Verdane Agriculture, one of the few distributors of fresh food to the UCAS outside of Aztechnology.

Miletost Mercantile Solutions, a trading & gambling company that barely scrapes A-level status.

Isaach Industries, creating experimental weapons and armor with a focus on close-range urban environments.

Agustria Analogue, an entertainment company.

The only major shakeup during the 2030s through early 2060s is the capturing of Sigurd's wife Deirdre, by a team of shadowrunners hired by the Great Dragon Loptyr (more on him in this AU later). She is kept in hiding while a team of mages carefully wipe memories from her, working to set up the next stage in Loptyr's plan. Sigurd devotes a large amount of time and Chalphy's resources to trying to find her, resulting in it beginning to falter as a company and losing several lucrative contracts to LoneStar or Ares Knight Errant. It looks as though the other members of the Grannvale Collective are preparing to eject Chalphy from the collective, until late 2064 rolls around.

On November 2nd 2064, the terrorist groups Winternight and Ex Pacis initiate the Crash 2.0, destroying the VR Matrix and causing untold damage to corporations, nations and individuals worldwide. This works as the 'Barhara' equivalent, even without the direct involvement of Velthomer Magical, and results in the death or un-personing of many of the first generation characters. The few weeks with no real matrix capabilities are chaotic, but when the dust settles a new status quo has emerged.

Silesse Aerodynamics is no more, having been dissolved and its assets acquired by Ares.

Manster MMT has split from Thracia Group Solutions, becoming its own corporation att odds with TGS

Agustria Analogue was bought out by Horizon Media during their ascent to AAA status.

Verdane Agriculture and Miletos Mercantile Solutions were bought out by Aztechnology.

The Grannvale Collective is reduced to a total of three corporations - Velthomer MagiTech, Friege Energy and Barhara Heavy Industries. Velthomer has absorbed Chalphy Security Solutions as well as Edda Medical and Dosel Dynamics, with Friege acquiring Jungby Mobility. The sudden reappearance of Deirdre results in her remarrying to Arvis, resulting in the merger of Barhara Heavy Industries and Velthomer MagiTech into the renamed Velthomer-Barhara Corporation. VBC starts applying for AAA status, and becomes seriously considered for it.

Notable survivors from the first generation of the game include Finn, Quan & Ethlyn - who manage to keep Manster MMT afloat as its own corporation despite heavy pressure from Thracia. Sigurd died during a hit by a shadowrunner team hired by Arvis on advice from Manfroy. Deirdre, instead of dying at Julius' hands, is assassinated by Manfroy's shadowrunner teams after she starts digging into the past life she forcibly forgot about too far. Manster MMT tries its best to find Seliph, but he seems to have vanished off the face of the earth. Ethlyn never stops looking.

GEN 2 PLOT HOOK

By the 2070s, we have entered the second generation proper. The new Matrix is well in effect, and Velthomer-Barhara has begun talks with Friege Energy to merge into Granvalle Incorporated, headed by Julius and Ishtar post merger. Such a move would bring them onto the Corporate Court for sure, furthering Loptyr's shadowy plan. Most of the rest of the second generation and any survivors from the first generation have been forced into the shadows, when someone starts leaking information to them regarding the merger - and the possible motives behind it.

Oifey starts acting on it, gathering those he can find and getting funding from Manster MMT to equip and train these Shadowrunners to start acting against Velthomer-Barhara directly.

LOPTYR'S PLAN

Like some of the other Great Dragons, Loptyr despises humanity. Instead of retreating into seclusion or rampages like Sirrug or the Sea Dragon, however, Loptyr takes a page out of Lofwyr and Hestaby's books - he will bring about the downfall of humanity with them as his implements. He identified Deirdre and Arvis as relatives, using this connection to create Julius and Julia both - the resulting twisted nature of their bloodline making them highly susceptible to becoming hosts to the destructive Insect Spirits that led to the fall of Chicago. He intends for Velthomer-Barhara to obtain AAA status, become one with the Corporate Court, and then use that position to destroy the AAA Corporations through an Insect Spirit conspiracy and leave the world leaderless, falling into chaos.

CHARACTERS

ISHTAR is the heiress of Friege Energy, who goblinized into an Elf during puberty. Her brother Ishtore remained unchanged, which resulted in her mother Hilda focusing on her as the next great thing for Friege. She eventually also manifested abilities as a powerful Technomancer, capable of interfacing with the AR matrix without use of a Commlink or other devices. She is engaged to Julius, waiting for the paperwork to go through before marrying him and resulting in the eventual merger of Friege and Velthomer-Barhara into what they plan to call Grannvale Incorporated, certain to replace NeoNet as the tenth AAA corporation on the Corporate Court. Recently she suspects that all is not right in Velthomer-Barhara, and has begun digging into the shady deals of Arvis' 'Head of Human Resources', Manfroy. She's the one who leaked this information to Oifey and Tine, hoping they can act on it some more and right things before they get out of hand.

JULIUS is the heir of the Velthomer-Barhara Corporation, and a child marked by Loptyr's breeding program as a perfect host to an Insect Spirit. Manfroy manages to get him possessed by his fifteenth birthday, resulting in him becoming the same kind of twisted individual he is in canon - just now with the regenerative and magical powers that the Insect Spirits gift to their hosts.

SELIPH and many of the other Second Generation units lost their SINs and resources during the Crash 2.0, being forced into hiding as unpersons while other corporations looted their homes and lives. They either live homeless, or turn to the quasi-legal life of Shadowrunners to survive and perhaps seek justice against those that wronged them during the Crash.

CED was the heir apparent to Silesse Aerospace, before the Crash 2.0. He was unpersoned like his sister following the Crash, his parents dying when their spacecraft lost computing ability and crashed into the ocean. He uses his impressive magical abilities as a Shadowrunner to great effect, generating quite a reputation in the Seattle area as he begins to gather allies and resources for his ultimate goal: exposing and bringing down Damien Knight, CEO of Ares.

TINE is a former heiress of Friege, who lost her SIN during the Crash and due to the machinations of Hilda never managed to recover it. Ishtar has been keeping close tabs on her since the Crash, trying to send help whenever she can and acting as a high-level corporate contact should she decide to turn to Shadowrunning to survive.

NANNA lost everything but her father when Agustria was bought out by Horizon, including her SIN. Fortunately, Quan and Ethlyn managed to move to protect her on Finn's request - bringing her into Manster MMT by wedding her to her childhood friend and longtime crush, Leif. She now works as a high-end PR agent for the firm, keeping an eye open for her half-brother Diarmuid should he ever resurface.

FINN is Manster MMT's head of security, responsible for their own sites and their hiring of Shadowrunners - as a result, many of Gen 2 know him by the moniker 'Mr Johnson'. He is a combat cyborg, heavily augmented and mourning the loss of his wife Lachesis during the Crash. Notably, he has impressive combat experience thanks to time as a field commander in Operation RECIPROCITY, giving him an intimidating reputation in the security field.

LEWYN survived the Crash, but only barely. He later resurfaced in Tir Tairngire under the new name of Holsety, using his status as an Elf to apply for new citizenship. He has no idea that Ced and Fee survived, and manages to get a job with Horizon Media as a magical consultant.

#Notes;AU Primer #Running The Shadows;Shadowrun AU

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