#of course there's the obvious part in that there were what. 3 named character deaths total? 4 if you count leo

[thaliagrayce]

y'know what we don't talk about enough? Hazel died. We talk about how she grew up in the 30's and 40's and we talk about how out of place she feels in the modern world, but! She died! She was dead! She has spent more time dead than alive, and not by a close margin!

How does that effect a person??? We got some of it in the flashbacks, but once those caught up with her present timeline and she shared them, they just kind of... disappeared. And she was a regular girl with some weird past experiences. That's one way of doing it, sure!

I think it would have been a lot cooler if she was just a touch creepier. If she felt a little bit Wrong. Yeah, in general she's more approachable than her brother, she's more sociable and less closed off, but. If you actually spend any time with her, it can be difficult to tell which child of the underworld is actually more unsettling.

Hazel is bright of personality and has a dazzling smile, but sometimes she'll just... shut down. She'll go completely blank for like half an hour and nobody knows what to do with it. Sometimes she forgets she's alive. Sometimes she'll spout the grimmest shit you've ever heard like it's nothing, she won't even notice it's weird until the room goes quiet. She spent decades in Asphodel, which is designed to make people forget about themselves and wander around for eternity, only she didn't have the luxury of forgetting! Wild! After she comes back to life, sometimes she forgets that she's allowed to Do Stuff now. She can spend so long sitting and staring at nothing. Sometimes she'll start crying on cloudless days because it hits her again that she can actually feel the warmth of the sun on her skin and she can hear birdsong. Every little mundane experience is a blessing and she will make you remember that in the most foreboding way possible.

#hazel levesque #hoo #mj talks #like. i am fascinated with characters who die and come back different and it JUST hit me that there was so much potential for hazel there #the idea of how death lingers was not explored At All in heroes of olympus #of course there's the obvious part in that there were what. 3 named character deaths total? 4 if you count leo #which i very much don't because it didn't stick! there were no consequences to this gigantic war! #the first series did well with that because we had plenty of named characters who died #even though some of them were introduced only to die like six chapters later. we still knew them on some level #and more importantly percy knew them. he felt their loss in a way that made consequences seem real #heroes of olympus didn't have any of that. hazel could have been a great way to talk about it a little more! #also i just love characters who have obviously gone through death. that has to change a person! tell me how it changed you! #anyway. i think i'll make hazel creepier from now on in my writing #she deserves it <3 #nico is creepy in an obvious way. he's got power over death and that clings to him like a second skin. he can't hide it #and he's learned that he doesn't have to. there is power in being othered #hazel seems lovely when you first meet her! none of the death power all of the glitter and gold and riches #and then she'll look you dead in the eye and say 'you really don't know how lucky you are to be able to breathe until you can't anymore' #and move on like it's nothing! what! #underworld siblings

[circeyoru]

Collection of Overlords _ Part 7 = Requested

[Alastor x Soul Owner of All Overlords!Reader]

Part 1 — Part 1.5 — Part 2 — Part 3 — Part 4 — Part 5 — Part 6 — Part 7 (here)

Song Used: "They're Only Human" ; in Death Note: The Musical (I've attached a link here, but there's also a video format later on when that part comes)

You hummed a tune while reading through a book and laying on your black cloud platform like a beach chair. Your little moment only cut short when your book was suddenly snatched away. You tilted your head up and saw a pair of silver wings with golden highlights before you saw your book burst into flames in the robber’s hand

“You sure took your time.” You teased as you got up from your comfortable position, opting to sit on your platform. “Trick.”

“Come on! Like you don’t know why!” The being exclaimed enraged with their wings getting puffed up, they took a deep breath and sighed deeply. “Your little Hell made too much of a commotion, Sil. And I told you to call me Noir!”

You shrugged, “That’s not fitting for a character such as yourself, Trick sounds better anyways.”

Trick was similar to you. Actually, he was your opposite. You being the true ruler of Hell makes them the true ruler of Heaven. Of course, unlike how you keep your identity in the shadows, theirs was more well known. Trick was the God that everyone made a big deal around

If one were to see you two together, they’s say the two of you were night and day, good and evil, yin and yang. Not in terms of element, but in appearance as well

While Trick has a pair of lovely giant wings, you had none and would use a black cloud platform to ‘fly’ in some sense. While Trick has hair above the shoulder, you had hair below it. Trick’s eyes remain opened while yours are closed. Trick dons a causal and chill look while you had a more formal and elegant look

Still, whatever you two may appear, those weren’t important as the personalities you two had. If Trick’s name wasn’t an obvious indicator, they are not the holy entity the humans and angels painted them to be

Like you, Trick is absent from a direct presence in your respective realms. However, they love playing around with ‘divine interventions’ or ‘sacred messages’ from the God of this world. Truly, no one was aware of a balance. Even there’s Heaven and Hell, and God is in Heaven overseeing ‘his children’, what of hell?

Yes. You are the ‘God’ of Hell. Though either of you like that title. Since Trick was the one more in the open, you love teasing them about it every time you meet. To you, it’s truly entertaining to see them groan and whine over it

“So~ How was the sleep? Good?” Trick leaned over as their wings flapped from time to time to keep them hovering in the air. 

“Like Hell it was, you put me out of commission for no reason and with no warning! I have souls to watch over unlike your lazy holiness.” You snapped with your eyebrows furrowed.

Trick raised his hands in ressurender, “Hey, I was out of commission as well! It’s not a one-side thing.”

Your eyes squeezed even tighter as if you’re glaring at the jerk of a partner. “You started it!”

The two of you were Supreme Beings of your realm and entities as holy and cursed element. You can’t have one without the other. While it’s true that you were weak to holy powers, Trick was weak to cursed powers. You two were each other’s weakness no matter the situation

And the two of you aren’t as immortal as people would think. The two of you can be killed and healed by each other. Killing involves falling into a deep sleep when one side dies and healing involves transfering the other’s wounds onto themselves to heal more naturally as wounds can only be done by the opposite element

If one asks how to describe the two of you. You both were inseparable, can’t have one without the other. The concept of yin and yang comes to play

You are yin, in darkness there’s kindness. You are the unknown, you are negativity, you are darkness. You collect and control the souls marked for Hell without letting them go so long as they worth something to you. Even when you do it wasn’t for mercy and you’ll cage them into a torture unlike any other

Though, you were kind. You offer advice to those that deserve it and give opportunities for people to change. Why else would you let a soul be redeemed and let it leave Hell to go to Heaven? Why else would you allow Alastor to remind at the hotel even after your presence is back? Why else would you give Husk that little hope at a better future?

Trick was yang, in light there’s evil. They are the known, they are positivity, they are light. Trick judges and provides the souls marked for Heaven without letting them feel any negativity and only joy and happiness. Giving those worthy souls that lived life accordingly to enter a paradise fitting of Winners

Though, they were wicked and twisted. They enjoy a good trickery here and there, opting to let their high ranking angels deal with everything rather than rule as the ‘God’ they were named. They cared for none but their own interest and entertainment. If anything, Trick doesn’t see souls to be worth anything. To them, souls were nothing but actors on a stage to perform a good show for beings that was you and them to enjoy watching

“Fine, fine. I won’t do that again, unless you want a little rest.” Trick smirked as he looked your way. “So how’s your collection?”

“Hm… There will be some changes with what I have now. It’s a work in progress.” You told as you thought it over, “How’s your Emily?”

Trick’s smile widened, “Oh, miserable. But admirable. The sweet thing. She found out about the exterminations and sided with that Hell Princess during court! I told you she’s worth paying attention to.”

You hummed, “That’s what you said about Lucifer and he ended up falling to Hell. I wonder if Emily will be casted out as well.” You sensed the dark aura around your dear long-time friend spike and you turned your head over, “Don’t worry, I know not to accept her into Hell. She’s your prized one. Even if she’s casted out, I’ll push her back into Heaven.”

Trick huffed, clenching and unclenching his fists, “Good. Cause I will so remove those stupid higher angels if they did that to the only worthy angel in Heaven.” He looked over to you as well, “Don’t worry, it’s the same for your collections, I won’t let them into Heaven unless you want them do.”

Your smile widened, “Oh, I’ll never let them go~ But thanks for that safety net.”

You both picked your focus. While yours was on a hand-picked group, Trick focused on that one. Your little soul owning had one amazing benefit that none knew. It was the protection against angelic weapons

Back then when Alastor was hit by Adam’s attack in the chest, the slash should have eaten away at his body and soul. The angelic weapons or steel was created to aim directly at the soul of a being, that’s why it could kill both demons and angels. There was nothing angelic to it, merely a combine of yours and Trick’s power to create something that kills the soul

Now, your protection that to limit the effect of the wound till they can reach you for healing. But the best part was that your Overlords have no soul within their bodies so they wouldn’t be killed! Even if their head was chopped off by an angelic spear, it will just take time to grow back

You’ll never tell them that benefit nor do you plan to let them know about it. That’s why you made your appearance at the hotel. It was the sole reason of healing Alastor on your own terms. You thought of leaving soon later but you just couldn’t leave the poor deer when he was that desperate for your presence

The thing you can’t understand was why Trick only picks the one being to care for. Emily was what their supposed to be honestly. If someone met Trick and it was revealed that they were the God, no one would believe it. There was so much chaos and twisted nature in them that it was impossible that they were God

Yet you as the one by their time since the beginning of time knew the change was because of time. Time changed their view on the world and humans. So many time, they were disappointed that they just gave up and decided to laugh at all the misery. Maybe, you and Trick could switch places

But Trick will never agree because they never liked what you have set up in Hell already, plus there wouldn’t be an ‘Emily’ there. It was proposed once, and Trick shot it down without a thought. So to cure their boredom, there are meet-ups like this

Of course, the two of you end up going to Earth to see what the humans were up to while marking souls on whether they go to Heaven or Hell when they die

Trick smirked and flapped his wings to fly over, and gestures to the humans minding their own business in the city, ♫ Look at how they crawl around, upon the ground, like little ants ♫

♫ Yes, but how they fascinate, ♫ You floated over with your smokey platform, slapping away his hand to touch a mortal, ♫ Confusing fate, With what is merely chance ♫

♫ Isn’t it a laugh? ♫ Trick nudged you.

You pushed him away, ♫ Isn’t it a shame? ♫

♫ Thinking there is someone in Heaven to blame ♫ Trick pointed at themselves. 

You rolled your eyes, ♫ Yes, but even while blaming fate for the lives that they lead. They hope for the lives that they need ♫

Trick snapped their fingers, both of them appearing in a cemetery with a heavy mood in the air. They carried a white umbrella while you carried a black one, staying at the back of the group that was grieving while a coffin was lowered, ♫ Living every day ‘til the day they die. Never getting answers ♫

♫ Yet still asking why ♫ You snapped your fingers and appeared on the roof of a building that oversaw a group of religious individuals praying, ♫ Going through the motions as if there will be a reward ♫

♫ While we stay, ♫ Trick made a bored and disgusted face at the scene, grabbing your hand so the two of you fall, ♫ Eternally bored! ♫

♫ They’re only human. They don’t see ♫ The two of you sang, Trick with their signature smirk and you with a bored look. ♫ Who they are is who they’ll always be. Only human, after all ♫

Trick brought you to a scene in front of a murder scene, ♫ So they push and they shove ♫

You showed Trick a scene with a romantic couple on a date, ♫ With this thing they call love ♫

♫ ‘Til they fall! ♫ You both watched as soldiers fall and their souls going to where they were picked to.

♫ Isn’t it a farce? ♫ Trick shrugged while the scene changed to that of a hospital room with a weak man on the bed.

♫ Isn’t it a waste? ♫ You eyed the crying humans around the man, listening as the monitor beep softer and longer with each pause. 

♫ Struggling to Face what can never be faced ♫ Trick leaned against the wall with crossed arms. 

♫ Yes, but maybe Death can release something more than we share ♫ You blinked at the man as he tried his best to hold the closest family member of his.

♫ I really don’t know ♫ Trick came over, their wing slapped at the man over the face and the lifeline fell flat, ♫ and don’t care ♫

You shook your head while the room bursted in tears and doctors and nurses rushed in, Trick was as indifferent as already with his grin on his face, ♫ They’re only Human. Standing still. Doomed to live pushing boulders uphill. Only Human, after all ♫

With a snap of Trick’s finger, the two of you arrived at a temple with a number of offerings, Trick picked up one and threw it to you then took one for themselves, ♫ So they give and we take ♫

You caught it with one hand and eyed it, then to the elderly women that was bowing to statue, ♫ Hoping someone will help break their fall ♫

Trick brought you to a gang meeting of sorts, the topic seemingly deciding on someone’s death, ♫ They will pray, curse, live, die. Never knowing their Truth is another Man’s Lie ♫

♫ Eat, sleep, love, hate ♫ You changed the scene to one where a group of friends were enjoying themselves in a forest, ♫ Like a Leaf blowing in the Wind ♫

Trick switched to a scene where students are forced to pick a career for the future, gesturing to all the troubled humans for you. ♫ Watch them all vacillate! ♫ 

The both of you sang, ♫ They’re only human. They can’t see ♫

♫ All the fun they could give you and me ♫ Trick laughed darkly while you smiled at his amusement.

♫ Only human, after all ♫ You both continued as you two picked out a wave of souls destined for Hell without another thought while Trick only picked a small group of them.

♫ So they give and we take ♫ You had your palms opened at the vast souls that would be doomed for Hell under your thoughtless choosing.

Trick nodded approvingly over your future collection, a twisted smile forming, ♫ ‘Til their silly hearts break ♫ 

♫ Looking down from above. I’m intrigued by their love ♫ An equally dark smile appeared on your face as you took Trick’s offered hand for a short sway. 

Trick suggested while taking you into their arms. ♫ So let’s play! ♫

You nodded along, ♫ Let’s play! ♫

Trick chuckled while dipping you down, “Hmm, let’s enjoy ourselves with these foolish souls.”

Since the beginning of time, there were two beings. A being that symbolizes light and a being that symbolizes dark. They were two sides of the same coin and co-exist together contary to what humans would theorize or write in their little works of art

“So I’ll assume you want me to put Heaven’s little business on hold? Not that they can do much with a redeemed soul in their ranks.” Trick smirked at you, their wings flapping at their little jab at their realm’s higher ranked angels. “So Hell gets some peace for the moment.”

Your smiled back, eyes peeking open to that revealed a cosmos from within, “Yes, that is much appreciated. There’s gonna be some interesting change in my collection.”

“Love it when your eyes does that.” Trick’s wings opened up to show the view of a night sky.

“Yours is not too bad. Quite the sight.”

“Only a sight for the two of us though. None is more worthy of it.”

“I’ll agree.”

Everything happening on these two beings’ whims and wants, nothing’s done with clear purpose, and anything’s fair game. As divine and just as the humans painted them to be, they are nothing like the holy one that cares for all’s interest from above. As cruel and evil as the humans painted you to be, you are anything but the cold and heartless tormentor of prisoners of Hell

Note: New character!! I'll get to the request that were about this concept in a bit. First! The character design for Trick and you will be out in a moment~

Now then~ You guys feeling op yet?

Oh yeah!! I'm more interested with the song format too!! First time trying this, what you guys think???

Circe Y. 

My Works: MASTERLIST

Taglist: (those that don't specify to being in all the works' taglist will automatically be assumed to be in whichever series they comment on)

@aconfusedwonderland @crowleysthings @donustellaron @mistpurpl3 @lucifers-silhouette @fluffy-koalala @plutobots @ray-rook @thealienartist @serenity-songbird @galaxydreamer468 @raynerrold @wen01203@hikari-michiko @colecreo @myromanempiree @xsamkuro @yourdoorisunlocked @clavelina @jono723 @cursedcattalastor @an-idyllic-novelist @flamiohotman2024 @rea-grace @myromanempiree @veroneverleft @lousypotatoes @crazysuityouth @jellyedkazoo @wat4r @kiraisastay @thealienartist @chefysawesomeideas @wtvbabes @patronizingbitch @koshi-kazu @craftyperfectiontragedy @scr4luv @chrollobb @mysterypotatoink @callmefe

#Circe's Nighty Writings #Circe's requested writings #alastor imagine #alastor x reader #alastor x y/n #alastor x you #hazbin hotel #hazbin hotel alastor #alastor headcanons #alastor fanfiction #alastor #hazbin hotel oneshots #hazbin hotel imagines #hazbin hotel fanfiction #hazbin hotel x reader #hazbin hotel overlord #Collection of Overlords #hazbin hotel rosie #rosie hazbin hotel #overlords #hazbin #zestial #carmilla hazbin hotel #hazbin hotel zestial #carmilla carmine #hazbin hotel carmilla #carmilla x reader #hazbin carmilla #hazbin hotel vox #hazbin hotel vees

[apompkwrites]

the shroud experiments: results and findings || idia shroud

masterlist characters: idia & ortho (platonic) genre: angst contains: idia pov!!! (for the most part), probably ooc idia? never fully written for him before, death, unhealthy coping, mourning, self-hate, reader is described as thinner than before once (not indicative of weight/body size), blot creatures :DD summary: idia shroud, more than anything, wanted to be a good brother. oh, how far he was from being one. notes: i already apologized to y'all so no apology here :) nothing bad ever happens to the shrouds! /ref. anyway, can you believe that idia was the character i started with? look at how i treat my boy parts: [og post] | [the unwanted shroud (1)] | [the shroud experiments: pre-test (2)] | [the shroud experiments: testing (3)] | [the shroud experiments: results and findings (4)] | [the robotic shroud (5)]

idia loved his siblings with all of his mind, body, and soul.

there was the baby of the family, ortho. he remembered when he was brought home like it was yesterday. he wasn't a quiet child, but he didn't cry either. in fact, he giggled. he laughed and laughed, tugging at idia's hair and letting out more giggles as little sparks of fire flew at him.

and then there was (name), idia's first younger sibling. much like ortho, he could remember when they were brought home. they didn't laugh like ortho, but they didn't cry. when idia's parents first brought them home, bundled up in a plush blue blanket, they were sound asleep. they offered (name) over to idia, who, upon slowly taking his younger sibling into his arms, felt a rush of euphoria as they nuzzled into his hold.

that was the moment when idia found his purpose. his true calling in life. to live for them.

so when the incident happened... a part of him died alongside ortho. he remembered when his parents told him the news, ortho's body covered by a blanket just a few feet away. that was the last time idia left his room. he didn't dare leave, afraid of the little reminders of what was left of ortho.

he kept himself occupied, working day and night until he perfected ortho's reincarnation. no, not reincarnation. he could never compare the real ortho to his creation.

all idia cared for now was coping. he knew that his parents would not take care of him. they made that obvious the day after ortho's death. they dared not to check up on him, not even a knock on the door to confirm he was even still alive. radio silence from the both of them was what idia received, and soon it became what he expected of them.

he didn't mind that now, of course. there was no use trying to change his parents when their pride and joy was dead and buried six feet under the ground. he knew that the moment ortho died, all of their love for him and (name) died alongside him.

there were days when idia wondered how (name) was handling this. if he was destroyed over the news, he couldn't even imagine what it was like for them.

he remembered his parents chastising them when revealing ortho's death to idia. they would ramble on to each other under their breaths as if idia couldn't hear them. that was what stopped idia from asking about them.

he wanted to. he wanted to know what happened to (name) so badly because he couldn't stand the thought of losing both of his siblings in a single night. but before their name could even escape his trembling lips, he heard them.

"that wretched child" was what they called his lovely little sibling. they spit out the title like poison, describing the little baby that idia remembered holding in his arms that day, their chubby face hiding in his chest and their little hand grasping at his shirt.

that was when idia, in his overstimulated and grief-stricken mind, decided that he did not want to associate with them for the unforeseeable future. he couldn't stand talking to them when all he could think about was how they lost the baby and despised the other.

he felt bad, of course, for leaving (name) alone with them. but, at his age, there wasn't much he could do. at least, that's what he told himself.

he was just glad that, from what he saw on the cameras, they weren't being mistreated by them. in fact...

he never saw them leave their room at all.

they really were related, their habits coinciding almost identically. honestly, idia was surprised that their parents let them stay in their room. it wasn't like they had less power over them than they did idia, right? sure, he was meant to take over the organization when he was older, so they would naturally feel less obligated to take care of him.

(that was the reason they were so separated from him, right?)

but (name), as much as he loved them and meant it in the most positive and even envy-filled way possible, didn't amount to anything in terms of the organization. so why would they not be more hands-on in terms of parenting with them?

why were they mourning alone?

sometimes it would hit idia that maybe, just maybe, he should leave his room. not to interact with anyone else except for his little sibling. not once did he see them nor get to ask them how they were coping with the loss of ortho. and when those moments happened, idia would beat himself up over it.

what kind of older brother was he? what kind of older brother lets their little sibling wallow in the pain and trauma of watching their youngest brother die in front of them? what kind of older brother hides away in his room and lets them surround themselves in reminders of what had happened?

a lousy, sorry excuse for a brother, that's what.

he never did act on those innermost desires to leave his room. he never did act on those desires to comfort his little sibling.

and he hated himself for it. he couldn't do it and he hated himself.

what a worthless brother he turned out to be.

“idia! someone was in the hallway!”

ortho was the only one allowed in his room. maybe it was because idia didn't have the heart to tell him no. so it wasn't unusual for ortho to barge in, ranting on and on about something that happened outside his room.

"yeah? what'd they want?" idia was very quick to dismiss the idea of a staff member lingering in the halls, his attention settled on the gacha screen in front of him.

"huh? oh, nothing," ortho merely shrugged in response, fixing idia's room and picking up trash that had missed the trashcan. "it wasn't one of the staff."

now that got his attention. no one was supposed to be on this floor other than staff because idia sure as hell knew that his parents were not home. they never were so if it wasn't staff then...

"wait, who was outside, then?" idia had never moved as fast as he did just then, whirling around in his chair to face ortho. the sudden movement seemed to startle him as he stopped in his tracks, his hands still clutching a wrapper that had been on the floor.

"i didn't recognize them," ortho explained, dropping the wrapper in the trashcan. "that's why i came to tell you!"

"no way... there's no way," was all idia could mutter as he scrambled to close out the game and turn on the security cameras.

there was only one person that idia was sure ortho would not immediately recognize.

and when he scrubbed through the footage, idia's hypothesis was proven right. there, in the halls, just outside his room, was (name). for two years, he hadn't caught a glimpse of them outside their bedroom, let alone in the hallway. and yet, there they were!

and they were... oh gods, what had happened to them in those two years?

they were thinner than he remembered them being. did they eat enough? but that wasn't the worst of it. no, what was the worst was the fact that their body was trailing with blot.

it dripped from their clothes, most likely from the blot-covered body parts that were hidden underneath their baggy clothes. and because of that, they served as the only clue that someone had been down those halls.

idia didn't have to think twice about leaving his room the moment he saw (name) leaving their room. the urge to see his little sibling again after two years was overwhelming and much more convincing than the thoughts and feelings forcing idia inside his room.

even ortho was surprised to see how quickly idia opened the door.

what idia didn't expect to see when he followed the blot droplets was the fact that they led to the lower levels containing the blot monsters. what business did (name) have there?

a sudden sense of dread filled him the moment he stepped into the hall, the clamoring and wailing of the blot monsters sending a chill down his spine. even if he had seen them before, it took a bit for him to get used to them.

as he followed the droplets on the ground, he couldn't help but wonder... was this where (name) had been for the past two years? he hadn't seen them leave their room so maybe... maybe they weren't even in their room.

all he could think about now was apologies. he wanted so badly to apologize to them, beg for their forgiveness for leaving them for so long. for letting things get this bad. for making them mourn alone for so long.

for being the worst brother imaginable.

and that thought only echoed the moment his eyes landed on them. there they lay as if frozen in time. they didn't move at all, eerily similar to when they were first brought home.

except, they weren't even breathing. a faint flatline was all idia heard, cementing the fact that (name), his precious little sibling, the only one that was alive after the incident.

was dead.

soul transfer complete were the words that occupied your vision. soon, something popped up under it like a dropdown menu.

first objective: erase all research on soul transference and idia shroud's stolen blueprints.

it seemed as if there were more objectives, ones that would only unlock once you completed the first one. alongside them were little notes about your surroundings, most notably the blot creatures that were apparently rooming a few cells down. with that thought in mind, you got to work.

the notes were of higher priority, explaining why your creator listed it first in the two things that needed to be erased. the main issue was that they were in a notebook, material goods that needed to be destroyed without any trace of it so as to not be repaired through magic.

and so, the quickest way to ensure that they were left undiscovered was to give them to the blot creatures. the ones that, according to your creator, had an appetite for anything thrown in their cell.

and what better creature to give extra food to than the one that seemed to occupy its cell more than the rest? the little guide left behind by your creator came in handy as it pinpointed the exact cell that it was in.

what you didn't account for was the fact that it didn't take too kindly to you. maybe it was your appearance...

but, despite its unwelcoming aura, it gladly accepted the offering with no hesitation, gobbling up the notebook like it was nothing but a pill.

first objective: erase all research on soul transference and idia shroud's stolen blueprints.

the final remaining research resided in the screens that surrounded you in your creator's room. you were quick to erase the data, trying your best to ensure that no trace of it remained. what you, nor your creator, accounted for was them.

"no..." was all idia shroud could utter, his eyes first landing on your creator's abandoned body.

first objective: erase all research on soul transference and idia shroud's stolen blueprints - 75% complete

taglist: @brokenncrowns @help-meplz @destinationdesignation @rainys-personal-garden @kalims @sxftiebee @luxaryllis @auld-a @the-dumber-scaramouche @ayra2452008 @tinywho-man @spadecentral @justeclem44 @bajifairyy @mulandi @yleivs @randomlyappearingartist @meerpea @test-subject76

#twisted wonderland #twisted wonderland x reader #twst x reader #twisted wonderland headcanons #twisted wonderland imagines #twisted wonderland scenarios #twisted wonderland angst #twst angst #twisted wonderland idia #twisted wonderland idia x reader #twst idia #twst idia x reader #idia x reader #twisted wonderland idia shroud #twisted wonderland idia shroud x reader #twst idia shroud #twst idia shroud x reader #idia shroud x reader #black sheep

[shera-dnd]

Once again trying to talk about Themes™ and probably just saying the obvious again BUT

Baldur's Gate 3 is a game about freedom of choice, both mechanically and thematically

Not in the "Your choices matter! (not really)" way most game market themselves on

But in a "The fact you can choose matters" way that is much spicier.

Like that's literally the core driving point of the plot. You shouldn't be able to choose, you shouldn't be free, but you are and now it's up to you to fight to maintain that freedom, and decide for yourself what to do with it

(funnily enough this is also why this game doesn't hit my trigger, because all the mind control is completely opt in)

And every single companion reinforces that in one way or another.

Gale freeing himself from his past and choosing who he wants to be now, without Mystra.

Astarion killing Cazador and stopping generations of abuse in their vampiric line

Karlach escaping Zariel and choosing to make the most of the life she still has

Wyll breaking his contract with Mizora so he can choose for himself what he fights for

Lae'zel and Shadowheart both unlearning years of indoctrination at the hands of their messed up cults

And if you're playing Dark Urge you get to reinforce this again with your conflict about trying to determine for yourself who you want to be, when every fiber of your being demands that you be a monster

It's not even just the main characters. Like how often do you get sent on quests to free people who have been imprisoned or enslaved.

Volo, Halsin, the deep gnomes, the tieflings, Aylin, Volo again, Minsc, Orpheus, even Hope itself

Hell, one of the main bad guys is the chosen champion of the God of Tyranny and is using a magical mind control mcguffin to control a giant magical mind control GIGA BRAIN!

I guess that's why it feels so obvious. Every last bit of this game is used to forward this theme of freedom vs control, but it's this consistent reinforcement that makes it so good for me

And then of course this all comes to a grand conclusion towards the ending. My own feelings about the ending's execution and the parts I felt were a bit... lackluster, can wait for a different day

But thematically speaking they managed to end with a real bang, and it's all thanks to the narration

Because whatever decision you make, that woman sells it. No matter what you want your ending to be, she will fucking deliver it in just as triumphant a way as any other

BG3 doesn't want you to leave the game thinking "did I make the right choice?" it wants you to feel like whatever you choose WAS the right choice for you

I literally had my character turn into a squid and them kill themself and she still managed to make that a glorious moment to finalize my story on.

"After so many deaths in the name of your father, this one is just for you"

(god so many lines from the durge playthrough have my brain in a vice grip)

And speaking of daddy dearest, the only endings that come across as being bad, are the ones where you surrender your freedom.

When you surrender to the Absolute, when you do as Bhaal commands you, when you give the crown to Raphael

The entire game is one giant conflict between your freedom to self determine vs more powerful beings and their drive to take absolute control

And so the only way for your story to end "badly" is if you surrender to those powers and give up

...so yeah... that's all I got

Baldur's Gate 3 is a good game

Could use some work here and there, and my nitpicks could make their own needlessly long post, but it's still really good

Go play it

#baldur's gate 3 #bg3 #baldur's gate 3 spoilers #bg3 spoilers

[napoleondidthat]

Final thoughts on Napoleon, Ridley Scott

As I said yesterday, the movie as a whole falls because it tries to fit too much into a movie. You have to do a Cliff notes version of a life to achieve that. This may change if the 4 hour version is released. It won’t correct some of the creative choices made of course. I appreciate the effort and don’t envy anyone who has to write a movie screenplay of Napoleon’s life. And as much as we’d all love to probably sit and watch Napoleon go over the Napoleonic Code, or peace negotiations, I know that the public at large could not care less.

So let’s talk actors here.

I didn’t hate Phoenix’s Napoleon completely. There were times where he did very well in the scenes. There were a couple issues though:

1. Napoleon isn’t really just a figment of imagination character and because he’s an historical figure that means to me you have less wiggle room. I appreciate actors who have played Napoleon and have taken the effort and read biographies on Napoleon, like Assante did. It’s obvious Phoenix didn’t. And that comes through. I’d even say that Phoenix doesn’t really get Napoleon or understand the figure and really doesn’t know what to do with it. Is he a demon? A psycho? A war-monger? A petulant child?

The main problem for Phoenix is the same that faces Clavier, he’s too damn old for the part.

I know a lot of praise has been heaped on Comer for her Josephine but I wasn’t that blown away by it. She was fine, she did fine, she just wasn’t Josephine. She played her so lifeless and dead-pan. If Napoleon is the heavy, Josephine was the opposite.

Whoever played Madame Mere did fine but she was way too mom like and jovial. Madame Mere always strikes me as an austere figure.

Strangely who I thought did very well was the actor who played Barras. He was quite compelling and it’s probably the best and most air time I’ve ever seen given to Barras. The other was the portrayal of Talleyrand which surprised me. He didn’t look the part really and when no first saw the photos I wasn’t impressed. But it worked and he did very well in the role. Extra points for showing Talleyrand with a brace on his leg though they never explained it.

The other perks of the movie, the cinematography I thought was really done well. The sets were beautiful even if they weren’t very French. The costumes were also very impressive.

The other fails was the score. This is a mystery to me why they did this sweeping epic on a $200 million budget and didn’t hire someone to do a score. Every Napoleon movie before this has a score and it’s like they forgot completely. I have read that they used the Pride and Prejudice score and it’s lovely but it feels borrowed, which it is. The beginning of the movie is merely French folk music type music. Interesting choice but it still felt off.

Lastly, like I said I really dislike that they did so much name card flashing on characters as they were introduced. At the end they did the same fade to black cards telling the audience that Napoleon died May 5, 1821 after six years of exile on St. Helena. They then give the famous supposed last words. Then fade to black and up comes a scorecard of Napoleon’s battles and how many died in each battle with a line showing the total dead being 3 million. First, I rather hate this argument that Napoleon is the only person solely responsible for the deaths during a very tumultuous time in history. That is almost giving him too much power. Second, what are you trying to say Scott?

If you are trying to show Napoleon is a war monger evil doer, fine. I disagree with that interpretation, but it’s one that some hold. Problem is that it falls because Phoenix never played Napoleon as a wild eyed war monger. Phoenix plays Napoleon all over the place so at the end you can’t even really believe his Napoleon was capable of the responsibility of all this death.

The problem is that the movie lacks vision and coherency. Napoleon is a genius on the matters of war but we are never shown that. Napoleon had men die for him but here you can’t really understand why anyone would listen to Phoenix’s Napoleon let alone follow him. He and Josephine have a toxic but passionate relationship but it’s never shown. You don’t really know why Josephine cares about losing Napoleon since they never seem to say one kind word to each other when together, she seems bored as Empress and every love scene has her looking bored off into the distance while Napoleon pants behind her. Yet in the end voice over Josephine waxes on about her great love for her tortured sweet Emperor.

No actor gets Napoleon right completely. No movie gets it right completely. I find every movie touches on certain things that are perfect that another movie dropped the ball on. Every actor does one or two aspects of Napoleon very well and fails on others. If we could somehow merge all the things the actors and the movies do right we might come close to a perfect movie.

[bestworstcase]

I feel like (different anon) half of the fandom doesn’t even care about Salem in the sense that regardless of what Her goal is? To be fair in my corner I’ve seen more individual character hatred rather than “this plot doesn’t make sense” hatred. Or ppl just saying the plot sucks without offering why they think so which is the majority of rwby “criticism”. But Salem being the key to the end of the show has been very well telegraphed since the end of volume 3. She started as this faceless monster, a creature to hate, the one who killed their headmaster and plunged the world into war. Then we learned that Oz was also keeping secrets and outright lying, so that knocked him off of the Trusted Adult pedestal (tho he has always been kinda shady but in terms of story formula that’s what I mean). Volume 6??? The Lost Fable?? Still so amazing. Salem very literally gets humanized in the eyes of our characters. She still did all of those awful things but she’s a Person now rather than an Entity. Those moments of confrontation (Ironwood’s office with Ruby, Yang while in the whale, Oscar.” We get to see her talking to her Evil Guy Crew. We see her have emotions.

AND THEN THE BROTHER GODS once thought of as entities much like how Salem was seen by the cast in the beginning. Yes they are still gods but not in the sense that at least I was thinking. They came From somewhere. And yes Salem was the first to discover they were fallible but knowing what V9 told us helped me put it into perspective

So the last arch being about fully learning what Salem wants and then, probably possibly, deciding how to help alongside with it. I think ppl get upset bc they view that as “oh yeah all the ppl she killed and lives she ruined don’t matter she’s our bestie mow” kind of Joining with Salem. When im seeing it as a more Neo agreeing to work with Cinder type deal. If Salem wants to stop the gods, get revenge, make them humble, and the gods return and want to wipe out remnant For Good, I’d say that’s a common goal our kids can get behind.

rwby is a cool show with cool villains and I enjoy it a lot and also your thoughts about it sorry this is so long

the thing with salem and the, like, common fandom interpretation of her and where her arc is headed is that. at least since v9 it’s less about resistance to the idea that the final confrontation being team rwby vs the gods as it is the way folks assume salem fits into that, namely that most of the fandom still takes completely at face value the idea that she’s selfish, arrogant, and needs to learn her lesson about the value of life and death. so you get these wild takes that the gods were assholes who punished her out of proportion for what she did, paired with this implicit idea that salem does actually deserve this punishment because she Still RefusesTo Learn Her Lesson, and thus she needs to be redeemed by team rwby proving her wrong somehow.

but like

salem did nothing wrong. praying to the gods was not wrong, reacting emotionally when they were cruel to her was not wrong, recognizing their fallibility and unworthiness was not wrong, rallying people against them was not wrong, vowing to keep fighting after they massacred everybody was not wrong, cursing them after they left and blaming them for ending the world was not wrong, jumping into the pool of grimm was not wrong, BEING grimm is not wrong, rejecting the divine mandate after ozma hid it from her for years was not wrong. frankly continuing to be a thorn in his side since then is, i would argue, also not wrong, because she’s made herself the immovable obstacle preventing him from summoning his genocidal god back to remnant to kill everyone again; it is laughably obvious that the ultimatum is not a game humanity can win. and then factoring in the part where ozma is obsessed with finding a way to destroy her, what else is she supposed to do besides live in exile. and of course if you close off every other door except violent rebellion you are eventually going to invite violent rebellion. 

so like. Salem Is Right, and seems to be taking what she considers the path of minimal destruction (the grimm held beacon but pull out of vale within a few days; her plan for haven was nearly bloodless and left mistral untouched; she made no move to attack mantle and began her siege with a grace period for her to leave in peace if the relics were surrendered), which means that she’s likely willing to negotiate methods if other less destructive paths are opened to her. her villain -> hero arc can’t turn on team rwby persuading her that she’s wrong, because fundamentally her position is “the genocidal divine tyrants do not deserve our obedience and we can and must defy them” which is, um, correct. but if they adopt that position themselves and then negotiate How i think they’ll find she’s a lot more reasonable than they’ve been led to believe, and i do not think the wider fandom is prepared for that whatsoever

#50/50 the first olive branch comes from salem’s side #which would be hysterical

[toaarcan]

Arcan Grumbles About Mecha Sally, Part 1: The Wrong Protagonists

Alright I've had this gripe bubbling away in my head for a while (Actually it's part of a larger gripe but I'm trying to avoid devoting too much time to griping about things), so here goes.

Archie Sonic's Mecha Sally saga has the wrong protagonists.

Let's take the premise of the arc in isolation for a moment: Sally Acorn, leader of the Freedom Fighters, is turned into a robotic minion of Dr. Eggman, and everyone else has to try and get her back.

Who, then, should be the characters who get the most focus in this story? Well, obviously Sally's closest friends, and those who would have the most angst about it, right?

Sonic is currently Sally's boyfriend, and he's the main character of the book, so he kinda has to be there regardless of that, even if he's contractually obligated to care significantly less than he should, thanks SEGA. Way to make the comic worse in the name of Brand Identity, where the fuck were you when Penders was here?

But then the list of characters I'd want to give the most focus to in this situation is this: Bunnie, Antoine, Nicole, and Elias.

None of whom are actually properly involved in the published arc after Issue 235.

Bunnie is a really obvious pick. She's Sally's best friend, the two have been all but inseparable since like Day 3, and Bunnie is the powerhouse of the team, of course she should be there. Even from a pure spectacle perspective, Bunnie vs. Mecha Sally should be a good battle, we've seen that Flynn can write a good fight scene with Bunnie on more than one occasion, so hey, let them go at it and it'll be both an entertaining fight and an emotionally fraught scene.

So what does Bunnie do in the actual story? She gets accidentally depowered by a wizard, forgets that she's been depowered and thus becomes the only character in the entire book to outright lose to weaponised Mecha Sally, watches her husband explode, and then runs away to go and get turned back into a cyborg by her Eggman-serving Lost Causer uncle.

Antoine, then. Antoine used to be in love with Sally, and while that's far behind him now, he was also originally meant to be her bodyguard. He must have some extremely complex feelings about what's going on, maybe he even feels like he failed her, like his original task of putting his life on the line to protect her fell by the wayside, and thus when he could have saved her by taking a bullet for her, he wasn't even there. He could, and probably should, have a massive amount of survivor's guilt, feeling that this whole crisis only happened because he didn't do his job.

So, how does he fare in the book? He gets Geoff found guilty of his treachery, only for that to be rendered immediately futile by Naugus. He tells Bunnie that she's strong without being a cyborg, which immediately turns out to be not true. He then sacrifices himself to save Elias, and while more could've been done with this if it was later in the story, he'd got more focus, and he viewed it as an atonement for his not being there to protect Sally, then it could've been really poignant, but it comes super-early in proceedings, and it's framed as a culmination of Antoine's growth from being a coward, an arc across the wider book that ended years ago, than it was as part of the current proceedings. He spends the rest of the arc in a coma, and never wakes up before the reboot.

And, bear in mind, according to Lost Hedgehog Tales, this was supposed to be his death. He was going to be killed off here, and they only changed their minds because of negative online reactions to how bleak the story had been since Issue 225. Either way, it's still a wrap on Antoine, written out of the story completely before it's even finished its opening act.

Nicole, then. Nicole has by far the most reasons to be a main character here. Not only is she Sally's other best friend, but her feelings probably run deeper than that (Even before it was fully intended, Sallicole still had better chemistry than like 90% of the other pairings in the book, I read Stargazing, you can't fool me), and a big part of the last major arc was Sally freeing Nicole from the Iron Queen's control, an event that's still relevant at this point in the comic. The most fulfilling conclusion to that subplot is to have Nicole be part of the protagonist group, actively trying to return the favour and free Sally from Eggman. It's so damn obvious!

And there's no reason to not do it either. Eggman has found a way to protect Mecha Sally from being hacked, so Nicole can't just end the story in Issue 236, they have to actually capture her and get the Power Ring Matrix turned off before Nicole can do her thing. Likewise, Nicole has no reason to stay at home, she's been exiled from the city, so why not join the quest to save the person she cares about more than anyone else? Oh, her handheld form was destroyed? Make a new one. Or make a body out of nanites, we've seen that the nanites don't lose cohesion outside of the city, because Rotor can take his nanite armour to Artika without it immediately dissolving. She has every reason to be there and no reason not to be.

So what does she do in the book? She goes into an angst coma, hashes things out with Mina, makes some natty uniforms for the Secret Freedom Fighters, and then gets unexiled because Naugus is a failure. That's it. She never leaves Freedom HQ or Mobotropolis for the entire storyline.

Finally, Elias. Elias isn't a slouch, he's plenty capable of being a badass on his own. His sister has been enslaved and he just so happened to lose his position as king on the same day. Much like Nicole, there's no reason for him to not go after her and try to save her. Plus, Elias going into open combat with Eggman would be an opportunity to have an actual confrontation between the leaders of these warring factions, even if Elias isn't currently in charge of the Republic of Acorn. And it would be another point of contrast between him and his father: Max basically only left Knothole for glad-handing tours of the kingdom and was an asshole to his family, so here's Elias going out and fighting for his people, protecting them from Eggman's attacks, and moving heaven and earth to save his sister. And it would be much more satisfying for Elias to win back the support that Naugus stole from him through heroism rather than simply undoing Naugus' mind control by way of "Naugus had a headache."

So... the actual book, then? Elias basically retires, avoids being assassinated twice, the first time because Eggman just gives up, the second time because Mecha Sally doesn't know what a back door is, and then he becomes a secret agent and spends pretty much all his time trying to get his throne back. He ends up tied far more to the political subplot revolving around the crown, which is a giant bugbear all of its own, so that's a gripe for another day.

What we get instead of the above group of characters, who really should be the ones saving Sally, are the SEGA trio of Sonic, Tails and Amy.

As I said above, Sonic should be there, and he also has to be there, but he can't carry a story that needs to be emotionally harrowing at this point in the comic. SEGA are already creeping in and trying to dumb him down to the "COOL WHOA YEAH" flat character he became in their games. He's not allowed to love, he's not allowed to cry, he's not allowed to lose. They're peeling the soul out of the character and this is the worst possible time for that to happen, because it takes all the tension out of the story. It's hard to feel the alleged direness of the situation when the literal main protagonist is going "Hey guys, let's have a contest to see who can break the most robots!" and saying "Ah well, we'll get her next time!" as he stands in place and watches Mecha Sally fly away for the third time in a row.

Tails could be a resonant character for this story, but he just... kinda isn't. He and Sally have long had a surrogate familial bond, but it's been largely unexplored for a long time now, and has fallen almost completely by the wayside since Amadeus and Rosemary came back. Tails as a character kinda got left in the lurch by the comics, the Great Harmony was partially done for him, by a machine, while he was asleep, and then Flynn said that he lost all of his powers except flight off-panel. How he feels about the Love Triangle Pileup is pretty much entirely glossed over. Any weight that could be applied to him finally getting his parents back, only to find that they've become assholes that are enamoured with the politics of a planet that imprisoned them for the better part of a decade due to guilt by association, and care more about advancing their agenda and being dicks to his friends than they do about him is stymied by SEGA banning him from acknowledging that they're his parents.

And the Mecha Sally arc didn't really change that for him. He's just there. This Tails at least knows how to throw a damn punch, unlike the way the games were using him at the time, but he's not exactly setting the world on fire. He's just... present.

What would've been cool is if Tails' main role in this story was being the one to finally build a Deroboticizer. He's the one that finally figures out how to undo Eggman's greatest weapon of enslavement. Let his technological skills be used for more than repairing a plane and building a vaguely uncanny robot dog.

And Amy... I feel like Issue 239 really wants us to buy that Amy and Sally are now close friends, but the comic hasn't done nearly enough legwork before this point to actually sell that. I buy that they're friends. I don't buy that they're best friends, and the result is that her focal scenes feel like a store-brand substitute for what we could've had with Bunnie or Nicole present.

Besides that, Amy still faces the same "Emotional range constrained by SEGA" problems as Sonic and Tails, both to a lesser and greater extent than they do. Lesser, because SEGA has always allowed Amy to be more emotional than either of her teammates (I wonder why...), so she still gets to motivate Sonic by getting angry, which is a good scene for her. Greater, because at the time, the most recent main series game was Sonic Generations, so SEGA is still presenting Amy as a character who considers Sonic more important than breathing. We're a long way out from them trying to unfuck her character still, and that means that when Amy has to have her Mandatory Flirting With Sonic Quota moments, she's... flirting with a guy who is actively fighting to save his brainwashed girlfriend.

And that's not a criticism of Amy herself, I know people get rather defensive about modern Amy, so I'm making it clear that I'm not saying that Amy is a bad character because of this. Rather, I consider the presence of the Obligatory Reminder That Amy Loves Sonic moments to be a disservice to Amy's character. She should have the emotional intelligence to know that this is not the time. It turns her previous decision that she's okay to wait for Sonic to reciprocate her affections into "Sally has been out of the picture for 0.5 picoseconds, time to get me some Sonic!"

And the thing is, it didn't need to be this way. Ian Flynn has confirmed that making Sonic, Tails, and Amy the sole main characters of the comic for the majority of the Mecha Sally arc was his decision and his decision alone. He chose this. He wanted them to be in the spotlight for a while because the previous few arcs had put more attention on Sally, Bunnie, Rotor, and Nicole. And that's fine, that makes sense, if you're writing a long-running story with multiple smaller arcs and a large ensemble cast, it makes sense to shuffle which of of that cast are the foremost characters from arc to arc. But "Sally gets roboticized and everyone has to save her" was not the arc to do that with.

Other stories could be told with the SEGA trio, this one needed Archie characters in the limelight to sell the weight and the stakes, and it needed the characters who were closest to Sally to achieve the maximum emotional resonance that a story this fraught should have.

It could've been great. As it stands... it's easily the nadir of Flynn's run on the book, and for a bunch more reasons besides this one. I'll cover those another time, for now this is about as much grumbling as I'm willing to do, but I'll certainly come back to "Arcan Grumbles About Mecha Sally" or whatever eventually.

#Sonic #Archie Sonic #Mecha Sally #Arcan Grumbles About Mecha Sally #Elias Acorn #Nicole the Lynx #Antoine D'Coolette #Bunnie Rabbot #Bunnie D'Coolette #Sally Acorn #Sonic the Hedgehog

[electriczayre]

Since there doesn't seem to be anything written for your Omori AU, how do all the other ex-Headspaceians differ from canon?

first of all i want to genuinely thank you for expressing interest in my silly little swap AU hehe ^^ this is giving me a great excuse to think about ISOLI again and make a few silly little things for it!!

I had some tidbits about ISOLI's main party that I made when I first started developing the AU, I just never officially posted any information I guess... This will be long so I'll put everything under the cut!

The most obvious change from a glance is the character's names and designs. Sweetheart and Spaceboy (who don't have any human counterpart and are instead based on fictional characters within Sunny's world) are now regular humans within the real world, and within headspace as part of Isoli's party. Sweetheart's name has been changed to Stephanie, and (Captain) Spaceboy's to Charlie! The Unbread Twins and Mikal already have Faraway Town counterparts, so those are used for them. Biscuit becomes Bowen, and Mikal becomes Michael. Doughie's name stays as Doughie because of a personal headcanon of them being nonbinary, so in the AU Doughie uses they/them pronouns, and they changed their name to Doughie as part of transitioning ^^

I talked about what Stephanie is like already, so I'll move onto Charlie

Firstly, Charlie is a trans boy! He's always hated being a girl, but doesn't feel comfortable talking much about it with his parents. He's asked his friends to treat him like a boy and of course they happily did so. Charlie loves anything and everything to do with outer space, and often talks about wanting to grow up to study and explore space. He's very intense with his emotions, but his friends help him manage them. He cares a lot about everything, which can be stressful! He may also have a small crush on Stephanie, but she doesn't reciprocate those feelings. They still have a friendly relationship, though, even if they don't always see eye-to-eye!

After Bowen's death and the 4 year time skip, Charlie's found new friends to help distract him from all the Pain And Suffering. Instead of the hooligans, we have human versions of some of OMORI's space pirates! I haven't developed this much yet, but the plan is that they LARP being an evil Space Pirate crew while causing trouble around town. Charlie hides his emotions behind his fiery anger now, but it wouldn't take much to make him crack and start to cry... Stephanie doesn't really understand why Charlie's decided to be so mean all the time now, and Charlie doesn't understand how Stephanie just seemingly moved on from everything that happened so quickly.

Doughie, Bowen, Michael, and Sunny are all family - though Sunny is adopted, while the other 3 are blood related.

Doughie always wanted to pursue a medical degree growing up, but felt somewhat pressured to go into the family bread business (quite literally the opposite of Hero in OMORI!). They're a bit silly, but always seem a bit melancholy even when supposedly happy or content. They've also designated themself as the responsible one of the group, making sure that everyone stays out of trouble. After Bowen - their twin brother - died, they were extremely emotionally distraught, and abandoned their dream of becoming a doctor in order to fill the shoes of the next up in line for the bread business.

The death of Bowen also split the family apart due to stress, with the parents becoming estranged but choosing to still work together for the sake of the business. The dad lives with Doughie and Michael, while the mom took Sunny and moved into an available house in Faraway. The parents get the space they need, while also being close enough to keep the business running. This was also supposed to keep the siblings in contact, but then Sunny isolated for 4 years...

Bowen doesn't have too much information (besides being dead). He planned to go into the bread business because he genuinely loved it, and he's more of a gentle sweet soft guy type than in canon where he's sorta just a Wet Napkin in Headspace and a parrot to Daphne in Faraway. His siblings loved him, Charlie loved him, Stephanie loved him.

Which leads us to Michael... Oh, Michael. He's much more of a nervous wreck in this AU than in canon. He saw Sunny accidentally kill Bowen, recognized it as an accident, and panicked because he didn't want his brother and best friend to get in big trouble. So he helped Sunny cover it up. He feels sad and a little betrayed that his parents split apart and Sunny chose to isolate himself with his mom instead of everyone working it all out as a family. But he can't be mad, not when he feels this is all his fault. He doesn't wear a wig, but he does bleach his hair blond. In headspace, he's probably a bit of a rambunctious kid.

#OMORI #OMORI game #OMORI AU #OMORI swap AU #OMORI ISOLI AU #electricanswers

[artofzz]

Was the number of deaths necessary?

Let's discuss the deaths and for me the two that bothered me the most.

Since Episode 8 is out and with it Muichiro’s backstory, I thought I would make another rant. No the episode and the manga chapters focusing on Muichiro were great and very well narrated. As I already said Gotoge’s strongest trait in Demon Slayer is the backstories. The emotional aspect. And that has been done well for Muichiro too.

But I wanted to go to the later chapters now that I revisited his backstory.

In the manga it was not so clear whether Yuichiro protected him of not, but I always assumed he died protecting his brother and I am sure that’s the canon for him.

In his last moments he was praying for his brother to survive and live. We later see more of his wish for Muichiro to live a long and happy life.

But Muichiro dies, only 2-3 years after his brother. And that has bothered me heavily. I know we see the 'it does not matter how long you lived' philosophy but that just does not stand well for him. The Tokito family was already tragic as is, the way the parents died, and only a year after them one of their sons. And now only 3 years later Muichiro. And that not even battling Muzan?

If his death was so needed, could he not have died after the real battle? I feel like that was just a bad choice.

In the swordsmith village arc, we saw his brother proud of him. him seeing his family members. After such a scene there was no need to plan a reunion.

Again Yuichiro kind of did die for nothing. (You can obviously debate that since Muichiro archived a lot of things, but in the end what he really wished for his brother never came true).

And Kokushibo’s regrets at the end make it worse. I can hardly feel bad for him when he did yet another unchangeable thing. Why would you regret leaving your family behind, right after killing your last descendant, and on top of that whine about why you cannot leave something behind. I know he was referring to the sun breathing, but Muichiro is a freaking prodigy with so much potential and he comes from his bloodline. That is something that was left behind in this world. He was just too blind to see things properly.

If he at least could have not halved him. -.-

All in all, just from analyzing Muichiro’s parts in the manga I feel like Gotoge just made a really bad decision to kill him off. He should have lived a longer life.

Yuichiro wanted his brother to live a happy life. For three years Muichiro suffered because of his amnesia and when he gets his memories back, he dies only a few months later. In addition to that the happiness he felt with the people he befriended with is only here shown as a flashback even though we could have seen them happen.

Besides I found out that the leaves constantly associated with Muichiro are called Ginko leaves and they stand for long lives and infinity basically which of course refers to Muichiro's naming, but it still bothers me that we have this type of meaning behind them, and yet Muichiro still dies at 14. He's the youngest character among the demon hunters.

In the end, Kokushibo just became the idiot that ended his bloodline.

(Why offer a hashira to become a demon at all? Why not just give them the blood and see if Muzan accepts it.)

But I digress.

Genya's death is another obvious point of frustration. Sanemi did not deserve that at all. I know that Genya wanted to be there for him and for him to live, but why could the two brothers after losing everything not have a happy ending? Why do they have to wait until they are reborn to do so? Especially when Tanjiro and Nezuko can have a happy life together. Other than the Shinazugawas they had each other the whole time. It's just another reason why Tanjiro's survival feels unfair.

In addition to that Sanemi has to live with the fact that he was an asshole to his brother and not good to him. Or if his death was so needed Sanemi could have died too. I know Genya would be sad to know his brother died right after him but Sanemi could have at least been with a family member. (On a side note seeing how their mother is still hurt over killing her children and in hell for that, is very heartbreaking. She really did not deserve that at all.)

Again this is just me having an opinion, but death scenes should be very well thought out and never ever kill off a bunch of amazing characters while finding a solution for your protag.

Sorry for this long rant. I would have posted a bunch of things like this at the time the Manga ended but I was too salty about the whole demon twist XD and then just forgot to do so. The anime is to blame to boil up all those feelings again.

What do you guys think though? Which character in your opinion should not have been killed off? Why?

#demon slayer #kimetsu no yaiba #muichiro tokito #shinazugawasanemi #shinaguzawa genya #tokito yuichiro #demon slayer manga #demon slayer season 3 #infinity castle #kokushibo

[crusherthedoctor]

What are your favorite friendships in the series? And which would you like to see more of? :)

Sonic and Tails is the obvious one. It's iconic for a reason. :D As a Tails fan, I always appreciate when it's made clear just how much Sonic values their friendship. :3

That said, it's also cool when Sonic and Knuckles get to share moments where they're not at each other's throats. Heroes did well with that one, as did the second movie post-Eggman's betrayal of the latter.

As a defender of Big, I approve of Amy's friendship with him, since it's well within her character to not judge him at face value… Chronicles notwithstanding, cause it's Chronicles.

I think Shadow and Omega work well together in a buddy cop sort of way. I was actually tempted to include Omega in Stellar (albeit mostly cause I find Omega hilarious), but since I'm very intent on not pulling an '06/IDW and having a cast that's too bloated for its own good, I decided not to, as it would undermine my known dislike of the overuse and limitations of the Team ___ format if it reared its head in Stellar. (The Chaotix don't count, as they were already an established ensemble prior to Heroes.)

Speaking of, the Chaotix's dynamic is fun as well, particularly when Espio is visibly/audibly struggling to not lose the will to live by hanging around them. Vector is one of the most underrated recurring characters in the series IMO, so anything that lets him shine is fine with me.

Blaze's relationship with Cream was cute, though I do think it was underutilized in retrospect. Since no media seems interested in going back to it for longer than a minute (cause Blaze is chronically handcuffed to Silver), I created the Trudy/Cream dynamic in part as a spiritual successor, in the sense that Cream gets to form a close bond with someone that's neither her literal mother (Vanilla) or her older sister figure (Amy).

Sonic's relationship with Cream is also wholesome, and gives the former a prime opportunity to show that while he may take pride in his own abilities, he's not the self-centered asshole that some make him out to be.

To be fair, you have to have a very high IQ to understand Dr. Eggman's bond with himself. The admiration is extremely subtle, and without a solid grasp of working that sucker to death (c'mon now), most of it will go over a typical viewer's head. There's also his hate for that hedgehog, which is deftly woven into his characterization - his personal philosophy draws heavily from Dr. Eggman, for instance. The fans understand this stuff; they have the intellectual capacity to truly appreciate Mike Pollock, to realize that it's not just funny - it's the more the merrier. As a consequence, people who don't get a load of this truly ARE idiots - of course they wouldn't appreciate, for instance, the humor in Eggman's existential catchphrase "I was just about to consume this delicious banana," which itself is a cryptic reference to- *gets dragged off stage*

What interactions would I like to see more of? I'll take anything to be frank, since the aforementioned over-reliance of the Heroes tradition has made me open to pretty much any dynamic that hasn't been seen all that much. If I had to name one in particular, I'd appreciate more opportunities for Rouge to interact with characters other than Shadow or Knuckles, and not have her scenes or overall purpose in the story revolve entirely around them.

#Opinion #Sonic the Hedgehog #Miles Tails Prower #Amy Rose #Knuckles the Echidna #Chaotix #Big the Cat #Shadow the Hedgehog #Rouge the Bat #Cream the Rabbit #E-123 Omega #Blaze the Cat #Dr. Eggman

[chorus-the-mutate]

If any game mentioned in Kvasir's poems hidden throughout God of War Ragnarok deserved a good poem it was Death Stranding. Yes I know there are memes about the game being pretentious or memes involving the monster energy drinks or the piss bombs or princess beach. But goddamn it, Death Stranding has a lot of heart. Not only that but God of War (2018), God of War Ragnarok and Death Stranding all have similar themes and similar protagonists.

Kratos and Sam Porter Bridges were both (biological or adoptive) children of people in power who are betrayed by those parents and ultimately become disillusioned with the systems their family introduced them to. Although Sam and Kratos become disillusioned with their situations in very different manners - with Kratos having a much more severe shift against the gods - they both end up in the same place mentally. They are both men scorned by their family, who lost their wife and child and are left to stew with their choices in life alone. It isn't until they have their next child - Kratos with his lovely, biological baby Atreus and Sam with his adoptive funky fetus Lou - that they decide to be better. Even if Sam is making the world better by being the most metal Amazon delivery person to ever exist he's still changing the world. He's still killing BTs, reconnecting America and his journey ultimately results in him helping Amelie save the entire world. And I know that Sam's quest isn't as extreme as Kratos killing the gods in Greece only to grow into a man willing to save eight of the nine realms but neither of their journeys should be discredited. Both of these men love their child more than life itself and only grow to understand and love their child more over the course of their journeys. Not only that but Lou and Atreus both serve the same purpose even though Atreus has a more obvious, defined personality. With Lou's innate ability to detect BTs due to being a BB and Atreus's archery/runic combat styles they're both great, unique support characters. They're both kind children who do what they're able to to protect their fathers. They're the beacons of hope in both of these worlds. And their dads would do anything to help these children live their best lives, even if it means murdering gods with their bare hands or becoming a fugitive by stealing government property and running from the law.

Hell, even Freya and Clifford Unger parallel each other and the main characters of their respective games in very similar ways. And I'd argue that Clifford's circumstances are even more tragic than Freya's (which is something I'm grateful for). Freya and Clifford are both parents that desperately fought to make their children's futures better and both failed to do so because of their own mistakes. And on top of that Clifford parallels Kratos in the main way Freya contrasts him. While Freya was attentive to the point of being overbearing Clifford was afraid of the responsibility of raising his child alone. And much like Kratos Clifford didn't think he was good enough to have his child at all. It's unfortunate to see him give away his son after being manipulated into thinking the government would save his wife's life. It isn't until John McCLane/Die Hardman (yes that's his name for those who are only GoW fans and yes I love this bisexual king <3) tells Clifford that he'll lose his son that he steps up and tries to smuggle his baby boy out of this government facility. And like Freya Clifford loses his son in spite of the efforts John McCLane makes to advocate for him. He's left to bleed to death while his son dies for a brief point in time. Freya still loses Baldur, even though she would've rather died than him but Kratos saved her in every way he could. In God of War Ragnarok she's able to regain the agency Odin took from her, breaking the curse that was put on her and she does this in part because Kratos wanted to help her from the bottom of his heart. She's able to help wage a righteous war against Asgard. But Clifford is stuck in the hell of war itself, detached from time and on a neverending hunt for the son that outgrew him. He doesn't start to get peace until Sam fights him off in a version of Vietnam and he doesn't get justice until he forces Amelie's hand, making her reveal the truth about herself and the beach.

And from these failings Kratos and Sam learn to put their trust into their children and into the friends they made along the way. They open themselves up, becoming kinder and more helpful to others and in their times of need Kratos and Sam get the help they need. They got the chance to make the future better and they fucking took it. Sam and Kratos both deserve all the respect in the world for that.

#Death Stranding #god of war #God of War Ragnarok #Death Stranding spoilers #God of War spoilers #God of War Ragnarok spoilers #Sam Porter Bridges #Kratos #Lou #Atreus #Clifford Unger #Die Hardman #Freya #Don't pit my darlings against each other Santa Monica #even if it's a joke don't do this to me :'( #ash speaks

[dickfics69]

Emotional Motion Sickness | Part 7

PART 1 | PART 2 | PART 3 | PART 4 | PART 5 | PART 6 | PART 8 | PART 9

AO3

Summary: Daryl gets sick before a supply run, and denies it vehemently. He is a big tantrum baby. Rick is constantly worried and drama ensures.

Chapter summary: Daryl and Peri's POV. There is a lot of Daryl hurt and angst in this one, he's really going through it mentally

Content warning: adult language, sickfic, mess, snot, bodily functions, hurt/comfort, vivid nightmares, adult content, 18+ for eventual smut (still deciding hehe), original character\

Words: 5k ish

My personal Daryl playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2PrdzgwtCiUgwDLLBy5C4g?si=c83773b44c964bb1

TY to @dumbslxtclub for being my editor

Chapter 7: To build a home

Daryl felt putrid. His head throbbing, and a crimson nose on fire. Breathing was hard and painful. Febrile sweat matted his hair and his body shook with infection. Any miniscule relief that the man had felt before was quickly whisked away with the fiasco down by the truck. God, Daryl was mad about that. And guilty. He’d fucked it all up because of course he did. Tears were threatening to pool in his azure eyes, but he was so exhausted that he could barely keep them open. Then, of course, he was paired off with the one member of the group that seemed set out on irritating him to death. It was painfully obvious that Daryl Dixon was barely holding it together. 

He opened the door to the first room he came across, uncharacteristically showing no concern for any traps that may await him. Maybe it was a little fuck you to Rick. Or maybe the sickly man just didn’t care about today anymore. A dusty haze of pale pink washed around him. Daryl had landed in a nursery, completely untouched by the lunacy of the rest of the dwelling. An antique rocking chair sat in the corner of the space, next to a wooden crib that was becoming a home for spiderwebs and dust. Piles of laundry were spotted around the room in neat piles, waiting patiently to be sorted or worn. Daryl felt a strange tug in his chest. He stood in the middle of the room, solemnly taking in the surroundings when the door behind him creaked open again. 

“Hey Daryl, you good?”

“Yeah.” The hunter tried to stop himself from sounding irritated, but in his state it was a hard task. “Ya dond’t have to be here, we cand look for shit separately.”

“Yeah I know, but this house is whack so we should probably stick together for now, yeah?’”

“Hmpht.” Daryl grunted in weak agreement. He settled on the far side of the room and Peri placed herself by a small chest of drawers. 

“Tony?”

“Wha?”

“Is that your middle name?”

“Ndah - and we aind’t doin’ that! Jus’ shuddup and look quietly.”

Daryl stepped over to the wooden crib, running a calloused hand along the chipped varnish. The phantom baby girl hadn't lay here for a long time. He looked up at the sad dilapidated mobile that hung above the resting place. A menagerie of spider-webbed little birds moving around together in the October wind. He leaned forward and adjusted his eyes to a small nameplate that sat slightly crooked on the wall. E M M A. Daryl traced a finger over indented letters, trying to picture the baby girl, Emma, that once slept here. Played here. Laughed here. A chubby little Judith popped into his mind and a weak smile spread across his face. Such innocence in a fucked up world.

“You ever seen one?” Peri’s melodic voice rang through the room, obvious that she’d been watching the man reminiscing. 

“One what?”

“You know… a baby.” She paused trying to find her words. “An infected baby.”

The question weighed heavily in Daryl's mind. The pleasant images of his Judith being quickly erased away and replaced with the nightmarish visions from his dreams. Gurgling lumps of flesh in infantile form. He shook his head viciously, trying to rid himself of the new images that plagued him, but as always, the traumatic ones lingered. 

“Ndah.” He responded weakly. A silence fell heavy over the two, the atmosphere thick with discomfort and melancholy.

“I have.” Peri admitted after a while. Daryl said nothing but turned to face the woman, bringing his blue eyes up to make contact with her hazel ones. “I was just starting my placement at Piedmont Atlanta hospital. I went in on the Thursday morning and everything was fine. By the afternoon everything had gone to complete shit. When the generators were turned off, the paediatric ventilators failed and they all died. But then they came back…” Her vision had drifted towards the crooked floorboards, catatonic to the images she was reliving. 

“Mb’sorry.”

“Yeah…”

“So, like you a doctor or sombe shit?” The familiar friend of guilt made a home in Daryl’s stomach for what felt like the fiftieth time that day. He was ashamed that he didn’t know the history of Peri…Peri…fuck! What was her last name??? Daryl had  made an effort to get to know the new arrivals from Woodbury but then the weird fucking pig flu happened. And then they ran out of supplies. And Rick happened…Shit,  had he really lost that much focus? ‘You’re so fucking selfish you know that?’

“...Yeah, or some shit.” She glanced up at the hunter briefly with eyes that were pleading for respite. Pleading to tell the tale long forgotten by the misery of the world. He gave her a weak nod to continue. Maybe such a conversation would distract the sickly man from his plethora of ailing symptoms.

“So I never actually graduated from uni…I mean university…I mean college!” She corrected herself, forgetting the country she was in.

“I kndow what a undiversity is, dumbass…”

“Right, okay. So yeah, my school offered a placement program overseas and I’d never been to America so of course I said yes, and here we are.”

“So you aind’t a full doctor?”

“Ahh, not really no. Bob gave me a copy of the Grey’s Anatomy textbook though, so I've been boning up a bit.” She huffed and small laugh redirected her attention to the pile of baby clothes in front of her, trying to find some onesies that would fit the ever growing Judith.

“Well…er…thanks. I didnd’t know that.” Daryl tried to smile at the woman but was caught up with an onslaught of thoughts and feelings himself. Judith was alive and well and definitely not dead and turned, but he couldn’t get the frightful images out of his head. He weakly directed his attention back to a pile of plush toys sitting forlorn in the crib. One of them would be perfect for his pseudo-daughter. A dinosaur, a teddy and a penguin presented themselves. The bear was too obvious. The dinosaur might be a little too scary. But the odd-looking penguin seemed just appropriate enough to make it into Daryl’s duffle bag. 

“Let’s see what's in here.” Daryl heard Peri move from her place in front of the chest of draws to the small antique cupboard by the window. He turned around as she was opening the tiny old doors. A glint of light caught his eye. Fishing line. A trip wire. Before he could even think, he dove forward towards the woman and knocked her to the ground. Copious amount of books and heavy trinkets fell to the floor with a bang. The shelf above falling, releasing its contents onto any unsuspecting victim. 

“You okay?” Daryl asked between gasps of air.

“Ah fuck…yeah I think so.” Her voice strained. 

Daryl let go, satisfied that Peri hadn’t sustained any damage in the stupidly placed booby trap. He stood up slowly, ruing the ache that had settled in every single one of his extremities like the plague. A stabbing prickle set itself suddenly in both of the hunter’s nostrils. The shelf spewing its contents downwards had disrupted an equilibrium of dust, sending a cloud into the air and up Daryl’s sensitive airways. He crushed his nose in half with a powerful wrist, voraciously attempting to quell the sneeze attack that was brewing. Of course it didn’t work.

“Fuckheh…h’AATCHoo…h’ESSHuu…ESHHcht…HAH’EESCHshu…shit-heh’eeEITChuuU…ugh…heh…”

“Bless yo-”

“-Ndohiht donehih!” Daryl’s breath hitched fiercely. Nostrils quivering. Eyelids pressed tight. A tongue half hanging out of a gasping mouth. He feared it wouldn’t stop this time, forever leaving him to the mercy of his fever-addled body, vibrations reverberating in the back of neck.

“heh…h’ATSCH uU… h’EITCHEW… Hh’EsTCHUU… Hh’GstcHh, GstcH, GSTCHUuuh…sond of a bitch!” The fit finally ended, leaving the man fretfully dizzy, eyes full of irritated tears and mucus dribbling its way into his gaping mouth. Daryl stumbled, trying to find a wall to hold onto, but was met with a small frame underneath his arm, anchoring him to the spot he teetered on. One steadying hand wrapped around his waist and the other reached up to wipe afflicted tears from his cheeks.

“Fucking hell Daryl! You’re burning up!” 

“Mb’finde.” The hunter attempted to say, but it came out as more of an incongruent mumble. He made a feeble attempt to shrug the woman off but she slowly guided him down to a seated position, hovering closely. “Leave mbe be! Dontcha got other shit to worry about kndife girl?” He spat at her with humiliation and rage.

“You’re a fucking annoying dickhead, you know that Daryl?” She stood up from her place near the floor, leaving a keen medical obligation snuffling below. “Look. Just stay here, I’m gonna check out the bathroom, see if I can find any pseudoephedrine or something”

“Sudo-what?”

“Cold and flu medicine idiot.”

“Dond’t need any.” Daryl practically growled his response. 

“Looks whatever! You do you, but sure as shit the rest of us will need it, considering you can’t even cover your goddamn mouth.” And to make a point she wiped a hand along the wallpaper, a trail of his own mucus glistening in the fading sunlight. Daryl bore the brunt of one final disgruntled glare, before the door slammed closed with a riot of brown curly hair. He was left in a puddle of his own thoughts once again. 

Shame was a scorching hot poker at the back of Daryl’s throat. His unabashed fits of temper should’ve been a thing of the past, but here he was, miserable, weak, losing his shit at those just trying to show him comfort. He was an alien in this meek and feeble body, unable to stand, or breath, or think rationally. Daryl truly believed he was an insufferable burden to everyone, his ornery existence unworthy of approval. Just months ago, he had chosen to abandon his found family and run off with his reunited, one-handed brother. Of course, the deviance hadn’t lasted long, Daryl swiftly returning to the group once he realised how much he’d grown apart from Merle. Still, no one came after him, and they all seemed to do absolutely fine in his absence. Daryl needed them, but the dependence was clearly unrequited. He was a pity case. His febrile mind exacerbated these beliefs. Daryl was damned if he did and damned if he didn’t. Fragile and furious, the sick man slammed the side of his fist hard into the wall behind him, feeling the pulsating blood rushing to the point of contact. 

The throbbing, localised pain was a welcome distraction from the tornado that whirled inside Daryl’s head. It wasn’t the first time he’d hurt himself to distract from mental torment, and probably wouldn’t be the last. He wasn’t proud of it. But it worked as a temporary fix when he was drowning in subconscious. Daryl focused his eyes on the side of his fist, narrowing his attention to the lump swelling from broken capillaries. Soon he was able to ground himself to reality. The hard floor numbing his ass. The cacophony of wind outside rattling the windows. The faint murmurs of Rick and Carl talking beneath him. He could ruminate on all the ways he’d let his partner down later. Right now he had a job to do. ‘Focus you asshole.”

Feeling slightly steadier, Daryl hauled his leaden body off the ground, pausing on upright to make sure he wasn’t going to collapse. Satisfied enough, he reached for the handkerchief in his back pocket that had left a revolting damp patch on his cargo pants. He blew his nose with thick, gurgling abandon, finally being alone enough to be void of humiliation. The hunter made his way over to the last untouched cupboard and started picking through the necessities.

—---

Peri worked her way down the dingy hallway slowly, carefully. The slightest misstep threatening danger upon them all. She was nervous as hell, but used the uneasy edge to spur her onwards. The woman knew far better than to wander off alone, but truthfully she needed a moment to breathe by herself. Daryl Dixon was possibly the most confusing and vexing individual she had ever met, but a psychoanalysis on the man would probably turn into a bloody thesis. Peri didn’t know either Rick or Daryl well enough to cast an opinion on their relationship, but a blind priest could see that there were some serious issues there. Not her circus, not her monkeys. Just focus.  

A few more steps and Peri found herself in front of a door much like the others branching off into the unknown around her. Instinct spoke. This was the right room. This was the room in which she could prove to the inseparable prison family that she was worth the risk of acceptance. A too long pent up breath hissed out as she entered, unscathed and undetected. A bathroom of very unspectacular proportions unveiled itself, the frigid temperature of the broken tiles rising up through her boots. Peri opened up the tiny cabinet that sat above a time turned grimy basin. Disappointment littered the dusty shelves, nothing to claim but a strip of aspirin and an empty prescription bottle for doxycycline. The barren orange container almost laughed at her, filling her up with red hot agitation. She slammed the wooden door shut, startling when a spray of icy water burst out from the ancient pipes in front of her. Cold, wet and defeated, Peri kicked at a tile that sat ajar from the others. The small slab shattered against the wall, revealing an open hole in its wake. 

The opening in the ground was purposed and deep, a little life of goods hidden away from unsuspecting eyes. Peering into it, Peri gasped. A practical Mecca of Medicine revealed itself. Gauze, paracetamol, medical tape, antibiotics. She was damn near tears of ecstasy. There were even a couple of unopened bottles of nasal spray- not a necessity but a certain someone could benefit greatly from it. Peri packed everything into her bag, sparing nothing. 

She was about to pat herself on the back, when the sounds of gunshots erupted from deep within the home. Scrambling to her feet, Peri hurled the duffle bag into the hallway, and retraced her steps with resolute haste. Petite hands made short work of unsheathing knives. Peri made it to the open stairwell at the same time as Daryl. He was steady, holding his crossbow up with unwavering grace. 

“Rick! The hell happened?” The hunter yelled down, concern and worry dripping from his eyes.

“S’fine…Damn idiot rigged a bunch-a firecrackers to go off!”

“Shit.” Daryl lowered his crossbow and pinched the bridge of his nose, concerned, stressed and disillusioned. A howl of unmerciful wind rattled through the house, slightly drawing the attention of all. 

“Rick, the winds are really picking up out there, maybe we should just call it quits before the storm hits?” Peri said, leaning nervously over the bannister. 

“No! We’ve already gotten great stuff down here. We got time before the storm, jus’ get back to it yeah?”

Daryl watched Rick turn his attention towards the room where the fireworks happened. A clear sign to keep on movin’- so to speak. He swung his crossbow so that it was hanging against his back, nodding to Peri who remained sceptical. 

“I know, it ain’t sittin’ right with me either.” He reassured her as they walked beyond the staircase. “But I ain’t seen so much stuff in long while. Let’s just grab what we cand now and we can combe back with mbore people for the rest later.”

“I get the vibe that no one’s touched this place for a reason Daryl…”

“Yeh, I’mb with ya.”

“How’d you go in the nursery?”

“Finde, got a bunch’a clothes for Judith and found a whole heap-a blankets for windter. You?”

Peri didn’t answer with words, instead she opened the lip of her duffle bag, precious medical supplies bursting at the seams.

“Mm-hmm, ndice. Uh...good job.” He wanted to be more supportive, but exhaustion and downright stress had worn his effective communication skills down. Daryl paused and then pointed towards the end of the dark hallway. “‘M gonna check out that one. You take the ondes on the right, jus’ be-”

“-Be careful. I know.”

Daryl grunted his response again.

Leading the way through the dark corridor, he dodged any wonky floorboards that would deem themselves a threat. Breathing as quietly as was possible through his mouth, the hunter stepped up to the threshold of the door, preparing himself to enter. With a trusty crossbow drawn rigid, Daryl tentatively turned the door knob and braced for anything that might come his way. He’d be damned if some idiot apocalypse prepper bested Rick Grimes and his team of mismatched survivors. 

The large room mirrored the rest of the dwelling, a gradual darkness creeping in like a precursor for their time-borrowed lives. An insipid heat rose from the heart of the room, a vast temperature change from where the hunter had just entered from. The atmosphere was sickly, heavy, and pallid. Daryl couldn't smell a damn thing but he knew when he was in the presence of death. Fresh death. Not walker death. His body just knew. Missing a sense or not and it filled him with an unwelcome foreboding. 

Once Daryl knew that there were no undead coming for him, he crept over to the window and pulled the blinds shakily. The room needed light. He stared out through the drizzle clad glass for a moment, the grim uncertainties behind him making his mind run a mile a minute. Maybe the owner killed himself? Maybe some luckless cuck bore the brunt of a booby trap? Whatever had taken place behind him was ghastly and unpleasant. He just knew it. Shuddering a wheezy breath, the hunter turned around to satiate woeful curiosity. 

The grizzly scene that lay before him was all too clear. A once magnificent master bedroom, now a bloodstained wreck. The body of a tall man was strewn across the crimson bedspread, a face marred with dried blood. Upon closer inspection the deceased appeared to be fairly young, light chestnut hair falling from his head and a messy beard long unattended to. A pistol lay limply from his right hand, the grim solution for a man who simply couldn’t go on. Daryl stepped forwards to claim the firearm, and in doing so noticed a much smaller body curled up on the other side of the dead man. It was a girl. Maybe one or two years old. Ribbons of golden hair tarnished from the bullet wound in the side of her head. Her lifeless body dressed up in lace as if she was a doll. Emma. 

‘Fucking coward.’ - A murder suicide of the most snivelling decree. How dare he? How dare he? Having a child in this world was one of the only things to keep a person fighting - a principle made unequivocal by Rick Grimes and his unwavering love for Carl and Judith. Daryl pictured the gruesome scene taking place, a man out of options killing his own daughter before turning fate onto himself. The hunter felt numb, unable to fathom the loss of such an innocent being. Wetness pooled beneath his chin, the realisation that he had been crying jarred him out of melancholic stupor. He sniffled and wiped his eyes, defeated by a house and its haunting memories.

Daryl grabbed the musty blanket that was crumpled below the pair of bodies. He dragged it up solemnly, coving the cowardly man and the little girl, a weak attempt at preserving dignity in their unholy demise. The movement of the comforter caused a piece of paper to fly into the air, landing in Daryl’s outstretched hand.

I couldn't do it without you Robin.

Emma, I’m so sorry. 

-Michael.

Daryl crumpled up the pathetic suicide note and tossed it to the floor. Death and misery were not surprising guests for the hunter, having been an audience to misfortune since childhood. Maybe it was his fever or his hair-trigger emotions, but the heartache before him was almost too much to bear. Breathing became harder, shallower, quicker. Black spots of foreboding clouded his vision all at once, causing his head to spin with astronomical pressure. His whole body had had enough, strained under effort and threatening to collapse in an instant. Fuck, he felt weak as shit. 

He stumbled away from the bed and braced himself against an old vanity near the door. Squeezing his eyes tight never did much to escape from living nightmares, but he needed to blind himself from reality around him and get a fucking grip! His knuckles were turning white with force against the chipped wood. Daryl needed to focus on breathing. Daryl needed to get over his little episode -Merle’s words, not his. The hunter brought a hand down forcefully on the piece of furniture, wincing painfully. The thick bruise from earlier throbbing loudly.

“Shit.” 

At least he could think lucidly again. Well, as lucid as the febrile-feeling-like-pure-garbage man could be at this harrowing point in time. A soft knocking at the door jolted Daryl out of his panic attack oblivion.

“Daryl, you okay in there?” Peri’s soft voice was tinged with worry. Daryl had maybe hit the vanity a little harder than intended if he drew her attention that quickly. 

“Yeh, s’all finde.” He croaked out, grimacing at the gratingly sick sound. “Dond’t uh…dond’t combe in here, there ain’t much worth takin’. I’ll catch up with ya in a sec.”

“Okay…”

Peri didn’t need to see what had happened in the bedroom, no one did. It wasn’t fair but Daryl could deal with it. He’d seen worse and there was worse to come. There always was. The tiny girl and her father had left the world, and that was that. Not his problem. He’d wasted enough time expelling useless emotions, it was time to move on. Daryl straightened up and ran his hands over his face, wiping away residual dampness from his ruddy cheeks and nose. He was hot now, his body unable to keep itself within a normal temperature range. He cursed his ailing frame, knowing that in five minutes the feverish sweat coating his body would leave him freezing and trembling. He was very fucking over this. 

He left the room and its ghosts behind, narrowly avoiding his own reflection in the vanity as he walked away. If he looked a fraction as bad as he felt, he might confuse himself for a mottled walker and shoot his own damned head by accident. Okay, probably a bit dramatic, but the man felt so goddamn awful. 

Daryl inched slowly down the hallway once again, listening out for a sign of Peri behind one of the doors. A shuffling from a room to the left stopped him in his tracks. He listened with highly trained ears. It kept going so he unsheathed a knife from his belt. The sound was probably coming from his companion, but still, he felt safer with a weapon in his hands. Daryl entered the room to be greeted by a small wave from Peri.

“Just me.” She said, staring at the knife by Daryl’s head. 

“Sorry, jus’-”

“It’s cool dude.” Peri was only visible from the waist up, her lower half masked by dozens of cardboard boxes strewn around the room. 

“Ya find anything good?”

“Yeah, a fair few cans of food. Tinned peaches mainly, but I’m sure Carol can whip up something with them. It’s a hoarders paradise in here, a whole lotta boxes filled with a whole lotta junk.”

Daryl forced a laugh but it came out as a grumbling huff of air. He didn’t feel like laughing right now. Realising that he was just standing there like a shag on a rock, the hunter turned to open the large cupboard next to him.

“Don’t bother in there, just a bunch of broken vacuums.”

“M’kay…” Daryl responded slowly, suddenly feeling very useless. He had been too busy digesting the massacre before him that he hadn’t bothered to look for supplies in the other room. It was a bedroom, it might’ve had clothes, blankets, medicine. He could go back and search properly, he should, but he couldn’t. He wanted to be as far away from that horrible scene as possible. ‘Fucking pathetic Dixon, can’t even pull it togther to help your family.’ He shook the thoughts from his head, absentmindedly squeezing the tip of his raw nose. They’d come back with more people, a bigger car. They’d get the rest. 

A dull tickle sprang up in Daryl’s right nostril, prompting the man to scrub vigorously. A wave of hot frustration spread through him, he refused to sneeze anymore today. ‘S’fucking ridiculous.’ Gritting his teeth, he managed to quell the sensation. Finally some control. Snorting back a tidal wave of mucus, Daryl turned to busy himself in whatever Peri was searching for. He just had to hold on for a little longer. 

“Whas’ that?” He asked, pointing to a pile of papers filling Peri’s hands. She was standing silhouetted by the last legitimate light of the day, staring down at the documents with a look of beautiful contemplation.

“Some old photos. It must be the family that lived here, see?” She handed him a stack of glossy pictures. He stared down at the first photo, squinting his eyes to decipher the figures in the stormy darkness. A man and woman were stood in front of a pickup truck, arms intertwining and faces filled with candid laughter. The man was undoubtedly the alive counterpart of Michael who now lay rotting on a bed. His light brown hair was much shorter, and face clean shaven. Daryl assumed that the woman in the photograph was his wife Robin. She had kind eyes and a gentle smile, with cascades of golden hair falling down past her waist. Around her neck was a turquoise beaded necklace with matching earrings that peeped out from her blonde curls. They were clearly very in love. Daryl silently hoped that that's what he and Rick looked like when they touched. ‘You can’t even say ‘I love you’ idiot, of course you don’t look like that.’ He quickly shifted the photo to the back of the pile, it was doing more damage than good. The next development hurt him even further, a tiny infant having her first bath. So fresh, so new. An umbilical scab still protruding from her abdomen. The portrait of Emma brought back suppressed memories of Lori’s death and a newborn Judith. Rick’s wailing, and an infant's cry. He didn’t think twice before he left to get formula for that girl. We ain’t losing another one. Daryl had been the first to feed Judith, the first to bathe her - hell! The first to change her dirty diaper. He loved Lil’ Asskicker so fucking much. Tears were threatening to swim in his eyes once again and he refused to be a fragile wuss any longer.

Daryl swallowed hard against the lump in his throat, reaching the stack of photos out for Peri to take back. It was pointless reminiscing in the memories of someone else's life. When hands failed to take the package from him, Daryl looked up from his emotional haze, seeing that Peri had walked away. 

“Oh fuck yeah! Look at this.” She reached behind a pile of boxes, pulling out an old dusty instrument that took a moment for Daryl to register as a banjo. 

“Uh…A banjo?”

“Yeah man! And its a friggen nice one too…”

“You play?” Daryl asked, feeling a nostalgic pang creep into his stomach.

“Yeah a little in my free time. Or I did. I wanted to take piano lessons as a kid but my ever -so -slightly -overbearing -mother made me take banjo lessons instead.” She ran a hand over the out of tune strings, smiling a little too widely.

“Hmm, mby Ma used ta play too.” Daryl hadn’t thought about his mother in over a decade. Why now, of all times to be inundated with memory?

“Sounds like a good woman. What was her name?”

“Uh, Alice.”

“Alice…” The name played around in her mouth as if she was trying to piece together the puzzle of Daryl’s life. “Your dad play too?”

No. Daryl’s father had other excruciating hobbies that occupied his time. You know, getting drunk, smoking, beating his wife and children. Really happy family bullshit. Silence fell between the pair. It was obvious that Peri had hit a sore spot in Daryl’s psyche.

“You should take it Peri…Maybe Beth and ya can start a prison band.” He tried to force a smile at the woman. It wasn’t her fault that Daryl was on the verge of spiralling out of control. His childhood was a series of harrowing events that the man had worked tirelessly to forget. It wasn't important now. Nothing before was. Peri was about to respond when a muffled struggle was heard downstairs.

Daryl raised a hand, demanding complete silence. 

“CARL!” Rick’s panicked voice reverberated through the entire house, prepping the two upstairs companions for battle. Gunshots boomed. There weren't any fireworks this time. Peri dropped the instrument without a thought and followed Daryl’s frantic pace out of the room. 

Everything that felt wrong with today was about to come to a head. All four were certain of it.

#rickyl #rickyl fanfiction #rickyl fic #twd #twd daryl #twd rick #twd rick grimes #twd fanfiction #the walking dead #the walking dead daryl #daryl needs a hug #sick #sickfic #daryl is sick #sneezing #sneeze kink #eventual smut #rick x daryl #rick grimes x daryl dixon #ficlet #dickfics69 #angst #hurt #hurt no comfort #eventual comfort #stubborn daryl #rick/daryl #angst with a happy ending #rickyl writers group #new couple

[reitziluz]

Back at'cha!! 9 and 14 for the artist ask meme <3

thanks!! a simple one and a complex one.

9. What are your file name conventions

oh damn. there's the thematic or outright titles of the works, like splitattheroot or howskeletonsareborn. more often, especially for one off things, it's more along the lines of sexywizardbullshit or hungery. for challenges or series, i tend to do pretty utilitarian file names, like witchfashion_pencilskirt.

when i start to really get into an idea, the amount of files for it tend to explode. when that happens, the "core" name tends to get more matter of fact. the current file for shit-all is dsdsa_canoncompliancecut, but there's also dsdsa_oldarchived and dsdsa_rewrit_note (which is the spreadsheet file for the rewrite).

14. Any favorite motifs

ahhh this is hard! i mean, skeletons, flowers and food feel like obvious things to mention? but hmm...

there's of course monstrous hunger. especially when it's made mundane. like in the venom movie with the tater tots and trash can chicken, or when i used to read mcu fics just for the "everyone lives in the avengers tower and boy do supersoldiers eat a lot" type of content. i have one oc, whose one iteration in a superhero setting had the power to literally become what he ate, but the drawback was a ridiculous metabolism that also meant he had to eat constantly. something about bodily needs that are not respected because they're seen as funny or frivolous or something inconvenient and unsightly that's ought to be controlled and surely the person is exaggerating and should just act normal because why would anyone normal experience a basic thing like that that strongly or in such a weird way?

monsters, specifically skeletons, and even more specifically gashadokuro, are also a big fave. the process of becoming a monster, or being made into one. but i don't find the "pure evil" kind of monsters compelling at all*. like, sure, gashadokuro bite off the heads of lone travelers and drink their blood, and that's a p straighforward evil thing to do. but if you reduce them to that, it's like, you might as well be writing about lightning strikes or earth quakes? the compelling thing about monsters to me is how complex they are. not in a shallow sympathetic portrayal of "oh there's a tragic backstory so all the wrongs are excused", but in the inherent horror and tragedy of "oh, i see how i could have become that" and "i see how that could have been prevented but wasn't." gashadokuro are formed from the spirits of those who fell in battle, who were disrespected in death, or who died of starvation, and they crumble to nothing when their rage is spent. that's devastating on multiple levels, and i think the tragedy adds to the horror as much as the horror adds to the tragedy.

(there's also something to be said about how people who see monsters as inhuman pure evil might also fail to recognize or outright reject the possibility that they could be acting monstrously against others, and also how extending no sympathy to any monsters can also turn into hatred for the parts in you (unfairly) deemed monstrous, but i've already gotten off topic and rambled enough.)

*to be fair, this is mostly just when the monster is more of a character of its own. like if the monster is way in the symbolic end of the spectrum, or like, more of just a scenario like zombies most of the time are, that's alright. but i don't get people who, for example, say that sephiroth is absolute pure evil and to argue anything else diminishes him as a villain, when i think knowing that he was 14 at the oldest when he was first thrown into an all out war and that without the evils of shinra the evils he committed would also not have come to pass just... like fuck man, how is that not more terrifying to you than a flavorless construct of "pure evil" that you can compartmentalize and distance from yourself and your reality as a whole?

#igotasked #this got away from me

[random-late-night-thoughts-hmm]

I'm into Welcome to Night Vale, TSP and Splatoon at the moment. SO. HERE'S SOME RANDOM HEADCANONS.

Welcome to Night Vale

Carlos is trans. I look at my favorite characters and boom they become Trans.

That being said, Cecil is too. Trangenderification beam lol.

Cecil has a therapist. COME ON THE MIRROR THING HAS TO BE TRAUMA.

Cecil is extremely scared of death.

Carlos' last name is actually "The Scientist".

Cecil has ADHD and Autism.

Time starting again really scared Cecil, causing him to stay home a couple of days after learning about it. Carlos comforted his husband.

Khoshekh is a horror beyond imagination, but Cecil of course finds him absolutely adorable.

Hiram McDaniels likely will never, ever, come back to Night Vale. The four other heads are scared after what happened. ... He is also wanted for murder SO.

The Stanley Parable

The Narrator is Trans and Gay.

... So is Stanley

Do you see a pattern?

Narrator desperately needs therapy, and to be diagnosed with some things.

Narrator has anger issues, ADHD and Autism. All undiagnosed.

Stanley is selective mute. The amount of his verbal speech varies on where in the story you are. He is also Autistic.

^ Pre-Skip: Semi-Verbal | Post-Skip: Non-Verbal

My 432 is a complete bitch.

Narrator and Curator were experi- employees of the office before the Parable.

Stanley speaks through ASL, and everyone in the Parable knows ASL.

Splatoon (Series)

Deep Cut is a polyam relationship.

Shiver is Non-binary (She/They, No I don't care that they confirmed her to use She/Her shut tf up), Biro and Asexual.

Frye is Demigirl (She/Xe), Omniro (Pref. non-male) and Asexual.

Big Man is Non-Binary (They/He/She), Panro and Asexual

THAT BEING NOTED

If Nintendo tells up about their ages and they're all seperate ages that seems unfit, I will change that headcanon of them being Polyam for my own comfort.

Marina and Pearl are married by Splatoon 3. They keep at it for Off the Hook, but they now have more personal time together.

The Agents are self aware. /hj

^ although if we ignore the joking part, its because I think it's a really funny idea, especially with my Agent 8, who has to go through the same level over and over for points.

The agents all live together as roommates (Captain 3, New Agent 3, Agent 4 and Agent 8).

New Agent 3 doesn't like Grizzco and Grizz's business practices. For... obvious reasons.

The shopkeepers find Agent 4 slightly annoying.

#it's midnight somewhere #late night thoughts #or day thoughts #welcome to night vale #wtnv cecil #wtnv carlos #the stanley parable #the stanley parable ultra deluxe #tsp narrator #tsp stanley #tsp 432 #tsp curator #splatoon #splatoon 3 #splatoon 2 #splatoon marina #splatoon pearl #splatoon shiver #splatoon frye #splatoon big man #splatoon captain 3 #splatoon new agent 3 #splatoon agent 4 #splatoon agent 8 #that's a lot of tags :/

[supreme-burrito]

So I gave up pretty early on playing Assassin’s Creed Revelations and skipped to playing Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag. The Middle Eastern vibe is beautiful ngl but there was one mission that gave me no instruction on what to do and I just gave up. Wasn’t having much fun with it, so I moved on.

I knew it was about pirates and I’m enjoying it so far (although some things do bother me about it, specifically the crafting mechanic because I hate crafting mechanics as a game feature when it is not a main aspect of your game, but yet it is considered to be mandatory to get by. I hated this in ACR with the bombs. The parts were everywhere and I didn’t care to use them and when I was strapped for cash, I would just sell them and get them back in the overworld). But hear me out and I have a theory.

So Our Flag Means Death remember that show about gay pirates by Taika Waititi? Pretty sure literally no one in the general population about Stede Bonnet before this show came out. I didn’t even know Stede Bonnet was a real person until someone else did their research and made a tumblr post about him and how he was a god awful person.

But in AC4 as soon as you begin the game to get to the first city this your companion.

Surprise it’s Stede Bonnet and YES HIS BOAT IS NAMED THE REVENGE. Currently he is just a merchant but it’s obvious he’s going to be following you on your journeys into piracy. IDK how historically accurate AC games are with their interpretations of real people from the past but my point is he looks eerily similar to OFMD’s Stede Bonnet (minus the chubbiness) and that AC4 does acknowledge in a tongue and cheek manner that Stede is not a great person in his character bio and Stede in character so far as mentioned his plantation and wife and kids.

And of course you have Blackbeard in OFMD aka Stede’s boyfriend.

And of course the next historical figure you see in the game is Blackbeard no I am not kidding. Now he doesn’t look anything like Taika’s iteration but listen

So I haven’t gotten FAR in Black Flag but if Stede and Edward as so much as have one interaction together I will be convinced that the research time that was put into OFMD was mostly made up of ‘yeah we had some dudes play Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag because it has historically accurate pirates so we chose Stede and Blackbeard for the leading roles’

I can’t believe I’m saying this but if you were disappointed with OFMD because of historical inaccuracy and not acknowledging the darker side of the characters in the show GO PLAY AC4: BLACK FLAG.

No you do not need to have played another AC game to understand what is going on. It’s slightly connected to 3 (in one aspect to the beginning I believe but eventually it just becomes a building block to the plot) but you’re playing as a completely new, unique character to the franchise so there’s a new slate if you don’t want to get delved into the lore of the franchise because I played AC2 and Brotherhood to the end and it is certainly a lot and that is just with Desmond Miles’s in the Animus with Ezio Auditore.

#OFMD #assasin’s creed black flag #ac black flag #ac4 black flag

[sammysdewysensitiveeyes]

My thoughts on Stranger Things Season 4 finale:

spoilers

Those two episodes did NOT need to be as long as they were.  I mean I enjoyed it, but it felt overstuffed, and some scenes just dragged on.  The final “battle,” in particular, got ridiculous.  I know we’re meant to see all these events happening at the same time, probably in a matter of just a few minutes, but Steve, Robin and Nancy were getting strangled by vines for like 20 minutes.  It stretched on for so long that it started to lose impact.

I did not need to see Hopper decapitate a demogorgon with a sword just to prove what a badass he is.  He’s been proving his badassery the entire season.

Speaking of badass, way to go Nancy with a shotgun, and Joyce with a stunner.  You should have aimed for the head, Nancy.

Damn, I really thought Max was safe after the whole “Running up the hill” segment, I thought that was her climactic escape scene.  At least she’s still alive, for the moment.

Which is more than I can say for Eddie.  Goodnight, sweet rock-and-roll prince, flights of angels sing thee to thy totally bitchin’ rest.  It would have been nice to see him live, but there was just no way to see his name properly cleared.  He would have been screwed either way.

Lucas and Max, and Dustin and Eddie’s uncle absolutely broke my heart, the actors killed those scenes. 

Meanwhile, Jason got a horrific death that the show barely lingered on, holy shit.  The rift melted him in half!  Jason was a very unlikable character, but honestly?  Without him knowing what the other characters know, I can understand why he thinks Hellfire are the bad guys.  His biggest crimes are being willing to threaten kids just for being connected to Eddie (although at this point, they are all in high school, so he is really threatening classmates - it doesn’t help that the actor looks much older than the “kids”).  If this was a movie shot from his perspective, knowing only what he knows, it would be easy to see the Hellfire club as the bad guys.  All that being said, though, I wasn’t sorry to see him go.

Also - Eddie is now the scapegoat for the murders, and presumed dead, but are the police not looking into anything about the other Hellfire club members?  I know it was mostly Jason’s idea and town hysteria, but how does Lucas explain Max’s injuries and what they were doing in the attic?  Does he just say that Max’s injuries, his own injuries and Jason’s death are from the earthquake?  I’m surprised the kids aren’t getting more interrogation.  Of course, this is the same series where unarmed civilians and children keep outsmarting Russian soldiers, so I’ll suspend some disbelief.

Poor Johnathan was useless this season, but it wasn’t his fault he was largely separated from the action.  I loved his scene with Will in the pizza kitchen.

And also - Will is gay.  I mean, it’s blatantly obvious at this point.  That whole speech he gave to Mike, showing him the painting (which we know that El did NOT commission from him), talking about El’s feelings and “feeling different” in a way that was clearly talking about himself, looking out the window in tears while he says it.  And then Johnathan’s whole “You can tell me anything. I’ll always love you no matter what” speech later on.  I mean, it’s as obvious as it can get without someone flat-out saying the word “gay.” 

I would have been okay with Stranger Thing ending in Season 3, with Hopper’s actual death, but Season 4 was worth it just to see El’s reaction when he walks through the door.

I am still utterly over the Steve-Nancy-Johnathan thing, it’s just boring.  I’d rather see Nancy end up with neither of them.  Steve has changed, but it sounds like his dreams of a big family, don’t really line up with Nancy’s career ambitions.  Johnathan is lying to her about college.  She can just part on good terms with both of them and go her own way.

No matter how this ends, I don’t actually want any more main character deaths.  Killing any of the kids is too dark.  I’ve seen people speculating about Will dying next season and - really?  After all that kid has been through?  After all Joyce has been through?  This series is not even remotely realistic, and it’s generally used character deaths well when they happen, no need to get grimdark.  Let the main cast - both kids and adults, live happily in the end. 

Robin, Argyle and Murray are my break-out surprise favorites (Robin from last season, of course, but she continued to be fantastic this season.)  Argyle is the chill dude you want in an emergency, he just rolls with the punches.  Steve continues to be the best.

#stranger things spoilers