#so if y'all want to write your own things in this verse don't let me stop you. you don't need to credit me

[laracrofted]

so i was sitting on this idea because i wanted to write a full-on fic, but i decided to do it as a short blurb instead. since i'm having horrible writer's block and am sitting on like 20 other ideas right now. inspired by a certain karaoke video.

warnings: minors and ageless blogs dni, super short sorry y'all, language, explicit sexual content (semi-public oral sex, minor role play), not proofread. rockstar!rhett x girlfriend!reader.

"What exactly d'you think you're doing with my hat?"

His blue eyes are dark and glittering in the indigo shadows in the back of the dive bar.

Handsome Gambler doesn't have another show until Saturday night and so, you dragged your boyfriend out to karaoke night at the local dive with the rest of the band.

He was endearingly grouchy about the outing, mumbling about wanting to spend his free time alone with you, until you'd stolen his Stetson in the middle of your impassioned performance – and yes, performance – of Creedence Clearwater Revival's Fortunate Son and plopped it on your own head.

Then, Rhett had watched you with a jaw that was clenched and eyes that were darkened for another reason entirely.

You pull on the brim of the Stetson, biting back a smile, like oh, this old thing?

"I'm like you... I'm a big bad rockstar."

He steers you back. Further into the shadows.

"Oh? You're a rockstar too, are you?"

You nod. His grin is razor-sharp.

"Lemme give you the rockstar treatment then.” 

And Rhett sinks down on his knees, white shirt pulling tight across his shoulder blades and muscular back. Warm palms slide under your dress and wrap around the backs of your thighs. Pull you closer.

Yesterday, Bob had convinced everyone to go on a brisk 3 mile hike, which was mislabeled as out-and-back and ended up being a grueling 6 miles.

You're still sore, can feel your aching leg muscles quiver as Rhett nudges your legs wider. Creates just enough space for him to wedge himself between them.

His voice is rasping and rough between your legs. "Rockstars deserve good head. Those were your words, right, darlin'?"

They were.

From one of the numerous occasions Rhett had let you drag him into a dark corner after a show and go down on him, so worked up from watching him on stage – guitar pick between his red lips, damp hair in his eyes – that you had to have him, had to have his cock in your mouth.

Rockstars deserve good head, baby. Your ace, of sorts.

You'd never have expected him to use the same words on you. You'd never have expected them to work so well.

"Sure, but I didn't mean..." His breath is so warm, so close, so fucking distracting. "We're in public, Rhett. Someone could come looking for us."

You really mean for it to sound more stern, more like a warning, not so breathy, so desperate.

"You better be real quiet then," Rhett drawls.

He pulls your panties to the side with a crooked finger and without preamble, swipes his tongue over you, broad and purposeful strokes, almost rough but not quite.

You nearly swallow your own tongue.

Closing your legs is a reflex, a kind of self preservation, but Rhett holds you open for him, pulling one of your legs over his shoulder until you're hinged wide.

And with a hand on your hip, Rhett rocks you down on his face.

"Such a big fan o' you," Rhett mumbles against your cunt, mouth wet and slick with you, worshipful and devoted, and pushes his tongue inside of you.

Denim scrapes across your skin, delicious and rough, as Rhett grows harder and harder against your leg, canting and grinding, moaning against your cunt like Rhett just can't help himself.

You don't last long.

You come with a shudder, and as soon as you're able to stand again, you're down on your knees for him, mouth open.

a mini tag list for the downright iconic verse: @lewmagoo @theharddeck @mxgyver @withahappyrefrain @sebsxphia @roosterbruiser @sometimesanalice @callsignspark @rhettabbotts @sushiwriterhere (if you don't want to be here, let me know)

#rhett abbott fic #rhett abbott smut #rhett abbott x reader #rhett abbott x you #fic: rhett abbott #fic: downright iconic #rockstar!rhett #guitarist!rhett #once again dropping in the middle of the night and 🏃🏻‍♀️

[waltwhitmansbeard]

hello! a few hours from now, the epilogue of go on, claim my heart, the my fair lady sequel, is gonna be posting, so i wanted to take a minute to thank everyone who has stopped by my lil corner of the internet to read what has become my largest writing project to date. i had no idea what i was getting myself into when i first started writing mfl, especially not half a year of feverish, near-obsessive plotting and writing and rewriting this story that would not leave me alone. a lot of things fell to the wayside as i wrote mfl and gocmh, and i don't regret any of it, because i can safely say that this is the writing that i am the most proud of.

i want to thank @romeoandjulietyouwish in particular for her graciously allowing me to play in her sandbox. no one's mind works like lis's, and as i have said before, she comes up with so many fucking stellar ideas that she leaves crumbs for the rest of us, so i'm super grateful that she's so kind about letting us take those crumbs and make them our own. mfl wouldn't exist without you, lis, so thank you, thank you, thank you.

i also could not wrap this series without calling out the two best readers a girl could ask for, @ravendruid and @crispysnake. y'all are fucking unhinged, but it is the exact energy that every writer needs to keep going. i can't tell you the number of times a drabble or chapter posted that i wasn't particularly fond of that you two completely changed my opinion about. you two are the kindest, most enthusiastic, most generous readers, and i'm so lucky that you're also my friends. please continue to be absolutely batshit in my tags; it's the only thing that keeps me going.

(also @otterlycaleb made fucking ART about this shit, what the fuck what the fuck what the FUCK—)

a hopefully but probably not quick note about the future of mfl: today, like literally right now, i am in the middle of my first day of work at a brand new job, one that will require me to move my entire life halfway across the country, back to my hometown. it is big and scary and exhilarating and everything i've been hoping for, and i feel so, so lucky. this does mean that for the next little bit, while i learn a new job and pick up my shit and drive cross-country, i will probably be less able to write long or short fics, so i hope y'all don't mind me shutting up for the first time in forever. that being said, while i have absolutely no plans to write a third installment in the mfl 'verse, that doesn't mean there isn't more to say (as y'all will find out in like three and a half hours lol). i fully plan on still writing tmwiw drabbles set before, during, and after mfl/gocmh, and i will still be accepting prompts and requests for drabbles set in this 'verse until i say otherwise. mfl will always occupy an inordinate amount of my brain space, and i refuse to not share that with y'all.

additionally! starting very soon (like, maybe tomorrow? we'll see how busy i am, lol), i will be posting to ao3 the entirety of the mfl 'verse in chronological order. every chapter, one-shot, and drabble, in the order that they happened. another massive shout-out to @ravendruid for being my own personal lore-keeper on this; she read every single mfl chapter, tmwiw drabble, and one-shot to help me get this shit in order. the ao3 work will be titled i've come a long, long way (also from "my fair lady" by kaleo, are we seeing a pattern here?), and the plan is to post five chapters a day until the whole thing is up (although, again, with the moving this might get a lil wibbly wobbly). there will be some additional proofreading edits to these chapters (sometimes i can't spell!!) but nothing about the substance of these chapters will change, so this is just for people who like their stories to be told chronologically (fucking weirdos). this work will only be available on ao3, although it will be linked on my mfl masterpost.

ok, i think i am done for now. i have taken up enough of your time, in so many more ways than one. thank you again, if you read every single installment of the mfl saga or if you just read a paragraph. all of it means the world to me, and i know i never would have continued past the first chapter if i weren't part of such a wonderful, loving, generous, brilliant community. i've only been watching critical role for just over a year now, part of the fandom for even less than that, and i can't believe i haven't always had y'all in my life. please continue to love and support each other, and thank you for loving and supporting me.

#me #my fair lady

[doublel27]

Fic Origin Story

Many thanks to @reyesstrand and @marwani-strickland for the tag. Did I think villain origin story when I read it? Yes. Is my life as a fic writer villanous? IDK.

What was your first fandom (reading or writing)?

My first fandom was General Hospital. I began reading and writing fic in that fandom circa 1999-2001 So, you know, before some of y'all were born. It's fine. I'm fine. You're fine.

It was back in the days that you had to join like an EzBoard to post and share fic. yes I'm old. And, and, like a lot of EzBoards were specific to your pairing of choice (I was a member of several) and you had to actual pass a quiz to get inside the ezboard to prove you were a fan of said pairing because antis would infiltrate and sow chaos. Flame wars were a thing and such. I learned so much in those days. I still had dial-up and my chapters were super short. I saved my fic to floppy disks, so...you know...it was a time.

2. What was the first story you ever wrote (even if it was never posted) and what made you write it?

The FIRST story I ever wrote, that I remember, as a fanfic was probably a Little Women fix it fic where Laurie and Jo got married instead of Laurie and Amy and Jo and Professor Behr at like, ten years old. I wrote it one of those hardcover blank books you could buy. I have since reconsidered my position after learning more about Louisa May Alcott and WHY she made the choices she made.

The first story I ever published as a fandom fic was a Jason/Robin sweeping get back together story in the General Hospital fandom (have they been together since 1998 - no, do I think it's one of the biggest mistakes the show has ever made - maybe). Robin was still in Paris and I think she maybe had a secret baby. There were kidnappings, shootings, and many other things that fit a daytime soap fic written by a high schooler in the margins of her notebooks.

I think it's still on floppy disks in my parent's house.

3. What's a pice of advice you would give to your younger fic writing self?

Care less about what other people are doing. Care more about how you treat others. Constructive critism is a gift, take it as it's meant and have your friends read your work and tell you that you NEED A PERIOD or DO YOU KNOW WHAT COMMAS ARE or YOU'VE USED THIS WORD THREE TIMES THIS PAGE or MORE FEELINGS HERE PLEASE or I DON'T UNDERSTAND THIS. They make your writing better.

4. What is an early fandom interaction that has stuck with you (be it a nice comment, a friend you made, a fic that got a lot of feedback)

Oh man, there's so many. Some are wonderful, like the reactions to every chapter I posted of those early fics.

Some are things I learned the hard way, like being a teenager who made friends with another teenager and some women in their 20s and 30s and one of them was very much a bully who had us turn on one of the friends we had by telling lies and got us to harrass her. I learned a lot about how to trust people online and how to spot people who might tell lies to play people on the interent like puppets for their own power. It makes it far easier to spot now that I'm old. Also, I remember how very compassionate the woman we harrassed, my friend Dani, was, and she was a little bit younger than I am now. and How she really accepted our apology, told us how much we hurt her, and allowed the two children she'd befriended to do better when they figured out how they'd been played. I hope to have half her grace as a fandom old these days.

5. What is a sentence or two from one of your older fics and a sentence or two from a newer one (if you want)?

For y'all, let's do 3. The first from around 20 years ago, then we'll grab something from 10 years ago, and something from now? Sound good? You do know that by now you're getting more than a sentence or two from me. From Choices - a fanfiction following X2/X3 movie verse -posted on Fanfiction.net on June 1, 2003.

Jubliee stared at the young man across from her. There was something so familiar about this one, something she couldn't put her finger on just yet. Then it hit her, "St. John?" The spark in his eyes, the fire that matched his talent was unmistakable. No wonder the armored car was burning at such a rapid pace.

From Ruined - A Legend of Korra fanfic centered on the breakup of Tenzin and Lin Beifong posted on AO3 on January 5, 2014

He’d asked her to move with him to Air Temple Island and she’d laughed.  Thinking on it now, the sound of it was harsh and cruel to her own ears. 

“Why,” she’d laughed, “when you have all of your Air groupies?”

He’d sighed and steepled his fingers in that serious thinking pose he had. “They’re not groupies, Lin,” he had reproved her. “They are people who have been keeping my father’s culture alive for the better part of a century and they are continuing to sustain it.  What if—” A sadness had entered his eyes.  “I could be the last one, Lin.  There might never be another.”

“Tenzin—”  She couldn’t have brought herself to lie and say that she would ensure that he wouldn’t be.   Lin wouldn’t even suggest that Bumi could miraculously have an illegitimate child that was an airbender out somewhere.   “Then come here.  Live in the city.  You already work here and we could find a good space for Oogi.”

“I want to marry you Lin,” he had said, quietly. 

Lin had looked up from her paperwork and given him a pointed glance.  “Does that marriage include children?”

“I am the last living airbender, Lin,” Tenzin reminded her. “I do want children one day.”

From let me be the one at day's end - a 911 Lone Star (more cow eyes series) fic posted on AO3 on June 30, 2022

Carlos snaps off the radio, unwilling to listen to the continued banter as they joke about this. There’s too many containers of flammable gas in the back of a bus to make light of a bullet ricocheting in there. He pulls out his phone before looking at his mother in the seat beside him. Her brown eyes are wide and worried and he can’t look at them for too long.

When he looks back down at his phone he realizes his hand is shaking. “I’m just—He’s on a shift and he probably can’t pick up—”

And from a personal favorite, You Can Have My Back - a Schitt's Creek Twylexis 911 AU posted on AO3 on October 14, 2022

Alexis looks over the turnouts, which happen to be an unfortunate combination of khaki and orange. The fabric is rough and heavy, which makes sense for protecting one's body from a fire, but there are plenty of fire-resistant clothes that aren’t these ancient heavy things. “Don’t they have, umm, like those cuter black and yellow numbers that are a little thinner?”

“Beggars can’t be choosers, princess. Does this department look like it’s made of money?” Ronnie takes a moment to wink at her. “Besides, orange is the new pink.”

“Mmm, totally,” Alexis murmurs.

Ronnie narrows her eyes, and jerks her thumb at the gear. “You know how to put this on in time?”

Being underestimated is something Alexis is well used to. In fact, being underestimated has saved her life countless times where people thought she was too stupid or too thoughtless or too pretty to know her way around a gun or a fancy car or out of a pair of handcuffs. Normally it didn’t sting.

She pulls herself up to full height and sniffs. “I passed the volunteer qualifications exam, didn’t I?”

Tagging: @marjansmarwani @petalwritesx @blackandwhiteandrose @missgeevious @sunshinestrand @strandnreyes @lilythesilly @maxbegone @tailoredshirt @beautifulhigh

Feel free not to, friends, but I'm curious.

#xmen #legend of korra #911 lone star #schitt's creek #fan fiction #my long fandom life #doublel27 talks #doublel27 writes #the many lives of doublel27

[maglors-anion-gap]

1 and 16 for the asks?

[for this game]

Do you prefer writing one-shots or multi-chaptered fics?

I prefer writing one-shots.  Which is to say, I prefer to write stories all at once; sometimes I decide a one-shot needs to be split into multiple chapters for clarity, but this always happens after I'm done writing.  This is for two reasons.  First, I focus most on interpersonal connection and personal introspection in fic, which doesn't really lend itself well to multi-chapter plot-driven writing.  Tangentially related, this explains why I love political intrigue but can't for the life of me write political intrigue (plot-driving is my great weakness).  Second, my brain feels like a frog in a hot tub at the best of times, and writing is actually really hard and not something I enjoy.  But I like telling stories and I like sharing things with people so I keep writing anyway.  Tbh fandom writing gave me the first inkling that I needed to get tested for ADHD (college was the last, and biggest inkling.  Press F to pay your respects). I have a hard time with the whole writing process - sitting down to do it, doing it for any length of time, churning out any amount of words.  I use 4thewords now and it's dramatically increased my staying power and words-per-fic productivity because the goals are all time-sensitive and reward-based.  So maybe some day I'll get around to some true multi-chapter fics (the best y'all will get out of me is loosely connected series of one-shots).  I need some Adderall first though.

16. How many fic ideas are you nurturing right now? Share one of them?

Mmm crap, let me count them.  I count 18, so lets round up and say 20 because I know I am forgetting a few.  I didn't want to spoil it before I wrote it (or promise anyone anything I wouldn't deliver on), but I got too excited so I think I'll share it now.  At this point, if y'all notice that I already posted about this and it's not actually a surprise, pour one out for me and my "went into another room and forgot why" moment.  

I've got an Evil!Melian AU that I'm working on that explores her relationship with Thingol, and the contest between Thingol's kingship and his (comparative) subservience in their relationship.  It gives me an excuse to push the limits of Weird Magic and Physiology, as well as people having power in certain areas of their lives but not others, which is something that interests me on its own.  Fwiw, I don't think Melian considers herself to be evil in this verse, nothing changes re: the political or godly alignment of Doriath, but I wanted to play around with what happens when a godly character completely believes they are in the right to do XYZ - either because they can, because they want to, or because they think it's for the best (even if it impinges upon the personhood of "lesser" people).  I don't want to give too terribly much away, but Luthien hatches from an egg.  She's not their only child either; Melian's pet project is crafting a child she finds perfect.  I'm going with the draft where Daeron is Luthien's sibling, so there's extra rivalry/oneupmanship there.  Melian isn't the one laying the eggs in this relationship (I can't write weird fic without exploring personal anxieties about masculinity, pregnancy, and bodily agency, ig).

#how the hell do i tag this #pregnancy #i guess

[zz-chikorita]

Are any of the characters in your Jolly Rogers series wimps when it comes to watching horror? Is anyone a movie buff, or perhaps REALLY into something like the MCU, or a movie snob in some way? If they had a movie night, would they argue over what movie to watch, or all want to see the same thing?

Leon. Is. The. Biggest. Horror. Wimp.

After watching something scary, he can't be by himself and thus will usually have Charizard out with him everywhere he goes, including within his own flat. If he's having trouble sleeping, Char will sleep with the front half of his body on Leon like he's a big ol' weighted blanket.

Leon's favorite thing to do was to put his hands on his hips and puff out his chest, getting all up into Rai's face and forcing their chests to touch. Of course, to anyone else, it looks like they're doing some sort of manly posturing, but in reality, Leon is communicating to him something along the lines of "You got me worked up you rat bastard now find us some privacy and take responsibility."

Also, Raihan loves scary movies, so Lee would watch them with him and then get extremely clingy for the next couple days; he always had to be close by Rai, leaning against him, arms wrapped around him, or curling up in his lap when they're in private. In public, if they walk together, they would always be brushing shoulders.

They've actually had a whole system in place for a long time of various gestures and excuses to touch each other in public that, from the outside, simply look like friendly rivalry. Things like a pat on the shoulder, a light shove, pulling Leon's snapback or Rai's headband down over their eyes. It's all an unspoken code for "I am with you," "I'm still here," "I love you."

Ah, but I've gotten off track.

Guzma is indifferent to horror. He'll watch it cuz Plums enjoys it, but it doesn't really bother him. He's really not a big movie guy in general. There's maybe a few he really likes, but for the most part he doesn't care. He blames it on his shit attention span- courtesy of his many concussions. Guzma gets bored too easily and usually ends up falling asleep during anything they watch. However, the big bad boss man does love himself some cartoons. He used to be embarrassed about it but now he don't give a fuck. If there exists a pokemon world equivalent of Ed, Edd, n Eddy, he would watch the shit out of that cuz I feel like that would be exactly his brand of comedy.

Really the only other thing he'll watch is nature documentaries. Of course, they have to be about bugs. If it's about anything else, he'll fast forward until he gets to the bug stuff. Strangely, he still gets embarrassed from time to time about watching them.

Plumeria is extremely well read and she's also very well versed in the art of film. She loves watching and picking apart movies and watching horrible thrillers or scifi to laugh about the horrible sfx. She loves the MCU just so she can tear it apart for its lackluster writing and gratuitous use of cgi.

Guzma will sit and watch all that stuff with her and listen to her go on and on about it. He doesn't follow half of it, but he listens anyways because he knows how much she loves it.

Based on his personality and demeanor, what movie, or genre of movie, do y'all think he'd pick in this situation? Scifi? Comedy? Drama? Something sophisticated to try and impress Leon? Maybe something scary to try and get the champ to grab onto him in a dark room? Whaddya think?

Just some other quick thoughts on smaller characters: 'Lani loves crime dramas and standup comedy. A. and B. like watching YouTube let's plays together. Charizard enjoys sitting and watching footage of battles with Leon. Golisopod won't watch TV, he'd rather go sit somewhere quiet and meditate. Nanu watches the news and occasionally a telenovela he can't even understand because that's all that's on when he can't sleep at like 4am.

Whenever Team Skull as a whole has a movie night there is so much arguing. Plumeria is obviously the mediator while Guzma is pretty indifferent, unless it's like, a really shitty Adam Sandler movie. It sometimes, but not always, ends with Guzma slamming his fist down and picking one of whatever they're all arguing about so they can all just shut up and watch something. If Leon were to join them on a movie night, all the grunts would be wanting him to watch their favorite movies and asking him what he's seen and what he hasn't. Guzma actually starts getting jealous and ends up putting in effort and picking out one of the few "big boy" (<- Plumeria's words) movies he likes.

#ask zz c #what with the hcs and such #jolly rogers #pokemon leon #guzma #plumeria #raihan #a smidge of raileon #guzlee #influenceshipping #also kind of like 'kingdomshipping' #will i ever decide on a ship name? probably not 😔

[fearofahumanplanet]

OMG I FORGOT TO SEND IT BUT 🍏🥥🥭🍎🍓🥝🍅🍋 sorry its so long lol

Holy shit and I thought Ren's was so long

Also don't you apologize, I literally have NPD, feeding my ego is literally like. Giving a starving woman water

Anyway, let's digress before I get distracted

"🍏 Your cast is super diverse and exciting"

YESSS thank you - this is the most important part to me! Well-developed, nuanced characters that make you feel is my primary goal! It's my favorite part of writing so I'm glad Serpents' motley little crew is resonating with people :)

"🥥 Your story provides unique insights into society"

And this is the other most important thing to me! All my novels have some sociopolitical point to make and some psychological avenues to explore, I'm very much not an escapist author and I want to make people think about their relationships with others and society around them, so to see this succeeding is also very vindicating. Thank you!!

"🥭 I want to buy your book the moment it hits shelves"

I wish y'all were agents, none of the ones I've found are taking my shit :(

Maybe if I get a fanbase big enough I can kickstart something to self-publish, but I would seriously love to get nice print copies out to y'all - it's just a question of funds at the moment, and I don't quite got a big enough platform for that yet. HOWEVER! BELIEVE ME, IT IS THE DREAM!

"🍎 Your world-building is incredible"

I think I've gotten this one the most which is incredible to me, up until Serpents I was so crap at worldbuilding which led to me pathologically setting everything in contemporary settings, but I really put myself to work figuring out how to do worldbuilding well and it seems its paying off. Thank you so much :)

"🍓 Your work inspires me"

AAAAA I think I mentioned this somewhere else but this is my favorite one to see. My absolute favorite! There is nothing more I want than to inspire a bunch of other writers into bringing their own unique ideas out into the world - I'd love to see a lot more people getting creative and making really daring work in a market that's getting really one-note, so to have any part in that at all is.. just, beyond words. Thank you :)

"🥝 I want to see your story made into a movie or TV series"

YEAHHH I mentioned this in another post but I think Serpents would make for an amazing animated television series - very stylized animation, go all Arcane or Spider-Verse with it and give a unique artstyle to every pantheon, have the colors clash! It'd be so good!

"🍅 Your emotionally-charged scenes feel real and engaging"

This is the other big thing for me, my stories would literally collapse without the emotional weight getting across, so I am so glad this is working for people :) My work always started as traumaposting, basically, and it still is that, but I've wanted it to inspire others, help them heal, see they aren't alone, and so I really bare my soul in my writing for that purpose - and I'm so glad to see it works. Thank youuu <3

"🍋 Your descriptions are transportive"

This one is still. So astounding to me, that I hear this a lot, because I have aphantasia! I can't see shit in my head whatsoever, I can't visualize anything at all, so descriptions are one of the biggest challenges I have writing! I suspect that my needing to make up for this disability is what makes them so vivid and detailed, but that's just a theory. Thank you so much <3

Seriously, you are too kind for all of this - SO MUCH, but it makes me so happy <3 I hope you're having an amazing day

#asks #besties tag

[detectiveconnor]

Cyberlife the Game: VR Verse

The Lead-up

The release of the new VR game, “Cyberlife”, was highly anticipated. It was the first game which could lay claim to a real, completely immersive experience - several top gaming athletes pledged to be there for the release on November 5th, 2038, being some of the lucky few who received personal copies of the game for its beta testing, a week before the commercial launch of the game. The remaining players, totaling 10,000 across the United States of America (for the beta program, a local release), were selected at random from a raffle for spaces which many fans claimed to have been rigged when one player was selected twice in a row, and it probably was - but Elijah Kamski (eccentric, Elon-Musk-type figure, and the founder and owner of the Cyberlife Co.) didn’t mind if you entered one time or a thousand. Getting into the game was a matter of ‘wanting it enough’, and boy, did people want it. With all 10,000 initial players selected, the Cyberlife company delivered immersive virtual reality sets to each lucky raffle winner, in what many people called the most ambitious publicity stunt for a new gaming company ever seen within the US. Elijah Kamski called it a ‘commitment to accessibility’. 

The Reckoning

November 5th, 4:00pm. The day of the release, Cyberlife’s network finally comes online - everybody’s copies of the game now can connect to the golden gates that shimmer in the empty space of the Virtual World hosted by Cyberlife Co, waiting to be populated with various other immersive reality games once developers could work out how to make their work compatible with Cyberlife VR gear. Players spill into this Virtual World by the thousands, and many are there to witness the unchaining of these heavenly gates as they open onto the starter town within the First Level. This area is called Alther City; it’s a bustling little cyber town modeled after Detroit, fashioned of smooth concrete and metal. Paths and homely but low-level shops lining the streets, including two competing breweries called Hog’s East and Hog’s West (where many of the first low-level ‘mission’s from NPCs are delivered). Alther City makes up the vast majority of the First Level - it’s just this town, crawling with low-level creatures for leveling purposes, and sprawling suburbia: empty houses waiting to be filled.  Some people venture out into the empty houses and wonder why there are so many vacant places. A ghost event, maybe? Sites that will be filled with NPCs the further you progress in the story? Mr Kamski promised a formal announcement at 5:00pm, so people stick around until then, some trickling in closer to the time and others eager to find as much as they can in the time that they have. Some of the elite gamers have logged in using their gaming handles. Others have used pseudonyms, so they can enjoy the game as they please for the beta test period, without the excitement of the crowds.  5:00pm arrives. They’re all gathered in the central square of Alther. Ten thousand people, in a crowd, watch as the sky splits into a shining white screen, and Kamski steps into view. 

Thank you all for joining Cyberlife this evening. We are delighted to have you. My name is Elijah Kamski, founder of the Cyberlife Co. I know you’ve all been as excited as I have to make this immersive experience a reality. You are currently on the First Level - this is a safe space for all players. PvP is not enabled here, and you may store your items safely with any of the friendly NPCs without fear that they may be stolen.  Now, I’m sure your aware that Cyberlife Co is always striving for the best, most immersive gaming experience. I would like to announce a revolutionary new experiment which you have all helpfully volunteered to be a part of: I call it ‘Cyberlife’. I have always wondered, what would people do, when forced to live one? A cyber life, that is. Well, we’re all going to find out, today.  Many of you will have found there is no ‘logout’ button within your user menus.This is not a glitch, and it will not be remedied. The only way to leave this cyber life you’re living is through death - which will happen, also, in the real world; I don’t suggest you experiment - or by someone in the ten thousand of you defeating Cyberlife’s final boss; no spoilers as to who or what that might be. The final boss is located on the Fifth Level.  Happy gaming. 

Ten thousand people in the square erupt, at once, first into panicked murmurings - and then something closer to a riot. 

Game Mechanics 

Take and leave these as you please, they’re suggestions! Adjust as necessary for plot/etc. 

If you die in the game you die in real life. No exceptions. If you lose internet connection in real life, you have a 72 hour grace period where you may be comatose. Any longer than that, automatic game over. 

Those empty houses are meant to be for purchase or rent. Having a house has a lot of benefits - including the fact you won’t freeze to death, and access to a synthesis room, which you can use to make higher-level medpacks, weapons, armour, etc out of foraged or won items. You’d have to purchase these, otherwise.   

There are five Levels. You may travel between levels freely once you have gained access to them - to gain access, you will need to defeat each Level’s local boss. Exploration and preparation is vital, as well as information sharing: a Level might have some clues scattered around with NPCs, but you very well could accidentally walk into a boss fight while exploring. Be prepared, be cautious, but if you don’t explore you’ll never find the boss. 

Parties of up to ten players. 

Guilds of up to 1,000 players. Guilds can have their own chat rooms. They have names to refer to themselves. The most well-known and biggest guild is Jericho. If someone dies in your guild it is announced to the entire guild. Very Hunger Games cannon-esque. It’s got its own chime. Ringadingding, xyz is dead. 

Probably one of the guilds is a self-declared policing body. Let’s hope they’re good at it. 

You still gotta eat. If your hunger stat is too low, NPCs at bars will offer to let you work for a meal; nobody will starve, unless they refuse to work. 

Weaponries and armorists do exist. Cost is in-game currency (earned through drops or trades with other players). They sell daggers/knucklebusters for low-level melee, guns (sniper rifles! Pistols, shotguns - different stats), ammo, low-level medpacks (anything higher you will need to synthesise yourself), one grenade at a time (these are usually consumable pick-up from decently-leveled monsters), and the more common synthesis materials if you just need a quick top-up of the last 5 leathers, etc. Armorists sell different levels of armor - bullet proof vests, chain mail, damage-returning xyzs... all at the cost of stealth and mobility. Some people choose not to wear any armor at all. Others, panicked, wear everything they can get their hands on. 

Killing is not the only option. Besides bosses, you can stun creatures and make them drop whatever they’re carrying, and they will still scurry off. You gotta kill the bosses. Sneaking past would-be combats because your stealth is high enough? Strategic AND useful. 

You can kill NPCs. Everybody suffers the loss of that NPC for a week. ‘WEAPONRY CLOSED DUE TO MURDER’ until a ‘new’ NPC comes to replace them. People get upset. And annoyed. You don’t kill the NPCs. 

Classes: there are no formal classes. People aren’t divided into types of people irl and they aren’t in the game, either. You can cross and mix and create your own playstyle - yes people will tend to have things they lean towards and roles within their parties, but hey. You don’t get any stat boost for pre-determining what you want to play as. 

You can share information or choose not to. If you have mapped something it’s usually better to share this information with everyone - there is a communal open-source live map for access, but not everyone contributes everything they know, because people are like that. 

There is friendly fire, be careful out there 

Certain (expensive) tech artefacts with particular powers. You can make these up as needed for plot devices, but some useful things to think about:

Teleportation watch - allows you to insta-teleport yourself and your party with you to your house. Should a boss ever escape/rampage into the main city of a Level you’re on (or you just come face to face with one by mistake), this will be extremely advantageous.

Healing nanobots - restores a small amount of health at a time, but continuously. Good for cases of chronic damage. If you lose 3HP a minute to a chronic issue but gain 10HP every 3 minutes, you should still be able to sleep soundly. 

Contact Cards. There are three Contact Cards in the entire game. They are awarded to players of significance - e.g. the first to locate the First Level’s boss, the first to uncover important game lore, the first to reach the Third Level, etc. Contact Cards are non-transferable (though you can use them on someone else’s behalf) items which allow the user a fifteen-minute phonecall home (to the real world). Fifteen minutes only. This includes ringtime. No more no less, but you can call any phone number in the world, for any reason, and you can use 5 minutes on one phonecall and 10 on another, if you like. If your character would never earn a CC - consider whether they might be able to win a raffle for one. I’m sure they’d be good to raffle off the use of, at a profit. 

First party to beat a boss gets good items. Everyone thereafter gets recipes to synthesise those items. You will need a copy of the recipe and all items on it to synthesize - if you want to make two, you will need two copies. 

You can PVP and stake items on the outcome. Be careful to define what a ‘defeat’ is, but this is a good way for people to identify those elite players/prove themselves to each other AS elite players/just to be able to get some sparring practice in, and gambling. 

Once the game is over/someone has beaten the final boss, everyone is put back to their normal lives. I don’t believe in muscle wastage because being true to life at expense of plot convenience doesn’t appeal to me, but hey, each their own. Consider the reunion threads!!! the finding each other threads!!! 

#feel free to use this! i am not even sure what i want to do with it but i wrote it out #so if y'all want to write your own things in this verse don't let me stop you. you don't need to credit me #v; living the cyber life (virtual reality) #verse information

[wacky-nameless-inventor-24]

I seem to have misplaced my self control when it comes to this so I'm here to scream about Imagine Dragons and the Mad Ducktor. You're welcome. <3

(cutting it 'cause there's a LOT)

So because I don't actually have the energy to go into depth on how much the lyrics fit him Imma just write 'em and y'all figure them out. I just really really really wanted to share these. XD Maybe one day I'll reblog this with a better analysis.

Machine

"All my life I've been sittin' at the table Watching them kids, they're living in a fable Looks, luck, money and never left a'wishin' Now it's 'bout time to stand up and petition"

"'Cause I've been wondering When you gonna see I'm not for sale I've been questioning When you gonna see I'm not a part of your machine Not a part of your machine"

"I'm not scared of what you're gonna tell me And I'm not scared of the beast in the belly Fill my cup with endless ambition And paint this town with my very own vision"

"I am the machine"

(Okay this one's really fun because the verses are said twice so they're repeated, and the second time it's said much louder. So the first part of the verse could be Gyro's parts, and then the louder and almost angrier repeat of that could be Mads'...?)

Cutthroat

"I've been waiting patiently I built this tower quietly And when my well of Wellbutrin Is running dry of serotonin I can say things I don't mean Or maybe it's the truth in me I feel it building, bubbling up My t-t-time is up"

"I'm so misunderstood, but I live for this My money's good and I came to win So step on up, and I promise you Only one of us gon' make it out alive and it's not you"

"I can't lie, I've been played By powerful people who get their way But I, in time, will climb my mountain I, in time, will rise"

"Try me."

(LISTEN TO THIS ONE it's so GOOD like it has PEAK villain energy and i love it)

I'm So Sorry

"About time for anyone telling you off for all your deeds No sign the roaring thunder stopped in cold to read Get mine and make no excuses waste of precious breath The sun shines on everyone, everyone love yourself to death"

"So you gotta fire up, you gotta let go You'll never be loved till you've made your own You gotta face up, you gotta get yours You never know the top till you get too low"

"Life isn't always what you think it'd be Turn your head for one second and the tables turn And I know, I know that I did you wrong But will you trust me when I say that I'll Make it up to you somehow, somehow..."

(And idk, just the way in general that the "I'm so sorry" is put in the chorus, the way it's framed mercilessly in an almost sarcastic way, while still feeling like a genuine apology feels a lot like Mads. And the way he like screams it right before the bridge feels really heartbreaking.)

Believer

"First things first I'ma say all the words inside my head I'm fired up and tired of The way that things have been, oh-ooh"

"Second thing second Don't you tell me what you think that I could be I'm the one at the sail I'm the master of my sea, oh-ooh"

"I was broken from a young age Taking my sulkin' to the masses Writing my poems for the few That look at me, took to me, shook at me, feelin' me Singing from heartache from the pain Taking my message from the veins Speaking my lesson from the brain Seeing the beauty through the..."

"Pain You made me a, you made me a Believer, believer Pain You break me down and build me up Believer, believer Pain Oh, let the bullets fly, oh, let them rain My life, my love, my drive, it came from… Pain You made me a, you made me a Believer, believer"

"I was chokin' in the crowd Building my rain up in the cloud Falling like ashes to the ground Hoping my feelings, they would drown But they never did, ever lived, ebbin' and flowin' Inhibited, limited 'til it broke open and rained down It rained down..."

"Last things last By the grace of the fire and the flames You're the face of the future The blood in my veins, oh-ooh"

Battle Cry

"Just one more time before I go, I'll let you know That all this time I've been afraid, wouldn't let it show Nobody can save me now, no Nobody can save me now"

"Stars are only visible in darkness Fear is ever-changing and evolving And I, I've been poisoned inside But I, I feel so alive..."

"Nobody can save me now The only sound is the battle cry"

Whatever it Takes

"Falling too fast to prepare for this Tripping in the world could be dangerous Everybody circling, it's vulturous Negative, nepotist"

"Whip, whip Run me like a racehorse Pull me like a ripcord Break me down and build me up I wanna be the slip, slip Word upon your lip, lip Letter that you rip, rip Break me down and build me up"

"Whatever it takes 'Cause I love the adrenaline in my veins I do whatever it takes 'Cause I love how it feels when I break the chains Whatever it takes Yeah, take me to the top I'm ready for Whatever it takes 'Cause I love the adrenaline in my veins I do what it takes"

"Always had a fear of being typical Looking at my body feeling miserable Always hanging on to the visual"

"Looking at my years like a martyrdom Everybody needs to be a part of 'em"

"Hypocritical, egotistical Don't wanna be the parenthetical, hypothetical Working onto something that I'm proud of, out of the box An epoxy to the world and the vision we've lost I'm an apostrophe I'm just a symbol to remind you that there's more to see I'm just a product of the system, a catastrophe And yet a masterpiece, and yet I'm half-diseased"

(Those last two lines really stand out to me for some reason ssldkfj)

Bones

(a.k.a. they're latest one that I only discovered TODAY and is the reason I'm making this post sldkfjsdf)

"Gimme, gimme, gimme some time to think I'm in the bathroom, looking at me Face in the mirror is all I need (ooh) Wait until the reaper takes my life Never gonna get me out alive I will live a thousand million lives (ooh)"

"My patience is waning Is this entertaining? Our patience is waning Is this entertaining?"

"I-I-I got this feeling, yeah, you know Where I'm losing all control 'Cause there's magic in my bones I-I-I got this feeling in my soul Go ahead and throw your stones 'Cause there's magic in my bones"

"Playing with a stick of dynamite There was never gray in black and white There was never wrong 'til there was right (ooh, oh) Feeling like a boulder hurtling Seeing all the vultures circling Burning in the flames I'm working in Turning in a bed that's darkening"

"Look in the mirror of my mind Turning the pages of my life Walking the path so many paced a million times Drown out the voices in the air Leaving the ones that never cared Picking the pieces up and building to the sky"

"There goes my mind (I-I-I) Don't mind There goes my mind (there it goes, there it goes) There goes my mind (I-I-I) Don't mind (there it goes) There goes my mind 'Cause there's magic in my bones"

(Bro. This one. BRUH. "There was never grey in black and white" SSLDFKJSDLFKSJDLFSKD OH MY GOD Also the lines "my patience is waning" vs. the "our patience is waning" like what if at first it's about Mads, but the second line is about him and Gyro, like with or without Mads Gyro is fed up with his situation too?)

Anywayyyy I hope you like it I want to draw all of these because like SSLDFKJS IT'S HIM AND I LOVE IT but I can't. So I just wanted to get these lines out there so maybe someone else wants to? 👀 And also if anyone wants to scream more about this I'm always happy to. XD There's more songs of theirs related more to the ego machine situation, but I like these ones 'cause they better fit Mads and not Gyro's experience of the ego machine. XD

#Mad Ducktor #Imagine Dragons #I need an actual talking tag #Wacky Rants #Wacky Monoluges #Wacky's soliloquies #Ohhh I like that one #It's that one now #slkfsdj I just have to actually learn how to spell that #DuckTales #DuckTales 2017 #DT17 #Topolino #Duckverse