#they are both in denial all the time !!!!! | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

ghostbsuter · 8 months

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There was a teen in the cave.

A teen no one knows and looks like he could be a wayne, stands in the cave.

"Actually, I'm a wayne." He says with a shrug.

Bruce, Batman, carefully thinks of the implication.

"Not yet," The teen, Danny, doesn't say anything. Simple smiles. "You're not a wayne, yet. You will be. But not yet."

Then Bruce sighs, dropping the batman mask in order to take in the teen.

"Does future me know of the time travel?"

Dannys smile grows into a grin, deciding to take pity on the man. "You, grandbat, have..." He makes a vague gesture. "Theories, which none of your children ever confirmed."

The bat's mind short-circuits at the choice of words

Dick is sputtering incomprehensibly, there are Baffled expression all around.

Because.

Because that child isn't Bruce's, but one of theirs.

"Who is it?" Jason demands, hand clenching his gun uselessly.

Danny continues to smile, a hint of mischief now peeking out.

The cave is filled with theories, some yell, some sob, yet all eyes leave danny.

All but one pair.

She had known the moment his body language switched just enough for her to read.

She had known the moment he disappeared before the clan.

Had known when his hand found hers, shoulders bumping.

Her heart clenches, throat dry and memories of her childhood flooding to mind.

So she asks, voice soft and hesitant.

"Am I a good mother?"

And danny looks up at cass, adoration and pride laid out plain for her to see and accept.

"You're the best."

And so they both watch the clan together, silent and comfortable.

(Cass doesn't question when she finds him, how and why. All she knows is that she's more attentive when out on patrol, looking and waiting.)

(This is how Cassandra Cain-Wayne returns one night from patrol, a child, barely out of toddler stage and clinging to her form.)

(This is how the Batclan officially meets one Daniel James Cain-Wayne, freshly washed and clothed, a cookie in hand and hiding shyly behind Cass.)

(When they meet, all they say is "Welcome home, danny," and "Good to see you again.", Danny doesn't necessarily get it, but that's okay. Maybe his new mom will explain it one day when he's bigger.)

#dcxdp #dp x dc crossover #dpxdc #fic prompt #writing prompt #dc x dp prompt #cassandra cain is dannys mom #time travel shenanigans lead to conspiracy theories #half of the batclan think jason is the dad #or dick #damian and tim are outruled just bc age and tim denying it with no one protesting #alfred knows #danny moves like cass #he gave them both a cookie in the shadows #danny won him over by calling him great grand bat #he tells him of all the mischief they got up to bc no one would believe the baby had alfie wrapped around his finger like that #theyre just in denial #theyre all wrapped around the finger #danny “i mastered how to wrpaonize my cuteness” cain-wayne

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shima-draws · 8 months

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I’ve watched FMAB a thousand times but Greed’s death STILL gets me every fucking time. 1. Him realizing that Ling is going to get hurt and possibly killed by Father if Greed doesn’t leave his body, 2. Greed coming to terms with the fact that he’s definitely going to get killed by Father but he’s willing to make the sacrifice for Ling, and 3. Greed discovering that what he wanted was what he had the entire time, and that was true friends who would stick with him through thick and thin, who would share the same experiences and failures and triumphs and still love him despite his homunculus status. I’m so.

Also I’m SO pissed at the fact that Pride got to live but Greed didn’t. In my brain I kept saying “Well yeah I guess it makes sense for all of the homunculi to die bc they came from Father and HE has to die” but then I remembered that Pride LIVES and that makes me so salty. Out of all the homunculi Greed deserved to live the MOST AND I JUST. FUCKIGN.

#It’s been years and I’m STILL in denial #I’m living in my fantasy Soulmate GreedLingEd AU. Don’t fucking talk to me about canon #Anyway we finally finished FMAB today. My roommate absolutely LOVED it lol #But of course he would it is The anime of all time after all ;)#Shima speaks #FMA #FMAB #Fullmetal Alchemist #Greed #Ling Yao #Also it fucks me up EVERY time that Ed and Ling are the Last People Greed sees before he dies #The last people he looks at #The two people he cared about the MOST #AND. Greed’s death is what gave Ed the final push to defeat Father #Both he and Ling were DEVASTATED at Greed’s death and I’m. SO fucking normal about it #GODDD. God. G o d

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fairyroses · 2 days

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He was about to kill you, Lex. Or divulge something you didn't want me to know.

— SMALLVILLE, "Forever" (4.21)

+ bonus from "Arctic" (7.20):

#smallville #smallvilleedit #svedit #lex luthor #jason teague #lionel luthor #clark isn't in these scenes but they're still very much #clex #sv 4x21 #sv 7x20 #dcmultiverse #my gifs #'why can't you see what's right in front of your face lex?' god. god. godddd.#I think there's a really interesting discussion to be had (with many potential viewpoints)#re: to what extent lex actually knew the truth either consciously or subconsciously at any particular time #and how much he was just in denial about it (and why)#I'm not really prepared to have that discussion in these tags but like #let's face it - lex figured out that clark had powers all the way back in 1x12 #just because clark convinced him he was wrong at the time doesn't mean he just forgot that whole thing #and yet it seemed like the more seasons went on and the more obvious the truth became #especially the fact that clark was so heavily tied to all the alien weirdness of smallville #the more lex seemed to (subconsciously?) push back against accepting or recognizing that truth #I mean that's literally what he's doing in the 4x21 scene with jason #so it's like he both desperately wanted to know clark's secret but also didn't want to know at all #and that's just SO interesting #I mean jesus the 7x20 scene is supposed to be peak evil lex and yet he STILL has to be pushed into accepting the truth #and he does so with his eyes glistening because yeah he wanted to know clark's secret once upon a time but he never wanted THIS #(remember when lex told jonathan in s1 that he just wanted clark to have a happy normal life bc clark was such a good person?#and then he's told in 7x20 that to save the world he has to KILL clark and take that life away from him hahaha [crying] it's fine I'm FINE)#wow I really said 'I'm not prepared to have this discussion' and then just. proceeded to have it anyway huh. lmao oops

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ohshinytrinketsmine · 4 months

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Bonus: Tharn's in-dream reaction face that swallow.. you're not even fooling yourself dude

Why are you blushing? We used to shower together a lot at the camp. Or is it because... you are feeling something this time?

Dream Phaya asking all the right questions hehehe

The Sign ep 4

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alexkablob · 5 months

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read the sisters of dorley (alyson greaves, 2021-ongoing), a story containing such highlights as:

a satire of the trans healthcare experience in the uk

a meta-commentary on how trans women engage with/reclaim an erotica genre that both helped and hurt us growing up

the full spectrum of the transfem experience (cute & happy vs. absolute horror) juxtaposed together at all times

a bunch of neurotic trans girls in denial about being a cult

the worst opsec you've ever seen saved only by the secret it's protecting being too ludicrous to think of

more codependent transbian relationships than you can shake a stick at

the weirdest sexy chaser lady you've ever met

and a bunch of novelty mugs with really terrible puns

it's an ongoing doorstopper with every content warning under the sun and it makes me feel every human emotion at once

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good-beanswrites · 3 months

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hi! may i request some mikoto + amane (platonic obvs) … anything? they are very dear to me 😭

Yes!!! Thank you so much for the request -- they really are such a good pair ;-; (The thing is, I had so many nice scenes in mind about how they parallel each other, but they wouldn't know or reveal that about each other so I kept restarting...) Anyway, here's something right after Mikoto's first trial/verdict!

Mikoto could pick up on someone’s bad mood from a mile away, though the skill was unnecessary when the other party very clearly and calmly informed him, “I’m in a bad mood.”

After refusing his offer, Amane turned back to a thick textbook she’d been taking notes on. Didn’t kids usually complain that school was already a prison? She must have wanted the full experience. He'd worked nonstop at his studies as well, but this was a new level. Amane often reminded him of his little sister, though she always took the extra step like this. His sister would have jumped at this opportunity to play a few rounds of their favorite card game.

“It’ll be fun!”

He flashed a smile, but it had no effect on her severe expression. “I know you’re just trying to comfort me about our verdicts. I refuse to be pitied.”

“Comfort and pity are two very different things. But anyway, it wasn’t either of those things.” He gave an easy shrug “To be honest, I’m just a little bored. It’s weird not having any work to do during the day.”

Mikoto couldn’t remember the last time in his life he’d had so many hours to himself. A lot of the others were fun to play games with. A few of the sportier prisoners helped him stay active. He enjoyed smoking breaks with the other men. Still, he was left to his own devices for the majority of his time. It was maddening. He’d recently requested some more art supplies, having used up the last batch, but they had yet to come in. Now with the verdict announcement, he wasn’t sure they’d ever arrive.

“That is your own problem. I already have something to do.” Her eyes lingered on the cards for the briefest of moments before returning to the book. “I told you, I’m not in the mood for it.”

Regardless of her hostility, he took a seat beside her. He leaned his arms out on the table. “We don’t have to play the same game.” The last time they'd played as a big group, several prisoners pulling the tables together to fit everyone. Amane had kept very quiet, eyes darting around at the cards as she tried to keep up with the rules. Not many of the others noticed the frustration clear in her face. Mikoto wasn’t the type to let her win out of pity, though he had begun to mutter the rules and strategies to himself a bit more as the night went on…

“Is there a game you liked to play at home?”

“No. There was no time for games in the house.”

“All work and no play… hah… I know what that’s like.” He slumped his cheek onto his arm, lazily shuffling the cards around. He felt bad for bothering the girl if she truly was upset. He thought it was the bad experience that made her reject him, he hadn’t realized there were also family issues attached. Usually he could read people well; maybe he was losing his touch. He seemed to be losing touch with a lot of things, these days.

He readied a game of solitaire.

“Mikoto?” Amane kept her face turned away. “There was… one game.”

“Yeah?” Mikoto shuffled the cards back together. He slid them over to her. “You should teach me!”

She didn’t touch them. “You probably already know it.”

“Nah, I only know a few games. I’m better with tarot cards, though those aren’t really the gaming type. Come on, what is it?”

She told him the name of the game, insisting it wouldn’t be worth playing. She kept her attention on the textbook, but her eyes weren’t reading any of it.

“Ahh, I’ve heard of that one! We start with four cards, right?” He started dealing them out.

“No, five –” she pointed to the deck, urging him to add two more.

“Right, right.” He laughed lightly. “And the goal is to get pairs, and put them in a pile, uhh, here.”

Amane shook her head. She shifted her body slightly towards him. “You must be thinking of a different game. There’s actually three piles for pairs. One here, one here, and when it’s your opponent’s turn…”

Her eyes gleamed as she explained the rules. She pointed to various cards, telling him exact moves and point values. “And to win, you need to –” Her expression shifted. “You… you already knew all this.”

“Of course not!” He put on his most convincing smile.

She deflated. “You’re not a very good liar.”

“Tch, tell that to the warden.”

His shoulders sagged along with her. If Amane could see right through him, why was the rest of Milgram still coming up with stories about what he did and didn’t do? “Well, I might already know the rules, but it’s been a long time since I’ve played. You can still give me a hand. Plus, if you really are in such a bad mood, it’ll be good to take a break from your studies. You should always take a break when things get too overwhelming, yeah?”

She gave him a withering stare.

“Eh? What’s that face for?”

“Alright, let’s play. You can go first.”

“I mean it, what was that look? Aw, come on…”

#milgram #mikoto kayano #amane momose #see - the thing is they both had crimes about 'protecting themself' but both would deny it was for that reason #they both seem to have some family trauma but would never admit it #theyre both used to putting on their best behavior and being 'good' for others but hardly realize that themselves #they are both in denial all the time !!!!!#so i tried to show them getting along for their own perceived reasons -- mikoto thinks he likes her because she reminds him of his sister #and amane thinks she likes him because hes being kind about their verdicts #and while both are right theyre Also drawn to each other because they are very similar at their core #and both have skills with reading people/picking up on cues making it tough to lie to one another #that forced honesty makes for a solid friendship haha!#i also remember a comment from yamanaka that amane would be the worst at card games because shed have trouble with the rules #she seems old enough to handle complex games but she probably never got to play a lot at home ;---; and mikoto probably learns a lot of #types of games (and tarot) so can connect with even more people #i thought long and hard on whether mikoto would let someone else win but he doesnt seem the type (plus amane would notice)#once again i know amane starts speaking in the plural but this comes a bit before that #yaay thank you so much for the request! this was really fun to do - i hope you enjoy!#ive thought a lot about amane and john but less on her and mikoto lol so this was nice :D #drabbles

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lollytea · 1 year

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I think that Willow is very silly and chaotic, but because all of her friends are so completely unhinged she tends to be the responsible one by default. When the kids get into mischief, Willow is the designated braincell. That’s why when the second Vee showed up acting all calm and reasonable, Willow immediately started murdering alarm clocks.

Vee: Hello. I hope you enjoy your stay at Casa De Noceda. My name is Vee and I will be your braincell.

Willow: Oh FUCK YEAH *starts eating cardboard*

#i love silly willow in thanks to them #but i believe it is very much a coping mechanism #its kinda shown from the beginning with her drawing of her dads #where theyre all smiley and waving. and shes written ''we're fine willow!''#willow is trying to convince herself its gonna be okay #her dads her fine. its fine. they'll figure out a way to get home. it'll be fine #in the mean time she's distracting herself with stuff she enjoys. and acting way more manic than usual #shes hyper. shes hyper because she doesnt know what else to do #and its definitely not an insincere kind of happiness. she IS having fun. but shes definitely in some deep denial #her and gus are both coping in similar ways

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prettyboykatsuki · 2 months

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arthur morgan is so eldest daughter coded GOD

#aristotle.txt #i think dutch and arthur mirror the relationship between a mother and daughter in many aspects #dutchs victimization of himself and his continuous denial and the anger he experiences and emotional guilting #the MINUTE arthur gains autonomy enough to betray his wants is just so peak mother and oldest daughter #the way arthur is HELL BENT on saving dutch is so representative of that #john has a much easier time questioning dutch and it is wholly because john is younger. he is the younger child #he has arthurs protection and he BELIEVES in that. so fully. in the way he carries himself #arthur lingers in johns life and his choices. john has the autonomy and freedom of a second child #ON TOP OF THIS. i think dutch loves both john and arthur. i dont think that is untrue #dutch is pathetic and he experiences major decline in sanity #the impact of arthurs death.... the abysmal reality that it was by dutchs hand that he died... dutchs sin is pride #he is hysterical in his attempt to prove what i can only assume is his worth as a father figure #he is so deep in denial and truly has lost his mind. that many has so much wrong with him #but he is well written and nuanced and so often feels motherly in his platitudes and preaching #a prideful mother and a daughter hellbent on making sure she is never lonely ohhhh theyre so #aough this game. this game is cooking me.#also the lengths that arthur goes to keep all of his tenderness wrapped in the pages of his journal and safe from everyone.....oh we're #really in it now arthur morgan #a.rdr2

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cerealmonster15 · 3 months

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Stupid silly sketchbook doodles of beloved basketball club shhdfbfbgby it’s so important 2 me that they act like annoying brothers to each other and also that everyone in nrc acts like they’d rather be shot than develop a crush on one of their bitch classmates

#cereal tries to draw #twisted wonderland #ummmmm. i don’t wanna tag anymore I’m embarrased LOL I wasn’t gonna post it #I was just doodling for private funsies but like yknow how Ywannatalk about ideas with people #even just goofy little headcanons lol #but like u don’t wanna directly place ur thoughts and feelings in front of someone sometimes #bc then it’s DIRECT and STRESSFUL A #but u also don’t feel like it’s worth a Post For All To See #we r keeping it casual here on cerealmonster15 dot tumblr dot com #I just wanna bully my sons #ok literally tho can u read my handwriting. this is the natural state #of on paper and normal not written with intent for others to need to see lol #anyway I think of Ace liked deuce he’d be soooooo complainy about it. and in denial #but I think once he wasn’t in denial he’d be bitching constantly #and I think Jamil would also want to die if he started liking azul lol #Floyd would bully them both. he’s having a great time. god for him I guess #Ace: well hang on let me pause my agony to go baby bro mode and annoy Jamil real quick #get the heat off him (which he started by complaining loudly first)#Floyd: haha you two like dweebs #can u imagine the turmoil of third years developing feelings #they r all allergic. except rook I guess but he’s his own flavor of freak #lilia is dad he doesn’t count he already had his romance agony [REDACTED BOOK 7 SPOILERS]#first years also allergic EXCEPT applejuice. Epel and deuce together are like bro I love u.#second years are mostly allergic but also contain Kalim and silver #shoutout to the light magic users mwah #actually silver I don’t know. I don’t think he’d be resistant but I think he just wouldn’t realize what he’s feeling at first #he’d be so 🧍 about it I think #well bitch you (me) better figure it out since ur actively writing Kalim/silver!!! girl help #ok I need to go to bed I have a long weekend ahead of me #Jamil blows Ace up with his mind the end

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dramarants · 1 year

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don’t even look at me if you wouldn’t consider sealing yourself in an ice coffin with me to stay by my side should I suffer an untimely death 😩

#till the end of the moon #tteotm #ranting #luo yunxi you fucking GOD - the way he speaks to and holds her corpse in both scenes. denial. desperation. fear. disbelief. the trembling.#his face walking up to her coffin and subsequent rage and protectiveness with qingyu over both her and their relationship #no matter how many times she said her purpose was to kill him he still believes they loved each other and refuses anything else #the bracelet sequence the face nuzzle the mirthful laughter #he can’t bear to lose her and he has no idea where to direct his overwhelming pain and sadness despite their conflicts #after all what’s grief but all the love still left to give. he has lost ppl before but not like this #there’s prolly a fair amount of guilt and self hatred underlying everything too #all he's done these last eps is try to hold on to her in every way - with every shred of his being - but none of it worked #‘just say one word please’ ‘you’re really hateful’ AAHHHH #his injured hands shaking her as if things are normal. later tucking her hand in gently as if not to wake her despite the truth.#he's lost all sense of self and purpose. his grasp on reality is hanging by a thin fucking thread #he will gladly live in his delusion & try to stay by her side. even in death. even when she didn't want it.#he can't go on w/o her anymore - doesn't know how. she has fundamentally changed him.#(so much that he even fights the devil god voice in her defense 🙏)#it’s scenes like this that bludgeon you with humanity amidst all the unreal fantastical elements and bring you back to these shows #omg I’m remembering his fixation on her not looking at him with ttml before - boy was already going insane w/o her when she was still there #healthy attachment and coping? ttj doesn't know her 😌#like idk if he fucks her corpse in the novel but props to lyx I’d fucking believe it #and once again nian baiyu is not paid nearly enough for any of this

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aguagua · 1 year

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no but i like wanna talk about vandermatthews and hosea specifically,, but also I’m literally incoherent so it’s just gonna live in my tags

#it’s the ‘I could never leave you more specifically I could never leave this life behind’#it’s how hosea and dutch are just doomed from the start #it’s hosea constantly telling everyone to go but he’s out here planning a big bank job or running a long con w dutch #mostly i so badly cannot get out of my mind the conversations Dutch and hosea have together in camp #the ‘we did it’ convo and there’s another one that’s something like them talking about how times and change and people change and they ask #why haven’t we changed????#like these girlies will have these conversations and it’s just nothing girl why are you Both getting so deep and y’all still be running #these scores #im very obsessed w those talks n how these men can never ever change and survive beyond the wild wild west #there’s the Denial of it all there’s the I Know No Other Life than this of it all #and this life I know it with you and I love you and I see things are going bad and I know you’re doing bad but goddammit I know you won’t #change because neither can I so yea let’s both pretend we’re gonna run off to Tahiti after one last job. it would be an honor to die for you #rdr2 #vandermatthews

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fluffypotatey · 4 months

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Shadowpeach f*ck and it solves absolutely nothing and set back progress for a decade more, plus added tension if that's even possible.

Are you happy now mk

honestly, MK regretted it the minute those words came out of his mouth

#MK has to restrain himself from punching a wall #but he’ll scream anyway because their problems should not be his job #it would be funny tho bc swk and Macky would be in such HUGE denial about it #be all like ‘can you beLIEVE what he said??? me???? fuck you????’#‘you saying i’m not fuckable?!’#<-which will spiral into the most hilarious (for me) shenanigans of both trying to prove to each other that they’ve got game #whilst trying to convince themselves that they are not attracted to each other. at the same time #Mei records all that she can obviously bc it’s fucking hilarious and blackmail material #Pigsy is very tired and offended that Wukong came to HIM for advice #but yeah #it would be so funny 😂 to me #then (of course) the tension will get too high and oh no! the did the devil’s tango and are not ready to process that AT ALL lmao #lmk #shadowpeach #asks

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arcadianico · 11 months

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it makes so much sense that quackity couldn’t talk to SOPHIA about love without also talking about grief btw. the two are so intertwined in the smp as a whole but especially in qquackity’s story. his love and grief are inextricable from each other, they’re symbiotic

#he refuses to talk about his feelings for wilbur as love. because he knows its not #its attraction yeah but not love. they barely know each other #also i maintain that his desire for wilbur is less about wilbur and more about the role wilbur can fill or should have filled in his life #quackity’s obsession with wilbur is fundamentally tied into his grief for tilín #literally the whole thing is about q thinking wilbur was meant to be his partner and therefore also tilín’s other parent #and that massively colours how q views both wilbur and tallulah #that’s why he’s been so obsessed #his talk about roier and cellbit was cute but really when he was describing love he wasn’t talking about them because so much of what he #said doesn’t apply to spiderbit’s relationship at least yet #(there’s still time)#but there’s a reason he couldn’t help but circle back to tilín #tilín has been q’s biggest motivator for most of the series in one way or another #his relationship with tilín might have been doomed but that doesn’t mean he didn’t love them #he loved them to the point of self destruction #and after that conversation with SOPHIA i think he’s only now picking up the pieces #or even examining them in detail #the grief and love he has towards tilín have been overshadowing him this whole time and he hasn’t dealt with it #idk he’s tried at points but he always falls back on denial and pretending he’s fine #maybe because he feels like letting go of any part of his grief is like letting go of his love for tilín and he doesn’t want to do that #after all they are two sides of the same coin #god this is a ramble anyway #quackity #sophia qsmp #tilín #tilin #qsmp

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johanthefriskiestofbits · 8 months

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oooooo please tell me (who knows nothing on the subject) about orv swap au

hehehe. hehehehehehe. hehehehehehehhehehehhheheheh <- guy who is so normal

the premise of orv swap au (name has yet to be finalized) is this: what if kdj and yjh swapped narrative positions (reader <-> character) but very little else? what if a video game player enters a time loop to save his favorite character from dying over and over again and also to end the apocalypse?

admittedly it's not super fleshed out yet (a lot of the changes this premise would introduce are still not hammered out yet) but here are some points under the cut (novel spoilers ahead!)

orv swap au starts with pro gamer yjh who feels :/ abt his job, but hey, it pays the bills. despite (or maybe because of) his relative popularity as a pro gamer and networking with the agency/sponsors/people to impress, he's kind of isolated in a way that's detrimental, a facade of someone he's not whenever he's on camera

something to play around with is the idea of agency? maybe this yjh doesn't feel like he has any and has his hands tied between the lifestyle and being under public scrutiny and not having enough of a support system to leave everything behind. maybe he doesn't know what else he would even do. maybe he's aimless and drifting with nothing to hold on to.

his favorite video game is what i've been thinking of as World's Hardest To Play Indie Game (not based on difficulty but just on the experience of consuming it) a boring, exposition heavy, player-hostile, poorly designed, slightly buggy mess of a barely-playable game: twsa, a game that was not finished upon release and experiences with sporadic updates every now and then.

the ending tree to this game is so convoluted its insane. also theres no save states so if you die (very likely) u restart babeyyy.

twsa (video game) does have multiple endings, all of which happen when kdj, your main character, dies. some are farther into the apocolypse than others, some paths require meta knowledge of future events or character actions or items or whatever. the "true ending" is either analogous to the original 1863: kdj makes it to the end at the cost of everyone he loves, or hsy's modified 1863: kdj makes himself enemy of the scenario to secure a way out for the kimcom remnants.

there's branches on the choices tree where everyone dies and everything sucks and is bad forever and theres choices to make where kdj gets to make a family and they don't really get to settle down but they can get pretty close to it among the ruins of the apocalypse. through all his testing, yjh finds that these endings are nice but peter out - to get to the end of the apocalypse yjh has to claw his way there inch by painful inch, through betrayal and sacrifice, and he still cant fully get past it

i originally wanted to finagle a yoohankim 3 way swap but i couldn't figure it out. swap aus are a lot easier to work with when they're even numbers, at least to me, so this au features a ysa who is a video game company employee by day and by night she really has become god this time (and also a terrible indie dev). and this is how jungdoksang can still win !!!!

also yjh's coworker from Real Life hsy :) i haven't decided if she's like an employee for the same agency, or if she's someone else in the gaming circles that yjh interacts with sometimes (in my heart theyre in like some sort of discord server together), or something like that but she's around. whatever she does she is twitter cancelled for something. to me.

the only other character swaps are lsk and yma. yma is yjh's estranged sister (in broad strokes there's a vague bad parent situation going on here) (they used to be close until they drifted apart and slowly started hating each other [there is an abyss between them that neither of them can bridge]) (he feels that she betrayed him and threw him under the bus so he left [maybe he gets kicked out]) (she feels that he abandoned her to whatever situation they have going on [he didn't even try to take her with him]) and he has to find her when the apocalypse starts. yjh older sibling to yma gives us a whole different little dynamic to explore from kdj ysk (there's different levels of responsibility and guilt and blame when you're talking siblings that are soooooo interesting to me. sorry that i see any set of siblings and immediately try to figure out how to make them worse)

lsk is kdj's mom who appeared into existence at some point with kdj and they were both just adults. that's weird isn't it. oh well. i guess she can become a transcendent later too for funsies

everyone else stays in the same configuration of Real Person vs Character to me this is a very important aspect

this point has no precedent with the swap, nothing particular that would change to cause this, but it would be so funny if lgy was a little gamer boy who is an avid yjh hater. hates that guy. shows up to competitions to boo him. tunes into yjh's silent no-mic speedrunning streams to mald in chat but yjh +mods don't ban him bc its kinda funny.

anyways the apocalypse starts when yjh and his coworker/fellow gamer hsy are on a train to twitchcon and lgy is also there (also headed to twitchcon) and he brings bugs because he likes them but also to sabotage yjh specifically. its just funny if this happened. you understand

instead of having reader-related skills and abilities, yjh's skills are video game player based! he gets flavor text insight on people, location, and items, things like that. notably, he has the ability to reset, to bring himself back to the beginning of the apocalypse

orv swap proper follows yjh as the Player of the Game (Consumer of the Narrative) who lives hundred of lifetimes in this ruined-world-become-reality "replaying" [read: time looping through] the game to reshape it to save his fave character from self implosion (kdj with no dissociation is very prone to dying. all the time.). to revisit the idea of playing with yjh and the idea of agency, of creation, the only way to get past the apocalypse is to go off the beaten path, to choose options that weren't even there in the game. when in space, at his darkest point, yjh becomes a writer. in this story, at his darkest point, he has to become a creator too

please do not ask me how the epilogues go i dont know how the epilogues go (i don't want to throw yjh back into a train for milennia after he Just went through a thousand resets so i'm sending kdj for that but i havent fully planned how or why)

anyways, hope that helps!!! :)