My boy finally gets his therapy 🥹🙏
But lord where do I even start, these final episodes had me in a choke hold. I really love how Simon and Betty had an one final talk with each other, and that was when he realized how much Betty was giving up just for him. The book Simon read about the crown, made him realize that things could have been different and they could have been together. Maybe the whole “saving the world” didn’t have to happen and maybe Betty wouldn’t need to sacrifice herself. In all odds though, I’m that glad that Simon finally gets to move forward with his life with the realization of accepting how things are.
Bouns:
I really love this end credits it’s just so cute 😭
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blackmadhi week day 2: fake dating au 📞
aka I did it, I finally drew fanart for this beautiful behemoth of a fic!! come read it here, for a bad time call simon blackquill by nerdyskeleton
transcript under cut
Comic art is drawn to correspond with the events of the ad posted in the fic as follows:
“Do you hate your family? I want to hate them too!
I’m a 29 year old ex-convict (didn’t actually kill anyone, don’t worry) who probably hates your family and probably doesn’t have anything to do but terrorize them. I will be your platonic date to a stupid family dinner or gathering for one (1) night/event.
I work at a noodle place and will get buckwheat flour all over your family members, if you ask me to. I will also make fun of you and your family members, because that’s all I do in general anyway. Other services include telling scary prison stories, threatening to show any possible prison scars, pretending to get very drunk, hitting on a different family member, or hitting a family member. May be convinced to propose to you in front of your family members, too.
Feed me and maybe give me $30?”
This cuts into the next scene, which is mid phone call with Simon and Nahyuta. This is lifted directly from the fic, with talking tags added below where it may not be clear without context.
“I will pay you. More than what the ad said.” [Nahyuta told him.]
“How much?” Simon asked. If it was a big enough sum, it might be worth it to spend a few agonizing hours with this man and his shitty family.
“$200. I’ll make it $300 if you bring flour to get all over my brat of a little sister. The ad said that you would do that.”
Ye gods, if this right bastard of a man thought that his little sister was a brat she must be terrible.
“Will you do it now?”
“…Fine.”
“Excellent. That’s what I thought your answer would be in the end, Simon. What’s your full name?”
“Simon Blackquill,” he ground out.
“And I’m Nahyuta Sahdmadhi. Can you promise to be as insufferable to the rest of my family and friends as you have been to me?”
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Been a fan of your fics for YEARS. I was just telling my friend how despite how much I read fics I never actually love them, with some of your fics (especially TMA) as the exception. Felt the need to reread some of them and saw you reblogged some ISAT fanart. So. Any thoughts on ISAT you'd like to share?
Hope you have a wonderful day!! So happy I found your fics again!!
I avoided answering this for a while because I was trying to think of a way to cohesively and coherently vocalize my thoughts on In Stars and Time. I have given up because I don't want to hold everybody here all day and I have accepted that my thoughts are just pterodactyl screeching.
I love it so much. I have so much to say on it. It drove me bonkers for like a week straight. I have AUs. It's absolute Megbait. They're just a little Snufkin and they're having the worst experience of anybody's life. Ludonarratives my fucking beloved.
I am going to talk about the prologue.
The prologue is such a fascinating experience. You crack open the game and immediately begin checking off all of the little genre boxes: mage, warrior, researcher, you're the rogue...some little kid who's there for some reason...alright, you know the score. You're in yet another indie Earthbound RPG, these are your generic characters, let's get the ball rolling.
Except then you realize that these characters are people. You feel instantly how you've entered the game at its last dungeon, at the end of the adventure. They have their own in-jokes, histories, backgrounds, adventures. They get along well and they're obviously close, but not in a twee or unrealistic way. They have so much chemistry and spirit and life. I fell in love with them so quickly.
But Sif doesn't. Sif kind of hates them, because they will not stop saying the same damn thing. They walk the same paths, do the same things, make the same jokes, expect Sif to say the same lines. They keep referencing a Sif we do not see, with jokes we never see him make and heroic personality he never shows - they reference a Sif who is dead - and Sif can't handle that, so he kills them too.
They become only an exercise in tedious frustration. Sif button mashes through their dialogue, Sif mindlessly clicks the same dialogue options, Sif skips through the tutorial, Sif blows through the puzzles. Sif turns their world into a video game. Sif is playing a generic RPG. Sif forgets their names. They are no longer people with in-jokes, histories, backgrounds, adventures. They're the mage, the warrior, the researcher, and...some random kid.
I did not understand the Kid's presence at first. I had no idea what they contributed to the game. They didn't do anything. As a party member in a video game, they're a bit useless. Why is the Kid there?
Because Sif's life isn't a video game. Because the kid isn't 'the kid'. They're Bonnie. Bonnie, who the party loves. Why is Bonnie there? Because they love them. There is no room for Bonnie in the boring RPG that Sif is playing. And then you realize that Sif is wrong, and that they've lost something extremely important, and that they'll never escape without it.
Watching the prologue before watching ISAT gave ISAT the most unique air of dread and horror, because you crack open ISAT and you see the person Sif used to be. You realize that Sif used to be a person. Sif used to be the person who made jokes, who gave real smiles, who interacted with the world as if they are a part of it. And you know you are sitting down to watch Sif lose everything that made them a person, to lose everything that made them a member of this world, and turn them into a character in a video game who doesn't understand the point of Bonnie at all.
At the climax of the game, when the others realize that something is deeply wrong and that Sif physically cannot tell them, they realize that there is nothing they can do. So Bonnie declares snacktime. And for the first time they have snacktime.
What is snacktime? Classic JRPGs don't have snacktime. There's literally no point to a snacktime - not in a video game, and not in Sif's terrible life. It's not fixing this, because nothing can fix this. But Bonnie gives Sif a cookie and Sif eats it.
It's meaningless. It's a cutscene. It didn't save Sif and it didn't change a thing. It will make no difference in the end.
But it did make the difference. It made all of the difference in the world. Bonnie is a character who you really don't understand the point of before you realize that Bonnie was the entire point.
ISAT is about comfort media. Why do we play the same video games over and over again? Why do we avoid watching the finale of our favorite shows? What is truly comforting: a story with no conflict, or a story where you always know what is about to happen? Do you want to live in a scary, uncontrollable world, or do you want to play Stardew Valley? Do you want a person or a character?
When I beat Earthbound for the first time (and if you don't know, the prologue/ISAT battle system is just Mother) and watched the ending cutscene where the characters part ways and say goodbye...I felt a little bit sad. I wanted them to be together forever. But that's something only characters could ever be.
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