Latest Posts by unavailableobserver - Page 4
I just want to remind everyone that the Sargasso Sea is an ocean gyre in the Atlantic, off the coast of North America, that is a crystal-clear blue lake topped with seaweed forests. That is IN the ocean. There's no land around it. It's just a distinct giant saltwater sea in the middle of the ocean, because of the weird way ocean currents work.
And all the eels from North America and Europe leave their freshwater habitats and swim out there to breed and lay eggs and die. These weird snake fish swim a THOUSAND MILES to come here, to do this.
And the European ones rely on the gradual ocean current to slowly carry their larvae back to Europe, which takes 300 days, and their development cycle is synched to this.
And no matter where they end up, they immediately go up a fresh water source and live there. Until it's time to breed, then they just know to go a thousand miles back to this one weird patch of ocean.
This isn't made up! This isn't an Ancient Greek zoological theory! They do this! This is how they live! And our stupid river dams are blocking them from going from inland waterways in Pennsylvania and Britain, out into this one sea way off the coast of the Carolinas.
Nature is stranger than fiction.
Also like 200 years ago, these fish were so thick in the water that you could just go down on your luchbreak and grab one and cook it up on the beach. Eel was so ubiquitous that they made pies and jellies out of it.
What toxic pink slime did you pay $12 to eat for lunch today, Future Guy?
Have you ever seen an eel irl? Don't they have funny little teeth?
my eel brain actually started with me volunteering to assist on an eel feed at the pūkaha wildlife centre. knee-deep in large, writhing beasts trying to get at the food in my hands, i fell in love.
you're right, the longfin eels teeth are so small! you've got to look really close because it kinda looks like it's just a rough texture:
but that isn't the only type of eel teeth! Viper eels have a pretty iconic set of teeth
they feed on slippery critters so need some good grippers, while a moray like the snowflake eel which eats more crustaceans will have flatter teeth for crushing:
snipe eels have backwards facing teeth! you might have to squint to see these because theyre so tiny, but they function similar to a pythons- once you get in it'll be incredibly damaging to get out!
this place kinda dead,,, have a mingling
EELS
Some moray eels for an assignment.
Twst Merch Giveaway, Round 1: Cater, Riddle, Azul, Grim!
It's the fourth Twst Merch Giveaway! 🥳
Within the next 24 hours please do the following: 1) Reblog this post! 2) Choose which item(s) you would like from the following google form! http://twstnote.com/tumblr-giveaway-round-one/
(no need to follow or like unless you want to :> multiple items is fine!)
Shipping: Free of charge to any country except where the post office says no: Yemen, Guatemala, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Chad, Bolivia, Liberia, Micronesia, Marshall Islands, Libya, Russia, Ukraine.
Winners: will be contacted via email and not announced publicly (just in case someone is looking to get a gift for someone else), so please make sure that the email address you provide is accurate!
Details: There will be three rounds across three platforms: Twitter, Tumblr and Bluesky! All are welcome to join all giveaways, which will be hosted on three Saturdays: 10/5 (today), 10/12 and 10/19!
This is the fourth giveaway total but the first time attempting a Google forms format, I hope very much that it works 💦
See all available items available across all platforms, here! http://twstnote.com/twst-merch-giveaway/
Their Family Asks to Meet You (First Years- Platonic)
Characters: Ace, Deuce, Jack, Epel, Ortho, Sebek
Genre: fluff
FANTASTIC
Ill post this au( inspired by tweet above) i started on my twt on Tumblr too
First part
more comic panels below
Second part
Third part
Fourth part
Shenanigans side extra
this is currently an ongoing series, if this does well here, I will continue posting these in bulk (～￣▽￣)～
for more frequent uploads, you can follow my twitter at ArcherD116, feel free to ask me ab this au and give your suggestions!
Airplane bro just tryin to distract his bestie durin those three binghe-free years (jokes on shen yuan, we all know you have no dignity)
TWST D&D Character Sheets!
Feel free to use them! They started off as a silly project but I got hooked and finished all 7! They’re great for a TWST campaign, or even just to grab for a character that you think would be in that dorm
I only ask you don’t repost them, edit them (aside from adding character/OC information ofc), or crop out my signature
In what ways would you change Yuu (or would you get rid of them entirely)? The writing feels inconsistent on their place/importance. If they were just a conduit for the player to watch the events unfold that's one thing but in another story they are an active player.
I'd personally play into the beastamer aspect more. They are supposedly the reason why Ace, Deuce, and Grim were able to work together thus I'd want them to have more agency in making plans, giving orders, etc. Rook calls them Trickster but in what way (lol). The vagueness of being a self insert pains me. I'd also want to give them some magically infused weapon (or has a magestone embedded) just so they aren't fodder or sideline material.
Mmm… As much as I dislike the blank slate self-insertiness of Yuu (I’d prefer to read about an actually realized character), I wouldn’t want to get rid of them altogether. I think they’re important for the role they serve in the narrative even if in execution is inconsistent and not done well.
The problem with “changing” Yuu is that there has to be a certain level of ambiguity due to the design of the game. You cannot give them too much personality or you risk alienating the audience that likes to project or self-insert. There’s also a limit to how much uniqueness a mobile game can lend its players characters; the format isn’t exactly known for having super in-depth player arcs, it’s known for their colorful casts of rollable characters. The devs have to toe that line carefully, not to mention juggle Yuu’s participation with letting the other characters shine. It is for this reason that I won’t be doing a total overhaul of Yuu or just deciding “give them a personality!” as what I’d change about them. Rather, I’ll be proposing alterations while thinking like a dev (ie preserving the current story and as much of the self-insertiness as I can while also trying to give Yuu more to do/say).
Now Yuu, being the outsider to this world, is perfectly poised to have others dump exposition on them. This serves the dual purpose of being able to diegetically explain things to the player. (We wouldn’t get this advantage if the player character was changed to be like… a Twisted Wonderland resident; you could explain some magic things to a layman, but a resident wouldn’t need more common knowledge like country names exposited to them. Were this the case, we’d need an additional excuse for Crowley to take in a native.) It’s also convenient to have them be the “eyes” for the player to experience the world through, since Yuu is able to conveniently be present for most major main story events. It essentially makes them a human-shaped video camera.
I’ve often heard people suggest that if we need a POV character, why not go with Grim since he basically serves the same purpose now anyway. My answer to that is: Grim is also an arrogant asshole who picks fights, just the same as any other NRC student. If Grim were the player character, he wouldn’t be contributing much or helping to guide the other students learn to get along. We need Yuu here to be that driving force for change because Grim simply isn’t capable of it when he’s instigating himself half of the time.
A smaller thing about Yuu that I love is the idea of them being the school photographer! (This is something that is shown in the second anniversary animated video too!) It gives us context for the cards we roll and it implies that Yuu is the one documenting these precious memories. I want Yuu to stay if only for this reason.
Personally, I wouldn’t make Yuu a combatant. This is antithetical to their role and I feel would instead work against them (or at least create a scenario where Yuu has to have some level of battle prowess; this impedes on the self-insert nature of them). Sticking a magic item in their hand makes little difference since they most likely wouldn’t know how to handle it in the moment. (Nor would a magicless human even be able to use some of them; for example, a magestone is completely useless to them.) A magicless human with no combat experience is just another liability to account for, not to mention it actively puts them in harm’s way. It might be cool in theory, but I think in practice it goes against the very concept of Yuu. They’re meant to be here to show that there is “another way” to the NRC students—that violence doesn’t solve all your problems, proof that you don’t need to be a powerful being to “change” others or the world around them. They’re supposed to be underestimated and not seen as much of a “real” fighter, and they’re supposed to prove those notions wrong by demonstrating their worth via other avenues. In this “the weak obey the strong” school, Yuu has to be the one to show them that strength comes in forms that are NOT magic power or battle prowess.
I feel that Yuu works best on the sidelines as a supporter and strategist. Strategy is, after all, half of the battle, and it’s a part that people tend to overlook in favor of the flashier fighters. But strategy is crucial and it can turn the tide against a formidable foe (as we see in the prologue)!! I think this is something the NRC students need to be made more aware of too, so Yuu should stay as the strategist; they just have to be given more opportunities to show off those skills!
With all of that being said, here is what I would change about Yuu:
Drop the beast tamer thing. It gets mentioned prominently like once in the prologue and then never becomes truly relevant. Maybe it’ll become important when it comes to taking down OB Grim, but that will be SO late in the main story that the payoff doesn’t seem worth it. There are no examples of Yuu’s beast taming skills ever being used in the main story, so the whole “oh you have the makings of a beast tamer” thing is so useless. If you really want to keep it, then let Yuu’s innate talent/skills for beast taming help them out at least once per main story book. This means I’d want to see instances of Yuu getting other creatures (ie not just Grim) to help them out.
Allow Yuu the agency to act on their own when it comes to finding a way back to their own world. Going home is so often relegated to a single line or a few sentences and then not addressed again until next book. Have Yuu take initiative instead of waiting around for updates from Crowley. They should go out and ask questions, investigate on their own, etc. Maybe have them get involved in each book’s conflict because they happen to get mixed up in it while conducting research instead of being TOLD to go and fix a problem. Book 6 marks the only real time I can think of Yuu making a drastic decision against Crowley’s advice. It puts them at great risk, and that’s something they’re willing to take for the sake of saving their friends. We need more moments like this throughout the rest of the story. However, Yuu won’t be allowed to do whatever they want unrestricted because 1) it falls out of the scope of a mobile game title and 2) we want to largely retain the capacity to self-insert. So when I say give Yuu more agency to act, I mean it ONLY in the sense of being more proactive in their efforts to get home.
Yuu should fully commit to being a planner and strategist. We get to see this aspect of Yuu like once or twice in the prologue (when they tell Grim where to spit fire at the ghosts/planning how to beat the Phantom in the mines) and then are left to extrapolate this to the rest of the game. Maybe you can argue they figured out Azul’s scheme in book 3 too, but this isn’t good enough. If you’re going to set up the idea, then have consistent segments in each book that reinforces that idea. Have Yuu brainstorm ways to jailbreak in book 4, have Yuu be perceptive enough to notice that Malleus isn’t feeling great in book 7 (only for Malleus to brush them off/insist he has a solution), etc.
Have a short story segment that explains how or why Yuu earns their nickname “Trickster” from Rook. We got this with Floyd, so the other known nicknamer should reveal this, especially since the name “Trickster” implies intelligence and cunning. Yuu should have an opportunity to demonstrate this (in book 5 maybe?), which earns them Rook’s respect and the new title. This should also be informed by other parts where Yuu shows how smart they can be.
More time bonding with Grim. I say Grim specifically because I commonly see him as a hated character in part because of how he “steals lines/time” away from Yuu. (Adeuce and Malleus are fine as they are because the former already stick up for/help Yuu out and the latter is meant to stay mysterious until late in the main story.) This means that if you don’t already like Grim, the whole “Yuu chases them to Styx HQ to save Grim” plot point in book 6 rings hollow. To truly build a bond with Grim, please give us moments prior to book 6 that show how much they care for one another and are linked to each other as partners. Times when Grim causes inconveniences for Yuu don’t count. Give me instances of them cuddling at night or talking to each other about their hopes and dreams or whatever. This would establish the value that Grim sees in Yuu, as well as the value that Yuu sees in Grim. It makes it more believable that Grim would cry when he’s alone or realizes he hurt his partner, and that Yuu would defy the headmaster’s advice and put themselves at risk to save Grim.
Better incorporate the ghost camera and its usage in the main story. The ghost camera provides an in-universe explanation for gaming meta (ie the card illustrations); in the main story, it’s hardly ever mentioned save for its introduction in the prologue and when Yuu takes a picture of Mickey with it. What should happen instead is Yuu will take a picture of the characters involved in that chapter. This way, it’s a physical reminder of the time everyone spent together and the bonds they’ve developed. It further strengthens the idea of the students learning to get along and Yuu being there to facilitate that while also keeping the ghost camera relevant.
More time where Yuu actually bonds with/“changes” the other characters. One huge gripe I have with the main story is that we’re TOLD that Yuu’s presence changes and improves the boys for the better, that they teach them how to get along. Very little of the actual main story supports this (outside of the prologue). At best, Yuu has a very short chat with some of the OB boys at the end of their respective book. Yuu should have a little more time in this regard. I don’t know, maybe Idia is still struggling to socialize when he comes over to play video games at Ramshackle so Yuu has to gently encourage him to give it a try or says something to help include him in the conversation. Little things like that! Keep the strong interactions the other characters have in changing the OB boys (like Trey being the one to rush to Riddle’s side, the twins teasing Azul, etc.), but have Yuu help facilitate them opening up emotionally and being vulnerable with one another.
To summarize, the changes I’d make largely involve making TWST commit to briefly mentioned details (that they largely don’t follow through on) and making Yuu actually do a little more to warrant crediting them with resolving issues + fostering friendships. A lot of the problems that exist now are due to promising a lot but then poorly executing on what was promised.
Is it just me or does anyone else ever think about how lonely Grim would’ve been if he didn’t decide to break into NRC, or how different it’d be for him if Yuu never attended NRC?
Or does anyone else think about how he would react if Yuu left?
Like as far as we know, Yuu is probably the closest thing to a family he’s had as he was abandoned since he was a kitten. Not much is known besides the fact that he said he “woke from the darkness all alone”. Yuu is the closest thing he has to a friend or even a family member at that.
Now I’m not a writing account but…
Imagine how he’d react if Yuu leaves, clinging onto Yuu and asking if they’re at least gonna come back and if he’ll ever see them again. I think it’d be even more heartbreaking for him if Yuu left while he would be asleep.
He’d be absolutely lonely without Yuu, having no one. Well, no one as close as Yuu was to him. Even if he has the others such as Ace and Deuce or the dorm ghosts to chat with, it’s not the same for him without Yuu. No one to bribe him with tuna, no one to carry him around NRC, no one to tell him “good morning”. Imagine Grim trying to introduce himself and out of habit he says “and this is my henchhuman—“ before stopping himself, remembering Yuu isn’t there anymore.
What if he starts wondering how Yuu is in their world?
What if he starts to fear that Yuu forgot them?
What if he’s scared of forgetting Yuu?
Just a thought I had.
I think that one of the most underrated reveals in Scum Villain was that Luo Binghe inherited his big dick toxic alpha male energy from his birth mother, and it actually has nothing to do with his demon side.
TWST OC TEMPLATES
These Templates are 100% free on my kofi vvv
Really put them on my kofi cuz its more organized than my googledrive but might at somepoint just switch to that lol
something that bothers me just a little bit is how much the svsss fandom plays up the "beef" between sqq and sqh.... sqq is like. a bit mean. as banter!! by the end of the story it's more For The Bit than because of any genuine "hatred". sqq doesn't insult sqh every time they meet and he isn't always denying their friendship (if anything it's the other way around lol, see chapter 14). he isn't constantly agressively beating him with his fan. afaik he only actually beats him up one time - in chapter 21, after the shen jiu thing and after sqh teases him about regret of chunshan. sqq doesn't bully sqh and sqh really isn't the pathetic wet hamster people think he is :(
Absolutely frothing at this fanfic idea, thank you.
PIDW but it's a game.
You play as Luo Binghe, the lowliest disciple of Cang Qiong Mountain Sect's Qing Jing Peak. The first part of the game proceeds more or less like a semi-normal fantasy dating sim -- Luo Binghe is bullied and downtrodden, but can seek help and opportunities to build relationships with various female characters, like Ning Yingying and Liu Mingyan. The game's interface implies a truly staggering number of potential romance candidates to unlock, however, so it makes sense that the first part in your disciple years doesn't get you very far in any of the routes.
But then for the second part, things start to shift. You get an option that seems to amount to asking whether you want to make things better for Luo Binghe or not. When you click the obvious choice, that you do, your previously cold and ruthless shizun seems to go through an inexplicable change of heart. You get a weird kind of fanservice-y scene featuring him during the Skinner Demon Mission. Then he features extremely heavily in the Demon Invasion Mission, only to turn up as your companion in the Dream Demon Mission.
After that, it seems like you've gotten onto his route, somehow? Why does the scummy male teacher even have a route in a game like this, though? You try to check for player guides but you can't seem to find any. You try reloading older saves and making other selections, but no matter what you choose, you end up finishing the Dream Demon Mission by moving into Shen Qingqiu's house, and the routes for Liu Mingyan and Ning Yingying and the briefly-encountered Sha Hualing are all greyed out.
But maybe that just means they're inaccessible for advancement for now, or something. And a lot of games have plot points that are on rails, and you can see where Luo Binghe actually getting a place to live would be one of those things. The format of the game changes as well, going from a relatively loose sequence of scenes and interactions to a daily management style, where you have tasks to complete (make shizun breakfast, go to morning lessons, cultivate, do chores, etc) and only a set number of hours in which to complete them. You have affection points, but any time you try to spend them on anyone other than Shen Qingqiu you get an error message. There are dialogue options for flirting with other characters, but they're always greyed out and impossible to select.
Still, you can unlock scenes. A lot of them are just long slow shots of Shen Qingqiu doing things, like reading, or lecturing, or eating. You get missions, and sometimes you meet female characters who seem to unlock new possible romance paths, even though they're still constantly greyed out. Maybe this part of the game's just especially on rails? Waiting for the actual harem-building segment? You kind of like a lot of aspects of it anyway, though. Luo Binghe is an especially compelling character, not at all like the usual sort of non-entity placeholder main guys in games like this. He definitely has personality.
But then you get to the third part. The Abyss. Shen Qingqiu pushes Luo Binghe in, and suddenly you're wondering if you've somehow reached a bad end. You were saving up some of those affection points for later, maybe you should have spent them all on him? Was there something you did wrong to make this happen? You're not even sure why he's thrown poor Binghe away, he was cold and cryptic about it, and now you're wondering if all the time you spent distracted by other things was time you should have spent farming a better relationship with him. You can't help but wonder where you went astray, because Luo Binghe will not stop wondering about it, and wondering about it in ways that make you feel oddly like he is accusing you, the player, of making the wrong choices... but in a way that could still plausibly be aimed at himself, as a character. You feel bad. You kind of want to restart, but you also can't bring yourself to abandon Luo Binghe. You have to see this through, to help him make it to the other side.
Regardless, the Endless Abyss seems like it must be an inevitable plot development. A lot of the game shifts to account for it. There's even an option to essentially select this "thought" from Luo Binghe's internal diatribe, that this is inevitable, and it seems to turn off the litany of recriminations for a while, although sometimes it also results in Luo Binghe... glaring at the screen?
At you?
Anyway the daily management system goes out of the window, and instead there's an energy bar now. Encounters with monsters or the occasional demon woman will lower the energy bar, how much depends on what you choose and how the encounters proceed. Sometimes there are romantic/sexy responses for interacting with the demon women you meet, and they aren't greyed out, but if you try and select them the cursor will jump to another option. You think there might be something wrong with your mouse? Sometimes you get Luo Binghe glaring at the screen scenes afterwards. When Binghe's energy bar hits zero, you're offered two choices -- "sleep" or "think of shizun". Sometimes even if you pick "sleep" the cursor will still jump to "think of shizun", and you'll be treated to another one of those slow lingering scenes of Shen Qingqiu. Except they are becoming increasingly strange, obviously warped by the exhaustion and trauma of the situation, so that aspects are eerie or even disturbing. For example, sometimes Shen Qingqiu seems to be missing limbs, or eyes. Sometimes there's blood on his hands. Sometimes the food he's eating is rotted, or the bamboo house background looks like the Qing Jing Peak wood shed. That kind of thing. You don't mind the idea of harm coming to the man. He deserves it, really, for pushing Luo Binghe into the Abyss. But the few times you try and select options along those lines, the UI glitches again.
Also the "think of shizun" option only restores a quarter of the energy bar, whereas resting restores all of it. But if you try to go for too long without doing it, it will lock you into choosing it successively for a long time.
In addition to the energy bar, there's a calendar. It's not all that sophisticated or even consistent, and it's clearly meant to reflect the fact that Luo Binghe has troubles accurately judging the passage of time in the Abyss. However, the longer you spend in the Abyss, the more violent and unhinged things start to become, and the more the UI starts glitching to reveal disturbing messages, and the more often Luo Binghe "glaring" scenes happen. So you decide to do your best to get Binghe out of here as quickly as possible. This part of the game must be broken, but hopefully if you can make to the next segment, it will work properly again.
Eventually you get to the Xin Mo Mission, which is the last part of the Abyss section, and Luo Binghe escapes.
But the weirdness continues. Worsens, even. You still get missions to like, take over the demon realms and infiltrate Huan Hua Palace, all cool stuff, and you still meet girls who seem to unlock possibly romance paths. But most of the time everything is greyed out. There will be 5 dialogue options but maybe only 1 or 2 of them will be selectable. Parts of the menu are inaccessible. You don't have an energy bar anymore, you have a Xin Mo corruption bar, and it just keeps steadily rising. Sometimes you're presented the option of propositioning a character to "mitigate corruption", but if you try and click it the game glitches or the cursor freaks out and it fails. Sometimes the game crashes outright, and when you reload your last save, it starts with Luo Binghe glaring at you through the screen. You still get the "rest" and "think of shizun" options at times, but neither one helps the corruption bar.
Then. Jinlan City. You reunite with Shen Qingqiu. There seem to be a lot of options for acting vengefully towards him, but they're all greyed out, except for a few which let you chase him down or manhandle him a bit. The whole segment is frustrating, full of weird fanservice-y moments but also mired in how little Shen Qingqiu will say, how often he insists on evading or running away, and how Luo Binghe doesn't seem to have the right prompts to actually get him to explain himself. At times it seems like the "think of shizun" mechanic is bleeding over into the real interactions with the character, so that you can't tell what's really going on vs what are the manifestation of Luo Binghe's trauma or even hallucinations. The Xin Mo bar has maxed out. You have to catch Shen Qinqiu. Catch Shen Qingqiu. Catch Shen Qingqiu--
Then suddenly the bar is at 0, and you're watching Shen Qingqiu's lifeless body fall towards the ground, his energy expended in the effort to push back the corruption. Like, all of his energy.
You catch Shen Qingqiu. Or at least, you stop his corpse from hitting the dirt.
Now the game art is crisp and clean again. All the weird UI artifacts and blocked-off menus are either gone altogether or else working properly. The sound, which had been very gradually deteriorating with low-pitched ringing and muffled portions, is normal. You can hear characters gasping and distantly shouting, and birds chirping somewhere, the ragged cadence of Luo Binghe's breaths, while the camera focuses on Shen Qingqiu's body.
Huh, you think. That's a sort of dramatic resolution to that plot arc, and it raised more questions about Shen Qingqiu than it answered, really. But at least it's over with now? Does this mean Luo Binghe can finally start to recover, or advance other plots?
Then everything blacks out. You get booted to the main menu, or something that looks like it, except the only option you can select now is the New Game+ one.
When you click it, it seems like you've started the whole game over again. Except that there is a Xin Mo corruption bar, greyed out, already waiting for in a corner of the screen. And instead of starting out with a view of Qing Jing Peak, you start out with the young Luo Binghe looking directly towards you. Like he's staring through the screen. It's the basic starting point character, except he already has his demon mark on his forehead, and his expression is way more cold and calculating than anything the junior protagonist would have worn.
"Don't get in my way," he warns.
Then the game proceeds like a visual novel with extremely limited choices. The old selections and the menu for various romance routes don't even appear, the menus have all changed again, this time oriented entirely around hiding Luo Binghe's demonic cultivation (while building it) and managing daily choices and Shen Qingqiu's relationship status. A romance game with only one romance route, and it's the treacherous crusty old teacher? Wtf? But otherwise it seems almost normal, except for the special faint-lettered red options that sometimes appear in weird places on the screen, suggesting things like preventing the Skinner demon from catching you unawares, or saving Shen Qingqiu from Without a Cure poisoning, or keeping out of the Endless Abyss.
Those options seem like they should create different outcomes, and you click them whenever they show up, but they consistently fail. As if there's some other force in the game pushing things back onto the rails no matter what you do...
Anyway, eventually you get through the main plot again, and Shen Qingqiu dies once more. This time the game keeps going from that point, however, with quests to try and find ways to resurrect him. You're starting to wonder why you're still playing -- after all, you signed up for a harem game, not this tragic gay love story? You're not even gay! It's just that Luo Binghe is such a compelling character. You decide it's time to take a break, though, so you get up, do some stretches, go to the bathroom, etc.
It feels like someone's watching you.
You've definitely been playing that game for too long. Sometimes you think you catch sight of Luo Binghe's face out of the corner of your eye, in the bathroom mirror or on the black surface of your phone's screen, just before you turn it on. But when you look twice or turn your phone off again, nothing's there. You call your little sister, to apologize for dropping off the face of the earth for a bit, and you joke about getting too invested in this weird game that might be broken? She hasn't heard of it, but she sounds a little worried as she suggests maybe coming over and taking you out to lunch, or something.
You decline -- she's got a lot on her plate, and she mentioned already having plans earlier -- but then you promise to get some fresh air anyway. But when you go to head out, somehow you find yourself turning away at the last minute. You try again, and yet it's like you just keep getting distracted before you can open the door. After a few tries you give up, swallowing down your growing unease. You take off your shoes and coat. When it comes to it, you really do want to find out what happens to Luo Binghe next.
The game is running.
You don't remember turning it back on...?
The screen is focused on the familiar image of Shen Qingqiu's preserved corpse. You can see Luo Binghe's hand in the frame as well, transferring qi in yet another familiar sequence, the one that seems to run at the end of every in-game day. There's some text.
Is it you? the red letters ask, scrawling and flickering, as if someone is attempting to write directly onto the screen. Are you the one behind all this? Thwarting me at every turn?
Yes/No options appear in the game's usual font and position. You try to click "no", even though you're unsure and feel like you must have missed a scene somehow. But the interface warps and when you hit "no" it changes to Stay Silent.
I can't figure out. Are you here to help me, or get in my way?
Help/Harm. You click "help" but again it changes to "stay silent" afterwards.
What do you want from me?
This time there's no option to select at first. Then, as if being shoved onto the screen by some alternative function, a text box opens up. Like the kind that some games have for implementing cheats or selecting character names. This particular game has never shown such a function before, Luo Binghe's name was locked in and you don't even know if it has cheats. The cursor blinks, and somehow it feels as if you have only one chance, and if you don't take it now, it will be gone forever.
You type in "help" and barely manage to hit enter before the interface blinks out. No list of prompts or possible options appear.
Shizun? the red text scrawls, shakily.
Then the whole game crashes.
You wait, but it doesn't start up again. You try to run it again, but you can't find it on your system, somehow. Really weird. Even if it had crashed, it shouldn't have gotten deleted? But you still can't find it. You start to feel genuinely alarmed. Not only can you not find the game on your system, but when you try and search for it absolutely nothing comes up. You try and go to the online shop page for it, but you can't remember where you actually got it from in the first place, now that you're thinking about it.
What bullshit is this?
What, was the game actually some kind of virus? It couldn't have been. Also who would make a virus like that? You get up and pace, trying to make sense of it.
It's gotta be some kind of mistake. Maybe you've just missed too much sleep, you're not thinking right. You'll take a break and when you come back you'll realize that you were just looking in all the wrong places, somehow.
You head over to the fridge to grab something to eat.
You can't remember the last time you went shopping, but the food in there is probably still fine. Right?
MUSIC FOR EELS!!
Okay, we all know that Shang Qinghua (Airplane) can't fight well, but consider:
A year before the scheduled demon invasion Sha Hualing was sneaking around the northern demons' castle during a diplomatic whatever and stole something from Mobei-jun's room that she would eventually use to get into Cang Qiong Mountain Sect. An emergency token that can let Mobei through the wards if his teleportation fails or something, it's a nonsense bauble Shang Qinghua literally put there for Sha Hualing to steal.
But Mobei-jun is both pissed at Sha Hualing now and justifiably worried that his spy would die if the Sha clan attacks the sect. So he gets the wonderful idea to whip Shang Qinghua into shape until he can hold his own!
And Shang Qinghua can't say that he knows when the demon invasion is going to be and he plans to be elsewhere, so Airplane bro gets to experience the worst training montage ever. It works, for what it's worth. It was never his lack of potential holding Shang Qinghua back, it was his different priorities.
He also uses his new focus on his cultivation to get permission to cultivate in Lingxi caves just before the invasion, so he can step in and save Liu Qingge's life (may or may not be necessary, depending if it's Shen Jiu or Shen Yuan, it works for both).
Then the day of the invasion rolls around and Shang Qinghua still planned on sneaking away, but Mobei-jun got it in his head that he wants to see the results of all that training, so Shang Qinghua is not sitting it out, no matter how much he wants to. Luo Binghe won't even get to fight, the third match is Shang Qinghua against Elder Sky Hammer and it's woefully one-sided. Shang Qinghua is feeling a little good about himself even! So not worth all the suffering he was put through to get to this point, but being strong kinda rocks.
But then Sky Hammer tries to take him down with him anyway and Mobei-jun steps in, all tall, dark and looming and uses his ice to cordon off the demon invaders. "You have stolen something that's mine, little brat."
He ends up chasing Sha Hualing's gang off in a deadly hail of black ice before Liu Qingge can even get on the scene and Shang Qinghua is fine. He's fine, he's unharmed and he's internally screaming because that was too close and his king is so cool, but also wtf Mobei-jun why are you out in the open?!?!!
He can. Somehow make it work? It really does help smooth things over that Mobei-jun just potentially saved a lot of lives. Makes it easier to convince people that Mobei-jun is Shang Qinghua's friend and he can be a really good ally, like, do you want this power on your side or as an enemy? Mobei-jun plays along because he realizes that this will give him free access to the Sect and an easier time to coordinate with Shang Qinghua. And hey, maybe he gets to spar with Liu Qingge and Yue Qingyuan every now and then, that's a really nice bonus actually!
Which is to say, Mobei-jun becomes a regular fixture at the sect and spends enough time there that someone will notice his very awkward crush on Shang Qinghua and sets him straight about human courtship customs. At which point it all transitions into a wacky romcom where half of An Ding is trying to discourage him and the other half is actively supplying him with questionable dating advice, all the while the rest of the sect is taking bets about how long until either they get together, or the whole thing crashes and burns. It's a fun time either way.
A thousand kisses on his forehead!
Thanks to some online friends, I sketched up a baby Grim (before he's christened with the blessed bow)
Little Luo Binghe!
forgot to share my svsss doodles on here!! immediately just wanted to draw LBH first and foremost
Canon facts about Shang Qinghua:
1. He is competent both as a peak lord and a spy. He was not suspected. Not even by Shen Jiu. And he was generally respected enough in his field and his duties. I don't get the impression anyone was close to him as he was often away for work but he was friendly and not disliked
2. He didn't work after exposed as a spy. Mobei just let him be idle and follow him around. He wasn't running Mobei's court or acting a servant he's just hanging out and being allowed even in spaces he wasn't supposed to be by virtue of Mobei wanting him there.
3. He doesn't fight but he's not expected to and no one really cares except Cucumber
4. Liu Qingge was going to execute him when he showed up at Binghe's palace looking for Plant Shen but the Mobei fought him to protect Shang Qinghua and destroyed half the palace in the process
5. Shen Qingqiu for all he complains and pokes at Shang Qinghua also says they're friends at least once (even though he denies it later) and goes to protect Shang Qinghua from Zhuzhi Lang but Mobei beats him too the punch
6. It is is said that Shang Qinghua is getting beaten 3 times a day but Mu Qingfang is not at all suspicious or worried about Shang Qinghua and the only time anyone notes him being roughed up is Shen Qingqiu noting that his mouth is a little swollen on the corner in one of the extras and puts it down to Mobei hitting him again. Therefore we have no evidence that these are vicious serious beatings with broken limbs. They probably at most left a bruise that was easily healed
7. Shang Qinghua cultivated his golden core before Shen Jiu
9. Linguang-Jun's spies though Mobei was treating Shang Qinghua very well and favoured
10. Luo Binghe does not hate or have bad feelings towards Shang Qinghua. He lets him follow Mobei everywhere, Shang Qinghua revealed Shen Qingqiu's identity as Plant Shen, and Shang Qinghua gave him good advice for nabbing Shen Qingqiu. Further evidence is even if he's annoyed by Shang Qinghua dropping in on him and Shen Qingqiu during their honeymoon he allows Shang Qinghua to eat the extra food in the pot. He let someone else eat some of the food he makes for his Shizun. (Personal headcanon here: Shang Qinghua is his favourite Martial Uncle and the only one he willingly calls Shishu)
Genuine question, could someone recommend me novels with main characters full of vitriol and unhinged? Like the moment they make eye contact with someone, it is a bloody fistfight and biting? A main character who burns the world because it is already hell? I don’t really care about genre, I just have a craving to read, and I am limited in knowledge of book types. Thank you.
The mental and emotional Whiplash from playing an r18 game to an "E for everyone" novel game is interesting.
I like to imagine that every time I switch, the MC is Isekai into the E game and will not return to their previous one. like the poor Mc needs a break from what ever they dealt with in their original world to the worse thing that could happen is name-calling.
Like if it really did happen, what gymnastics is going on their brain of theirs.
I keep thinking of the self aware Twst AU's and I see folks writing it for angst or horror and I love it. But comedy. Make it funny. Explain the game mechanics to them.
"What do you mean you managed to max out Idia's friendship level, with stickers?"
Idia holding up a sticker album: "Well to be fair, they're really cool stickers."
Ace: "Why the hell does Azul have the highest friendship points."
"Listen, his dorm card is really really good...."
Ace: "He enslaved us with a contract!"
"Hey, you get a solo element card with a strong heal and then we'll talk about you getting all the stickers."
Azul: "So you're telling me that, our world is being used by a mega corporation to take money through a predatory gacha system that takes in millions and it's legal in your world?"
"Yep."
Azul: "I wonder if I can take them to court for use of my likeness without consent."
"I'm not sure copyright law crosses dimensions, but let me know if you figure it out."
twst guy complaining about how long class is taking, just to watch you pop a candy in your mouth and, why the fuck has class suddenly gotten an hour longer? The guys quickly learn you can be petty too when they mouthed off to you one to many times so you kept extending class time until they crack and apologizes.
I love gobbling on everyone's take on Yuu, it is great!
The diversity of twst OC's is so funny to me cause we have OC's that have accepted their fate and are just chilling, OC's that are genuinely tweaking, as in losing their mind because of all the overblots and the responsibilities pushed upon them by Crowley, OC's that have a love interest on a character from the cast(shipping), OC's that are slightly older then the majority of the cast and act as an older figure to all these troubled teenagers, OC's that are no better than the cast in terms of mental stability and OC's that are a combination of some of the characteristics from above 😭
Beware of maxieprodmoore
Hello, this is a callout and warning of @//maxiepdmoore-art.
Me and alongside a couple of my TWST friends have been DMd by this user asking to draw our Yuu presumably for his own fetish, specifically people in swimsuits. Even after having been called out for his behavior, he has still kept going with the same spiel. He opened every conversation with the same message and same questions, all of the creator's OCs that he has asked to draw have been youthful and female presenting, one even a minor. Even when we ourselves told him what our OCs would wear to the beach he still tries to push us for the more revealing options he shared, when we have told him multiple times their preference and even given him pictures of what they would wear. none of us have actually received a drawing from him yet, but this behavior is still not acceptable.
Me
@dibbledoodle
@ashipiko
I DO CARE!!!! THANK YOU!!
ducks dancing. if you even care
notes and breakdownish of my mobei-jun design.
the autism spectrum or something idk
First Year Group Headcanon #1
Most absolutely inspired by that one Twst art by @cheekinpermission (Sorry dude didnt knnow if you wanted me to tag you-) of Adeuce, Grim and her Yuusona, as well as me bullying my friends in PE (Im not active for shit)
As the school year goes on, so should sports events. Game events like Bean fest, and other mentioned sports, like basketball, spell drive, track and field, and horse-riding. According to the wiki and game, majority of first years are in a sports club (excluding Yuu, Grim and Ortho. )
In the 🗣️HONOUR🗣️ of 🗣️FIRST🗣️YEAR🗣️GANG🗣️, why don't they attend each other's sports games?
Starting off with Ace and basketball.
Then Deuce and Jack and their track and field club.
Epel and Spelldrive
finally Sebek the equestrian.
Club Practice not letting them hang out? The group watch the victims players huff and puff while enjoying cold water and rest, with shitty encouragement and added commentary.
Big Game or Playoffs coming up? Yelling like those football coaches on TV, Signs and facepaint for the shits and giggles. Everyone stares, secondhand embarrassment for the yellers, the player and the audience, but its also the famous first years of NRC what are you gonna do about it? Pick a fight with overblot survivors and see how it works out.
(has anyone seen the irish 'lizzie in a box' chant. please god do you see the vision with RSA and NRC)
As the first year group grows, so does the sports events they attend, and in turn more supporters for the participant. Ofc, Sports support = Aggressive insulting Cheering, and Betting.
They can deal with pissed dormheads after the game, rn its encouragement time. The trouble makers need enrichment and tecnhically its teamwork so staff and the headmage cant get angry.
another plus, Ortho and Yuu get a life outside of tending to others and studies, instead they can participate in NRC school culture of being a prick. Grim already succeeds in it.
Also Epel force feeds the First year gang apples during the game and the player apples before and after the game. they dont get a choice, no free will in this friendship.
No criticism taken unless im paid (jkjk, unless 🤨)
add onto it pretty please i look forward to the brainrot i need smth to get me through physics 11
Professor Crewel, you are Yuu's only hope, thank you.
Now with the inclusion of Crowely to the Ramshackle roster with Grim,Rollo, and (maybe Fellow) , it seems that the theme for Ramshackle is "It's a fucking yuu problem".