#:: THIS IS THE OPPOSITE OF WEAKNESS ( 004. ) | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

brokenwiingss · 1 year ago

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Task: 001

001. what is your full name?

Sasha Romero

002. what is your parents names? (what was their occupation?)

My dad's name is Marcelo Romero. He was construction worker. My mother? Don't know, don't care.

003. do you have any allergies, diseases or other physical weaknesses?

Nope, im as healthy as a horse

004. write a full physical description of yourself. you might want to consider factors such as: height, weight, race, hair and eye color, style of dress, and any tattoos, scars, or distinguishing marks.

Im about 5'5 and 125 pounds. I'm half Mexican, half Irish. I've got dark brown hair and eyes. My style would be cute casual i guess? I have one minimalist tattoo on my ribs of two hands holding onto each other. It represents my dad and i.

005. to which social class did you belong in before the outbreak?

working class

006. are you right- or left-handed?

right

007. what does your voice sound like?

Uh not sure how i would decribe it.

008. what words and/or phrases do you use very frequently?

I use fuck a lot. babe here and there too. Oh and stop being a little bitch and grow a pair.

009. what was your first kiss like and with who?

not good, and someone from my sophomore year of high school.

010. do you believe in the existence of soul mates and/or true love? are you in love right now?

I did until i got screwed over. I am not in love, dont think i will be anytime soon.

011. how do you feel about marriage?

Was against it at first, then met someone who changed my mind and now im not sure.

012. who are / is your best friend? what do you like about them?

Maverick is my best friend. He's open, honest and hilarious. @collapseqz

013. when was the last time you were hurt? who did it?

A few months ago when i got shot in the leg but a fucking idiot of a soldier. Unless we are talking about heart break, dont even get me started.

014. talk about one person you've met recently and what did you think of them?

I met a woman named Thalia. She's gorgeous and knows how to have fun.

015. would you say that you're more of a leader or a follower?

hmmm it depends on the situation i guess.

016. when was the moment you really realized that the outbreak wasn't going away? that your life was completely changed? if you were a kid, when do you think you realized you grew up?

When more and more people got infected, i knew it wasn't ending any time soon. My life changed when i had to leave home without a choice so i could survive. When i had to start taking care of myself more.

017. what's your weapon of choice?

A gun, its good to keep a distance between you and whoever you're up against.

018. what do you look for in a partner? or describe what your dream partner would be like? what do they look like? what color is their hair? how tall are they? what's their attitude like? be descriptive.

Why do questions about my love life keep coming up? I guess my dream partner would be someone whose funny, easy to get along with. Genuine and kind, someone who knows what they want. Looks? They'd be tall with a great body. i dont really care about hair color but if i had to choose, dark hair. I'd like someone taller than me. Taller than 5'8 is preferred. And their attitude, positive, calm. Kind of the opposite of me because im already a lot.

019. what are you afraid of? tangible and unavoidable? (tangible: spiders, ghosts, snakes / unavoidable: aging, dying)

Tangible, i dont like rats. Unavoidable, i guess dying alone. I would like to spend my last moments with someone.

020. what is your worst memory?

Finding my dad dead in his bed.

021. What is your favorite memory?

Backpacking through Europe. Got to explore so much, meet new people and try new foods.

022. what’s your reputation with the people around you. do they like you? dislike you? why?

Uh i guess it's good. Im very social so its not hard to befriend people. I would hope they like me though. If anyone doesn't like me, then fuck them.

023. if you could relive one memory, one last time which would it be?

My dad and I on Christmas morning, making cookies, opening gifts then going to see the Christmas lights.

024. when you were a kid were you bullied or teased? for what?

I wasn't because i wouldn't let anyone bully or tease me. I fought a lot when i was younger.

025. if you could tell your younger self something, what would it be?

That'll be okay and youre gonna be such a boss ass bitch. That there is nothing to be afraid of.

026. what is a goal you want to accomplish before you die?

To be honest, i dont know if i have a goal. I use to say to have a family. married with a child so i could give them a better life but im not bringing a child into this fucked up world.

027. if you could pick anyone in town to tell your life story, who would it be and why?

Hmm Sebastian for sure. He's kind and i know he'd be a great listener. He also has something about him that puts you at ease and makes you feel...safe i guess i would put it. @instinctsqz

028. do you believe there is or could be a cure to be made? and do you think that it could restore humanity?

if there was, it would've been done by now and maybe it could restore humanity but i'm not holding my breath.

029. if the outbreak never happened, what would you have wanted to do for a living?

I'd probably be a detective.

#jackson;task #task 01

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ferallfemmesa · 1 year ago

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[ Headcanon 004. ] Noxian Training

Noxus emboldened the power of strength and power. If you cannot hold your own in a battle, you are useless to Noxus.

Every child in Noxus begins their training at the tender age of six. Unlike other societies that might start an education in science or languages; Noxus starts their military training and prowess. A child goes through rigorous training including strengthening of the legs with running or wrestling as well as upper body building. As children, they are required to fend for themselves, stealing food as they can but also if they were caught stealing they would be punished with beatings. The purpose of this? It taught the children how to be resourceful, and cunning, and learn when and how to strike to get what they needed. The lesson was meant to ingrain the ability to use tactics and how to steal without being caught; just the same with how to fight without being killed.

If a child did not survive, they were not strong enough to be among the Noxian people and therefore either left on their own, outcasted by their families, or died from starvation or being too weak. Being a Noxian is a tough life and if one could not step up and learn how to survive, then Noxus wanted nothing from them.

As a child grew in age, the training became more rigorous, including the lessons of war tactics and domination, of handling weapons (weapons could be chosen by the child and what best suits them and their wants), and learning how to fight. They were put through many physical trials to hone their bodies and prepare for the harshness of war.

Mel struggled as a child due to these harsh conditions, but she did not fail as many would think she would. Many times she would go hungry or cold, having to find ways to find clothes and steal food. But she was smart about it, she watched as other kids got punished, so she worked on being stealthy. She got beat just like the other kids if she got caught, but she learned far quicker how to be a cunning fox, and how to distract and misdirect others.

She also dealt with a lot of hazing and ridicule from the other kids. Mocking her 'beauty' and how she was as slender as a tree and could break. Mel had no means to defend herself, and while these kids were bigger than her, she learned how to use a silver tongue to mock them back. Mel learned to manage, she had to work hard with her disadvantages. the Clan Merdarda was well known for their powerful robust build, and strength of ten men. Ambessa was an icon among the Noxians, and Mel stood on the complete opposite spectrum.

Still, she did not allow her physical build to dissuade her desire to prove herself to her mother. She might not be able to go on and on in a fight, but she learned how to manipulate a situation to her advantage. She could find the most damaging spots on a body to hit, which would cause someone to fall over or a muscle to spasm. She would never win a fight outright in a melee event, but she learned how to fight dirty. With each test thrown at her, she worked hard to prove herself. When it came to weapons training, Mel took on a spear rather than a broadsword of a dual axe. It was insulting to Ambessa, that her daughter picked a weapon so unlike the Medarda fashion as she wielded a Dual head broad axe. Still, Mel was determined to prove she could be as good as her mother. The spear allowed her to fight from a distance without getting into a melee match fist to fist. she learned how to wield smaller knives, shaped like her spear, and throw them to incapacitate her enemies.

No matter what she did, though, she always fell short of her mother's standards. No matter what she did, despite surviving every trial and learning to be resourceful, cunning, and powerful in the way she could, was never enough for Ambessa. Mel looked weak to her mother, in every action and every move. Despite Mel's constant search for approval and praise, her mother ridicules her as harshly as the other children.

#[muse] mel — headcanons.

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timac-extraversal · 4 years ago

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Big Dumb Legitimacy, Part I

(TIMAC #004, ~2,300 words, 10 minutes)

Summary: When the mythic basis for a country's government is disputed, the government should consider justifying itself by successfully delivering practical, easy-to-measure projects instead.

Epistemic Status: Political speculation.

-☆☆☆-

In early 2019, I discussed the appeal of Trump's Wall.

Previous government programs were seen as ineffective, it's difficult for voters to tell if a program is working, and congress could always quietly defund or nerf a program when voters aren't paying attention. (Lobbyists for companies that employ unauthorized migrants might also have something to say to the senators about any immigration control program that works.) If you think that illegal immigrants coming over the southern border are driving down wages, and you don't trust the government, the appeal of the wall is obvious:

It's a big dumb object.

You know exactly what it is. You know it can be done. And you can easily tell if the government followed through. Even if you don't trust the newspapers, or the President, you can simply drive down to the Texas border and check if it's physically there.

Many on the left (and among the liberals) abhor the idea of Trump's wall, but with the Trump era coming to an end (for now), some are now starting to admit what was once more of a right-contrarian viewpoint - America's institutions have spent down some of their social capital. People just don't trust them as much.

And that's why the big dumb object may be an echo of things to come.

Latino Voters

In Texas, Trump made big gains in 18 counties where Latinos made up at least 80% of the population. A state Democratic party official said Latinos were worried about threats to the fracking industry, a major local employer, and that Republicans were also helped by 'a network of Border Patrol agents, families and unions.' [1☆] That Latinos are in the Border Patrol shouldn't come as a surprise. Latinos climbed from 7.8 to 12.5% of the country's police forces between 1997 and 2016. Previous efforts at integration were in part driven by policing as well-compensated, blue collar work. [2☆]

Latino voters might be more interested in practical issues than abstract ones. Are they productively employed? Are the places they live safe and secure? Philosophical debate and moral posturing can last all day, and with social media, well into the night. But at some point, someone actually has to get out of a truck and pour asphalt if we want to fix the potholes.

At least one hispanic man was not amused with last year's rioting and, infamously, showed up with a chainsaw and shouted for protesters to go home - and that wasn't the meanest thing he had to say. [3☆]

Spiritual Legitimacy

...and practical issues may be for the best.

To pile up recent heated rhetoric, it would be difficult for a "white supremacist" government of a country "built on stolen land" "by the hands of slaves," founded in slavery 1619 (rather than, more famously, in freedom in 1776), to legitimize itself on intergenerational moral grounds. We would need to repair or replace its legitimizing myth.

Countries are social phenomena, not just physical ones. A country is an idea, not just a place or a people. [4] The narrative of what makes a country legitimate is the story that binds the population together towards a shared project, and convinces the people to accept what, due to the limits of information, must necessarily be the rule of a small number of individuals. A country without a legitimizing myth is vulnerable, and from multiple directions at once.

The state is a shape in the minds of the population, and in a high-energy society its boundaries are maintained by the invisible threat of force. If a police precinct building is set on fire where everyone can see, rival rioters might get the idea that they can just bust open a few windows and pay a visit to the national Capitol building, perhaps smiling as they carry off the speakers' podium or live-blog from the offices of congressional representatives. [5]

There is no such thing as a safe riot. The entire point of a riot is that law enforcement is unable to control the situation. There especially isn't such a thing as a safe riot in the national Capitol building, where rioters might make contact with the nation's lawmakers (who carry much of government's sins), and where, for that reason, security personnel may be even more jumpy than usual. It's the sort of thing that might spark the fires of revolution, either in showing the weakness of the central government, or in retaliation for a massacre.

January 6 was bad, but it could have gone much, much worse.

A spiritual struggle for the soul of the nation is certainly exciting. We might imagine it gets excellent television ratings, social media engagement scores, and clicks. In fact, CNN declined from 2.5 million primetime viewers during what we might call the 'President Trump season finale' to 1.6 million primetime viewers after Biden took office. [6☆] Michael Bloomberg's failed candidacy suggests that you can't buy the kind of entertainment provided by pro-wrestling's now most legendary and infamous heel.

...so it might be better to focus on a form of legitimacy that can be achieved more easily, with something more concrete, like bulldozers.

This does not mean we need to 'abandon' suffering minorities or struggling rural residents 'to their fate.'

Streets Before Trust

On the last day of 2020, Alon Levy of Pedestrian Observations posted Streets Before Trust. Alon notes that in a "trust before streets" approach, the focus is on getting community buy-in before starting a project. Often the idea is to avoid disrupting low-income or minority neighborhoods. However, Alon writes that,

The reality of low-trust politics is about the opposite of what educated Americans think it is. It is incredibly concrete. Abstract ideas like social justice, rights, democracy, and free speech do not exist in that reality, to the point that authoritarian populists have exploited low-trust societies like those of Eastern Europe to produce democratic backsliding.

His theory is that the state proves to people that it can provide tangible goods by successfully providing tangible goods. However, he writes,

Such provisions of tangible goods cannot happen in a trust before streets environment. This works when the state takes action, and endless public meetings in which every objection must be taken seriously are the death of the state. ... Low trust is downstream of low state capacity. Build the streets and trust will follow.

On January 6th, Matt Yglesias expanded the concept and provided more examples. [7☆]

The correct way to respond to a low-trust environment is not to double down on proceduralism, but to commit yourself to the “it does exactly what it says on the tin” principle and implement policies that have the following characteristics:

◆ It’s easy for everyone, whether they agree with you or disagree with you, to understand what it is you say you are doing.

◆ It’s easy for everyone to see whether or not you are, in fact, doing what you said you would do.

◆ It’s easy for you and your team to meet the goal of doing the thing that you said you would do.

That’s not a guarantee of political or policy success. Maybe you will pick terrible ideas and be a huge failure anyway. But this triad for success under conditions of distrust at least creates the possibility of success, where people will look back and decide that what you did worked. Committing yourself to that triad may involve some waste and inefficiency relative to a more theoretically optimal scheme with more means-testing.

There's been a running joke among some parts of right-contrarian twitter that Matt Yglesias is a secret reactionary. After a passage like that, we might joke that he's secretly a Rationalist. (He isn't either, of course.) [8]

Who Do You Trust?

Alon writes,

Low trust in many cases exists because people perceive the state to be hostile to their interests,

Right now, many Americans, both left and right, don't trust the state. Even a writer from Sri Lanka wrote that America is in a collapse - and that collapse isn't a single moment, but a low-level hum punctuated by violence that's in the background unless it happens to you. [9☆]

Many liberals will blame this on Trump. From their perspective, the logical thing to do to restore trust is to criticize Trump. The thinking goes something like this: if Trump is discredited, it follows that all his criticisms of other institutions are discredited - and if those criticisms are discredited, you should trust those institutions as much as you did back in, say, 2013.

This will not work. First, the doubt is not solely caused by Trump. Second, if right-wingers trusted the institutions (such as newspapers) needed to make the criticism of Trump, they would not have voted for Trump a second time. (Trump received about 11 million more votes in 2020 than he did in 2016. [10☆]) Their trust in these institutions seemed to erode after 2015, [11☆] accelerating in 2020, culminating in the spectacular fireball of the Trump election fraud allegations and the 2021 MAGA Capitol Riot.

For the left and liberal people, a rising 'consciousness of racial injustice' leads them to question (and distrust) every Western institution. "Will this program benefit People of Color?" Historically, there have been some serious questions about that. [12] If the program is complex or difficult to measure, it will allow those suspicions to sneak in, or even dominate: could the criteria, even if they look reasonable, have been chosen by a racist? What if it's subconscious racism ("implicit bias")? Some institution might tell us the program isn't racist, but what if that institution is itself racist, or unwittingly working from racist data? Etc.

Each of these worldviews has layers of memetic defenses - complex procedures to handle opposing arguments. Each also has a network of paid actors that perpetuate them. The New York Times cannot criticize a MAGA into trusting the New York Times. A self-identified progressive is unlikely to be convinced that a MAGA's criticism of 'racial justice' rhetoric isn't motivated by 'a desire to protect white privilege'. [13] And contemporary political constellations [14] can fabricate entire scandals that would take months for a normal person to fully disprove.

You can't go through it. That's too expensive. You have to go around it.

-☆☆☆-

[1☆] How Latino support for Trump grew in Texas borderlands Los Angeles Times, (2020/11)

[2☆] Latino officers are helping diversify police. Can they help reform the ranks? NBC News, (2020/05)

[3☆] McAllen man who waved chainsaw at protesters charged with assault KRQE, (2020/05)

[4] A country is also a people, not just a proposition, as well as a process and a place. But that's an essay for another time.

[5] Perhaps fittingly given the Florida Man genre of news stories, the man carrying off Nancy Pelosi's lecturn was from Florida. But unlike the more whimsical examples of the Florida Man genre, which might see an alligator thrown a drive-through window, people did die during the 2021 MAGA Capitol Riot, including one of the white women who entered the Capitol building. There were even early reports that a police officer was mortally wounded after being hit with a fire extinguisher, though this may not have been accurate.

[6☆] CNN viewership plummeted after Trump left office New York Post, 2021/03

[7☆] Making policy for a low-trust world Matt Yglesias, Slow Boring, (2021/01)

[8] In both cases, he's just integrating information from outside the current consensus and presenting the resulting outputs from adding it to his considerations politely. This creates a sensation of coherent but novel depth under the surface, in the same sense that Japan is an entire culture with its own sets of unspoken cultural assumptions, providing more novelty to manga and anime for Western readers.

[9☆] I Lived Through Collapse. America Is Already There. Indi Samarajiva, (2020/09)

One day, I was at work when someone left a bomb at the NOLIMIT clothing store. It exploded, killing 17 people. When these types of traumatic events take place, no two people experience the same thing. For me, it was seeing the phone lines getting clogged for an hour. For my wife, it was feeling the explosion a half-kilometer from her house. But for the families of the 17 victims, this was the end. And their grief goes on.

As you can see, this is not a uniform experience of chaos. For some people it destroys their bodies, others their hearts, but for most people it’s just a low-level hum at the back of their minds.

[10☆] An Australian news piece from Nov 5 reports Trump had about 63 million votes in 2016. A later USA Today piece reports a final total of about 74 million for 2020.

[11☆] This is my personal judgment, but tracks a Gallup Poll that ends in 2019. Trust in government remains near historic lows (2019).

[12] From a right-wing perspective, if we consider some norms, beliefs, values, or expectations a form of "social technology," there are even more questions.

From a left-wing perspective, during the Obama Administration, I remember one writer suggesting that Black Lives Matter wanted to convince politicians to want to help black folks rather than agreeing to a specific policy, because they didn't trust the details of policy (which could easily hide implementation details that disadvantage black people).

[13] If members of the white working class seem suspicious of this antiracist explanation, however, it might have something to do with white privilege theory lowering white liberals' sympathy for poor white people.

[14] Networks of interrelated organizations and actors acting semi-independently in a way which, due to conditions, gives the appearance of coordination. No one is specifically 'in charge,' and many actions take place in the open.

#timac #politics #racepol

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wrxckfear · 5 years ago

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SOME THINGS TO NOTE IN REGARDS TO RUFUS.

001 - Growing up he was never shown affection off his father. The man basically groomed him to become the perfect heir to overtake one day. A ruthless ruler who’ll feel little to no remorse and get things done. Rufus has little patience for idiots and he can not stand the bickering between the executives either. More than once he has threatened to pull the funding on their perspective departments -- more than once he’s also threatened to replace them with more efficient people.

He expects loyalty off those who work for him. There is no room for weakness in his company and he will stamp you out if he deems you weak.

002 - He has absolutely zero patience for Palmer or the space programme.

003 - He has little tolerance of Hojo, but appreciates his scientific mind sometimes. However, he does not approve of nor condone human testing. Rufus does not allow human trails to go on for very long once he’s in charge. In regards to Hojo’s other labs, Rufus is only just finding out about them slowly and putting necessary precautions in place and getting them all shut down.

004 - His pet Darkstar is actually probably the most important living thing in his life. You hurt her you’ll be faced with the barrel end of Rufus’ shotgun.

005 - Though he doesn’t really do emotion, he does feel. People often make the mistake in believing that the young President can not feel. He does, he feels very deeply but he just doesnt see the point in voicing or showing them. In regards to platefall, he did NOT condone his fathers actions. In fact the opposite, if Rufus could have made a difference and stopped it he would have. Rufus may be many things, but my version of him does not kill innocent people. However his feelings on AVALANCHE are mixed. One the one hand they killed innocent people with the reactor bombings, on the other hand they didn’t deserve a full plate being dropped on their heads either. If Rufus has something in particular on his mind you’ll find him in his office staring blankly at where sector seven used to be.

VERSE DEPENDANT : He wants to rebuild it. However its not just sector seven he wants to rebuild. He plans on going ahead with Neo-Midgar but rather than a whole new city; Rufus wants to update the current city and make it more “for the people.”

006 - If he owns you -- he will remind you that he owns you.

007 - Rufus funded AVALANCHE before he became VP which put a rift between him and certain corporate heads in charge at ShinRa. However, Rufus didn’t just do it to “stick it to dad” as most people think. Rufus did it because he could see that his dad was becoming too power hungry and forgetting the reason behind the company. The company (IN MY HC DO NOT SHOOT ME) was originally created by great-grandad ShinRa who wanted to build a better world for everyone. Who wanted to make sure that people lived comfortably and didn’t struggle and for many years that is how ShinRa was. Now when Papa Shinra took over, it stayed that way for a bit however as ShinRa grew more and more powerhungry Papa Shinra began making more and more decisions that impacted the ORIGINAL meaning behind ShinRa. Putting more emphasis on warmongering and scare-tactics and being less inclined for the people. So Rufus funded AVALANCHE for the simple fact to remind his dad that for every powerhungry choice he made, there was always going to be someone there to rise up and fight against it. However, when it became apparent it was Rufus who was selling out ShinRa secrets and funding the eco-terrorist group he was quickly moved to a turk safehouse to be watched and monitored closely. Over the next few years, AVALANCHE would grow just as much as ShinRa and become just as extreme in Rufus’ eyes. Both sides once filled with hopes for the future now lay in ruins and filled with blood of innocence. So Rufus lost hope and instead of trying to fix the company, became the villain everyone expected of him on the outside, yet still wanting to try and fix the world from the inside.

In relation to Tseng, he knows the man was loyal to his father and holds no loyalty as such to him. But IMO when Rufus nearly loses Tseng to Sephiroth in the temple, he does everything within his power to ensure the man does not die. Showing a bit of empathy to someone who might one day save his own life and become a friend.

#headcanons #will probably add more #〔 rufus shinra ➟ you only fail when you stop trying 〕 ⋰⋰ 【 headcanon 】

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meistoshia · 5 years ago

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𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐀𝐂𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐒𝐓𝐔𝐃𝐘.

𝐋𝐀𝐘𝐄𝐑 001 : 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐎𝐔𝐓𝐒𝐈𝐃𝐄.

NAME. satoshi akiyoshi. EYE COLOR. medium brown. HAIR STYLE / COLOR. coal black, always messy & just barely finger-brushed. around chin-length, with tufts framing his face from under his ears. HEIGHT. 5′1. CLOTHING STYLE. casual & sporty, nothing tight or too loose, allowing for unhindered movement in all activities. always has a cap. BEST PHYSICAL FEATURE. his arms can lift so much..... aesthetically speaking, his eyes.

𝐋𝐀𝐘𝐄𝐑 002 : 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐈𝐍𝐒𝐈𝐃𝐄.

FEARS. losing those he cares about, drowning / suffocation, being weak or not good enough ( & being perceived as such ) , isolation. GUILTY PLEASURE. he has like. No Concept of shame tied to things that he enjoys, the idea of feeling guilty for liking smth just doesn’t click in his head, so he has no “guilty pleasures”. BIGGEST PET PEEVE. ,,does the rocket gang quartet count. AMBITIONS FOR THE FUTURE. becoming a pokemon master. what that actually MEANS tho well,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

𝐋𝐀𝐘𝐄𝐑 003 : 𝐓𝐇𝐎𝐔𝐆𝐇𝐓𝐒.

FIRST THOUGHTS WAKING UP. it’s a roulette of either training or breakfast. training’s always a first thought, it just depends on the day whether or not that comes before or after breakfast. WHAT THEY THINK ABOUT MOST. pokemon battles. WHAT THEY THINK ABOUT BEFORE BED. he usually just kinda. does a quick mental gn @ his pkmn & shuts off, but if there’s like a tournament or league event planned the next day, he Will spend like an hour thinking about that & only that until he finally just sorta. passes out. WHAT THEY THINK THEIR BEST QUALITY IS. he’ll say it’s his stubborn resilience, but he knows that even that falters more than he’d like ; he actually considers his empathy his best quality, as it’s what lets him form his connections with pokemon which in turn let him bring out their full strength & potential, & which in turn give him the strength necessary for that stubborn resilience.

𝐋𝐀𝐘𝐄𝐑 004 : 𝐖𝐇𝐀𝐓'𝐒 𝐁𝐄𝐓𝐓𝐄𝐑 ??

SINGLE OR GROUP DATES. single. TO BE LOVED OR RESPECTED. loved. BEAUTY OR BRAINS. brains. he’s like the opposite of a morosexual. if u have more brainecells than him, :eye: DOGS OR CATS. dogs.

𝐋𝐀𝐘𝐄𝐑 005 : 𝐃𝐎 𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐘 ...

LIE. yes, & more than he’d ever admit. BELIEVE IN THEMSELVES. most of the time. BELIEVE IN LOVE. love is the only real thing actually. WANT SOMEONE. in a crush - y, yearn - y sense.

𝐋𝐀𝐘𝐄𝐑 006 : 𝐇𝐀𝐕𝐄 𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐘 𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐑 ...

BEEN ON STAGE. yes but he’s also got a bad case of stage fright when not actively interacting with pokemon so. It’s Been Hhhhhh. DONE DRUGS. no. CHANGED WHO THEY WERE TO FIT IN. no.

𝐋𝐀𝐘𝐄𝐑 007 : 𝐅𝐀𝐕𝐎𝐑𝐈𝐓𝐄𝐒.

FAVORITE COLORS. green, yellow, & red. also black bc it’s just cool. FAVORITE ANIMAL. impossible to answer hed die for every single pokemon. but he does gravitate towards pokemon that are birdlike or amphibian-y. FAVORITE BOOK. he simply does not read. FAVORITE GAME. baseball.

𝐋𝐀𝐘𝐄𝐑 008 : 𝐀𝐆𝐄.

DAY THEIR NEXT BIRTHDAY WILL BE. may 22nd HOW OLD WILL THEY BE. applying real - time aging, 35. applying the current main verse age, 20. considering i do two ages max per verse bc i refuse to have things take longer than a year & a half ( the alola verse is an exception ) , & me likely not moving onto a next main verse next year, probably still 20, we’ll see how the rest of pm plays out timeline - wise.

𝐋𝐀𝐘𝐄𝐑 009 : 𝐅𝐈𝐍𝐈𝐒𝐇 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐍𝐂𝐄.

I LOVE. pokemon. I FEEL. antsy. I HIDE. my worries. I MISS. so many old friends. I WISH. to become stronger with everyone beside me.

#* !! study.#this got a lil (: in places #* !! pkmn is autistic culture.#q.

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dahniwitchoflight · 6 years ago

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Pokemon Changes I’d Make

I’ve come up with some changes I would make for Pokemon after scouring the internet and because I had an idea of only numbering pokemon biological lines instead of each pokemon individually. 1) to save on numbers, and 2) I can put Pichu next to Pikachu without messing with the National Dex order which divides pokemon by region, so an entirely different system than mine, which divides by biological line in order of discovery of one of it’s members.

under the readmore, I will go through the list of most significant changes that I would make if I were in charge of pokemon

0) Numbering Pokemon by Family Line instead of Individually in Pokedex

Basically it’s what it says, it would look like this on paper:

001 = Bulbasaur, Ivysaur, Venusaur = Grass/Poison

002 = Charmander, Charmeleon, Charizard = Fire/Flying

003 = Squirtle, Wartortle, Blastoise = Water/Steel

oh yeah, btw, Blastoise is Steel type because Duh (don’t care if Empoleon did it, Fire. Fighting. That is all.)

001 Bulbasaur Ivysaur Venusaur 002 Charmander Charmeleon Charizard 003 Squirtle Wartortle Blastoise 004 Caterpie Metapod Butterfree 005 Weedle Kakuna Beedrill 006 Pidgey Pidgeotto Pidgeot 007 Rattata Raticate 008 Spearow Fearow 009 Ekans Arbok 010 Pichu Pikachu Raichu....

So basically like this all, all the way down the list for each Pokefamily

1) Ditto, Mew and Mewtwo have the same numbered family line.

I know none evolve into the other and only Ditto can breed, but Mewtwo is canonically of the same dna as Mew. Mewtwo is a genetically modified singular unqiue instance of a Mew. Original games go so far as to straight up saw Mew gave birth to Mewtwo.

Ditto being related to Mew and Mewtwo genetically is also a strongly held fan theory that I believe in, and well, this is called the changes I’d make to Pokemon if I could, and this is what I’d do

(Though Ditto would of course be move ahead to end of the Main Kanto group to be with Mew, rather then moving Mew and Mewtwo back)

2) Nidoran (F) and Nidoran (M) are now a single pokemon called Nidoran.

Their gendered forms are now the same thing as Meowstics, with male and females having drastically different sprites.

I know that F and M Nido’s also have different moves and stats and that’s important to preserve, and I say, this is fine to keep as well. Pokemon change their stats, moves, typings, abilities, all the time for TEMPORARY forme changes, heck even held items. Rotom, Deoxys, Genesect, Burmy/Wormadam, Aegislash, Shaymin, Castform, fucking Cosplay Pikachu etc If those things can change for temporary forme changes, they can be different for permanent gendered forme changes like Nidoran. I don’t see any conflict there.

Then female Nidorans evolve into Nidorinas, and male Nidorans evolve into Nidorinos.

Also Nidorina’s and Nidoqueen’s can breed because it’s stupid that they can’t.

3) Male Miltank eggs just become Tauros.

There’s no reason for Miltank and Tauros to not work like Illumise and Volbeat. This is a biological dex also, so just like Illumise and Volbeat are considered the same biological family, so are Miltank and Tauros. Miltank appears with Tauros in it’s slot.

4) Plusle and Minun are a pair/in the same family group, and can produce eachother’s eggs, but not exactly determined by gender.

Two of the same type breeding will give a Plusle

So Plusle+Plusle or Minun+Minun = Plusle

Two of the opposite type breeding will give a Minun

So Plusle+Minun = Minun

They otherwise keep their gender ratios and breeding group, so they can also breed with other pokemon, and the baby will be of the mother as per usual rules.

5) Oranguru and Passimian also share biology, but also in a non gendered way like Plusle and Minun.

Basically, either can be male or female and can breed with other pokemon, and have children based on the mother in the usual way.

But if an Oranguru and Passimian breed together, no matter which is female, If the offspring has higher attack than special attack, it becomes a Passimian. If it has higher special attack than attack, it becomes an Oranguru.

This is partly because I think it made sense given their lore and designs, and also because I thought it’d be a neat throwback to the gender determination system of the original crystal game, but in this case it determines species/abilities/lore etc

then if the attack and special attack tie, it just becomes whoever the mother was as normal.

6) Sigilyph gets demoted from being a unique pokemon, to merely a Forme change of Unown, akin to Wishiwashi’s schooling forme, but different.

I never really liked the idea of Unown evolving, but also knew it was related to Sigilyph, somehow, just didn’t really know how.

then Sun/Moon came along and along came Wishiwashi and it’s unique forme type. With the way Unown have always been portrayed to always school together like that just like in the Entei Movie, it was perfect!

When an Unown is at low health, in order to protect itself, many more Unown school together around it and psychically merge itself into a stronger being, in order to fight off the attacker.

So unlike Wishiwashi who starts out as many and weakens to being a single one, Unown starts out single, and upon a suitable threat, psychically calls upon its brethren for help as a last ditch resort. Unown also warp reality itself as they please, so it’s not outlandish to say a bunch of them could merge themselves together into a single temporary physical forme.

So thus the name Sigilyph is forever removed. It’s model just becomes a Guardian forme Unown.

7) Phione also loses it’s name/gets demoted to being a forme change of Manaphy like Sigilyph.

The Phione sprite/model is simply the Warm Seas forme of Manaphy, while the OG Manaphy sprite/model is now the Cold Seas forme.

There’s no reason why it couldn’t have been this in the first place. Phione has no reason to be a separate pokemon from Manaphy, it just doesn’t.

How it changes forme in-game can have something to do with the weather/terrain changes because idc.

8) Carbink evolves into Diancie.

This one, I’m unsure if I should remove Diancie from being legendary, or just make it so the item that evolves Carbink into Diancie is a one use only key item and you can’t get more/trade more/use it again.

But it’s one of the two, I think the one use key item is probably best though. No legendary deserves to be demoted (excepy Phione, but its fine because I merged it with Manaphy) and to keep Dianice special, the item must only be able to be used once, can’t get traded another one by any means.

9) Adjustments to pokemon evolution lines:

I have no justification for these other than I want them. Nothing crazy, just sticking some lines together, you may or may not disagree, this is fine also.

Dusnparce evolves into Drampa.

Linoone evolves into Zangoose.

Arbok evolves into Seviper.

Luvdisc evolves into Alomomola.

Minior evolves into either Solrock or Lunatone by Sun/Moonstone of course.

All Eevee evo’s are by evolution Stone

Flareon - Fire Stone

Jolteon - Thunder Stone

Vaporeon - Water Stone

Espeon - Sun (Dawn) Stone (Really these should just be the same Sun stone..)

Umbreon - Moon (Dusk) Stone (ditto as above. but Moon stone)

Glaceon - Ice Stone

Leafeon - Leaf Stone

Sylveon - Shiny Stone

10) And then, Pokemon Type Matchup changes.

This should probably be it’s own post, but fuck it, I can give the quick rundown

Rock and Ground type get merged into a single Earth type.

Sound type gets introduced to keep same number of types and because it’s long past due.

All type colors are as follows:

All other types get some re balancing in terms of type matchups

So, each type has 6 factors:

A type that they are good at attacking (Effective), bad at attacking (Futile), and totally ineffective towards (Useless)

and, types that they are good at defending against (Resist), bad at defending against (Weak), and totally immune to (Immune)

I re-balanced each type to make sure they have no more than 5 in each of those categories, without changing what made each type so unique and useful (attempting anyways) but it was easy enough, it was really more about removing extraneous resistances that didn’t really need to exist, which naturally removed a lot of ineffectivess, and then splattering a few actual effectives around.

Does this unintentionally make some types stronger purely because they have high base stat attacking moves?

Yes. but that problem shouldn't be solved by making types weaker, it should be solved by giving all the types effective attacking options. That way, all the types feel good and effective to use. I think it’s better that way, especially because it encourages the system of “using your favorite pokemon to win” and giving a lot more equally viable options for battle, instead of having a small few stand out from the crowd and trample everyone.

First I’ll explain Earth and Sound as they are new:

Earth Type is This:

Effective: Fire, Electric, Poison, Sound

Futile: Grass, Earth, Bug

Useless: Flying

Resist: Fire, Poison, Earth, Sound

Weak: Water, Grass, Steel, Ice

Immune: Electric

Earth is Ground and Rock combined (more like Rock enfolded into Ground but eh, some parts of Rock are still there)

Earth pretty much takes Ground’s strengths at attacking/defending, but takes Rock’s weakness against Steel. The thought being “Well, I had to merge them somehow, Ground is very powerful and needs some balance, need a good weakness, and the idea of a shovel shoveling Earth and tearing it up with manmade tools seemed to make sense”

kept the immunities and uselessness to keep that balance intact, removed references to Normal and Fighting since Fighting has nothing to do with Earth really, and Normal types often live/burrow in the ground so could be good or bad.

Gave an effectiveness against Sound since the earth absorbs soundwaves and weakens them.

Sound Type is This:

Effective: Flying, Steel, Psychic

Futile: Earth, Water, Grass

Useless: Sound

Resist: Flying, Steel, Psychic

Weak: Earth, Water, Grass

Immune: Sound

Sound is interesting and a bit unique, due to it’s ephemeral nature, the types it is effective against, are also the types that it naturally resists. As are the types it is ineffective against, are also the types it is weak to

Sound travels best through the Air, Flying is here standing in as an “Air/Wind” type, and the idea is that Sound powerful enough to attack just CUTS right through Flying types.

Sound is amplified by echoes, but Steel is especially prone to that, Steel basically helpless to do anything except amplify Sound, strengthening it, but just like vibrations strong enough to maim, are strong enough to shatter, the things that echo the loudest are also the things most prone to being torn apart by vibrations.

and then Psychic is simply because of how Sound is the number one way to interrupt concentration, and no amount of mental prowess can fight against that. It fits into Psychic’s weakness all being common fears, by screaming being the most common response associated with fear, and also sudden loud jumpscare noises.

Sound is weak to Water, Earth and Grass, and also is Futile against them for similar reasons across the board, bodies of water, wood, ground, boulders etc all absorb and disperse soundwaves very well without damaging themselves, unlike Steel which amplifies Sound.

Then finally, Sound is totally immune to, and useless against, itself. Sound is Sound is Sound. If there’s loud things happening, more loud things just add to the chaos and the volume. Sound cannot overpower itself, only add to it’s own strength.

The Pokemon that were Rock/Ground are now Pure Earth type, those that were Type/Rock or Type/Ground are now Type/Earth. Other than those conversions no changes were made to make something Earth type that wasn’t already once Rock or Ground type.

As for Sound type, something to make note of, is that “Sound” encompasses more an idea of “Music” or “Rhythm” where both singing and dancing but also shockwave and vibration are encompassed into “Sound” type, to allow for a base in both special and physical moves, and to encompass all expression of Noise.

So, the following are now Pure Sound Types:

Whismur, Loudred, Exploud

Spinda

Chingling, Chimecho

Audino

Cincinno, Mincinno

Eevee evolution that’s pure Sound, Probably Melodeon or Vocaleon or Harmoneon (Evolves upon using Noise Stone)

The Following are Primarily Sound type with a secondary Typing:

Igglybugg, Jigglypuff, Wigglytuff = Sound/Fairy

Ludicolo = Sound/Grass (Noise Stone, not Water Stone)

Kricketot, Kricketune = Sound/Bug

Chatot = Sound/Flying

Woobat, Swoobat = Sound/Flying

Meloetta = Sound/Psychic or Fighting

Noibat, Noivern = Sound/Dragon

Pikipek, Trumbeak, Toucannon = Sound/Flying

Jangmo-o, Hakamo-o, Kommo-o = Sound/Fighting

and then the following are Primarily one type, but with a secondary Sound type:

Bellosom = Grass/Sound (Noise Stone, not Sun Stone)

Politoed = Water/Sound (Noise Stone, not king’s rock)

Voltorb, Electrode = Electric/Sound

Happiny, Chansey, Blissey = Normal/Sound

Munchlax, Snorlax = Normal/Sound

Yanma, Yanmega = Bug/Sound

Misdreavus, Mismagius = Ghost/Sound

Snubbull, Granbull = Fairy/Sound

Poochyena, Mightyena = Dark/Sound

Ludicolo = Grass/Sound (Noise Stone)

Ralts, Kirlia, Gardevoir = Psychic/Sound

Skitty, Delcatty = Normal/Sound (Noise Stone, not Moonstone)

Electrike, Manectric = Electric/Sound

Wailmer, Wailord = Water/Sound

Spoink, Grumpig = Psychic/Sound

Vibrava, Flygon = Earth/Sound

Bronzor, Bronzong = Metal/Sound

Tympole, Seismotoad, Palpitoad = Water/Sound

Maractus = Grass/Sound

Klink, Klang, Kinklang = Metal/Sound

Litleo, Pyroar = Fire/Sound

Primarina = Water/Sound

Oricorio = Fire or Psychic or Electric or Ghost/Sound

As for the balanced type matchup, you can see them all in this picture here:

you read it like the Type on the left is attacking the Type at the top

so, Fire (Left) attacks Bug (Top) and it’s green! So Super Effective and etc.

I won’t explain it all, because I feel like the chart is pretty self explanatory

aaaand, I think that’s all the changes I’d make to Pokemon itself.

I might come up with more later, but these are thing I want to see in Pokemon

#Pokemon #Sound Type #Earth Type #various changes and things #curious to know what people think

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misterbitches · 5 years ago

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old kingdom 004

saw and old post by an archived old kingdom blog. i wish i knew about these books before last year and could participate in discussion cos it’s an interesting world. i’m sad it’ll be kinda over when i finish goldenhand, though i hope he either releases more or we get more short stories. i don’t want to part with this world or the characters. i’m going to read the other books of his (seventh tower, some other one ppl like) but this one has been special to me.

anyway, a user said they wish that ferin had a better narrative voice but i feel the opposite. who she is as a figure whittles down to humanity and i really like that. she’s one of my favorite characters in terms of dynamics, but this is why i love the characters in this world, particularly the women, so much.

i know ferin will lose her foot because i spoiled myself and i’m dumb but it was coming anyway but i wasn’t sure how. she doesn’t even have a name and her whole life was created, like lirael’s, for a purpose not related to her own wants or needs.

but ferin is like what happens if you have a lirael and for evil instead of good. ferin chooses the other path though. saving herself out of sheer defiance and because everyone in her tribe betrayed her.

her feelings are all out of wack. her confidence, because she was literally trained to be the best in physical demand and was “worshipped” for her bodily sacrifice, directly conflicts with her fatalism and lack of care for her life even as she (somewhat) tries to save it.

the althask have to be the best, they have to steel against pain, they will not show weakness, in fact if a limb falls off, if she loses a foot it just what it was to get to the end goal. her body is just a vessel, it’s to be used as needed and disposed when utilization is up.

i’ll think about the essence of usefulness later of the series and how connection is supposed to be forgone for being useful to a cause. but ferin’s whole attitude and demeanor through the book. she ignores pain out of necessity, like people must in fight-or-flight situations, but also becuase it has been grounded out of her. the physical is just as useless as the mental anguish.

she knows she shouldn’t mourn when someone dies after they’ve helped her--esp as she is grateful and kept trying to go alone but others recognized their duty as humans to help fight for her and all of them--but she can’t help it. it’s like the althask has been trained to become the living dead which i guess in a sense they are since the witch with no face rules.

the books strength lies in death always being a cloud, and if you know that’s the premise then the darkness can adequately be put out with the light so there’s a point to it all. it’s just that the pains of life while fighting death are so real. i think i’m interpreting it the way i hope nix has intended. we can’t escape pain and death is always there, we can never run from it, and we all have a time and place to die. but even then there’s love, family, friends, and as mogget said, “life. fish and fowl, warm sun and shady trees, the field mice in the wheat, under the cool light of the moon. all the--”

#old kingdom series #ferin #a thot #sigh #goldenhand

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ofseymour · 5 years ago

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𝖈𝖍𝖆𝖗𝖆𝖈𝖙𝖊𝖗 𝖈𝖍𝖆𝖑𝖑𝖊𝖓𝖌𝖊 * / 𝖎𝖘𝖔𝖑𝖉𝖊

001. describe your characters’ relationship with their mother or father, or both. minimum word count: 150.

tba.

002. what are your characters’ most prominent physical features? what is a feature that they are most insecure about? what are they proudest of?

it’s been long since isolde has regarded her body as something to revel ( or agonize over ). she likes the ambiguity of her features, how it tricks the general molding of the english, and ventures into marginal territories, burgundian, southern, traitorous. not insecure per se, since she inhabits all aspects of womanhood with ease, all but one: childbearing. she struggles against fertility, rather than towards it: the idea of giving birth has discomfited and unnerved her ever since she was young. it only increases tenfold with age, and so the duchess longs for the time when such worries will be rendered moot by nature’s course.

003. how vain is your character? do they find themselves attractive? what is their worst flaw, and are they aware of it?

she might have grown to be vain if she did not have isabel as a childhood companion. the other woman’s beauty was so stark, so undeniable, and it embodied so many characteristics of desire as well as distant grace, that isolde found herself to be a lukewarm contrast. it was not a comparison that bothered her in the least: isabel’s beauty was a thing to be mirrored at times, but not held over your entire life. it was, like all heavenly boon, a burden. to carry that beauty would’ve required a strength and a determination she did not possess.

004. what is your character’s ranking on the kinsey scale?

a three before her marriage with charles, as emotional bonds were always more readily established with women. she was very fond of all her fellow ladies in waiting when she belonged to the retinue of the old queen, and now she is even more invested in the lives of the younger women she must govern. after her union, it veers towards a two; the idea of becoming involved with someone who would serve no purpose to either isabel or to their duchy seems rather absurd.

005. describe your character’s happiest memory. minimum word count: 150.

tbd. ( i sense a pattern )

006. is there one event in your characters’ life that they would like to erase from their past? why? minimum word count: 200.

tbd.

007. let’s talk favourites! what is their favourite colour, food, and season? what, in a modern setting, would be your character’s favourite song?

she is very fond of cream-white, the nuance you would see, for example, on lacework embroidery and church veils, as opposed to the glacial white of gauze and diamond.

as anyone who spent their childhood winters at court, she is fond of all tastes that forged an unwitting association with the feast days: sweetmeats, sugared almonds, poached fruit.

anything by soccer mommy but with a tad less nostalgia.

008. can you define a turning point in your character’s life?

the first time she understood that it wasn’t only the king’s heart isabel wanted, but also the certainty such a love could secure. the risks she evaluated (and of which she’d been warned by members of their circle) and still deciding to help nonetheless. the acknowledgement that nothing can compare with proximity to a world on the bring of change, except perhaps the sworn devotion to what has still stayed the same.

009. is your character an early morning bird or a night owl? at what time do they get most of their work done?

devotedly a morning bird. even when she had to stay awake through the late, informal parties tat took place in the private quarters of richmond palace, observing and tailing the ends of conversations like licks of flame, she was still adamant on getting up as early as possible.

010 a. what other character, a npc or someone apart of the rp, is your character completely real with? who knows them best, has seen them at their most vulnerable, knows their innermost and basest fears? (b. if your character does not have this person, why? do they long for one?)

charles in recent years, but overall isabel. while her own brother kept to the sidelines and permitted isolde to associate with whoever she pleased, it was out of a lack of true understanding rather than a surplus of it. the older seymour never really did comprehend her; not that it would’ve been possible, when isabel had already taken that role for herself.

011. is your character a neat or messy person?

organized from the standpoint of mental information and daily responsibilities, and certainly preaching tidiness to the ladies she has under her wing, but sometimes erratic with trivial belongings (sheaves of materials, ribbons, letter kits).

012. does your character have any irrational fears or phobias?

nothing other than the common ladylike train of vermin, seasonal diseases creeping into the palace, statute ruin. unless you count childbirth as an irrational fear, in which case, yes.

013. does your character have an underlying passion or trait that influences all aspects of their life?

her need to preserve the status and privileges of those around her. they are inextricably linked with her own: there is no place where charles ends and she begins, no choices isabel makes that does not tug at her own strings. it is not sacrifice, it is not martyrdom. it the mutual egotism that sustains their love, separate and colluded, carnal and platonic.

014. what might your character’s ideal romantic person be?

certainly not charles lmao but she has stopped thinking about that ideal for so long that she no longer has any reliable memories. it might have been anyone: the isolde that concocted it, that breathed lifelikeness into its specter with her own desire, no longer exists. not because of some loss, of an identity shaken by something so great that it has no choice but to shift, but due to the normal workings of the world. the choices she made for herself (was allowed to make for herself) as a woman changed the wishes she’s safeguarded as a girl.

015. describe your character’s hands. are they small, long, calloused, smooth, stubby, dexterous or clumsy? do they wear any jewelry and would they wear polish in a modern setting?

in a modern setting they would wear clear nail polish with a top coat. the sort that almost escapes their glance and certainly the sort that’s easily maintained. as it is, her nails are cut short and kept clean, and her hands are small, powdered, entirely within the confines of the ordinary. they work mediocre well with tasks such as embroidery and are far more suited for cerebral purposes like signatures and different calligraphy styles.

016. how does your character smell? what is their favourite scent?

she is fond of heady, earthly smells, like wood and incense; fragrances that are strong but flowing, associated with the things around them rather than drawing attention for themselves.

017. how would your muse describe their religious beliefs?

pragmatic with a twist (some would call that consciousness, others weakness. she loves people from both those sides.)

018. what rules does your muse live by, if any?

see 013. and like half my bio lol (unbelievable i cbf to reiterate even for my own sake)

019. does your muse overshare, or are they more private?

she can easily give the impression of oversharing when she congresses with the ladies of the queen’s household. however, it rarely happens on its own, or with people from which she expects no reciprocating information. she made that mistake several times in the past with her own brother, and as endearing as the duke of somerset was, he was not one of them.

020. is your muse a gossiper? are they more likely to argue with their fists or tongue? what does their voice sound like?

gossiper druid class, rolls 20 on tongue attack.

021. is your muse a … pessimist or optimist … lover or fighter … believer in happy endings … believer in love at first sight?

she believes in people designing the type of love that’s easiest for them to bear. those who need the comfort of destiny, divinity, external pillars to lay their heads against, rely on love at first sight. some rely on the sanctity of marriage - undeceivable, unyielding. other find comfort in opposite corners: in the absence of love, the impermanence of happiness, the war waged against all things everlasting. she no longer concerns herself with which is true. perhaps she never had: charles and isabel have long settled such dilemmas for her.

022. what sense of humour does your character have?

optimal according to situation. she is not a great wit (think og anne boleyn) but nor is she ignorant to the subtrends and styles in courtly conversation. she is usually most comfortable when throwing back-and-forth remarks with charles or witnessing his sparring matches with isabel, and more often than not she finds things to contribute herself. but she would never try to replicate that sense of humor and intellectual acumen with most members of court.

023. what bad habits does your character have?

complacency, egotism, lack of desire to change perspective, often false certainty, duplicity, drawing out private information, outright lying, us against them mentality.

024. how does your character feel about growing old?

see 002. though she is plagued by conventional concerns such as her husband’s interest in her over the years (at no point in her life did isolde think her unorthodoxy exempts her from the woes of regular women) she finds the scales to be rather in her favor. the idea that she will not risk pregnancy, or an untimely death, is far more appealing than the risk of charles taking up five times more mistresses than decency allows. if she finds she has lost more than she has gained with old age, she will cross that bridge when it shows. she just usually doubts it will.

025. does your character prefer adventure to safety and security?

she married a man that wants to restructure at least 4 governing systems in europe and is mortally devoted to a woman that’s literally just been poisoned..... choose for yourself

#Ⅰ.「 ɢᴀʟᴇ ᴏꜰ ᴡᴀɴᴛ ɪɴ ᴛʜᴇ ᴛʜʀᴏᴀᴛ 」 ⇢ ᴀʙᴏᴜᴛ .#crhs.challenge

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breselin · 6 years ago

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LITTLE CHARACTER THINGS

just a fun little character game. fill in the below categories with 3-5 things that your character can be identified by. repost & tag away !

tagged by: stole it from another one of my blogs ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) tagging: imma tag quite a few people again PLS don’t feel obligated to do this, I’m ridiculously wordy, but it is a good exercise :^)

@furnezh | @lazhadeg | @unheimlig - @daemonczar | @lichsent | @quirofiliac - @edhelaran - @edhelgund - @faegrifted - @ndeavor - @garuvusu - @hallowedcraft | @hybridea - @rotcraft - @uccisore | @groazei - @atlaslain - @officiums - @tribinds | @capjacke - @culturedconjurer - @valorxdrive - @cielcrd | @ofastrcmancy - @bloodfcst - @grimmjxw - @despairforme - @potestasaeterna [ and whoever wants to take it, just say i tagged u ]

EMOTIONS / FEELINGS:

001. confident - his whole mannerism, the way he strides, the way he announces his thoughts, his goals, his wants - it all speaks of undeniable confidence, hard to shake, near impossible probably.

002. at ease - comes with his confidence, the knowledge of his powers and skill. there are very few and very rare moments when this wavers and even in seconds one might assume him ‘on edge’ it is not so at all, mostly misinterpreted by those around.

003. inquisitive - generally, as per his nature, he does like to read, to learn, to experience things. it also extends towards any person that manages to catch his interest - be it negatively or positively - as he will try and figure out the weaknesses and strengths of a person, and do so with unrelenting force.

004. nonchalant - a mannerism that grates on many people’s nerves, for things that are important to everybody else, he usually just brushes off if they do not concern him. he also reacts to any ‘higher rank’ rather informal and casual, situations depending, he can reject them with a simple flick of the hand.

005. tenacious - undeterred from his goal, no matter what is happening, no matter the obstacles placed in his way, he will move to overcome them all.

GREETINGS:

001. a nod - the most common greeting for him. a mere acknowledgement with a few words and a nod. it is the calmest and quietest way for him to greet someone, not quite push them away and offer the knowledge that he will speak to them.

002. a handshake - pretty much reserved for interactions with comrades and higher-ups [ rarely ] before his fall. as per his rank, he usually extends a hand first, not many being on the same level or even above him in the ShinRa rankings, so politeness gives, that he is the one inviting another person towards the greeting.

003. with words - specifically, after his fall, for he is the one luring a person: mostly mocking them, making them follow him. the words are generally calm as is his tone even and smooth, but they pose a challenge, something that sings of danger, despite the chosen vocabulary doing none of it.

004. with a partner: an embrace, a kiss - it depends, but mostly it is both. he isn’t a man that is against public displays of affection, quite the opposite, given how obsessive he can be and how possessive he turns out to be the more and more a relationship progresses. obviously, a partner has to be okay with that, otherwise, he would not pursue this sort of greeting, but if they are, it is a given.

005. with friends: it depends how close someone is to him, how much they ‘mean’ to him: a handshake, an embrace, maybe even a palm on their lower arm - all gestures of amicability, something calmer and more relaxed from his side, an easy show that they mean [ at least ] something to him.

COLOURS:

001. black - his whole attire is black, contrasting vividly with his hair.

002. silver/white - depending on the shine of the light or where he stands, his hair can have either colour. his sword’s edge also plays a part to the near yin and yang of his whole looks.

003. blue/dark blue - Masamune’s sword’s hilt, especially the plaited pattern is dark blue, one of the very few accent colours one might be able to find on his person, even in more casual and informal attire.

004. green/light blue: ‘the colour of the sky’ - his eyes. one of the first things many people notice about him. not only because of the colour, as SOLDIERs, due to mako infusions, have this very specific eye-colour, but also due to the shape: for him nearly in a cat-eye like an appearance.

005. gold - another accent colour due to Masamune’s look. the Tsuba, or the hand guard, is coloured completely gold, as well as the end of the Tsuka, or sword’s hilt, is accented in gold as well.

SCENTS:

001. blood - the metallic smell of it lingering on his person very finely, only to be picked up by those with very keen senses or very close to him.

002. smoke - also a scent that clings to him like a fine veil, easily evoking emotions for anybody who had experiences with it, albeit it usually only comes forward once he was close to a fire or was the cause of one. otherwise, this scent is only barely lingering and generally not perceptible.

003. rain - due to his weather manipulation abilities, the smell of the air after the rain or from a thunderstorm rolling in is very prominent on him. it can be unsettling as well as soothing in the same breath, depending on how someone meets him and under what circumstance.

004. leather - a rather heavy scent, nearly warm and comforting, usually mixed in with aftershave or cologne. due to his outfit being in large parts made of very strong and sturdy leather, he smells like this more often than other things.

005. woods, forest-smells - he takes long walks and tours through forests, being completely undisturbed by rain or sun, so it does not deter him to stop anytime soon. the scent that comes from that is, again, soothing and nearly warm, something unexpected on him, due to his nature and volatile habits.

CLOTHING:

001. battle outfit - a long black coat with silver pauldrons, black boots and black trousers. the coat is half opened at the chest, leather straps crossing over it. the coat itself is held at the waist with a belt, multiple more belts accentuate the rest down towards the knees. he wears another large belt underneath the coat too, protecting his stomach area from possible impacts. the boots are held in place with multiple straps as well so that they won’t move nor shift during quick succession attacks. the pauldrons, at least in his original outfits, are made of three parts, protecting his shoulder area, a part of his upper arm, as well as the area around the clavicle. in the end: places where most of the large veins and arteries are to be found. At the end of his arms are ‘wrist guards’, either one [ then on the right side ] or both with deep indents, important when he holds his sword in front of him, so that the back of the blade can comfortably rest inside the splint, making it hard to move it out of the way once he defends like this.

002. suits - mostly worn when he was still a ShinRa soldier and General and then to official events where the dress code commanded it. they would be black with silver or gold accents, in very rare cases also with a dark blue/dark violet vest, but comfortable nonetheless. [ he might, on request, wear them for a partner as well ]

003. casual: a loose shirt and trousers - he’s only casual when at his own place or with a partner. due to the fact that he barely registers weather and climate as it is, his clothing consists of what he finds most comfortable at the moment, but is always clean and fresh with generally neutral colours, as extreme patterns and styles aren’t to his liking.

004. environment/surrounding fitting clothing - meaning: he is willing to adjust to the world he momentarily visits, shall he have a partner or confidant in this world that would like for him to adjust to their styles and customs. as long as they only suggest or request and not order him to, he will follow in literally all the cases.

005. accessories - it depends. he only wears accessories if they fit for his outfits [ aka, in dissidia: he wears pearls and jewels here and there, mostly on his wrist and on the pauldrons ] or if they have been gifted to him by a person of importance. throughout the verses, there have been rings and necklaces in his possession, rings are usually worn beneath the glove or on a string around his neck as well as to not lose them.

OBJECTS:

001. Masamune - how he came into the possession of his sword is unknown, albeit there are a few theories about that: one of them being that it was a ‘gift’ of the remaining inhabitants of Wutai, who gifted him Masamune after he turned the Wutai war in ShinRa’s favour, albeit this is only a theory. He is said to be the only person who can wield it effectively.

002. a small notebook - from his time before his fall, he usually carried a small notebook with him for thoughts and ideas and things he wanted to look up later, as mentioned before, he loves to learn and loves to acquire knowledge, so having a notebook helps him to keep everything organised and in check.

003. a phone - issued by ShinRa. made so that Soldiers can start and end holographic missions in the training rooms, keep in contact with other soldiers [ mostly just amongst their ranks and their friends ] and with the higher-ups to distribute orders.

004. accessories gifted by partners - one of the very few items that can rile up his ire is someone trying to take them from him. typically, these gifts are related to jewellery and while he would not acquire any out of his own free want, he wears those bestowed to him all the time. try to take it, you will lose a hand.

005. otherwise than that? he is not quite a material person. time destroys many a manmade oddity and with himself being pretty much immortal? there is little he does hold worthwhile to keep.

VICES / BAD HABITS: [ click on the words for a nice list about Vices ]

001. brutality - this is self-explanatory. he is brutal in any fight, will slay any foe. uninterested in who they are and what they have done, as long as he considers them an enemy, they will fall by his own hand. he also has the habit of playing with his ‘prey’. chasing them along, giving them an opening where they think they might get him and then taking said victory away again. he also tends to injure his opposite heavily to a point that weaker enemies will die of blood-loss very quickly and it at least impairs stronger opponents. never get on his bad side: if he feels like the chase might be entertaining, he will do so viciously and violently.

002. manipulation - using clever words and ways to influence another person, making them follow his lead, serving for them to be his puppets; he can do all of that and much more just with how he speaks, what he presents and what others may feel about him.

003. resentfulness - he did not only learn to hate ShinRa, he learned to hate everything in his path and everything in existence, striving to undo and rebuilt, desiring to destroy what had wronged him. he knows that the planet itself and its inhabitants are not at fault, but that does not stop him, for his bitterness ceases in no moment at all.

004. disrespect - this depends but is a strong character-trait especially after his fall. he despises those that are arrogant without having the power to back it up, teases them on, disrespects their personal boundaries and words and urges them to strike. it can change very quickly, hence it ‘depends’, and will cease once he thinks the other person is worth his quieter and calmer personality. but it can also turn into a very vicious form of hate and ire.

005. malice - very obvious in an example when it comes to Cloud, whose existence and the opposition he forces towards Sephiroth’s goal actually managed to keep him alive inside the lifestream [ he was, undoubtfully, a catalyst for his ‘quick’ resurfacing, albeit it still took 5 years ]. his brutality in regards to how he reacts towards said opposition is striking and horrifying, any person getting on his bad side, will be treated the same - or even worse.

BODY LANGUAGE:

001. standing very straight - he’s very confident, knows of his power and is aware of his position and rank amongst his comrades, no matter the timeline and verse, he won’t slouch or bend before someone, except it is in greeting before those that deserve it [ and those are very few ].

002. beckoning with one hand - as he is very cocky and has a taunting nature, this is a thing he oftentimes performs in luring an enemy or battle partner closer to him. even if it may not have any effect, it is unsettling, usually combined with a chilling smile and the knowledge that if they don’t charge - he will.

003. tilting his head - it’s slight, it’s mostly a mocking gesture. sometimes he mimics another person and shows them their own behaviour like a mirror image [ not only with the head tilt ]. this very mannerism is usually depicted as ‘innocent’ and ‘casual’ when viewed in a lot of other people, but with him? it is turned into something grotesque and derisive, like a feline ready to attack at any moment.

004. pointing his sword at someone, moving them with the tip of it - he is shown to do so with a multiple of people: with Zack, with Cloud, with quite a few characters in the Dissidia-Universe. while it can be taken as an attack-stance, once again, it is merely mocking. specifically, if he does so with only one hand, instead of grasping Masamune’s hilt with both hands what usually leads to a charge only seconds later. the moving their head, their hair with the tip of his sword is dangerous, but due to high skill and precision, highly unlikely that he will grace or injure them. but the possibility is there and one wrong movement and that pretty head is gone.

005. to the last point: moving someone’s head, their hair with his own hands - that is rare and a spleen my version has. he does so as a means to figure out boundaries, as a way to see if he would face repercussions. the sole thought amusing him and enticing him to go a bit too far, depending on the person. he barely touches someone as it is still, only takes their jaw in his hand, or strokes with the back of his fingers along their cheek. if he only touches someone’s hair, it is a mere show and feeling that he could turn it into something else - but he won’t.

AESTHETICS:

001. a roaring fire, a dying fire - as much as it is destructive and has been used by him before, he finds watching a fire and listening to it ‘speak’ very soothing. it makes him relax easily and he can listen to it for hours on end. a dying fire, the last glimmers of it, the last clamour and uproar reminds him of many things he needs to keep in mind to go on, despite its beauty and its ‘dying breath’.

002. dusk and dawn - the day that dies and the day that is reborn. also a nice metaphor for everything he is, the colours fascinating for him, as one might want to say: ‘a man like him is raised in black and white’, and due to that, he enjoys any spectacle nature can present to him that is not distorted or even destroyed by humanity.

003. old and abandoned places - there is something inherently fascinating for him in these sites, as much as he doesn’t care and wouldn’t be interested in ‘haunted houses’, he does hold excitement for the locations where people lived in and made it their own, just for them to fade away and leave behind memories that can be discovered and secrets that can be found out, lest someone forget them completely.

004. large market places in bustling cities - he isn’t quite the man that cares for crowds or shies away from them, but a market place and merchants advertising their wares is the heart and life of a city or culture he knows nothing about and therefore the first place he would start with. be it in a moment when he is calmer, with friends or a partner, or in a modern verse, this is a place where he can be found a lot of times.

005. books, letters, the written word in general - with his interest to learn also comes a striving for the understanding of a culture’s language. he is quite a natural in learning different tongues: give him literature written in it and a bit of context and he will figure it out quickly and sufficiently. correct him a bit in the pronunciation and he will speak it easily; a hobby of his own that he won’t want to miss.

SONGS:

001. Winterspell - Two Steps from Hell.

002. Feel Invincible - Skillet.

003. Wolf - Skott.

004. Archangel - Two Steps from Hell.

005. Silver, Crimson, Black - Zack Hemsey.

Songs without explanation, just enjoy.

#★ [ headcanon ]#long post //#[ i swear this is like the last of these really giant ones i have #ramona what did u do all morning?#this meme + ordered food ]#[ update: food arrived ]

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wiiildliiing-blog · 6 years ago

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♔ → westeros presents KALENA, the SPEARWIFE of THE FREE FOLK. a raven sent word that she bears the resemblance to OLGA KURYLENKO. the THIRTY year old FEMALE was HUMOROUS & BLITHEbefore the dawn of war, but have now become CLINICAL & CRUEL. when songs are sung, their verses speak of A SHE WOLF HOWLING AT THE FULL MOON, A WINTERS STORM WEARING SKIN, BLOOD DRIPPING THROUGH SNOW WHITE TEETH. whispers throughout the seven kingdoms claim that their allegiance lies with HOUSE STARK / THEMSELVES, but fealty means little when you play the game of thrones. ( jane, 18, gmt 2:00, she/her. )

BIOGRAPHY

Born beyond the wall in the dead of a winter storm, Kalena found herself the youngest of a family of four. Growing up, Kalena learned how to hunt and fight with her elder brother, who she was extremely close to. Unfortunately, when their father brought them too far away from camp on a hunting trip he ended up being taken down by a black direwolf. The two managed to escape with minor injuries past emotional. With Kalena being all but a child at the age of eleven and her brother being rendered helpless with grief at the ripe age of fifteen.

Growing up, Kalena was known for her exceptional fighting skills. The girl was a better fighter than most of the men in the camp and she took great pride in it. Although it doesn’t mean she necessarily enjoyed it, as she didn’t ever enjoy taking another persons life, believing that those who did had something so wrong with them that the Gods themselves could not right it. She spent most of her teen years only interacting with her brother, and found it very difficult to create new friends. When the elder of the two children found love in the form of what would later be their leader, Karsi, Kalena made her first real connection, and utterly fell in love with the woman.

Years into the future, their little family were blessed with not one child, but two. With the belief that she would never have children of her own, Kalena made a big effort to be apart of her nieces lives. This became only greater when her brother passed away, knowing that Karsi had plenty on her plate between raising two small girls and also leading a village. Most of Kalena’s time was dedicated to raising Johnna and Willa, teaching them the basics of life on top of how to survive and fend for themselves, in the occasion that herself or Karsi weren’t around. After some time, she also took in other children who were apart of their village and friends with her nieces, taking great pleasure in being around them, training them.

When the gathering at Hardhome initiated, Kalena remained at Karsi’s side at all times, being her sister, friend, and adviser. Instantly being on board with the ideas that Jon Snow and the Nights Watch were throwing onto the table, and agreeing that fleeing was ultimately their only answer, she was adamant on voicing her opinion on several different occasions, and had been more than willing to stay behind and help get everyone on the boats. Despite the following events and the trauma and wounds that came with it, Kalena doesn’t regret that decision, knowing that it ultimately was the decision that gave her one last chance at fighting alongside Karsi, and not only allowed her to get some little satisfaction in killing the wights that had brought down her sister, but had the opportunity to know that when they would be on the battlefield in the future, she would have to face Karsi again as a wight, and in the end, would have to lay the killing blow, or receive the killing blow from her. She remains forever thankful that she wouldn’t be shaken on the battlefield with the new discovery of Karsi’s wight form.

HEADCANONS

001⇻ During the Massacre at Hardhome, Kalena stayed behind to help fight off the horde of dead while the elderly and children were loaded aboard the boats. She fought hard, trying to stick as close to Karsi as she could, but ultimately they did get separated. She watched her sister get mauled to death, and in another burst of anger, grief, and sheer outraged, fought on to destroy the wights around her.

002 ⇻ Upon getting to the boat safely, Kalena made two vows: (1) she would make sure Johnna and Willa were safe beyond the wall, and (2) she would be the one to end her sisters suffering. Believing that even though Karsi now as a wight had no ability to control what she did and who she hurt, but was still somewhere seeing through those undead eyes, deserved to get true peace. Those vows are her reason to fight in the war: to protect her family, and to end Karsi’s suffering.

003 ⇻ Kalena, although she comes off the opposite, is a extremely sensitive person. She’s able to tell when a persons feelings change and is affected by the emotions of those around her. Because of this she does come off extremely hostile, but it’s only because of the sheer sensation of being overwhelmed by emotion. That, and she doesn’t want anyone to get close to her in any way.

004 ⇻ Before the war, Kalena was an extremely outgoing person. She loved to joke around with her people and spent many days helping out around their camp. She spent a great deal of time with Karsi and her nieces, training, hunting, fighting. She lived for the thrill of a kill, and made it clear that she did. Though she never thought that taking a life was good, and tried her best to pay homage to the lives she had taken by praying to the Old Gods of the Forest for their souls to find rest and peace.

005 ⇻ She trusted Jon Snow because of Karsi. She continues to follow him and his ideas and beliefs because of Karsi still. Because she knows her sister would’ve, and because she knows that it is because of him that her nieces are alive, along with many of her friends and people. She believes she is in debt to him, and due to that does her best to be respectful to those who aided him in getting all of their people beyond the wall. However, she doesn’t hold any amount of kindness or liking for those outside of the Nights Watch.

006 ⇻ Her weapon of choice is a long spear, which stands to a height of five foot six. The nimble wood is easy to maneuver and the woman typically uses it as one would a sword. However, also on her person is a hand axe and several knives. She is good at fighting and she knows it, and will scoff in anyones face who dare suggest otherwise.

PLOT POINTS

001 ⇻ Kalena has become very closed off since the murder of Karsi. She hasn’t spoken to anyone about it in full other than to say that she will avenge her and end her endless suffering, and does everything in her power to simply not think about it. I think what would ultimately be interesting is for someone to get her to talk about it. And about it past the fact that she died and joined the white walkers, past the point of her wanting to avenge her untimely end. For her to go into detail about the trauma of not only witnessing the murder, but what life is like without Karsi at her side, would unblock a lot of emotions that Kalena hasn’t been able to access since that moment: grief, sorrow, love. To let her experience her loss truly would be a moment of development, as she hasn’t had the chance to properly mourn her. She became enraged after the murder and drowned in it until she was on the boats, and then she was surrounded by people who she could not and would not show her weakness to. And after that she became so focused on finding a way to avenge Karsi that she hasn’t actually thought about why she has to avenge her. To mourn her properly would be a step in the direction of being the youthful woman she was prior to the war.

002 ⇻ Ultimately, Kalena is not a trusting person. She trusts Jon Snow because Karsi did, and because he proved himself to be worthy of her respect and trust through battle and his willingness to protect the Free Folk. She trusts members of the Nights Watch only because they too fought and have proven themselves to her. She trusts select members of the Free Folk who have survived, only because she has seen that they are to be respected. Outside of those select groups, she trusts and respects no one. The kneelers she’s meant to work with to her are annoying and yellow bellied, and she becomes easily irritated by their whining or their luxuries. I think for her to befriend someone outside of the groups that she’s already installed trust in would be groundbreaking, allowing her to believe that maybe not all people south of the wall are cowardly creatures. She wouldn’t want to become close with any of them and it would create a great deal of internal conflict with her.

003 ⇻ Despite not being a mother herself, or even involved with anyone, Kalena is a very motherly person. Though her idea of a mother is far different from the usual, ( someone who teaches you how to hunt, fight, kill and survive ) it is what a mother should be in her mind. She can’t help herself but take people under her wing and protect them, and do everything in her power to help them better protect themselves. I think an interesting plot point would be her finding someone who is more on the vulnerable side than she is, and becoming that motherly figure that she has, teaching them how to survive, especially in a time like this. Not only would it be interesting because of the basic idea of her taking someone in like that, but because after everything she’s become such a cold and unfeeling person that, by rights, that motherly side should’ve disappeared. It would mean that she had been able to harbor feelings for someone enough to take them in like that, and teach them her ways.

#rev.intros

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justafishkeeper-archive · 7 years ago

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LAYER 001 : THE OUTSIDE.

NAME. carter blake. EYE COLOR. light honey gold. HAIR STYLE / COLOR. semi short sandy blonde with messy saltwater curls. HEIGHT. 6'2''. CLOTHING STYLE. practical and well worn fabrics that are easy to move in. neoprene vests, sleeveless tees, and loose linen button downs. broken in blue jeans and cargo shorts, sandals and bare feet. BEST PHYSICAL FEATURE. his eyes, as expressive and alert as they always are.

LAYER 002 : THE INSIDE.

FEARS. being manipulated. failure. not being able to protect the people he loves. being the reason others come to harm. GUILTY PLEASURE. alcohol. it's the one indulgence he really allows himself. it becomes less of a guilty pleasure and more of an unhealthy escapism tactic following the aquatica disaster. BIGGEST PET PEEVE. when people beat around the bush instead of saying what they mean. AMBITIONS FOR THE FUTURE. survival. it's just about the only thing he knows. all happiness (or lack thereof) aside, carter considers it all in all a successful day if he's managed to live through it. he doesn't generally let himself want more than that.

LAYER 003 : THOUGHTS.

FIRST THOUGHTS WAKING UP. ‘what do i need to get done today?’ WHAT HE THINKS ABOUT MOST. how to protect himself. WHAT HE THINKS ABOUT BEFORE BED. all the mistakes he never wants to make again. HE THINKS HIS BEST QUALITY IS. his straightforwardness.

LAYER 004 : WHAT’S BETTER ?

SINGLE OR GROUP DATES. single. TO BE LOVED OR RESPECTED. respected. BEAUTY OR BRAINS. brains. DOGS OR CATS. dogs.

LAYER 005 : DOES HE…

LIE. almost never unless there's no other option. BELIEVE IN HIMSELF. yes and no. he's extremely aware of his physical capabilities. on the other hand, when it comes to what he thinks he's capable of intellectually, it's almost the exact opposite --- he'll sell himself short every time. BELIEVE IN LOVE. no, he's had it ripped away too often to really believe in it. WANT SOMEONE. rarely. he sometimes has bouts where he realizes how extremely fucking lonely he is and how isolated he's made himself, but he refuses to allow himself to do anything about it.

LAYER 006 : HAS HE EVER…

BEEN ON STAGE. no. DONE DRUGS. no. CHANGED WHO HE WAS TO FIT IN. no. carter is, to a fault, utterly uncompromising with who he is.

LAYER 007 : FAVORITES.

FAVORITE COLOUR. the deep, dark blue of open ocean. FAVORITE ANIMAL. sharks, other ocean life, dogs. FAVORITE BOOK. the sea wolf. good luck ever getting him to admit it though. FAVORITE GAME. the quiet game. no, he's not kidding.

LAYER 008 : AGE.

DAY HIS NEXT BIRTHDAY WILL BE. may 9th. HOW OLD WILL HE BE. 50 (technically, but i keep carter on a sliding timeline bc reasons so actually like 35).

LAYER 010 : FINISH THE SENTENCE.

I LOVE the ocean. I FEEL too much. I HIDE weakness. I MISS my friends. I WISH i'd been strong enough to save the others.

TAGGED BY. no one. stolen from @anxietytorn TAGGING. anyone who wants to !

#❛ the man's always got a file . ╱ headcanon #❛ what any thousand pound mako thinks about . ╱ mind #[ wow okay i actually hurt a lot fuck ]

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ncmadiic · 5 years ago

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&. —— ❝ 004. ❞

He was surprised when both Rumlow and Rogers walked in through security with Anabelle slung over his shoulder; Rollins was under the impression that Anabelle was to be killed, not held for interrogation, but as the opportunity presented itself, he couldn’t turn it down.

“Either of you wanna babysit her? I gotta prepare The Asset for a mission.” Steve lay Anabelle’s seemingly weightless body down onto a less than comfortable chaise, utterly miffed at the stunt Brock pulled.

“What mission?” Jack raised a brow, as he glanced over at Anabelle, still perplexed as to why she was alive.

“Fury.”

“Good luck with that, Cap.” Rumlow nodded, also fixating his gaze on the woman.

"Eat shit," Rogers mutters, running a hand through mussed hair as he turned on his heel. His stride in the opposite direction was purposeful and deadly.

"What the fuck was that about?" Rollins questioned, averting his eyes towards Brock. He suspected there was a quarrel between the two, though if Rumlow did not want to reveal what happened, he had no intention of knowing.

On the contrary, Rumlow was happy to oblige him with the truth. "I cock-blocked him." The words roll off his tongue with ease as he shrugs, a smirk plastered on his face.

"Explain." Now Jack's interest had been piqued. He discerned that it had something to do with Anabelle for he did not miss the way Steve had been so kind to gently lay her down. They'd all known that he's been sweet on her ever since received his directive to shadow her. Perhaps it was because he was present for her birth. Little did either of them know that Anabelle and Steve had slept together.

"He was about to fuck the shit out of her in her car," Brock shrugs, yet again, "I figured he would forget his orders, so I took matters in my own hands and tranqued her." A low chuckle emitted from Rollins as he shook his head.

"Damn, you got a death wish or something? I'm surprised he didn't bash your skull in."

"Oh believe me," Rumlow moved to take a seat next to Jack, placing his weapons on the table before them, "He was about to. I had half a mind to just give 'em an hour and let Rogers get it outta his system, but I decided against it."

"Why? She means nothing to us," Rollins' brow furrowed, not seeing how this could have compromised the Captain as they let him have the other captive just three weeks prior.

"Guess I just wanted to fuck with him." Though Rumlow's objective was true, he harbored hidden motives as he'd also been sweet on Anabelle, though he didn't let it show as prevalently as Steve.

"So, how long is the little bitch gonna be out?"

"Eh, she'll be unconscious for a few hours or so. I doped her up pretty good."

___________________

SERENITY. The silence was welcoming and for once in a very long time, his mind wasn’t spinning from the numerous mind wipes that he'd been through. It truly has been a while since the last time Pierce ordered it and though his mission failed, he was given a chance to redeem himself with a second opportunity. Fury escaped the city, yes, however, he knew exactly where the director would be headed next as he was still under the impression that his comrade had remained ever loyal to his country and his righteousness.

They both spotted Fury from the rooftop, as predicted, sneaking into Rogers' apartment as he was aided by Sharon Carter and he took this as his cue to feign ignorance towards the infiltration of SHIELD.

"On my signal, you take the shot," Rogers nodded at his comrade. "Understood," he responded before shrouding himself in shadow. Rogers descended the building and walked into his own, acting as if he did not know that the woman he'd conversed with was one of SHIELD's best covert ops agents who was assigned to 'protect' him. He wanted to vomit in his mouth at the idea of needing to be protected.

The mission was successful as both he and The Asset were able to pull this off, and all went according to plan. Sharon 'revealed' her identity to Rogers and he played the hero, chasing after his comrade. They both had disappeared and Sharon assumed that he was still in hot pursuit, though he did not return with an answer on what he'd seen.

Her phone rang and she was quick to pick up, not knowing or caring who was on the other line. "Talk to me," her tone was exasperated as she wished so desperately for answers. "Carter," Natasha's voice emitted, "I think Weber's been compromised, STRIKE Delta Three informed me that she hasn't arrived at the checkpoint."

"Romanoff, we've got a bigger problem."

"What's that?" She hesitates, hoping that the news isn't as grim as she thinks it might be. "Fury's down, a sniper clipped him and I lost Rogers; he went after the shooter."

"I'm on my way. Wait for backup, and when you get him out of there, secure Weber's daughter. You got a pen on you?"

"Yeah give me a second," As Sharon scoured Steve's apartment for a pen and paper, agents flooded the room with paramedics. She willed herself to shut out the commotion as she informed Natasha she was ready to write.

"4412 West Maple Drive. It's in Alexandria. Jillian Weber is her mother-in-law."

"I'm on it."

___________________

The two soldiers returned ahead of schedule and Rumlow was surprised as both men had strolled past the security checkpoint.

“Mission Report?” he asked hesitantly, regarding The Winter Soldier’s mission to assassinate Nick Fury.

“Clean shot,” Rogers spoke, "I'm still on the comms, and they just pronounced him dead ten minutes ago." He slips a hand through his damp hair.

“You know that this is going to complicate things with SHIELD--- People like her dickhead husband are gonna go digging in places and find themselves dead,” Rollins sighed, thoughtfully as he crossed his arms.

“That’s the idea.” Rumlow spoke, pacing throughout the room as he listened to the conversation, “You knew exactly what would happen after he got his hands on that data. It’d only be a matter of time befo---”

“I didn’t want it to be like this.” Steve muttered casting his gaze towards the still unconscious Anabelle, realizing that she didn’t have a place tangled in this mess.

“Look, I get it. You respected the boss. I respected him too, but you gotta remember, this balances the order of things. He was a loose end.” Brock reasoned, gruffly, clearing his throat as he glanced at Anabelle again. “So, what do we do with her? She is not useful.” All eyes turned towards The Asset and his stoic features show slight vexation.

“We do what we’re ordered to do,” Rumlow answered after a moment of thought, although the importance of her presence was never fully explained, “We get intel from her, and go from there.”

“I doubt that Fury would have told her anything useful--- he can barely trust Romanoff,” Rollins shrugs, “I don’t think he’d trust any intel with his one weakness.”

“Then what?” Steve asks, raising a brow.

“As I said--- we follow orders.” Rumlow answers, "As soon as she's up, Jack will start the interrogation."

#★ — &. ❝ nomadic ! ❞ ★#&. —— ❝ 002. story mode ! ❞

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kindcstguardian · 5 years ago

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MISC.

Name. Armin Beilschmidt. Nicknames. Birthday. 7th June ( Gemini ) Nationality. Irish &&. French. Languages. French &&. English. Gender. Cis male. Sexuality. Asexual biromantic. Status. Single. Occupation. Student &&. IT intern. Speciality. Beta-tester &&. coding. Hobbies. Gaming &&. cosplaying.

BACKGROUND.

PRESENT.

Over the passing decade, Armin grew up close to his dad and ended up sharing a bunch of interests of his: coding, hacking, developing his own programs, etc. His father even recommended him to the company he’s working in as computer security expert for which Armin is grateful and ended up as intern to learn how things work and potentially work there.

Besides that, the ravenette took an interest in videogames, comics and manga. Although he doesn’t leave much the house unless he goes to another friend’s house or, well, school or his part-time job ( to this day, he fears bees and spiders ).

EARLY LIFE.

Born and raised in Northern Ireland, County Tyrone to an excited couple for having two children and a proud older brother waiting to teach and protect them. However, life was only peaceful for five years of his life before an accident took place which costed the life of his biological parents—and because all of them were minors with no relatives alive either, they were sent to adoption.

Ethan was adopted right away leaving Alexander and Armin to themselves for a year alone waiting until a couple that had been married for some good ten years ( Arnaud and Victoria ) chose to adopt them.

While it wasn’t hard for Alexy to open up and express himself, toys that he could want or thoughts that crossed his mind—it was the entire opposite for Armin: to speak more than a sentence or even ask what he wished for.

VERSES.

Main verse. TAG. 「 001 ／ Armin ; ᴀ ɴᴇᴡ ᴍᴀᴘ ᴛᴏ ᴇxᴘʟᴏʀᴇ. . | 」

Highschool student, 17 years old. Alongiside Alexy, they both find themselves a little puzzled at this pink and straight-up from a shojo manga of sorts school—although Armin isn’t about to complain but rather crack jokes about the typical cliche ( which only deepened upon further inspection ).

Still, much like in the previous institutions they both had attended thus far, Armin sticks to his game console and avoids leaving the interior of the school, the whole bees and insect fear never quite leaving him. Plus, social events are not his thing—that’s more of his twin’s thing.

MCLUL verse. TAG. 「 002 ／」

College student, 23 years old. Tba.

Infamous second son verse. TAG. 「 003 ／ Armin ; you want 𝘱𝘦𝘢𝘤𝘦 and I want 𝙛𝙧𝙚𝙚𝙙𝙤𝙢 」

Runaway, 20 years old. The traumatic event that took place during his childhood was the trigger; however, it didn’t manifest itself right away - given Armin played quite often with a gameboy, at nights whenever he’d wake up from a nightmare at the orphanage, he’d see his ‘imaginary friend’ which was Link but, soon enough, Armin realized it wasn’t just that, given Alexy could see it as well and warned him not to do that in public or a place where others could see it too.

A decade has passed with many changes, the younger twin no longer invoked said videogame character ( not as often, at least ) but rather craved to possess certain traits or habilities for himself which he did, sucessfully. Although always when left alone or when the blue-haired was around to supervise, keeping everything in check.

However, this came to a stop when Armin saw the news: people like him were a threat and should be stopped, locked up; if proved to be a genuine danger to society, then killed without a second thought, as if their lives did not matter and were crushed like mere insects. Isolating himself in fear he might hurt his family, Armin’s anxiety and paranoia drove his thoughts wild, borderline a panic attack to which he decided to escape from the house. Intrusive thoughts taking over, clouding his mind from any rational thought, telling him that he could harm his family. Without a single word, he left.

Armin became a traveler, a gamer who ocasionally smoked drugs to ease his alarming stress and anxiety levels which could blur his judgement again and cause him to make poor decisions - and, sometimes, he was a trief ‘cause, a guy gotta eat, right ?

Fourth wall breaking or Spider-man: Into the Spider-verse TAG. 「 004 ／ Armin ; my 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲 is a bit different 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘴 . . | 」

Tba. Much like Gwenpool, Armin was sucked into the comic he was reading by some unbeknown magic to him—although, to make matters much worse than it already was, it had to be in the middle of the entire world glitching thus causing him to land in the movie rather than Ultimate Spider-man universe known as Earth-1610.

Stuck in the movie and watching the world glitch though this didn’t happen to him at all ( worrying him even more because he had no money and, therefore, no means to survive ), Armin decided to steal the blonde’s idea and pretty much became Novapool—a college dropout since there’s no hope for him to return who is a part-timer in a comic / geek store and full-time mercenary.

Persona 5 verse. TAG. 「 P5 ／ Armin ; 𝔐𝔞𝔎𝔢𝔰𝔥𝔦𝔣𝔱 𝔍𝔲𝔰𝔱𝔦𝔠𝔢 」

Highschool student, 17 years old. It wasn’t particulary strange for Armin to land in an entire different country to continue his studies alongside his brother; however, for him and his group of friends to tag all along? Mrs.Shermansky surely wanted Sweet Amorris to have an impeccable name if accepting an exchange student program was an idea that fixated in her mind.

Still, assisting to Shujin academy school proved to be a good experience the first three weeks, the fourth one started in a peculiar manner when the Phantom Thieves first made an appearence.

From that point onwards, as time passed by, many things started to happen which irked Armin off. If he previously had difficulty fitting in or attempting to interact with other students outside his circle, the atmosphere surrounding certain students made him back away completely. That was until Iris was affected.

Alongside Lynn, they both were investigating who kept harassing their classmate and friend to the point she would have bags under her eyes and her body would be trembling, too weak to even properly walk and constantly trip—this caused Armin to steal her phone when Lynn took her away. Deducing her password correctly as he was on the run due Charlotte catching him and calling the police on him—she wasn't working alone on torturing someone as innocent as the redhead.

Although this escaping of his had made the ravenette end up trapped in the metaverse alongside the Phantom Thieves whom were confronting Kaneshiro in his own palace. Terrified of such place and creatures, Armin dodged most attacks albeit he still got hit yet stood up quickly and ran as fast as his legs allowed him before stumbling paths with them: upon hearing what disgusting words left that monster’s lips, a voice started resonating inside his head.

I am thou, thou art I, it was a man’s voice that was driving him insane. Armin dropped to his knees and held his head but he had to bear the pain that was blinding him, tears formed in the corner of his eyes yet he clenched his jaw, perhaps God will give you justice, but you can make your own until the time arrives.

His persona awakens upon hearing the injustice many students have to go through, thinking about how Charlotte was part of all of this, going as far as to push Iris beyond her limits, how she dragged many other students into that hole with no return—the power of Monte Cristo made him stood his ground and raise up; accepting the contract, the blue-eyed codename is Dantès.

Danganronpa verse TAG. 「 ᴅᴀɴɢᴀɴʀᴏɴᴘᴀ ／ Armin ; 𝘎𝘰𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘯 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘯𝘰 𝘱𝘰𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘩. . . | 」

Reserve Course student, 17 years old. Based on UTDP. Previously enrolled in Sweet Amorris, that was soon to change after getting involved in a situation two years ago: hacking the devices of his friend, then the school system and soon the police to track the individual harassing her. However, he had been sloppy in his work since he hadn’t thought of the consequences due to his blood boiling. Much to his surprise, aside from spending a few nights locked and under the supervision of the police, he didn’t get a punishment since there weren’t charges towards him. That and... they received a request from a prestigious school, that alone made Armin freak out because what’s with that, his case didn’t even make it to the news because of his father’s influence. What was their deal? Nevertheless, he joined and uh, everyone here as an oddball luckily, Alexy was there to keep him sane.

Eldarya / Fantasy verse TAG. 「／」

Tba.

TAGS.

「 Armin Beilschmidt ／ 𝐝𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐲 𝐠𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐫┊ aceplaycr 」

「 Armin Beilschmidt ／ INQUIRY」

「 Armin Beilschmidt ／ MUSINGS 」

「 Armin Beilschmidt ／ VISAGE 」

「 Armin Beilschmidt ／ MANNERISMS 」

「 Armin Beilschmidt ／ INTROSPECTION」

「 Armin Beilschmidt ／ ROMANCE 」

「 Armin Beilschmidt ／ CRACK 」

RELATIONSHIPS.

「 ❝ ʸᵒᵘ ᵃʳᵉ ᵗʰᵉ ˡᵃʷᶠᵘˡ ᵍᵒᵒᵈ ᵗᵒ ᵐʸ ᶜʰᵃᵒᵗⁱᶜ ⁿᵉᵘᵗʳᵃˡ ❞ / ᴀʀᴍɪɴ + ᴋᴇɴᴛɪɴ 」;

✘ · Armven ♡（ ❝ ᴴᵒʷ ᵃᵇᵒᵘᵗ ʸᵒᵘ ʰᵃᵛᵉ ᵐʸ ʷʰᵒˡᵉ ˡⁱᶠᵉ ? ❞ ）

✘ · ♡（）

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heyhowyadoingpally · 7 years ago

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it’s been so fuckin long since our first installment of this series. at the rate we’re going i’ll get through the first ten pokemon by the time another game comes out. and that means more pokemon to cover. ew, i know.

since i went over the first starter evolution previously, time to go ahead and plow through the next starter like a combine harvester on the fields during a calm and early sunday morning.

#004 - Mega: Charmander Evolution

#004 - Charmander

the starters are supposed to all be, like, the basic elements, right? bulbasaur is supposed to be grass/earth, squirtle is water, and charmander here is fire. i gotta admit, i like the name. charmander’s name is obviously a combo of “char” and “salamander”. it just works. i mean, i think it does? i might be fuckin wrong but salamanders were once associated with fire in some culture’s mythology? greek? roman? native american? i don’t remember. but it’s somewhere.

according to the pokedex entry on this lil guy, if the burning flame on his tail gets snuffed, he’s dead. like, straight-up dead. and yet you see people pit their wimpy charmanders up against hulkin water-type monsters whose abilities cause tsunamis capable of wiping out an entire nation. charmander is a goddamn resilient little fucker.

i like his overall design - simplistic, yet iconic. he doesn’t have too much going on, which makes sense since he’s the first stage of a starter evolution. he’s like a lil baby. except this baby knows how to fucking suplex you into mount doom, all the while pissing all over the eye of sauron because he can.

i might have exaggerated on that one. maybe he could spit on sauron, but his piss stream wouldn’t reach that far.

#005 - Charmeleon

alright, alright. i’ll just go out and say it: charmeleon looks like that older brother who says he’ll do the dishes and then immediately goes out with his buddies.

like, i appreciate that they’re still going for subtlety with his design, but it doesn’t quite reflect the name. don’t get me wrong - the parasolophoid crest-thing going on is prett similar to some real-world chameleons, but maybe just make his tail slightly curl up like a chameleon’s? idk. if you’re gonna name it after a reptile who lives in the trees and eats bugs, at least show it in the design.

and, another thing i just want to get out there: we all know what he turns into, and how that fucker has wings. but the you’d thinkt hat maybe charmeleon here would have maybe like lil bumps on his back where wings are forming, or perhaps just small weak lil flippyflaps? it just seems weird that the final stage of this evolution has wings yet the middle and first stages lack such appendages.

i don’t want to say i hate it, tho; the fact that his skin is a lot darker and his “cute” features aren’t as prevalent are a nice touch. i think i said this enough, but i love subtlety and realism. when it shines, it shines good, especially here. the previously-stated features i like make charmeleon seem like an adolescent of his species. i don’t know how many times i can say i love when that happens without becoming a redundant recluse.

i just wanted to throw alliteration at the end. so sue me.

#006 - Charizard

the final stage in the charmander evolutionary line (much like in bulbasaur’s) is badass.

even the name (which doesn’t seem to really fit his appearance, either) reeks of badassery. charizard. just saying it out loud makes you feel the adrenaline enter your bloodstream and cause the greatest orgasm known to mankind. HNNNNNNGH. YEEAHH. THAT’S RIGHT FUCKERS. I JUST CREAMED IN MY FUCKING PANTS.

this motherfucker is your standard dragon, but it’s a fuckin great dragon. i mean, it’s kind of a given that the first fire starter in the games would be a dragon, but it looks so fucking good. it’s a shame that it doesn’t reflect much of the “lizard” qualities in its name. idk. give him a big ol long licky tongue or smth. it’s a shame it has such a badass name yet the badass design doesn’t reflect it.

badass. blah blah blah. i’m very tired.

and, just so nobody blabbers to me about it, yes, i’m aware that charizard isn’t a dragon-type. i can understand why this didn’t happen, honestly. they probably didn’t know if the first two games would even sell as much so they didn’t want want to make a dragon type just for one pokemon. or something.

charizard’s mega evolutions differ from ivysaur’s in that instead of having just one evolution for both games that get released, charizard has fuckin two, one for each game.

Mega Charizard (Pokemon X)

ugh. i mean, it looks like a mega evolution, but it just seems a little bit on the “”””edgy”””” side for my dumb baby tastes. just a little.

however, i will say that giving him a darker color scheme does a better job at keeping the “char” part in his name. since, y’know, when things char, they typically turn black.

the fire being blue is a nice touch, too. it implies that he’s one hot momma older, and therefore has hotter flames. maybe if a charizard turns into this at its last years of life and it blows up bc of too much heat? think of when godzilla went through a meltdown, but not as large and not as cool-looking.

i just hope that the mega from pokemon y looks almost as interesting as this fella. maybe even better. but i doubt it since pokemon likes to pander towards the edgy fanbase it h-

Mega Charizard (Pokemon Y)

I TAKE BACK WHAT I SAID THIS IS NOT EDGY, THIS IS THE OPPOSITE OF EDGY. WE HAVE BEEN BLESSED.

sorry. had a stroke for a second.

this is just-.....he’s....

he’s fuckin fantastic.

if there was an evolutionary line after charizard, i’d sure as hell want this fucker to be next. he looks like an elder charizard. like, the leader of some sort of charizard group. the three crests make so much sense to me. like, charmander had no crest, charmeleon had one, and then charizard has two.

the wings???? they look slightly damaged, as if years of fights and flights have wore down the edges. this fucker has seen shit, and he annihilated the PISS out of that shit,

the tail??? a bigger flame, naturally. the older it gets, the bigger the flame? i don’t know. i’m a little peeved that they didn’t make his flame blue as well for the sake of making him seem also powerful, but i can understand the aesthetic choice.

what i would have personally liked to see is the two megas switch color schemes. i personally think it would have worked a lot better in their favors.

in fact, hold on. i’m gonna see what this would have looked like.

(source)

this looks a lot better than i thought it would have. fuck. @nintendo reboot ur games just for the sole purpose of this factor. i don’t care if i have to wait 10 years for garbodor to pop up in another game. this is a fuckin masterpiece.

RATING:

4.5/5 venonats. where they shine, they shine like a goddamn gold nugget. and that’s pretty much everywhere. mostly.

my only gripes are that they could have done a somewhat better job making the pokemon reflect their names.

be sure to tune in....whenever....when i review the squirtle evolution line.

PREVIOUS POKEFART: Bulbasaur Line

NEXT POKEFART: Squirtle Line

#pokefart reviews #charmander #charmeleon #charizard #mega charizard x #mega charizard y

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melpomenecokr · 6 years ago

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﹟ ♡ THIS MONTH IN MUSIC : MAY 2019.

♡♡♡

May was a month that happened and I guess we need to talk about it.

As barren as the month seemed for impressive releases, there were a few diamonds in the rough, thank God, and as I’m sure you’ve figured out by now, it’s my job to bring them to light, and talk about why these hits stood out among the many (many) misses this month of May had to offer. All complaints aside, I present to you my top five musical recommendations for the month of May.

Just as they always are, links for purchase and streaming services will be provided at the end of each segment for their respective release. Please remember to support these artists and their music so we can hear more from them in the future.

#005. “DDU-DDU ddu-ddu (뚜두뚜두)” - SINGLE BY ETUDE♡ (습작) RELEASE DATE: 03 MAY 2019

You all often like to joke with me that I am, for the most part, boy group illiterate, so it may not come with much shock when I say I’ve only knowingly heard a few songs from this group in the past. I tend to listen to almost anything and everything that drifts into my recommended or that I stumble across while browsing MelOn and the like, and I believe that’s how I discovered ETUDE♡ existed in the first place. In the case of “DDU-DDU ddu-ddu” (like the professionals we are on this blog, we’re going to shorten that to just “DDU-DDU” from now on, thank you), however, I actually sought this release out after seeing the video teaser the day prior, because it seemed very intriguing -- and for once, I wasn’t deceived.

(Just to preface, we’re only going to be talking about the title of this release since this is not an in-depth review, but I would definitely recommend listening to the other two songs, if you’ve got the time.)

“DDU-DDU” is a pop-rap song heavily influenced by trap and EDM with its heavy bass and almost peculiar-sounding beat. Right from when the song starts and the group screams their name into your ear on the first beat drop, you get the sense this is going to be a power anthem about how great and capable they are and how they’re better than everyone else; and as eye-roll worthy as that sounds, that’s actually what makes the title track of this single so great. It knows exactly what it is and it accomplishes its goal perfectly with gutsy raps and surprisingly solid vocals.

The aforementioned raps are really where this song finds its footing because the chorus isn’t much, but that’s perfectly fine, because with a song like this, the chorus doesn’t have to be groundbreaking. The first rap is delivered by member Yejun, with a slow and suavé kind of flow to it; the kind of rap you would expect to play while the final boss of a video game or the big bad of an action movie makes their first appearance. The punchlines are a little weak, but I think the way this rap flows in itself makes up for that in earnest, it just sounds so good, you don’t really care much about what he’s actually saying. Then, the second rap, delivered by member Saint, follows the chorus and it’s the antithesis of what the preceding rap was; it’s fast-paced, hard-hitting, and really drives home the point of the whole song. I still don’t know that ‘that ddu-du ddu-du du’ is but I fully believe I was hit with it.

Not to undermine the vocalists, though, because they really did an outstanding job, despite this type of beat and vibe being more fitting for rappers. The main vocalist, Seongwoo, stood out to me because of the way he sang his lines. It’s hard for a lot of k-pop vocalists to portray bravado and confidence with their voices because they are trained to sing in very distinct ways, but he captured that vibe perfectly while still managing to sound stable and light. “DDU-DDU” is the kind of song you play when you need a confidence boost, no doubt about it, and it’s definitely made its way onto my playlist.

Listen to “ DDU-DDU ddu-ddu (뚜두뚜두)” here and stream the music video here.

#004. “BLAME IT ON YOUR LOVE” - SINGLE BY CHARLI XCX AND LIZZO RELEASE DATE: 15 MAY 2019

These two getting together was completely unexpected on my part, but it was the match made in Heaven that I never saw coming. A snippet of this song actually leaked sometime last year, which had many living in the XCX-verse on the edge of their seats waiting for the project to come back ‘round, and Charli and Lizzo made quite a wave on Twitter when they announced they were doing this piece together. Though I was definitely thrown, I was excited; both artists have a way of being so wonderfully simple and straightforward with their lyrics, but combine that with complex arrangements and composition and messages that it leaves you trapped between two different feelings, and it’s great when music can evoke that strong of a response.

“Blame It On Your Love” is no exception to this formula these two ladies employ in completely different ways, and their radically different styles come together with a harmony that makes this such a good, and unique song. I wouldn’t be against them forming a duo or doing a collaboration album, to be honest.

Anyway, “Blame It On Your Love” is an eccentric pop song about nervous jitters and different wavelengths making a relationship difficult -- the feelings seem unrequited but it’s hard for Charli to tell because she can’t get close enough to the object of her affections without turning into a nervous wreck, and sabotaging herself when it comes to opening up. Charli’s vocals are broken and slow and create a sense of nervousness and tension that the listener can resonate with, while Lizzo is confident and straightforward (as always) while delivering her short verse near the end of the song. She seems to be giving a completely opposite message than Charli, but because her high-energy rhymes are so different from Charli’s cautious vocals, it works. It’s not detached, either -- it doesn’t seem like it comes out of nowhere, as the production sets the dong up perfectly to have Lizzo give Charli this reality check. Her banter-like ad-libs really make this song so fun and enjoyable, too; despite Lizzo’s contributions seeming relatively small on the surface, she really did her part to make this song the summer-night anthem that it is.

Overall, I really enjoyed this release, as I knew it was going to be great the moment they announced via social media that they were working together, even if I didn’t immediately know what to expect. I hope these ladies collaborate again in the future; I think when wildly different artists come together and vibe the right way, it can make a memorable spectacle. We need more of that. Some artists are way too full of themselves these days.

Listen to “Blame It On Your Love” here.

#003. “DEDICATED” - STUDIO ALBUM BY CARLY RAE JEPSEN RELEASE DATE: 17 MAY 2019

If I could only recommend you one underrated artist to stan this year, it would be Carly Rae Jepsen. This is the first time I’ve discussed her on my blog for a while because she sort of fell off the radar after “Call Me Maybe” had the whole world singing in 5-syllable sentences for the better portion of 2012, however she came back onto my life on a better note when “Cut To The Feeling” was pretty much the Pride Anthem of last year. I went back and listened to pretty much everything I had missed from her and when I tell you this girl is not only talented, but pretty much dedicates her career to true retro-esque pop music, I mean it, and I couldn’t mean it more. While I’m sure none of us were as excited to hear “Dedicated” as my best friend’s boyfriend, there was a lot of anticipation surrounding Jepsen’s fourth studio album via her cult following. Now that it’s here, I can verify it was not only worth the wait, but that it didn’t disappoint in the slightest.

Carly (I’m going to call her by first name for the rest of this segment because I feel foolishly close to her) has the energy and ambition of a pop star with the innocence and modesty of the girl-next-door, and I absolutely love that about her. As much as I need to hear a good, old-fashioned pop song about having sex with a stranger in the back of a stolen SUV every now and then, there’s something so refreshing about Carly’s innate curiosity about love and how desperately she wants to experience it as a young (33 is young, shut up) woman with a big heart. I believe “Dedicated” is the clearest glimpse into her world she’s ever given, and with that, the songs I would like to highlight from this 13-track (not counting the bonus tracks) wonderland of an album are “Now That I Found You”, “Right Words Wrong Time”, and “Real Love.”

If you haven’t heard “Now That I Found You” by now, I want you to know that I am deeply disappointed in you. This song is everything you’d expect from CRJ and more -- the retro vibes, the high-energy, the stellar vocals and the addictive lyrics blend together to make this not only the song of the summer, but the song of every summer. The delivery of the lovesick lyrics is so earnest and bright that it not only puts you in a great mood, but makes you want to go outside and dance in the rain, regardless of who’s watching, or your high chances of catching a cold. This is exactly the kind of pure, unadulterated pop that Carly delivers consistently without getting stale; it’s so easy to get lost in her world that you won’t even realize 3 minutes and 20 seconds has gone by and you’ll want to replay it 20 times on your drive to work or while sniffing melons at the supermarket. I know this sounds oddly specific, and that’s because it is. I listen to every piece I review 3 times over at least, and this was one of the easiest songs to follow that rule with to date.

“Right Words Wrong Time” is the second-to-last song on this album, and I think that was done with a concerning degree of intention. It’s a slow, melancholic track about a relationship that just isn’t working because the two lovers are on two different wavelengths. It rings consistent with Carly’s desire for passionate and confident love, as she’s frustrated with her lover for not prioritizing her enough to know what she really seeks in their relationship until its too late. I was considerably surprised by this track, but I think it works so perfectly for this album’s overarching layout and themes because it teaches the listener that you should never settle in a relationship, and you should know when you’ve given enough chances. It’s not a song you could break out in a full-choreographed dance to at any given time, but it doesn’t need to be for the message it’s trying to convey. Carly’s soft vocals and the simple, tastefully-repetitive beat amplify what she’s saying in a way that really resonates with the listener, which is exactly what the lyrics of this song demand. It works perfectly.

Remember that point about “Right Words Wrong Time” intentionally being toward the end for a reason? Well, “Real Love” ends this album and that same concept must have been employed here, too, because this song ties this album together so perfectly, it could honestly work as a formal outro. It sums up what Carly has always been about, wanting “real, real love” in a cold and unforgiving world when she doesn’t know who to trust or who is telling the truth. It’s such a wholesome desire that I think most people can relate to in one way or another, because at the end of the day, a lot of humans just want real, honest relationships that give them a reason to get out of bed on a particularly tough day, or to reassure them that they’re worth something when the world gets them down. This energetic pop song and earnest ballad hybrid showcases just how much CRJ makes music for normal, everyday people who aren’t glamourous rich pop stars constantly feeling like they’re the best. It’s so honest and I can feel how naked she must have felt writing and putting out a song like this, and it shouldn’t go without appreciation.

Listen to “Dedicated” here and stream the music video for “Now That I Found You” here.

#002. “90s BXTCH” - SINGLE BY KKUMA (꿈아) RELEASE DATE: 26 MAY 2019

If I had been on top of my game this month, this song almost certainly would have missed the cutoff date to be included in this list -- so I guess my turmoil was a blessing in disguise (though it could have always been included in next month’s, I know, but I like to be optimistic sometimes).

Kkuma is one of those artists that, even if by some tragedy you don’t like her, you have to respect her because of how iconic her style is, what she stands for, and the fact that she’s probably produced some of your favourite Korean artists’ biggest hits. She’s really been outdoing herself this year by releasing so much music after leaving her fans with very little the last year and a half, and nothing she’s put out has been bad. Period.

(The reason I haven’t been reviewing them all individually is because I’m nearly certain that she’s gearing up to release an album this year, by the way. I’m not a fake stan, I promise).

“90s BXTCH” stood out to me this month because of how utterly Kkuma it is -- she’s basically pioneered the 90′s aesthetic in the Korean music industry and she knows that with a song like this, from the descriptions of classic 90′s aesthetics and imagery to the way this song sounds like it could have been ahead of its time during its release in 1996. The chorus references “Sade,” though I’m not entirely sure if it’s referring to the solo artist or the band she was in that was named after her -- either way, Sade is a 90′s icon known for her soulful vocals and unique style, and Kkuma mirrors that in 2019 in a way that is indescribable. It’s a perfect allusion.

As the single description states, the track is an ambitious mix of 90′s R&B and contemporary hip-hop, and it works so beautifully, showing that old trends really never die because they always come back in one way or another. Kkuma makes it clear through this song that while she’s a simple woman, she isn’t basic; she enjoys the finer things in life but they’re not all she cares about. The song has an underlying message about being true to yourself no matter what everyone else is doing, and also that it’s a beautiful life when you mind your own business and do things your own way. The seamless blend of vocals and rap is done so well that it’s nearly undetectable when she’s switching from one to another, and I love that this woman literally has no rules when she puts out a song -- that she can do whatever she wants and still make something incredible.

The beat of the song is just as relaxed and confident as the lyrics, and given that Kkuma writes and produces her own music, I’m not surprised by this, though I am impressed by how in-tune she is with her own aesthetic and her own music. Kkuma prioritizes aesthetics a lot in both her visuals and sound, and “90s BXTCH” is like the final boss as all of that culminates and she shows you exactly who she is and what she’s about in just one song. It takes strength, confidence, and self-awareness for an artist to do that, and Kkuma’s got all of that and more. I really hope to see this included on a future album of the same caliber.

Listen to “90s BXTCH” here and stream the music video here.

#001. “DUSK V. DAWN (황혼 대 새벽)” - REISSUE ALBUM BY NINEBANG (나인뱅) RELEASE DATE: 03 MAY 2019

If you’ve spent more than five minutes on my blog at any given time after NINEBANG’s debut in May of last year, this probably is no surprise to you. Especially when his age bracket and status as a rookie is considered, NINEBANG is one of the best artists out there right now, and the best male vocalist in the industry, by far. I was elated to see that his second mini-album “Eclipse” was being repackaged into a full-length album, and boy am I satisfied with the new material sprinkled into an already-great work.

Whenever K-pop artists do repackage albums, I get a bit nervous that they’re either going to add bland remixes or re-hash the same song structure they had in the initial release, or completely destroy the synergy of the original release, if it had any to begin with. As much as I admire NINEBANG, I couldn’t evade those worries with him, and I was pleasantly proven wrong as the new material fits like a glove among the original material in terms of themes and structure. Whoever arranged this tracklist deserves a gold medal, as I especially appreciated how the new songs weren’t just tacked onto the end like an afterthought.

So, that considered I want to exclusively focus on the new material, as I reviewed “Eclipse” in the past. The songs I have selected to pitch to you are, of course “WANT”, “Artistic Groove”, and “Nightdrive.”

Starting with the title track, “WANT” is perhaps the best of this dark, sultry image NINEBANG is exploring with both this album and it’s initial release. It’s a contemporary R&B and Pop hybrid, drawing the listener into NINEBANG’s sultry charms and powerful yet versatile voice. The lyrics are actually pretty simple and somewhat repetitive, but the way they are delivered makes this song the great listen that it is. I actually recommend you watch live performances of this song, too, because they are really something. I’ve never been a good dancer but watching someone not only outsing the industry but move so fluidly while doing so is beyond my realm of understanding. Anyway, “WANT” does its job to make you horny but it also incites this sense of curiosity in the listener, too; like the feeling you get when you know you’re about to indulge in a sinful pleasure but you wonder what the consequences will actually be, and if they’ll even be worth worrying over in comparison to the pleasure itself. This song spells out temptation with bold letters between NINEBANG’s seductive vocals and the spell-like lyrics. It’s not a listen for the faint of heart, but it’s a great song by a great artist, and that’s always worth your time.

Next is “Artistic Groove,” and if you thought “WANT” was a little dirty, we’re just getting started. This song is packed with innuendos and suggestive tones, to the point where my eyebrows were almost flying off my face the entire time I was listening to it. It’s so good, though; the way he lays out his sexuality and sensuality for the listener to explore. It, in turn, can make the listener feel confident and sexy, on top of being the kind of song you just have to move to. It makes a fleeting attraction feel like something deep and profound, like the excuses you make in your head before a hookup, and while that can be a little dangerous for the weak-willed (like me), it’s the kind of unapologetic self-expression and view into the artist’s mind that I like to see in music. I like to know that I’m listening to a person sometimes, and not some untouchable god, as much life as that can give me, too.

Finally, let’s end this segment right by talking about Nightdrive. I actually wasn’t sure how I felt about this song the first time I listened to it, but it grew on me by the second time, and by the third, I was belting out the chorus to my neighbours’ dismay. This track features another great vocalist, June of GEMINI, who you may remember from last months’ TMIM post. I can tell these two are friends because they work together really well; their singing styles are pretty different and wouldn’t work together in even a slightly different setting, but they made them work in this suave R&B track about a blossoming attraction in the confined space of a car. The way the verses and bridge build up to the loud and funky chorus via both the lyrical structure and the arrangement of the song itself is so smooth and easy on the ears, while it simultaneously builds anticipation in your chest, and I really enjoy getting invested in a song like that. Their chemistry is really what makes this listen so enjoyable, because I honestly feel as though if anyone else released this song, it wouldn’t have been that great. It just goes to show how specific music can be.

Listen to “Dusk V. Dawn (황혼 대 새벽)” here and stream its music videos here and here.

This concludes May’s installment of “This Month in Music”! I hope you found something new or learned to appreciate something you may not have before through these recommendations. Please remember to support the artists by visiting their respective links, and enjoy their music legally. Also, be sure to tell me about your own recommendations from this month in the comments, and feel free to respectfully discuss any of the points I’ve made here, whether you agreed or disagreed.

Love always, see you next month! ♡

#r: multi #s: tmim #a: etude♡#a: charli xcx #a: lizzo #a: carly rae jepsen #a: kkuma #a: ninebang

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