#[its sadly not a perfect loop.]

[ask-jewels-against-the-sea]

All my fellow pebble enthusiasts shall eat well soon when I'm done.

I'm participating in a map and am about a quarter of the way done with my part (im not avoiding a turnaround or anything haha.. ha....) So here's a little peek before the finished product comes out sometime soon! :]

Also explains why I've been a bit silent again!

[absolutebl]

I've been out of the bl loop for a while (give or take a year tbh) and I am honestly overwhelmed at all the stuff coming up recently in bl... Is there top five you'd suggest from the past year among thai stuff (the rest bl-producing countries have a manageable lists of releases ig)

Thank you so much for your time and patience! :D

Top 5 Thai BLs from the past year? (2024)

Well it's a contentious field and there has been a lot, so I'll narrow it further and give you 2024 so far, from my personal favorites but specifically ones that I believe added to the zeitgeist in some significant way.

The Sign

YouTube

This show is literally everything (except straight) all at once. It's BL, queer, band of brothers, romcom, erotica, PNR, fated mates, police procedural, fantasy, mystery, suspense, and slasher. It’s the king of genre mash-up chaos. Sure, it's madness but there is genius in it. Was it a crazy unhinged mess +1 roll for damage? Yes. Yes it was. Did it manage to hold all those tangled threads together? No it did not. Was it also a charming, sexy, engaging, non-stop piece of entertainment? Sure thing. I think this show is basically my KinnPorsche, and frankly I’ve been chasing that dragon naga since KP aired. Is it perfect? No. But it was balls to the wall FUN.

Cherry Magic (Thai remake)

Grey

A soft charming warm hug of a show about crushes and mind reading and self worth that really worked for me. With no-fuss execution from a consummate team (at GMMTV) and an OG lead pair (proving why they remain eternal and deserve to grow up). Look, here’s the thing, Cherry Magic is a great Thai BL in its own right - not comparing it to any other iteration. But even when I do compare (and I've seen all the Cherries and read the manga) it stands strong. I, personally, like the Thai BL slightly better than the Japanese live action yaoi, but I think that’s because I just really enjoy Thai BL's style and I LOVE TayNew. Also all the kissing was both present and better in this version. As it should be from Thailand.

Century of Love

Gaga

This is a very pretty drama about a young man who fell in love with a nice girl 100 years ago, and when she died in his arms, he was cursed to live until he could meet her reborn self. Only this time around, she’s reborn into the body of a man. Or is she? I love it when Thailand gets all up in its own historical business and reincarnation and shizz. I like this pair (it’s not DaouOffroad’s fault I didn’t enjoy their first series.) Daou’s wushu is snazzy and we got a unique meet cute. (Erm… Remeet cute? Meet cute 2.0?) Ultimately, this is I Feel You Linger in the Air + First Love Again, rather than (as one might expect) Until We Meet Again or The Director Who Buys Me Dinner. The leads turned in great performances, although Daou outclassed everybody else on that screen. It’s a good story and a great BL and I can’t find any major faults with it beyond a certain level of camp that is sadly endemic to lakorns. It was, to put it succinctly, a VERY ENJOYABLE show. 

Wandee Goodday

YouTube

This is the only "typical" BL I'll be recommending on this list and that's because this is such a FUN show. A charming quintessentially modern Thai BL about a doctor and a boxer who start as a one night stand and then fall in love. Great rep for everything from Muay Thai, to safe sex, to FUN sex, to ace, to bisexuality, to smiley kisses, to the first legal gay wedding in a Thai BL. It’s a delight and I enjoyed (almost) every single moment of it. With out question it's best traits are active positive representations of green flag boys, communication, and grown-up relationships but the chemistry is on point too. Highly recommended as one of 2024's best pick-me-ups. (We need it, been a bit of a downer year.)

We Are

iQIYI

If Wandee Goodday is your happy pill, We Are is the warmest hug on the planet. Of the ones on this list, this is the only one I've already rewatched. 2x (High praise!) I loved show. It was slow to find its stride (I didn’t get into it until ep 6) but I’m so glad I gave it a chance. It’s a soft ensemble piece with multiple couples and very little plot, but I didn’t care because it’s not trying to be anything more substantial. Essentially this was a series of vignettes covering one year of uni for a queer friendship group finding love, new friends, and laughter. It’s not being harsh with us or it’s characters the way some offerings of this ilk have been (side eyes Friend Zone and Only Friends) nor did it tumble into Gen Y chaos. In fact, this reminded me more than anything of a refined and elevated Love Sick - just with older characters and occurring within a genre that has matured too. In it's own quiet way, it was groundbreaking. It has that close queer friendship group meets earnest gentleness that made me adore Love Sick and Make It Right so much. In other words, this was Thai BL at its finest, finding it roots again 10 years on, but also stretching upwards and showing us what it could do with that original seed. So? I adored it. Did it blow my mind? No. But it left me smiling and made me belly laugh quite a bit.

I hope you give these 5 a chance.

[rosyrosethings]

KIng Harry and The Nanny p2

this is part 2 of Harry and the nanny. you don't have to read part 1. This is just another part of the story.

Warning: smut, fluff, blow job,

Harry's heart raced like a teenage boy's when he was near her. Every afternoon, as the children drifted off to sleep, his desire for her became overwhelming and irresistible. He would quietly slip away from his duties as king and pull her into any vacant space they could find - a closet, an unoccupied room - just to indulge in her sweet taste. Even just a simple kiss from her was enough to satisfy his longing. It had been so long since he had felt genuine affection from anyone, and he craved her attention more than anything else. When they were alone, she would always tenderly kiss his head before returning to their daily routines. Harry lived for those moments, cherishing every kiss on his forehead from her. Y/n was well aware of the nature of their relationship; after all, he was the married king and she was only the nanny. But she couldn't deny the intense craving she felt for his touch, his love, anything that came from him.

On this particular Saturday night, Y/n relished in having the day off from her duties and lounged at home with her roommate Bri, unable to shake off thoughts of Harry. Her and Bri set there enjoying there second bottle of wine and each other company.

"Bri its all he doess, doesn't do anything else. He won't even let me touch him." She said, resting on the couch looking at her roomate Bri.

"Maybe he’s like really into pleasing you." She said looking up at her offering her comfort.

"Yea he is but He wants more I could tell. Maybe he just doesn't want me in that way." She said sadly.

"No he wants you. Everyone who sees you wants you in that way." She said looking at her up and down. Y/n laughed

"I am serious bri.." she said laughing

"Maybe hes gay." Bri said, Y/n laughed harder

"Oh please, Bri. He's definitely not gay," Y/n said, rolling her eyes. "You should see the way he looks at me sometimes. It's like he wants to devour me whole."

Bri waggled her eyebrows suggestively. "Ooh, sounds steamy. So why don't you make a move then? Take control for once?"

Y/n sighed, running a hand through her hair. "It's not that simple. He's the king, remember? And married. I can't just throw myself at him."

"Why not? Sounds like he's already throwing himself at you every chance he gets," Bri pointed out.

Y/n bit her lip, considering. "I don't know... What if I'm reading too much into it? What if he rejects me?"

Just then, Y/n's phone buzzed with a text.

‘I know it’s your day off but I need to see you.’ -Harry

‘Is everything okay?’ -Y/n

‘I’m just missing you. I’m coming over now.’- Harry

The text threw her for a loop. Y/n immediately shot up and started straightening up the apartment

“Are you okay?” Bri asked watching her jump from place to place erratic cleaning.

“He’s coming over! Bri go to your room. I didn’t tell him i told you. I was supposed to keep the affair a secret.” She said,

Bri's eyes widened in surprise, her mouth forming a perfect O shape. "Wait, what? He's coming here? Now?" She jumped up from the plush couch, scattering scattered items as she grabbed her phone and hastily stuffed them into her bag. "Okay, okay, I'm going." Her voice was strained with excitement and urgency. "But you better tell me everything later!"

As Bri hurried off into her room, Y/n's heart raced with anticipation and nerves. She quickly smoothed down her hair, checking herself in the mirror and straightening her clothes. The doorbell rang just moments later, startling her.

As Y/n's heart raced with anticipation, she reached for the door handle and took a deep breath to steady her nerves. She swung the door open to reveal Harry standing there, his tall frame shrouded in an all-black ensemble. A dark hoodie was pulled up over his head, casting shadows over his face, while large, opaque sunglasses shielded his eyes from view. Despite the darkness surrounding him, Y/n could still feel the intensity of his gaze on her as she stood before him,

"Y/n," he breathed out, stepping inside and closing the door behind him. As soon as he entered, he shed his hood and shades, revealing his mesmerizing green eyes that seemed to intensify upon locking onto hers. In an instant, he had her pressed against the wall, his body flush against hers. His lips crashed onto hers in a passionate kiss that took her breath away. "I couldn't wait to do that," he whispered huskily as he pulled away, leaving Y/n feeling weak at the knees.

"Maybe we should go to my room, don't want to wake my roommate." She said looking up at him. He smiled

"Lead the way love." She smiled at him grabbing his hand leading him to her bedroom.  She opened the door to her room quickly closing the door behind him. She immediately started to kiss him again. Softly leading him to her bed. She pushed him down on the mattress. Her standing over him.

"Hoodie off." She demanded, he smiled at her attitude. She wanted to please him for once. He obliged taking off his hoodie. Revealing his bare chest. Y/n sat on his lap straddling him.

"I can't wait to have you in my mouth." He said looking up at her. She kissed his lips.

"Not today I will have you in mines." She said kissing his lips again. She felt him stiffening up at her response. Harry was scared. She pushed him down on her mattress as she kissed his neck.

"What wrong? You don't want me to please you." She asked looking at him propped up on both of her hands. Ge saw the disappointment in her eyes.

"No baby, I just haven't had sex in a long time. I don't want to cum to fast. Just looking at you makes me dick hard. I bust just eating you out. I could imagine how it would be inside you." He said, looking up at her. She pressed down her hips to his. Grinding against his dick which was hard already.

"I don't care if you cum quick. I want you inside me I want to see your face while you're deep in my pussy." She said leaning down to kiss him. His dick twitched at her words. There lips moved against one another her hands made her way down his chest. She sat up taking off her shirt.

She slowly slid off of him, her fingers hooking around the waistband of his black joggers as she helped him remove them. Her hands moved effortlessly, unfastening his pants and revealing a pair of gray briefs underneath. In the dim light, she could see the outline of his strong hips and toned muscles, causing a wave of desire to wash over her. She couldn't resist running her hands along his defined abdomen, feeling the heat radiating from his skin. It was as if she couldn't get enough of him, wanting to explore every inch of his body with her touch.

“Gotta get these off.” A mischievous smile played on her lips as she reached for the waistband of his gray briefs. With a teasing tug, she pulled them down, revealing his eager arousal that pressed against his stomach. She gazed at it with a lust in her eyes, knowing that she was in full control of his pleasure. Her hand went him. Harry sighed in relief. Its been so long since he's been pleasured. Especially like this. Her hands went up and down his shaft.

“I’m gonna put you in my mouth now.” Her words dripped seductively from her lips as she looked up at Harry, her hand wrapped tightly around him. A feeling of pure ecstasy coursed through his body at the mere touch of her fingers. She placed a soft kiss on the tip before swirling her tongue around it, sending shivers down his spine. He struggled to hold back, determined not to reach his peak too soon in this blissful moment. But every sensation she created was like fire, filling him with an overwhelming desire for more. Every part of him wanted to surrender to her and fully give into this pleasure that she so expertly provided.

Y/n continued to pleasure Harry with expertise, her lips and tongue working in perfect harmony to bring him to the edge of ecstasy. She could feel his body tensing beneath her touch, his breath hitching with each movement she made. As she continued to take him deeper into her mouth, she could hear Harry's ragged breathing turning into soft moans of pleasure.

"Oh god, Y/n," Harry groaned, his voice husky with desire. "You're so good at this."

She hummed in response, the vibrations sending shivers down his spine. Encouraged by his praise, she increased the intensity of her movements, determined to make him lose control.

Harry's fingers tangled in her hair, guiding her rhythm as he whispered, "Faster, baby. I need more of you."

Y/n complied eagerly, taking him as deep as she could as she quickened her pace. The sounds of their passion filled the room, mingling with the creak of the bed and Harry's increasingly urgent pleas for more.

"I can't hold back much longer," Harry gasped, his hips bucking involuntarily.

Y/n pulled back slightly, her gaze locking with his before she teased, "Do you want to cum in my mouth, Harry?" Her hand still moving up and down his dick.

His eyes darkened with desire as he nodded eagerly. "Yes, please, Y/n.”

“Do it then.” She said, With a sultry smile before she took him back in fully, using every trick and movement she knew to push him closer to the edge. His dick fully down her throat.

As their connection intensified, Harry's moans grew louder and more desperate, echoing off the walls of the room. Y/n eagerly took him in her mouth, feeling his fingers tightly gripping her hair. With one final deep thrust into her mouth and a guttural groan of euphoria, Harry reached his peak. Y/n greedily swallowed every drop, savoring the taste of him on her tongue. He came with such force that it almost overwhelmed her, but she eagerly lapped up every last bit of his pleasure.

As he came down from his high, Harry gazed up at Y/n with a mix of awe and gratitude. "That was… incredible," he panted, his chest rising and falling rapidly.

Y/n grinned triumphantly before leaning in to press a lingering kiss on his lips. "I'm glad you enjoyed it," she whispered softly against his skin.

Harry wrapped his arms around her. Pulling her close to him. He placed a kiss on her forehead. She looked up him as his hand traced her back

“When was the last time someone pleased you?” Y/n asked, looking up at him.

“Well charlotte is the only woman i have been with and I haven’t did anything with her since…”he said trailing off.

“Wait you’ve only been with charlotte?” She asked a bit shock. Feeling a bit like she took something away from him.

"And you." He said with nonchalant ease, his gaze steady and unwavering. Y/n sat up, her heart racing as she looked down at him. His face was a mixture of vulnerability and strength, making her heart ache for him. "But Charlottes more of a just a duty to my kingdom," he continued, his voice tinged with sadness. "My parents died when I was young, and Charlotte was one of the women they had approved of before their tragic accident. I had to marry quickly because of my impending kingship. But Charlotte was never my true love."

He reached out and gently took her hand, bringing it to his lips for a soft kiss. Y/n felt her cheeks flush with warmth at his touch and words.

"But then I saw you," he said softly, his eyes shining with fondness. "You took my breath away. You were wearing a black turtleneck sweater with white trousers and black boots, and a black hat to top it off. It was snowing but you were determined to get a picture of the palace for our social media. I happened to look out the window and saw you, and I couldn't help but ask William who the crazy lady outside was."

A small smile tugged at the corners of his lips as he remembered that day. "William told me you were American and that you worked on the royal social media team. And then I came downstairs shortly after, and there you were - standing in front of the fireplace in Buckingham Palace. Your hands were clasped in front of you, trying to warm them by the fire. Snowflakes were melting off your coat, but I could see your fingers were freezing cold."

His eyes softened as he recalled his actions that day. "I couldn't resist approaching you with a blanket to wrap around your shoulders. And then you turned and looked at me for the first time - our eyes met and I felt something I had never felt for anyone else.” He said, his green eyes meeting hers.

Y/n felt her heart swell with emotion at Harry's words. She remembered that day vividly - how nervous she had been on her first day working at the palace, how cold she had been after taking photos outside in the snow. And then how her breath had caught in her throat when she turned to see the handsome king offering her a blanket, his green eyes warm with concern.

"I remember," she said softly. "I was so flustered I could barely speak. You were so kind to me."

Harry's thumb stroked her hand gently. "From that moment on, I found myself looking for excuses to be near you. I'd walk through rooms I knew you'd be working in, hoping to catch a glimpse. When the nanny position opened up, I immediately thought of you - selfishly wanting you to be around more often."

Y/n's mind whirled with this newfound knowledge. The pieces of the puzzle were finally starting to come together. "So you're the one who recommended me for the job," she exclaimed, a playful giggle escaping her lips.

A warm smile spread across his face as he replied, "Yes, the best decision I ever made."

[junoshifts]

𝓐SK 𝓖AME !

ANSWERING FOR MY CRESCENT CITY REALITY

dedicated to @vshiftsss ! ✶ tumblr wouldn’t allow me to directly answer your ask for some reason, so i had to do it as its own post sadly. regardless, enjoy <3

🎠 maximus the stallion . . . who is your loyal steed, the person who drives you to do what is important to you? if you have an s/o, did this person dislike them at first, or did they trust each other?

dawn ( aka @dawnsdreamworld ) is my ride or die, my bffie. dawn is bryce’s older sibling in that reality, so i actually met through them. there wasn’t much animosity or disagreement between us, since they actually encouraged me to go through with asking bryce out. they’re already dating hunt, so we end up hanging out as a group of 4 for most of our double dates and such. danika is definitely my second choice for this, but once again, she and bryce were such close friends that i was honestly the one out of the loop. in order to win bryce’s heart, you have to earn the trust and respect of her friends and family— luckily for me, i got along with all of them very well, so i didn’t have many issues on that front.

☀️ sun of corona . . . who or what brings light and hope in your life? are you a symbol of goodness for those around you? do others look up to you, or do you have people you look up to? do you want the respect and love of people around you, or would you prefer to be feared for your strengths?

bryce is a source of such immense light for me, both metaphorically and literally. she is so bright and full of life and enthusiasm, it illuminates every hidden shadow and brings such goodness. even in her darkest moments, she manages to find a way to overcome and persevere. she defies all the odds and stays true to herself, and i’ll always be proud of her for that. i look up to her mom a lot, she is a bit overprotective of bryce (for valid reasons, obviously) but she cares so deeply and wholly. i prefer to be someone reliable and loved, a person who earns respect from their positive qualities and empathy.

🌰 hazelnut soup . . . what is your comfort food or meal in your dr? is this a family recipe, or perhaps something from your favorite restaurant/tavern? do you make it from scratch or does someone else make it for you?

i am a dumpling enthusiast to my core. bryce cannot cook well (said with love) so i do most of the cooking for us. sometimes she will sit in the kitchen with me when i make dumplings for us, and we’ll chat about life while i do. i was always taught that the secret ingredient to making the perfect meal is making it with love, and as a result, each of my dishes is comforting and warm. one of my current favorites is a chicken and dumpling soup, it’s simple and hearty and so delicious. it’s almost like a deconstructed chicken pot pie, but the dumplings make it so delicious.

🍳 frying pan . . . what was your first impression of your s/o? what was their first impression of you? how did you meet, and did that have an impact on your relationship’s path? have your impressions of each other changed over time?

bryce and i met in college, our dorms were near each other so we exchanged numbers and decided to be friends. we would go out for coffee and study together, and the more time we spent together, the more our feelings developed. i became a third wheel on her friendship with danika, and dani constantly knew something was up between me and bryce and tried to point it out. i’ve thought she was gorgeous since our first meeting— her cherry-red curls, elegant ruby nails, warm eyes, thick lashes, and delicate freckles sprinkled across her cheeks make me feel a little crazy at times, but in the best way. she’s lovely and kind and enthusiastic about so much, she is like a human embodiment of the sun in every possible way.

[hotvintagepoll]

Okay, but now I must know your opinions on Putt-Putt games! (Gotta disagree with you. Putt-Putt Goes to the Moon is clearly the Best of them all)

i haven't played all the games (including Goes to the Moon, sadly), but here are my unfiltered reviews for all the ones I have played!

Putt-Putt Saves the Zoo: a classic. a slowburn. the same every time but that adds to its aura of stability, the old world, a pocket out of time undisturbed. also there are cheese puffs and you can have putt-putt eat them over and over if you don’t care much about saving the elephant

Putt-Putt Travels Through Time: more hectic, meandering, a loop in a loop: the clues ever spiraling outward, the chaos of time unlocked vying with old prospector stereotypes and a deeply inaccurate Middle Ages. a singing hourglass asks putt-putt to resolve reality and he responds “and my homework?” Notable for its wagon wheel fruit snacks (edible if you want to sacrifice the entire old west portion and shoot your gameplay in the foot) and the talking floating lipstick wearing car i had a crush on as a 4 year old.

Putt-Putt Enters the Race: a!!! banger!!!!! yes you get stuck in the vegetable garden too long. yes you wonder why Outback Al, a supposed zoologist, doesn’t know what a baby yak eats. but there’s a cat stuck in a tree and a dog with buried treasure and sometimes the shed is on fire! this is riveting domestic drama and the cherry on top is the number of milkshakes one can order. (a lot.)

Freddi Fish and the Stolen Conch Shell: the most perfect of the freddi games in my opinion for channeling noir coral reef aesthetics into a chiming, dark-hue’d mystery. shady characters galore (also a monkey). an intense climax with true stakes. a squid with a cabaret act. freddi peaks. (the seaweed looks soooo edible.)

Freddi Fish and the Hogfish Rustlers: ok this one kinda beefs it ngl. yes there’s an old timey bar yes you can order a root bear soda. but the vibes? the QUEST? the menace of the deep? lacking. there is one cool part where you can intentionally drown a ship, but otherwise the aesthetic is too brown to really go full High Noon.

Freddi Fish and the Case of the Creature of Coral Cove: the character design in this suuuuucks I couldn’t tell you why I just hate all of them. BUT there is a taffy machine and I love the finale of running around the house flipping open secret doors and bribing dogs, so I give it points for that.

Freddi Fish and Maze Madness: aptly named because this game has been driving me insane for years. I played it last week and I’m still stuck on level 31. what the fuck. humongous entertainment said let’s make a game for 8 year olds so we can really let those little suckers know they ain’t shit because this thing is impossible

[noellevanious]

OK so if it wasn't obvious I've been jammiing on Nubby's Number Factory. I'm not too deep so I haven't learned any strats necessarily, but I have won with three different Tonys (no Stock tony win yet sadly) and I wanted to give my thoughts on the game! (below the cut)

I really like Nubby! It's a really interesting game, the obvious comparison is Balatro, but I love what Nubby does differently.

I feel like Nubby really knows how it wants to portray itself. It's got such a distinct style, partially kind of early 2000's computer royalty-free assets, partially just abstract goofy playfulness.

However! I feel like (compared to Balatro) it trades that for pure gameplay experience, and I feel like it's really interesting to compare the two!

Balatro is an insane game when you really think about it - with just a single major update since it launched, the core game is just so solidly thought out, and outside of minor things like certain jokers being objectively bad, there are no glaring issues that can take away from the fun. If you like it, you'll end up loving it.

But, its core gameplay loop can get boring, since it's just picking cards, and I feel like Nubby's loop of shooting Nubby is that tiny bit more engaging!

I also feel like you still always have agency over Nubby in any given run, and very rarely does it feel like you can just Fire and Forget and auto-win, vs in Balatro how optimal decks are usually you just getting your preferred hand without even trying.

But, I feel like the items, perks, and even Tonys are a bit more limited, and I hope MogDogBlog (the dev(s)) are able to tighten them up, because Nubby is just such a fun game to throw on for a bit.

New items (especially foods), rebalancing certain ones so there's more variety in building, and achievements would make the game perfect imo, but for right now $5 is a steal for how great of a game Nubby is

[decks-writing-blog]

One Could Theoretically

Summary: Auri has a theory that all Bramble seeds, no matter where they are in the universe, connect.

[A/N] Remember the Elsinore Easter Egg in Dark Bramble? It's probably not intended to be canon but the idea of it being so is interesting so I wanted to write something based on it. I don't know anything about Elsinore though so I decided to send them somewhere else since I figure if there's a seed that leads to Elsinore and however far away in the galaxy that might be, there could easily be more that lead to other places. I wasn't sure where to send them at first but then I was reminded of Subnautica and it's perfect because it's also a game that involves exploring alien places. I also found the idea of them finding Ryley's base to be funny because they way I played Subnautica is that I liked picking things up but didn't like throwing anything away, resulting in me having lots of cabinets full of mostly titanium ore. Anytime I wanted to craft something I had to check like at least three cabinets before finding what I needed.

Also, this is mostly an Outer Wilds fic, no Subnautica characters show up. You could probably read it and understand just fine without having played Subnautica. It's a post loop AU for Outer Wilds and either end game or post game for Subnautica.

~

The seed on Timber Hearth that had connected directly to Dark Bramble despite the vast physical distance between the two had been appropriately enough the seed for the hypothesis. Auri’s discovery of a seed leading to a room of obvious alien origin – sadly only accessible to the Little Scouts – didn’t quite confirm it but it did lend more credence to it. The original seed that had resulted in Dark Bramble hatching from what had once been Outer Wilds’ sixth planet – fifth if one was counting the Hourglass Twins as a single entity – should still connect to its originator. Every seed, no matter how far flung, connected through that foggy, impossible space within. “Meaning, one could theoretically fly into the Dark Bramble seed in our solar system and come out a different seed in a whole other system light years away,” Auri had said when insisting they be allowed on their current expedition.

They’d come and gone many times since then, often staying away for extended lengths of time. Such was normal, the flight to Dark Bramble by itself was too long to be considered a quick jaunt. This was the longest they’d been gone though.

Worrying about them would do Gossan no good. Thanks to the time loop they’d supposedly been stuck in for the equivalent of years, they were quite experienced with space travel. The year they’d had since ending the loop and renewing the universe at the Eye had given them plenty of time to prove that. They knew what they were doing out there. Such had been the case with Feldspar too though.

Feldspar had known what they were doing and their outings had grown longer and longer as they’d ventured further and further until eventually they stopped coming back altogether. Experience and know-how didn’t make one immune to mistakes or misfortune. And Auri, also like Feldspar, had always been a bit reckless. Having recognized that early, Gossan had tried to train it out of them. But then the loop happened and seemingly just reinforced their reckless tendencies with a ‘safety doesn’t matter because everything resets at the end of three days anyway’. Or maybe Gossan’s attempts to attempts to instill caution into them had been doomed to fail regardless.

Still though, there wasn’t much good to be had worrying. At least, unlike with Feldspar, they all knew where Auri had gone. That would make search efforts – hopefully it wouldn’t come to that – easier to conduct, making the likelihood of finding them higher.

With some effort, Gossan tore their eyes off the sky and its over abundance of stars – even after a year the sheer amount of stars could be staggering to look upon at times – and turned back to head into the cabin. Inside, Feldspar sat on the couch, seemingly waiting for their return.

“I thought you were sleeping,” they said for want of what else to say and because that’s where Gossan had left them; asleep in the bed.

Feldspar shrugged. “Eh, I’m not really all that tired. I think I might be starting to get bored of this ‘being part of ground control’ thing.” Meaning they’ll be wanting to hop in their repaired and upgraded ship and go off exploring again, leaving Gossan with two people to worry about dying in space. “What about you? Why you up?”

There’d been a time in Gossan’s life in which they would’ve been hesitant to openly admit their anxieties. They were too old for that though. “I’m worried about Auri. They’ve been gone a long time.”

“They’re fine. They’ve ventured to and survived places even I’ve never been to.”

“Yeah, they’re a lot like you; they’re a damn good pilot and they know what they’re doing.” Gossan crossed their arms as they gave Feldspar a pointed look that hopefully got across their point that that was part of the problem without them having to say it out loud. Feldspar’s decade long disappearance wasn’t something they discussed often but it frequently showed up as a mountain in the room with them. It’s why they’d agreed to Gossan’s suggestion they join in as part of ground control for at least a little while.

Feldspar grimaced, indicating they understood. “Fair point. Want me to go look for them?”

“No.” The last thing Gossan wanted for them to potentially get stuck in Dark Bramble again too. “Thanks for offering but Hornfels will probably send someone soon.” Gossan would insist on it if Auri didn’t turn up in the next week or two. “Probably Gabbro if I had to guess.” Gabbro was often given odd jobs and was Auri’s ‘time buddy’.

“I’m sure they’re fine.” Feldspar’s tone was less dismissive this time, making their words far more successful at being reassuring than their previous attempt to brush Gossan’s concerns off. “They probably found what they’re looking for or something else cool and are just taking a while to come back because they’re too distracted exploring.”

“That would be just like them, huh?”

“Also, time goes slower in the Bramble. It’s not been as long for them as it’s been for us.”

More and more reasons for Gossan to not be worried. They couldn’t help it of course but Auri probably was fine. “True.”

Feldspar stood and stretched. “Now, since neither of us are sleeping tonight after all, let’s go for a walk. We could stop by the Observatory to see if there’s any news. Then after we could stop by Porphy’s place.”

It’s not like Gossan had anything better to do currently. So, wordlessly, they followed Feldspar back outside. A walk should do them some good. And who knows maybe there would be news that Auri had radioed in that they were on their way back.

A week later

In classic Auri fashion, they didn’t radio in about their impending return even though they were supposed to. They just flew in and landed on the launch platform.

Already in the area, Gossan pivoted to meet them at the campfire at the bottom of the elevator. Turns out they weren’t alone though, they’d brought Gabbro too – meaning Gabbro had once again abandoned their ship to ride with Auri. That meant Auri had found something though; they weren’t returning in defeat this time. They always went to Gabbro first before bothering to tell anyone else anything, let alone properly report their findings. Another habit the loop had ingrained in them that they were putting seemingly no real effort into breaking.

As soon as the elevator clunked into place at the bottom, Auri hopped off and pranced over to Gossan, a barely held in grin on their face. They had indeed found something then. “Gossan! Look at this.” They held up a loosely rolled piece of paper, letting it unfurl as they held it up and pointed at it with their other hand.

“Hello to you too.” Tempting as it was to chastise them for not radioing in as soon as they were in range to do so, Gossan wasn’t going to bother yet. Later they might but for now it was good to see them safe and sound. Also curiosity about what Auri had deemed important enough to bring back was too strong to put off.

Auri held a poster depicting art of an alien creature. It was two eyed like the Stranger’s inhabitants but that’s were the similarities ended. The simple art style rendered its body into a blob or perhaps the creature it was depicting was just like that. It had a tail, pointed ears, and seemed to be covered in fur. A glass helmet covered its head. Or maybe that was part of its body that just looked like a helmet. Alien script, neither Nomai nor Stranger sat beneath it.

“You found another alien race?” That was Feldspar coming up behind Gossan, speaking their thought almost exactly. First the Stranger and now this. Auri apparently had a knack for that kind of thing. Granted they’d been looking to access another solar system this time but what where the chances they’d end up in one that contained intelligent alien life? It had to be low unless the stars were brimming with life. Which maybe they were, that’d be pretty neat.

“Yep. Sort of anyway. Well, I did find aliens but none of them seemed intelligent. They were freaky fish. The beings that made this and the building I found it in weren’t present. But it’s cool, right?”

“Very.” Gossan was impressed. “I take it this means you proved your Bramble theory.”

“Yes! At first I thought I just ended up back in Outer Wilds again ‘cause it looked like Dark Bramble but then I realized it actually didn’t. The shape was wrong and I couldn’t pull up the map. And then I looked around some more and the sun and planets were all different. I don’t know if that’s the seed that spawned Dark Bramble or not but its connected for sure.

“I thought about going back immediately but it’s a long flight. So I went to one of the planets first. Just for a quick look and I actually stuck to it being quick this time. Yeah, yeah, I know, that’s unlike me, but I promise I was gone so long because of how long the journey to get there and back was. I’m basically outta fuel by the way. Anyway the planet I landed on was a lot like Giant’s Deep; mostly ocean, but it wasn’t stormy and I didn’t see a single cyclone.

“After some surface level exploring, I found an empty living space in a shallow area. It seemed too small to be a village but I’m not sure. Inside was lots and lots of shelves filled with lots and lots of stuff, mostly metal ore. It was weird. That’s where I found this.” They gestured with the alien poster still in their hand. “It seemed important and I thought it looked kinda cute in an strange alien sort of way so I took it off the wall to show everyone as proof I found something. I wanted to explore more, especially since there was a big something in the distance but I wanted to keep it quick so I didn’t even though it hurt to leave. I remember the way back though. It’s in my ship log. I can find it again.” They’d talked so fast they were now almost out of breath.

“You uploaded your log to Observatory computer?” Gossan asked because they still needed to be reminded to do so sometimes.

“Yes. I wanna go back and explore properly. Maybe with a team to help. It’s a whole new solar system and uh… the trip there is kinda lonely.” They looked back at Gabbro who settled into leaning against the elevator’s strut, indicating who exactly they’d been missing the most. They turned back to Gossan. “We could set up a base camp on one of the planets and like… I don’t know. I just really wanna go back and explore properly.”

“That’s gonna be up to Hornfels to decide.” As part of ground control Gossan had a say too but Hornfels had always been the leader for a reason.

“A whole new solar system to explore though,” Feldspar said with a chuckle, “there’s no way they’re gonna say ‘no’ to that.”

True there was almost no way they’d say no. Gossan didn’t want them to. This was Outer Wilds Ventures’ next big break. They’d conquered their solar system now it was apparently time to explore even further. A way past the void surrounding their system had finally been found. That was far too exciting an opportunity for anyone to not wish to explore.

~

After much discussion it was decided that they were send a team to explore the new system. Auri naturally would be part of it and the leader. Gabbro would go too both to keep Auri company and to explore the possibility of quantum stuff being present in that solar system too. After their comment about starting to get bored of being part of ground control, it wasn’t the least bit surprising when Feldspar volunteered to go too. Hornfels only hesitated for a moment before agreeing to let them.

“I can go too,” Gossan said, speaking up before giving it much thought. “I’m not exactly training anyone right now and I’m not much help ‘round here these days. So I can hitch a ride with someone and help out with stuff out there.” That would mean leaving Porphy here to worry the way Gossan otherwise would’ve but surely they’d understand. Gossan was sick of being an extra wheel around ground control.

“I was thinking about asking Slate to come,” Auri said. “There’s a lot of metal ore and stuff in that living space I found that I think they might be able to do something with.”

Gossan shrugged. “That’s fine. We’ll just hitch a ride in different ships.” Plus, they’d been getting along better for a while now. Their big falling out had been related to Feldspar’s vanishing after all so with Feldspar back, it was easier to get along again even if they weren’t quite back to being proper friends. An extended trip to another solar system would either get them the rest of the way there or would solidify that as not being possible.

“All right then,” Hornfels said. “Three ships and five people, if Slate does agree to go, seems like a good number to send. I’m a bit jealous actually but…” They looked around at the museum surrounding them, “I should stay here.”

“You could come too,” Gabbro suggested. “Leave Hal in charge here.”

“Hmm… maybe next time. I wouldn’t want to foist that upon Hal without ample warning.”

~

A lot more discussion happened, mostly about how long they could/should stay out there before coming back and how much supplies they would need for that. And then there was the prep stage that started with Auri and Gabbro going to retrieve the latter’s ship from the Quantum Moon but was mostly packing supplies. After deciding to go and finding no regret in themself for that decision, the delay was a bit frustrating but it was important so Gossan didn’t complain.

Finally the day came though when they left. Gossan rode with Feldspar and Slate rode with Auri. Upon reaching Dark Bramble, Auri’s ship took the lead, Feldspar’s close behind and Gabbro in the rear. At Gossan’s insistence before they’d even left Timber Hearth, they stayed connected through radio and Auri double checked each node with the Scout to make sure it wasn’t an Angler before approaching.

It was tense at first but quickly grew boring. Everything looked the same through the cockpit window. Endless fog, the occasional light or root raising up out of it. Some of the lights moved though, making it impossible to forget where they were.

“You really spent a decade in this place?” Gossan asked, unable to bring their voice above a whisper.

“Apparently so,” Feldspar answered, their tone not at all reverent. “It felt like only three or four though. Time gets weird in here.”

“And they liked it,” Auri added through the radio.

Feldspar chuckled. “Yeah, I did. It was nice and I thought you’d all be fine without me for a couple years but then you know, it was a lot longer than that.”

“It’s still weird that you liked it at all,” Auri insisted. “This place is awful.”

“Coming from the fella who insisted on exploring it,” Gabbro said.

“Yeah, yeah, I know but only because I knew it connected to other parts of the galaxy. And I was right. We’re almost halfway there by the way.”

“Only halfway?” Slate sounded just as incredulous as Gossan felt. They’d been in here long enough that they’d already had to stop for a rest break once and that had been almost a day ago according to the clock.

“I told you it was a long way. We could probably go faster but I don’t want to risk getting too far ahead.”

~

Another rest and then a little more and they were suddenly out of the fog and surrounded by the blackness of space once more. Auri hadn’t even warned them. The vastness of the void was particularly jarring after that endless rolling fog.

“We’re here!” Auri sang over the radio after having let the change settle for a minute or so. “A whole new solar system!”

The planets that came into view as Feldspar rotate the ship were indeed new to Gossan. They’d known such would be the case when agreeing to come but… seeing it in person was something else entirely. They really had conquered the void surrounding their little system. A feat that had always seemed be something hearthians in the far distant future would accomplish on the back of what Ventures’ had started. But here it was right here and now. It was breathtaking in its beauty as well as in what it meant. Anywhere the originator of Dark Bramble had shot a seed, they could explore if they could just find the right path through the seed nodes to get there. How much that opened the universe up was still unknown but even just one more solar system available to them was a lot all by itself.

~

As discussed before they’d even left Timber Hearth, the first planet they visited was the ocean planet. It had breathable air without the need to plant their own trees around, making it a good place to set up base camp. Auri took them straight to the alien settlement in the shallows.

Set up on stilts, several of the buildings had what looked to be solar panels set up on the roof. It indeed wasn’t large though, indicating it wasn’t a proper village. There was however just enough roof space above the water for them to land their ships on even if it was just barely.

Upon entering through the front hatch, it seemed even smaller. Every wall had tall cabinets crowded in front of it. Other than the two doorways and an alien device on the wall to the right, there was only one gap between the storage cabinets. Auri went right up to, pulled out their alien poster, and hung it up. Presumably that’s where they’d initially found it, especially since the gap seemed perfectly made for it.

Apparently having zero qualms about going through others’ stuff, Slate immediately turned to one of the cabinets to start looking at its contents. They’d been invited because of the stuff in the cabinets but it still seemed a bit presumptuous to jump straight to rummaging. In the interest of keeping the peace though, Gossan would let it go for now.

Poster back on the wall, Auri stepped back to face the group. “I’m not sure how long this place has been empty for,” they said as they stepped back to face the group again. “And they left a lot of stuff in the cabinets, like a lot. So they might be back. Which would be cool.”

“It’s junk,” Slate said as they moved to rifle through a different cabinet. “So they might be content to just leave it.”

“We don’t know if it’s junk,” Auri said. “Maybe they kept so much stuff because it’s all important, valuable resources.”

“Correction; it’s not junk to us, we could definitely use some of this for something, I don’t know what yet though. But to whoever left all this here, they only kept it for the same reason I keep so many bits and bobs in my workshop. If it was important, they’d have organized it better. Also, I know a stash of raw building materials when I see it and that’s what all this is. I’d be willing to bet they refined some of this metal ore here to make this shelter.”

“So this place is a workshop?” Gabbro asked.

“Could be. I don’t know. There’s probably one nearby. This room in particular is probably just a storage shed.”

Feldspar had fallen into searching through one of the cabinets too. “I for one hope the alien who left all this stuff here comes back for it. Can you imagine meeting a real life living alien? Other than Solanum I guess, they only kinda count as alive. The Stranger’s people certainly don’t.”

Too curious to hold onto ‘the aliens who left this might still be around thus it was kind of rude to dig through their stuff’ feeling for much longer, Gossan gave in and walked over to check one of the cabinets too. Immediately it became obvious what Slate had meant. Inside was a mess of mostly metal ore with a smattering of other items here and there. Technically there might be an alien organization system at play here but… it didn’t look like it. It indeed had the vibe of stuff being shoved into drawers under the pretense that it might be useful one day so it was worth holding onto.

“If they do come back,” Gabbro said, “how likely are they to be bothered that we set up camp here?”

“Why would they be bothered?” Auri asked. “They’d probably be just as excited to meet us, right? I mean who wouldn’t be excited to meet even one alien but especially five. … Other than the Strangers anyway, most of them weren’t very nice. They’re outliers though… probably. Maybe we should find somewhere else to set up camp.”

“We’re probably fine to set up camp here,” Gossan said as they closed the cabinet and stepped back. “We should just be careful and wait a bit before messing with their stuff too much. If it seems like they’re never coming we’re free to experiment with it and figure out what it all is as we please. But if they do come back we can try to communicate with them to figure out what it’s supposed to be used for.”

“It’s decided then,” Feldspar said. “We camp here and wait to see if our friend comes back and if they don’t, their stuff is ours.”

[suffarustuffaru]

i need to share my very horrible idea to combine the reinhard/julius/otto/subaru boy drama into one julius-centric fic

ok so a little while ago ive made all kinds of ottojuli and reinjuli posts and while i havent finished all my major julisuba posts Yet i am quite fond of julisuba also and i think itd be incredibly funny if you just dumped all of these ships into one story. just go ALL IN on that boy drama!!!! go big or go home amirite!!!! the worlds WORST love trapezoid youve ever seen!!!!

this post is just me rambling fic ideas bc i sadly dont have time for Every Fic Idea and also i just. i just think itd be funny putting multiple ships with the same person in them into one fic. on a serious level its like mimicking real life relationships where sometimes people come and go and you have different dynamics with each person!! on another level i just think this is also very funny so!! here we go. under the cut:

anyway so my idea for this is that you know, julius of course meets reinhard when hes ten and reinhard is eight and then it alters julius's brain chemistry. at first he's in complete awe of reinhard. and then over time the shame starts setting in. that julius isnt as strong as reinhard. and the jealousy sets in a bit too, so julius's got this chip in his shoulder trying to carry his family's legacy and trying to carry the weight of knighthood to be as perfect as possible. to be as close to reinhard as he can. they meet again in their teens and julius shows reinhard the ropes of like basic knight stuff bc reinhard just joined the knights. and of course reinjuli become friends but julius has spent his whole life quietly watching reinhard from afar and now julius still has that distance with reinhard even as theyre supposedly friends now. reinhard is a God, you know? his powers and his leash from the kingdom and his family keep him distant and the two of them are ignoring that. classic homoerotic "do i want him or want to be him" friendship where both of you are too scared to get any closer for various reasons with a Twist (reinhard's very real monster complex that keeps getting validated bc Everyone Around Him thinks hes a monster).

anyway but then julius remembers that you know, shit between reinhard and him wont work out for many reasons, like reinhards family deciding to torment julius at various points in his life (heinkel, whos julius's boss, and reid, who went from julius's childhood idol to. you know.), and also reinhard needs to have kids because hes the sword saint, and also homophobia exists in rezero. and also even if those werent all obstacles julius still has his Complexes connected to reinhard and they got that distance between them so. no go. (repression gets in the way of relationships :((( )

also quick side note is that ex 4 happens and julius reinhard ferris go to vollachia and julius interrupts a meeting with vincent vollachia himself to go "I UNDERSTOOD THAT LITERARY REFERENCE YOU JUST MADE. THATS A REALLY GOOD REFERENCE I LIKED IT A LOT" bc hes a massive nerd and ig this is slightly-more-of-a-disaster-gay julius au so julius is like ............................. vincent was kinda cool for that.

AND THEN SUBARU CRASHES INTO JULIUS'S LIFE and julius is like seeing this guy who's also got a chip in his shoulder and then he insults the knights and says the knights are all depending on their dads (nepotism) and julius is like .......the chip in my shoulder was bad enough and also youre kinda like me fr. and you are clearly a fucking misguided kid so now i have to save your ass. i cant NOT save your ass. and reinhards like "julius and subaru nooo you dont have to do this :((((" and julius cant admit atm that hes also doing this to save subarus life so julius is just like "he disrespected the knights >:(((("

but yes we all know what happened there. julius saves subarus life. julius has to slice subarus throat in that one failed loop. they become friends across several timelines. they also homoerotically share souls, you know, typical bromance things, rivals to lovers except subarus the one going YOURE MY RIVAL and julius is like he is SUCH an upstart. hes really grown on me like a fungus but thats the appeal. and julius i think sees subaru as like a kindred spirit (or at least thats how i interpret julisuba) except subaru is like way more freer than julius is. same desire to prove yourself but subarus not restraining himself constantly like julius. its sometimes to the point of recklessness and general stupidity and what have you, but his boldness and bravery and determination and heart really is admirable.........................

yeah so anyway julius falls for ANOTHER guy again, you know how it is sometimes. the heart wants what it wants and julius is cursed to always have the worst meetings with his closest friends. and of course julius gets heartbroken bc wtf i have to kill my new friend :((( noo!!!! but in the finished loop its like. oh subaru...... hes really improved himself. hes grown so much already. hes kind of. inspirational really. idk how he does it. except subarus you know got that Mystery to him the same way reinhard does (theyre traumatized and Cant Take About It Normally so they just randomly lore drop what they can) and also subarus SUPER into emilia. and julius is like .................... well. subarus taken. haha. and reinhards. taken. fuck me. fuck. and like somethings going on with subaru and rem and emilia right. fuck. and subarus got his whole toxic masculinity / gender crisis..... and he doesnt know hes Bisexual yet...... man. what a loss for julius amirite haha.

and also subarus busy after arc 3........... and julius has no idea whats happening there but that seems Real serious :(( and julius's got other things to attend to so he hopes subaru reaches out to him eventually..... or that they cross paths again since subarus in the emilia camp and julius is in ana camp (and of course reinhard is in felt camp and like that was a whole debacle bc wtf. reinhard, u do know thatd be a big deal to our mutual friend felix?). so. julius pines from afar ONCE AGAIN HAHA.

(also of course subarus still attracted to reinhard here. its um. well julisuba can bond now over pining over reinhard but thats for later also!!)

anyway of course during arc 3 julius briefly runs into some gray haired merchant twink thats being dragged around by subaru bc ana camp rescued this guy from a cave somewhere??? and this new guy and subaru made a deal or whatever so he was just helping out in the background of the fight against sloth??

and whaddya know................ julius goes to drink at a bar bc you know he probably tastes wine for fun in his free time (hes definitely Fond of wine anyway iirc) and now hes Sad over the Ones That Got Away so. bar it is. and gray haired merchant twink is there!! no way. they start talking a bit casually while drinking you know and julius's taste is Unfortunately either the graceful ones (anastasia, because julius has great taste in women) or the cringe fail ones (all the twinks - except for felix - that julius keeps having the wildest first meetings with, because julius has slightly shit taste in men) so julius is like huh this otto guys kinda funny lol. endearing in a weird way!! and -

oops they both end up being a little. they make a little bit of a move on each other. bc they were drinking and got a Bit tipsy. ottos Also not over the one that got away (subaru) (again) and hey. the finest knight truly is. Fine. objectively fine. totally. so you know. things get a little out of hand, maybe they do a bit of cringe fail flirting hidden underneath five million layers of repression and the Horrors of Being Known but ultimately they both embarrass themselves somehow (read: how far they went with each other while under the influence is up to you) and agree to Never Speak of This Again bc oopsies they were both technically each other's first time being Straightforwardly Not Straight with another man. oops. anyway julius has to go back to his camp and otto fucking bolts but he bolts right into subaru and gets his ass dragged into sanctuary drama.

julius is totally not a little bit envious about that.................... about otto getting to accompany subaru to sanctuary... but dont worry julius!! youll get to make up for it later!! bc eventually arc 5 stuff happens. and julius is Glad to see reinhard and subaru again. even with all the Baggage. and subaru is of course Weird about julius but eventually subaru reassures julius after they both confide in each other about the astrea drama (theyre honorary astreas via being dragged into the astrea family mess). and subarus reassuring to julius in a whole new way okay. subaru, whos unrestrained and incapable of being on the down low about anything, and julius, whos always holding himself back with a gazillion layers of repression, starts learning to let go a bit...

but also juliotto meet again. its terribly awkward and they both agreed to never speak of their awkward encounters again. subaru is going ??? and reinhard is clueless. otto then also goes to save reinhard and felt from heinkel trying to take felt hostage, which was also terribly awkward but reinhard and felt are grateful about it (but lbr if reinhard and otto knew each other deeper reinhard would maybe be a little. Apprehensive. around otto while otto would be sympathetic with reinhard bc hes like male emilia). but then while otto manages not to get erased by gluttony....... julius gets erased. of course. which you know results in being forgotten by reinhard in julius's THIRD first meeting ever with reinhard. and subarus the only one who remembers him of course.

then arc 6 happens :,))))) and julius of course has to confront his ideas of knighthood, his identity, his self esteem, and who he is outside of His Name. and also julius gets his ass beat by reid. his childhood idol. who reinhard KNEW was a shitty person but never ever told julius (whether this is because reinhard wanted to spare julius's hero worship or because reinhard never got the chance to tell julius is hard to say lajdsf). but julius does get to triumphantly win in the end!! grow as a person!!! learn to undo a bit of that repression and not hold himself to impossible standards all the time!! hes growing still!!! hes finally solidified his friendships with people like subaru and emilia!! hes remaking his relationship with anastasia!! hes asserted himself, hes planning on going to meet reinhard again one day and duel him!! things are looking up even if its still bittersweet that he doesnt have his name back yet!! does this mean?? perhaps?? a HAPPY ENDING?? julius can have the two men (reinhard and subaru) he admires the most in his life?????? as friends???? or as boyfriends?????? slowburn mutual pining????????????????????????????????????????

and then comes. arc 8 otto. that piece of shit.

julius is very much someone who has to grapple with the weight of the expectations that people throw at him. and also reinhard is someone who May envy julius a bit, but there's also you know, joshua and subaru with the Explicit Envy and (past) resentment because theyre placing heavy expectations on julius!! theyre pointing blame at julius!! julius is trying to find himself outside of stuff like that, especially after arc 6, but he's still got stuff to work on you know? he still has duties to fulfill!! loyalty that he has to act on bc hes gotta help subaru and co in arc 8!! and then in comes otto.

otto is also someone with expectation placed on him, but its Different. ottos mostly a nobody and when hes Not a nobody, his reputation tends to be Derogatory. hes a menace. hes a bad luck charm. hes grappling with the fact that he has to keep being left behind - post-arc 5 bc he was injured, but also repeatedly during arcs 7 and 8 because hes too physically weak to be on the same playing field as emilia or garfiel or subaru on the battlefield. he feels Useless after placing his identity on the expectation that hes Dependable and Useful.

julius is a bit more on even ground with otto now that julius is. also mostly a nobody bc his name is still gone. and also julius had to deal with having that part of his identity crushed. julius tried to be useful over and over in arc 6 only to get his ass repeatedly curb stomped by reid in the beginning. he was a nobody. he wasnt dependable anymore. and also otto is that one guy he had a Passing Fling with over having The Ones Who Got Away and julius was still vaguely hopeful about maybe being pals at least but ottos brushed him off a bit since arc 5. theyre like each others secrets you know? and now otto doesnt know that shit - julius is the only one who Knows - and otto also hates julius's fucking guts now. over SUBARU. and julius has been through this whole rodeo clown circus with arc 3 subaru so this is an absolutely terrible ride through memory lane.

and this is julius's THIRD twink that hates him for terribly unfair reasons. julius is very tired and a bit heartbroken in this au trying to pretend it doesnt bother him. on one level it doesnt. bc ottos pathetic and clearly Overcompensating for Something. on another level it kinda does bc julius had a Thing going with otto. and otto is the complete opposite of julius. like hes different from the other guys julius has liked.

julisuba is about complimentary opposites - they appear Extremely Different at first glance but theyre very similar. theyre people who try to look and act bigger than they are, people who keep reaching to be The Best, to be Perfect, because theyre overcompensating. theyre worried their entire identity is only built off of trying to be bigger than the shadow that other people in their lives (like their families) cast. but they cant reach perfection. and julius is like subaru but if subaru tried to really make himself "refined" - if he tried to stop putting his heart on his sleeve all the time. reinsuba are very similar too. theyre very refined knights who try to keep themselves in check at all times while the weight of the world is on their shoulders. they cant have a hair out of place. except julius is like the "smaller" version of reinhard. julius is less powerful. its like comparing a human and a "god" - reinhard, whos untouchable. but its a double edged sword, because julius gets to be a normal person, because half the expectation placed on him is also purely from himself, while reinhard isnt. reinhard isnt Free. hes on a leash by the kingdom and his family. julius even gets his kind of "celebrity" status stolen from him via the loss of his name. hes truly kind of Normal now - julius is like if reinhard didnt have his crazy abilities and had a little more of a chance to be free.

otto? yeah otto is. very very far from all of that. hes so obviously imperfect that most of his reputation, when its brought up, is just him being known as a mess who's caused various forms of chaos everywhere he goes. either that or hes just. There. Invisible. very very average. and otto is someone who wants a nice comfortable life, someone who wants to fit in - julius and subaru arent Exactly like that, and while reinhard also wants to be normal, ottos the one who has more of an opportunity. but he doesnt. because otto Dooms Himself by being recklessly cutthroat. otto is like if subaru was just. More of an asshole, so ottojuli would just be a rather Extreme Challenge for julius to have to deal with HAH. and normally otto is someone who repays how people treat him - a very "you treat me like this, i'll treat you the same way in turn" kind of deal, except ottos developed a vendetta against julius and its basically like if subaru never let go of his arc 3 julius vendetta.

yes so anyway. etc etc stuff probably happens but i ran out of ideas lajdlfjasdf i just think combining ALL the boy drama and recontextualizing + adding to canon would be. batshit crazy. and terribly entertaining. im so sorry julius but i want to see you crack a bit under the pressure. reinjuli as a ship is like tragic gay yearning that never goes anywhere past being friends with quiet homoerotic tension, then julisuba is. you know. extreme rivals to lovers, starts out Rough but then ends up being super super sweet and theyre Trying their best underneath the self esteem issues. and then ottojuli is. toxic yaoi at its finest (pun intended). you get Every flavor of mlm possible!!

ok so you may be asking "ok what would you even name this fic then" and to that i say that this would be called To All the Boys I've Loved Before.

anyway i really wanna write this idea someday ill inform you guys (if youre reading this and are Interested) if it ever happens :< so. in conclusion this is just julius the entire time throughout all of these events:

[rhea314]

VidUKon 2024 Time Loop(s) Vidshow

A very belated posting of my vidshow playlist for VidUKon last year. I'm a big fan of this trope and had a great time putting together a vidshow about time loops!

    1.    Velodrome by thingswithwings (Multifandom)     ⁃    There’s something inside you, struggling to be free, but you don’t know how to let it go. Luckily, you’ll have a few tries to get it right.

    2.    Mark & Margaret by 47FRAMES  (The Map of Tiny Perfect Things (2021))     ⁃    Emotional support time loop buddy to romance pipeline.

    3.    one love by pancakelady (Triage)     ⁃    Second chances for love

    4.    ready to fight by Kaellig Fanvids  (Edge of Tomorrow (2014))     ⁃    Honey, these arms that once held you are ready to fight (alien invasions - negative).

    5.    Relativism by CherryIce  (Arrival (2016))     ⁃    The principle of linguistic relativity holds that the structure of a language affects its speakers’ world view or cognition. (alien invasions - positive).

    6.    Try, Try Again by bironic  (See You Yesterday (2019))     ⁃    One day, one life, one more chance.

    7.    Start Again by Anime Safe Haven  (Erased)     ⁃    Time loop as do-over.

    8.    bad day by Snooglyshnork  (Supernatural (2005))     ⁃    you had a bad day x100.

    9.    Do What You Want by cupidsbow  (Multifandom)     ⁃    Premiere     ⁃    It feels better when you do what you want.

    10.    Tunnels by CherryIce (Interstellar (2014))     ⁃    What always has been and will be.

    11.    Timeshift by Kinnsao San  (Puella Magi Madoka Magica)     ⁃    The inability to move on.

    12.    The Promise: A Russian Doll fanvid by garrideb  (Russian Doll)     ⁃    The importance of our connections with other people.

    13.    Roundabout by Rhea314 (The Lazarus Project (2022))     ⁃    Premiere     ⁃    History is not a highway, straight and narrow always.

    14.    Hurry Hurry by marah sarie (Outer Wilds)     ⁃    All my friends and all the loose ends and this love of mine, ‘cause I’m running out of time.

    15.    How Far We've Come by Bryn Spikess  (Free Guy (2021))     ⁃    “I believe the world is coming to an end. Let’s see how far we’ve come.”

    16.    Here It Goes Again by findmeinthealps  (Multifandom)     ⁃    And again. And again. And again.

Bonus: I originally came up with the idea for this vids how when working on And do it again a time-loop-focused vid I made for the c-drama Reset, but then I started watching The Lazarus Project and wound up making a premiere for that instead so sadly couldn’t include the Reset vid in the show, though it was my initial inspiration.

[linimoonlight]

Ok so i just saw a clip of eret talking about their plans for the dsmp ending and first of all I KNEW THAT IT WASNT THE NUKE BUT XD WHO ENDED THE SERVER! (I thought that was kinda obvious so it has been my headcanon this whole time)

But hearing this reminded me about something q!Bad talked about a while back that makes perfect sense in that context and makes that ending kinda canon at least for his character! (Not implying that any of the dsmp is canon for any other character!)

But bad was talking about being stuck in a time loop for a long time and i think it was implied that it was connected to the dsmp but i really dont remember the exact wording.

Idk i just think its cool that even if they sadly couldnt play out this ending it still has meaning in q!bads lore!

[scph1001]

end of the year yes sir yes sir.

as always id say the rows are more exact than the actual rankings but some of the edge ones are iffy.

sadly i did not finish metaphor in time- ill likely finish it within the next week though. if i had finished metaphor in time (and if the ending doesnt suck shit out of nowhere) it would have been third. i respect it alot more than P3R- and though i have a list of complaints i thought metaphor was a wonderful game

playing killer7 was crazy!!!! i knew i had to play after seeing the cloudman cutscene and it really did deliver. it made me feel like i was playing MGS2 for the first time again and i think thats the highest praise i could give a game. in another world where MGS2 wasnt the first game to really get me into the medium- killer7 would have been my favorite game. absolutely timeless. incredible combat and i admire the way it jumps topic to topic and doesnt really offer true finality to a couple of its points.

chulip now thats an all timer 👆 very adorable video game i like that its mean to the player but also has a kind heart. for whatever reason my joykill spirit doesnt activate for chulip- and there probably is a bit to say on how it treats women- but its not the worst ever and the game is not too pushy about bothering her. very very good ending sequence. great gameplay loop

honestly i dont even think i like P3R much. it was just the first game me and alot of the people i know were excited about in a long time and i have really fun memories playing it and getting it on release. honestly i thought about it while writing this and ended up just making a backloggd review lol

not much to say about katamari. its one of those games for me. yeah i enjoyed it but i have so little to say so maybe i shouldnt rank it so high but i fuck with its vision alot.

SMT1 is not fun to play but i really do admire its existence and atmosphere. incredibly cool

i still have complex feelings about SMTVV since its everything i wanted but its also lame as shit. tao and yoko remind me of ariana and cynthia during the wicked press tour lowkey. also i think SMTVV got worse after metaphor came out and ATLUS started showing off some actually good dungeons

earthbound was alright honestly i dont feel strongly about it and if it didnt have its presentation and unique manner of speaking to the viewer it would be a 3/5

jack bros was actually good im not exaggerating

baroque was cool but also im not very into it- its a 4/5 out of respect for it

shadow of memories was crazy everyone go play shadow of memories

i honestly fucked with P1 alot in terms of style/vibes but theres not much more to say about it and the story and characters arent special

gitaroo man was hard as shit but the music was fun

the parappa 2 music was fun but gitaroo man had more swag

i do not care about hypnospace sorry everyone.

im not the biggest fan of P2IS and P2EP just felt like a worse version of P2IS so i was never gonna be really into it. i do admire its vision and i think its pulling off what FFVIIR is trying to do better- but still not good

i respect the answer- but i just do not like P3 combat. a game of just P3 combat is going to fall flat for me. and honestly for a game about death (P3)- maybe there shouldnt be an answer.

dragon warrior was cute but i cant really give it high praise. for its time- great revolutionary. now? its alright.

i hated LIVE A LIVE that shit sucked

[absolutebl]

Heyo! I have a friend I'm trying to get more into BL. She's watched KinnPorsche and I recently got her to watch 3 Will Be Free (I know, not BL). She's somewhat picky about the romance she likes to consume, so I thought I'd ask you which BLs you think would be best to get her started with the genre. Her specifications are 1) a good, solid plot (any type is fine); 2) slow burn; 3) and good chemistry. She also loves sci fi and fantasy. My initial thoughts are MoD, Not Me, and AToTS. Any additions?

BLs with: 1 Good Story, 2 Slow Burn, 3 Good Chemistry, 4 PNR elements if possible

I have not one specific list for you, but several! Many of these not updated so likely to recommend pre the 2023 madness. (Imma rag on some of your choices briefly: KP & MoD only satisfy one criteria - chemistry IMHO.

I did give you a final list of winners at the bottom tho!

1) BLs with the best stories:

2) BLs with best slow burn:

3) BLs with the best chemistry:

(by my definition)

4) PNR BLs (paranormal, sci-fi, or fantastical elements)

P'ABL did the math:

BLs that do or should show up on most of those lists:

Dear Doctor I’m Coming for Soul (Thailand) - the first one I thought of that satisfies all criteria. Good story, great chemistry, PNR & slow burn. By your friend's accounting, this should be the perfect BL. I'm a fan of this show and I have a full review here BUT I don't actually rec it often. Why? My quibble with DDICFS is that for dyed-in-the-wool BL or romance fans the ending may not satisfy, BUT that seems to be the one thing your friend is NOT - so this should be perfect.

Triage (Thailand) - good chemistry, frustratingly slow burn, def PNR, and good story. This was my second pull. It suffered at the time of airing from distribution issues and (perhaps more sadly) being up against KP. It's really good tho. A “correct the past” Groundhog Day plot, that has narrative baggage I normally do not like but is so clever about time loops, I have to forgive it my hang-ups. About a doctor who must save a boy to fix reality, but not in the usual way. 

Until We Meet Again (Thailand) - GREAT story, decent chemistry, very PNR, but not slow burn. It’s a perfectly executed fated mates reincarnation plot, fantastic well-seeded twists & reveals, and the only BL I would love to see adapted by other countries or read professionally translated. 

Old Fashion Cupcake (Japan) - slow burn, great story & chemistry, no PNR. This is a deceptively simple office romance that actually has a lot to say about life, love, maturity, and pancakes. It’s charming but also deeply moving and loving in its exploration of what it means to give up, and how connection can bring with it second chances. It’s also beautifully filmed and acted. 

Seven Days (Japan) - slow burn, great romance plot, good chemistry, no PNR. This is a pitch perfect elegant little YA romance that stays completely true to its yaoi roots but neatly avoids all the flaws of the genre. The story is deceptively simple but allows for angst and miscommunication to develop with VERY good reason, and is almost worth studying because of that. As a romance, it is elegant. I can see why it got stolen adapted.

1000 Stars (Thailand) - solid romance, very slow burn, okay chemistry, no PNR. All BL is romantic, but not all BL is a modern romance in the literary sense of the term, but 1k* is just that, an absolutely glorious slow burn gay romance that nods at BL but isn’t behooven to it. It’s just a really well executed linear romance story.

HIStory 3: Trapped (Taiwan 2019 Viki) - not PNR and maybe not exactly slow burn but aces everything else. (This was MY KP when it aired.) Taiwan often struggles with story because their BLs aren’t always long enough to really get stuck in, Trapped is different. It has a baby murder investigation that promotes conflict between the leads, so the romantic tension is between plot and character, it’s so smart. The leads did a GREAT job of showcasing mature chemistry. The side dishes in this series are wonderful too. The main couple has an amorphous ending, but like with Dear Doctor, that shouldn't rank under these specific circumstances.

My School President (Thai 2023 YouTube) - great chemistry, very slow burn, okay story, no PNR BUT you have to like YA. I know not everyone does. This is very youthful. GMMTV gave us a classic high school set Thai BL with tropes like messy boys singing their feelings that made this one Love Sick for the modern age with all the gentle sweetness and pining ache, but none of the dated damaging tropes or issues. Yes, we’ve seen it all before, but I still ADORE this. And there is a lot to be said for the classics being executed perfectly. Who let my BL be this wholesome and funny? Possibly too slow burn for some, we wait many eps for that pay out, and Tin's pining is NOT quiet, but it defines dorky and earnest, so when the payout comes? Lovely.

About Youth (Taiwan 2022 Gaga) - exactly the same criteria as MSP just Taiwan's version. A truly lovely little coming of age high school BL with a classic YA low drama but high angst and an earnest depth. I didn’t even mind the singing, and that’s saying a lot. A weak seme/uke dynamic but tons of BL tropes (both rare in a high school setting but common for Taiwan) makes this one feel both sweet and colored by an almost real world queer authenticity and grit. Full review here.

See You After Quarantine? (Taiwan 2021 Viki) - it's short there isn't a ton of story development, but it's a nice nugget introduction to Taiwan's style. Great chemistry, def slow burn, and CUTE. This under-appreciated gem is Taiwan’s answer to Gameboys and is just as charming and adorable yet still quintessentially Taiwanese. It features a Japanese love interest and the cutest most confused disaster gay. Slow burn because the two have almost no actual screen time together and yet manage some truly amazing chemistry. How does Taiwan do it?

Why no KBL?

Fascinating but despite the fact that KBL tends to earn the highest ratings from me and occupies the most slots in my 10/10 BLs of all time, because they are so short they tend to fall... erm... short in the arena of story and slow burn. Also, until recently, not a lot of great chemistry.

So here are a few others I considered but ended up eliminating for not containing enough of your required elements:

He's Coming to Me (Thailand) - review here

Nobleman Ryu’s Wedding (Korea) - this has a 12th Night meet Cinderfella feel to it, plus some great story tricks like a plot that requires a historical setting (I love it when narrative elements are codependent). 

Our Dining Table - It’s a quiet & cozy little parable of found family alleviating loneliness. Possibly too slow for some but definitely high up there for me with the best of what Japan can do, it’s only flaw (if I dare say such a thing) is that it is not really “romantic.” Lovely & sweet but the romance beats are being used to build a family relationship, not just couple intimacy, it’s OK with me, but not totally BL.

DNA Says Love You (Taiwan) - full review here

Ghost Host Ghost House - if your friend likes horror and culture immersion this might be a winner. Boys shack up with ghosts and each other. The story is weak but everything else is on point and it has some of the best slow burn HOT chemistry ever to hit our screens. No... really. The THIRST is real.

Semantic Error (2022 Viki) - Simple story, no PNR, not slow burn, but for Korea it’s some of the best chemistry the traditional studios have ever managed. It is flawless BL. Truly, perfection for the genre. If your friend doesn't like this, BL is probubly not the right genre. Full review. 

Light on Me - def slow burn but story is a little weak and while there is chemistry, it's not really acted upon. Also v YA and a little stiff. I love this BL unreasonably.

KP not tagged to protect me from the fandom. Don't troll me and prove my point. Remember I can has ban hammer and am not afraid to use it.

(source)

[be-the-glenn-to-my-maggie]

Time travel, it's a funny thing really, even funnier when you take in account all the different interpretations of its inner workings. So, what if we take out boy Spider, and put him in yet another ridiculous situation like we usually do? By that I mean sending him back before even the events of the first film and letting the chaos ensue.

Spider being, well, himself wants to fix whatever he can because he's just built like that. Problem with that is time doesn't like being messed with and will throw hands to keep things as they are. What now? you may ask. Well, Spider is not one to give up easily, he'll roll up his non existing sleeves, put on his game face and.... fail miserably, dyeing a horrible death in the process.

And what now? you may ask again. You're right to be confused, but you're forgetting that there's still a baby to be born to one of the worst of the demons and a pilot, one who is yet to even be called Spider. That's right, this is a time loop.

This one will live trough life, doing the same things as the first one, getting sent back, until he too fails the same way. Then the next one, and the one after that, will do the same, on and on until, eventually, one decides to leave behind a clue for his (future/present/past?) self, just in case. And the dominoes start falling from there.

I won't go into detail of what he does because it would be way to long, but it's basically millions upon millions of tries until he get's to the "golden" run, where he's basically herding people around into "safe spots" without them knowing. Yes, he did throw a fire extinguisher at Quaritch so he would miss Grace's vitals, she still had to transfer but it worked this time (thus Kiri being born, but with her bio mom being alive and well. I leave the rest to your imagination.)

That leaves us with pretty much everyone alive (Yes, Sylwanin is alive. That's how far back he went) and casualties on the human side being kept to a minimum.

All anyone clearly saw of future Spider was the human stranger with dreaded hair, standing over Quaritch's dead body right outside the shack Jake was in ( kinda dark, I know), leading to him becoming kind of his own legend amongst the na'vi (they do figure out he's been helping them all along, their not dumb) This is also why Jake decided to dread his hair, in honor of the stranger who was saving their asses from the background.

Sadly, Spider does die one final time, sufferings from an injury he got while saving Tsu'tey from doing that funny fall. That does fix the paradox of there being two Spiders sooo, win I guess?

After that, everything goes on as normal as it can be, what with everyone being alive and all. They do eventually find the clues left behind by the MANY Spiders and piece together what happened, they don't believe it at first, but all of that, combined with Spider growing up and becoming a spiting image of the stranger leaves them with little else (Imagine learning that your sister, father and a bunch of other important people to you are still alive only because the boy you hate for being the "Spawn of that demon" was sent back in time countless times, died countless deaths, all so everyone else could have a happier life, couldn't be me)

I'm also imagining that Eywa (She's more like a literal goddess here, not full on cosmic being, but enough to see trough time) saw all of it and at the half way point was like "PLEASE STOP! Even one was enough, just please!" all the while the embodiment of Spider's will was cackling like a gremlin " I ain't even half way done!"

Best of all, Miguel O'Hara can't do shit about it (The time loop is a cannon event)

So yeah, that's my thingy to you, a bit long (sorry!) but it is there.

Ooh, well I haven't seen a Spider time travel fic yet, only ones with the other Sully's or with the people from the first movie coming forward in time.

I do loooove a time loop, it's like a little mystery to figure out exactly how the perfect series of events can pan out. I love that Quaritch still dies though, that makes me happy. Spider of COURSE had to throw a fire extinguisher.

I am fascinated by how lonely his time in the past must have been. Especially if he was still a teenage boy. And if he went back as far as saving Sylwanin, dude was like so fucking old by the time they made it to the end there. He was older than Neytiri then so his ass was like nearing the end of middle aged. His bones are creaking their way around the forest. Where did he fucking live, how did he have the supplies to breathe and care for his human needs, how did no one notice him for like forty years?? So many questions.

Also hilarious to imply Eywa had nothing at all to do with this and was just watching.

[billowingbabes]

Yesterday, I decided I've been putting off actually playing through Star Rail's story myself for way too long.

Now, keep in mind I do this with often with gacha stories. Between events, other games, IRL stuff, I never actually get the chance or have the patience to sit through them. I usually watch them instead. I did the same with this.

It didn't do it justice. Nowhere near. For all its flaws, the Amphoreus arc of Star Rail is, perhaps, the single best thing that's happened to this game in my opinion.

The characters, the scenery, the overarching plot and the plethora of theories that can be created on it even but one, at most two versions away from its end, the end of a whole year of incredible storytelling and characters that have painfully buried themselves into our hearts, only to be brutally broken into burrowing splinters that have yet to heal.

It's sadly plagued by the same issue most gacha have when trying to present something deeper than just "the characters are so hot" and "the MC is so fucking OP and can aurafarm through everything". I find the most evident examples of this are ZZZ and Wuwa, often reduced to harem simulators and so called gooner games, though Star Rail somehow manages to attract the most media illiterate fandom I have ever had the displeasure of seeing.

Heroes committing crimes and horrifying deeds for the sake of the world they were tasked to protect. Failing, falling, then getting back up only to fall again. So desperately clawing at what few shreds of humanity remain in them as divinity and duty whittle away at them. A collective Atlas, holding up the weight of the world as ignorant fools stab at their feet and cut away at the tendons, trying to bring them low much like the growing pressure of everything around them, as they crumble alongside their ruined world.

3.4 will, without a doubt if the writing even just stays like this and doesn't improve further much like it has been doing every version, be Star Rail's greatest version ever, content, lore, everything wise. My only lament is being unable to truly enjoy the first couple days due to having an exam on the morning of the 3rd.

A villain possibly being a hero in disguise all along, putting an end to a merciless loop once and for all. A hero triumphant over his future, past and all his inner turmoil. A world broken, torn asunder and reborn, or perhaps left to memory in what comparably little of it remains inside the survivors'minds.

But sure, keep calling this a bad story. I won't pretend it doesn't have flaws, I'll be the first to recognize the plethora of constructive criticism that could be given, but the writing?

Get the silver spoon out your mouth, grab it and start actually eating by yourself. If you still need writers to spoonfeed you every bit of lore and to make characters perfectly polar and either perfect and angelic or wicked and devilish, your opinion is best kept to yourself.

[deusvervemakesgames]

Project RBH Devlog 0059

The problem has been fixed! The game is working again!

What weird is that I don’t know for certain why this code interaction caused the problem.

What was happening is that I set the player’s depth to change dynamically. What’s depth? That’s the order that GameMaker draws sprites on screen. So if you wanted to stand behind an object and have its sprite obscure the player, that’s what depth does. For some reason, this was preventing the bullets from spawning. Then the code would try to set the bullet’s parameters—things like its speed and damage—at which point, because no bullet spawned, the game couldn’t run that code, and crash. But the reason this happened is because in the function that spawned the bullets, I spawned them using the built-in ‘layer’ variable, meaning there were on the same ‘layer’ as the thing that spawned them—the player or the enemy. But I guess messing with depth on the fly makes that not work? For some reason? Because replacing that variable with the name of the layer that the player/enemies are on fixes the issue? Even though that’s the same layer it should’ve been calling anyway? It’s very strange.

So I celebrated by replacing my most hated placeholder sprite. I bet you didn’t know that there was one placeholder sprite I hated more than any other. Can you guess what it is?

It’s the door. Stupid thin empty doorframe with nothing interesting going on.

So I replaced it with this.

This is heavily inspired by the entrance to Dark Space from the Illusion of Gaia, much like the appearance of Nexus. However, I felt that this might be a little too inspired by Illusion of Gaia, so I reworked it.

Honestly I could watch this thing loop all day.

It’s not perfect yet; I could touch up the animation a little, and there’s a bug where sometimes when you walk away from the door, it skips the closing animation and jumps straight to the closed state. There’s another problem as well. While the animation is fast enough that walking up to the door isn’t a problem, you can dash into the door before the animation has finished. That’s not a big problem though, I’ll probably slap a white fade screen transition on the door anyway which will largely resolve the dashing issue. It’s a purely visual thing.

I also decided to implement a new bullet behavior because I hadn’t in a while despite thinking of this one ages ago.

Bullet acceleration!

Though, I also have a bullet deceleration behavior. Sadly they don’t cause the bullet to start slow, speed up, and then end slow again, they simply cancel each other out. I could probably fix that by giving bullets a maximum speed at which point the acceleration stops applying. It’d probably be a good idea anyway because objects moving very fast don’t play nice with collisions.

Until next Devlog!

-DeusVerve

DevLogs like these are brought to you by Patron(s) like Haelerin!

Support me on Patreon to get Early Access to builds!

[revretch]

Hey! Big fan of your work - I've recently started delving into Blender animation, is there any way you could share the workflow u use when animating stuff?

Of course, but be warned that my workflow is highly idiosyncratic!

First off: Rigging. How I do it depends on exactly what I'm animating. If I'm rigging Sophodra, Gregorsa, or one of the humans, I'll use Rigify, which ships with Blender (though you'll have to enable it in add-ons). It's free, and for roughly human-shaped figures, it gets the job done.

For the other insects, and especially for the arachnids, it gets a little harder. See, arachnid limbs have a lot of joints, and most rigging add-ons aren't equipped to handle limbs more than three bones long--and I definitely wouldn't want to set up inverse kinematics for that many legs manually. So for those, I use an add-on called FreeIK, which you can get on Blender Market for only $30 (but be sure to read the docs!): https://blendermarket.com/products/freeik

FreeIK is amazing! It uses a method called "ephemeral rigging," which lets me pin any bone in place whenever I please, making it much more like animating a puppet and allowing a much finer level of control than traditional rigs. Sadly, that can be a little too much control on some model--hips on humanoid rigs will shoot out at random. For something like a spider, however, it's absolutely perfect! (I recommend using it in tandem with Selection Sets, another add-on that ships with Blender, to keep track of which bones you want pinned.)

Moving on from rigging, I also use an add-on called Onion Skin Tools. This one is only $10 on Blender Market: https://blendermarket.com/products/onion-skin-tools

As the name suggests, it lets you use onion skinning like in 2D animation. I couldn't imagine doing a walk cycle without it! With its help, I'm easily able to make a repeating walk cycle that loops in place while I move a parent empty around. (And if you're using FreeIK, you'll definitely want to be using a parent empty for placement. It's powerful, but bones can start behaving unpredictably if you get too far from the model's origin. I use two nested parent empties--one for walking, parented in turn to a master empty used for general placement.)

As of work on episode seven, I've also start incorporating Grease Pencil. Grease Pencil is an excellent tool all around, allowing you to do 2D animation in Blender! My style is cel-shaded enough that I can combine it with 2D. Not only do I use it for storyboard reference, but I also use it to draw on top of the scene, for where the 3D just isn't cutting it. I import the storyboards and other drawings with an add-on I made myself--Blender by default only lets you import black-and-white shapes, but my add-on imports as strokes, and can handle color: https://github.com/revereche/lineart_to_gp

I've also started incorporating AnimAll, which is fantastic (and also ships with Blender!). Shapekeys are already powerful tools, allow you to tweak the mesh manually when the rig isn't doing what you need. AnimAll lets you give each Shapekey multiple frames, so you don't need to set up a ton of Shapekeys to do one complex chain of movement. (Be warned it can cause file bloat, though, so use it wisely!)

As for the workflow itself, I go in this order, more or less (after writing the script and making any needed model adjustments, of course):

1.) Storyboarding. Since it's just me, they don't need to be great quality. The most important thing is making sure of the placements, getting the poses down in gestural strokes, and most importantly, getting the expressions just right.

2.) Recording voices. This can also be done before storyboarding, but I like to be sure of the scene flow before I commit. I used to start with rough placeholder voices, but ended up with awkward timing when the length of the final lines didn't match the original well enough. (Good thing none of my characters lip sync!) So, now I do the final audio on this step.

3.) Staging. Previously, this meant eyeballing the storyboard while I roughly placed the characters in the scene. Now, I import the storyboards in a Grease Pencil parented to the camera, so I can pose the characters to the storyboards more precisely. It preserves vivid gestures that would be easily lost in the CG stage otherwise!

4.) Props and backgrounds. Sometimes, I put this off until after animation, but it's really best to do it now. This can be mesh objects, planes I've painted on--or, often, planes I've painted on and extruded partially into mesh. I like to use Geometry Nodes for mesh wherever possible, especially when instancing many objects! It makes dealing with tons of vines (and humans) much easier. Also experiment with Shader Nodes, since generated textures are crisper than you would get with anything but very large texture images. (And if you're using Cycles, don't overlook displacement! Though you'll have to remember to turn that on in the sidebar preferences. That said, I mostly use Eevee, but am starting to look into Cycles for backgrounds.)

5.) Finally, final animation! I've already put the rough poses down, so I begin by cleaning those up, then adding any needed transitional poses. Then, I manually tweak the speed of the tweening, and offset the movements of parts that drag or bounce more than the rest (e.g. antennae). When a character needs to stand mostly still, I'll add a very slight bob for a moving hold, so they don't look like a mannequin.

After this, I render the image sequences, then put them all together in a video sequencing file. There, I add the citation blips, credits, and Gregorsa's Notes, as well as do some editing in post. Then, it's time to render the final video!

Hope that helps. I wish you luck in your future Blender endeavors!