#(also definitely split the whole cast LMAO)

[echidnana]

just watched alien romulus!!!! really loved it omg we were worried it would suck but we loved it

[the-s1lly-corner]

OMHOMGOMG I KNOW U SAID U’R GETTING A LOT OF TADC REQUESTS BUT THIS IDEAAAA JUST CAME TO ME

How would the TADC gang react if they were on Kiss Cam? I know it wouldn’t make much sense since they’re in a game, but let’s use our ✨imagination✨ for now. Or digital hallucinations.

Would they refuse bc they want their privacy? Or would they have no problem with it? I feel like Jax would say you two are siblings or related in some way for sh!ts and giggles (even tho my fav isn’t Jax I’m just assuming lmao)

TADC cast x reader but theyre on a kiss cam!

WOOOOOOOO unrelated to the ask/post but yesterday i made decorated christmas cookies. and iced them for the first time and!! they may not be the prettiest, but theyre so yummy and you know what! im still proud RAAAAAAAH!! not giving any reason as to why theres a kiss cam so the readers can have their own takes and ideas for the scenario (and also admin was stumped SOBS)

CAINE:

honestly hes probably the one doing the kiss cam and the one angling it, if not its bubble... regardless, i think he would have a hand in it landing on the two of you... perhaps even rushing to your side just a second before the cam turns your way. this was all a ploy! raaah! probably presents his cheek to you in the most comical way, like hes leaning towards you and folding his hands together and turning his head off to the side... is absolutely ecstatic when you humor him and give him a quick peck. probably releases a bunch of confetti and sparkles even though this whole thing was likely orchestrated by him. fuckin loser/j

POMNI:

probably freezes when she sees that the cam landed on the two of you. gives you the fattest side eye as if to silently ask if you want to go through with kissing in front of everyone, being broadcasted and all.... either shes stuck frozen and youre going to have to initiate; or shes going to give you the quickest cheek kiss known the man before either of you can even fully process whats going on... though pomni does strike me as the type to want to respect her privacy....

RAGATHA:

also the type to want to respect their privacy, probably gives a quick reprimand to anyone who tries to pressure her into committing to the bit (cough cough jax, who is likely joking but feeding into it nonetheless)... she probably looks at the cam and gently shakes her head; perhaps even putting her hands up in a funky surrender and with a small nervous smile on her head. like if it werent being broadcasted on a huge screen they would be fine with giving you a kiss on the cheek or forehead in front of a few people, buuuut... thats not exactly whats going on here...

JAX:

honestly i think jax's first instinct would be to do something inappropriate the second he sees thats hes on the cam, just to mess with caine. doesnt even cross his mind at first to say or do anything with you... and perhaps he even wastes his opportunity to lightly embarrass you since caine probably rips the camera off of him due to his actions.... but on the chance he decides to do something with you before doing something else, he probably loudly exclaims that he doesnt know you or something similar to what you said in the ask!

KINGER:

freezes for a split moment before sheepishly turning towards you and asking for permission. while i do think kinger would enjoy privacy, he doesnt really see anything controversial in kissing his partner; since its not exactly wild or inappropriate plus how can he turn up a chance to get some affection? probably the only one whos willing to kiss you on the mouth.. or rather kiss as best as he can.. still quick, but you can tell theres love in there. sappy old man. pukes/j

ZOOBLE:

down right refuses to do anything on the cam, probably flips it off. does not like the attention it brings or being put on the spot; plus they generally dont like showing affection publicly outside of handholding and endearing names. definitely values their privacy... please dont kiss them on their cheek while the cam is on you guys, they will whip their head around and will probably smack you with it on accident... oh but also i think thats an overstep so thats a possible new issue, i think. not that theyre ashamed to be seen giving/receiving affection from you or that theyre ashamed to be your partner. quite the opposite. zooble just likes keeping their life private

GANGLE:

her mask pops off out of surprise and reveals her tragedy mask/j except i do think that she can do that... so maybe /hj... hmm... way too shy to do anything and youre too nice to put her in any situation that can make her uncomfortable or stress out, so youre the one rejecting the cam for gangles sake... she feels so bad for making you have to choose, though, especially if shes under the impression that you wanted to kiss her on cam. please reassure her shes fine and didnt do anything wrong

[grandpasauce]

Dreadwolf Companion Predictions

These are my personal predictions based off concept art, leaks, and other official media. Using this edited lineup of the alleged companions from reddit. The added text is mine tho.

Left to right:

Dress lady is one of the ones I'm pretty unsure of. The dress and jewelry give me Rivaini vibes for some reason, specifically a lord of fortune? Also the fact that a similar looking woman is seen in another concept art being used as a sort of decoy for the rest of the party to sneak up on a target, and the Lords of Fortune are sometimes adept at disguises and impressions. She gives me 'face of the party vibes'. Honestly, I equate her with mage simply cause the robes but i could be totally wrong lmao.

Next is qunari lady. Not much to say about her, other than some different concept art has her dual wielding daggers, so rogue seems a strong presumption. Probably tal vashoth, perhaps a member of the executors or some other faction?

This is Davrin. We've seen him voiced in that one trailer, the leaks heavily suggest he is a companion. Pretty easy to assume he will be a grey warden based on his one voiced line. His armor gives rogue vibes here, but I'm pretty confident he will be a warrior. But who knows. Leaks also suggest he may be an elf.

This being Calpernia would be my first guess, as no world state from Inquisition actually confirms Calpernia is DEAD dead by end game. Although Maevaris is also a strong guess, I feel Maevaris will be an important npc, not a companion, when/if she shows up in dreadwolf, since she is running a whole ass political party alongside Dorian. Other concept art shows a similar blonde woman casting magic, so this further bolsters my belief that at the very least, this is a mage companion. The armor looks hella tevinter style to me as well, so I'd not be surprised if whoever this is is part of the shadow dragon faction introduced in the missing comics.

This is Harding. It's Harding. Like, come on. Look that the other concept art. It's Harding. Obvs she will be a rogue.

This is definitely a crow assassin. Whether it's Lucanis or not is up for debate, but this is def gonna be a crow rogue companion.

Qunari dude is a warrior, assuming the other concept art is accurate, since he's wearing a full suit of heavy armor + a helmet in that illustration. No idea what his faction alliances may be. I'm really excited to have 2 qunari companions thoooo.

Ghost rider boy is probably Audric from Tevinter Nights, or another undead spirit sort of thing similar to Audric. Class wise, I would assume warrior, as I think bioware is more likely to give us an extra warrior character as opposed to an extra mage character. (There's only 8 companions in this lineup so the split would be 2 mages/3 warriors/3 rogues, which i feel is more likely than 3 mages/2 warriors/3 rogues). This makes me think he will be a warrior of some type.

Now they could leave it at 8. That would leave us short a mage. Specifically, a male mage. We also have a noticeable elf shortage with this cast compared to the other 2 previous games. Not saying there is a secret companion, but. Y'know. This does leave room for a certain ancient old elf man. Maybe.

Okay let me know what you guys think like do any of these predictions seem wildly out of the realm of possibility to you?

[banyanas]

Okay there is no Way this is gonna fit in the fic wordcount limit (and a lot of it is background understanding to all my other fics too lmao) so who wants to talk about fiddly somewhat mundane toad-centric worldbuilding in regards to Imperial Amphibia -> Caste System Implementation time period??? And even if you don't want to I'm showing it to you anyway.

The 4 tower lords (Cardinal Lords used as an older title when I write) as participants and vassals to the Newtopian military is... pretty new. Especially because toad clans didn't really have a formal military in the first place (and still don't- toad army we see is an arm/branch of the overall Newtopian/specifically Leviathan-ruled Amphibian military). Previously, of course everyone paid fealty (and taxes but we will get to those) to the crown, expected to follow the laws of the united empire under the Leviathan dynasty, but toad clanheads and lords acting in a formal military position in direct vassalage to another army is... definitely new. As far as 'new' goes for a place with an implied-lengthy history as Amphibia does.

Nowadays becoming a Cardinal Lord means becoming an officer- if said lord wasn't already one in the first place. It's a more concrete requirement in the modern era, but before that, hey, remember what I said about taxes? It's relevant just stick with me a bit pls.

So, with the Me-Brand toadbuilding, toads were traditionally nomadic, and likely a more pastoralist society (tarantula cheese...). This did include very few permanent communities toad caravans cycled through, usually as a place of trade/commerce and cultural significance (specifically cairns and mass gravesites) for individual and allied clans. And from there, the majority of toads split into a bunch of much smaller semi-mobile camps that joined and split, in accordance to whatever understanding or trade agreement or alliance or rivalry their clan might have with other clans. These towns are still around despite how vastly different they are, and three of them are in the territory of a Tower- South Tower is the exception to this, since the southern toad population used to be so heavily intermixed with frogs they lived pretty equally spread inside the same township. Which oof, way to show how things change for the worst in a thousand years.

Pre-Andrias, taxes could be paid in both currency and bulk goods or productions- and they could make that work, because of the seemingly-infinite power source music box battery maintaining all their tech and infrastructure. Frequently, this was how toads paid their taxes- a bit harder to do pure currency payments, as well as y'know not rlly paying property taxes due to not privately owning much land.

(It was also, I want to note, supplemented by raiding rival or enemy clans, because they’re still a martial society- they aren’t peaceful nomads before Andrias fucked up everything, they’re violent and there’s inherent problems with gatekeeping someone from community aspects on the basis of whether or not they've killed something/own a weapon. Which we will get to the owning a weapon thing Also in a bit).

Buttttt after the box was stolen, there were a few policy changes. Taxes were required as coppers- ostensibly to bolster restructuring efforts and stabilize the economy now that the Calamity tech that was the fulcrum for their ENTIRE INFRASTRUCTURE was burglarized. Coppers which they don’t have much use for and thus don't have much circulating… yeah. But hey, specifically military service can be offered instead of coppers for taxes, at least for toads and some newts. Doesn't hurt that offering an out from taxes via military enlistment keeps toads and some newts from kicking up a very bloody, very messy fuss while the whole 'I invented speciesism and an oppressive caste system because I'm mad at my girlfriend and boyfriend' thing was being pushed through to law. Between breaking the law with all the severe risk of a nasty punishment/heavy fine that entails, or military service with some Perks of Power for an already highly combative culture? Yeah, no-brainer for why we barely see any non-military toads on screen. (This entire thing is a pretty damn slick move when it comes to enforcing ranks and systems. And admittedly less hamfisted than what we see in modern canon because frankly I think Andrias stopped caring about being careful with his enforcement of it once it became more self-sustaining)

The very messy, very bloody messes did happen, btw. After the last rebellion early into Andrias's reign (mostly made up of toads and frogs working together. Man this just makes it even more depressing to see the state of things in modern eras), only toads that were either in training, currently enlisted, or veterans were allowed to own and carry weapons. Which, beyond the practical problems of 'Amphibia is a dangerous place with lots of things that want to kill, eat, and/or poison you', when toad rites of passage and traditions, up to and including standards for being considered and allowed to act as a legal adult, rely on the use, ownership, or exchange of weaponry and blades... hm. Oh dear.

It's even worse for the frogs btw. Unless a frog somehow ended up actively serving a military term (which they are discouraged to), frogs were disallowed weapons at all. Because de-fanging and controlling who is allowed to be armed is kinda one of the first steps to suppressing and controlling groups of people, with one of the OTHER steps being financially suppressing and controlling (see the taxes thing, upward movement being nearly impossible for frogs and toads). Also contributes to casualties for frogs being way higher than they used to, since if they're a law-abiding citizen and get caught by a hungry predator, or bandits on the road, or any number of things they cant just drive off with pitchforks and slingshots, they're kinda screwed! It's messed up! And it's usually disregarded by newts and toads, because frogs are light on their feet, quite springy, they can just run, yeah?

Fun fact tho, this makes the Plantar basement stash SUPER illegal for some spicy revolutionary reasons. Hell yes good for them.

[chaosnojutsu]

good morning!! I see your backstory ask post and I would love to hear more about the bridgerton AU or extraordinary love!! Whatever you want to say about them. they are faves of mine!! ❤️ thank youuuuuuu

You get both as I try to decide if I can swing something for Shikatema month and prep for Nejiten month! Perfect timing, I actually just re-read these two last night looking for inspiration!

ask about the backstory for one of my fics!

send shivers down my spines: I wrote all the Nejiten story and separately wrote all of Lady Whistledown as one cohesive letter, and then decided where I wanted to place each of her gossipy interjections. That was neat to explore as a writing device because I had room to expand upon the world and add a little more flavor (like detailing Naruhina’s relationship and my obligatory background Shikatema mention) without feeling like I had to do it all from Tenten’s POV, which would have detracted from the core of this story: Tenten being horny for Neji.

Another fun part of writing this was casting what role each character would play! Coding Neji as Simon was easy — deciding to split Daphne between Tenten and Hinata then seemed natural; the premise of having sex in the library comes from Daphne and Simon, but it felt disingenuous to her character for Tenten to be the diamond of the season. My personal favorite analog is Tsunade and Queen Charlotte, which also felt like a duh decision given their roles in society, but I liked the nod to Tenten wanting to impress Tsunade.

I solemnly swear to never refer to Tenten’s junk as “nethers” again lmao. I usually can’t stand that one, but it felt appropriate for the piece. And I can’t talk about this fic without bringing up the dom Neji agenda! Who’s going to tell the head of the house he can’t give head anywhere he wants in his house?? Definitely not Tenten, and apparently not any of their house staff. I’ve spent some time considering what a dom Neji might look like since your initial comment on the fic, so he might make a stronger appearance in another work — yay and thanks for putting the bug in my ear!

extraordinary love: “Temari knows damn well why a stupid social construct like her nonexistent virginity matters. Back in the day of arranged marriages, the whole thing was more of a business deal. The wannabe groom would have to pay more to his bride’s family in exchange for her hand in marriage if she was pure. Virgin brides from influential families were high dollar items. Temari’s family is influential enough. But now that the matter of virginity is off the table… this barter is looking more like the Sand seeking retribution against the Leaf than tit for tat. If her marriage is blessed, they’ll probably stipulate Shikamaru move to Suna instead of the opposite, which is not what Temari and Shikamaru decided on. In the most drastic worst case scenario, like Kankuro said, their engagement (or the knowledge that said engagement has been consummated on a number of occasions) might be seen as an act of war. They’ll stick Shikamaru’s stupid, handsome face in a bingo book with shoot to kill orders.”

This premise is the heartbeat of the story. What does it look like when your personal values don’t align with those of everyone else around you? How do we respond when well-intended people stick their nose in our business and give an opinion we never asked for? Combined with fan theories/headcanons that Shikadai was a pre-wedding pregnancy — and that’s an interesting concept to me, especially considering what that might have looked like for Temari and Shikamaru if they were still long distance or abruptly decided not to be (and the parallel to Mirai and Kurenai and Asuma, of course, which I didn’t hit in this story because Temari wasn’t actually pregnant) — everything fell into place.

Making the call to write from Temari’s POV was exciting but scary because she’s so Particular, you know? But this story needed to come from her because of what it is, and it’s about Temari’s agency: she gets to decide who she marries, and whose baby she has, and she gets to decide when those things happen. And then I got to actually write her being in love (which I’m eager to try again), and I love the energy of Temari being like “Look how impressive my fianc�� is! I made a good choice! I’m trying really hard to make you approve of him!” and Shikamaru being like “Yeah, what she said!” Because Shikamaru understands that as far as Suna’s customs and culture go, he doesn’t have a dog in that race, he IS Temari’s underdog in the race.

I’m honestly proud of this fic because I know I just made it sound really serious in terms of themes etc., but it ultimately is a comedy, and anyone who has ever done comedy can speak to how difficult of a skill it is to learn and hone. One of the things that makes comedy work well is that the characters have to take everything seriously and respond sincerely, now matter how ridiculous or grandiose their circumstances or responses may be. Temari even says from the beginning of this story that she knows she has the Kazekage on her side, but she panics a little because of her circumstances and takes matters into her own hands, and she doesn’t relinquish that control until shenanigans have ensued and Gaara finally reminds his sister that his support of her was never in question. (I’m not sure how I feel about my iterations of Gaara and Kankuro individually or overall, but I do like their scenes with Temari as siblings and their consistency.)

Side note: the reception of this story gave me the confidence to write chapter 15 of Reliance the way it panned out!

(also, I’m late, what’s new, lesbian nejiten is coming i promise)

[itsslivernotsilver]

Ok dude I've been going nuts thinking about this show /pos

Since she's your fav, tell me about your favorite MIST moments PLEASE

ok hi sorry this took so long to answer i was overthinking everything and then i got distracted but this is literally the best question i’ve ever been asked omfg

honestly the main reason mist caught my eye is because i’ve always liked characters who are misunderstood by others. maybe it’s just projection but there’s something so compelling about character who can be surrounded by people who love and care for them, yet still feel isolated. when s2 finally released, i went on reddit (ew) to see how people reacted to her and it was split between “she’s cute i like her” and “oh my god she’s so annoying and terrible.” after that i loved her even more cause i got defensive lmao but all in all i just really like the premise of her character and i think she’s adorable and fun and she spices up the cast because sometimes they get a little monotone idk

so i don’t really feel like screen recording a bunch of videos and stuff so here’s some silly moments that i really liked in no particular order and then i’ll talk about other stuff

isn’t she adorable :)))

ok so one part that i really like is her convo with maddie about nostalgia in yair. something about this scene just hits really hard because she’s trying!!!! she’s really trying to connect with maddie in the only way she knows how. and it’s just never going to happen. there’s such a large gap between them that makes it almost impossible to fully understand one another. like. ok so maddie had been willing to empathize with her dad because while his upload was drastic, it was still her dad. she still has those bonds from before his upload and she can understand that he was once a person. but mist doesn’t have anyyy of that. she’s completely different and maddie can’t reconcile her digital-ness with her humanity because there’s not much to begin with. there’s a constant disconnect between the two and oh my GOD is it compelling your honor i love them so much

another thing that has always stood out was her fight with holstrom during apokalypsis and the aftermath. she immediately approaches holstrom with such fervor and she argues from a logical perspective, aka “you’re planning genocide, here’s the definition of genocide, my name is mist kim you killed my father prepare to die” type shit. but what ultimately gets her to rethink her views on him is that he frames his plan as saving a doomed society rather than committing genocide. the argument boils down to the main message of the show, “are UIs (and CIs) actually human and not just glorified corpses?” holstrom weaponizes her disconnect with nostalgia against her by calling it humanity’s fault rather than a Normal Human Emotion (also it’s super interesting how much he uses “us” when talking to her idk). and mist really struggles to reconcile the 2 perspectives she’s heard when it comes to nostalgia. she needs someone to inform her on things like social cues and human experiences because she’s never felt them. she tries to connect with maddie once again by saying “we talked about nostalgia, just like you and i” but maddie is obviously upset because she’s annoyed that mist simply can’t understand a lot of nuances regarding the importance of the physical world. i think maddie’s biases really shine here because of how quickly she shuts down mist rather than caspian who’s just like. sitting there the whole time lmao. she’s so set on labeling holstrom as genocidal because the two options he’s giving humanity are death or uploading, both of which are underneath living normally to her. mist, being a CI herself, gets that uploading isn’t necessarily the end all be all of life, and is “more open” to holstrom’s ideas of nostalgia being the true genocidal factor. i think this line from the short stories also adds a little flavor here, specifically “the way the shapes of her decision algorithms seemed adapted for the methods of warfare.”

obviously there’s a lot more expansion in the show but i feel like it’d be cool to mention this. she charges at holstrom harshly, but upon learning more information, she heads back to maddie and caspian to rethink the plan of attack, which is pretty warfare-y to me but idk i just thought it was a fun little connection.

finally i wanted to mention her plot line with the CIs real quick because it felt like a culmination of her whole character yk???? she’s fighting for a world where she can be with the UIs and humans she cares about, but she can also be with those who can fully understand her. it’s such a defining cause for her character and it’s just so well done. anyways i think that’s it for now but i just think mist is really neat and so is her sibling dynamic with maddie :)))

[showtoonzfan]

Someone posted the stream highlights on this thread.

https://desuarchive.org/co/thread/136264145/#136264195

I’m just going to only go through the one’s that were the most important to me or the ones I felt like talking about.

>“Viv was responsible for the dildo scene, Adam (the episode writer) had no knowledge of the scene”

Well that just makes me feel a whole lot better. (Sarcasm) Adam is still a shitty writer but to learn that this was VIV’s idea is….wow, I mean it makes sense, girl loves her mlm fetishization and is way too horny a writer for my liking.

>“S2E2 and E3 were hectic to make since they started being made at the same time as Hazbin Hotel started production, resulting in split teams”

Ah, and it shows, THAT’S why the animation in those episodes are so choppy and awkward and the quality drops constantly.

>“goofy Millie music scene coming up very soon”

I’d say I hope this has something to do with her character or something that will possibly expand on her personality but I doubt it. It’s probably some wacky country song or maybe another love song between her and Moxxie.

>“Viv consideres Stolas, as a character, is full of pain and emotion. Difficult to write. Very positive character (kind natured but very flawed) but is dealing with a lot.”

Of course Viv. He’s SO flawed and complex. That’s why his daughter is at fault for not seeing the fact that he’s miserable or appreciating his care for her. That’s why Blitz is at fault for breaking his poor uwu heart. That’s why Stella is at fault because she’s an evil bitch right?? Yeah, we can tell he’s filled with drama Viv, but I’m surprised he’s difficult to write for you since your viewpoint on him is so black and white. You call him complex and flawed but you never treat him that way. You just like to milk his sadness constantly and baby him to prove that he’s an innocent Uwu bean who’s done nothing wrong and only the characters AROUND him are at fault. Your words in livestreams about him are such bs.

>>“Viv states that eventually Stolas will become more involved in how he relates towards the other members of the core cast (Moxxie, Millie)”

Judging by the leaks I do expect Stolas to go live with IMP at one point since Octavia and/or Andrealphus and Stella kick him out, and maybe I’m speaking too early but….lmao Stolas and Moxxie and Millie have nothing in common. I’m not even interested in whatever they’re going to pull for this because their whole dynamic is that Stolas never gave a shit about Moxxie and Millie, seeing them as lower life forms and constantly disregarding them because he only cared about Blitz. See what happens when you have a powerful prejudice character and then retcon him into an Uwu baby? It gets weird. Don’t worry, I’m sure Viv will retcon the fact that Stolas was prejudice towards imps and act like it never happened too! Also I’m sure he’ll relate to Moxxie more, cause…ya know, Millie has no fucking character. That’s all we need tho, Stolas butting in to the MAIN cast and overshadowing the characters and dynamics that are barley developed. It’s going to be a disaster.

“>As noted above, Millie, Octavia, Stolas and Fizz have bits of personal experiences written into them”

I always knew that Viv poured her “personal experiences” into some characters and was a self insert writer at times, but lmao you’d think Millie and Octavia would be written with more respect if that was the case for them, but Viv doesn’t give a shit about them. Again, Millie has no character so I don’t know how that could relate to something of Viv. Stolas and Fizz tho? I could definitely believe lol.

>“viv adores crossovers, she hopes in the future she can have crossovers between HH and HB”

What??? I could have sworn Viv said that she wouldn’t do a crossover with HH and HB. Kinda thought the whole point was that Helluva was the indie one where Viv could make her own stuff and Hazbin was the actual big show. I dunno, I like crossovers too but I don’t think this one would fit.

I felt like screenshotting the last part I wanted to talk about because it’s basically all of this.

1. This is PART of the reason why Viv’s world is so messy. Everything feels so scrambled because she wants to shove in a bunch of mythologies and texts and everything into one and that just makes your world less consistent and more confusing.

2. I don’t even know why Viv says these things because she never focuses on them anyway. Again, her hell is just an underwhelming city and there’s never a deep dive into the mythologies in the first place, aside from background shit or a name drop. Still, this is starting to become Zoophobia where she has too many ideas and is too ambitious and wants to dump a lot of things into one. It’s funny, I saw part of this livestream, and she willingly can openly admit that the comic was a mess and she poured too many ideas into it, but she just……does the same for Hazbin and doesn’t realize it—-

Okay I’m done. I will post a clip or talk about some of the stuff said in the OTHER livestream (the one that was a mess) but for now here are my thoughts. Honestly tho EVERYTHING Viv says in a livestream is a mess. None of the insight or attitude she displays there never comes into the show or even real life with her criticism shit fits and all. It’s all a joke ugh.

[absolutesilly]

What do you think about the writing of female characters in tgcf? There’s a lot of mixed bag reaction with how Mxtx treated them. On one hand, for a BL, I think what she did with her female characters is probably better than most bl novels on the market BUT her only character that’s canonically gay is hualian. Mxtx words not mine lol. So I would expect her to do more with them. For example, yushi is such an interesting character and a powerhouse and how the narrative builds her up but yet I find her real scenes lacking. Like she’s just there.

great question!! a frequent issue i have with bl in all its forms is the lack of female characters (or their lack of meaningful screentime/development if they ARE present)… i’m honestly pretty torn about tgcf’s female characters!

the women we see are cool and complex. i think it’s notable that she introduces a lot of women who are clearly powerful and physically strong—ban yue, xuan ji, and yushi huang all come to mind. i also think jian lan is notable for her mental strength as a survivor of sexual assault and an incredible difficult life. tgcf doesn’t treat its female characters like damsels in distress, which is something i really like!

of all of them, ling wen is unquestionably my favorite. she’s SOOOO interesting. i love that she’s hyper-competent and fucked up and cutthroat! the brocade immortal arc is sooooo fun because it was a joy to watch her wreaking some well-deserved havoc. i also like her because though technically speaking she’s a minor antagonist—she’s also extremely sympathetic and there’s a lot of great discussion of sexism with her character. i like her! i think she’s neat!

having said all that though—i do agree that i wish the female characters got more focus. as i mentioned before, all the female characters are really cool on paper! but we just don’t see a lot of them. most of the really notable, plot-moving side characters are men. a lot of times the female characters feel more like an afterthought, which is a bummer because i truly do find them interesting! (i feel this especially about jian lan… sometimes i feel like her relationship with feng xin was mostly put in just to be a foil to the unbreakable love of hualian… but that’s a convo for another day lmao)

i’m also a bit unsure where to place shi qingxuan in all this! while i personally am split between headcanoning them as nonbinary or as a transwoman, i’m not sure that’s what mxtx intended! there’s definitely a lot of gender-y stuff going on with their character, but i’m hesitant to give writers “representation points” for something they didn’t necessarily mean to do.

anyway, this is a whole lot of ranting just to say—i like tgcf’s female characters! definitely they’re better than many other female casts (or lack thereof) that i’ve seen in other bl! but i wish that they got more screentime!!!

[styrmwb]

I Beat Final Fantasy XIII-2

If I had a nickel for every time travel RPG I played in 2024 I would have two nickels

This is a game that I've been meaning to play for a good long while now. I beat the first XIII in... 2020, if Steam is correct, so it's been quite a gap between this and that. I liked XIII-1 (as I will heretofore refer to it) well enough. It was one of the first FFs I was ever exposed to (alongside XI and FFTA), so in my quest to play all the mainlines, it was a high priority at the time. I liked the main party, I liked the world, I was Not Great at the combat (fuck Barthandelus), and overall I definitely didn't hate it as much as the general public did/does. Subsequent entries that I played left more of an impact/a higher positive impression on me, however. I think the two biggest reasons for that are 1. I was bad at the combat so it was hard and 2. It didn't really have a strong supporting cast and villains to me. XIII-2, I feel like it centered itself around being everything that XIII-1 was not; and overall, I think it very much worked. Let's talk about why!

Last Things First: 900AF

Real quick I just want to get my biggest complaint out of the way and it is something that I do not hold against the game itself at all I hold it against Square; the PC port sucks shit. I had to mod it to make it playable. What The Fuck. It didn't run as good as it should, and sometimes it would break and I'd have to reset and lose my progress! Square: fix your shit you small indie company anyways:

Gameplay: 003AF

XIII-1, as everyone probably knows at this point, is a linear game. It's also a slow burn type of game; you very gradually get all your stuff and your party together as you run through Cocoon, and when you land on Pulse is when the game really opens up. The game is gogogogo all the way forward no looking back, which to be fair works narratively.

XIII-2 is not that at all. When it comes to the battle system and your paradigms and all that, you're pretty much thrown right into it from the start. You have your whole party of 2 people, the crystarium is good to go, it feels like the game is saying "yeah you know what this is go do it". When it comes to the levels/story, yes it's technically linear, but as this is a time travel game, it's split up into different levels of different areas at different times that you can move back and forth freely and can even reset and replay if you need/want, which is really cool! I loved it. Also, on top of your 2 characters, the game has a whole monster collecting/leveling bit that works as the 3rd member of the party.

I think when it comes to the battle system, I jived with it a lot more than XIII-1. There's a couple factors that make this;

The lack of party members. With the paradigm system, you're already switching your jobs and roles constantly throughout battle. In XIII-1, everyone had their own niche, so you had to worry about picking the right character As Well as the right paradigm, not to mention if you have someone you like you might never really be able to make them work. When you just have 2, your main focus is on what paradigms you need, when you need to use them, and the bulk of the customizability lies in your monsters. I really liked that.

The flow of battle felt smoother. Unlike XIII-1, switching between paradigms is quick and reactionary. This makes battles high speed and actiony despite it still being a menu based RPG. "Oh shit! big attack coming, I gotta switch to Tortoise quick enough!" Despite me making mistakes occasionally due to Being Clumsy, I still enjoyed that aspect.

I think the difficulty of the game was overall easier. Now I can get for some people this is a bad thing, but again, I wasn't really good at XIII-1 (fuck you Barthandelus), so feeling like I can actually play this game made me very happy. It's also possible that I'm just a better gamer in the 4-5 years since then, but this is about my experience, I'm not doing a serious game review or anything lmao

And as I mentioned up above, I really did like the "world map" (time map) that the game operated on. Nothing was truly missable, I could grind, I could go back and get monsters that are apparently broken, and because of the nature of this being a time travel game, the fact that you would go back and forth between the same location was really fun and honestly something you Have to do if you wanna make this style of game work.

Couple other things I appreciated: The fragments. Having tidbits of lore or funny dialogue behind these side quests felt really nice, and a good way to more naturally tie the datalog into the actual flow of the gameplay. Also, how the random encounters worked, and the Mog Clock. Even though it's the classic RPG random battle, it lets you actually react properly to it. You can attack early, or run away. Yet it also takes what XIII-1 had with different enemies behaving differently in the overworld. You see a lobo spawn and you think "yeah I'm not running away from this let me get the preemptive attack." It actually adds skill to what is classically completely random. Although the slashing and attacking is a little clumsy.

However, as in anything, there are flaws. I have 2 major ones: the crystarium, and monsters. The Crystarium is THEORETICALLY cool. It's a chill, manual way to level which is always very fun, and a part of XIII-1 that I really enjoyed. However, every move you make is PERMANENT. It is SO EASY to accidentally fuck up your whole build by pressing one button and then you have to either deal with the consequences which can lead to you not being able to do some of the endgame content, or reloading which means Numbers% progress is gone. Like, at least it could have given a confirmation, or an animation of it moving ala XIII-1, or what it should have been; The Option To Fucking Go Back While You're Leveling. Because the game just throws you into the meat, it's SO EASY to fuck it all up from the start without truly understanding, which is what happened to me. I had to reload a couple times before I could really start. Monsters also have this issue, but it's a little better because you can just get another guy so it's not nearly as permanent. I can't get a new Noel (it's a time travel game I should be allowed to get a new Noel); no, the problem with monsters, and I don't have a solution for this I just know I didn't like it, was the drop chance and the materials needed. Just... fucking drop the monster I want. And then I gotta find the singular monster that is the only source of endgame crystals for my guy and he never spawns and even when he does and even if I beat him and get 5 stars I still might not get the thing; it was annoying, I hated it, those are my major problems with the gameplay that actually felt like they impeded my experience. Other than that though, XIII-2 is ABSOLUTELY an overall improvement over XIII-1.

Story: 015AF

I remember seeing complaints about the story before I played it, so I was nervous going in. But honestly? I liked it. I often saw people say "oh it retconned the ending of XIII" but like; yes. That was the point. Time broke and despite that ending happening, Serah was the only person who could recall it. Yeah, sure, time travel isn't for everyone and it's fucky, but I enjoyed it and I actually felt like it was solid and understandable all the way through, which is a big achievement for a JRPG lmfao, especially the sequel to a pretty confusing entry.

Another really big plus in XIII-2's favor is having a really good villain. The fal'Cie were kinda all over the place and I never found my fit, but Caius was enthralling. I COMPLETELY understood his motivation, his pain, and not to mention: he fuckin won. He got exactly what he wanted. I think Caius alone is the biggest reason why I enjoyed this story so much.

I really enjoyed the nature of paradoxes. Sure, it might not be the traditional definition of what a paradox is, but it was a nice overarching explanation. Time fucked up. This is why things is bad. This also leads to some really cool interactions of changing the past and future, as well as them all being interconnected. My personal favorite bit is in Augusta Tower 200AF when Serah and Noel are fighting the artificial fal'Cie; and the thing that saves them is Serah getting so frustrated with Hope that her feelings go through time, causing Hope to never start the project in the first place, leading to Adam not being able to throw itself into a Garland loop. I fuckin loved that bit so much.

As for things I didn't care for as much: I think the concept of Chaos was a little hard for me to wrap my brain around; what was it, why is Etro it, I could have used a little more explanation or like a datalog or something on that. Or maybe I'm just dumb! That's a possibility. I also felt that how it treated the previous cast was a little off. Now, as one of the 3 Hope Enjoyers, this game was fucking HUGE for me. I got to see that guy grow up and be cool and awesome and he was a mainstay and it made me very very happy. But when it comes to, say, Lightning and Sazh, I was a little iffy. Now, again, it's been a while since I've played XIII-1. I definitely don't remember the finer details, but something about Lightning being so willing to serve a godly force just felt off to me. Something about her felt still. Now, she has been in Valhalla for Numbers centuries, so that changes a person, but something still felt off to me. And Sazh; why did that poor man have to get stuck in the casino for like the whole plot off screen and then only appear at the end? I wish he was around more. I'll go more in depth in a second.

But regardless, I overall enjoyed the story and I think it stuck with me a lot more than XIII-1. The ending hurt, but I think knowing about Lightning Returns didn't make it hurt as much. This game definitely feels like it was made with a 3rd game in mind, for better or for worse.

Characters: 015AF

To get into a little more nitty gritty of my favorite aspect of any video game, as well as to double the length of my post, let me do my traditional List Of Characters And How I Felt About Them (I love these sections I hope other people do too)

Serah - Admittedly, Serah was a bit of a MacGuffin in XIII-1. She drives everyone to become l'Cie and then appears fine at the end. So there was a lot to build on and create here. I did really like her in the hero role, though. Sure, she's kinda plain, but I think the most charming aspects about her to me are her relationships with people feeling very healthy (girl main character not falling in love with boy main character??? holy shit (yeah she has a fiancee but that doesn't stop people)), and that little bit of "meanie Miss Farron" that comes out. It's just the little things shown throughout that prove that Serah's actually quite strong willed.

Noel - I fuckin love Noel dude. This poor guy did not deserve ANYTHING that happened to him. This is a dude who deep inside just wanted his friends, his family, but the world could not give it to him. He was hurt by the past, and continues to be hurt in the future. He was such a good choice to be the deuteragonist, and the literal link between the past and the future.

Mog - Kupo. Mog's a little dissonant to the rest of the game's vibes, but I still like him. He's a moogle. It's hard not to like them. But I will say the kupos got to me after a while, kupo.

Caius - I already pretty much said this above but. Caius. God Damn. I kinda experienced him in Opera Omnia, but I don't think I truly appreciated him until now. The concept of an ageless warrior who's only purpose is to protect a girl/her reincarnations who constantly dies over and over and over and over which drives him to madness is wonderful (not in the sense that it's good for him but like, it's compelling). I completely understood Why he was doing what he was doing, despite like, obviously breaking time is not good. His goals, his design, his consistency in fights, his theme, all of it. It's a shame that he's in a sequel to a controversial entry, because I truly think he's one of the best FF villains.

Yeul - Similar to Serah in the previous game, Yeul (the Yeuls) are a bit of a MacGuffin to the plot. Which does stink, I think I would have appreciated a little more heart to heart with her, maybe some extended time in Noel's time with his Yeul. Regardless, good design, cool character concept.

Lightning - It stinks a little that she was in the background for so much of the game. As I said, something about her characterization in this entry felt off, but it's been a few years, so I could be wrong.

Hope - HOPE!!!!!! Hope is my favorite character in XIII-1, which I know is a hot take. I loved seeing him grown in this entry, I loved that he was so important to the story. It felt like a narrative rendition of his gameplay. He was the best medic, sitting back long range to help the party, and here, he stays behind in time, using his intellect to progress humanity and to save the world. I love Hope, man.

Alyssa - sus among us. It took me until the paradox ending where she fuckin gets arrested to really connect the dots of "oh she did a bad". I fully acknowledge that I could just be dumb and I missed some plot beats, but her character didn't feel well communicated to me. Regardless, I did LIKE the concept of her character. Someone who died in the main timeline being revived in the new one, and through paradoxes feeling something is wrong, and doing something about it. That's really fucking cool. I just wish it was a bit more apparent (or maybe I just need to slow down and read more sometimes!)

Snow - Snow is Snow. He is EXACTLY like he was in XIII-1. Hard headed idiot who runs off to be a hero. I understand he's not exactly likeable for a lot of people, but I do love that he's consistent. I really appreciated that sense of trust between him and Serah, they're getting married for a reason lmao, although maybe just a teensy bit more romance would have been nice? Just a crumb. Regardless, I do love this dumbass. Also, his l'Cieining being unexplained (or maybe I'm dumb) is another thing that convinces me that this game was made with a XIII-3 in mind.

Chocolina - If you had told me that the little baby chocobo in Sazh's afro was going to turn into a hot lady with a singsongy voice I would not believe you. What???

I think the thing about this game is while its cast is small, that core selection is really enjoyable. Those few people that you're with the whole game through. It's just a little rough when it's a sequel and it has to build off of that correctly. Some characters feel different, some were turned into crystal so they don't count, and some were sent to the casino dimension and weren't allowed to exist until the end :(

Graphics: 200AF

XIII-1 had a special sauce to it. That game is Fucking Gorgeous despite being 15 years old at this point. I don't know what they put in it to make it last so long. XIII-2 has a similar sauce. It's a little weaker, there's a little more roughness, I can see the facial expressions be a little stiff, but that sauce still remains. XIII is peak "Final Fantasy is on the cutting edge of visuals". My absolute favorite scene is the first phase final battle with Caius, on the beach of Valhalla. Something about the lighting against the water, against the sand, and against the characters, was stunning. I don't even pop off at things like this often but God Damn.

Music: 230AF

Fuck. Before I ever played this game, even back when I picked up Theatrhythm Curtain Call for the 3DS and I really only had XIV under my belt; the little selection of soundtrack I got hit different. XIII already has amazing music, but XIII-2 is Fucking Peak. I love it so much. The lyrical songs are earworms, the Aggressive Mixes when you get into combat, the battle themes, the slower themes, aaaaaaagh!!!!! It's got that XIII violin that goes insane, Caius's Theme has that grand, dark choir, you have symphonic, you have techno, you have slow piano moments, I cannot get enough of it. There were times where I would just sit in the Historia Crux, listening to the music. I know some people said that it doesn't always fit the game, and I get that, especially in the boss themes, but I didn't mind at all. I think it helps that I already loved the soundtrack before I played it, but even in gameplay and hearing these tracks a lot more frequently did not diminish ANYTHING. I think I gotta make another top 5 list.

DLC: 5XXAF

I did it! It was fine. Sazh's DLC was nice to give me context on what he was doing, plus a little Chocolina lore, but it's gambling. I'm bad at gambling. The fucking faces he made in the card games were absolutely hilarious though

why did they do this angle it's so funny

Lightning's was cool. Repeatable Caius battle, get better and better at it. Plus you get a real sauced up unit from it (still couldn't top Chichu)

The Coliseum was the real meat of this, and it was the last thing I did before going for the secret ending. All very cool fights, and I get another Gilgamesh battle. Fuck that Ultros and Typhon fight though holy shit I was getting pissed off.

The Future To Come Is What We Make: 700AF

Couple other thoughts I had that I couldn't think of where to put it: I think I would have liked just a single extra area. Something about the number of zones we got, felt like it was just a tad too small. Maybe Gapra Whitewood? Somehow? I dunno. Also, I liked the paradox endings. They were fun postgame bonuses, they fit really well into a game about time travel and changing the future or past, not to mention they cleanly slot into the time map and fragment systems. Just a bit of extra content that feels allowed to be fun or give extra info. Anyways:

Despite the fact that I've played SO many FFs, I've only 100%ed/Platinumed 3 of them. FFI and II (the pixel remasters), and now XIII-2. That's gotta say something about this game, that I actually wanted to go the full way and finish the whole thing. Despite my complaints, the monster grinding and the crystarium weren't enough to stop me, and the difficulty of endgame was something that I felt was approachable enough. While I would have liked some of the more grindy elements (AHEM MONSTERS) to be more consistent, it still feels like a game that was near perfectly sized. I don't usually do direct games one after the other, cause I need variety else I get really burned out, but this has me honestly considering going straight for Lightning Returns next. We'll see how that turns out.

8/10. An overall improvement over the first entry in gameplay and story. Despite it being clunky or annoying in some consistent areas, it regardless has that sauce that had me locked in.

[faebriel]

i know that you’re a fan of death note, and have you ever thought abt a c!wilbur death note au?

now i've definitely made jokes about a tntduo death note au nonnie but i can't freaking find any of the posts

i do think it would be extremely funny to ditch a death note full speed at c!wilbur's head if only because he would generate the weirdest complex about it... ohhh he's so touched by death by rot and decay even the words he puts to paper are cursed by it... a notebook swept in between sheafs of presidential speeches and scores written in shorthand... always hovering at the edge of his subconscious, and he whispers to tommy in that ravine (brags to techno, who pretends he isn't wigged out by the whole thing) that he could fix all their problems, it would all go away if he wrote down the list of names kept long as an unburnt matchstick in his mind -

but i don't think he would actually use it lol. or rather i think he would test it once and feel so fucking sick he wouldn't touch it again. wilbur does some terrible shit at times but most of that is either 1. openly suicidal, just with a shitload of collateral damage (see november 16, his confrontation with dream in inconsolable differences, most of his mucking around with TNT in pogtopia in general) or 2. unduly influenced by his own damn incompetence (HITTING ON SIXTEEN SO BAD. ALSO INCONSOLABLE DIFFERENCES AGAIN). even in pogtopia he has a hesitation around killing schlatt, around committing to blowing up l'manberg, that is kind of sick and kind of so fascinating. which i guess is why i'm still posting about him lmao. but anyway i think he would make a lot of empty threats (and a lot of almost eye-roll-worthily verbose statements about the nature of death and his relationship to it) but he would struggle to commit to using it. wilbur wants to be ruthless but he's just too easily distracted.

OH THIS DOES REMIND ME similar wavelength but like. months ago in clout farm we ended up talking about a death note au where phil is L and wilbur + techno + tommy are horribly vying to avenge him in their own ways while being split down the middle with grief. i think techno officially inherited phil's role and wilbur sort of cast himself out of their little family, tommy in tow....... naturally not processing his grief/anger/self-blame over phil's death at all and throwing himself into this competitive nightmare instead. and techno just does not play that kind of game and is equally pissed/running out of patience with wilbur's desertion, and tommy is torn between the two of them until he tries to strike out on his own and is killed by kira for his effort.......

[chromochaotic]

Reads of 2023 Part II (so far)

i was sad i couldn't fit all the cover pictures in my Part I post without it going off the screen, so might as well split it into 2 posts! update as of 6/11!

thoughts/reviews:

Heaven Official's Blessing: Volume 1

It's happening! My friends have been deep in this author's works/fandom for a while now, I'm pretty late to the party... Well, I guess I've dabbled in some of the animated/live action content that's out there for the different series. Anyway, this was a fun read! There's something so lush about historical dramas that definitely comes through here. When you add in the bits of humor and adventure, the whole story is really refreshing.

Even though the translation is still a tiny bit unprofessional, it's clearer than other options, haha. I was able to get a way better sense of the world and characters on this attempt (I had a good time watching the animated show! But as my friend put it, the season moved lightning fast, so it brushed over a lot of things). I don't have any other real nitpicks, other than like... the odd sexism that pops up now and then. Lmao

I am ofc in love with the main characters... They invented love... They invented devotion... I'm also delighted by the pace of things! Their relationship has managed to be both teasingly slow (like, the gradual reveal of Hua Cheng's true identity) but also very satisfyingly forward (the escorting!! the painting!! the righteous anger!!). Excited to see where things go with them, and the rest of the cast! (3.5/5—would be a 4, but the translation still kind of hampers things.)

Naomi Vandoren's Forest of Light

The second art book I bought from this artist! Same thoughts as before; for a quick browse, this was a refreshing little collection. Her style is just nice and soothing, with some fun surrealism/dreamscape vibes thrown in.

I'm not sure I'll buy any more of these, since the book didn't add quite as much insight into the works as I was hoping. Plus some of the concepts don't really resonate with me/seem that well researched...

I think one of my favorite things included was this abstract work the artist did—she wrote that she started with random watercolor mark-making, and then turned that into a piece. Those were very cool explorations! (2.5/5)

Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Last Olympian

Done!! With the series! (Unless... It looks like there might be some followups to the main story?) I understand why the darker tone got dialed up, and other than the excursion with Nico, why the story kind of broke from the wacky-roadtrip vibe of the others. It made sense, while still keeping some of the lighthearted narration from the others, which was nice. I think what I appreciate the most about the series is the fun it has with its world. (Side note—I watched the movie based on the first book recently, and I can only assume it didn't do well! Bc omg, it completely missed the mood of the books. Instead of lingering on the whimsy, they focused on... making Grover a very cringey stereotype? Nah.) (ALSO??? THEY CUT OUT MY DAUGHTER CLARISSE????? THE AUDACITY???????)

I think my biggest gripe with the book was the very weird way the Annabeth-Percy-Rachel dynamic was handled. Like, it just got kind of tiring after a bit, especially with the way Annabeth acted so uncharacteristically catty at times. Plus, like, Percy's off falling in love with Calypso after like 5 minutes, the girl is right that he's kind of flighty. Rachel's ending also felt, just... eh.

Other than that, I was very into the last book!! There were some really moving character moments, like, Nico struggling with his place in the story, everything we learned about Luke... AND THE BIGGEST MASTERSTROKE OF ALL!!! I have been waiting to scream about the sapphic Patrochilles take??? At the end??? Clarisse has two hands and she can hold both Chris's and Silena's. She was moved to go into battle!!!! For her!!!!! She defeated one of the most terrifying foes in NO ARMOR just with a SICK ASS SPEAR and I LOVE HER. Anyway no notes, except they better do Clarisse justice in the new adaptation or I will riot. (4/5)

Secrets of the Oak Woodlands

Ooo I'm out of practice doing these reviews... Mostly from a funny cocktail of outside factors slowing me down, but also because nonfiction can be such a slog for me to get through. Tragic, because I do want to learn more ecology, I'm just... bad at it. Anyway! Bought this book on a fun West Coast road trip, I think I picked this up in the Sequoia National Park gift shop? The writing itself is great, especially how it tackles some pretty complex concepts in a way that's approachable. The book doesn't feel like Baby's First Nature Guide, but it also doesn't completely lose me when it explores why coyote populations actually rise when they're hunted or why Oak Mistletoe is a keystone species.

Even though the watercolor illustrations in the book were lovely, I sort of wish the visuals could have focused more on the tougher scientific concepts being explained. Like, instead of the illustrated "anecdote" of a quail sitting sentry, it could have been good to have a cross-section diagram of an oak gall or something. I guess it's always hard to balance interest and clarity in scientific writing, though. Overall, I think this was a pretty good eco-starter book! I'm just a square peg trying to force myself into a round hole, reading these nonfiction books. (So... 3/5?)

The Dragon's Bride

Hoo boy... Hoo boy... Listened to this audiobook at the recommendation of my friend who's very into erotica/romances. Which was an adventure, for me! To start with the good points, I really like the founding premise of this whole world/story. Deals with demons walk that perfect line for me of intricate and taboo power dynamics—and at the same time, the author satisfied my inner hopeless romantic by making all the demons (that we've met so far, at least) morally viable! So yeah, the world building and characterization is really nice, tbh.

I think my two sticking points are the smut itself, and that I didn't find these particular protags very compelling... It's interesting comparing this to, say, an above-average smut fic. On the one hand this has better prose, but on the other hand the smut veered into being a little too flowery now and then... (not to say all the sex scenes were like that. Uh. There were some choice ones.) I also personally found the frequency of the sex scenes a little ridiculous, but for most people that's probably a positive! 😂 And then, when it comes to the main characters themselves, I think they were well-rounded and the dynamic itself made sense. The personalities just aren't the kind I normally latch onto, though—they're not my blorbos, you know? So, where I'd go into a smut fic already attached (and therefore more into the smut itself), these... I could take it or leave it, haha.

That said, this installment did pique my interest for others in the series. I'm curious about the one with the succubus........ And the one with Eve..................... Those tidbits seem more up my alley. :] Also, the voice acting was pretty fun, tbh. They got separate VAs for Briar and Sol, the two POV characters, and they knocked it out of the park (even/especially in the smut scenes)! (well, except for a very funny instance where the guy VA had to voice Briar's lines in a smut scene in a Sol POV chapter. Damn, did he try.) Might pick up one of the other installments... if they come out on audiobook! (3.5/5)

Legends & Lattes

Another recommendation!! From a different friend! Apparently this book is popular on booktok but since booktok sounds like a cesspool (not really—pls don't come for me) I'm glad I didn't know that going in. As a purveyor and avid consumer of slice-of-life fluff.......... I loved this!!! First of all, the main character is My Kind of Girl, and exactly the kind of character I want to see getting a happy ending. Then, the rest of cast provided so many different kinds of delight—the warm Found Family feeling of a grumpy kind father figure and an adorable little Creature baking actual cinnamon rolls and a prim but secretly dorky girlfriend and and and—so many greats! Even the antagonists were enjoyable, in their way.

Hmmm... for the negative part of my postive-negative-positive sandwich, I think I'd just echo what I've seen in a few other reviews—I could have done with a teensy bit more of the romance. Or I guess, more of the cuteness of it? All we really got was a little bit of lead-up and then a big get-together, but I feel like the romance scenes I like most (shy flirting, a tiny bit of pining) got sort of skipped over. It's not a huge negative! Especially for this story, which seemed like it hit exactly the balance the author intended. Yeah, I might have just had the epilogue cover the main ship being cute and in love, instead of the little righteous vengeance scene that we got.

So this was a perfect little comfort listen (audiobook again! with really nice acting done by the author himself!). I saw other people calling the first chapters slow, but tbh I loved the steady, hopeful mood that came from all that straightforward hard work happening and then paying off. A great story, if you go in with the right expectations! (4.5/5) (P.S.: also this article touches on some other L&L points that I think explain why it resonates so well in post-pandemic life) (P.P.S. now I'm trying to parse out why I liked this book so much more than House in the Cerulean Sea... I think part of it is that the cast felt more respected? Like, it was more than just The Most Special-est Pretty Boy and his Plucky Boyfriend Fix Fantasy Racism)

[thehumantrampoline]

Bts or thousand words The Words I’m Leaving Out

you KNOW I love this bitch, it's still the longest thing I've ever written and I worked so hard on it and I wrote SO MANY fucking dwarf OCs. And all I wanted to do was write some fuckin Varric/Hawke fake dating rip me

but my favorite part was the miscommunication and the pining and pitting their baggage against each other SO WE'RE DOING THE BIG FIGHT

“You asked me here as a friend,” she says, staring into his face and trying to sound reasonable and not pleading, “and I haven’t been acting like one.” Varric shifts from one foot to another, runs a hand back over his hair. “That’s not…” He takes in a breath. “That’s not exactly why I asked you here.”

somebody in a comment at some point was like WAS HE GONNA CONFESS and yeah he absolutely was, even Varric Tethras can't stew in pining forever without saying something at least after she's actually kissed him lmao

That brings Hawke up short. She takes a split second to think the worst, but he doesn’t look angry or anything. Right, of course she’s just made it about herself again. “I know,” she says quickly. “I know. I’m sorry, that’s not--” She shakes her head. “Before we got here, I didn’t realize how important this was.” “I don’t think you do know,” says Varric, then adds, bemused, “Wait. What do you mean how important this is?” He closes his eyes and pinches the bridge of his nose with two fingers. “You’re not still on about Bianca, are you?” “Not just Bianca,” she says. Hawke needs him to understand. She needs him to know that she understands. “Everyone. All these people here, they’re the closest thing you’ve got to family anymore.”

I just love how the two of them have two very similar sets of family baggage that they process in two very different ways, Hawke constantly tries to live up to what her dwindling family needs and wants from her - and this being post Leandra's death, that means trying to live up to mostly a bunch of ghosts, which is even worse - whereas Varric has just buried all of it and firmly moved on, which is... not always entirely healthy either.

His eyes are open again to stare at her. “These people?” he repeats. “The ones you’ve met? The ones at dinner? Because most of them hate me, Hawke.” He huffs a breath. “Although put it that way, I guess I can see what you mean.” “They don’t hate you. Not most of them.” Varric throws up his hands. “Okay, they’re indifferent to me at best and are aware my death or retirement would improve their lives. Didn’t think it was an important distinction.” Hawke groans. Does he really not see? What he has here, in this house, that he doesn’t have in Kirkwall anymore?

I think a lot if it comes down to the roles they had in their families and also their different status as re: their homeland. Hawke left Ferelden under duress, and was cast in the role of protector over her family, while for Varric dwarf culture and Orzammar never felt relevant to him but was held over his head, and he was the baby, the "professional younger brother" that didn't have much expected out of him. It was a lot easier for him to kick "homeland" and family off like an unwanted burden without letting anyone down, while Hawke views her loss of the same things as a tragedy and a personal failing. She's been projecting that onto Varric the whole story, thinking she understands "why this is important" and maybe she's A LITTLE closer than he'll admit lmao but it's still a set of priorities he doesn't share.

“They’re not your enemies,” she argues. “They know you. I get how you might have a hard time telling the difference between those two concepts--”

Aaaand now we're breaking out Varric's normally-charming tendency toward lying and secrecy. Kind of a low blow but. definitely a sore spot that she's been pretending isn't a sore spot. Back in Kirkwall she prided herself on knowing him best of all, and being confronted with people who know parts of him she doesn't she's a LITTLE insecure.

“They don’t know me,” says Varric incredulously. “We’ve been lying to them all week, or did you miss that?” “You lie to everyone!” Hawke doesn’t know when she raised her voice. “So sue them for not trusting you. But they knew Bartrand, and your parents. They know all these stories about you. They’ve--” She balls her hands into fists at her sides. The shawl is never going to recover. “They’ve heard you sing!” “Fuck Bartrand,” Varric grits out. “And you don’t know shit about my parents.” Hawke makes a sound that’s almost like a laugh. “Because you’ve never told me!” she shouts.

maybe you should both process your grief instead of trying to outwork or outrun it?? maybe??? while we're feeling wild maybe you could communicate with words instead of flinging around feelings like rocks?? no sorry I know that's crazy carry on

Varric points a finger at her, and she’s only seen him angry like this as a stone door pulled shut in front of them miles beneath the ground. “Don’t put your family shit on me, Hawke,” he says. “Just because you’re still trying to make your mother proud of you doesn’t mean I am.” Hawke sucks in a breath. “Living in her house, wearing her clothes--” She balls up Leandra’s shawl and throws it at his face. He catches it in both hands, and his fingers clench in the fabric. “And you drag me here so you can sneak around Bianca’s house, the Bianca, lying about everything you really care about to keep the Tethras guild seat--” “That’s not the same thing,” he growls.

I mean it's kind of the same thing Varric. Kind of it is. You guys just go about shit in different ways but you're both really really bad at making peace with your past AND a little bit with trust, you can't just say that this relationship is functional without ever actually talking about anything. Or I mean you CAN but it's not going to be something you can lean on as much as you want to. Varric especially is real bad about not actually letting anyone see more than the minimum of himself and thinking that should suffice, but KIND OF this was his way of letting Hawke see the rest, which he would only ever do because he trusts her implicitly. So yeah he's upset that she saw all of it and misinterpreted it, but like you do have to talk about shit too.

“If you’re an outsider here, it’s only because you want to be,” Hawke says, and she refuses to cry. She doesn’t know how it turned into this. “And if I don’t understand that, it’s because you can’t tell me the truth either!” She stalks over to the bed and grabs the folded quilt at the end -- the one Varric tried to take their first night here -- and doesn’t look at him as she strides past him to one of the wingback chairs by the fire.

He's just real bad at telling the truth babe it's okay y'all will figure it out

[swallowtail-ageha]

Do you have favorite anime shows?

Yes! I used to be super into anime a few years ago, but now my interest and attention span has kinda dwindled so i'm not exactly up to date to the new hot animes (i do plan however on starting both Frieren and Dungeon Meshi)

If i have to make a list of my favourite animes, those would be (putting them not in a [most favourite-least favourite] order)

1- Shingeki no Kyojin. Hooly shit i think it was the first anime i seriously watched. The SnK manga was also the first one i ever purchased at like ~11. I just have so many good memories related to that manga

2- DOROHEDORO. God i. I think that animanga was tailor-made for me. It is extremely gorey, but also in a non edgy way. The tone is very lighthearted and the entirety of it's cast has it's spotlight. Also the character design is top notch and the ost makes me go insane

3- Tokyo Ghoul! Another childhood classic of mine (but that's more the manga than the anime) again i have so many memories about it including me doing my ghoul sona again at age 11/12. Good times

4- Pluto! I have never ever watched Astroboy in my entire life BUT i was also a huge fan of Urasawa's 20th Century Boys and Billy Bat so i decided to read it and when the anime adaptation came out i was "oh. They couldn't make it more perfect". Seriously tho, the animation, the story, the characters, the critique of the gulf war (since it was first released in the middle of it)... it couldn't be more perfect. Also Atom looks like my cousin so he's my special little boy

5- Shinsekai Yori. This is a weird one. I don't think that like. I'd actually recomend it to someone else. It's extremely slow paced and the whole subject matter is heavy. It's a dystopian novel-turned anime and i think that the pacing does get affected negatively by this. But if you're in for an heavy watch. Watch it. Please. The finale is one of the most poignant finales i've ever seen in an anime and i still think about it years later

5- Akira! While again this is one of those adaptations where the story had to be cut due to the rest of the manga still not being written, it holds up extremely well. Also the animation is gorgeous and last year i traveled to Rome to watch it at the Space Cinema for it's 35th anniversary and it was a spiritual experience. I do not think i ever looked away from the screen, even if for a split second

6- Vinland Saga! I don't have much to say about it especially to avoid spoilers since the anime is not over yet, but god. Thorfinn. I thought people were exaggerating when talking about his character development but he is genuinely wonderfully written. Also i loved the way season two ended with the poem being played while showing the characters of both the past and the present (and i don't remember if it was there in the manga? I think it was? But also the anime version is more cinematic for well. Obvious reasons)

7- Re:Zero! One of those things that i definitely shouldn't have watched as a preteen lmao. I am not a coneisseur of isekais, so i can't really fully appreciate the subversion aspect of it, but i love Subaru's character and the witch lore intrigues me so much, so if i ever get my hands of the novels i'll read them

8- Higurashi I do know that the anime compared to the novels absolutely sucks (iirc they cut a lot of content?) but i think it upholds very well on it's own (not like the umineko anime lmao). Also i had watched it when i was going through a very hard period of my life, so it's extremely dear to me

And that's it for now! Probably if you'd asked me this a few years back i would have replied with more shounens a la jjk and bnha, which i do still like (jjk way more than bnha) and for whom i had a hyperfixation on it, but again my tastes have immensely shifted and i think that overall these animes have made way more impact on me. Other two animes i really enjoy are FMA and HXH, but again while i recognize that FMA is a wonderful story and i do rank it quite highly it doesn't quite scratch my itch, and i constantly switch forth between loving and hating HXH (mainly due to the fandom's obnoxiousness in treating it like a piece of russian literature)

Have a nice day anon!!!

[rocksanddeadflowers]

Oh on this note :) consider they get dunked but kiss underwear somehow bc it sounds like a fun scene to do!!!! Also Tim and Bertie would be upset they couldn't see it or don't get to know at all lmao.

Like.... The boat is flipped and Marius bobs up sputtering. He looks around for Lyf, and just before any ideas of panic or worry get a chance to sink in something grabs him ankle and pulls him down a little. Lyf has now chosen to be a stupid fucking menace and dragged Marius underwater, kisses him there, and then they both resurface and get back to shore (courtesy of some nicer spirits helping them out too).

I just .... The split moment were they're both underwater, you know? Gentle lights from a night sky and glittering souls skittering above the surface (pixies? Lightening bugs? Who can tell, really) breaking through the surface to dapple through the rippling water. Below it's so quiet, so calm and serein. They were adjusted to the bustling excitement and loud sounds of music and joy, that below the surface it's almost as if they've gone deaf. Their hair and clothes floating around them, and they're not deep enough for the water's pressure to feel anything more than a strange comfort. Lyf probably looks so magical to Marius in the whole setting, and in the darker lightening beneath the water's surface, they might just be glowing. Lyf grins with mischievous, and cups his face oh so gently before stealing his breath far better than drowning ever could, then drags him back up to the surface.

I just!!!! Pls tell me you get the magic of being under water especially when it's clear!!! You know what I mean right? I just.... Oh I romanticize it so much <3 also it's fully possible Lyf can hold their breath longer or something bc Fae stuff? That's a loose thread tho so idk. (<- maybe I should check some mythology stuff to directly base them on again. Really if they're Nordic/Scandinavian there is every likelihood they have water based abilities, considering how much sea fairing was in the cultures.) Also Lyf just causing mischief has my whole heart... I think they can be overly apologetic about it if they worry they went to far but mostly it's harmless fun.

Also I'm partial to a simple name but none of the locals actually calling it that and just saying it's cursed land or fae-claimed. I love Morrigan (the goddess) so I thought I'd mention it but I think Mallory works the best? Thinking someone actually calling it Lake Mallory and a character who isn't French (like, so much of the main cast lmao) goes "ah well that doesn't sound that bad" and a French character just silently shaking their head lmao. Still in also adore long dramatic names. If we can't pick one name maybe it's one of those places where everyone calls it a different thing. Maybe it's official name is just Lake Mallory (name after the person who discovered it, who later went missing there) but everyone calls it long dramatic names or something akin to "don't fucking go there". (So also of course Peter (and probably Lizzie) would be so excited to check it out. Jesse is the only one wanting to head the warnings but it's already two against one love.)

Also the post curse visit with the whole gang where Lyf says something in Old Norse (<- side note that mf definitely mutters some snarky/nasty ass shit in Old Norse at inappropriate times that sends Carmilla in hysterics. Sometimes Tim and Bertie can pick up on pieces too.) but this time Marius actually knows that one!!! It's translates to corpse fjord, like a graveyard!! Then after saying it out loud he's like ah. You're calling the lake a graveyard. Sounds inviting. (Jonny is already in the water with Brian but definitely hears that and is ready to turn back now please!!!) Lyf doesn't understand why anyone is upset bc all bodies of water usually has a corpse or few?? And this one has extra sure that's why they called it that but those ppl were probably disrespectful or something. It's normal? Right?

Kiss The Girl but it's after the curse and because Tim and Bertie didn't get to do the full song during the ballroom scene they set Marius and Lyf up on a little romantic boat date thing? And it's that same lake (which I feel like we should name the lake- aaaaaand I'm already on it gonna go find a cool spooky name brb) so they know exactly how to win the spirits and creatures over to join in. Like, you how know Sebastian got all the local critters to join in for a whole orchestra? That kinda vibe. And just like The Little Mermaid, Lyf is fully aware of the whole thing but Marius takes a moment to catch on. Of course they're only aware after they're stuck in that boat. So may as well kiss.

(I do think they're first kiss is still a fully different scene that I think has been brought up? So either Tim and Bertie are unaware of that, it hasn't happened yet, or they don't care that it did they're still doing this. Also maybe they still don't kiss at the boat scene and get knocked over by mischievous spirits like in the movie too.)

Okay lake names!!!

"Propriété des Fées" French for "Property of the Faires" "La Résidence de la Dame" French for "The Lady's Dwelling" or "The Lady's Residence" or "La Résidence de L'âme" French for "The Residence of the Soul"

Yes I know I just wrote some vague cool shit and tossed it into google translate.... (Chose "Lady" ones as a reference to some of the lady of the lake myths. Not the same as Arthurian Legend, though, just to be clear.) Some actual potential names if those are a bit much:

Lake Mallory - Mallory is a French name meaning "without good fortune" or "ill-omened" or "unfortunate" Lake Morrigan - Morrigan is a Celts-Irish goddess of war and fate, foretelling of doom, death, or victory in battle. She's also often represented with three crows/ravens I believe (which is neat when compared to Odin, who was two crows/ravens). Celts-Irish has roots and influence in French history.

I dunno. Maybe something along "Lake of The Kind Ones"/"Lake of the Fair Folk"/"Lake of The Good Neighbors" could be an option?

Would also fall to me knees if Lyf said something cryptid about it, like calling it "a kindly corpse fjord" and refusing to elaborate.

[speedystarshine]

💋 Anon, so sorry but I accidentally posted instead of edited so Ur ask is gone, but luckily I took a screenshot jakwnfna-

Thank you so much for the ask! I'm in brainrot hours rn so this was a good outlet :D and I'm glad you liked the last one! I chose season one, to go down memory lane, hope that was okay! :)

Characters: Joey Graceffa, Eva Gutotowski, Oli White, Lele Pons, Timothy DeLaGhetto, Matt Haag, Sierra Furtado, GloZell Green, Justine Ezarik, Andrea Brooks, Shane Dawson

-So, I think for some reason the season one cast would be more protective of reader?

-They don’t know what happens or what is going to happen, since Joey too has no idea and can’t warn anybody.

-The minute Shane starts choking, everybody’s confused but catch on pretty quickly.

-Y'all start looking for clues, and split off into groups (scooby doo looking goofy ahh-)

-I'll leave which group reader is in to resder interpretation, but whichever you're is more likely to fall first.

-As the night progresses, you'll notice some of your time members becoming more protective of you, flanking you from each side

-You won't have a moment of peace the whole goddamn time. Someone will constantly be near you, watching you, etc.

-And then the deaths start coming :)

-Even though a lot of them are really competitive, and want to go home (with you ofc), a few of them realize that "Oh shit, I want to win but I also might actually die here" so work on protecting you instead.

-Joey would be on of the most protective ones, and nothing is too off with him other than a few offhand comments that might suggest you weaker and in need of protection. (Kinda like Amity and Willow in Labyrinth Runners tee hee)

He also won't stop following you around, never leaving your side once whereas the others sometimes go off to do something else.

-Eva would be noticeably different, acting fun and bouncy as ever but it seems strained, like kinda the way if you were to embarrass your mom in public and she can't kill you yet but like-

-Oli our beloved would be so freaking nice to you, although he can seem a bit more lost in thought and conflicted which is perfect if you wanna slip away for a second.

-Lele would.... Just kinda give you the chills ngl. Yk that scene were Eva and Lele were thirsting over one of the house owners? (I think his name was Colin or smth idek-) yeaahh that. But yandere.

-Timothy is a slimy little rat man who tries to get into your pants every second/j. But seriously, he would be one of the touchier yandere's and he definitely flirts a lot which can cause conflict in the group, so look out for that.

-Matt. Absolute simp, fool of a man. He may be the professor but Jesus Christ he forgets how to speak the second you come into his general vicinity. He'd sit in the simp pile with Eva and Lele.

-Shane is fucking dead lmao

-Sierra would be like.... A softer version of Lele. Definitely calculating and good at hiding how she feels, but a lot less sadistic and cold with reader. Probably gives a lil goofy smile every time she catches your eye.

-GloZell would be all over you, like Timothy, but whereas with Tim it was sly touches you better believe you are straight into her arms. Very touchy with you but in a more open way, so a few of the others are definitely planning against her.

-Justine (ily so much-) would be much like Matt, but actually goes up to more often instead of waiting for you to come to her. She just constantly has heart eyes around you and it shows

-Andrea would be like Timothy and GloZell, except it's always little hints instead of outright physical affection, and she's way smoother and pulling it off than those two. Probably pulls a blush out of reader once or twice (depending on how easy reader is to fluster) and the group is split between "she's next" and "teach me Ur ways" lol. It would be funny bc I imaging Matt going up to her most in a "teach me your ways" thing despite him never having the confidence to actually do it.

-All in all very chaotic. They split off into mini groups, everyone secretly plotting against the other, and a lot of squabbling. All the goddamn time. Joey and Eva are the only ones to have the sense of "THEY'RE RIGHT THERE SHUT THE FUCK UP" since the others are either too hotheaded or riled up to back down.

-lol just the mental image of Joey and Eva trying to calm people down, a whole ass bar fight happening in the middle of the room, reader, Oli, and the servants/maids of the house standing to the side like "for fucks sake-"

I'm sorry it took so long my dumbass pressed post instead of edit TWICE-

Taglist:

@112-writes

@shuble

@orangussy

[the-nysh]

I am pretty sure that Garou becoming a hero is going to be the one thing that begins the arc of the neo heroes.

As a way of keeping him in the main cast and keep developing his story, since it would be "his fault" that a hero civil war began.

I just keep wondering what he is going to play in all of this, besides being the one who is the last straw for the heroes to move to the neo heroes and look for better opportunities.

I also hope he is not that nerfed up after losing the power of his god slayer fist, even in the webcomic that happened after not being a monster anymore.

At least he should be able to fight againt dragon threat monsters or something.

What do you think of this?

So because manga Garou didn't face the entire S Class (most of them were defeated/demoralized by the monster cadres instead of him), they'd need a different reason to be legitimately upset and feel ‘wronged’ by him. For it to still count as ‘his fault’ like in the wc, for many heroes to retire or defect to the Neo Heroes in their dissatisfaction with the HA. (And we’re talking S Class, not the other lower ranked heroes who already have beef with him.) So Garou hypothetically allowed to join their ranks and welcomed with ‘special’ S Class treatment right off the bat, could definitely be the spark that splits them apart, depending on how they individually feel about him.

However I also agree with other sentiments that Garou shouldn’t be the heroes’ only reason for being upset with the HA (more reasonably yeah, as their last straw of patience) - as it would distract them from other legitimate problems/corruption going on behind the scenes (and make them turn a blind eye to other bad apples - like McCoy).....and thus of course would make them that much more vulnerable to being swindled/tricked by the Neos’ sweet ‘too good to be true~’ offerings. The heroes wouldn’t just be weeding themselves out voluntarily (without knowing any better), they’d only condemn themselves right into a trap. D: aaaa!

But the biggest ironic thing though, is that during the whole arc, when Garou’s shown putting his heart & mind into it, he's proven to be a far more proactive & effective hero than many of the ‘pros’ are. :O Here's all the various hero 'work' he achieved doing their job for them, primarily saving people (including other heroes) and destroying the baddest monsters:

Infiltrated the MA base alone (while injured) to rescue Tareo from Royal Ripper (Monster: destroyed) (Bonus: escorted and protected a child til they got separated by Rover)

Faced their boss (Gyoro + Orochi) and declared war on the Monster Association

Saved Bang from V. Fuhrer Ugly (Monster: destroyed)

Saved King from Platinum + Evil Natural Water (as King's combo attack! literal Ultimate Wave Motion Cannon)

'Avenged' Flash from Platinum (Monster: destroyed)

Saved two helicopters (both the civilian news crew & Tareo’s rescue squad) from Sage Centipede (Monster: destroyed) (Bonus qualities: showed budding leadership and cooperation/strength amplification with another hero - Metal Bat)

‘Accidentally’ saved trapped civilians, an entire town from an erupting volcano, AND a stranded airplane on the other side of the globe (lmao)

Self-sacrificed himself to send Saitama back in time to save the world (Ominous future: destroyed) (Bonus qualities: leadership, planning, teaching and cooperation with another hero)

So holy damn! Give this man a salary! Cause he naturally has all the makings, and even the experience under his belt already, to become a fine, leading top hero - based on no one else’s criteria/rules but his own. (Meaning, he doesn’t have to change that part of himself or conform to anyone else’s ideal image of a ‘hero’ for him to succeed; he can still independently ‘be himself’ and strive for his core values, despite what the HA or any other heroes say or think of him.)

But....it’s unknown how strong he still is. :P I figured after all the ‘god’ nonsense was punched out of him, he’d keep everything he still grew/earned on his own. But apparently he still lost ‘his fist’ (god-slayer fist) that he perfected while fighting Sage Centipede even at his peak moral best. So everything after ‘turning into a monster’ (appearing at the surface) probably no longer applies? Then that means he’s at the same level when he fought Darkshine underground? Spiral Garou what happened to you~ But if anything, he’s still overpowered enough to escape everyone’s line of sight (but Saitama’s) and evade Metal Knight’s huge robotic army sweeping the sky in the aftermath. :O And he remembers enough to want to learn back everything he lost - legitimately this time. Whether that’s training all over again or competitively fighting the other S Class (all the strongest monsters he evolved against are gone) to determine his ranking. :P