#(before the incident)

[littlekhada]

There is something in Eli's character design that works like catnip on me. There is a difference though, unlike with catnip there is an addiction development

[karebeast]

Happy Holidays from The Nebula Stars!

Ray, Paligan, Petter ™ @karebeast

[jaggedwolf]

ok like, aa5 is not a Good TM game (it's possibly the worst structured aa game I've played so far, ignoring whatever the fuck the crossover was!) but i keep thinking about athena and simon and pondering whether they're my favorite protagonist-prosecutor dynamic since phoenix and edgeworth. bc it's like.

you're seventeen years old. you walk into your mentor's lab and find her bloody corpse on the robot disassembly setup, her equally bloody kid daughter next to her saying she tried to fix her mom and you just. you can't let this kid go to prison. so you frame yourself and smuggle her out and probably clean all the blood off of her. you don't say a word in your defense, even when it means you're going to death row, even when your older sister begs you to. you spend the next seven years in a cell realizing there's a real killer and trying and failing to find them.

you're eleven years old. your mother is murdered and everyone's convinced her student did it but you know he didn't, you know, but no one listens to you because you're a kid who doesn't remember anything and can't explain the emotions you're hearing (your mother would've been able to). his older sister who loved your mom, the adult closest to her - turns out she hates you, she thinks of you as a spoiled brat who did your own mom in and doomed her brother. you spend the next seven years speedrunning your adolescence to become a lawyer, because that's the only way to save this guy you know didn't hurt anyone.

obsessed with this.

I think what gets me is that this is not a Phoenix and Edgeworth situation. At no point are we told that Athena and Simon were close before the incident, and in fact I prefer the reading that they weren't. Obviously there is a baseline politeness, given Metis, but one was a withdrawn and often overwhelmed preteen and the other a bright older teenager at the beginning of his career.

It's that, when it all goes down, they both look at each other and go, I can't let this person take the blame, it's not fair. And this is key: During those seven years, they have no idea that's what the other person is thinking!

[aaandbackstabbed]

Goldie comes from a big family like a BIG FAMILY

[primamchorus]

Side Story: First Day of School

Per the wants of King Regis, Noctis is to start schooling within a public setting accompanied by his future Arms of the King that they are ever at his side. It is a chance for them to have lives outside of royalty and nobility -- to grow up with some semblance of what it is like for those their age outside their station.

Word Count: 1,677

FFXV: Reimagined Table of Contents

Next ->

“That’s it?” a young Noctis asked after he got out of the black car. There was an unimpressed look upon his face. He was flanked by two others his age -- twins -- that also exited the car and stood at his sides. They were just as outfitted with their own backpacks filled with learning material, blank notebooks, drawing pads, and crayons.

Before them was a rather humble-sized building: a red-brick school so named Cavaugh Elementary. The walkway leading to it was adorned with well kept small gardens and trimmed trees. It looked nice, but there was still something…lacking.

“It’s not like the Citadel, is it?” the female twin asked, reaching up and adjusting the blue bow that kept her ponytail tied up.

The back door of the car they had all climbed out of shut, making them look back at the older boy that looked forward. The older boy adjusted his glasses, a rather stern look on his face for a seven-year-old. With a sigh, he composed himself and said, “King Regis has stated that Prince Noctis and House Chorus are to attend this public educational setting. You would do well not to be too rude about it.”

His words were a bit too well put together for most people his age.

“It’s so small,” the male twin piped up. He adjusted his backpack before standing a little more shoulder to shoulder with Noctis. He then pointed at the building before looking back up at the older boy. “Seriously, they cram a bunch of kids in that small building, Ignis?”

The boy sighed again, closing his eyes. “They do, Tandem.”

“Will you be joining us, too, Iggy?” the girl asked, turning a smile in Ignis’ direction.

“It’s not for me,” Ignis replied stiffly. There was annoyance in his tone mixed with some faint tinge of disappointment. “My education must be conducted within the halls of the Citadel.”

“Boo, not fair…” the girl replied, pouting. “I want us to learn at the Citadel, too…”

“It’s not all bad, Prim. Dad says that this way we can grow up alongside the people of Insomnia. These are the people that we’ll one day have to watch over and guide,” Noctis said; he made it sound like that was all there was to it. He started walking ahead only offering Ignis a small wave in goodbye. “We’ll see you after school, Iggy!”

Ignis offered them a bow as the three started walking toward the school together. The last that the trio heard from behind them was the car door opening, closing, and then the car driving away.

This was the start of Noctis and his future Arms of the King’s days attending school.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Of course, over the duration of the school day, there was plenty of attention that went toward Noctis and the two kids that he arrived with. Introductions to the class made the  kids murmur with excitement once Noctis introduced himself as ‘Prince’, and then both Primam and Tandem introduced themselves, their family name lending credence toward Noctis actually being the Crown Prince he claimed he was.

“So you’re really the Prince of Lucis?” a boy asked. A crowd gathered around Noctis’ desk in the room during their lunch.

“What’s it like being the Prince!?” a girl excitedly asked. “How many maids and servants do you have?”

Tandem, while busily eating his food, seemed to be keeping an eye out over the kids that surrounded the Prince. At the very least, it looked like Noctis was taking everything in stride, a big smile on his face as he entertained each of the questions that was being slung his way.

“Yeah! There’s only one Prince of Lucis, and that’s me,” Noctis was overheard saying. “We got a whole bunch of people that work at the Citadel that do things for me and my dad. Maybe…hundreds?”

“Twenty cleaning staff,” Primam corrected. She had been standing behind Noctis since her meal was already finished. “Twelve personal servants within the Citadel that tend to different people on the Lucian Royal Council. Many more on standby if something happens!”

“And what are you, exactly? One of the Prince’s servants-in-training?” came somewhat of a snide remark from another one of the kids. There were some chuckles and giggles that bubbled from others in the crowd.

“N-No,” Primam stuttered in response. She felt her skin prickle with the offense she felt.

“We’re gonna be Noct’s Arms of the King!” Tandem spoke up, putting a lid on his bento before standing up and approaching the crowd. He placed his hands on his hips, a determined look on his face. “We’re gonna be some of the best fighters that Noct has by his side, so you should watch out for calling my sister a ‘servant’!”

Noctis smirked to himself, folding his arms over his chest. He looked proud of himself. “Yeah, and it’ll be way cooler than my dad’s Arm of the King, because while he gets one? I get two!”

This caused a small series of ‘ooh’s to rise from the children. Attention was redirected toward Tandem shortly after.

“Do you get to learn how to fight with swords!?” one of the children asked. “O-Or maybe you get to shoot guns like some of the Royal Lucian Guard?”

“Of course we get to learn how to fight with swords. It’s what we’re meant to do!” Tandem replied. Of course, that was only a partial truth, and Primam was about to open her mouth to speak up on the matter until someone else interjected.

“So you’ll be some of the best fighters in the kingdom!”

“Psh, I’m already one of the best fighters.” Tandem struck a battle-ready pose, a wide, toothy grin on his face. He was really only mimicking some sentai warriors on the television shows he and Primam only had small privileges to watch on weekends.

“Yeah? You gonna tell Mollie that next time you see her?” Noctis teased. “She had you pretty good during training.”

“That was just her being lucky!” Tandem quickly shot back, scowling at Noctis. Of course the Prince laughed; getting under Tandem’s skin for a moment had been amusing.

Before too much more could be prodded at or discussed, the bell chimed. That was the signal to the end of the lunch period.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

School was over for the day, and the trio waited patiently for the familiar black car to arrive. All the while, Noctis seemed to have been in good spirits, a wide smile plastered on his face. Tandem also seemed to have this delighted look on his face. Meanwhile, Primam was more contemplative. She had been a little less talkative than either her twin or Noctis.

When eventually the car arrived and Iggy exited to open the back door for them, a question escaped his lips: “How was your first day of school?”

“It was great!” Noctis chirped as he entered into the car, he crawled over onto the far side before dumping his bag onto the floor and buckling himself in. “I’m probably gonna make something like a hundred -- no -- two hundred friends at this rate!”

“Yeah right. If anyone’s gonna be making that many friends, it’s obviously gonna be me!” Tandem teased as he hurried in along after Noctis.

Primam paused and looked up at Ignis. “It was fun when I got to do the reading and writing lessons.”

Ignis’ expression turned to one of mild bemusement before he relaxed his posture a small bit. “I’m glad to hear that you all had something nice happen.”

A slight smile tugged at the corner of Primam’s lips with at least Ignis’ approval before she finally was the last one to get into the car to go back to the Citadel. When the door closed behind her, Primam set her bag down and got buckled in alongside her brother.

When Ignis got back into the passenger side of the car and buckled in himself, the car lurched out of the driveway. Looking back behind the chair, Ignis glanced over each one of them: Noctis, Tandem, and Primam. It seemed evident that both Tandem and Noctis were eager to go back, but Primam seemed a bit more withdrawn than the other two.

“Excited to go back tomorrow?” Ignis asked, settling back into his seat.

“Yeah, of course!” Noctis piped up. It seemed someone liked the attention he had been given.

“I am! Now I have to kick Mollie’s butt in training this time, though. Otherwise Noct’s gonna tell everyone she’s stronger than me. You can’t have the Eyes of the King being stronger than one of the Arms!” Tandem said, determined for other reasons it seemed.

Primam fidgeted a moment before looking up and out the window, watching as the buildings passed by. “The teacher said that tomorrow, we get to go into the school’s garden to learn about taking care of the vegetables they’re growing there. I’m excited for that.”

“Uncle says gardening can be a valuable skill,” Ignis said. The driver chuckled in response.

“Indeed. I’m glad you’re looking forward to it, Prim. Maybe I can show you the Citadel’s own gardens for a bit and how they’re taken care of if you take a shine to it.” The driver was Silex Scientia, and was the current Hand of the King. It had fallen to him to ferry the children back and forth from school for now.

Primam’s attention immediately snapped forward as her expression brightened. “Really!?”

“Really. I won’t force you to care for the gardens -- only ask you to help tend to them if you’re interested. Sound like a plan?” Silex asked.

“Y-Yeah!” Primam grinned, and perhaps looked the happiest she had that entire day.

“Will mum and dad be fine with that?” Tandem mused aloud. The question made Primam’s expression immediately fall.

“Who cares…” Noctis spoke up. He then leaned forward, offering Primam a determined smile as he looked past Tandem. “I’ll just tell dad to tell them to cool it if Prim likes gardening.”

Noctis’ reassurance was enough to make Primam’s smile return. “Thanks, Noct…”

[csh0s]

She made sweaters as a hobby and sold them for extra cash sometimes!

[egophiliac]

don't think I'm not still obsessing over 7-12

[chloesimaginationthings]

Can you imagine if the Aftons were in FNAF into the pit

[rocketbirdie]

let him cook

[adrenalinfilledthoughts]

*jorb finds a note next to a small bowl of green-tinted ambrosia fruit salad. would he like to read the note?*

< I swear to god if you eat that I- >

+ shush, food +

*He reads the note*

[baja-blast3r]

Please be gentle ~ 🤲

⬇️ Alt version+ Sketch⬇️

I much preferred the flat colored version probably because I’ve never been too good at understanding shadows/highlights

[flower-zombiee]

Something I think about so much is just how different the Stanley Pines we see in ATOTS is from the Grunkle Stan we know in the rest of the show.

Like, have you ever noticed just how much more expressive Stan is in 1983? The guy wears his heart on his sleeve so much more than he does later on. At almost every moment you can tell exactly what he's thinking and feeling just from his face, something that will become a lot rarer for him. Even setting aside the portal incident scene itself, have y'all ever watched the Dusk 2 Dawn scene and just watched Stan's face? He looks so… openly sad.

It's not just his expressions. Here's a detail that only just occurred to me: you guys ever think it's weird that Stan doesn't just try to steal the bread from Dusk 2 Dawn? Like, you'd think his stealing habit would've originated from his years on the street stealing to survive, but no— he tries to pay for the bread, and then when he doesn't have any money, he figures out how to get some. It's surprisingly honest.

And just like… I don't know, his whole vibe is so different. He's come from this life of hardship completely willing to talk things through. He's emotional, he's open, and not exactly what you'd expect to see when you imagine what a younger Grunkle Stan might have been like. In fact, his vibe is so different that, in Journal 3, Ford writes that when he first saw Stan, he assumed he was just in another alternate dimension rather than the one he came from.

Anyway, it just makes me think about the transition of how, exactly, he went from one to the other. How we go from the "stubborn, frostbitten vagabond" to the "carnival barker" he is by the show's present. I think about that in-between Stan a lot. Realizing that the hole in his heart, the one he thought was caused by his circumstance for so long, hadn't disappeared even now that he had money and a steady place to live. Growing more bitter and grumpy by the day, learning that maybe it's just better if he shuts himself off from the world so nobody has a chance to hurt him. Seeing himself aging and finding himself no closer to saving Ford. Ship of Theseus-ing himself into the carefully curated asshole that maybe even he thinks he is.

[odinsblog]

The crew of a massive container ship that crashed into the Francis Scott Key bridge in Baltimore early Tuesday warned of power issues before the collision, which caused the bridge to collapse into the frigid Patapsco River, officials said.

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore said the warning from the ship’s crew likely saved lives.

“We’re thankful that between the mayday and the collapse, that we had officials who were able to begin to stop the flow of traffic so more cars were not on the bridge,” Moore said. He called those officials heroes.

Moore noted that the bridge was up to code at the time of the collapse. He said the collapse was a “shocking and heartbreaking” event for the people of Maryland who have used the bridge for 47 years.

(continue reading)

[kittykatninja321]

I understand why people write “other characters close to character X react to fucked up thing that happened to them” fics, it’s cathartic and it’s good character study, but sometimes in the back of my head I’m like “that guy would Not open up about that”

[somethingsome]

Personally I kinda prefer the other cover idea, at least from an art standpoint. The faceless protagonist with the star looks really cool. Though maybe with a different hair colour since white/silver hair makes me think more of Abel/Belle personally??

I know a lot of people tend to prefer covers without characters on them, cuz it can give a feeling of favouritism or that's the "right kind of protagonist to play as", and I totally agree with the sentiment, and I do really enjoy a more stylized cover. But covers with people/faces on them tend to catch the eye more than those without, from what I've read (it's part of why so many video games have the Generic White Guy cover and so many YouTubers put their faces on the thumbnail), so it's a give and take imo.

Potential Book Cover

I know I said that I don't have visual references for the characters, buuut I did end up drawing Syo. I'm thinking of making him featured for the cover, but if you don't want the vision of him warped with my drawing, feel free to not click on the "read more". If you are fine with it, feel free to click. I'm not exactly sure if this is a cover people would like, so I'd love to hear opinions on it!

[flowersforthemachines]

one thing that's really important to me in regard to Taash is that, despite the gamer bro outrage, all the stupid YT videos, and so many people I've seen who should be denied access to internet until they get a 101 on media literacy, Taash was still the 3rd most romanced character in the game. which is huge, when you take into account the insane popularity of Lucanis and Neve.

that means that the real people, who actually played the game instead of just talking shit on the internet, *loved* Taash. and that's what actually matters the most, at least to me.