#(i know it's more likely they had filler dialogue for her and sam bc they were on screen solely to promote gen v.

[homielander]

on homelander and ryan

well first let me just say that the confrontation with bonnie and adam filled me with unspeakable dread. exploitation of inequitable power dynamics in the workplace at the expense of a female subordinate... yeah, surely that won't come up later! 😃 but i tried to ignore that context so i could enjoy them sipping sinisterly on their chocolate milkshakes which was very fun

anyway. i really enjoyed the homelander and ryan scenes in this episode because it finally felt like we were watching two people who had been living together for a few months... there was a real ease and familiarity to their interactions. (their scenes from eps 1-3 were a bit expository for my taste, i guess.) and i loved that there was no dramatic acknowledgement of homelander's breakdown in their last scene together (even though an apology would have been warranted on homelander's end) because sometimes that's just the way things go. their conspiratorial rapport during the bonnie and adam bit was also kind of adorable, sorry. homelander is being as corny as ever and ryan actually entertains it because he loves his lame dad!!!

i was so gratified seeing homelander ask ryan what he wants... everyone jumped on him for saying "i've given you everything that i ever wanted!" in 4.03 but if you were horrifically abused as a child and then had to care for a child of your own, ensuring said child has everything you longed for is a pretty important consideration (which extends to the freedom to make one's own choices, as we see here. we just needed to give him a minute he was literally working on it!)

the other element to asking ryan what he wants is that homelander doesn't know what to do with this newfound freedom either. yes, he did say at the onset of the season that his goal is to leave behind a world that is "pure" and "cleansed" (supe-led) for ryan, so that ryan never feels the need to bend to public opinion or corporate interests. but what does homelander want for himself now that he's free from the constraints of seeking public adoration??? he has no idea, so he gets his son to choose for him instead. and in a very real sense, "cleansing" the world for ryan is healing for him too, because they are one entity... i love codependence

that doesn't mean homelander doesn't put his own disturbing twist on ryan's wish to "help people". ryan's enjoyment admittedly felt pretty jarring but my take on it is that bonnie's immediate readiness to slap that director made him feel as if he was empowering someone. that's what he wants! while homelander is just glad that a human (it helps that it's the annoying guy who works for him) is experiencing pain. homelander is no longer motivated by winning anyone's approval either so there's even less overlap with ryan's genuine desire to save others. i imagine that this disconnect will come to a head soon... excited to see where things go next!

[pedal-writes]

Homesick (2)

A/N: This one is a bit longer despite it honestly being filler but yk I gotta keep the grind up guys 🙏 oh yeah, don't mind the obligatory fanfic bestie, she isn't gonna have that big a role after this don't worry guys, big peepaw robot will only be on the mind soon lolz

Oh yeah and I added some dialogue from the book in here bc it's easier to translate that then movie dialogue so I'm gonna switch between the both of those, just an FYI!

It’s been about a week or so since you arrived in L.A.. Like Sam boasted about, he managed to get a car, a yellow camero to be exact. It was amusing how much he rubbed it in your face as if you didn’t get a car when you were literally his age. But you weren’t that bothered by his sudden load of cockiness and was just happy he managed to get some independence for himself. 

Today, Felicity wanted to meet up with you  and catch up over some dinner and maybe a shopping spree at the mall. She had been talking about it all week but couldn’t see you until now since she hasn’t found a good time to take off from work. You went through your suitcase and found a few cute clothing items that screamed casual but also girls night (more like day) out. As you picked up your purse and made sure all of your essentials were inside, you made your way out of your bedroom and down the stairs. A small chuckle left your lips when you heard your parents muffled voices bickering outside. They were working on the yard for the past few hours and your mom would constantly harp on what your dad did wrong. It was a little funny honestly. 

Suddenly, you felt someone walk past you and a muffled sorry escaped their lips. You glanced over in confusion and saw Sam go into the garage. You snorted and decided to follow him, out of pure curiosity. As you walk into the garage and lean on the door frame, Sam scrambled to find his keys. “Hey Sam, what’s goin’ on?”

Sam glances over, his demeanor dropping a bit in annoyance. “I’m uh, going to this lake party. Miles is gonna come with me so y’know…”

“Wait, you got invited to an actual party?” You responded with a twinge of surprise in your voice. “No offense.”

“I mean not��� officially. It’s a public place, anyone can go to the lake.” Sam said, making his way past you and towards one of the back doors. “And why are you so done up? You don’t usually wear clothes that nice.”

“Wh— Okay I’m going to ignore that you just said that. Anyways, Felicity is gonna pick me up in a few because she wanted to catch up since we haven’t seen each other in like forever.” You say as you adjust the purse hanging on your shoulder. As the name ‘Felicity’ leaves your mouth, Sam groans over dramatically and turns towards you. “You’re seriously still friends with that girl?”

“Duh! She’s my best friend Sam.” 

“Yeah, more like she’s the best at being annoying. She would literally come here every single day after school and you two would talk about whatever girl problems you two had and by the way, I heard everything. The walls are very thin in this house.” Sam opened up the door and began to walk out. “I have no idea how mom and dad even tolerated it because I didn’t! You guys didn’t even listen to me when I complained.” He rants irritably, making his way towards the driveway.

“But she had a troubled home life! I was the only one there for her. And she hasn’t spent the night here since I was in high-school. That was, what, five years ago?” You explained as you followed close behind him. Both of you managed to step onto your father’s, Ron’s, lawn. “You two, I do not like footprints on my grass. Please step onto the very nice path I ever so carefully laid down.” 

“Oh, sorry dad.” You mumbled and retraced your steps. You could practically hear Sam’s eye role as he begrudgingly did the same. “Mom, seriously, could you stop putting jewelry on Mojo? He’s got enough self-esteem issues as a Chihuahua without you pimping him every day.”

Judy frowned at her son. “You know I don’t like for you to use that term,” She scolded. 

“Maybe you should put him back in the dryer, hon.” Ron said playfully. 

You glanced towards your mother with a confused expression. “Wait, that’s how Mojo broke his leg? Mom, you told me he jumped off the counter and fell weird.”

“I– I was ashamed, it’s embarrassing. And It was an accident, Ron! I didn’t know he fell asleep in the laundry basket. You know how hard he is to see sometimes.” Judy reached down and picked up the small dog, cuddling him close to her chest despite Mojo’s frantic means to escape her grasp.  “How’s your little leggy-weggy, huh, tough guy?” She cooed.

Hearing a small buzz come from your phone, you grab it from your pocket and see a message from Felicity. 

‘I’m here nerd :P GET UR ASS OUT HERE!!’ 

“Oh uh, Felicity’s here. I’ll see you guys later. And have fun at your lake party, SAM.” You walk back into the house and hear a cut off ‘shut up’ as you close the door behind you. From the windows at the front of the house, you see that familiar white convertible parked in front of the house and excitedly open the front door, locking it behind you. 

“Hey you! Long time no see.” Felicity said, resting her sunglasses on top of her head. You walk towards the car and open the door to sit inside. “Yeah, it’s certainly been awhile.” You lean over and give Felicity a hug, cringing slightly at the amount of perfume she’s wearing. 

“So how are you? How’s your job?” Pulling away, she starts the car and drives down the neighborhood’s street. “I’m doing alright. I uh… quit my job. Some stuff happened with another coworker and I just couldn’t work there anymore.” You hesitantly answered, fidgeting with the strap of your purse. 

“Oh snap. Was it like a creepy coworker thing or…” 

“No no, nothing like that. Well I guess… kinda. It’s complicated. I had no idea what this guy’s problem with me was but he wouldn’t leave me alone! Always harassed me before, during, and after work. I tried to report him to H.R. but since he was positions above me, they just gave him a slap on the wrist.” You paused for a few moments and felt your cheeks begin to burn with embarrassment. “So one morning, I was so pent up I… hit him. Like punched him, really hard. I’m pretty sure I broke his nose and screwed up my hand really badly. It was a stupid thing, really…” 

Felicity stayed quiet for a few seconds before a smile creeped onto her face. “That is so badass.”

You looked at her dumbfounded. “It was not badass!” 

“It so was! You were like ‘you want a piece of me?! Bam!’ and then the creep went down. I bet he never bothered you again after that, huh?” She quipped, that same dumb smile resting on her face. 

“No, he didn’t. But it cost me my job! It’s just really unprofessional.”

“But didn’t you quit it?”

You sighed. “I quit out of embarrassment, before they would inevitably fire me.”

“Oh. Well, since you’re so smart, I’m confident you’ll find another one. Maybe one without a weirdo guy.” 

“Yeah, I hope so.” You rested your elbow against the hard material on the door and laid your head against your cheek, staring at the passing buildings and people with a mopey expression. You really were disappointed you lost a job that both perfectly matched your interests and paid highly. Maybe after being in L.A. for a few weeks will raise your spirits enough to start job hunting again, and get out of this weird depressive funk that’s been preventing you from doing so. 

Felicity noticed your change in attitude and cleared her throat, changing the subject. “So I’ve been following this one news blog and apparently there are some high tensions between the U.S. and some other countries for some reason. I really hope a war doesn’t start because that would be, like, really bad.” She says, glancing between you and the road ahead of her. 

“Oh yeah,” You sit up again and look at her. “I’ve seen stuff like that on the news. If a war does start, they would start drafting people right?”

Slowly the restaurant came into view and Felicity pulled the car into the parking lot. “Pretty sure, but only boys though. Woohoo for us I guess… Speaking of boys, how’s Sam doing?” 

“He’s doing fine. He got a car recently, It’s kind of a piece of junk though. And he also still hates you.” 

Felicity laughed as she pulled into an empty parking space. “Yeah I figured. Should I apologize to him? Since I kind of invaded your personal life for a good while.” She turned off the car and stepped out, grabbing her purse. You think about it and eventually nod, also exiting the vehicle. ”He’s annoying for sure but I’m gonna say yes. I care about the both of you and I don’t want any bad tension between you two, as funny as it is.” 

“I’ll remember that. Oh, and when we get in here, only one alcoholic beverage. Cause I am not dragging your drunk ass out of here like last time.” She playfully bumped her shoulder into yours and opened the front door for you. 

“What that– It was my 21st birthday! That’s not fair. I even said I wouldn’t do something like that again.” You argued.

“Riiight, okay. Just get in here.” You rolled your eyes and mumbled a ‘whatever’, to which Felicity chuckled. 

. ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁ ⟡ ݁ . ⊹ ₊ ݁.

It was already night time when you and Felicity were done shopping at the mall. She was a bit of a bad influence considering how overboard you went with the shopping, with her excuse being ‘you’ll probably rarely get chances to visit Cali again so make it worth your while!’ But despite the amount of money you spent, you deemed it worth it considering you found the cutest pair of Uggs. As the two of you walked down the sidewalk, You let out a small sigh as you realized how far away Felicity had actually parked. It was a Saturday night so of course the mall was packed, so it made sense for her to park a block or two away. 

What you both didn’t know was that there was a looming police car in the distance behind you, slowly creeping. 

“Remember that one time in sophomore year when you liked that one jock-y kind of guy and during valentines day, you went up to give him a valentine and literally fell on your face?” You laughed, adjusting the bags in your hands so they wouldn’t be as uncomfortable in your hands.

“Oh my god, that was so embarrassing! It gives me second-hand embarrassment just thinking about it.” Felicity shivered.

“Hey, at least he asked if you were ok, even if he rejected you afterwards…”

“Ugh, can we talk about something else? Please?”

Soon, Felicity’s car came into view and you both crossed the street with urgency. As you put your bags in the backseat and got into the car, your brows furrowed at the police car parked beside the sidewalk you and Felicity were just walking. “Uh, Was that Cop car always there?” You pointed out to your friend. 

“Mm, yeah no. I’m pretty sure he just drove up. He’s probably keeping a look out for thieves or junkies or something.” She replied, starting the car and beginning to pull out of the parking space. “Unless, you’re the thief.” 

You playfully scoffed. “I wouldn’t steal anything!”

“I’m just joshing with you.” Felicity patted your back and drove down the dark street. A few minutes would pass before you would see that same cop car following behind you two from that same far distance as before. You brushed it off, he was probably just driving to get something to eat or go back to the station. But as Felicity turned the car a few more times and the car still didn’t change its direction, you started to get a little anxious. 

“Felicity, that cop car is legitimately following us now.” You mumble, staring into the rear view mirrors with a small pit in your stomach. 

“What? Should I pull over?” She replied in a worried manner. 

“I don’t think so… He would turn his lights on or–or yell at us to pull over by now.” 

Felicity decided to take a different way to your house and went down a darkened street with almost no streets nor people, to try and maybe lose him. The two of you still kept your eyes on the rear view lights before the car suddenly stopped. It sat there for a few seconds before making a U-turn and going back the way it entered, almost like it was being called by something. You both sighed in relief, “Thank god…” You muttered. 

“That was really weird… Do you think he was gonna kidnap us or something?” Felicity looked at you with wide eyes.

The thought irked you a bit and you shook your head. “I don’t want to think about it, I just want to go home.”

Felicity nodded understandably and went back onto the regular route to your house. The ride wasn’t that long and as the car drove down your neighborhood’s street, the familiar shape of your family's home came into view. “Thank you for coming to hang out with me, I really missed you. And I’m sorry it ended weird with the whole cop thing…” Felicity said with a small frown on her face. 

You huffed, leaning in and giving her a hug. “It’s okay. At least he left us alone and I got to spend some time with you.” You pulled away and smiled, to which she returned. You reached in the back and grabbed your bags, stepping out and closing the car door with your hip. 

“I’ll call you tomorrow, please get home safe Fel.” 

“Will do, tell your parents I said hi!” With that, Felicity started her car again and drove down the street. You watched her drive away for a few seconds before going into your house. When you opened your door, it was dark and you were pretty sure your parents were asleep. You walked up the stairs and you heard Sam’s muffled talking coming  from his room. Something about how leaving someone behind at the lake wasn’t that big a deal and to ‘get over it.’ 

You snorted and headed towards your room, setting your bags down and closing the door. It was a bit late but you could probably still squeeze a shower in, considering you felt a bit sweaty from walking outside all that time. You took off your shoes and grabbed your towel off of the door, walking back into the hallway and into the bathroom. You didn’t want the shower to be too long considering how late it is so you moved with a sense of urgency, getting out after about 20 minutes. 

After getting into some jammies and aggressively drying your hair with your towel, you flop into bed and sort of reminisce about the past day. While you were really happy you got to see your best friend again, you felt a bit irked out by that cop car following you and Felicity. There really was no rational explanation to justify why that car was following you so it was probably either a creepy guy who stole a police car, or worse, a creepy cop. The thought creeped you out and you sat up, yawning and rubbing your eyes tiredly. Your eyes dart over to under your door and you see a little bit of light that was coming from Sam’s room. That gave you an idea. You grabbed a blanket and a pillow and made your way out of your room. You stopped at Sam’s door and knocked. The sound of approaching footsteps were heard and the door opened, Sam standing there with a neutral expression. “What’s up?” 

“Can I sleep in your room tonight?” You hesitantly asked, honestly feeling a little childish. 

Sam rolled his eyes. “You’re a grown woman, with your own room, and I need my privacy. So if you don't mind—” As he closed the door, you gently stopped it with your hand and gave him a saddened look. “Please Sam, I don’t think I want to be alone right now.” 

His eyes widened slightly and he sighed, opening the door fully and letting you enter. You found an empty spot on the carpeted floor and threw your pillow down, sitting down beside it. “So… Did something bad happen today?” Sam asked, walking over and sitting on his bed. 

“No—well, yeah I guess. Felicity and I were on our way over here and this cop car was just slowly driving after us. I didn’t think much of it at first until Felicity turned a few times and that car was still behind us. We were panicking and I thought ‘oh my god i’m going to die’ before the creep stopped and turned around. It wasn’t fun, like at all.” As you talked, you laid your head down against your pillow and pulled your blanket over you, looking over at your brother. 

“Oh damn, I’m sorry. That sounds freaky.” Sam said with a frown. 

“Yeah it certainly was. I’m just glad we managed to get out of there without getting hurt or worse… Anyways, I’m gonna change the subject now. How was the lake party?” 

Sam grinned at the question. “You won’t believe it when I tell you, cause it’s that unbelievable.” 

“Spill.” 

“Mikaela Banes actually got into my car and I drove her home, in my car!” 

You sat up with a bewildered expression. “Bullshit!” 

“I’m serious!” 

The two of you talked and laughed for a little while after that and soon drifted off to sleep, you forgetting about the mildly upsetting events that transpired today. A few hours had passed of peaceful slumber until you heard a car revving and Sam running out his door in a hurry. You were still a bit dazed and your tired mind registered it as nothing, so you quickly fell back to sleep.

[ac-liveblogs]

I really don't enjoy Penacony, but I think its structure is kind of shooting it in the foot too.

HYV is having a lot of fun with perspective changes, but I don't think it works very well in a story that wants you to get invested in 'everyone playing their own angle'. Rather than playing as a Trailblazer that's investigating these characters and getting to know them/develop a rapport with them as a player, the game will POV switch to the characters just outright explaining, or partially explaining, their goals to you or to each other.

I couldn't get invested in the Trailblazer's relationship with Aventurine despite 2.1's patch finale really wanting you to think they're cool, and absolutely no effort was made to build up Aventurine and Acheron's final conflict. You suspect Aventurine as a suspect for murder/a liar, he says he's not, and before you can investigate that you switch POV to Aventurine and learn exactly what he's up to because he walks you through it step by step. What did the Trailblazer do last patch? Talk to Gallagher? Why were they not bonding with Aventurine so that his death really hits hard?

Acheron is accused of murder, and before you get to investigate that yourself and try to figure out her motives we get a POV switch to Sam and Acheron promising they're not the murderers we're looking for, and also context for why Acheron Did The Murder she did do (but it was okay, the guy was cool with it).

Switching back to Sunday and Gallagher and having them just... rendezvous with the crew (via Firefly) instead of having us investigate Gallagher ourselves is also really boring.

I wouldn't accept this in a book or an anime, but I definitely don't accept it in an interactive medium.

It's especially disappointing when Penacony provides you so many options to investigate these characters that are usually unavailable to detectives - you can enter people's dreamscapes and muddle with their emotions, but that's never a factor. Why is a ghost Aventurine telling present!Aventurine (and therefore the player) about Aventurine's inferiority complex and how terrified he is? Couldn't I figure that out by trying to use my Emotion Dial thing to trigger an emotional response in him to get information and see first-hand how good his poker face really is?

It's not helped by HSR using expository dialogue as a crutch for the fact that they don't want to build too many maps, make cutscenes that are too fancy or put in fights they don't have to. It just turns the whole 'mystery' into an explain-a-thon with very little gameplay that actually ties into the mystery we're 'solving'. (we're about to get another one with gallagher and sunday. the 4th since this patch started and it's been like 20 minutes.)

Why did Acheron have to exposit about 'the dark side of Penacony' instead of us visiting it and seeing the differences first hand? Bc this map had to be saved for its own patch? Why did we not get to see the effects of what Sunday tried to do to Aventurine til this patch? Bc they thought expository dialogue would spook me?

Maybe if HSR didn't blatantly theme this around famous crime fiction novels and movies it wouldn't annoy me so much, but when 'solving the mystery' involves almost no actual investigation and the answers are just 'POV switch to the appropriate NPC and they'll explain it".... they've got some fucking nerve, right?

Anyway, I would've had Robin and the Trailblazer team up from the start of Penacony instead of Firefly (for their respective investigations), and had her die in front of them. Aventurine, Acheron and Sam are all present as witnesses so you investigate them for more information using various gameplay modes.

Then the player can see Sparkle-as-Robin and give a shit about that mystery either as a ??? what happened and/or !!! outrage, our friend, and we might give a shit about the fact we think Robin actually died.

also, did we seriously wait 12 weeks to learn the memory meme is a taxi? last patch was such filler bs. did aventurine actually accidentally kill himself.