#1st Appearance of Tank | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

leiswxrld · 1 year ago

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𝐅𝐮𝐜𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐀𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐨𝐧

pairing: Dealer!Abby x Camgirl!reader

synopsis: you’re a college student when you suddenly ran out of your fix of weed and your normal dealer is out of town so Ellie your closest friend gives you abby's number a well-known dealer on your campus but all you'll be getting is the weed right?

warnings: MDNI, 18+, pussy eating (r receiving), weed, smut, car sex, fingering (r receiving), reader is 20, praise + degradation (baby, princess, slut, mama) , dirty talk.

a/n: haven't wrote lesbian smut before but anything for abby she is so mf fine, also another thing to mention cam girl only gets mentioned once but might make it an actual thing.

credits: @cafekitsune @animatedglittergraphics-n-more for line dividers ❥

Abby Fucking Anderson.

She was the college's well known dealer and was always known to be selling drugs towards the back of the parking lot. You would see her black Mercedes parked out back and only caught a glimpse of her, she was well built, dressed in a black tank top and a pair of baggy shorts to go with it.

Her hair was always in a braid or down no in-inbetween and you barley saw her face, you'd occasionally smoke when you were stressed about the amount of assignments piling up and your last dealer was out of town so you knew he wouldn't be back for another month or so and you were desperate for some weed.

So when you ask one of closest friend's Ellie she gives you Abby's number and your now sat in the dark in your room conflicted, deciding whether or not to message her but with a rush of confidence you send her a text, watching the delivered message on your screen illuminating your room.

'You still selling'

A few minutes pass by as you're scrolling on TikTok, the anticipation killing you as you kept checking the message over and over again. Your eyes widen as you saw that she had seen your message and she began to type, the three dots appearing on your screen before a loud ding echoed in the silent dorm.

🍃 'Yh sorry was just with one of my boys if you want I'll be out back you've seen my car right'

You read the message, tapping on the back of your phone thinking of what to reply with before your typing away,

'The black Mercedes right'

She's reads it, the three dots appearing once again

🍃 'Yh meet in 5, you go to the college right'

'Yh I do'

🍃 'k meet in 5 yh'

'alr' ❤️

Abby likes your message and you turn off your phone, what were you doing, yes you were desperate for a quick fix but to go to Abby you were fucking nervous about even though you had never seen her face or even talked to her eye to eye.

You quickly dressed into the quickest thing you could find, a black skirt and pink top that was thrown onto your basket from yesterday and you grab your keys and phone, sliding into your fluffy slippers before leaving your room. It was beyond curfew just gone after 10 as you quickly leave the building, the cold bristly air hitting your arms, giving you goosebumps.

You make your way towards the back entrance parking lot, quickly spotting the black Mercedes, the trunk was open and Abby was dressed in her usual attire of a tank top and shorts with a boy just stood just a few feet from her, you recognised him to be Darren from your 1st period science lesson that sat a few seats behind you.

Approaching you finally see her face, she was breathtakingly beautiful, blue eyes, pale skin and cute freckles spread out across her nose and cheeks. A few strands fell to her face as she laughed at something Darren said, she must have noticed you approaching in her peripheral vision because her attention turned towards you as so Darren's.

Your legs felt like jelly as you got approached, her eyes scanning your face before slightly looking you up and down stopping at your thighs. Did abby just check you out ?

"Your Y/N right" she spoke out, the raspiness of her voice making your knees buckle slightly.

Darren crosses his arms before his eyes widen, "Oh shit Y/N your in my maths class right" he says, "Science, i'm in your science class"

"shit my bad" he turns to abby and you notice the small bag of weed in his left hand, "thanks abby, see you next week yeah" he says, going to dab her up as abby reciprocates.

"You know it" Darren gives you a ‘nice to see you again’ slightly smiling before walking off happily towards the boys dorm. "So Ellie tells me you're trying get some weed yeah" she asks as your attention turns back to her.

"oh yeah I just run out and needed a quick fix" You reply and she hums going to her trunk and pulling a small box tucked towards the back, opening it and revealing a fuck load of drugs. "How much"

You don't usually know the amount you buy since your dealer just recommends the it and your just stood there contemplating, "You alright"

"Yeah sorry my dealer normally recommends the amount so I don't really know how much" she pauses, biting her lips before grabbing one little baggy. "3 grams alright for you, it's one of my best sellers at the moment"

You eye the bag before nodding, "Yeah that's fine how much will it be" you reply going to grab your purse and pulling a few hundred dollar bills. "Shit what do you do, no college student should have that amount of cash unless your a stripper or sum'

Your cheeks heat up as you meet her very intense eyes, you were what some called a cam girl, fucking yourself with different toys for people online and hooking up with people you've met around college that promised to keep your little side hustle a secret, the only few people who knew about what you did was Ellie since you had accidentally left your computer open on the site and she managed to accidentally press the recent video of your fucking yourself with one of your toys since she needed to access a file on your computer and she promised she'd keep it a secret.

"oh- I uh sell clothes from now and then so that's how I make most of my money aside from my job" Abby notice's your nervous stammers but decides to leave it.

"Well it's $50 for 3 grams" she replies as she watches you pull out five ten dollar bills, handing it to her. She takes it stuffing it into her pocket, "Nice making business with you Y/N" she replies, passing you the small baggy and closing the trunk,

She turns around to still see you stood their a conflicted expression on your face, "sum wrong"

"Yh no I normally smoke this with someone, usually can't finish a blunt by myself, I'll end up getting too high but its alright thanks" your about to walk away before Abby's voice stop's you.

"If you want I can smoke some with you and then the next time you come to me I'll give you a discount" she offers and you think about it for a second "Sure I'm down, anything for a discount" you joke and she smiles.

"Let's do it in my car don't want to attract attention" she says, walking towards there driver door before getting in and you follow getting into the passenger side.

"Do you mind if I turn on the car, it's bit cold in here- you sure you ain't cold in that little skirt you got on" she implies, looking at the black plait skirt that barley covered your knees.

"Say's the person with shorts that barley cover their legs...I should be asking you the same question" you remark and she chuckles turning on the engine and you feel the warm breeze hit your legs as you go to adjust the mini fan on the dashboard to face your direction.

Abby goes to connect her phone to the car, the familiar song Die for you emitting from the speakers. "Pass the bag princess" your heart skips a beat at the nickname Abby gave you, watching as her arms tense up as you pass her the little bag with weed in. She grabs a small brown paper from her pocket and you watched as she fixed up the blunt, rolling it into the familiar shape and sealing it.

She takes a lighter from the cupholder and passes the blunt to you, lighting it whilst it's in between your lips and you take a long drag from it, entering through your lungs before exhaling into the air, the familiar feeling hit's you as your body relax's and your eyes droop slightly. You pass the blunt to Abby who mimics your actions as you see the veins in her hand pop out.

Your both sat in silence whilst taking turns hitting the blunt before abby speaks up,

"Shit...been a long time since I've hit a blunt" abby admits as she passes it back, "Really how long"

"Been about a month" you look at her, "Shit how come" taking in a drag once more, "I never really got the time to business been busy lately"

"Oh so you only sell to college students or you're just selling when you can" you ask, rolling the window down to allow the smoke to leave through the little crack. "A bit a both I just sell when I can" she pauses looking at you, "So how long you known Ellie for"

"Since high school she's one of my closest friends, trust that girl with my life"

"Surprised Ellie didn't tell me she had such a pretty friend" you looked at her, realising Abby Anderson had just called you pretty, you were at the point were your high as fuck, your eyes were a tinted red and your breathing increased slowly, the feeling of your panties getting soaked was prominent

You were desperately getting horny and your attraction to Abby didn't help in your situation but make you wetter, the sexual tension in the car was high as you both feel silent, nothing only but the music playing in the background, abby watches the way you lick your lips before making her move.

It's slow and sensual, her hand laying gently across your jaw as your hand goes to grip her hair, the blunt long gone from your hand. You gasp as her hand slides into your panties and you feel her smirk against your lips at the wet mess you created.

"So fucking wet for me princess" she groans, your whimper's muted by the music as she slides her fingers in between your folds.

She takes her fingers out, placing them into her mouth. "It's always the pretty ones with the best tasting pussy" she mutters, sucking every last bit off her fingers.

"Please" you plead, grinding into her hand, her lips quirk up as she pulls her fingers out of her mouth with a plop. "Please what baby"

"Please fuck me" her hand grips your thigh as the once soft blue eyes you had fawn over had been replaced with darkened ones, "With what"

"Your fingers'" you plead, your legs opening slightly as her fingers tread carefully towards your aching cunt.

"Lay your seat down princess" she orders and you quickly go to pull down the latch beside you allowing abby to climb over to your side carefully watching you as she pulls your panties to the side, revealing your wet cunt.

"So pretty for me mama" she latches her lips onto your aching clit, you gasp slightly leaning back into the seat, her tongue slowly licks every crevice and every spot with care and your hand snakes up into her dark blonde hair.

The filthy wet sounds from your pussy, bounced off the car walls as she sucked on your clit, the dirty moans from abby's mouth vibrating against your cunt, "Oooooh fuck" you moan, the elongated fuck coming from your mouth as you briefly make eye contact with Abby. "Your make such pretty sounds baby let's see how much louder you can get for me"

You gasp as she slips two fingers in with her mouth still attached to your cunt, fingering that spongy spot with every harsh thrust of her fingers at a rapid pace, sucking and slurping on your juices as she hollows her mouth around your clit, your juices dripping down abby's face. You grind your hips into her fingers, your eyes rolling back and jaw slacking with every movement letting your eyes fall back onto hers.

Strands were sticking to her forehead, the glimpses of her pretty freckles covered in your juices made her look even prettier than before and her muscular arms forcing your legs open making it impossible to shut them. "Look at you grinding your pussy into my face like a helpless slut, is it good hmm"

She whispers, watching the way your legs began to buckle under her grip, the way you got so fucking pussy drunk from it soaked her boxers. "it feel's so fucking good abby..." you scream, your legs threatening to close on her face, abby could just suffocate in your pussy at the sweet taste, you were so addictive that she could go down on you for fucking hours.

"I knew you liked this shit hmm...did you dress like this knowing you were going to get fucked stupid" you go silent for a second feeling an orgasm building up as abby goes to slap your pussy, "I know you can fucking talk slut... tell me"

"y...yes- fuck- I did" she grins continuing her pace, "nasty bitch" those words alone managed to make you squirt all over her face, the juices splattering on the seat and dashboard as your eyes rolled deep into your head, the grip on her hair tighter than before as she continues to eat you out, "made such a mess baby didn't know you were a squirter"

"wait- abs mhmm.... please stop" you beg, the sensitivity of your clit, making you shake as she continues til your licked clean. satisfied she comes up, face covered in your juices bringing you into a kiss allowing you to taste yourself.

"Same place next week" she offers and you smile giving her another kiss, "sure abs".

#smut #abby anderson #abby x reader #abby anderson smut #abby anderson x reader #abby the last of us #lesbian smut #lesbian #die for you #black reader #tlou2 #leiscoven #leiswxrld

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shuenkio · 4 months ago

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Halloween's Love | Psh. 🎃

Paring: Sunghoon X M!reader | Genre: Smut.

Synopsis: A fun day turning into a hot Halloween when Sunghoon saw you in that witch costume that he brought for you.

Cw: Heavy smut, cursing, belly bulge?, mentioned of cum, gigantic Sunghoon size, curse, aggressive sh, bad language.

Non proof read | Eng is not my 1st.

This is a work of fanfiction, do not throw unnecessary tantrums on this nsfw/sfw blog. ©Shuenkio

🍁AN: Advance Halloween special for y'all after haven't active for 4-5 days. Again I'm still nerf in the smut field so, hope you can read peacefully ;)

It's the fall season, which means today was Halloween time. Also this is the first time in your relationship that you spend with your Boyfriend, Sunghoon. Even though it's not quite fun however since Sunghoon was here, everything is completely fine.

As for the Trick or Treat approach in the evening, You have nothing to wear for the costume since you forget to buy one, but lucky enough Sunghoon was quite thoughtful as he brought you a nice costume, just in case, and very unexpectedly one. A witch. It was quite revealing just for the thighs Abit but it's still appropriate for the public. Or not for Sunghoon?

Meanwhile Sunghoon, he was dressing up as a pumpkin man, you have never thought he would before, the fact that he was the cold one. However, this one is different from the pumpkin man you had known, Sunghoon was wearing loin clothes above his pants underneath, and a tight polo tank top that was clinging on his tone skin, if this isn't the pyramid head reference, you didn't know what else.

But actually what's going on inside his head? That's what you thought. The whole evening of trick or treat was fun, full of laughter and smiles, everywhere you explore the whole neighborhood. Everyone compliments that both of you and Sunghoon fit perfectly for the theme and as a couple too. Which somehow draws a satisfied smile on Sunghoon's face under the hot pumpkin head.

Getting back home, a basket full of candy. This year was the best year that you've spent your entire life. So fun so good so far. On the other hand, you noticed that your boyfriend was taking time in the bathroom to change, rather than longer than usual, and it makes your worries slightly. Heading toward the bathroom, you knocked on the door to ask how was him, but all you got was a Heavily breathing, like.... He was moaning?

A flash appears on your face once it clicks on your mind, yet you try to brush it off just because no way Sunghoon would do it, right?

But isn't that weird that it sounds like he was pleasuring himself. Somehow you didn't want to disturb him, but some part wanted to know if he's alright just in case.

As you open the door wide, your thoughts come to life. He was like what you're thinking. Your face grows even redder as you saw a glimpse of his tip before quickly turning around and looking away. Sunghoon was surprised to see you, a shame of embarrassed washing over him, however did he mind, no he don't. He was just catching off guard, you catch him in a moment like this.

"I-im sorry, I didn't mean to" Nervously mixing with excitement, you apologize. Sunghoon didn't know what to say so he responded back with another apology instead. Weird.

"It's not your fault M/N, I got carried away because y-you did wear the costume I brought for you" He explain, rubbing the back of his nape as he cover his crotch with a towel on, while your back still facing his.

"so... That was the only reason?" Swallow hard, in disbelief he was turned on by you wearing this witch costume, it was that sexy?

"No um it's hard to— say M/N but it have been a long time since I saw you in um y'know, showing off your skin and I want to ask— nvm" Sunghoon quickly turn around from facing your back, as his word slipped out what's from his mind. It's obvious what he wants from you. You gaze grow soft, once you realize he wants to make love with you— and turn this relationship to the next level.

"love! Why don't you tell me in the first place there's nothing to be embarrassed about, I can give it to you, now say the word" You state, turn to face him as he slowly turns to face you back and unfortunately, his towel falls off, accidentally revealing his massive length right there.

"You didn't mind? Uh yes i-i do want it, a... Lot"

"that's what I like to hear" You smile as you return him back with a kiss while your naughty hand, wrapped around his cock.

////

The bed's shaking from the movement of both of you, especially Sunghoon. He didn't hold back from what he meant that he wants it a lot. Even better, he's the one who suggested that fucking you in this sexy revealing Halloween costume on, was one of his dream and now you fulfilling it.

His rhyme was rough, and aggressive like a damn wolf, the way his cock moved in and out of your hole, the wet sound shatter alluring in this room, didn't do any favors but to make it more heat and aroused in the bedroom. It should be a crime, that his size was gigantic, very. The way his balls clap together and are full of load, lord if only he was asking for this earlier, you biting your lip, groaning in pleasure as he pounded on you very hard.

"fu-ck Sunghoon ~ you gotta speed it down, m-my hole won't hold on if you are this rough" you cry out in bliss, even if he would you'd not complain about it, this session was life changing.

"No M/N you feel too good to not, SHebal, you're so t-- tight ahmmm" His head throwing to the back, whimpers under his breath when he hit his sweet spot, as he continue to arching his hip, buried himself deeper and thrusting harder inside of you, chasing for that crazy climax, while snuggle his hands around your waist.

Subsequently, it became worse, the pace of his hip grew more uneven, the outline of his cock on your belly appeared extra clearly, as you both breath became more hitch and patted heavily, chasing for the perk.

But who was the one that feeling insane and drive themselves crazy about this fuck? There's no other than Sunghoon. Seeing his own work on your body, just giving him a satisfied achievement to himself, not only the way your dick bouncing up and down, leaking in pre-cum, as he is, back shooting you like there's no tomorrow only to make him, overwhelmed by amusement or should you say, it make him overstimulate?

"For God's sake, M/N fuck fuck fuck FUCK I'M CUMMING CUMMING—" waste no more time, Sunghoon feel a huge wave of orgasm building inside of him, as he spilled all his cum, finally empty himself inside of your ass, tighten his strength around your waist even harder as he thrust all in.

Eventually, both bodies collapse on the soft bed, since Sunghoon passes out already while still inside of you. Soon after, you also follow his orgasm through, cumming on your own abdomen, undone.

Once it's settled, you lay there beside him, taking some moments to catch your breath as you are facing him on the bed, staring at his wasted expression that he did for himself, adorable.

The atmosphere turn into quite and peaceful once again after this intense FUCK. The way his cock still in you, meaning that even if he was not in his mind right now, he'd still be close to you, in any way possible, and that the way he loves you, and you love him for that, also.

"Maybe you really want it, haha but look, you're the first to pass out"

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simdertalia · 1 year ago

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☕ ACNH Coffee Stuff Set ☕

Sims 4, base game compatible. 26 items. I hope you enjoy! This set is brought to you by the lovely patrons who voted 💗

I hope you enjoy! 💗

Always suggested: bb.objects ON, it makes placing items much easier. For further placement tweaking, check out the TOOL mod.

Build:-Wall | 2 swatches | Tile & Paneling

Type “acnh coffee" into the search query in build mode to find quickly. You can always find items like this, just begin typing the title and it will appear.

Always suggested: bb.objects ON, it makes placing items much easier. For further placement tweaking, check out the TOOL mod.

As always, please let me know if you have any issues! Happy Simming!

📁 Download all or pick & choose (SFS, No Ads): https://simfileshare.net/folder/214327/

📁 Alt Mega Download (still no ads): https://mega.nz/folder/QpAV0bZS#am_IxERH1ShD4Go0r-7e3w

📁 Download On Patreon

Will be public on April 1st, 2024 💗

Happy Simming! ✨ Some of my sets are early access. If you like my work, please consider supporting me:

★ Patreon 🎉 ❤️ |★ Ko-Fi ☕️ ❤️ ★ Instagram📷

Thank you for reblogging ❤️ ❤️ ❤️

@sssvitlanz @maxismatchccworld @mmoutfitters @coffee-cc-finds @itsjessicaccfinds @gamommypeach @stargazer-sims-finds @khelga68 @suricringe @vaporwavesims @mystictrance15 @moonglitchccfinds @xlost-in-wonderlandx @jbthedisabledvet @public-ccfinds @freeexclusives4thesims

The rest of my CC

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hometoursandotherstuff · 6 months ago

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This fairly new 2023 home in Camden, ME is definitely one-of-a-kind. I have to question why the owners are selling after so short a time. The 7bds, 6ba, $2.2m home certainly has a vibe. Look at this one.

Huge columns and chandeliers frame the entrance hall. The columns look like upside down Greek columns.

More chandeliers and right next to the stairs there's a bar.

Very convenient. As soon as the guests come in they can have a drink right away.

There is a gold walkway above the main room. There's also a fish tank recessed in the wall.

In this corner is a living room area. The walls are lined with the same gold as the upper walkway, plus tile.

Next to the living room there's a dining area.

A wall with windows separates the kitchen from the main entrance.

Oh, there's the other side of the fish tank. Look at the fish art on the wall. Wow, look at the bright blue counters. I don't care much for the way it goes with the tile.

They must really love that tile. It even lines the open shelving. The floor tile clashes, too.

There's also a lot of open shelving on the bottom.

Here's a 1st fl. bedroom with an attached gold headboard.

More of that tile in the en-suite. A clear panel on the tub. Nope. Interesting choice of an electric green counter on the sink.

The 2nd fl. has a wide walkway.

The primary bedroom is large enough for a sitting area and it has sliders to a balcony.

It also has an oversized gold headboard.

Mural panel outside the bedroom. This home has a very specific style.

The terrace.

The primary en-suite also has the bright lime green counter and clear tub.

It appears that all of the bedrooms have the gold headboard and same bathrooms.

Down the stairs to the lower level there's a room with a small desk.

There is also a hall and on one side there's a rec room that mirrors the living room upstairs.

And, the laundry room is down here, too.

Deck on the back of the house.

Small yard and a shed.

0.70 Acre lot isn't very big, and it looks like they cleared just enough trees to build the house.

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/23-Greenfield-Dr-Camden-ME-04843/221260627_zpid/

#unique homes #unusual homes #houses #house tours #home tour

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dcdreamblog · 3 months ago

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This is probably getting a little outside your purview, but the same book of Weird War Tales I read about the Creature Commandos in also had an entry on something called the Haunted Tank, a WW II tank crew lead by a man named Jeb Stuart, who claimed to be advised by the ghost of his ancestor, Civil War general J.E.B. Stuart.

Is there any credence or proof to this? I know the Spectre is a thing and the JLA had someone who claimed to be an actual angel on it, but I can’t tell if this is stretching things or not.

There's an absence of evidence, but that doesn't by itself prove an evidence of absence as any good scientist will tell you. Let's break it down. There's two general stories surrounding the Haunted Tank, the WWII version and the less well known modern version.

(Movie poster for The Haunted Tank, WB Pictures, 2009. It was ok. OOC: u/thejedibugs on Reddit)

The original WWII version of the Haunted Tank story followed the crew of an M3 Stuart light tank commanded by Sgt. Jeb Stuart. Stuart claimed until his dying day that he was guided by the spirit of his grandfather, Confederate general J.E.B Stuart. Sgt. Stewart claimed that he received advise from his military ancestor. Painting the words "Haunted Tank" across his machine in white paint and hanging a Confederate Flag from the turret while the tank and its crew served with distinction across North Africa and Western Europe, including Operation Torch, the Normandy Landings, and the Battle of the Bulge.

Sgt. Stuart's crew have gone on record saying they never heard or saw the spirit in the flesh as it were and Stuart's insistence made him seem slightly off his rocker to his comrades BUT having complete faith in their commanding officer's combat ability they played along and many of them have recounted tales of events that they could not otherwise explain in the heat of combat. (Such as multiple occurrences of the tank aiming and firing itself at the correct moment to save their lives without anyone being in the vehicle)

Records at the time are slim. The tank was successful in its missions and as such was rarely questioned by commanding officers.

A reconstruction of the tank (the original was destroyed near the end of the war) is on display at the American Heritage Museum in Hudson, Massachusetts.

(Image of the second Haunted Tank produced for the History Channel's "War that Time Forgot" series)

The second Haunted Tank was and is an M1 Abrams deployed during the 1st Iraq War. This tank was commanded by one of Jeb Stuart's own grandchildren, Sgt Jamal Stuart. (The WWII Jeb Stuart actually has 2 living Grandchildren, the other a woman named Jen Stuart who is also a lieutenant in the armed forces).

Their tank was rescued by the spirit of J.E.B Stuart during an ambush by raiders after falling behind an American convoy due to mechanical failure.

Jamal Stuart has been much colder in his take on his ancestors interference. Since, as the name implies, Jamal Stuart is a black man. (Technically mixed race, his mother is African American) and has spoken at length about having to come to terms with the legacy of his ancestor appearing right in front of him. Whatever actual agreement they came to is ultimately a private matter but Sgt' Stuart's Abrams also became known as The Haunted Tank and also flew a Confederate Flag out of the vehicle's turret for the length of their deployment.

No generation of modern Stuarts seems ecstatic at the associations their stories create (The WWII Stuart had a black soldier among his crew despite official rules against army integration, one of his own children married a black woman and his grandson IS black). And yet the story is what it is, whether you or I or anyone else like it or not.

#dc #dcu #dc comics #dc universe #superhero #comics #tw unreality #unreality #unreality blog #ask game #ask blog #asks open #please interact #worldbuilding #haunted tank #jeb stuart #jamal stuart

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angellurgy2 · 6 months ago

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Hiveship

hii! this is the 1st and 2nd chapter of my new story, as a little show of whats to come when i make it a full-length book.

cw for bug rape but like, its also just an introduction to deeper non/sexual ways the bugs will destroy this girl's soul. you'll see!

i'd appreciate if people checked this out/gassed it up because i've worked reallyyy hard on this for a bit ^-^

CHAPTER 1

A live wire sparks as loretta reaches a gloved claw inside the open electrical box, her digits blunted by her heavily plated and padded, alabaster white cosmonaut suit. she roots around the active electricity, scraping out chunks of the greenish-brown sludge growing in its crevices- the same mysterious viscous slime that’s been popping up in parts across her starship over and over the past few weeks. her theories ranged from an excremetal expulsion of an unidentified space object, to some disgraceful cosmonaut’s trash finding its way into her ship’s vents.

she clicks the button for the analyzing tool of her protective visor, closely examining the fluid. long thin wires splay across all sections of the large junction, leaving burning hot indents in the thick substances that feel like way too much of a fire risk. looking at the wires, spread out in patterned parallels like gigantic spider-webs, an anxious tinge of fear strikes her. don’t fall in, don’t get caught- robots don’t need any more prey. not that you’re prey. you aren’t.

she flicks her visor back off, worried her sweat might fog up the the visor, and continues swiping the rest of the gunk into a bin.

all clean, she fixes the fuses back into place before immediately making her way back over to the equipment corridor to hang up her suit. on the way she passes vibrant posters of mechanical cross-section diagrams, detailed anatomy drawings of every variety of species she could scavenge, and historical propaganda posters. it was a nice splash of existence inside a clinical minimalist coating.

lounging in the cabin suite on her sofa, she flips her state-provided entertainment console to the galactic news. on-screen a suited, pristine looking woman takes the centre stage behind a stretched out desk. her voice is calm and analytical, with a hint of soft sympathy that can’t be hidden no matter how hard of a professional facade they must put on.

“News from the pandora planets have finally reached the internal core, revealing devastating effects of the latest assault campaign from the exoskeletal hives, multiple colonies’ messengers have reported complete razing of ground and sub-ground infrastructure, with several not appearing for the census at all. the URSS military and all commune bioships have retreated back to pantheon-V for rehabitation before a pandora counter-takeover can be attempted.”

Loretta shudders. the exoskeletals have been advancing deeper into URSS territory much faster than ever before, the fact that the state hasn’t been able to put a stop to it—and that the threat has only gotten more aggressive—makes sweat begin to pour down her head. if she was doing a term with the forces or part of a commune science crew she’d probably be worried for her life right now. thankfully, her ship was currently flying safely in one of the middle systems, relaxing in orbit of an abandoned desert world after recently coming back from a call of excursion to the outer worlds. she always enjoyed the quiet of minimal space travel and the utter lack of civilization when she gazed down upon a world, so this has been her favourite spot to reside for a long while. from the cabin module’s glass wall she can see such stark vistas of sandy mountain ranges, demarcating the most beautiful fields of gigantic outstretching spiny cactus.

with a loud buzz the tv automatically switches to the nightly Sallite news segment, where they broadcast the most important of state propaganda to every television set at 8pm local time. with an exasperated sigh she turns the volume all the way down to 1, takes off her grey tank, and throws herself into her cushioney bed. a switch on the wall next to the alloy headboard turns on the room’s surround sound to a soft pitter of forested rainfall, and she falls asleep in a matter of seconds.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Loretta awakes to the foreign sound of a sloppy wriggling near the floor by the end of her bed. jerking upright, she quickly slides into the suit boots she had laid at the side of her bed, strapping them tight, and moves to examine the intruder.

a pulsating green slime slides itself across the floor, leaving a small trail of slightly transparent lime goo behind it. loretta kneels to look at it closer. she could swear it’s looking right back at her- though without any obvious eyes or features of its own. it excretes another loud squelching sound and fires off a copper-smelling mist around it, some of which sprays directly into loretta’s face causing her to wince and tear up at the dense cloud of smell. she reflexively slams her booted heel down into the creature, stomping through its gelatinous body.

she attempts to swiftly scrape the thing off her heel,, but the flattened slime spreads to encase her entire boot before she can even look down at it. when she does, she sees sticky lime green half-translucent goo coating the suit metal like adhesive, excreting a slight burning odour. loretta throws her leg around trying to eject the subject, but only manages to trip over herself, tumbling to the thick panelled floor with a resounding thud.

on her back she watches with wide terrified eyes as the slime continues to slowly expand up her limb. it should be stretching itself out fully by now, but it seems to have an infinite amount of mass to express over her. some kind of anomalous entity from deep space? but how would it have gotten this deep into the middle systems? a new wormhole would’ve been reported immediately, and the nearest systems are all too well-inhabited. the gears turn in her head, clearly rusted over, struggling to think of a potential scientific hypothesis. by the time she breaks out of her clouded monologue and thinks to stop analyzing, the slime has already subsumed her entire left leg, grasping spreading tiny green tendrils grappling for the next part, which is fully uncovered by the comforting protection of the URSS engineer corps. she struggles to force herself away by clawing into the floor, but the slime seems to have extra weight to pin her leg down. such a little creature, overpowering her so easily- it must be alien. she doesn’t stop struggling even if it pins her utterly. if she could just get to the corner and grab her piece she could-

her scrabbling eyes find themselves staring at the cabin’s ceiling vent. a thick bile-like grey sludge seeps down from the cracks, forcing her to hurry. loretta shoves her hand into the green slime against her better judgement, trying to peel it off like one of her mother’s gelatin molds. her hands try to slide underneath it but they find themselves struggling to push against an unmovable solid, far away from the gravyesque consistency it had before. then she feels her legs, or rather, feels the lack of feeling of her legs. when she tries to move them, she cant even muster a shake, lower half pinned to the floor, not even pins or needles remaining. it doesn’t stop her relentless pushing and attempts to pull herself out by her arms, but she might as well be an amputee at this point. like one of those UOA prisoners of war from back in the day, laser neutered to be nothing but working hands for the Authority’s machines.

unable to get away from the oncoming deluge, lorreta realizes it must be relent or die. and so she does, shutting her eyes tight and curling her lips inward together like the anti-parasitites’ studies have taught her. though this wasn’t the typical annalidesque parasite commonly found in the outer cosmos, or a parasite at all for all she knows, it’s the best her dizzy mind can handle. and as she feels the sludge’s drip touch down on her estrogenated skin, it succeeds in helping stop it from flowing inside her eyes. she can feel it coat the skin tight, like a face mask but smelling of wood and suffocating and lively probing at her pores, blocking her vision black with its opaque body.

the sludge now dispensed, loretta senses a chance and attempts to pry the mask off of her. blindly groping for a free spot by her neck and sliding her unkempt nails under it and into the disgusting goo. it feels like a cadaver from anatomy class under her fingers, diving into the fat and peeling away the outer layer. but this corpse has undergone rigor mortis, and loretta’s attempts to peel it off go only slightly better than with the green thing, lifting an inch before it slaps itself back on even tighter. her second attempt goes even worse, her arms starting to feel numb and anaesthetized. she lifts her arms to fight but she cant feel the texture of what she touches anymore, and then the viral limpness travels to the rest of her motor function, and they flop uselessly at her sides. no part of her body responding to her brains frenzied orders to move, the most she can do is flail inside.

she pictures Andromeda-ZE in her mind’s eye, emotionally travelling to the place she spent most her childhood. she’s running through the market, the most well-known place in the capital, excitedly waving at family friends and commune teachers like she’s a kid again, so happy, so free, so ignorant. red and yellow and orange colours shine bright on the market stalls, sand and wood structures stand beautifully tall around her, everything is even more beautiful than it was when she was young. the wind on her cheeks as she runs makes her glow with a safety she doesn’t feel in the atmospheric void in space. not far ahead she spots her unit hut, and ramps up her speed. in a minute of invigorating sprint, she makes it to the large aspen door, knocking 5 times. she hears several light footsteps trot up and bounces with excitement. the door slowly creeps open…

and a hulking nurse bug towers over her. its mandibles chitter, the egg sack on its back wiggles, and its claws rub together in front of its chest. she looks into the creature’s eyes and sees a thousand mirrors staring back at her. she screams muffled into the slime gag, jolting away from the colour behind her eyelids, and back into the void in front of them. instead of trying to push inside like loretta assumed, the sludge begins to creep into the part of her eye socket above her lids, pushing with prying hair-like digits. her heart cramps, and she can feel her heavy perspiration being immediately absorbed by the material the second it drips. she doesn’t want to close her eyes, doesn’t want to see the bugs that close again- the spindling inner legs, the slimey chitin, vision of swarms of exoskeletals charging her squad flash through her, all she wants to do is scream but all it does is wear out the last muscles she can work. but she can’t stop, she wails banshily, reverberating in her own skulll. and then she can’t manage to hold her eyes open any longer.

the jointed arthropod returns, fully subsuming her soul.

“it’s okay, sweet darling Lore, we are here now” it speaks in her mothers voice. sweet and soothing.

CHAPTER 2

loretta wakes up in a stasis vat, her body floating in air like oil. green biofluid drenches her skin, manufactured nutrients flooding her organs, keeping her fed and stable. she smiles, thinking back to her first spacewalk, bounding into the open cosmos with footless steps. she kicks her foot up, sending herself into an airy backflip. her mouth opens on its own and takes in a load of the fluid. it tastes like the earth pineapples her mothers would trade for on her birthdays. she has to figure out what this is when she’s out of here. and by the looks of her motor functions, she’ll be out of this in no time.

* * *

she awakes groggily inside of another vat. there’s no more fluid, but something similar sticks to every inch of her skin. the walls of steel have turned into a coffinesque cocoon, fleshy and aboreal brown and wriggling with her movements. yet as she attempts to push herself backwards, her hands still find themselves scraping cold metal. she sees how some light manages to seep through the cracks of the chitinous chamber, and prods at the squishy folds where the tiny glowing rays strike, poking through an inch or two of foreign flesh before her fingertips feel air. bio vat? or some sort of.. metamorphosis chamber? she can’t remember how she got here, or when she signed up for such a procedure. she needs to find someone before she gets stuck. she lifts her moist lips to one of the little holes and screams out a plea for help. she manages to fit another finger out, and begins trying to spread open the breach when she’s stopped by someone’s cold fingers pulling hers. one of the scientists, or guards?

the person outside pulls on loretta’s hand hard and she feels her light body raise up to the roof of her confines. despite her reaching the walls, they keep going, tugging forcing painful friction between her bare limbs and the meaty hide. in a few short, supernatural pulls she is burst through the sac entirely, getting to see chunks of what appears to be sinew and slime splattering the surroundings as she flies through antigravital space and crashes hard into a familiar wall.

HISSSSSSSTHH

innumerous spindly brown limbs bringing fading memories of phasmid anatomy charts stretch out across the polished floor and walls now brutally scattered with keepsake and furniture debris, looking like abstract blobs in loretta’s slime coated vision. blobs which are constantly being absorbed upwards into the air by twitchy movements. loretta grasps at the wall behind her, pulling herself away from the enormous creature.

slamming into the far wall, she attempts to reach for where her dresser should be, where her trusty sidearm should be awaiting its imminent retrieval. then she remembers the lack of gravity.

it was a stupid idea to make a grav switch so accessible. she never even uses it, and humans are the only creature out in this abyss who are weak to its pull. stupid stupid stupid. she tries to look for it in the debris but can’t make it out through all the other white and grey blobs.

in the room, a few brown splotches stand out, utterly foreign to the ship’s shade-based palette. she stares closer, and even more seem to appear. the black space where the open door leads to dark corriders begins spewing them out en masse until at least two dozen of them scatter across the floors walls and ceiling of the cabin, staring right back into her with beady pinpricked eyes.

a bug pounces, its thin limbs pinning loretta hard. the hair on its tarsi scrape across her bare arms jolting goosebumps up her entire body. its membranal underside presses up close, making her shake with unease as its squishy segmented body rubs against her and coats her with an inky discharge well familiar to her after multiple campaigns.

click, click, click, click. clinking mandibles together, like a hungry and petulant child. antennae rub against her ears, just then noticing their dulling by a xenotic wax substance. yet the vile hissing of a group of specially angered freaks still deafens.

searing pain transports into her flesh. she screams but a sludgey backup in her windpipe stops everything but the vibration. loretta looks down at the thick brown apical claw stuck inches deep in her side. a gaping void begins a slow seeping of crimson. another of the blobs quickly dashes into her view, bursting into definition as it pops up at the wound’s side. the same black liquid that drapes over her skin begins to leak out of its open mouth-thing, mixing and diluting the blood until the cut is naught but a thick black wall subsuming a portion of her outer thigh.

she looks forward again as a twinge of neck pain insults her for forgetting herself, and sees the first roach reaching its body upwards. a yonic hole in its abdomen begins to slowly invert, while a large black tendril reaches out of the now-extremity and fluidly twirls itself around loretta’s leg, dripping ichor all the way.

she’d never gotten this close to one of the breeders before, to the point she didn’t even recognize their exotype until now. as far as she knew, they stayed deep inside the tunneled grounds of the hive worlds, fucking like lagomorphs to appease their queens and ever-outbreed the URSS’s onslaughts. and yet, here they are.

the appendage flicks into loretta’s belly, proding at and pushing inside her navel cavity. it feels almost like she’s being licked by a pet dog, or it would if it wasn’t by a fucking bug. the creature tries to push forward past the inch-deep space and is swiftly yanked back in turn, reaching the end of its rope. loretta sighs. if they can’t even reach her then the worst they could probably do is-

the tentacle prods at a lower place before a concept can reach her nerves. a deserted, forgotten plateau, a space too human for her to accept. sliding over a smooth ravine, wet shocks drive up her legs. coiling atrocity digs into her malleable dirt like the hills in pandora. she screams like she imagines it must. though the terror speaks in soft, writhing texture, and not pain. pandora and i, sister bodies- desecrated in twain.

she turns her head to the room’s one window. beyond the hexagonal plasteel frame, one of the last things held up through the chaos, halcyon skies stretch out for infinity- vistas of beautiful achromatic calm broken only by dots of terrestrial colour. an anaerobic dead zone, where nothing except calm would subsume her. devour her. she yearns to feel that cold blanket take her now. she dreams of the window bursting open, space gaining pressure the glass wasn’t ready for, and ripping them all out with it. she dreams of mom bursting through the door gun in hand. she dreams of simply disappearing from all being.

from above her head slithers another pair of mandible and trio of forceps, digging into her budding chest. a sparse pink miasma sprays across her vision, and she’s stumbled out of her wonder by a furious coughing fit rising in her trachea, and finally taking off some of the adhesive coating her throat alongside it. she tries to look back outside and the claws digging deeper just force her gaze right back. her eyes glaze over with water and, unable to wipe the sleeves away, it drowns her. it fills her mouth until her muscles strain, spread taught like an epithelial fingertrap. she cant help but cough more, painfully clenching on the foreign object sliding deeper inside using her windpipe as a transistor to her weak points.

beige meat squishes up against her face, phantom sensations of a man’s stomach thrusting. it should never have been able to get more evil than that. how did they put human’s cruelty into animals, was it taught? more inches of squishish meat force the thought from her shrouded head. her tears taste like ink. maybe they like it that way.

Lorettas’s hull stretches with fullness and terror. she cant see it, but she can feel it bulging her front extremitously. it feels like the two tendrils will soon meet in the middle. she shudders in fear and feels them swirl inside her as punishment.

she feels a slight relent, and her thoughts finally losing their haze. the creatures in front of her thrust backwards through the air, and the twisting coiling tentacles whorl their way out like a pullcord. again she has to feel the thing climb her hole, leaving a painful space where there used to be nothing, unable to go back to nothing. it is ashamed and sobbing in it’s own. what a bipolar old lady you are, where is your rage?

his voice forces itself inside of her. look what you’ve done. ruined and irreparable. you must’ve loved it. you and your little bug fascination. maybe if you didn’t spend your time with abominations, you wouldn’t have become one.

she screams back. it’s not too late, i don’t love them. he’ll never control me again, i’ve carved so much into the world, i won’t let myself be belittled. you’re smart, they’re miniscule- a surprise assault shows their utter lack of strength. i’ll kill them all if i have to. i’ll prove it, i will.

she tries to open her eyes again and sees, stained by pink clouds floating in her sclera, a huge mutated insectoid towering behind the others. a large dynastinaen horn displays ignorant ideas of its strength above its excitedly quivering mandibles. or perhaps the exoskeletals have no need for concepts of pride or egotism. perhaps hive mentality’s destroyal of the individual will always grant them an advantage. no thought of the victim- evil little creatures. no different than the evil of the Authority. no different than-

two blunt black mandibles thrust into her chest. the wind is crushed from her body before she can realize what’s happening. she is too dazed to look at the impact. her deflated cadaver is thrusted into the air, and carried,

her vision bobs up and down as swift twig limbs drag her forth without thought. station windows fly past her, blobs vaguely looking like her favourite posters lay scattered and sliced in pieces, slime staining them irreparable as it coats the floor. does their cruelty know no limits? was the destruction of her ship and her spirit not enough? the destruction of her people? will anything sway their pure evil? she wants to cry, but she’s already using all the tears her body can muster.

black begins to gorge itself on the halls, the chunky whirring of automatic doors blares in her ears drowning out the chattering sounds of dozens of limbs. the hydraulics were a deeply familiar sound, one she had always cherished hearing. it felt like a reminder of the spacecraft’s life, always interacting to her existence, responding in kind noise whenever loretta’d root around fixing her insides. it was a comforting relationship, wonderful in its unconditionality.

now, her beautiful partner screamed red with anger. they destroyed her entrance too. the airlocks outer seal is burst open with what could fairly be assumed to be anti-ship cannons, if not for the claw marks and acid tainting it all. she looks through the inner seal, into the void where death surely awaits, her body has been so painfully torn and remade, that she can’t make herself put up a single limb to fight at the end. she imagines a blaster in her hand, and clenches its handle tight. then she opens her eyes, and her fingers havent moved an inch.

then her face meets cold surface, jagged. then the green drapes grab onto her skin again. then her blood mixes with the green and turns the colour to the same rust she smelled in the air at the start. then she feels the perfectly held-at-average air of her beloved spaceship turn into cold freezing anguish of the outside. then she feels her body turn to nothing. then, she feels nothing at all.

#puppy writing #uhm #rbs encouraged #i needddd attention chat #but yeah um id appreciate ppl letting me know what they think too!!

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maria-from-ga · 8 months ago

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Raven, the Empathetic Sorceress Part 3

Here's the final part of Raven's TT03 powers aligned with her NTT powers. And if you came here after Part 1 and Part 2, thanks for sticking around lol

(Sources in pink)

Healing

In NTT, Raven could heal others, more specifically absorbing the people's pain to induce their healing.

The scope of what Raven can heal has varied in NTT but traditionally, it's more limited in scope: she can't heal diseases or severe injuries

(Tales of New Teen Titans #2- Young Raven learns of her ability to heal by saving a dove's life. The Goddess Azar tells Raven that Raven ability to heal is fairly limited, and Raven explains that to the team as well as absorbing other's pain add to her suffering and is painful.)

Raven was known in NTT for being a healer because, she didn't like conflict (aside from knocking people out unconscious*lol)

There is a misconception around TT03 that Raven never healed. On one hand, this is understandable because it wasn't as dramatic or grandiose as in the comics or the DCAMU when Raven healed Damian. However this isn't the case.

TT03 Raven was a healer as well; her ability just hewn closer to the original limitations of her healing.

Raven healed several times in the show:

Healed a limping Beast Boy in the pilot

(Teen Titans 1x01 "Final Exam"- After being defeated by the HIVE, Raven helps a limping Beast Boy returning to Titan Tower and heals his injury and telling him they had to accept what happened, a sign of Raven's maturity and wisdom)

2. Reduce a major injury Robin had to a minor fracture (a sign of her healing abilities being limited)

(Teen Titans 2x07 "Fractured"- In a fight against Johnny Rancid, Robin is seriously injured with a broken arm but Raven is able to reduce the serious injury to a minor fracture.)

3. Healing Herself After Being Attacked By Adonis

(Teen Titans 3x09 "The Beast Within"- After Raven was seriously attacked by Adonis, Raven went into a trance to heal herself)

Here are other times which I think count but I understand if people don't want to:

4. Attempt to Heal Robin's Mind

(Teen Titans 3x05 "Haunted"- After finding Robin, Raven enters his mind to try to show Robin the truth to soothe his troubled mind)

In "Haunted", when Robin escaped after suffering a breakdown, Raven used her soul-self to find Robin and enter his mind. Raven tries to convince him that Slade isn't physically there to calm him down. This, to me, is Raven trying to heal Robin's mind by addressing the root cause of Robin's mental issues- Slade's existence- to free from the stress he is under. This is similar to NTT #14 where Raven tries to find the root of Mento's mental distress so he can be free from the mental illness plaguing him.

(NTT (1980) #14- Finding a disoriented Mento, Beast Boy's dad, Raven sense an emotional disturbance in Mento and try to soothe his pain but couldn't)

5. Defeated Plasmus

I know this is seemingly a unexpected choice because Raven uses her soul-self to knock Plasmus out unconscious, but when you consider Plasmus's character, this is an act of empathy & healing in my opinion.

(Teen Titans 4x11 "The End Part 1"- Raven recites Azarath Metrion Zinthos, summoning more of her power, and knocks out Plasmus granting him the peace he deserves)

Plasmus, real name- Otto Von Furth, is a tragic figure in TT03. He can't control his transformation into Plasmus, and has to remain in a stasis tank or be permanently unconscious to remain human & not transform into Plasmus. Otto readily accepts this sad fate to stay human. When Slade forcibly wakes him up in "Divide And Conquer" (Teen Titans 1x02- Plasmus 1st appearances), Otto begs to be put to sleep, but Slade mocks him and ignores his cries. TT03 Raven using her full astral form can form a soul-link with someone (e.g. with Robin in "Haunted" which she later mentions in "Birthmark" that after entering Robin's mind, she and Robin share a soul-link), so she, in her astral form, likely realized Otto's desires after ending Plasmus's mind, and so with the natural abilities of her soul-self, granted Otto's wish for rest. This act of healing a distressed person is similar to Raven putting Mark, a distressed man having an episode, to rest in NTT #35.

(NTT (1980) #35- Raven comforts and puts to rest Mark, Sarah Simms' ex who has having an mentalepisode and started a hostage situation)

6. Healed Plasmus again

(This was in Teen Titans 5x12 "Titans Together", but I am not going to post the scene because it is essentially the same scene as the one in "The End Part 1")

Thus, Raven healed someone at least once a season. Again, I don't blame people for the misconception, but it was a kid's show so they won't going to have people with major injuries but whenever they need a healer, Raven was there.

Empathy in Practice

Part 1 already covered how TT03 Raven is an empath, but how does she used her empathy in practice outside of healing?

Conventional Use of Empathy

Emotional Manipulation

Now as an empath, Raven can alter and manipulate people's emotions.

In TT03, Raven doesn't manipulate emotions to the extent NTT Raven, which is understandable because on a kid's show, you don't want to condone manipulating emotions. Also, NTT Raven also eventually stops manipulating emotions without consent because she realized how messed up it was.

(1st image: NTT (1980) #4 - Zatanna reveals to Wally that Raven forced her to fall in love with her so Raven can use Wally in the fight against Trigon; 2nd image: NTT (1980) #14- Raven apologizes to Wally saying she now realizes that manipulating people's emotions to force them to do what you want is wrong)

This doesn't mean TT03 Raven can't manipulate emotions, but rather TT03 Raven only does so in a 'break-in-case-of-emergency' situation:

(Teen Titans 3x04 "Crash"- After Gizmo refused to help the Titans to fix Cyborg, Robin gives Raven the go-ahead to exploit Gizmo's fears and force him to help them )

What Raven did in "Crash": sense Gizmo's fears and exploit them to pressure him into saving her friend as a last resort is similar to what NTT #14 stated she can do as an empath.

(NTT (1980) #14- After Mento for a lack of a better word went bersek and attacked the Titans, Raven exploit Mento's love for his dead wife, Rita, to get her to calm down)

Sensing People & Emotions

Because of her empathic ability, Raven can sense things, such as people's presence to find them.

(NTT (1980) #1- Raven sense Starfire's arrival and ask Titans to follow her to help save Starfire)

TT03 Raven uses this ability to find Starfire such as the TT03 prequel episode- Teen Titans 5x10 "Go" in a scene reminiscent of NTT #1 (1st scene in GIF below)

As well to try to find the White Monster the Titans were chasing in the series finale (Teen Titans 5x13 "Things Change") (2nd scene in GIF above)

This sensing ability of TT03 Raven not only extends to sensing people's presence, but also even more specifically the distress of others, particularly those of she cares about.

For example in "Haunted" (shown in the GIF below) when Raven felt Beast Boy's pain after he was attacked by Robin, Raven's sensing ability caused Raven to sense Beast Boy's distress and thus wake up from her healing trance.

This TT03 scene is reminiscent of NTT (1980) #10 (image below) when Beast Boy was severely injured and almost killed by Deathstroke. Raven sensed Beast Boy's immense pain and immediately teleported to him.

TT03 Raven, like NTT Raven, can also sense strong emotions of others. For example in Titans 2x08 - "Titans Rising" (GIF below), Raven sensed the strong, conflicting emotions of Terra after Terra rejoined the team, triggering a premonition, another ability of NTT Raven. This premonition revealed Terra's allegiance to Slade and subsequently betrayal which ultimately caused TT03 Raven to not completely trust Terra, similar to comic Raven's mistrust of Terra in Judas Contract.

TT03 and NTT Raven's ability to sense emotions as an empath is why Raven is known as a healer. Again, going back to the example with Robin and Plasmus, because she can sense their emotional disturbances, TT03 Raven can heal or attempt to heal people's minds- another conventional use of her empathy.

Grounded Use of Empathy: Understanding

In this long series breaking down TT03 Raven's powers, this might be my favorite section because this is so underrated about TT03 Raven. Though TT03 had Raven use her empathy in more conventional ways, TT03 really honed in on having Raven use her empathetic ability in a grounded sense.

Again Raven was an empath who felt everything yet had to deny her emotions and pretend not to feel anything (Part 1).

Yet underneath that faux cold demeanor & layer of sarcasm (which was always overrated imo), Raven was always to provide emotional support, be a shoulder to lean on & to vent your internal struggles (something that was all too easy for her to understand).

Beast Boy

Raven and Beast Boy's relationship was complicated, to say the least. Complete opposites, Raven struggled with Beast Boy's strong emotions, immaturity, & need for external validation. So Beast Boy thought Raven didn't like him. In turn, Raven thought BB hated her.

But Raven was there to provide comfort when Beast Boy needed someone, particularly at his lowest moment.

Teen Titans 3x09 The Beast Within - Beast Boy gets pushed too far by Adonis & thus unleashes his inner beast on him to win. Afterwards this battle, Beast Boy acts abnormally, eats meat & diary, and is awful to everyone, especially Raven. Beast Boy is ultimately turned into a out-of-control primal werebeast and Beast Boy's friends turn on him after believing he hurt Raven. Titans discovered Adonis also transformed into a werebeast & Beast Boy, in his primal werebeast form, was trying to save Raven & defeat Adonis who was obsessed with Beast Boy and Raven. Beast Boy eventually succeeds.

Beast Boy was given an antidote so he wouldn't have uncontrollable transformations into a werebeast anymore nor act like a toxic jerk, but after the ordeal, Beast Boy was badly shaken.

Raven, all too familiar with the agonizing regret in the aftermath of losing control, tries to comfort Beast Boy telling him it wasn't his fault and he has regained control (GIF below).

But Beast Boy is still mortified of his inner beast.

Raven, all too familiar with fear of your inner beast (Trigon), reminds him that his inner beast saved her life & it wasn't all bad. What's important is knowing when to release that inner beast for good - that is what makes him mature and human, reassuring Beast Boy (GIF below)

Once she sense Beast Boy was okay, she put her usual veneer of sarcasm back down.

Raven carries a deep, internal shame of her demon heritage & of her father (as Teen Titans 1x06 "Nevermore" shown), so her willingness to discuss the lessons she learn from it & the good from it despite her usual reluctance because she saw a friend in deep pain, despite their conflicts, shows how she understands and cares.

Robin

Due to their similar personalities, Raven was very close with Robin & shared a deep sense of mutual respect with him.

As such, Raven was always willing to comfort Robin when he was in emotional distress, especially when Starfire wasn't there to provide emotional support.

(1st Scene - Teen Titans 3x05 "Haunted"- As soon as Robin became agitated after realizing the Titans do not believe him, Raven was the first one to try to calm him down & was careful to use a gentle, non-accusatory tone with Robin to figure what was going on with him; 2nd Scene- Teen Titans 5x05 "Snowblind" - Raven tries to comfort a clearly worried Robin after Starfire went missing)

Again, throughout "Haunted", Raven was the only Titan who never became agitated at or rude towards Robin during his mental breakdown, likely sensing Robin's severe emotional distress. She tried to find a physical cause and when that failed, tried to heal Robin's mind, learning all his memories & forming a soul-link between the two.

With the soul-link from her empathetic powers , she was able to truly understand the source of Robin's plight: that to him, Slade was real and was actually fighting him. She showed the other Titans, Robin was in true mental, and thus physical, distress & was not being delusional (GIF below).

Starfire

Starfire always wore her emotions on her sleeve, and in her distress, either turn to Robin for emotional support or remove herself. But that doesn't mean Raven was never there when Starfire needed her.

In "How Long Is Forever", Starfire wanted to celebrate a Tamaranian Festival of Friendship with the other Titans but she was devastated when she discovered the other Titans were fighting, which ultimately result in her handcrafted festival necklaces being destroyed. Starfire, distressed at her broken necklaces, was upset at her friends fighting, worried this will cause their friendships to end. Raven with all the other Titans dismiss Starfire's concerns, saying it's normal roommate fights.

Then Starfire gets trapped in a wormhole & ends in a dystopian future where her worst fears have come and the Titans have split. Starfire is able to return to the present and tells her friends of the future. Other Titans were depressed at hearing their future, but Starfire suggests there is still hope to change their fate.

Sensing Titans' sadness at the potential end of their friendship & and sensing Starfire's quiet optimism & still burning desire for the festival, Raven suggest celebrating the Tamaranian Friendship Festival anyway, rebuilding the Starfire's beloved festival necklaces.

Uplifting All The Titans' Spirits but Especially Starfire's:

1st Scene - Teen Titans 2x01: "How Long Is Forever"; 2nd Scene: Teen Titans 3x03: "Betrothed"

The 2nd scene of the GIF above is from "Betrothed". In it, Raven tells Robin it's unfair to question Starfire's culture just because it's different from Earth's after Starfire is about to enter an arranged wedding. On the surface, this is another instance of Raven gently attempting to calm down an agitated Robin (which is true).

But this Raven quote encapsulates the deep respect and understanding she has for Starfire and her immigranthood.

Raven always felt like an outsider due to not only to her struggles to control her demon side, but also because her methods of control are from her home Azarath: an inter-dimensional society with practices (mediation, self-denial, mysticism) seemingly bizarre to Americans like Robin, Cyborg, and Beast Boy.

So like Starfire, Raven is an immigrant and understand the difficulty navigating cultural differences between your old home with your new one. Throughout the series, whenever Starfire perform a 'bizarre' Tamaranian cultural tradition or did something out-of-synch with conventional Earth culture (ie drinking mustard), Raven was the only Titan who rarely bat an eye. Although other Titans would never admonish Starfire for her naïveté around Earth custom or "strange" ones, but they were usually bewildered, but not Raven.

This is all the more apparent when the Titans visited Tamaran, Starfire's homeland in "Betrothed." Not only was Raven nonplussed compared to other Titans about seeing Tamaran's traditions in practice, but she was also willing to provide assurance to Starfire about her traditions' validity. When the Titans arrived to Tamaran and Starfire described it as beautiful despite seeing only ugly rock formations around, Raven was the only one who agreed about its beauty despite initial hesitation. When Starfire's husband-to-be Glgrdsklechhh was revealed, and all the Titans, including Starfire, were disgusted, Raven, after hesitation, tried to hearten Starfire's spirit by saying he's cute.

Both instances, there wasn't a hint of Raven's trademarked sarcasm, but rather kindness & reassurance because Raven likely sensed Starfire's excitement, nervousness & trepidation about this visit. All this is encapsulated by when Beast Boy express curiosity & excitement seeing the alien animals on Tamaran, Raven reminds him: "He's the alien here."

These instances sum up to Raven's understanding of being an outsider with Starfire, validating her cultural differences, and the deep respect she had for Starfire's culture & how her personality flows from it, despite their seemingly clashing personalities and cultures.

Cyborg

Raven & Cyborg's friendship is so underrated, especially since their friendship was where Raven's grounded empathy and understanding are arguably the most present.

In "Car Trouble", Cyborg took so much care to build T-Car, calling it his baby & was so excited to show the other Titans his creation, but Raven was the only Titan who didn't care (remember she can fly & teleport lol). Cyborg then loses the car & becomes extremely upset when Titans said they wanted to turn Overload over to the police before searching for the car. Raven becomes rather rude & said Cyborg's car is not a big deal because it was just a car; Cyborg then becomes furious & goes off to search for the car alone. Gizmo steals the T-Car and Cyborg becomes utterly dejected, believing the car is lost forever.

Raven, realizing her screw-up, goes to find Cyborg, but Cyborg tells her it's a lost cause & maybe she's right: it was just a car (GIF below).

(Teen Titans 1x13 "Car Trouble")

Sensing his love for the car, Raven disagrees and instead affirms that the T-Car was part of him, his baby, not just a car, so it does matters, raising Cy's spirits (GIF below).

Raven joins Cyborg to look for the T-Car, but eventually Overload finds it and overtakes it. So in order to defeat Overload, Cyborg has to destroy the car & naturally becomes dejected the T-Car is gone.

Raven reminds Cyborg what made the car special was his soul, not the parts, so he can always rebuild the T-Car. And then Raven assist him in doing just that (GIF below):

("Car Trouble" - What's Raven is pointing to in this GIF is a blue and black chip board that came from Cyborg that made T-Car functional- a physical representation of his soul. Raven goes on to spend hours rebuilding a car she admittedly doesn't care about just because it meant that much to Cyborg)

Raven's care and empathy for Cyborg shows up again in "Cyborg the Barbarian":

In "Cyborg the Barbarian", Cyborg gets stranded 5000 years in the past. He meets The Village, a tribe of warriors battling the Green Gruesomes. Despite his initial reluctance, especially due to his diminishing power battery, Cyborg decides to join the battle against the Green Gruesomes, assisting the Village and their beautiful leader, Sarasim.** However, before the battle is over, Raven rescues him, leaving Cyborg distraught. And a devastated Cyborg grabs Raven, pleading with her to send him back.

Instead of reacting harshly as she usually, especially due to being grabbed, Raven gently told him she can't send him back (GIF below):

(Teen Titans 4x04 "Cyborg the Barbarian")

Cyborg walks away from his friends distraught, saying that he didn't get to say goodbye, while Raven looks at Cyborg with sympathy.

Sensing Cyborg's wallowing in his pain & regret, Raven visits Cyborg & shows him one of her books. The book reveals that Sarasim & the Village were ultimately victorious & commemorated Cy for his bravery. Raven then leaves the book with Cyborg, and seeing the return of his joy, smiles (GIF below):

Using her powers can put a strain on Raven, so you imagine using the full extent of her soul-self energy trying to pinpoint Cyborg across space and time would have done to her. Not only the strain of finding Cyborg but also using her soul-self energy to carry Cyborg 5,000 years through time. All this took a lot from Raven, and Cyborg not only didn't even thank her, but rather gripped her tightly, and begged to be send back, ignoring all that Raven sacrificed. But istead of expressing rage, frustration, or even sarcasm at Cyborg's lack of gratitude, Raven, seeing Cyborg's turmoil and pain, regretfully said she couldn't. So, Cyborg walked away, heartbroken and disappointed. And after this, Raven then searched her extensive ancient book collection, looking for the name Cyborg called out before he walked away from his friends dejected to give her friend some sense of comfort. Finding what she was looking and sensing his grief, Raven shows to Cyborg her book detailing how Sarasim and the Village won & how they never forgot what he did, like he will never forget them. After Raven provides Cyborg the closure he was searching for, Raven let Cyborg hold onto the book and read more of Sarasim's adventures. This was a big deal because Raven never let anyone touch her books since most are dangerous spell books that need to be handled, yet she let Cyborg keep one of hers just so he can gain much-needed peace. Raven did all this to a friend that was frankly ungrateful of what Raven sacrificed to save him because she understood Cyborg was reacting in pain and struggling with his sense of loss, not inherently trying to be rude.

The care she showed to the Titans shows that TT03 Raven was the most understanding Titan, sensing her friends' pain and go to many lengths to soothe them in her own way, trying to comfort them in a way she herself wanted to be comforted.

Magic

Raven and her relationship to magic is 2nd biggest misconception about TT03 and NTT Raven, and it's two-fold one: 1) that TT03 Raven only practiced magic & didn't use her empathy nor soul-self (those misconceptions were disproven in parts 1/2 and 2) that NTT Raven had no involvement with magic.

NTT Raven wasn't technically a witch*** (& she didn't like being called it lol), but that doesn't mean she had no involvement with the art of magic.

Raven was openly a mystic and was trained in Azarath mysticism.

Azarath was a mystic society, created & run by sorcerers- the ritual to purge themselves of evil created Trigon (as shown in the image from NTT (1980) #3)

NTT Raven was raised by mystics and sorcerers and thus was a mystic & sorceress too and was called such in the comic. Mystics & sorceress both utilize magic, and Raven's empathy powers and soul-self utilization were forms of sorcery, mysticism & thus magic.

(1st image: "Crisis On Infinite Earths"? - Full disclosure, I didn't screenshoot this image so I am not sure of the exact issue it came from, but I am positive it is from a Crisis on Infinite Earths tie-in. In this image, Raven is teleporting to site where the Earths are colliding and is called the mistress of mysticism as she does so. 2nd image: NTT (1980) #9- Raven teleports away before a mind-controlled Cyborg can attack her and is again called the Maid of Mysticism)

When Raven was created by Marv Wolfman, Len Wein, the editor, asked Wolfman to create a mystic character without conventional uses of sorcery to differentiate the character from Dr. Strange.

TT03 Raven didn't have the same restriction as Wolfman, so she could employ more conventional uses of sorcery & magic to augment her empathetic & soul-self powers which she did (Images on left-hand side below):

(Left column: 1st picture: Teen Titans 3x06 "Spellbound"- Raven using sorcery and spells to free Malchior, whom she believed to be Rorek, from the spell book he is bound to. 2nd picture: Teen Titans 4x07 "The Prophecy"- Raven, scared of Trigon's impending arrival, uses spells and incantations to return home to Azarath to find some way to defeat Trigon. Right column: NTT (1984) #31- Raven uses Brother Blood's sorcery to augment her own and defeat Blood)

And just to further drive the point home, NTT Raven did use magic outside of Azarath mysticism & sorcery. As the image on the right showed, she used Brother Blood's own magic to augment her own sorcery, free herself and the entire world from his mind control, and thus defeat him.

So, Raven always was a practitioner of magic, TT03 Raven made the connection to magic more explicit and stronger.

If you stayed around this long, thank you so much. I hope this series showed how TT03 Raven's powers align with NTT Raven's and TT03 just expands on NTT Raven's powers. If you want any more GIFs about the scenes I described here, please let me know; I would have add more images, but I went over the limit. This was really fun and let me know if you want me to do more of these posts and if so, which characters and subjects to cover!! This was so fun, especially seeing the care TT03 crew took to adapt Raven and her relationships which I didn't appreciate when I was younger.

Long Live Teen Titans 2003!!!

*Raven has a complicated relationship with violence lol & maybe I will do a post on it one day lol

**Sarasims is a cool callback to Vic's first NTT love, Sara Simms who sadly they couldn't make it work. And I especially loved that like the Sara Simms' role in the comics, TT03 Sarasims reminds Cyborg he is more than enough as is.

***Most definition of witch means either having innate magic ability or making forbidden pacts to gain magical powers, which sorcerers gain their power through study. And as you can see, Raven would technically be both a witch and a sorceress

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bigbandithewada · 2 months ago

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Feeling like putting down my find so here is

JV/Ant Davidson Timeline

(Can’t guarantee 100% accuracy on all info, can’t guarantee no bias no projection, not using there full names because guess what, so less info about them together if you google their names together my blog appears on the 1st page)

JV was raised in Switzerland. Did math and computer science in Switzerland. He found out he needed an engineer background to enter F1 so went back to England to get a master in that. Got to work at BAR(later Honda, Brawn, Merc) eventually. (He had a billion interview on him hustling his way to BAR but that’s not relevant to the story here)

Ant was raised in a middle class family. Went to Karting with brother and he was more interested and started to compete in Karting. He worked his way to Formula Ford and was lucky to get a sponsorship( the sponsor bought a house and let him lived there). His sponsor talked to him about career choice, at that time, test driver made a decent amount of money and that f1 seat seems a bit too distant. So Ant ended up in BAR around the same time as JV

Well JV was not that much of an engineering guy. His job going into Honda was a combination of some data analysis, coordination between departments and some engineer. There was no proper strategist job back in the days so he just bounced around. (The untold interview he said he was suppose to fix an electronic problem on the front wing, Evan Short ended up doing that. Not saying that he knew nothing but inferring from his other interview, he definitely needed help). (Even now strategist have “low” status in the team since only the principal strategist can go to the track and everyone back home’s job is make sure to feed enough info through TR that the principal’s eyes are always on track).

Meanwhile, Ant was doing amazing as a test driver, too amazing that Honda was reluctant to release him to do actual f1 racing. He missed a seat(which team I forgot) but Honda eventually agreed to let him race for Super Aguri in 2007. That team didn’t last.

Then came the Brawn year. Before 2009, JV and Ant were already starting to worry about their jobs and registered a company together. Company never took off because here comes Brawn GP.

After the championship, our champ Jenson was scheduled to do victory laps in the factory for the fans but he already buggered off to McLaren. Ant did the laps and JV was his engineer for that.

Then came the Merc years.

Ant was doing a bunch of different things then: racing in WEC, driving the Merc simulator and later became a sky sport host. Ant missed the chance of winning a championship(he also missed a podium due to bad luck in 2007) but he got one eventually. When Alonso returned to F1, Ant interviewed him asking if Alonso remembered them racing against each other in WEC, Alonso did not remember. Ant also did Jenson’s retirement interview. Ant also did some interview later saying he was too nice to be competing in this shark tank of f1, nice guy can’t win races.

JV was doing a bunch of different things in Merc as well. He was in charge of simulator, junior team, esport team and development data analysis software for premier league(honorable mention: he wrote the drivers code of conduct in 2016 to prevent Lewis and Nico fighting). Ant was a reliable simulator driver, JV was working a lot with Ant at that time(JV didn’t need to be present for the crowd strike thing but he was there…) (Also they Merc’s equipment to tune cars for their friend’s Karting league, naughty boys). I want to believe JV cares about drivers he works with, especially junior team (he went up to hug Esteban Ocon(Merc junior driver) after his 2021 Hungarian gp win(Merc strategy was a disaster that race)

Ant said JV is one of his best friends. He phoned JV a lot during the Honda and Brawn years. Ant also texted JV to ask for technical details when he started to comment for Sky( Ant joked in 2023 pre season test that JV is getting to busy with his TP job to reply to his texts). JV also bugged Ant for a VIP pass during Ant’s LeMans years. JV had spent time with Ant’s family doing barbecue for JV’s birthday. JV is Ant’s kids’ god father.

Projection time: Brawn and Merc years treated JV so well he probably is a bit idealist about things now. The stuff he said at Williams make sense if your work experience is a streak of championships. JV will probably never get a reality check so hard the way Ant exit F1(divorce? Idw). Knowing they are good friends make me happy.

(Some source from Ant’s deleted twitter account)

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voidsentprinces · 1 month ago

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Alright, follow me here and I will skip a metric fuck tonne of information in between.

1.4 Million Years ago, the earliest hominin settle in what is now, Modern Day Ukraine.

Eventually, Ukraine is formed as a nation and is eventually home to a happy Jewish family, the Chechick.

The Chechick family eventually bear their daughter, Rebecca in Sudylkiv.

Rebecca eventually immigrates to the United States and marries a fellow Ukrainian born man named Samuel Spielberg in Cincinnati.

Rebecca and Samuel eventually give birth to Arnold Spielberg.

Arnold goes on work on various projects, most notably the GE-200 series computers.

Arnold eventually meets one, Leah Posner and has four children including Steven Spielberg.

Steven eventually takes interest in the art of film making, most notably: Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Raiders of the Lost Ark and finally, E.T.

With the massive success of E.T., an American company founded in New York City one, Atari. Buys the rights to E.T. to make a video game. But begins development at the end of July and decides the best practice is have it released on September 1st to get in on the Christmas Sales period.

The game is so terrible and so poorly received that out of the 4 million physical copies of the game, 3.5 million were returned or unbought. And arguably the reputation of "video games" was forever ruined by the cash grabbing ineptitude from the experience.

So much that a petty part of the developers for Atari break off to form their own group: Activision. So petty and named, so it would appear BEFORE Atari in the business listings. They'll be important later.

Because, the term "video game" is so tarnished. Atari and many, many, MANY other American based video game companies went belly up and crashed.

Enter a small Japanese based company that just so happened to be dipping their toes into the entertainment and video game industry. Nintendo.

Nintendo sees the backlash to the term "video game" and sells their own system as an "Entertainment System".

Nintendo makes gangbusters off this stunt and with the release of the Nintendo Entertainment system, a struggling company by the name of SquareSoft make their swan song, their last ditch effort to make a game to save the company at large by the name of: Final Fantasy.

It is so well received that it and its following successful sequels net them the talent of Akira Toriyama on another piece of media, Chrono Trigger. Which eventually bears fruit by creating Dragon Quest. Which joins Final Fantasy in becoming huge successes with each release.

Until Nintendo gets too big for its trousers and breaks with a small technology driven company named Sony over the production of the N64. Nintendo keeps safely to cartidges while Sony makes the Playstation with revolutionary Disc technology.

SquareSoft releases Final Fantasy VII on the Playstation breaking with Nintendo after a handful of years of partnership.

Wishing to push the advancement of graphics and technology, SquareSoft release Final Fantasies VIII, IX, and X. But seeing a sudden influx from the Online Multiplayer game category, they also eventually develop their first venture into MMOs, which were not known as MMOs back then, Final Fantasy XI

A failing video game company but still popular for their down JRPGs, one Enix eventually partners with SquareSoft to create SquareEnix.

A popular American based company named Blizzard Entertainment revolutionizes the Online Multiplater Game genre by introducing: The World of Warcraft. Making gangbusters and forging the first properly titled: Massive Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Game. Taking the entire video game lexicon by storm and creating buzzwords that will be synonymous with the genre such as Tank, DPS, and Healer.

Blizzard previously releases Diablo before World of Warcraft and intrigues a young japanese man by the name of Naoki Yoshida in story telling and adventure.

This company is eventually bought by the successful publisher that broke off from Atari, Activision to form Activision Blizzard.

World of Warcraft becomes so popular, SquareEnix feels like giving it another go and develops then publishes: Final Fantasy XIV.

It is a complete fucking mess. The Director is faces with a never before used system, a flower pot has so many polygons it crashes servers, you can't jump, and despite the cutscenes being stellar, the game play is monotonous and horrid.

Having also failed to meet expections from the release of Fina Fantasy XIII. SquareEnix decide to bet on black and put their backing behind Naoki Yoshida and the remaining Skeleton Crew of the initial FFXIV launch. Including a young musician by the name of Masayoshi Soken.

Yoshida pushes to revamp the entire system and release a new game, performing triage on the project. It is a success, but only just barely. After which Yoshida and his team push to keep updating and keeping the game on Life Support. Until their first expansion: Heavensward. Which is well received by both the fanbase and the video game community. This follows through the better received Stormblood expansion and followed by the peak of their story gameplay, music, and homogonizing of its Job system in Shadowbringers.

During this time Activision-Blizzard goes into several thousand controversies about the work place life and the ego of its CEO, Bobby Kotick.

COVID-19 hits and strains the Final Fantasy XIV development team and it is revealed that Masayoshi Soken developed and fought cancer.

People disgusted by the actions of the World of Warcraft creators start seeking other avenues of gameplay and combined with the well well well received expansion Shadowbringers, Soken's cancer story, and the upcoming "End of an Era" expansion: Endwalker. Many flock over to Final Fantasy XIV granting it success when while its "sequel" Final Fantasy XV is met with iffy reception.

And that's why you're running your daily roulettes now. A bunch of ancient humans settled in the Ukraine region, founded a nation, two of its citizens immigrates to the US, a couple generations later one of the greatest filmmakers is born, one of his films gets snatched up for a movie adaption. So poorly received it is pointed to for the reason the Western Video Game market collapses. But also makes room for Nintendo to butt in and change everyones' lives. Seeing a boom in mid-90s era Anime on top of the Nintendo games. Eventually creating the scenario you're in now.

You're fucking welcome.

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historyinthemakingamazingfinds · 1 year ago

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A lead tank (1st Century AD), found in Pompeii in Villa Arianna, to which water was supplied via a single pipe, and from there it was directed to different parts of the house through two other pipes, capacity of which could be regulated using valves.

The tank was above ground level, so it was visible. That's why it gained decoration. Even technical devices had to have an appropriate appearance back then.

Roman artifacts: https://thetravelbible.com/top-artifacts-from-ancient-rome/

Source: Facebook

Museum of Artifacts

#pompeii #plumbing #history #technology

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iheartgod175 · 5 months ago

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Some Quick Thoughts

--Sorry I've been on and off of here, everyone! Work's been crazy, and so has home life, but I'm starting to come out of the dreary tunnel now, meaning that I should be back on here a lot more often now.

--My writing motivation has been on and off for the last few weeks, mostly due to getting back to work after getting hit with the 'Rona (after my birthday, which was a double whammy). The project that I was working on before getting sick was The Zula Patrol: Dreamscape Crusade Remastered, but now it's shifted to a few other projects that I haven't worked on in years or are on hiatus. Those projects are Mirror, Mirror, and Sodor Magic Crusaders.

--I haven't really been into Thomas the Tank Engine in a hot minute, but I have kinda been into Nanoha again. And I'm about 45% through the actual sixteenth chapter, where things go wrong for multiple characters. I also had a cool idea to switch up how Emily is handled in this story, since I don't want it to be a total cut and paste from the canon events in Nanoha (the fic itself already plays fast and loose with canon as many Devices that appear later in the series appear in the first installment, Mid-Childa doesn't exist, and rather than the Jewel Seeds, we get the Book of Transformation).

I'm also doing a total readthrough of the story to get up to speed with what's going on, and the difference between my old writing style and my current writing style is like night and day, haha! I'm still planning on rewriting a few chapters to make things clearer and clean up any errors/descriptions. At least, until I decide to get the ball rolling on The REMAKE 1st. And while SRBA was unanimously the top pick for a DCR-style remaster, a few people wanted to see this project, too.

--Mirror, Mirror's fifth chapter is something I've been working on for the better part of two years. I'm raising the stakes here in this chapter! Like SMC, I'm about 40% done with this chapter; just adding a few points from ideas and brainstorms I had, and working off of that.

--Sheriff Callie's Wild West has also been tickling the brain a little. I've been trying to get to chapter 7 of You've Got My Attention for the longest, but everything I've tried has not worked. Yesterday, though, I had a little idea on what exactly happened in Callie's past that's made her so closed off on love and why what those criminals did crossed the line. I haven't even started on this chapter yet, though, so please don't rush my inbox with messages about when it'll be done!

--A huge thanks to the folks who have been reblogging my ZP stuff from last year, including all the ship art ^^ Actually, thanks to everyone who's been reblogging/liking my art. Especially the art that I did with Chuck E, because I was not expecting that kind of response. It really makes my day!

--I do have a mini art bomb coming soon. I've been drawing more and want to share what I've been working on!

--And last but not least, I will get to doing my Animation Bucket List soon, because reading through my old Netflix Bucket Lists made me realize that I missed doing 'em. And since I've seen a lot of anime since then, I really want to share what I liked, hated, and am ambivalent on.

#hanna-barbera #top cat #zula patrol #the zula patrol #sheriff callie #thomas the tank engine #magical girl lyrical nanoha #chuck e cheese #bucket list #ramblings #fanfiction #works in progress

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gwynndolin · 5 months ago

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so far my biggest gripes with the SH2 remake are ones that I've had with the project conceptually from the very beginning.

I think everyone looks far too young, notably Angela, whose entire character I feel is diminished by appearing much younger than she actually is.

The game is over the shoulder now (the original was in some places but mostly was full of fixed camera angles) which unfortunately means that, like most other over the shoulder games, interiors are way, WAY bigger than they actually should be, which really runs perpendicular to the original game's commitment to making you constantly feel trapped and extremely claustrophobic, especially while trying to contend with the combat. (This could either be seen as good or bad depending on on how hard of a time you had with the original game's controls; I'd argue that part of the point of it was that it is supposed to an uncomfortable and difficult experience to do combat, but I also understand that if it was a limiting factor in your ability to enjoy the original game that it is an issue regardless)

The game still is creepy but the move of turning the game into an over the shoulder game as opposed to a more fixed camera focused game necessarily means that the devs have less control over what the player is going to see and when they'll see it. Scenes can't be nearly as intricately crafted as the ones in the original game because they can't be as intentionally designed. First example I can think of is the room with the flashlight

In the original when you walk into this room, the camera is very intentionally placed behind the mannequin wearing Mary's outfit. The sudden shift in the visual space is jarring; you get jumpscared by both the mannequin AND the fact that it's well lit, in contrast to how dark the apartment complex had been up until that point.

When you finally approach the mannequin, the camera offers a more tight viewing angle, revealing the light is coming from the flashlight in the mannequins shirt, and you're given a moment of uneasy relief when you are made to mistakenly assume that this scare was just meant to make you uncomfortable rather than be a fight or something.

But because of the camera angle and because of how DARK everything else is, you don't get to see the Mannequin monster hiding in the darkness behind the mannequin. As soon as you pick up the flashlight and it auto equips, resulting in the light being directed in front of you, the Mannequin springs to life and attacks you. It is a leg sweep of a scare.

youtube

Remake tries to do this, at least a little bit. But even here you can tell that the room is too bright, likely by virtue of modern lighting techniques and bounced lighting. Like, obviously this is more realistic to how a room probably would be lit by this flashlight. But you can so easily see the mannequin that attacks you when you walk into the room if you're being vigilant.

Silent Hill 2 intentionally worked with the ps2 and xbox's limitations in order to deliver an amazing horror experience, but even more so, the original team silent knew that horror doesn't need to be realistic, it just has to work. Bloober team has done a sincerely remarkable job revitalizing the game for modern audiences without sacrificing too much of what made the original game so amazing (I was genuinely expecting mostly positive reviews AT BEST on steam, a lot of "it works I guess" but I was so astounded to see overwhelmingly positive), but some of the modernization has definitely sacrificed a bit of what made the original so iconic and stand the test of time.

I still honestly and sincerely believe that the original is about as close to perfect as anything could be, and I really hope interest in the remake will bring a lot more people to engage with the original! And for that matter, if it does well enough, I'd love to see them work on a remake for 3. And honestly I would love to see a remake of 4, a game that I think doesn't even get a third as much love as it should

#Youtube

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qs63 · 1 year ago

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Amestris Military Real world Influence

This is the third of my series of long posts about the Amestrian Military. This is the post for the history nerds. There are plenty of real world references in Fullmetal Alchemist, especially pertaining to the first half of the 20th century. While Amestris and its military have often been compared to Nazi Germany (especially when it comes to the anime), the references in the manga are very diverse. Disclaimer, this is by no means an exhaustive list, there are too many for me to cover in one post, and I'm not a historian. So let me know if there's any reference I might have missed or if I got something wrong!

To see the rest of this meta series check out the Main Post..

Names

Probably the easiest reference to the real world is in the names of the military personnel. Almost all of them are named after military vehicles and equipment, mainly from World War II. Some examples:

Roy Mustang — P-51 Mustang (USA WW2 aircraft)

Riza Hawkeye & Grumman — Northrop Hawkeye E-2 Grumman (USA 60s aircraft)

Maes Hughes — Hughes aircraft series (USA aircraft company)

Black Hayate — Nakajima Ki-84 Hayate (Japanese WW2 aircraft)

Jean Havoc & Henry Douglas— Douglas A-20 Havoc (USA WW2 aircraft)

Heymans Breda — Breda M37 (Italy WW2 Machine gun) or HMS Breda (UK WW2 Yacht)

Kain Fuery — Hawker Fury (UK 30s aircraft)

Vato Falman — Farman aircrafts series (French aircraft company)

Armstrong Family — Armstrong Whitworth Whitley (UK WW2 aircraft)

Weapons and equipment

The weapons used by the military are also based on real world weaponry. Arakawa herself admitted to using references for weapons as well as for the vehicles.[1] Not all of them are a direct copy of a historical weapon, but all of them are at least inspired by one or more of them.

Pistol — Colt M1911A1 (USA 1924)

Hawkeye's pistol. [1]

Colt M1911 & M1911A

Rifle — Mauser Karabiner 98k (Germany WW2)

Hawkeye's Rifle. [1]

Mauser Karabiner 98k rifle

Hand grenade — Stielhandgranate M24 aka the potato mashers (Germany WW2)

Team Mustang's and their weapons. [1]

Stielhandgranate M24

Briggs' Tank

The Briggs' tank isn’t modeled directly after any specific tank, and rather takes inspiration from different WW1 to WW2 tanks. The manga and Brotherhood tanks take after different inspirations, with Brotherhood being more German coded than the manga tank. There's an excellent article in the tanks encyclopedia analyzing the Fullmetal Alchemist tanks if anyone's interested.

Military Cars —

We see a few military cars throughout the story. Once again the cars we see in the manga and Brotherhood are quite different, and they appear to be based on models from the late 1910s to the late 1930s.

The manga’s standard issued military car looks at least partially inspired by the American Ford model A of 1927.

Mustang's military car(manga).[2]

1927 Ford model A.

The Brotherhood art sketches have two different drawings of military cars. The first one, the one we see Mustang use, is based on the French Citroën traction avant 11CV of 1935.

Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood military vehicle version 1.

1935 French Citroën traction avant 11CV.

The second car seems to be inspired by the Italian Fiat Tipo 5 of the 1910s. Perhaps even inspired by one of the American made Fiat models.

Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood military vehicle version 2.

Fiat tipo 55.

Ranks and insignias

With the exception of the Führer-President, the Amestrian military ranks appear to be a mix of the USA WW2 officer ranks:

General,

Lt. General,

Major General,

Brigadier General,

Colonel,

Lt. Colonel,

Major,

Captain,

1st Lieutenant,

2nd lieutenant;

As well as the Imperial Japan NCO ranks:

Warrant officer (Special Sergeant Major),

Master Sergeant,

Sergeant,

Corporal.

The history of the Imperial Japan Warrant Officer rank is a bit confusing and complicated. In the 79 years that the Empire lasted, the Warrant Officer rank saw a lot of changes, being its own category at times, a Senior NCO at others. The NCO Warrant Officers seem to have been specialized Sergeant Majors (also translated as Master Sergeant) that basically functioned as the most senior of the NCO ranks. Aside from this the one modern country, I could find, that has Warrant Officers as NCO is Malaysia.

The rank of Führer-President (大総統 - Daisōtō in Japanese) replaces the rank of General of the army in the USA officer classification. While the English translation is a direct reference to Nazi Germany, the Japanese word is a lot more nuanced.

The word Daisōtō actually refers to the president of the 1912-1924 Republic of China, and if you Google it, all you will get is images of Bradley himself. The term used for “Führer” is 総統 (Sōtō), without the 大 (Dai) which is instead used in the word president 大統領 (Daitōryō), this is probably the inspiration for the Führer-president title of the official English translation.

However, Sōtō isn't used to refer just to Nazi Germany's Führer, but rather to any fascist associated head of state. As such Germany's Sōtō is the Fuhrer, but Italy's Sōtō is the Duce (Mussolini).

The effect is technically the same (you still think of Hitler and fascism), but the Japanese word is not a direct translation of Führer, nor a direct reference to Nazi Germany, it's more subtle than the English translation. I imagine Führer was used in English (in absence of a more subtle unifying word) as it is more recognizable to the English speaker than other fascist titles like: Duce, Caudillo, Generalísimo, etc.

The WW2 imperial Japan ranks also included superior private, first class private, and second class private, but they were their own class, called soldiers, below the NCO ranks, and were mainly composed of men serving their conscripted time. This might explain their absence in the Amestrian official ranks as Amestris doesn't seem to have conscription.

The rank insignias themselves are pretty much a copy of the imperial Japan ones.

Amestris rank insignias.[3]

Imperial Japan ranks insignias.

Uniform

In terms of the uniform there's not one single reference or perfect match for the design, but the closest to it is probably the WW1 French infantry uniform.

Amestris military uniform. [1]

Early WW1 French uniform

Late WW1 French uniform

Aside from the color of the French uniform, the long skirt, flaps and boots are very similar to the Amestrian uniform.

The Amestrian short jacket itself seems to be inspired by the WW2 USA Ike jacket.

USA WW2 Ike jacket.

Furthermore the white lining of the Amestrian uniform reminds me of the Imperial Japan formal uniform jacket, which is itself Prussian and French inspired.

Imperial Japan Major General formal uniform.

The Briggs uniform is very much WWII winter gear inspired.

Briggs uniform.[3]

Soviet WW2 winter uniform

Finnish WWII sniper.

Out of every uniform variation, the one most German coded is, to no one's surprise, the Führer-president’s. His trench coat looks similar to the WW1 Prussian one.

Bradley in uniform.

WW1 Prussian soldiers.

In general the uniform has a very World War I vibe to it, down to the impractical, decorative parts of it like the skirt. This is an uniform that obviously predates modern warfare, very apt for the time period the story is “set on”. This makes an interesting contrast with the weaponry which seem to be mostly World War II inspired.

Other references

Ishval war of extermination

First of all trigger warning for genocide and human experimentation. Just skip this section if you're sensible to these topics.

Just like the Ishvalan are an amalgamation of many cultures and ethnicity, the Ishvalan civil war seems to reference multiple conflicts and events.

Plenty of comparisons have been made with the Jewish genocide in the hands of the Nazi (and the 03 anime leans especially hard on this). There are also similarities with the Herero war and genocide at the hand of the German empire which just like the Ishval Civil war ended in 1908. Another possible reference is the Armenian genocide at the hands of the Ottoman empire, which also involved a minority living at the border of a nation the country was at war with and being suspected of colluding with the enemy. Both the Armenian and the Ishvalan soldiers serving in the army were dismissed, incarcerated, and eventually executed.

Another more clear cut reference made in the Ishval civil war is Mustang's and Knox’s experimentation. This would be a reference to the horrendous experiments done by both the Nazi and Japan's infamous unit 731. Both which included burning people to test treatments and the limits of the human body.

I am sorry to end up on such a hard note, but I think it's best we move on to other — less traumatic — topics.

Source

Fullmetal Alchemist Manga

Chapter 38: a counter attack signal [2]

The Complete art of Fullmetal Alchemist [1]

Fullmetal Alchemist perfect guide 3 [3]

Training Regime post

#fullmetal alchemist #fma #fma meta #fullmetal alchemist brotherhood #amestris #my work

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