#2 years. that's so wild to think about. i've never been into a game as much as I am this one.

[glacierbash]

Y'know, any time I start to talk about this game, I feel obligated to lead with the funniest fact I have: I absolutely hated Final Fantasy, for myriad reasons both personal and amusing. I hated, for example, the way Elezen were shaped. I hated that Lalafell looked so young. I hated that everybody acted like it was so great, and by sheer contrarian nature I decided I would simply never play this game. And for quite some time, that worked! I'd bombard my partner with whatever media algorithms recommended me involving FFXIV, just to make fun of it. I detested this MMO, without having ever tried it. And yet, deep down, I knew I wanted a community. I wanted to be around people, even if through an online medium. When I worked at the library, my coworker set up a WoW private server that I spent some time fucking around in, but deep down I wanted people. Try as I might, I couldn't deny some part of me wanted to see what the game was all about.

So, I tried it. I spent 30 minutes exactly between opening the character creator to first posting a name that, genuinely, would define more than 2 years of my life: Iverelle Vauvenelle.

I spend about 2 days playing the game, one being chased around by strangers who my partner swore were good people, and one just questing on my own--and it was fine. I got to MSQ level 24, quite literally one quest away from being able to travel to other city states, and I stopped. I played my fair share, I played 5 hours, and I decided the game wasn't for me. I put it down for several months, when I was approached by somebody who I am no longer friends with. He said I should play the game again, keep going just long enough to travel to Gridania, so that I could see one of his alts--and maybe, we could play together! I didn't want to upset him, so I said "fine," and gave it another try.

By the end of the week, I was finishing up ARR, and moving into post patch, and something just... Changed for me. I'm not sure what it was, honestly. It's not like the game magically changed for me then, or if Iverelle had become perhaps my most meaningful character ever, but something shifted, and I found myself enjoying the game. It didn't even make sense to me then when I bought a subscription to the game, but I knew that something here was special. I just... Had to.

Post patch took me about a month, with multiple days spent stressing out over queuing into Good King Mogglemog out of fear and anxiety, because the trial was labeled as hard and my disorder was, frankly, at its worst. But, I managed to do so anyways. The victory was meaningless for most people, but for me? It was beyond words, just how important it was that I did content with other people, especially considering I went through all of ARR solo.

I made it to the end of ARR, to the infamous cutscene, when I realized I was sick with covid. In VC with two of my friends, I said the infamous line: "I think I have a fever." What a way to enter Heavensward, huh? I think it is in no small part due to Covid that Heavensward ended up being my favorite expansion of all time, and why Ysayle Dangoulain ended up being my favorite character of all time. Sickness and quarantine gave me all the time in the world, and being far too sick to be anxious, I sped through the story. One week later, I was done with Heavensward.

And of course, by now, I am finished with Endwalker and awaiting Dawntrail. For 2 years of my life now, I have been playing this game nigh daily. I stay up late playing it, I finish my daily responsibilities as soon as possible to play it, and I find myself enjoying it. I never thought that would happen, truth be told. More importantly than enjoying the game itself, though, is the friends I met.

I have lived a very isolated life. Partially due to my anxiety making me extremely averse to interacting with people, and partially due to how I've been raised, I struggle a lot with people. Autism, anxiety, and having not been properly socialized made me terrible. I longed for new friends, but I hated the effort that went into it. Imagine my surprise when one day, I found myself driving out to meet people who I play this game with, to spend time with them? When I found myself wanting to meet them?

And yet, here I was. I was driving out to meet these people who I play this game with--and more importantly, they wanted to meet me. Even as I think back on that day, I start to tear up. It was one of the most important days of my life. Were it not for this game, for playing it daily, for being dragged into a Free Company and for sitting in calls with people because of this game, I would not have known these people. They are some of the most important people in my life.

I think of the late nights playing Mahjong, or doing PVP, or treasure maps, or just sitting around talking. I think of those nights and then having to wake up early for work, waking up exhausted but so happy. I think of staying up until damn near 5 in the morning talking about whatever it is that comes to mind. I think about stupid inside jokes, and shared experiences, and the stories that I'll tell for years to come.

It's just a game. Final Fantasy XIV is, at the end of the day, just a game--and yet, that game has served as a way for me to grow as a person in ways I've never thought possible. My anxiety has not magically been cured, mind; but, when I'm able to talk to strangers and my heartrate doesn't skyrocket, when I'm able to do things in this game that once terrified me, when I'm able to exist comfortably not just in this game but in the outside world, I realize that it's done more for me than I'll ever be able to say. Yes, it is just a game, but people play a game due to a shared interest, no? And through that shared interest, friendships can blossom. To say that I love my friends, the people I met ultimately because of this game, would be an understatement, and I fear I do not make that clear enough.

Stupid as it is to say, Final Fantasy XIV has changed my life, for the better. Dawntrail is coming in just a few short hours, and though I am a whirlwind of emotions, the predominant one is excitement. I was there for the end of an era, and now I am here for the start of a new one.

So thank you. If you read all the way through this, thank you. If you skimmed just to the end, thank you. Thank you to my friends, especially. I would not be here as I am now were it not for you all.

Here's to a new adventure, friends :^] (Second screenshot featuring: @gailiag, the best viera on hydaelyn)

[chongoblog]

Would you be willing to reccomend some video games for this upcoming steam summer sale

Sure! I'll be pulling a lot of these from my recently played games on Steam. In no particular order:

-Outer Wilds. If you haven't played it yet, you deserve to play it. Everyone will tell you not to look up ANYTHING for it, and sorry but they're right. It's one of those games. Fortunately, I've gotten good at selling people on it without spoiling anything. Outer Wilds is a game where you are an alien living on an alien planet, and you're set out to explore the rest of your solar system! As you explore, you'll learn all about the history of those who lived before you along with learn the secrets of the universe that surrounds you. I can't recommend this game enough.

-Blue Prince. This one's a newer title that I can safely say is one of the best games of the year. I didn't think that it was possible to make a puzzle roguelike, but they sure proved me wrong. It's an inspiring title with so many secrets that by the time you're done with it, you'll be like me and ask yourself if a bunch of random panels are a puzzle and 80 hours later still not be sure, if only because of how well all the other puzzles are hidden.

-Maze Mice. This came out this month!! It's from the same developer behind Luck Be A Landlord, if you're familiar with that one. Imagine Vampire Survivors meets Pac-Man meets SUPERHOT. A combination of games you might think is insane, and you're absolutely correct! Not a game that'll change your life, but a really fun timewaster. It got an update recently that introduces a new stage and more difficulty levels that I'm probably gonna try to climb.

-Haste: Broken Worlds. Another roguelike that came out this year (been really into them recently). This one has a couple flaws, like how it currently doesn't have much in terms of postgame, but the game itself is a blast with some of the most satisfying movement I've ever felt in a game along with Captain, who is awesome.

-Risk of Rain 2. Okay, last roguelike I promise. They actually recently pushed a big content update and are teasing more content for this one! I got hooked on this game earlier this year, and it definitely deserves the praise it gets. The only reason I'm not still playing it is because my computer has stopped being able to run it.

-Void Stranger. I never finished this one, but this is a fascinating little game that takes the concept of sokoban puzzles to a logical extreme and then continues to push it further and further. Another game where people will tell you not to look anything up, and for pretty good reason.

-Neon White. Have you ever wanted to be a speedrunner, but couldn't find the best way to get into it? Neon White may be the game for you! Neon White is a game where you died and you have to fight demons and get to the goal as soon as possible using various weapons and movement abilities. I love this game in particular because it has a ton of tools that help new players learn how to speedrun it. And not to brag, but last I checked I had a top ten Mikey's Rush (although this was like a year ago, so I wouldn't be surprised if I'm down to like 15)

I'm sure I could list many more, but I think this is a good collection for now!

[abbysimsfun]

Sims In Bloom: Generation 2 Pt. 144 (Meeting Emit Relevart)

When Felix and Lilith arrived at Willow Creek Park after the wedding, they looked around for a sign of Emit Relevart. Though the park was dotted with patrons playing chess or laughing on the children's playground, no one in the park had blue hair.

Felix gazed across the magnolia-dotted landscape, smiling at a nearby roller skating rink. He'd been a ghost for the roller skating craze of the past and had never been on wheels. "Did you want to rent a pair and go for a spin?"

Lilith grinned. "I haven't been on roller skates since Ange and I were kids."

The lovers hit the wooden platform, wobbling until they got the hang of it. "There he is! By the chess tables!" Lilith shouted.

The bright, turquoise-coloured hair of Emit Relevart was visible as far away as the roller rink, and the couple quickly moved to change back into their shoes.

But once they were back on their feet, they moved cautiously. As they approached, Felix cleared his throat. "Mr. Relevart?"

"Mr. Relevart was - will be - my father. Please, call me Emit."

"I'm Felix Psyded, Esquire, and this is my partner, Miss Lilith Pleasant," he said proudly. "She has the top rated alternative podcast on Simplify."

"It's wild to meet a real time traveler!" Lilith gushed. "What year did you come from?"

"I'm not supposed to tell you that," Emit said.

"We just met another time traveler," said Felix, and Emit's interest piqued. "He tried to kidnap a young boy and take him a decade into the future. I don't suppose you've heard of a Ximena Bonilla or a Marco Peralta."

Emit glanced up from the chess table in confusion. "Never heard of 'em, but I'm from a bit farther into the future than ten years. If they came back in time to kidnap a kid, it wouldn't surprise me. Where I come from, a lot of sims use time travel for nefarious gains."

"What is it you're doing here in 2059?"

"Have you seen any strange items turn up lately?"

"Ash - that's the little boy we know - found an old rotary phone under the statue of Sophie the Snail in Henford-on-Bagley," Lilith recalled. Emit recorded a note onto his gloves.

"My wristboard deduces someone's stealing items from the past and dropping them through time. I don't know if it's a game of if they have something more dangerous to prove, but I've been chasing them through centuries. When I landed here in the middle of a senior's tai chi class, I scared a few of the elders. They called police and now my cover's blown. Too many people are watching me; I need help to recover the missing items and find the thief. My wristboard won't let me return to my time until my mission is complete."

"We want to help, and learn everything you know about time travel," said Lilith eagerly, and Felix nodded with her. "What do you need us to do?"

"I think there are clues to the whereabouts of the missing items in The Sims Archives. There's no wi-fi in this park, so can you look around for me? Let me know if you find anything interesting, but if you'll excuse me, I need to use the portholes."

Emit stood and they waved him off, still unsure whether to believe his story. Sure, he had weird names for things like the toilet, and his clothing came equipped with futuristic lights and gadgets, but that alone wasn't proof he was from the future. With a strange mix of caution and excitement running through their veins, they returned home.

Back in Britechester, Felix and Lilith headed to the Laurel Library - large enough to service two robust universities - including the one Felix founded before his death, the University of Britechester. But the library was open to anyone in town. Lilith loved exploring the shelves to learn niche subjects most people knew nothing about.

She pulled out her old laptop and downloaded the game she hadn't played since middle school, finding a time capsule on the lawn next to the in-game university library. It felt so meta, but a chill ran down her spine when Felix reported the librarian mentioned students burying a time capsule on the grounds of Laurel Library in 1999. "They were supposed to open it in 2024 but they forgot where it was buried, so it's still under there."

"I think we can find it," Lilith insisted. "I know it's still here. I can feel it."

Sure enough, a rock glistened on the commons outside the library, and Felix grabbed some tools to chisel it away. The mound hid the university's time capsule, just as Lilith suspected, but when they cracked it open, they were disappointed. Whatever treasure had been buried had been stolen, replaced with an I.O.U. and two unique milk cartons.

"We can't wait for them to return the items," Lilith moaned. "They could have taken them through time and gotten lost like Marco did with Ash."

"Let's take the note back to Emit and see what he has to say."

As Felix suspected, Emit's ideas involved the two of them learning how to time travel so they might help him retrieve the items. Felix would do anything to make Lilith happy, but time travel was dangerous. He didn't eat ambrosia to die in a twisted timeline, and he wanted to get some advice from their friends.

They arrived in Brindleton Bay less than a week after Heather and Conrad's wedding, finding a busy home and numerous happy pets in the yard. Conrad worked with Lavender to stack blocks and Heather continued to work away at her video game. Thinking back to how they bonded taking on the Ambrosia Society's challenge, Heather and Conrad encouraged them to move forward - with caution.

Felix was easily swayed by the thought of the experience bringing him closer to Lilith, and before they left, he gifted the milk cartons to Ash. One featured a terrifying pit beast, the other a pirate sheriff named Ginny, and Ash studied them carefully.

"If I had been missing for longer than I was, would I have ended up on a milk carton, too?"

Felix sighed. "You might have, once upon a time, but the important thing is you're safe now."

Ash nodded quietly, as though there was something else he wouldn't say, but any questions hanging in the air faded when Ash challenged Felix to a game of chess.

The attorney agreed, only to have the young genius trap his queen before the game was done. As it got late and the Gordons got their household ready for bed, Felix and Lilith headed to Deadgrass Isle to visit the historical museum before heading home. "If there are stolen historical items floating through time, maybe the curators have seen someone who might be the thief," Lilith reasoned.

Inside the museum, they wandered the exhibits but nothing looked out of place. In the upstairs hall hung a portrait with burnt edges along the gilded frame, and Felix stopped to admire it. "Is that Miss Mimsy Alcorn?"

Lilith read the plaque beneath the painting. "Lady Mimsy Alcorn Shallot in the Garden," she read, and Felix' face fell.

"Oh dear," he sighed. "This was painted after her wedding to that man who set their home on fire and killed them both."

Lilith frowned. "I thought the Von Haunt Estate fire was an accident."

Felix shook his head. "Her younger sister never thought so. Maude was convinced Lord Bernard Shallot was jealous enough to ensure his wife would be with no one but him for all eternity."

Lilith frowned, shaking her head in disgust at the murderous lord before excusing herself to use the restrooms. Old memories flooded into Felix's mind as he looked at the painting - he never knew Lady Mimsy before her death, but her younger sister spoke of her so often, it felt like a false memory that the two had never met.

He heard a sound and looked away quickly. Seeing nothing, he turned back to the painting, but his jaw dropped. What was a portrait of Lady Mimsy standing alone in her garden was now a romantic pose - the ghostly arms of Lord Bernard Shallot wrapped lovingly around his wife for eternity.

"Lil!" called Felix through the bathroom door, his heart pumping through his skin. "The painting just moved! What do you say we head back to Britechester before anyone tries to jump out?" ->

<- Previous Chapter | Gen 2 Start | Gen 2.1 Summary

Gen 1 Start | Gen 1 Summary

NOTE: Made up lore alert! Felix's bethrothed in his original timeline was a younger sister of Lady Mimsy Alcorn Shallot, Maude Alcorn. This painting came with the Reaper Rewards event and wasn't Heather and Conrad's vibe, much too big for their house! But when I read about what the painting does if you view it a few times, I had to have it and hung it in the local museum. In my headcanon, Heather and Conrad got the painting as a reward from the Ambrosia Society and donated it.

I worked out the connection to Mimsy through Maude in Felix' backstory when Felix entered the save, and when the week 2 task for Blast From the Past sent them to a museum, it was finally the perfect time to play with the haunted painting! (But they had to study a different item to get the quest points since this can't be studied for historical insights.)

In a nutshell, Maude was Mimsy's sister but quite a bit younger. When Mimsy and Bernard died in 1898, Maude was nine, Mimsy was 20, so Felix never met her, but Maude was the source of all Felix knows about her and Bernard. I don't know how deep I'll go on Mimsy/Bernard lore since they're not directly connected to the main household, I really just wanted to play with the painting, and it will make Felix think about some things!

[ruggiesbiologicalfather]

i've been struck by inspiration

here's my ranking of twisted wonderland students by how likely i'd be to let them behind the wheel of a car. this is gonna be a long one bc i'm including explanations of course. (and i know that in-game it's rare to be able to drive, we're ignoring that and pretending it's common to drive around)

1. Leona: canonically, he can drive and drive well. i feel like this was an easy one. but it makes sense!

2. Vil: he just has so many random skills that i feel like driving would be no problem at all. honestly, there's not much that i think vil CAN'T do

3. Trey: everything about him screams Responsible Driver. he would definitely play chauffeur for heartslabyul whenever they need to go somewhere. AND he'd have snacks in the glove compartment. 10/10 ride

4. Jamil: he can absolutely drive well - near perfect i'd argue. what's the alternative? let KALIM drive? get real. it's his duty to get where he needs to go safely

5. Jack: the self-discipline that this boy possesses is unrivaled. he would be locked in behind the wheel. he spent so long becoming the best driver he can be and by god, he's gonna prove it

6. Deuce: LISTEN TO ME, LISTEN! he's really good on that blastcycle which is more dangerous and difficult (said as a former bike/atv guy). a car is nothing to him. plus he's on his Honor Student streak so he's trying his best. my only worry is speed. slow it down, friend

7. Epel: similar to deuce. farm kids learn to drive really early in their lives. HOWEVER... driving safely?? hmmmm... his biggest flaws are going too fast and whipping around curves when no one else is on the road

8. Riddle: he would definitely follow all the road rules. to the letter. every trip would take an extra 30 minutes to an hour. no music, windows up, silence. he won't even let YOU be on your phone lest he become distracted. also ROAD RAGE. interstate driving would get very scary

9. Ortho: fuck it, let the robot give it a shot

10. Azul: i feel like once he figured out the mechanics, he would be fine on the road. however, if he got pulled over he would definitely argue with the cop and get us both arrested. so... i'm gonna pass

11. Jade: yes, we're getting where we need to go. but... nefariously. and there's something in the trunk. i feel like he'd also randomly go "oops" just to freak out his passengers. "what do you mean OOPS?" "don't worry about it :)"

12. Ruggie: there's a wildness to my boy that drove his ranking down. he would definitely drive a jeep with the doors off. music blasting, wind whipping around everywhere. it would be a fairly safe drive but not a particularly enjoyable one. also i would fall out

13. Silver: i don't know, i feel like he would be chill. i put him low bc briar valley doesn't have cars so his driving education would be quite scarce and he'd be a new driver. but he could get the job done. probably

14. Sebek: similar to silver but he needs to relax. malleus is fine, we're just going to walmart

15. Ace: he just gives off the vibe of "16-year-old kid in the car his dad bought for him." never lets anyone merge, hits curbs, can never figure out the speed limit, etc, etc. even worse if deuce is in the car! "ace, watch out for the mailbox!" "don't tell me what to- *BANG*"

16. Cater: gay people can't drive

17. Rook: distracted driver. god forbid there's wildlife around, he would turn 180 in his seat to look at it. this Oh Shit Handle is getting some use. also i KNOW his car would be shit. i don't care that his family is rich, he's driving a 2003 hyundai sonata

18. Floyd: LISTEN! there's a 50/50 shot that everything goes perfectly fine. like as long as he's in a good mood, he can get the job done. you definitely just have to check in before you buckle up. get ready to tuck and roll

19. Malleus: what is a car?

20. Idia: there's so much anxiety there i feel like one thing would go slightly left and he'd almost pass out. he's white-knuckling the wheel, praying that no one else is on the road. it's alright buddy, you can be a passenger princess

21. Kalim: No.

22. Grim + Yuu: okay, for this one it's a joint effort. yuu at the wheel and grim on the pedals. there's so much chaos and screaming. four-way stops don't exist. yellow lights are green and red lights are yellow. the horn has not stopped honking since the engine started. this is an emergency situation ONLY. like someone is bleeding out in the backseat and no one is answering their phones

23. Lilia: absolutely not. i will walk

[gyaruhana]

this may be a bit random, but could you write something for Choi Wook-Seok (the guy who plays rock, paper, scissors, minus one + helps with the search)

I’ve seen nothing about him online at all but I really liked him (maybe I’m just delusional)

It would be amazing if you could do something where the reader was an ex coworker (or just a friend) of Jun Ho and gets pulled into the little take down mission from episode 2. There she meets Wook-Seok and he gets really flustered around her or something.

thank you so much and good work on all your fics

Woo-Seok - Flustered

Synopsis: Woo-seok thinks you're really pretty and gets quite shy

A/N: Sorry this took so long to post i've been drowning in requests!!

Warnings: none

“So, just to clarify, you want me to join you to kidnap some guy who is apparently hosting death games and killing hundreds of people yearly on an unknown island?” you speak as you look at Jun-ho. When your old friend texted you asking to meet, you thought he had wanted to go out for a coffee and catch up - not try to convince you to help him find some guy running some deadly game on an island he's been trying (and failing) to find for two years now.

“I know how it sounds but I’m not making this up,” he says as he looks at you with a serious look. Jun-ho was well aware that his story sounded like the words of a mad man but there was really no way to not sound crazy talking about something like this. He was hoping that you'd just trust him and agree to this because your help would be valuable to getting this done.

You could see the look on his face that showed he clearly wasn't joking around and was dead serious about needing your help with this. However, as much as you did want to help him, you weren’t a police detective anymore. You had quit long ago and taken up a different job that didn’t put you in any danger. Something like this could be seriously dangerous and result in the harm of a lot of people. You let out a sigh as you ran a hand through your hair.

“Jun-ho. As much as I want to help, you know I don’t do that stuff anymore. I left it behind me years ago,” you say as you look at him with an apologetic look. You weren’t confident that you could just jump back into work like this. After all, if he was telling the truth, this would be a lot more than just a simple kidnapping and arrest. It’d be an all-out war - the one thing you wanted to avoid.

Jun-ho understood where you were coming from but he didn’t want to give up on you. When you used to work together in the police department, you were an excellent detective. You had a talent and it was being wasted for things that didn’t matter. This mattered. “Just keep watch then. You don’t have to come with us inside. I just need the skill I know you have to help us,” He says as he puts a comforting hand on your shoulder.

You stayed quiet for a few moments as you just looked at him, analyzing him to figure out whether you should listen to him. Were you really going to join him on a mission to kidnap some potentially dangerous guy? You let out a sigh before looking off to the side with slight annoyance. You took a deep breath before looking at him again. “I’ll help,” you say and Jun-ho immediately smiles, glad to have you on his side. He trusted you with his life and he knew you would prove a great help.

He pats your shoulder twice before pulling his hand away. “Good. We're meeting here tomorrow,” he says as he hands you a small piece of paper with an address. You looked down at it and nodded your head slowly. “Time is valuable so be here early,” he adds as he puts his hands into his pockets. 

“Got it. I'll be there first thing tomorrow morning,” you say as you shove the piece of paper into your pocket and look up at him. Jun-ho nods his head in approval before swiftly walking away and leaving you on your own to think. If Jun-ho hadn't been such a good ally when you worked in the force together, you would've never agreed to this wild goose chase. But, unfortunately, he had done you a favor one too many times so saying no was off the table.

You let out another sigh as you looked to the horizon and thought about what tomorrow might bring. 

“They better have guns,” 

✧･ﾟ: ✧･ﾟ:

The next day, you arrived at the rather strange choice of a meet up place. It looked like a run down motel that offers its rooms for ridiculously cheap to those who couldn't afford anything better. You stare at it for a few moments before heading towards the door. When you went to open it, it didn't budge, so you looked around to see if there was something you could open it with.

Your eyes quickly landed on a camera watching you from above which you decide to wave at in hopes that the door would open for you. Thankfully, it did as you heard a buzz indicating it was now opened. You quickly walked in and began to climb the stairs to the correct floor written on the paper. You could hear the faint sounds of gunshots - something that made you more relaxed because thank god they do have guns in case this goes south.

When you arrived at the correct floor, you could already see Jun-ho waiting outside a room for you. He seemed anything but relaxed and you couldn't blame him. Something like this was a whole other level of dangerous. They pretty much only had one shot at getting this right or else it'd be all over. 

“This way. The rest of the team is in here,” Jun-ho speaks as he leads you down the hallway and into a room. When you walk in, the first thing you notice is the shit ton of won lying on a bed. Your eyes widen at the sight as Jun-ho leads you past into the bathroom which was filled with a shit ton of guns. You looked around the small bathroom in slight shock at how prepared they happened to be. You weren't going to ask where they got all these guns from but you could guess they were all illegally obtained from the black market. There was also a lot of ammo for the guns too. 

Finally, Jun-ho pushes back a blue curtain revealing a hole in the wall that led to a giant space which seemed like it used to be separate rooms before the walls were removed. There were three guys  shooting at the targets all the way on the back wall while three other guys stood behind them. They clearly meant business.

Woo-seok noticed the presence of Jun-ho and immediately looked at him. He had yet to notice you standing right behind Jun-ho. “These guys were in the marine corps!” he shouts out as he looks over at Gi-hun with wide eyes. He was rather impressed with himself for managing to make a team with professionals.

“These guys were in the UDT,” he shouts again while walking forward and gesturing to two other guys. “and these guys were in the ROK Special Forces,” he finishes as he gestures to the last two guys. “Oh, and this guy is just a former cop,” he says as he points at Jun-ho. 

“Me too,” you say, making Woo-seok snap his head towards you. He immediately froze up. He recalled Jun-ho saying that he'd bring an old coworker and friend but he didn't think that he'd bring someone as pretty as you. You had him rendered speechless so quickly and suddenly, he was very aware of the people looking at him. 

“This is my co-worker. I told you about her,” Jun-ho says as he steps back a little so you could have some space to reveal yourself. “She was great at her job when we worked together so she'll be a big help,” he adds. Gi-hun seems to nod his head before looking back at the men shooting but Woo-seok couldn't tear his eyes away from you.

“..Is there something on my face?” you ask as you rub your face once-over just in case. You didn't know what he was staring at you for but it was kind of endearing in an odd way. “no! Sorry. I'm Woo-seok,” he quickly introduced himself as he tried to calm down and not grin like an idiot. God, he could feel himself start to sweat.

“Glad to be on the same team,” you say as you hold your hand out for him to shake it. He quickly grabs your hand and shakes it vigorously, taking you by surprise at the suddenness and aggressiveness. “uhm- me too,” he stutters out before quickly pulling his hand back after realizing he was holding yours for a little too long. 

You stare at him with slight confusion as you couldn't tell what brought along this behavior. He seemed awfully sweaty all of a sudden and his face seemed to flush a reddish color. He could also barely get a word out without stuttering. Usually people only acted like when they had a crush-

Wait. Did he have a crush on you?? He certainly seemed to display all the signs of a potential crush. Maybe you could just ask. Would that be too straightforward? You didn't want to embarrass him, you just genuinely wanted to know if he liked you but asking him out right might be a little much.

“uh- so you used to be in the police department?” He questioned, making an attempt at small talk with you in hopes to hide how nervous he was. He really didn't want to give a bad first impression to a girl so pretty. You nodded your head and started to talk about it but he could barely focus. He was suddenly hyper-aware of everything about him including his mannerisms. 

Was he smiling too much? Was his stance weird? Did you feel uncomfortable with him looking at you? His mind was too consumed by the thoughts of what you thought about him. He thought about making a joke but maybe you wouldn't find it funny at all and there would be an awkward silence. It was just too much for him to handle. He'd much like to disappear now just to avoid doing something embarrassing in front of you.

“..woo-seok?” You call out as you look at him weirdly. He seemed to be in his own world right now. Something was evidently stuck on his mind. You, probably. You could easily tell how he felt about you. You did use to work as a detective after all. Reading people is what you do. You sigh and shake your head at his nervous behavior before speaking up.

“If you like me, just ask me out,” you say, making his eyes widen as he snaps out of his trance. He looked at you in disbelief, not entirely sure that he actually heard you correctly. “What?” He says as he feels his heart race a million times faster than it had been previously.

“If you like me, ask me out,” you repeat seriously. You found his shyness quite cute honestly and you actually didn't think you'd be against the idea of going out with him. He really just seemed like a sweetheart.

“..really?” He said as he nervously smiled. He sheepishly rubs the back of his neck with his hand before looking around at the other's. “well.. if you don't mind..” he says as he looks at you with a hopeful look.

“You gotta ask me like a man, c’mon,” you say playfully as you push his shoulder gently with a smirk. He laughed shyly before taking a deep breath. “Okay,” he says as he composes himself before looking down at you.

“Would you maybe like to go out sometime?”

[solstice-sims]

Since we're on the topic of calling out someone for paywalling sims, let's not forget about the creators who are STILL perma-paywalling CC in general despite what EA put in their EULA/TOS, despite them putting a "public release date" on their CC and never actually unlocking it even months/years later (there are some I'm especially thinking of in particular—imagine being so lame you paywall clothes with single swatches lol).

Or the creators who paywall Blender scenes for 20 fucking dollars filled w/other people's CC and 3D models that are most likely not purchased for commercial use. All these creators need to be held accountable for perma-paywalling their CC and using fake release dates as an excuse to try to make people look the other way.

I've been in the community since Sims 2, and this has never been the spirit of the game and community. Absolutely wild. This economy sucks, we're all struggling, but taking advantage of a community and children with mommy's credit card, who don't know any better, is not it.

[aiscapades]

thinking out loud abt recent discussions in the touchstarved/obscura fandoms :) literally just my own personal opinion !!!!!

i can't stop thinking abt cirrus bc he's honestly what i want so badly for the touchstarved LIs. it's what i wanted for count lucio.

i was reading y'all's opinions abt the touchstarved marketing and your concerns abt how the game is gonna turn out, and while i was understanding, i also was so confused abt .. where this sudden concern was coming from. and then i played obscura and i was like oh! i didn't know a game could be like this! i didn't know a demo could be like this! i had entirely different reactions to the obscura demo than i did the touchstarved demo

—and yeah that's comparing two totally different games, different studios, different projects. the touchstarved demo served to introduce the characters and the world and it did that wonderfully. it's satisfactory. it's not that they did anything wrong?? but i cannot deny they gave me two insanely different reactions. i was YELLING when cirrus was doing his shit. it was like what i imagine watching trashy reality tv is like. or like watching one of those poorly-made TV movies and just enjoying the ride. i was hollering and jumping out of my chair and GAWKING at the screen. like cirrus was real and he was really saying this insane shit and i was SO ON BOARD and selecting every insane option the game gave me. it was just so wild. and it was so, so fun.

so i thought abt it more and i was like yeah. i actually see where this concern is coming from. rss keeps their stuff so close to their chest that it's hard to tell what routes they're taking, how they're dealing with certain issues, how deep the character arcs go, etc. i have no idea how fucked up their version of monstrosity gets, and for a game that is ENTIRELY about monsters and monstrosity, that definitely gives me pause. we don't know anything. they drop hints and we guess and theorize, but we don't know anything. we know leander is fucked up. we know they're all fucked up. in what way? who knows. does mhin murder people as a giant crow beast every night? we don't definitively know. we kinda assume that based on lore drops, but we don't know. but then other studios are doing semi-regular q&as and dropping information into the laps of their fans on a daily basis (lost in limbo??? hello? every day i get a notif that they've told us something new, either abt ALL the characters or about the world). idk how early obscura devs have been answering questions but they're also doing something similar. but for rss you can send in questions and you're probably never gonna hear back. you can't just ask them what song the m5 LIs would sing on karaoke night and get a response 🧍🏼 they don't do that. which isn't to say it's WRONG of them—i'm not saying they're being bad game devs by any means—but it's definitely a different way to handle game development compared to these other studios we follow.

that lack of fan involvement and information sharing is where the concern comes from, i think. at least on my part!

i mentioned count lucio earlier and i want to elaborate why. firstly, he's my favorite character of all time. i've been writing a fanfic for him for 2 years, and it's nearly 200k words (i'm taking a break from it rn). like i love lucio as a character so, so deeply. is it because of the arcana game? no, actually. it's because of the POTENTIAL his character has. it's because of what the FANS have pulled from him and shaped him into.

the arcana was on the app store. it had such strict rules about what it could and couldn't be. and yeah i can rant about how dumb nix hydra is for taking the mico-transaction phone app route, but my point in all of it is that the devs failed lucio. i think they fumbled a lot, with the other characters as well, but lucio was their watch mojo top 10 biggest anime fails of all time #1 spot.

his bad ending shows him as the new DEVIL and dictator of the world??? and we got to see none of that. his whole route woobified him to pieces. he's just a lil meow meow. he's Baby. he didn't know better. he just made some Oopsies 👉🏻👈🏻 uh oh!!

like he was the main VILLAIN of the story and they turned him into a manchild. the wasted potential of this guy is insane. and i guess i saw that and thought "i can make this motherfucker so much worse" and i did that and will continue to do that. so have his other fans. people have rewritten his route altogether because it was so unsatisfactory.

there's overlap from the arcana in the rss dev team. do i think touchstarved will be the new arcana? nope!!!! but am i also worried they'll play it safe because they think the fanbase wants conventionally loveable love interests? yeah. i absolutely see the concern. it's very real and very there. does red spring studio KNOW we want truly monstrous characters? do they? we're just hoping they do.

leander doesn't have to be just like cirrus. none of them have to be anything. but i do want them to be monstrous. i want to FEEL something the same way i feel something when cirrus orders me onto my knees. like not even in a kinky sexual way. i want to be shocked. i want to hesitate and think "what is this character doing right now? what will i do right now?" i want to be confused and shocked and pleasantly surprised and also horrified. i want the adrenaline high i got while playing cirrus's first chapter. it was like my cptsd was triggered in the best possible way (lmao).

and it's not even about that.

lost in limbo is more fantasy romance than it is horror (save for the goddamn voidbound holy fuck!) but i know that i'll enjoy the game anyhow because i love all the characters. why do i love all the characters? because the devs tell us about them. they don't even have to spoil the game. i know amon smells like chocolate and has a fake southern accent (HELLO?) and that ara can't sing. lost in limbo could be the corniest fucking game and i would still love it because i'm already so attached to the characters.

the reason i turned to lost in limbo and obscura is because my excitement for touchstarved waned. because there's just a once in a blue moon post and it's likely it'll just be a "backers have new updates!" post. which isn't said to shame rss or backers !!!! that's normal and fine and valid!!!! do that!!!! i just mean rss is BARELY giving us what we want. we're stranded in the desert dying and rss is trickling water droplets one by one to each of us. lost in limbo devs are pissing fresh spring water into our mouths at firehose speed. is rss bad for this? no. they're not doing anything wrong. but a natural consequence of their marketing strategy is that fans will move on. i still love touchstarved. i'm going to play it. i'm reblogging fanart and fanfics. i'm posing the mormon leander theory. like i'm still here and still very much active but touchstarved isn't on my mind the way lost in limbo & obscura are.

ravenstar games tells me gael would fail the trial in the tale of orpheus and eurydice and i'm like holy fuck??? holy fuck!!!!!!

would ais? would mhin? i don't fucking know.

and what about elyon and sen? i know they're DLC bonus LIs and they don't need to be fleshed-out as soon as the main LIs. they can be on the back burner until touchstarved comes out. this is fair. but what about them? we know nothing other than 1. elyon is rich because of brothel money and 2. sen is an undead warden? (like a prison guard? like the ppl who watch over vere? i don't even know that for sure) (we also know their flowers but that's barely anything). meanwhile lost in limbo is sharing info about cécile and lázaro as often as their main love interests. they're not forgotten about. i can't even make a mc for sen's route because i know nothing about her!!!!!! which hurts my heart because i love sen. i love the idea of sen. it's the first time a female love interest in one of these games is 1. my type but also 2. not exactly like me (ara i love you but we are twins).

they're impersonal. they are 2D concepts we try to fill out.

maybe rss will tell us the LIs go-to karaoke song after the game releases. or maybe they won't. but there are just so many benefits to sharing that kinda thing and bonding with your fans in that way. that's my whole point. it's not "i need a steady stream of touchstarved content pumped directly into my veins 24/7 or i lose all interest" it's not that!!!!! obviously not because rss doesn't do that and i'm still here. this is my most active blog! i'm having a blast here because the fandom is sick as hell. we're vibing, doing our own thing, and it's great. but rss feels very distant. they are the senobium and we are residents of lowtown wondering when or if things will ever be different. if we're going to have a good day (lore drop or new art) or if things will just continue on as expected.

to reiterate: this post isn't about how rss is doing something wrong or bad or that ravenstar games/rotten raccoons are sososososo much better than rss. rss doesn't have to do everything other studios are doing. that's not what i'm saying. this is just the reality of what rss is doing vs other devs and how i PERSONALLY feel about it. i love them i would literally strap a bomb to my chest and demand my loved ones' credit card info to disarm it for any of these studios/games. i am a fan and i'm hopeful and i want to trust in rss so so so so badly. i want the very best for them. i want them to create a great game and be successful. i want them to be creatively fulfilled and proud of their game. on their own time, their own way. really and truly!

[apomaro-mellow]

Wrong Number 3

(2:21 am) I just realized something (2:21 am) Ur a cooking teacher (2:22 am) Who can't fry a egg (2:23 am) You're a fraud 🫵

[7:29 am] I can fry an egg just fine I just can't make the yolks runny. It's too hard to time it right. And why are you up thinking about eggs at 2 am?

(7:47 am) I was up thinking about you at 2 am

Steve felt his stomach flip as he sipped his coffee and set his belongings down in his classroom. Eddie didn't play games. He always said exactly what he was thinking. And it drew Steve wild.

(7:48 am) And about how your students might clown on you for not being able to scramble an egg

[7:49] Aww you're worried about me?

(7:49 am) Kids can be little monsters (7:50 am) Actually how old are the little monsters you teach?

[7:51] Youngest is 6 and oldest is 14. Speaking of, they'll be arriving soon so...

(7:52 am) Godspeed you academic warrior

Eddie didn't typically text so late on weeknights. Not since learning Steve was a teacher. It was just that he truly HAD been up and thinking of him. Steve drove him crazy and he thought he was doing a good job keeping a lid on it. 2 am texts were what happened when the lid got loose but Steve didn't seem put off by it.

At about half past three, Steve called him. Eddie was glad he made that leap with his first call. The sound of Steve's voice never failed to warm him through. Eddie was in the middle of collecting axes for sharpening at the end of his shift.

"What's cookin' good lookin'?", Eddie greeted as he picked up.

"Today was good. Had a really riveting conversation about meatloaf versus pate with the kids", Steve said.

"Meatloaf rocks and pate is just cold meatloaf for rich people. End of discussion."

"Well, we talked about it for like fifteen minutes. Had a real interesting tangent on forcemeats in general."

Eddie paused. "Excuse me?"

"You'd be surprised at what kids are into. This one I taught last year was really into rice-"

"I need you to backtrack just a bit. 'Forcemeat'?"

"Yeah it's-oh grow up", Steve chided while shaking his head. He had just gotten home and was taking off his work clothes for something more comfortable. He thought about what Eddie might think he'd look nice in. "Not even my 12 year olds are this childish."

There was something about the way Steve talked about his students. Like they were his actual children. The conversation continued for a few minutes more before Steve suddenly had to hang up. Eddie tried not to think much of it, but it wasn't the first time that it had happened.

Steve ended the call just as Robin came into the apartment. She narrowed her eyes at him, then looked to the phone in his hand. Steve hid it behind his back and winced at practically telling on himself.

"You're hiding something."

"No I'm not."

"And now you're lying to me."

"No I'm not!"

Robin pounced and wrestled him for the phone. It wasn't a real fight of course. Steve could've pinned her in seconds but a part of him was tired of keeping the secret. And obviously, she knew how to unlock his phone.

"Who's Eddie?", she asked, sitting on his back triumphantly.

"A guy."

"Thank you, I had no idea it could be a man's name. You've been texting him aaaaaaa llllllllllllot."

"Are you reading them!? Robin!"

"Where did you meet him?", Robin said as she got up, continuing to read through their conversations.

"I um, technically, haven't. Yet."

Robin gave him an odd look and Steve spilled everything to her. To her credit, Robin listened to the full story before throwing one of the couch pillows at him.

"Stephen Elliott Harrington! Did no one teach you stranger danger? You just kept texting him? And calling? And I saw the pictures you sent. You know he can find out where we live? What if I came home to your skinless corpse??!"

It went on for a while like that and when Robin was finished, she collapsed onto the couch. Steve sat across from her on the coffee table. He waited for her to silently process it all.

"You think he's cute?"

"What I've seen of him, yeah."

Robin sighed. "I can't believe you're turning into the guy who has a internet girlfriend."

Steve rolled his eyes but then balked when she started to read through his messages again.

"And I can't believe you haven't even started flirting yet."

"I've been flirting with him the whole time!" Maybe not the whole time but-

"You're giving him Diet Steve. Why are you holding back?"

Steve shrugged, looking sheepish now. Now Robin was rolling her eyes.

"Steve, we're getting you a date."

"But he's-"

"A virtual one. Jesus is he an axe murderer?", Robin said as she looked to one of the texts.

"No, he just works with them. Axes! Not murderers."

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

Eddie was about to sit down to a movie when his phone buzzed.

[5:17 pm] Thinking about you.

Oh. Now that was some text to get.

(5:18 pm) Oh yeah? (5:18 pm) What about me?

Steve looked to Robin. They were sitting cross-legged next to each other on his bed.

"What do I say?"

"Be honest, duh."

"If I'm honest I'm gonna talk about his hands."

Robin shook her hands at him like she wanted to wring his neck. Steve got the idea and decided to put himself out there.

[5:21 pm] Your hands. I think about them a lot actually

Eddie had not given his own hands much thought. But knowing that Steve admired them, he gave them a second look. He thought about them gripping Steve's thighs.

(5:23) You're gonna make me blush (5:24) What would you do with my hands Stevie?

Steve panicked and looked to Robin. "Are we sexting? Is he getting me to sext?"

"That's the idea, dingus. I said I was getting you a date. Now tell him what you want him to do."

"I don't know I'd....I'd want to..." Steve trailed off, looking at his phone while the fingers of his other hand brushed against his lips.

Robin stole the phone from him again and started typing. "'First...I'd suck..on them'."

"Robin!"

"Is that not what you want?"

Steve shrugged and Robin continued. "You've got me on the clock for five more minutes before I go out. You dictate, I'll type."

Steve hated how much he liked the idea. Especially when he heard the ping of Eddie's reply. "What did he say?"

Robin cleared her throat. "'Yeah? You wanna suck on them? I bet you got a beautiful mouth.' Oh he's good."

"Yeah", Steve breathed out. "Really good." He thought about Eddie sticking his fingers in and pressing down on his tongue, his rings tasting metallic and so nice.

"'I wanna choke on them'", Robin said out loud as she typed. "Is it too soon to call him Daddy?"

"What?!" That snapped Steve out of it.

"Oh come on. Tattoos, the hair, his job. He wants to be called Daddy."

"Robin don't call him Daddy."

"Pops?"

Steve took his phone from her and looked to Eddie's reply.

(5:30 pm) I'd only choke you if you were being bad (5:30 pm) Are you gonna be bad baby?

[5:31 pm] Maybe. I can be good too. So good.

(5:32 pm) Lemme call you baby wanna hear you

Steve dialed without hesitation just as Robin was leaving. Her work was done.

"Don't get murdered while I'm out!", she shouted just as Eddie picked up.

"Hey pretty baby", Eddie said.

"Hey. You said you wanted to hear me?"

"Yeah. I wanna hear you say those things with your own voice."

"Like how I wanna choke on your fingers? Among other things?"

Steve could hear Eddie let out a breath on the other end. The power he felt right now was intoxicating.

"Bet you'd look so good on your knees."

Steve hummed while pressing his fingertips to his lips. If Eddie asked, he'd suck on them. Let the wet noises fill his ears, let Eddie know how good he could be.

"Darlin' you went quiet."

"I'm thinking", Steve said, laying down on his bed. "I wanna show you, Eddie."

Eddie swallowed. This man would be the death of him. He'd nearly jerked off to just a picture of his fully clothed lower half. If he saw more...if he saw everything-

"Eddie! We've got a Code Red!"

"Jesus! Knock!"

Steve sat up quick at the shouting coming from Eddie's end. It sounded like someone had barged in.

"Eddie?"

"Sorry. Sorry Steve. I gotta handle something. Um, call you back? Please?"

"Eddie, I want to video call you."

"V..video...?"

"Yes. I wanna see you. Please."

"Yes. Yes, a thousand times-hold your horses! Uh, tomorrow? It's Saturday, so you're free, right? Can we make it a date?"

"A date", Steve nodded. "I'll see you then. I'll be thinking of you."

"And I'll be counting the seconds. 1-one thousand, 2-one thousand, 3-one th-ouch! Okay! Damn!"

Eddie hung up and Steve still had the phone to his ear, smiling. He had a video call date. He had a date with Eddie!

Shit what should he wear?

Part 5

Tag Team (CLOSED)

@anne-bennett-cosplayer @estrellami-1 @newtstabber @omletlove @ifyoudonlysurrender @rehfan @morganski-19 @corvidcantina @dragonmama76 @just-ladyme @tinyplanet95 @goodolefashionedloverboi @idoquitelikebread @kittydeadbones @manda-panda-monium @rhapsodyinalto @paintsplatteredandimperfect @keylime-green @ihavekidneys @samsoble @honorarybrit81 @swimmingbirdrunningrock @aizawa-emma @deleataecount @thesuninyaface @fromapayphone @justmeinadaze @hbyrde36 @queenie-ofthe-void @resident-gay-bitch @bestwifehaver @dangdirtydemons @ellietheasexylibrarian @perseus-notjackson @pyrohonk @holysteddie @cinnamon-mushroomabomination @mrsjellymunson @geekymagicalpotato @notaqueenakhaleesi

[homestuckreplay]

Act 2 Reread

It feels illegal to read 500 pages of this thing in a single day after only getting 4-5 pages per day for the last year+. anyway here's some thoughts on act 2

can you imagine opening up GameFAQs not knowing about the meteor apocalypse and finding Rose's walkthrough. you'd never believe a word of it. you'd be like 'what is wrong with this emo kid that they hate this game so much that they talk like it's the end of the world'

also, what's Rose's motivation for trying to save people's lives with her GameFAQ? is she selflessly trying to save the world or is she trying to be the savior so she looks cleverer than everyone else?

Dad's Serious Jester magazine uses the phrase Serious Business. I'm NOT wrong about Dad's friends being clowns and Hussie cannot gaslight me into thinking they're normal guys

Colonel Sassacre's book was involved in Nanna's death, crushing her as she fell from the ladder when a meteor struck her joke shop, and was involved in her resurrection, as Rose was trying to prototype the sprite with the book when Nanna was accidentally prototyped instead.

I genuinely think that ‘Somewhere a zealous god threads these strings between the clouds and the earth, preparing for a symphony it fears impossible to play. And so it threads on, and on, delaying the raise of the conductor's baton.’ (p.307) is my favorite line in all of Homestuck so far - definitely my favorite from the first two acts. So evocative, and the rhyme and the cadence in that second part is beautiful.

I cannot believe people on the forums genuinely believe Dave is cool. I feel like Act 2 makes it so explicit that he's pretending (and badly at that) but I've seen SO many people buy it.

When Dave makes an angry face, his anger comes across as much more serious than John and Rose do in similar situations. I don't know if I see it that way because of their personalities, or if it's because Dave's eyes are always hidden.

‘just once id like to see dad crap his pants when a kid says theres a vampire in his closet’ (p.386) put another way, Dave wishes he had a guardian who cares for and protects him.

When Rose walks downstairs and beholds the Zazzerpan statue for the first time (p.358), she's literally just sharing headcanons about her wizard OC. Her description matches up pretty well with Complacency of the Learned too.

Rose's house is so cool and I wish we'd gotten a walkaround flash for it. I kinda love how Rose went from a haunted house, to a remote mausoleum, to an ominous green mad science lab, back to a haunted house (on fire this time)... to a land of pastels and rainbows. unbelievable tone shift

It's VERY funny that John tells Rose she 'need[s] a new hobby' when she's psychoanalyzing (p.442). I wish we had more of their pre-Sburb conversations.

'the big red eye of a hot needle skipping on a groove its tracing 'round the earth. While lingering in midair its heat seems to suspend time itself, stretching it like warped vinyl' (p.444) definitely makes me think of the giant record that Jack and Bro are fighting on in '[S] Descend', especially as it's been cracked with a sword, which would definitely make its needle skip.

There are at least six different issues of GameBro visible in Dave and Bro's apartment, some of which are doubled up, meaning they're BOTH subscribed to this shit. :/

Rose did not need to remove the piano from Dad's study to make room for the punch designix. Girl there was room for both

It still seems pretty wild that Rose couldn't see into Dad's room until John went in there. Perhaps because Dad wasn't made through ectobiology and isn't 'part' of Sburb like the other guardians are, he's protected from Skaia's omniscience somewhat?

This act features the origin of the crumpled hat - a top hat owned by Dad, worn by an imp, crushed by Rose dropping a heavy bookcase on the imp, placed on John's head to get his attention, and thrown out the window by John when he's annoyed at his sylladex. From there, it falls down to LOWAS and gets found by Crumplehat, who dishonors his ancestors beyond comprehension with this frivolous accessory. This is of course the most important backstory of any item in Homestuck.

John refers to his early punch card alchemy as 'mad science' (p.531), and is excited about experimenting, fitting with the ectobiology he'll do in a couple of acts.

TG: PUPPETS TG: AWESOME TG: THATS REALLY ALL THERE IS TO SAY ON THE MATTER -- turntechGodhead [TG] changed his mood to RANCOROUS 😡 -- TT: John, I'm about to throw a bath tub through your wall. TT: Watch out. (p.537)

^ maybe the funniest pesterlog page of all time?

TT: I can't interact with you directly, or anything that you are touching, if it will result in moving you. [...] TT: The game probably regards that as a kind of cheating. TT: In a way, thieving you of your free will as an adventurer. (p.643)

I would say that 90% of Rose's theories about Sburb and about her friends are basically proven right by the narrative, but occasionally, she has some big misses. Thinking that Sburb wants its players to have free will might be the biggest of those misses in my opinion.

The WV bunker segment plays very differently now I know his backstory. In his commands to John, WV talks like a military commander before learning human etiquette. In Can Town, he dreams of an 'orderly, civil democracy' where things are 'mannerly and reasonable', 'friendly and happy'. and based on 'mutual respect' - the opposite of the Skaian battlefield - but he also imagines himself as a leader who's obeyed without question, far more similar to his work as a revolutionary. He trains these cans to fight, setting up a practice battle for them, but his goal is to arm them so they're able to mobilize as a unit against a greater threat. In '[S] WV: Rise up', the soldiers who followed WV were all armed and ready to use force, while WV himself was both the leader and the only one who got to be peaceful - he was the inspirational figurehead, and they were comparatively expendable. This dynamic is replicated in Can Town. WV might be against kings, but he has no problem with hierarchy, especially when he's at the top of it.

How the FUCK does '[S] WV: Ascend' manage to keep blowing my mind every time I watch it? surely I should be used to it by now?

Act 2 is also good!! It introduces some key processes and technology - command terminals, sprite prototyping, punch card alchemy, and appearification - and does a great job of taking these things step by step in their first appearance and slowly making them more difficult, as though I'm learning how to solve a new type of math problem. Like learning algebra in Act 2 before going on to learn calculus when things like time loops, dream selves and ectobiology start showing up later. In hindsight it's very easy to see how it sets up these building blocks that are really just the beginning.

[kaythefloppa]

Mini Heroes and Mighty Mouths - Thoughts: [Spoilers]

Spoilers for Season 7 of Wild Kratts (this episode is yet to release on television in the U.S.)

Linda mention!

Bros be bros (also never pause a Wild Kratts episode. EVER)

Somehow a conversation about Linzer cake seguays into plankton seguays into miniaturizing into microscopic size. O...kay then...?

Pacing aside, this episode does manage to get into the good stuff quickly with the interesting perspective of plankton, helped even more by the amazing color composition. It also serves as a neat follow up to "Our Blue and Green World" by showing both Chris and Martin recognizing the balance in nature that green plankton has in regards to the big blue ocean.

Let's go humpback whale!!!!

I have many questions about this scene.

How did the turbo ejector manage to switch Martin's wardrobe ENTIRELY??

If the Amphisub had this turbo ejector feature, then this renders conflicts in past episode null and void. Remember back in the second episode where the brothers are nearly crushed by the water pressure? Remember the Season 5 premiere where they get attacked by a salmon shark? So many instances where they could've used this ejector feature! I'm assuming that this feature is new, but, it doesn't answer the question as to why this wasn't added earlier on?

Why does Martin leave his brother behind????? Sure, he was encouraging Chris to leave, but he barely gave him ANY time to react and just went out? I've seen the Pollinator episode enough times to call BULLSHIT on this move.

*sigh*

It is getting REALLY hard to refrain from all the jokes I have up my alley but I've got a job to do here people so...

Also... missed opportunity for a Manta Ray Suit. We've seen these guys since the first season, and yet somehow we're also yet to have an episode based around them.

That being said, I was about to complain about how there wasn't a Plankton Suit, since that would've paralleled the whole Creature Powers of "Mini Heroes" and "Mega Mouths" but then I realized how fucking dumb and useless a plankton suit would be so, yeah, the episode dodged a bullet.

Lots of neat shit to talk about

As a connoisseur of the flash games, I appreciated hearing the track used in "Go Cheetah Go" used here. We haven't heard much of that score since Season 3 so to find it here in S7 is such a win.

Also, it seems like I was right. The episodes WERE aired out of order. Chronologically, Mini Heroes and Mighty Mouths takes place before Activate Kid Power in the timeline since the Humpback Suit was invented here. I understand why the episode orders weren't swapped within this month's collection since the one-hour specials are meant to be tentpole episodes for the weekly batch of episodes: But they could've simply aired Mini Heroes and Mighty Mouths in the previous batch of episodes alongside Salamander Streaming, Bumblezzzz, and Chimpanzee and Me. Not only would it have allowed that batch to have almost a full week's worth of episodes (much like the first 4 episodes of the season) it would've made more sense. Anyways, gotta keep this in mind for my Wild Kratts timeline masterpost.

The Humpback Whale Suit is awesome. The little brother to the Big Blue Whale Suit. I adore it so fucking much.

Also, never pause a Wild Kratts episode.

I don't get the joke. Is it that those are regular-ass names for tiny plankton? Is it the randomness? Koki's reaction? Or is it a reference that I don't get... man, scenes like this remind me of how I'm WAY out of the show's target demographic despite having watched the show for years 😭😭

Oh DAMN he is scared!

Directed by Micheal Bay!

Him comforting the Humpback whale!!! I f*cking love this episode, man.

I get this is a fictional show, so of course the logic of physics will be damned but, I would personally think twice before stepping onto a giant tongue, and in the mouth of someone who has been spitting up salt water all day. Just sayin' 😭😭

Well, no wonder it took them 2 years to make Season 7. They were filming at FUCKING NASA.

But also.. Respect!

CONCLUSION:

Pros:

Humpback Whale Suit!!

The balance when it came to focus on the titular Mini Heroes and Mega Mouths.

Cool climax.

Cons:

Much like the Bumblebee episode, the pacing could've been better.

The entire synopsis was incredibly misleading. I thought it was going to be about the crew finding the Kratt brothers until halfway through the episode where Chris was saved.

Don't have too many thoughts on this one. Maybe it's filtration bias because the previous episode was SO good in comparison but it's fun! It's neat. Would watch it again.

Ranked: 7/10

[tea-cake-and-sarcasm]

☆ TEA'S NEW AND IMPROVED INTRO POST ☆

Hello! You can call me Tea or Albert. Other nicknames are cool too! I'm a rather private person so neither are my real name. My pronouns are She/Her/They, and I am one of them queers. I mainly reblog, but on occasion you may see some of my incoherent ramblings, or even some of my art. I promise I will get to tagging all of these one day, but for now it will be like a fun little surprise whenever you find something of value here

Some quick and important notes:

I've had a major bot problem recently, so when following me please know that if you have no description, profile picture or title etc. I will block you. Even just one of these tells me you aren't a bot. Make a little post that says hello, and that's good enough:)

I will not be answering any donation asks

Here's why:

-I am a minor and therefore cannot support your cause even if I want to

-I'm literally broke

-My follower count is too small to argue I could promote the cause by answering, and many are in the same situation as me

-It sounds mean, but if I answer one, my inbox fills with 5-10 new asks, and I can't do that.

Tl;dr: I don't have money, and no way to give it if I did.

My interests!

Some favourites:

-Jujutsu Kaisen

- Moriarty the Patriot

- Death Note

-Persona (currently playing through 4)

-Ace Attorney

-Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint (though I haven't finished it, so no spoilers please)

-Totk/Botw

-Saiki K

-Attack on titan

-Alien Stage

-Cult of the lamb

-Sky: Children of the light

-Neon Genisis evangelion

-Howl's moving castle

-Tokyo Ghoul

-Sherlock (The ACD books, though I've watched some of the BBC version)

-Portal

-Many many more, if you ask there's a good chance I will have at least heard of whatever you're talking about :)

Some Favourite Characters:

-N Harmonia (Pokemon B/W)

-Howl (Howl's moving castle, especially the books)

-Suguru Geto (Jujutsu Kaisen)

-Gojo Satoru (Jujutsu Kaisen)

-William Moriarty (Moriarty the patriot)

-Era of the Wilds Link (Botw/Totk)

-Misa Amane (Death Note)

Favourite Music artists:

-Malice Mizer

-Kikuo

-Maretu

-Cö shu nie

-Österreich

-All the persona osts

-Alnst ost

-Miracle musical

Progress on watching/reading things etc (LAST UPDATED: 22/5/25):

-Orv : roughly chapter 70, up to date with the webtoon

-Aot : early s2

-Persona 4 : Apprehending/rescuing the kid in the video game themed dungeon

- Bsd : S3 ep 4

-The Case Study of Vanitas : Episode 8

-ENA : episode 4 (I believe)

-Arcane : Just into s2

-JJBA : I think episode 11 or something of battle tendency

Some mutuals I care rather a lot about:

@sssssaaaaaaammmm - Evil Wizard @wondersoftheimagination - Parent of my late slug son (Rip Ryuzaki)

@y0url0calcryptid - Silly clown

@fearofgodandtolkien - someone I cannot imagine as a person, only as a whole forest

@mehtoohardtofindasuitablename - the owner of the most darling cat in the world

@liquidpaperfoundation1 - very wowzers type of guy

@numberoneah-duofan - I have never been bribed quite so much in my life as I have by this person in the last two years or so

@lara-prim07 - Satorboo <3

If you aren't tagged here I still love you I just don't want to be yapping too much, or I'm not sure about your thoughts on being tagged in this way :) any mutuals who wish to be added (or removed!) Js let me know!

Some trivia under the cut! (Idea from @y0url0calcryptid)

-My favourite colours are purple and red

-I LOVE BUGS

-I love steam trains <33

-My current manga collection consists of all tokyo ghoul, tokyo ghoul:re, volumes 1-17 of mtp, 1 tpn, 1 Mr villains day off, all death note, 2 jjk

-I'm stereotypically english, in a sickly victorian child kind of way

-my favourite animals are giraffes and crows

-when I was younger I really wanted to be an author, but I haven't written anything substantial for a good while, aside from assignments

-growing up I developed an obsession with poisons and diseases that was pretty cool

-chat I love trains

-I'm awful at all sport, but I do aerial hoop and silks, and i love swimming

-I love forests so much

-I play piano (~grade 3-4), but I've been meaning to learn electric guitar

-My spice tolerance (in a metaphorical and literal sense) is negative (stories or food)

-My MBTI is enfp (tragically the same as Shinji from nge)

-I'm a yapper :(

-I'm planning to make an oc masterlist soon!

[lullydoesstuff]

- TOP DYSTOPIAN BOOKS -

Well, since I want to use this blog for personal stuff too and not just for requests or stuff concerning my MANY Demon Slayer AUs, here we are talking about some of my favourite books ever.

I love dystopian ones so these three will be very hard-core, I love the Hunger Games, I love Maze Runner, I love 1984 but these three just hit different.

Let's not lose time and let's begin!

3 - Tender is the Flesh (Augustina Bazterrica)

I decided to start with a book that has arrived in my country just this year, I didn't know about it before and I'm so glad I red it, even if it really disturbed me... do you know what the Promised Neverland is? Well, take it but make it Supersayan. And this is the less disturbing one here.

Plot: Marcos works in the meat industry, he always did but recently a virus started spreading, and animals couldn't be edible anymore so what does the government do? They start searching for vegan replacements? NO! They legalize cannibalism. Marcos has a troubled life, his father has gone mad since this "transition" from animal meat to human meat and his wife left him after they lost their son. He works in the meat industry but he swears to himself that he's not like the others, because he doesn't eat meat.

I know what you're thinking, "but this is a book to bring people close to veganism, it's the whole point"... no, congratulations, you didn't understand ANYTHING. This book is way more complex, this because it's about the line that divides humanization/objectification, and this will be a recurring theme in this post.

This book is full of gore (what did you expect?), graphic descriptions, violence, sexual violence so I don't know if I recommend this book to everyone, it's very short but be aware of this if you decide to read it. In any case, the plot is very interesting and it's very well written.

2 - The Handmaid's Tale (Margaret Atwood)

I'm sure many of you have seen the TV series, I've seen it too and it's one of the few cases I say that the series is better than the book, maybe because the series has a more modern setting and so I can actually be terrified by it.

Plot: the world has been almost destroyed by wars and this caused the birth to decrease to 0, and what happens in America? After a coup a new government is instituted... a totalitarian theocracy where religious confessions that aren't Christianity are banned, let's fucking go, this new country's name is Gilead. In this new world women have an only job: being literal baby machines given to rich families to have children.

This is so damn disturbing because, the insemination thing is wild, the man reads a Bible verse from Genesis, and then he just... does it. It's gross, go check for yourselves, human butchering was nothing compared to this.

We follow June, an Handmaid and we just see how things work in this new... amazing... world... I guess.

1 - Unwind (Neal Shusterman)

This deserves the first place, I've never stopped reading a book I loved because it disturbed me too much. I wanted to support the author, he's very good, so I bought all the other books from the Unwind distology... but I finished the first one and never red the second one, please tell me in the comments if it isn't as disturbing as the first one so I can give it a chance or not.

Plot: in the USA a second civil war is fought, but that's not a war where you shoot people from aontoher country to conquer it, or to oppose the government (well... kinda), it's about reproductive rights, many discussions, many things but in the end people decree that you can't abort in any case (*Lully already screaming and tearing off her hair*) BUT you can... well... Unwind your child if you don't want them anymore. But just when he's from 13 to 18.

What does unwind mean? Basically you give your unwanted child to some clinics that literally vivisection them (yes, the person is awake during the process BY LAW) and give thier organs to people that need transplants.

Now you can easily understand why this is the number 1 in this list, it's the destructive combo between "Tender is The Flash" and "the Handmaid's Tale".

We'll follow the story of Risa, Connor and Levi (and this last one oh my God, I wanted to punch his family so bad), escaping their fate of being unwind.

And yes, that scene comes, yes, you will see a vivisection, and yes... you will feel physically sick and need to throw up after, you'll probably have nightmares and life crisis. Also because... the unwind isn't exactly one of the "good guys".

Ah, dear pro-life people that care about a bunch of unborn cells and can't distinguish a human embryo from a dolphin embryo... Read this book, then change your mind about other people's body and take choices just for yours, because it seems we're going back and not aiming foward as we should.

[familyvideostevie]

tlou season 2: episode 7 thoughts

wow you guys we fucking made it. my tldr is get me out of the hell that is the writing of s2 and into the probably-similarly-bad-but-i-care-less-about-it-being-right-hell of s3. bring! it! on!

spoilers for tlou hbo and tlou part ii below.

EPISODE 7: THE CONVERGENCE

first of all, stupid fucking title. considering this whole time the viewer has no idea that abby and ellie are circling each other -- this would have been a better title for the theater from abby's pov, but whatever..

GOOD -jesse. how i love you, how i wish we got more of you. i think that his relationship with ellie and by extension dina is not quite what i wanted -- but i think it suits the way ellie behaves. i just think young did a really nice job as this man who is in a sort of impossible situation and has to make choices that are stressful and always hurt someone because shoulders such responsibility. and a young man who does not think he will run out of time! -the dressing room scene looked nice visually. if we take away the point of the scene (more on that later), i think it was a nice moment for ellie and dina. and shows some of their dynamic -- dina taking care of ellie even though she's the hurting one cause ellie won't ask. -hilarious that shimmer lived. good for you, queen -more than one prophet is...kind of interesting? i think it's one of many heavy handed moments of trying to hook people for s3 by asking questions we didn't know we wanted answers to -i think the way i've given up on ellie's writing and her plotline for the show have made me hype as fuck for abby. i love the hints we finally get about what's going on with her -- gearing up for the invasion with Isaac, abby and owen being missing, manny being present. it makes me excited for the next season! i wonder how folks who have no idea what is happening saw some of these scenes. guess they'll find out in two years! -ellie getting the abby game trailer treatment is wild and i was kind of gagged by it so it gets to live up here in the good section but this was another heavy handed moment of writing obviously for the invasion. also the first time i really noticed the space pin on her backpack? i must have seen it before, but. well, it wasn't present LAST WEEK. -i was laughing like the joker when we got to the aquarium, sorry. this is such an intense scene that drags and drags and drags as you play it -- with so many hints. the broken ceiling window, the bloody bandages, the arguing. man, and the music. this is the building music i wanted in 202 before joel died, but whatever. more on the actual content of this scene below but the lead up was really nice (no alice but i guess HBO draws the line at killing animals on screen). -never in my life have i been so glad to see tommy. bro how i missed you. -abby. abby abby abby abby. i never thought i would be so glad to see you. and she looked so good, i can't lie. the jacket, the braid, the bruises around her neck. this entire end scene actually rocked my world. again, maybe I'm just excited for something different, but i was on my FEET when we flashed to her on the couch (why is she wearing lip gloss but whatever) and her room looked great and the stadium looked great and DAY ONE. WOW. and the soundgarden kicking in...GET ME THERE NOW

IFFY -the dialogue in the dressing room. some of it will be in the next section but some of it is here. I thought it would be harder to do, but it wasnt, it was easy. I am finally coming around to the idea that they are writing Ellie as darker than originally written on purpose — that this rage simmering inside her is making her into someone she thinks she always has been, instead of someone she doesn’t recognize. and like, i think this would be interesting if it was not followed by Kellie feeling guilt with "maybe she didn't" and the resolution of the conversation or lack thereof. idk, i just don't think i understand what how are supposed to think about ellie's flip flop between vengeance and guilt.

-sooooo obvious that jesse was a gonner. like, come on. -the park and Isaac convo was weird for a few reasons. first on the list is okay are you in love with her or something? You wouldn’t be the first old man to — I just don’t get why we need to be having these conversations and these lines bro what’s the purpose. this this meant to hint at something? if so i missed it like bro -second is abby as the head of the WLF — that is really interesting to me. I don’t actually think she was ever WLF leadership material — she was fueled by one thing and one thing only and Isaac gave that to her and she came back fucked up and he knew that. So like, why would she be leadership material now? She’s by all rights an outsider, only joined up 5 years ago. Like, I think this is just filler to make her relevant right now in this moment, but I don’t think we needed it. We could have just said that she’s missing and it’s a concern because it IS — she knows sensitive information and she would have been an asset in the invasion, she's a soldier who went AWOL and we know the WLF takes things seriously. -it’s EXTRA interesting how they follow the conversation above about abby with this confession from Jesse — that he wanted to leave jackson but he didn’t, that he stays because he feels a sense of responsibility and also, though he doesn't say, probably wants to be needed like that. And how Ellie reacts, too — I think he’s trying to tell her something important, that he’s there to look after her and that maybe she will grow into someone like that? that he wants that for her? but they are unable to communicate this. It’s interesting and also sad, right, cause he is going to fucking die because he cares about her and dina.

But honestly, it does make sense to have this convo right before Ellie and Jesse split up — cause, dude. This moment in the game made me so frustrated with Ellie. And honestly? This Ellie is selfish! Fuck the community! It’s really interesting, actually, Ellie comparing it to them not helping the seraphite kid, etc. like, she has a point — but it’s all too heated. She should go home. She really really should and at this point she’s lying to herself that she shouldn’t. And he knows that she would do whatever it takes for anyone she loves, not just Joel. And is that a flaw? Who is to say! like, i don't like it, but i think it makes sense. i just don't get why the want us to hate ellie so bad lol -this girl just fucking finds a boat and she just gets on it. Girl, I had to fight so many seraphites and so many WLF and a fucking bloater to get you that fucking boat. Also are we just supposed to assume she can swim now? Kind of a hilarious way to reintroduce that part without the flashback showing us. Also this green screen blows like really bad???? really really bad? -im thinking about the aquarium and Mel and Owen. they are both the most sympathetic members of the group — that is clear early on and will be made clearer later. It's interesting because tommy is right! they both were there, they both participated, they both can be held responsible. the thing that i can't figure out is if this was a weird pro-life slant on mel's death or not. i think that, at the very least, it's a scene that will drive home ellie's inability to settle down later in the game as well as (if they do this) abby's indifference to dina's pregnancy during the theater fight. mel uses her last moments to beg for the life of her unborn child and ellie cannot save them (no way that was going to work anyway, but that's not the point). i think this could be a line to how ellie will leave her life for santa barbara -- how she fumbles in the moment when it comes to children.

but like, idk, there's something pro-life in my mouth about this whole scene that i cannot articulate. mel (whose name i do not know) was Acting, though, good for her. the thing is, this scene is again jerking our chain back to ellie being a sympathetic character. like, she does not shoot mel on purpose here and she is clearly very upset and regretful that she died. like, damn! i need to think about this one more and am interested in your thoughts

BAD -only one bad point here. i hate that ellie tells dina the whole truth of it. Sorry, I hate it. I sort of assume that someday ellie does tell her — maybe? I don’t think about it a lot. But I think Ellie carries the burden of what Joel did by herself on purpose, in part because of guilt and in part because she doesn't fully understand it, even with time. I think that Nora telling Ellie in the hospital is so that ellie can tell Dina and then feel guilty or like, guilty about not being guilty about joel killing the fireflies? and her own kills of the WLF?

I just don’t know what this is supposed to emphasize most. Looping dina in when she has this established relationship with Joel — it makes some of this about her in a way that it does not have to be (obviously it’s about her because she’s there and she’s injured and she loves Ellie) but now it’s like, even more about her? And then Dina saying we need to go home — it’s all setting the stage for their eventual tension to be even more awful cause this is where it starts, right here. Not on the farm, not after the fight with abby, but here, in this moment. a secret that ellie had been keeping, an act of violence that has nothing to do with dina but she now feels the affects of and will for the rest of her life, right? i just think ellie was mean to carry all of this alone. because wow -- how do explain that to someone? i was love so much that it killed people.

so. that's the end. the way i am excited for abby's days is actually so out of left field that I'm surprised as hell. but, jesus. i think i just want something new. i bet it'll be full of its own bullshit but damn! let's get it, abby. eager as always to hear everyone's thoughts. back to my part ii playthrough. see you in 2 years or whatever. very good time to remind you that you can find all of my tlou fics that are not x reader on ao3 under wmthackeray xoxo

[nakateleeli]

2024 retrospective

A retrospective on 2024… I don't actually feel like this was an eventful year, so I didn't think I was going to have a lot to say. It turns out it sure was eventful, just not in the way I was thinking, and somehow this post became this long.

Here on the channel I've been spending a lot of my solo time on the Kirby series. I originally started the All the Kirbys series because I felt like I was in a constant state of having to find something new and didn't have any strong enthusiasm for anything. I wanted something that I could rely on for a while to keep me out of that funk. As the series has gone on I've found that I've already done most of the major Kirby games, so the ones I'm covering for the series are mostly side-games and spin-offs. Games that haven't gone through the refinement process as much as the main games and I've found myself struggling with them. This led to a few breaks this year where I just needed to play something else for a bit. This did allow me to get to some oddball games that have been living in the back of my head for a while. I also finally got to show off R-Type Final 2. This also means there haven't really been any "big" projects on the channel lately. We are very near the end of All the Kirbys and while I do love Kirby games I'm ready for it to be done. There are so many other games, even large ones, that I would love to get to. I feel like I've spent most of the year playing hard or frustrating games so I'm excited to be free and maybe play something I'm more enthusiastic about.

In the co-op sphere I usually let Ogre choose what games we play, but I've found myself choosing a fair number of games last year. This has given me a chance to play some other weird games I've wanted to show off like Ninja Saviors, Psychopomp, Diablo, and I outed myself as a Hololive fan (this was not the first time). Ogre's choices have been more nostalgic, with him taking a look at some of my childhood favorites like Super Metroid and Link to the Past, and him getting me to play through the early Dragon Quest games. I'm really happy with a lot of the game choice on this end and I feel like it's been a bit of a release for me from my solo stuff.

Of course I also stream several times a week and that as well has been a mixed bag. For starters on Thursday I would typically stream as Vivian.exe. Vivian's development has a bit of history that stems from some self-identity issues I've had for a very long time, and my making the Vivian model and later giving her her own voice and persona have been a way for me to explore that. Late 2023 I ran into technical issues and burnout that made me retire her. Though her streams have never been terribly popular a few viewers were sad to see her go, so I made an attempt to refine her model to something I was happier with and solve my technical issues. My hope was resolving these issues would also make me happier to do her streams, and for a time it did. I brought her back in early 2024 with most issues resolved. We came back with Outer Wilds, an amazing game, and it was my first time seeing the expansion. I got to check out a few other games I'd been wanting to play as Vivian but eventually, between House Flipper and Control, I started to burn out again on playing the Vivian character. I was originally wondering of it was the technical issues that made me burn out and was thinking that resolving them may prevent that, but no. The issue is partially the games I chose to play but largely I think, as far as my self-identity issues go, I'm starting to figure myself out and wasn't really getting anything from playing Vivian any more. So as the holiday season ramped up and I got busier I decided once again to retire her.

I also stream on Fridays, just as myself, and I've had a wonderful time there, by comparison. I've played and discovered a number of games that have gone on to be some of my all-time favorite games, like Voices of the Void and Lunacid. I've also played a number of games that were given to me directly by developers that actually looked at the content I make and thought I might enjoy. These games, like Goldenheart and Mars 2120, may not have been to the same quality as some of the other games I streamed but they were still amazing experiences and I'm really happy to have been given the chance to show them. I've also been happy in this slot because of the model I've been using. I really love the chocobo, it feels the most "me" out of everything I've used thus far, which is probably another reason I've been less satisfied with Vivian. I've even had some fun changing the model for the seasons. We changed to pink for most of the year and very recently I changed to blue for winter. I have a tendency to lean more towards feminine representations and I think the pink was part of that, but I feel like the blue actually much more fits my personality.

The Saturday streams have also been a bit of a mixed bag. Saturday is my work night. I stream mostly as a way to hold myself accountable while I get work done on any number of my personal projects. I have spent more than the past year working on replacing all of the standard Doom 2 monsters with enemies from the Jumping Flash series. This is done to accompany my prior mod which replaced the player with Robbit. This was a long, painstaking process that I knew would not pay off in any real way since it was just a monster replacement pack. That said I did an absolute ton of work that I'm unbelievably proud of. I finished the pack and finally released it late last year. I learned a lot, did a ton of work, and it's all work that I really impressed myself with. The only parts of this project I'm not as happy with are that I knew it wouldn't really be worth the trouble from the start, and that it took me so unbelievably long. Time that could have been spent on other projects. But this is now done, released, and I can start planning for the future.

I've been working on other projects as well, though not streaming them. I released Clean Up Hell, a Doom mod that turns the game into a cleaning simulator; and I'm still updating Beyond the Horizon, an idle game available on itch.io. I managed two updates this year and I'm happy to see people attempting (and sometimes failing) the new boss. I've got another update in the works.

My wife has also drug me out to a few anime conventions last year (for work, not play), which were the first I had ever been to. Though I do have a strong interest in anime and the community I still felt very uncomfortable there. Largely I just felt out of place and scared I'd be recognized. I felt like a grumpy father just there because he was drug there, despite that I was actually interested. I'm mostly just socially anxious and worried about how I appear. Similarly, I take my separation of personal and online lives seriously and was worried someone might identify me by proxy of being with my wife. I did, after a short time, find a kind of mask that not only hides my identity but also makes me feel more like I'm supposed to be there, like I'm one of the people there, excited, all walking around in some kind of love-filled cosplay. Once more comfortable I really loved this experience. I loved seeing everybody in costume, seeing everybody so excited, enthusiastic, and yet also so comfortable, often even expressing a wide range of self-representation. This did a lot to improve my own mood and also learn about myself. This also contributed a lot to figuring out myself, what I want to do with myself, and how I want to appear. This certainly contributed to my not feeling Vivian was necessary any more, as well as my want to redesign my chocobo to be something I think better represents how I want to be represented (and not copyrighted). Mostly a lot of personal growth here that I can take advantage of going forward.

Emotionally things were looking up right up until the end of August when I hurt my back. It was a muscle strain, no nerve damage, but it was the worst I had ever hurt my back in my life, and I am not a stranger to back injuries. I was chair-ridden for a week and it was difficult to move for a month after. To this day I still have to be careful and I will probably never be the same. Especially for someone like me, who is known to throw themselves around and push themselves physically, this is really disempowering. I wasn't able to get any physical work done for the rest of the year and started falling into depression as time went on. It hit me hard. Over time my back has felt better and I've even gotten more and more recognition at work which has helped improve my mood. I'm feeling much better now, both physically and emotionally, but I pretty much wrote off the last three months of last year. It was a bad time.

That said, the year is over and next year is looking much better. We're nearly done with Kirby and I'm excited to start something new. Vivian is retired and for the moment that slot is going to be reserved for tying up loose ends. Jumping Flash Doom is done and I can start working on new projects. I'm currently modifying my chocobo model to better appear how I want to be represented (and not copyrighted). It's been a bit of a slump year I feel, but a year is a long time for nothing to go wrong. My channel has also been all over the place in representation until now. I've got Miss Naka as my avatar and on thumbnails, a chocobo on my stream thumbnails and as my stream avatar, and then Vivian making an appearance in effectively her own series.

Going forward I'm excited to turn over a new leaf. We're going to be starting new projects on almost every front and I'd like to soft rebrand under a consistent brand. This may not be quick, as I am just one person who can't do any of this full-time. Thank you all so much for supporting me and the things I do, especially those of you who have been around for years and years that I just can't scare off. I'm going to be counting on your continued support in the coming year, and I very much hope you enjoy what I have in store.

[yoshihashismattebum]

Tagged by @thewaythroughthewoods and @thepenultimaterolo to post the first 10 songs on my Spotify 'On Repeat' playlist! Thank you!

I've been listening almost exclusively to my 'I'm on the bus and I need to wake up' punk playlist I made recently, so most of the songs are off that. Link here to the playlist if you're interested!

Okay, let's get into it...

1. Can't Get Away – Turnstile

I've been slightly obsessed with Turnstile for the past few months. I've never really been into hardcore before, but something about the technicality and sheer variety of Turnstile really hit the spot for me. The tempo change at about 2 minutes into this one goes so hard. And that guitar solo! 😍

2. Stay Golden – Combat

A perfect two-minute blast of pop-infused punk. The hook is insanely good (and I think involves a glockenspiel??) and the chorus will never leave your head. Unfortunately this means I have found myself at work singing "I don't think this is gonna work/but motherfuck, this shit still hurts" under my breath, which is not ideal.

3. Party – Teen Mortgage

Speaking of songs I can't get out of my head... Teen Mortgage are one of the most exciting new punk bands of the last few years imo. This is off their debut album, which released last month. The more I listen to it, the more I love it. If you like scruffy, grungy punk where it's impossible to tell what the lyrics are saying but also that isn't the point, I'd highly recommend it!

4. Otherside – Spyres

Sometimes you hear a song and instantly love it. So you go and listen to the band's other songs and... you realise the song you love is an outlier :( This Is one of those, unfortunately. I've not really vibed with any other Spyres songs, but hey, this is an absolute banger and another powerful earworm.

5. WILD WRLD – Turnstile

Hey, it's more Turnstile! This time off Glow On, which I think is my favourite album of theirs. @thepenultimaterolo described it as being like a hardcore band went on holiday to various other genres and brought back some souvenirs, which I think is a perfect description. Is 'progressive hardcore' a genre? Because that's what this album sounds like to me. Anyway this song somehow manages to make lyrics about mental health and suicide into a bop.

6. Dashboard – Modest Mouse

A break from all the punk now with some classic mid 00s indie! I know all the cool people prefer the early sad and introspective Modest Mouse albums, but if I'm honest with myself, I find them tedious. I prefer the songs I can groove to, so shoot me! If 'going mainstream' results in bangers like this, then I'm all for it. This song has almost caused me to slip over in the shower multiple times from trying to dance to it.

7. Unsaid – Maxband

I discovered this song in the same way I have discovered a lot of music over the years: on a video game soundtrack. Thanks Forza Horizon 5! My first thought when I heard it was "wow they sound a lot like Parquet Courts". Turns out that's because it's a side project of Parquet Courts' drummer. The more you know! Anyway, this song sounds like Parquet Courts and The Strokes got together to make a beautiful song baby.

8. Away – Teen Mortgage

Okay, enough indie and post-punk for now: back to Teen Mortgage, with this track off their compilation album from 2024. They somehow manage to fit all of their anger at having to work shitty jobs for companies that are killing the environment into a cathartic blast that only takes up 100 seconds of your time.

9. T.L.C. (Turnstile Love Connection) – Turnstile

Another song that doesn't break the two minute mark! But again, they manage to pack a lot in, including an insanely clean tempo change. I've mostly been listening to this because of the connection with Mao and Kanon's Strange Love Connection in DDT! Which has now been proved correct! (Strange) Love Wins!

10. Mine Me Mine – Laura Jane Grace

Laura Jane Grace rules. One of the first out trans women in punk and one of the finest punk songwriters today imo. I've been listening to this single on repeat since it came out a couple of months ago. The lyrics are a timely indictment of rampant corporate greed and selfish individualism that seem to be ruling politics at the moment. This is punk at its absolute best: righteous fury channeled into a drive for change.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed that! Got a bit carried away with the write-ups there, oops! Here's a playlist with all of the songs for your convenience :)

Time to tag the usual pals (those who haven't already done it anyway): @unpairedbracket @counting-ducks @sycamoretrees @mortphilippa

And some folks whose list I'd be interested to see! @piracypiranha @chrisabins @norfkid

Plus anyone else who wants a go! Consider yourself tagged :)

No pressure of course! Just a bit of fun if you fancy it. Love 2 share music!! (And discover new songs myself 😍)

[oldfaneworld]

I need some clarity.

I don't know how I want to start this so I'm going to ramble this out. The discourse around Lanolin is something I don't really get in all honesty. The plot we have been following since the beginning of The Misadventure arc isn't anything new. The Fandom has dealt with trickery and guile before so I don't understand why this is such a hot topic to begin with. I have a few ideas why it's a hot topic and I'll touch on it soon but first I want to make this very clear. Looking back at the few posts I have on this website, I think I've made It very clear that Lanolin is my favorite character in all of the idw run. I can say this with my chest she is tied as my number 2 favorite character in this franchise with Bunnie d'coolette from the Archie run of the comics both reboot and pre-boot. My number 1 being Sonic from the story book games specifically the sonic and the black knight game.

I have only ‘recently’ gotten back into being a fan of the franchise about a year ago and most of that time has been me sitting down quietly playing Forces, Frontiers, Shadow Generations and reading first the entirety of the Archie run of the Sonic comics and then later the IDW run of the Sonic comics(i’ll get to fleetway soon i’ve just haven't gotten there yet). As for someone who’s been quiet for most of this time, seeing the Lanolin discourse flare back up because of the Riders arc is very interesting to me.

The big thing that gets me about the majority of it feels disingenuous to me from both sides. I am someone who has been very lucky to have patient friends that are willing to listen to me for a few hours on end talking to them about all of this. I am a Lanolin defender if it wasn’t already clear, so to my fellow defenders please don't go out of your way to call people misogynist(its true that there are some who are, but please be a bit more tactful when you do it) just because they don't like Lanolin. More often than not you're just throwing the wrong label at someone and it’ll just make things worse and poison the water for everyone. To those that dislike Lanolin you need to cool your jets just as hard, calling for violence to be done to her and to kick her out of the comics entirely because she’s been tricked is wild to think about especially because we have characters that are beloved that have been tricked and done way worse then she has that never received this kind of backlash. 

My reason why I think Knuckles, Silver and Shadow haven’t received the same kind of backlash Lanolin currently has is for a few reasons. The first is because all of their mistakes they’ve done have been nearly a decade ago if not longer so there's so much real time that buffers them from receiving such a backlash on top of that. Also we didn't necessarily have places like twitter, tumblr, or reddit back then like we do now.

The biggest reason why I think Lanolin is getting so much backlash where the others never did was (knuckles got it the worst but in the end it was turned into a gag) because of the medium her story is being told in. Everyone else was in a game Knuckles (S3&K, SA1, SA2), Silver (06), Shadow(SA2)  in comparison to Lanolin her’s is in the comics. A medium that is way slower than that of the games, just because of the nature of how long it takes for an issue to come out not including any delay. So I honestly think because of the slowness of comics in general people were allowed to sit and let an annoyance at best (in a games case) fester to hate (because of the comics timeframe).  A sonic game can be done at fastest in a few hours (forces) or a month (Frontiers) and that's not including 100 precenting a game. where in the comics Lanolin’s arc is taking longer than a year and a half and it's still going. 

Comparing her story to the three above we are what 2/3rds ¾ of the way through her personal arc about learning how to be a new leader and the challenges that brings, especially when she’s forced to make a choice that feels right in the moment but is wrong in the long term. People saying you can't compare her arc to Silver, Shadow or Knuckles is being dishonest in my book. The only difference in the way the arcs works is that the three’s arcs are done and hers isn't. Silver and Knuckles were tricked by their villains respectfully and Eggman and Mephiles nearly won because of it. Once they realized what they did they worked just as hard to fix what they messed up. Shadow was ruled by revenge allowing himself to work with eggman so he could get closer to the Ark to get rid of the Earth but Amy and others were there to open his eyes and it nearly cost him his life to fix what he allowed his rage to start.

So we know we aren’t done with Lanolin’s arc yet so why is there so much hate? We are just starting with her being redeemed. Why are people so adamant with burying her? I can't imagine another character in this moment of the comics that deserves her redemption more than her. She’s been here since issue 2 of the run and has been working hard in the background since, to get where she’s at and with her first real mistake and people want to tear all her accomplishments away from her. I don't get it? What I do get is having a casual dislike for her because of the way she talked to Silver and Whisper(misadventure) and Sonic and crew(Riders).

With all of what I have said, can someone please explain to me what I'm missing? Even in the newest issue when she is at her lowest she puts herself in the same position she put Silver in! She gave Tangle and Whisper the same power as before to vote her out because she knew she messed up and she’s not holding herself above any of the consequences she placed on other people. This is admirable she messed up and is willing to lose maybe her only chance to make a real difference in her world instead of doubling down and trying to make herself look right.