#Cognitive games for cats

[hsmagazine254]

Exploring Kenya With Your Pet: A Guide To Travelling Safely & Happily - H&S Pets Galore

Embark On Pawsome Adventures: Tips For Travelling With Your Furry Companion In Kenya Travelling with pets can be a rewarding experience, especially in a country as diverse and beautiful as Kenya. Whether you’re planning a safari or a city escape, bringing your furry friend along requires careful preparation. Here are some tips to ensure a safe and enjoyable journey for both you and your…

[bun-latte]

Sometimes i really wish there were more agere posts about littles who are like, 9-15 years old. :(

it only ever seems to all be things 0-6 years old, mostly focused on pre-school to MAYBE first grade age.

I think itd be nice to have more posts that focus on later school years, and about social/cognitive norms for those ages too.

[damienkarras73]

An essay on Furiosa, the politics of the Wasteland, Arthurian literature and realistic vs. formalistic CGI

Mad Max: Fury Road absolutely enraptured me when it came out nearly a decade ago, and I will cop to seeing it four times at the theatre. For me (and many others who saw the light of George Miller) it set new standards for action filmmaking, storytelling and worldbuilding, and I could pop in its Blu Ray at any time and never get tired of it. Perhaps not surprisingly, I was deeply apprehensive about the announced prequel for Fury Road's actual main character, Furiosa, even if Miller was still writing and directing. We didn't need backstory for Furiosa—hell, Fury Road is told in such a way that NOTHING in it requires explicit backstory. And since it focuses on the Yung Furiosa, it meant Charlize Theron couldn't return with another career-defining performance. Plus, look at all that CGI in the trailer, it can't be as good as Fury Road.

Turns out I was silly to doubt George Miller, M.D., A.O., writer and director of Babe: Pig in the City and Happy Feet One & Two.

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is excellent, and I needn't have worried about it not being as good as Fury Road because it is not remotely trying to be Fury Road. Fury Road is a lean, mean machine with no fat on it, nothing extraneous, operating with constant forward momentum and only occasionally letting up to let you breathe a little; Furiosa is a classical epic, sprawling in scope, scale and structure, and more than happy to let the audience simmer in a quiet, almost painfully still moment. If its opening spoken word sequence by that Gandalf of the Wastes himself, the First History Man, didn't already clue you in, it unfolds like something out of myth, a tale told over and over again and whose possible embellishments are called attention to in the dialogue itself. Where Fury Road scratched the action nerd itch in my head like you wouldn't believe, Furiosa was the equivalent of Miller giving the undulating folds of my English major brain a deep tissue massage. That's great! I, for one, love when sequels/prequels endeavour to be fundamentally different movies from what they're succeeding/preceding, operating in different modes, formats and even genres, and more filmmakers should aim for it when building on an existing series.

This movie has been on my mind so much in the past week that I've ended up dedicating several cognitive processes to keeping track of all of the different ponderings it's spawned. Thankfully, Furiosa is divided into chapters (fun fact: putting chapter cards in your movie is a quick way to my heart), so it only seems fitting that I break up all of these cascading thoughts accordingly.

1. The Pole of Inaccessibility

Furiosa herself actually isn't the protagonist for the first chapter of her own movie, instead occupying the role of a (very crafty and resourceful) damsel in distress for those initial 30-40 minutes. The real hero of the opening act, which plays out like a game of cat and mouse, is Furiosa's mother Mary Jabassa, who rides out into the wasteland first on horseback and then astride a motorcycle to track down the band of raiders that has stolen away her daughter. Mary's brought to life by Miller and Nico Lathouris' economical writing and a magnetic performance by newcomer Charlee Fraser, who radiates so much screen presence in such relatively little time and with one of those instant "who is SHE??" faces. She doesn't have many lines, but who needs them when Fraser can convey volumes about Mary with just a flash of her eyes or the effortless way she swaps out one of her motorcycle's wheels for another. To be quite candid, I'm not sure of the last time I fell in love with a character so quickly.

You notice a neat aesthetic contrast between mother and daughter in retrospect: Mary Jabassa darts into the desert barefoot, clad in a simple yet elegant dress, her wolf cut immaculate, only briefly disguising herself with the ugly armour of a raider she just sniped, and when she attacks it's almost with grace, like some Greek goddess set loose in the post-apocalyptic Aussie outback with just her wits and a bolt-action rifle; we track Furiosa's growth over the years by how much of her initially conventional beauty she has shed, quite literally in one case (hair buzzed, severed arm augmented with a chunky mechanical prosthesis, smeared in grease and dirt from head to toe, growling her lines at a lower octave), and by how she loses her mother's graceful approach to movement and violence, eventually carrying herself like a blunt instrument. Yet I have zero doubt the former raised the latter, both angels of different feathers but with the same steel and resolve. Of fucking course this woman is Furiosa's mother, and in the short time we know her we quickly understand exactly why Furiosa has the drive and morals she does without needing to resort to didactic exposition.

Anyway, I was tearing up by the end of the first chapter. Great start!

2. Lessons from the Wasteland

Most movies—most stories, really—don't actually tell the entire narrative from A to Z. Perhaps the real meat of the thing is found from H to T, and A-G or U-Z are unnecessary for conveying the key narrative and themes. So many prequels fail by insisting on telling the A-G part of the story, explaining how the hero earned a certain nickname or met their memorable sidekick—but if that stuff was actually interesting, they likely would have included it in the original work. The greatest thing a prequel can actually do is recontextualize, putting iconic characters or moments in a new light, allowing you to appreciate them from a different angle. All of season 2 of Fargo serves to explain why Molly Solverson's dad is appropriately wary when Lorne Malvo enters his diner for a SINGLE SCENE in the show's first season. David's arc from the Alien prequels Prometheus and Covenant—polarizing as those entries are—adds another layer to why Ash is so protective of the creature in the first movie. Andor gives you a sense of what it's like for a normal, non-Jedi person to live under the boot of the Empire and why so many of them would join up with the Rebel Alliance—or why they would desire to wear that boot, or even just crave the chance to lick it.

Furiosa is one of those rare great prequels because it makes us take a step back and consider the established world with a little more nuance, even if it's still all so absurd. In Fury Road, Immortan Joe is an awesome, endlessly quotable villain, completely irredeemable, and basically a cartoon. He works perfectly as the antagonist of that breakneck, Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote-ass movie, but if you step outside of its adrenaline-pumping narrative for even a moment you risk questioning why nobody in the Citadel or its surrounding settlements has risen up against him before. Hell, why would Furiosa even work for him to begin with? But then you see Dementus and company tear-assing around the wasteland, seizing settlements and running them into the ground, and you realize Joe and his consortium offer something that Dementus reasonably can't: stability—granted, an unwavering, unchangeable stability weighted in favour of Joe's own brutal caste system, but stability nonetheless. It really makes you wonder, how badly does a guy have to suck to make IMMORTAN JOE of all people look like a sane, competent and reasonable ruler by comparison?!?

…and then they open the door to the vault where he keeps his wives, and in a flash you're reminded just how awful Joe is and why Furiosa will risk her life to help some of these women flee from him years later. This new context enriches Joe and makes it more believable that he could maintain power for so long, but it doesn't make him any less of a monster, and it says a lot about Furiosa's hate for Dementus that she could grit her teeth and work for this sick old tyrant.

3. The Stowaway

Here's another wild bit of trivia about this movie: you don't actually see top-billed actress Anya Taylor-Joy pop up on screen until roughly halfway through, once Furiosa is in her late teens/early twenties. Up until this point she's been played by Alyla Browne, who through the use of some seamless and honestly really impressive CGI has been given Anya's distinctive bug eyes [complimentary]. It's one of those bold choices that really works because Miller commits to it so hard, though it does make me wish Browne's name was up on the poster next to Taylor-Joy's.

Speaking of CGI, I should talk about what seems to be a sticking point for quite a few people: if there's been one consistent criticism of Furiosa so far, it's that it doesn't look nearly as practical or grounded as Fury Road, with more obvious greenscreen and compositing, and what previously would've been physical stunt performers and pyrotechnics have been replaced with their digital equivalents for many shots. Simply put, it doesn't look as real! For a lot of people, that practicality was one of Fury Road's primary draws, so I won't try to quibble if they're let down by Furiosa's overt artificiality, but to be honest I'm actually quite fine with it. It helps that this visual discrepancy doesn't sneak up on you but is incredibly apparent right from the aerial zoom-down into Australia in the very first scene, so I didn't feel misled or duped.

Fury Road never asks you to suspend your disbelief because it all looks so believable; Furiosa jovially prods you to suspend that disbelief from the get-go and tune into it on a different wavelength. It's a classical epic, and like the classical epics of the 1950s and 60s it has a lot of actors standing in front of what clearly are matte paintings. It feels right! We're not watching fact, we're watching myth. I'm willing to concede there might be a little bit of post-hoc rationalization on my part because I simply love this movie so much, but I'm not holding the effects in Furiosa to the same standard as those in Fury Road because I simply don't believe Miller and his crew are attempting to replicate that approach. Without the extensive CGI, we don't get that impressive long, panning take where a stranded Furiosa scans the empty, dust-and-sun-scoured wasteland (75% Sergio Leone, 25% Andrei Tarkovsky), or the Octoboss and his parasailing goons. For the sake of intellectual exercise I did try imagining them filming the Octoboss/war rig sequence with the same immersive practical approach they used for Fury Road's stunts, however I just kept picturing dead stunt performers, so perhaps the tradeoff was worth it!

4. Homeward

Around the same time we meet the Taylor-Joy-pilled Furiosa in Chapter 3, we're introduced to Praetorian Jack, the chief driver for the convoys running between the Citadel and its allied settlements. Jack's played by Tom Burke, who pulled off a very good Orson Welles in Mank! and who I should really check out in The Souvenir one of these days. He's also a cool dude! Here are some facts about Praetorian Jack:

He's decked out in road leathers with a pauldron stitched to one shoulder

He's stoic and wary, but still more or less personable and can carry on a conversation

Professes to a certain cynicism, to quote Special Agent Albert Rosenfield, but ultimately has a capacity for kindness and will do the right thing

Shoots a gun real good

Can drive like nobody's business

So in other words, Jack is Mad Max. But also, no, he clearly isn't! He looks and dresses like Mad Max (particularly Mel Gibson's) and does a lot of the same things "Mad" Max Rockatansky does, but he's also very explicitly a distinct character. It's a choice that seems inexplicable and perhaps even lazy on its face, except this is a George Miller movie, so of course this parallel is extremely purposeful. Miller has gone on record saying he avoids any kind of strict chronology or continuity for his Mad Max movies, compared to the rigid canons for Star Trek and Star Wars, and bless him for doing so. It's more fun viewing each Mad Max entry as a new revision or elaboration on a story being told again and again generations after the fall, mutating in style, structure and focus with every iteration, becoming less grounded as its core narrative is passed from elder to youth, community to community, genre to genre, until it becomes myth. (At least, my English major brain thinks it's more fun.) In fact there's actually something Arthurian to it, where at first King Arthur was mentioned in several Welsh legends before Geoffrey of Monmouth crafted an actual narrative around him, then Chrétien de Troyes added elements like Lancelot and infused the stories with more romance, and then with Le Morte d'Arthur Thomas Malory whipped the whole cycle together into one volume, which T.H. White would chop and screw and deconstruct with The Once and Future King centuries later.

All this to say: maybe Praetorian Jack looks and sounds and acts like Max because he sorta kinda basically is, being just one of many men driving back and forth across the wasteland, lending a hand on occasion, who'll be conflated into a single, legendary "Mad Max" at some point down the line in a different History Man's retelling of Furiosa's odyssey. Sometimes that Max rips across the desert in his V8 Interceptor, other times driving a big rig. Perhaps there's a dog tagging along and/or a scraggly and at first aggravating ally played by Bruce Spence or Nicholas Hoult. Usually he has a shotgun. But so long as you aren't trying to kill him, he'll help you out.

5. Beyond Vengeance

The Mad Max movies have incredibly iconic villains—Immortan Joe! Toecutter! the Lord Humongous!—but they are exactly that, capital V Villains devoid of humanizing qualities who you can't wait to watch bad things happen to. Furiosa appears to continue this trend by giving us a villain who in fact has a mustache long enough that he could reasonably twirl it if he so wanted, but ironically Dementus ends up being the most layered antagonist in the entire series, even moreso than the late Tina Turner's comparatively benevolent Aunty Entity from Beyond Thunderdome. And because he's played by Chris Hemsworth, whose comedic delivery rivals his stupidly handsome looks, you lock in every time he's on screen.

Something so fascinating about Dementus is that, for a main antagonist, he's NOT all-powerful, and in fact quite the opposite: he's more conman than warlord, looking for the next hustle, the next gullible crowd he can preach to and dupe—though never for long. For all his bluster, at every turn he finds himself in way over his head and writing cheques he can't cash, and this self-induced Sisyphean torment makes him riveting to watch. You're tempted to pity Dementus but it's also quite difficult to spare sympathy for someone who's so quick to channel their rage and hurt and ego into thoughtless, burn-it-all-down destruction. When you're not laughing at him, you're hating his guts, and it's indisputably the best work of Chris Hemsworth's career.

It's in this final chapter that everything naturally comes to a head: Furiosa's final evolution into the character we meet at the start of Fury Road, the predictable toppling of Dementus' precariously built house of cards, and the mythmaking that has been teased since the very first scene becoming diagetic text, the last of which allows the movie to thoroughly explore the themes of vengeance it's been building to. A brief war begins, is summarized and is over in the span of roughly a minute, and on its face it's a baffling narrative choice that most other filmmakers would have botched. But our man Miller's smart enough to recognize that the result of this war is the most foregone of conclusions if you've been paying even the slightest bit of attention, so he effectively brushes past it to get to the emotional heart of the climax and an incredible "Oh shit!" payoff that cements Miller as one of mainstream cinema's greatest sickos.

Fury Road remains the greatest Mad Max film, but Furiosa might be the best thing George Miller has ever made. If not his magnum opus, it does at least feel like his dissertation, and it makes me wish Warner Bros. puts enough trust in him despite Furiosa's poor box office performance that he's able to make The Wasteland. Absolutely ridiculous that a man just short of his 80th birthday was able to pull this off, and with it I feel confident calling him one of my favourite directors.

[elizabethrobertajones]

kriles summer trust top is kinda problematic tho... lalafell r smol and should be wholesome.

Aw, come on.

I'm sorry but I have to disagree because within the fiction, lalafell are just as mean, gross and horny as anyone else. Gegeruju is a perv, and the whole Ul'dah Syndicate is full of evil little bastards. On the good side, lala are just as complex and grown up as anyone else - Tataru courts followers and dances in a skimpy outfit in the Forgotten Knight, Giott is a roaring drunk stereotypical fantasy dwarf (not to mention whatever the heck is going on with the Tomra and Komra dwarves in general tbh :P). And Lamitt's story was sweet but it did involve her having adult feelings for Ardbert.

Like, really, I can only think of 4 completely wholesome lala out of a cast of hundreds, and they happen to mostly be the ones we've interacted with a lot (Nanamo; Pipin who is a Heroic Knight archetype; Papalymo, who was a grumpy old scholar man; Krile). But that's more about them being main characters serving roles in the narrative rather than indicative of how lalas behave as a whole. In fact after going through ARR, meeting Pipin and finding One Good Ul'dahn Lala is an enormous relief (since the other one is apparently dead now).

And Krile is a main character now so she's allowed to step out of the shadow of being uwu cat hoodie girl who wasn't written with much depth outside of being serious and earnest and rather spooky; she's actually 22 years old according to the first wiki I found - regardless of if that's totally accurate she's definitely meant to be a peer of the other adult Scions and they all treat her like an adult. Her introduction cutscene has her ribbing Alphy as an older friend laughing at how a much younger one used to behave, so we're supposed to immediately understand on meeting her that she's post-teen since she knew 11 year old Alphy and was of course older than him since he was a freak entry into the Studium at that age. Probably a necessary writing moment because establishing lala's age with hilarious moustaches or deep voices or whatever is a part of how the game has to present them.

Out of the fiction, I know lalas are part of a much wider trope that people do find problematic as a whole (e.g. just because in universe Tataru has babes across the globe and that's normal to everyone involved, who are consenting adults in a world which wholly understands Tataru as a consenting adult, is it actually really creepy that it's happening at all because her body type is toddler-esque? Is it weird in general that lala emotes are SO baby in the same way miqo emotes are SO kitty?

ffxiv definitely goes waaay further into borderline creepy territory than many games with smaller fantasy races in it, when it comes to how lala look, so yeah I know it's a fraught area and can be discomforting to see the game present child-shaped people as having adult desires and a thing some people understandably set aside along with other elements as things they're not happy with co-existing in the game with things they really love.) We can absolutely talk about that on a meta level of how we relate to the game and feel about it, just like things we find racist or uncomfortable in other ways e.g. eng translation Hien's treatment of Yotsuyu being a really problematic point.

But, that's one thing, versus talking about us here in fandom and how we relate to it, and I think your ask is, well, really not very deeply considered on any level, but I think is talking about how we as fandom relate to lalas, based on an inaccurate reading of them in the game, meaning you're really not even analysing a thing about it and therefore your ask comes more in the terms of policing how we should FEEL about Krile's beach outfit, and dictating that we SHOULD find lalas smol and wholesome, and that therefore there's an inherent problem in anyone reacting positively to the outfit, rather than critiquing its place in the game in the first place. Having hit a cognitive dissonance in seeing swimsuit Krile existing you've come to me to complain it's problematic rather than taking any actual meaningful action. Ergo, this is a fandom problem to you, not a game problem. WE should find it problematic and say so, you are implying, shocked that so many people looked at a post about the beach outfits and no one commented as such.

Aside from lalafell being fictional and at no point other than the visuals are they treated as children (and emotes aside, playing through the MSQ as a lala wol you easily fall into seeing them as an adult because of course all the cutscenes share the same level of gravitas no matter what you're playing or what clown costume you have on any player), there ARE actually real humans who are built somewhere closer to lala than not, and would be drawn to playing any of the smaller races in a game (like, gnomes in WoW, halflings in D&D, etc) because that's just their chance at representation. And because FFXIV doesn't have anything other than precious moments doll-shaped people the look might be great in the sense that they have the proportions of a cherub statue and it is a lot harder to meet in the middle than a halfling (notoriously hairy middle aged bastards and much easier to read as adult, though that doesn't exclusively represent people who've had growth developmental differences), that IS still the only representative option some people have in the game and if they want to indulge it rather than play something else with proportions forced on them by many games, then what the hell is wrong with that?

And they WILL go to bat for lalas and get upset when people say that they have to be precious baby characters who act like children. I've seen that on tumblr: there's a whole lala community who keeps kinda low key and away from everyone else by their own admission BECAUSE as soon as they get too much attention they're deluged with hate for playing characters who have adult desires and dress fancy - or, you know, like any other random slutty elf WoL. The fact I wandered onto lala blogs at random and saw that complaint on the first pages should speak to how often they have to deal with it. And, again, within the fiction of the game their characters are completely 100% normal and doing what other lalas who are written by the game do as well. I KNOW those blogs are out there and they'd be scared of getting this exact ask, and it would greatly upset them and ruin their day and put them off having any interaction with the community, which fucking sucks. We're here to have fun!

That said I'm not a weirdo anti all up in others' business, it's also fine to just like lalas and stuff without some huge circumstantial justification like "they look like me" - or - "my IRL wife" or whatever - you can also just play a lala or ship with one and it's like, your business. If that's all you're doing and it's not a hypothetical child molester who also has a whole gallery of lala porn that the cops find when they impound the computer full of REAL CHILDREN stuff as well it's never going to be anyone else's business anyway, ever, and that's like, one hypothetical awful person for a whole fandom of normies who are just surprised by how much idk Pipin's deep voice rocked their world and changed their whole perspective on what a hot character was.

Like, granted, that one HYPOTHETICAL weirdo will make everything rancid because there are people waiting to jump on people who like lalas, but also it still won't actually change what other people are doing into being Evil just because someone who actually hurts children found lalas attractive too. That, again, was the hypothetical awful person's problem and not theirs. And in no way can we just casually imply ALL people who like lalas are just inherently going to be dangerous, like real children, or enacting a private psychodrama teetering on the edge of all that.

They could in fact be completely average and boring psychologically and also have a crush on Tataru. Or, I guess, normal amount of weird for a fandom, but basically average XD In a fictional world where these characters are treated as adults, even normal people will naturally end up drawn to them as adults because, well, that's the story that's we're all engaging in. It's not inherently a thought crime to do so, because, weirdly, thought crimes don't exist.

Also, of course, people will literally discourse that hobbits are child-coded and shouldn't be shipped or seen as sexy, despite the most famous halflings, who made the entire halfling race as a generic brand, all being middle aged, hairy, smoking, drinking, guys with normal adult desires and mindsets. I mean yeah Elijah Wood was 18 when they started filming LotR (over several years so he was Krile's age by the end :P) but also Frodo celebrated his 40th birthday before setting off on the Ring Quest in the book and he was the baby of the group aside from Pippin.

In any case, there's no fucking winning and so I can understand completely that if a fucking Hobbit from Lord of the Rings gets shit for being short, and people are getting called a perv for fancying Sam Gamgee, then why not just embrace it with a Lalafell because you're literally damned no matter what in the eyes of someone who won't meet a LOTR HOBBIT where he stands as an adult man.

There's some DEEP puritanical brainrot going on online and I don't want to be a part of it whatsoever, so it means accepting lala likers for the sake of protecting Merry and Pippin's right to be seen as hot, than like, I know which side of of the line I'm dragging my beach chair. It's not even a question. I'm defending people who think lalas are appealing.

ANYWAY none of this is my business, I don't even find lalas sexy, I just think Krile looks nice in her cute summer top and it's lovely that she's getting fashion advice from her besties, and there's a million reasons to be happy about that and for her as a character, and only miserable bastard reasons to go "aurgh aurgh it's problematic" and condemn the game and everyone who plays it just for enjoying something. Lalas are NOT smol and wholesome, they're short and people, and that's fine.

[livingslime]

Frequently asked questions

When will the full game be released?

The release date for the full version is still to be announced. I work on this visual novel in my free time, so progress may vary. Currently, the project is in its early stages, making it difficult to project a completion date. As development progresses and I get closer to finishing, I hope to have a clearer timeline.

Is MC really in a hospital?

It is intentionally ambiguous whether the MC is truly in a hospital. The absence of nurses and Dr. Anselm being the only one attending to the MC are deliberately meant to provoke player suspicion. This mystery and the setting’s true nature are meant to unravel in later chapters.

Where did the MC's pee go?

The MC has a urinary catheter, a medical device used to drain urine from the bladder into an attached collection bag.

Urine collection bags connected to a catheter are typically changed every 5 to 7 days.

In the later chapters, there will come a time when Anselm has to change the MC's peepee bag.

Does MC actually need a urinary catheter?

In cases of severe traumatic brain injury (TBI), a urinary catheter may be necessary, especially in the early stages of recovery. TBI can lead to a range of symptoms, including impaired mobility, cognitive changes, or decreased control over bodily functions.

Also MC was unconscious for 2 days before waking up, catheters are commonly used for unconscious patients.

Will MC ever take a shower?

Yes I was planning to use this as content for later chapters.

Fun fact : Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) patients in hospitals usually do not take showers independently, especially if they are in a critical or unstable condition. Instead, they are often given sponge baths or bed baths by staff to maintain hygiene without moving them too much, which could be risky. huehue

Will there be an ending where MC and Anselm are together?

Yes, absolutely! There will be an ending where MC and Anselm end up together. These endings will naturally come at the game's conclusion, and as I get closer to writing the finale, I'll have a clearer idea of how many good and bad endings there will be in total.

Was Anselm the one to cause MC's injury?

So this mystery is also to be unfolded in the later chapters. I hope readers understand that this visual novel has mystery/horror elements, there wouldn’t be much of a story if I revealed everything outright (ᗒᗨᗕ)

Does Anselm love the MC or just taking care of them?

Anselm's heart belongs entirely to the MC; they're the only one he truly loves.

Is Anselm a dog or cat person? or any other animal?

Anselm doesn’t usually keep pets, as he’s often away and lacks the time to care for one. But if he and the MC were living together and the MC wanted a pet, he would happily bring one home and enjoy caring for it together with them.

If he could, Anselm would create a beautiful bird terrarium—a place where he could observe them freely within a controlled space. There, they’d be safe, unable to leave but he alone is able to admire their beauty.

[quinton-reviews]

have you ever thought about doing a Game Shakers video? or is the show too boring to really justify such a thing?

So when it comes to doing Henry Danger and Game Shakers videos, there are really a few things I think people need to keep in mind...

The mini-series so far is really heavily about me revisiting my nostalgia and kind of answering my curiosity about where these shows went. So reviewing iCarly and Victorious worked because they were of "my era." Sam & Cat worked on that level of "What happened after I stopped watching?" I think that if I don't have a specific goal or pitch, just flippantly watching kid shows from faaaar past my childhood works less as a concept.

One of the great things about iCarly and Victorious is that both shows are barely, and I mean BARELY, in the copyright system on YouTube. Once or twice per season, I'd get one clip or one episode that I had trouble with. But it was shocking how much I could get away with. Sam & Cat was hell because it was clear that by 2013 Nick was uploading stuff to the YouTube copyright library as it was made. So no matter what I did, I would get a copyright claim. This is honestly why those final two videos were much more indulgent than my usual style. I kind of went, "if I have to fight copyright anyway, might as well show more clips..." I regret this somewhat, as now my new video still has 20+ days until I'll have full ads AND I now have a reputation for only recapping plotlines. But that's what you get I guess.

This is much more a thing for Henry Danger than Game Shakers, but another issue is just how much content there is with these shows. Henry Danger has a decade of content, recapping all of it would be both unsurmountable journey and... Well, not fun to watch. So if I ever did these shows, I would have to really focus more on season-by-season analysis rather than actual episodes.

I think my videos on iCarly, Victorious and Sam & Cat are all connected by certain themes and points that I am now drawing closure to. The gags about "the creator," the cognitive dissonance, the attachment to childhood, etc. So if I do reviews on other shows, I have to find new angles and themes to establish. Drake & Josh and Zoey 101 are topics I like because instead of focusing on the creator, I can focus on the lives of the stars and how fame affected them. When it comes to Game Shakers and Henry Danger, the only possible throughline I can think of is how the shows were effective by the collapse of their creator and production studio. Henry Danger continued and improved while Game Shakers was effectively canceled early and fell on its face. But we've already covered all that. Game Shakers just doesn't have that pull to me, and because of that, I can't imagine finding an excuse to review it.

[borzoilover69]

ULTIMATE JAKE: an idea and an execution

 iA I Aka the post where borzoi talks to the crowd how awesome Lord Jake English is, the guy that everyones seen around, but have no idea who he is. Pull up a chair, this will get long. 

If Ultimate Dirk can be summarised by the mask of tragedy in theatre, LE Jake, AKA Ultimate Jake, could be summarised by the mask of comedy. I’ve barely read HS2, but from what I can see, Dirk wants to make a serious nitty gritty tragedy of serious and epic proportions. But he tries so hard that he ends up making it almost laughable.

Jake wants to make a thighslapper huckshaw comedy where everyones having a grand old time but  there is such deep and hollow tragedy hidden within the folds of all those pretty smiles.

If anything they abide a lot by aristotles theory on comedy and tragedy. While tragedy imitates men better than average, comedy parodies those who are worse.

Aristotle stated that those of a more serious type that may have once been inclined to celebrate the actions of great heroes in poetry and prose turn to tragedy, while those who’ve been dishonourable, humbled, turn to comedy. It comes down to duality, tragedy viewing duality as a fatal contradiction forever a fault in things, while comedy views it as natural, but something that everyone must live with the best they can, enjoy.  Do you see where I’m going here? Dirk, who praised Aristotle and read the epics turned to tragedy. Jake, dishonourable and hiding from those who he care about, turning to comedy. They line up well with the cognitive psychology of the tragedy and comedy visions, which you should totally look into when you can. 

Tragedy is idealistic, stubborn and serious. They long for something higher and greater than common existence. They value heroism, hierarchy, and finality. 

Comedy is pragmatic, adaptable, and playful. They consider the self, comfortable in their own skin. They’re anti-heroes, valuing situation-based ethics and reversal.

With that out of the way, lets keep to philosophy like it’s a boat in the atlantic. If Dirks look in life upon going ult is one of pessimistic realism, Jake is an absurdist.

If life is a cruel joke to jake, and it has been, then in his ultimate form hes acknowledged it, and given the cruel void, hes decided to seek out his own meaning. And it just so happens to be his best friend.

Misc details

- Capitalist

- He wears old 3D movie glasses because he’s that idiot. 

- He collects a lot of things. He has plenty of things hes shot killed and stuffed in his collection. 

You could say he’s rather past oriented, taking care to document it all out of interest and perhaps a subconcious pursuit to figure out the future.

- Very apathetic. He may be charming, but he’s still a jackass. He thinks existence itself is funny, he’s an absurdist; but he’s also a guy who realises he’s been kicked to the curb too many times and started shooting people. - His crew consists of John/June, (in place of rose. They have a lot of movie nights!), Karkat, and one (1) dead dave.

And finally some thoughts about ult Dirkjake: Maybe Dirk wants Jake to just kill him. It’s a game of cat and mouse, and perhaps it’s love for someone who deems himself unworthy, no, incapable of doing so. What better love than to kill someone? To trust and know they will kill you. Feeling safe in the knowledge they’ve known you in every universe and are here to kill you. Not that Jake would let him. I like them.. I think it’s my fave brand of dirkjake besides the original.. they’re dysfunctional, intolerable, and they hate each other, but it’s just interesting. For better or for worse, they’re stuck, and they’re not afraid of the fact they suck. If anything, it’d spur them to be worse.

“Oh yeah. I find the other guy fucking annoying and I’d gladly take a moment to rip his guts out and walk him around a tree until they’re all out and he's calling me every bad name he can think of, but if anyone tries doing this shit with him without my consent, I’m going to be hells of more pissed off.”

Look. It’s funny in the way that realistically, they could probably do a lot of damage to everyone else but due to the fact they know the other guy exists, they’re too busy trying to kick the others ankles out and then beating each other up to become dangerous.

Oh you bet your nanny it’s the gayest most fucked up kismesis known to man. Ultimate Dirk hates LE Jake, because he doesn’t give a damn. Because Jake makes him feel things he denies feeling. And that ridiculously, somewhere in paradox space, Jake went ultimate and decided he was going to man up and pursue Dirk to the ends of the universe. Ultimately: “My soul is bound to you in explicable ways. Our bonds cross the multiverse and wherever you are, somewhere I am by your side. Even in a hundred universes, maybe even a million. I will still find you.”

Perhaps the greatest thing and a closing note is that given they are the ascended versions of themselves, they’re aware of the fact that they’re aware of every time the other guy screwed them over, kicked them in the balls, etc. But they’re also able to see everything else. So what’s with a little hatelove eh?

[couldurfaveescapeaperturescience]

i dont really do propaganda on my polls but this one is important to me especially for the non homestucks this propaganda is pulled from their intros because there is just so much to get into otherwise roxy and dirk will be the most helpful here but i want to get into them all also i obviously have an alpha kid prefernce im sorry rose passion for obscure literature, enjoys creative writing, has a fondness for bestially strange and fictitious, and sometimes dabbles in psycoanalysis dave spins incredibly ill jams using turn tables and mixing gear, likes obscure bands, collects and preserves weird dead things, amateur photographer, and he runs multiple ironically humorous blogs, websites, and social networking profiles roxy goddamn does she love wizards, wishes they were real and that so too is their magics, she enjoys writing fanprose about them that is not so great, she is however great at the esoteric sciences such as ectobiology, dark fenestrology, and appearification, she has accured many dead preserved cats from here expirments, she likes video games that are past their prime, she has a soft spot for old school technology, and her coding credit is totally rediculous she is as deadly to the grid as she is beautiful dirk holy shit does he love puppets, he has extreme dexterity to operate them unseen, that is when they are not pre-ambulatory through lovingly imbued mechanization, he digs writing cognitive algorithms, he's self taught on ancient civilizations, master of mythologue, a popculture academe, he dabbles in the sequential arts, against the better judgment of those his age he builds robots and sets them to kill mode and spars to the death, he also does rap battles with them and use sendification to give them to his friends dirk splinters lil' hal an autoresponder dirk made when he was 13 which is basically 13 year old dirk in a pair of anime sunglasses brobot only here because his is obvious a dirk splinter i dont like his name so i dont think about him, anyways he was sent to jake by dirk in order to keep jake on his toes by fighting him ghost brain dirk is a version of dirk that was made from dirks heart powers and jakes hope powers there are others that i am not including to me those three are the main ones

[takami-takami]

Oh you know exactly what I want😈

Keigo + Primal Play

Go wild with it! ❤️

☕️anon

When it comes to primal instincts, Keigo Takami is king.

For all the years of sexual repression he endured as he focused on work, of shoving down his desires like neatly folded clothes in an overpacked suitcase, he didn't anticipate a curveball such as yourself to go ahead and unlatch the lock.

It starts the moment he lays eyes on you. Pretty little thing, he thinks, so excited to shake his firm hand and introduce yourself to the number two.

His gaze drops to the flesh of your neck.

You're unmarked.

He can keep it locked a little longer, over the months and years you get to know each other, as you become intertwined in your perfect little romance of an origin story.

You let your guard down around him, he thinks one afternoon, with your feet propped lazily on his couch. He tries not to watch out of the corner of his dilated eyes, the way your legs absentmindedly kick back and forth. The vulnerable to prey pipeline in his mind isn't one he prefers to give any credence to; but frankly, it is quite loud. Pressure builds and builds, and a dog held back by its kennel will grow restless in the absence of an outlet for such instincts.

It drives him up the wall, the way you'd let him do anything to you. Thoughts plague his mind on repeat as he stares up at his ceiling in the middle of the night, twisting a single feather between his thumb and index finger. Do you even know what you're asking for? Oh, he thinks you do. When he presses you down against the bed with a kiss, your legs fall open, entirely subconsciously. When he grips you with his nails tight enough to leave marks, you choke out a moan.

It takes every ounce of his cognitive effort to tap into the rational part of his mind, the part that wants to give it to you slow and sweet.

Saccharine as you are, sweet is what you deserve. But Keigo can see it in your eyes, in the wide-eyed way you blink up at him when he's on top of you, the way you roll your head to expose your jugular: sweet isn't what you want.

The last of his resolve cracks when you lean in and whisper, "you can do whatever you want to me. I want you to."

From that moment on, he starts to allow himself those indulgences. If he wants to make hickies bloom in obscene places, he'll do it. With his eyes so lidded he can barely see, he obliges your request and clicks a collar around your neck. He twists and stares in the mirror at the crimson claw marks on his back after each nightly shower, feathers trembling with a giddy thrill.

Satisfied, finally.

This newfound game of cat and mouse keeps him perfectly stimulated, feeds his need for enrichment and satiates his instincts exactly as he needs it. When you ask him what he'd think about playing a less than innocent game of hide and seek, he swears he's died and gone to heaven.

You're just perfect.

His favorite little chewtoy.

[miniherodesktales]

Sick Days

It was Tuesday morning, a time Lister usually avoided by sleeping until mid-afternoon, but not today. Today he had chores and sick crew mates to care for.

'Again, Bob?! Seriously, don't!'

Chore one: free Bob the Scutter from the toilet. Remind him that there is no treasure down there. That was a lie.

Lister hoses the Scutter down in the shower and finishes just as the alarm started blaring.

Chore two: put the fire out. Cat doesn't like his pancakes being all "flamey". Curry sauce is good at dousing the flames. A little ketchup sweetens them up.

Even when ill the Cat looks elegant, reclining on the sofa in a pink silk dressing-gown and matching slippers.

'I want salmon, bud,' he rasps. 'And milk in a saucer with a gold straw.'

'You've just eaten.'

'Gotta keep my strength up.' The Cat coughs weakly. 'I feel really bad. My eyes are growing weak. I think I'm really going...'

Lister's watch starts beeping.

'Fine! Just give me 10 minutes.'

'Don't be long!' The Cat opens a magazine.

Chore 3: Ignore Kryten

'I'm sorry I'm not well enough to help with the daily chores, sir, I feel terrible.'

'It's fine, Kryten. Stop going on.'

'Very well.'

'....Well?'

'Well what, sir?'

'What did you call me for?'

'Just to say sorry, sir.'

'That's it? Kryten, I've just ran down the corridor to help you!'

'Oh, alright, I just wanted to make sure that you've washed the mop heads correctly. Because if you don't use the right setting on the machine they shed, sir, they shed everywhere.'

'I have to go check on Rimmer!'

Chore 4: Calm Rimmer down

Ion storms had a strange effect on the hologram. Some storms would leave him a foul mood, while this one...

Lister stumbled against the wall as Rimmer hugged him tightly. He had leapt down from the top bunk and was now firmly latched onto Lister.

'Welcome back, welcome back, welcome back!' he sang. 'I missed you, Dave!'

Lister smiles wearily as he pulls himself free.

'Did you get any sleep at all?' he asked.

'How could I when everything is so wonderful and amazing and exciting? Why won't let me out? I can help. I can help with everything!'

'You know why. Because right now you're completely loopy.'

'But I'm bored!'

'Did you do the jigsaw?'

'Yes! But was too easy.'

Lister glances at the JMC medical standard issue subtle cognitive test jigsaw. A simple 10 piece puzzle of a sad looking holographic cat designed to help assess the mental capabilities of holograms whacked out by ion storms. The cat was crying, a single tear drop rolling its face.

Rimmer had neatly stacked the pieces into a tower and then dribbled honey all over it. It was topped with one of those paper novelty umbrellas silly people have in drinks.

'You might need another day off,' Lister concluded. 'Go to bed, go to sleep.'

'No! I want to go dancing! Come dancing with me! Your eyes are so beautiful.'

Another bear hug. Lister tries to push him towards the bunks.

'You're sick. I have chores.'

'I feel incredible! I have so much energy! Don't leave me!'

'Sorry.'

'I love you.'

'I love you too, but right now you're not in your right mind.'

Suddenly Rimmer's mood shifts with the storm.

'I hate you!' he snarls. 'I love-hate you! I hate that so much!'

'That's my man. Be back later.'

Chore 101: Sleep

Much, much later, Lister drags his feet back to the back room. Rimmer is fast out on the sofa. The room was a terrible mess, with books, clothes, mugs, and video games flung everywhere, but it's a relief to see him resting, a good sign that he was finally in the recovery stage.

Lister covers him over with the weighted blanket.

Rimmer stirs.

'I said something...' he mumbles thickly, words slurred. 'I said I hated you...sorry...'

Lister smooths back his hair. 'Not to me. You must have dreamt it.' He kisses Rimmer's cheek. 'Back to sleep. You'll have a migraine tomorrow.'

Rimmer holds onto his hand. 'Stay.'

Lister squeezes his hand back. 'Okay.'

[hsmagazine254]

Unleashing Brilliance: Mind-Stimulating Games For Pets - H&S Pets Galore

Engaging Activities To Challenge And Enrich Your Pet’s Cognitive Abilities Beyond the ordinary walks and play sessions, introducing mind-stimulating games can work wonders for your pet’s overall well-being. This article unveils a spectrum of creative games designed to engage your pet’s mind, providing mental stimulation that contributes to a healthier and happier furry friend. Puzzle Feeders:…

[baphometsss]

will the haters' patronisation of solas enjoyers ever end

for some reason people feel like hating a character who starts off with a shitty outlook and then has it challenged and unravelled in the story makes them morally superior. it's purity culture at its finest. we're literally at the point of these people accusing solas enjoyers of being racist/xenophobic/manipulative/abusive/insert whatever hatemongering buzzword they can think of as if it somehow bolsters their argument, when it actually just makes them look childish and willing to reduce very real and painful struggles to a metric in point scoring for petty online squabbles

i have actually seen people accuse critics of the veilguard as a game to nazis. i wish i was joking. like this is the point that we're at and it's so unbelievably dumb it's kind of funny

one of the reasons arguments based on this logic don't really achieve anything is because they frame every single thing around victimhood and a false dichotomy of victim/perpetrator. like t/erfs for example. they're a fringe movement within feminism for a number of reasons but one of the fundamental reasons is that they heavily focus on reinforcing victimhood rather than empowerment. they seek out and prey on traumatised women, take their trauma and twist it into hate by validating victimhood repeatedly until there's nothing else left but piss and vinegar for other people who aren't exactly like them. in fact, this formula is straight out of the radicalisation playbook used by neo-nazis, terrorists, and similar pieces of shit

instead of reinforcing self-actualisation, self-belief, hope, communion with other people, and understanding of the vulnerability inherent to all human beings (the things trauma survivors actually need), they focus on biological essentialism and other claptrap to explain why more segregation and hate is necessary. it makes this messy, complicated world more digestible for people with cognitive distortions that are so extreme. all under the guise of 'women's safety/rights'. it's unsustainable, because at some point we become perpetrators too and this ideology doesn't make room for that. hence why there's truth to phrases like 'scratch a terf, find a racist'. they flatly refuse to acknowledge intersectionality, because that requires accountability for oneself and by the time they're radicalised they can't view themselves as anything other than victim. and once you're radicalised, you can't connect with people who haven't also been radicalised, so it becomes a vicious cycle.

it's something that's so insidious but it's made its way into every part of our lives. you're not perfect. no one is perfect. everyone is a clusterfuck of bullshit mixed with beauty and love and the potential for pretty much unlimited evolution. that's why i love solas. he's an absolute fuck up in so many ways, but he's also a victim of eras-long emotional abuse, he's suicidally depressed, he's a monumental failure, he's a sad wet cat in elven form and he's one of the most interesting characters i've ever seen. i would take that over some morally 'pure' but flat, one-dimensional and boring companions who talk in therapy speak all day long.

but while we're on the topic of 'fixing him'... what exactly is that even supposed to mean? people can't be 'fixed'. all you can do is heal. and love is nourishment in its purest form. lavellan doesn't 'fix him', nor do they try. they try to help him because they love him, but they're not trying to 'fix' him. the use of this phrase only reinforces my belief that people are falling for the radicalisation in online spaces even more, because it screams cognitive distortion. if you play a high approval inky, they're trying to help him grow and learn and understand. it's sad that so much of social justice has become divorced from love when love is the most important aspect of any kind of justice. people hand-wave and piss on love as if its a bad thing. it's not. and it's certainly not a bad thing to love a character who's fucked up, because they're the hardest ones to love, and therefore the ones who need it most.

[0809sysblings]

not new information by any means, we been knew Amane's motive, but. im never never NEVER gonna stop thinking about how its implied so so often that Amane's murder was, at its core, self-preservation and out of "self-interest" (i hate phrasing it like that because that word has a pretty negative connotation but i hope u get what im saying). like i was listening to her 2nd trial voice drama again and it just hit me how obvious the information is given, how Es just told us straight up that it wasn't the cult that lead her to murder her mom, it was Amane herself. that she's playing a game of pretend acting like shes doing this all on the cult's behalf when, really, it's just her.

its her that wants to help Fuuta. its her that wants Shidou punished. its her that tried to attack Es. its her that killed her mom. its her that was horrifically abused. its her that helped the cat.

theres a sort of cognitive dissonance happening with her and the cult (wow who knew being brainwashed and tortured could do that!). on the one hand, shes Amane and she has always been Amane and nothing is forcing her to act in any way. just cause shes a child doesnt mean she has no free will and is brainwashed! her insistence that she can choose to murder someone and its of her own volition sorta implies thats what she did with her mom. SHE killed her, no one made her do anything. but then on the other hand... it was for the cult and it was something that was mandatory to do for the cult because her mom broke the rules to such an extent that it warranted the worst punishment, death. it wasnt really Amane who did it, she was just acting on the cult's behalf.

she is both Amane and Not Amane. these coexist but they are also inherently contradictory. she is Amane. she is also her faith. her faith is and always has been at direct odds with Amane. they are constantly in conflict with one another. her faith wants to purge her of everything that makes her Amane Momose. but she doesnt want to be anyone else but herself. she cant.

so she has to be both of these things. she wouldnt be able to function otherwise, would she?

[hedwyn-here]

I've been getting back into FF14 (because I can be a buff cat lady now) and after being a diehard Ninja for the majority of the 183 hours I put into this game, I decided to try out something differnet. Gunbreaker, becuase that sounds fun.

Turns out that you don't get any kind of tutorial when you pick it up, so I looked up a guide on YouTube and only made it 2 minutes in to the 11 minute video before I was so drenched in terminology I did not understand I had to leave. "you have to demon slice your spinflux while your chamberchang is in cooldown before you gcd but also you have to make sure oyu use whopping slice twice per minute becuase your whopping slice turns your cleaning wedge into a scrunging clunge, which then turns your prodding poke into a crunching gunge and unlocks your whapping swipe." It's too much! I'm a silly little guy with a silly little cognitive impairment!

I'm going back to ninja. Ninja is easy. You swipe, you swoop, you sweep. And you keep swipe, swoop, sweeping until you can Naruto.

Lightning naruto to hurt one guy, fire naruto to hurt multiple guys, curse the floor naruto when there's a guy who will stand in one spot for a long time, and then others that I don't know what they do, but I chuck them in for variety somet

Anyway, here's my beautiful buff cat, I love her. I finally completed Heavansward thanks to the power of getting to look at her lovingly the whole time.

[freevoidman]

Decided to compile my notes on this crossover (fusion?) between Persona 5 and Digital Devil Saga. For anyone familiar with DDS, the beginning of this will come off as a summation of the game’s main mechanical draws, but once we’re past that we get into original stuff.

Basic Premise:

Any human entering the Metaverse has a chance to be afflicted with the Atma Virus, chances increase if the person is under extreme physical or mental duress.

Humans afflicted with the virus gain an Atma Brand: a black mark that appears somewhere on their body. When this brand is activated (indicated by the brand glowing, lines spreading out from the brand, and the surrounding skin turning black) a human can transform into an Avatar.

The brand is visible to anyone, meaning the thieves (and others) need to hide it.

An Avatar is a human transformed into a demon. This transformation is powered by magnetite—a metaphysical substance that can only be found in Shadows, cognitive beings, and humans.

After their first transformation, Avatars will go into a frenzy and consume as much magnetite as possible to ‘fill an empty store’ to put it lightly. Their human thoughts and reasoning will be borderline zero as they focus solely on eating.

Avatars will always crave magnetite, as it is necessary for their survival and continued existence. This manifests as a ‘hunger,’ primarily via intrusive thoughts, cravings, and violent urges.

If an Avatar does not eat, they will eventually go ‘berserk,’ losing all human rationale and transforming into their demon form, rampaging until their hunger is satisfied or they’re put down by another force.

Avatars can transform in the real world—this isn’t limited to the Metaverse.

The Phantom Thieves:

Akira

First one afflicted by the Atma Virus, becomes the de-facto leader solely because he has slightly longer experience corralling his demon (and Arsene is arguable one of the tamer demons)

Because of the general nature of Digital Devil Saga, he isn't a "wildcard" with access to other Personas. This is an Arsene Only run.

Looks virtually identical to Arsene when transformed, the cloth elements of his design are swapped out for more organic elements (scales, cartilage, etc.)

Has the least powerful cravings, but has frequent intrusive thoughts. Is often disassociating to prevent himself from acting on them.

Atma Brand is the Phantom Thieves’ logo—top hat, mask, flaming eye, the works—and is located on his left pec, directly above his heart.

Ryuji

Second one afflicted by the Atma Virus.

Looks mostly skeletal, with black cord-like muscles weaving through and around his bones. Chest is hollow except for a sparking yellow ‘core’ of electric magic. Does not have his big boat :(

Has powerful cravings that he copes with by running/exercising. Purposefully does this in bad neighborhoods to avoid people he knows and take ‘big risks.’ Has gotten into fights with some people during his runs, he wins, and sometimes satisfies his cravings.

Atma Brand is his skull mask with two bones crossed behind it (similar to Jolly Rogers) over his thigh, right over the break Kamoshida caused.

Ann

Third afflicted with the Atma virus.

Avatar form is an anthropomorphic panther with pink fur. From the chest down it has tight, scale-like armor that is multi-layered, somewhat similar to how Carmen’s dress is layered. Has a pair of curled, flaming pigtails.

Struggles the most with intrusive thoughts, specifically related to guilt and disgust at herself for having to do this. Copes by throwing herself into modeling and binge eating sweets.

Sometimes regrets not devouring Kamoshida’s shadow, but whenever she thinks about that she has a depressive spiral and binge eats more.

Atma Brand is on the small of her back and is an all black, negative space rose.

Morgana

The one exception to the rule! He cannot turn into an avatar, but has access to healing spells.

Claims that he’s a human trapped in a ‘permanent’ avatar form, hence why he looks like a cat both in and out of the Metaverse.

Wants to explore the depths of Mementos as he senses something incredibly important at the bottom, but doesn’t have the strength to get further than the first floors.

Believes that it might be a cure for the Atma virus, but he isn’t certain.

Can calm down an avatar’s cannibalistic urges and hunger by making physical contact with and purring. He doesn’t know why this is the case.

Unlike the OG P5 where Morgana pushes for the establishment of the Thieves to use them to progress through Mementos, here the Thieves must continue so they won’t go berserk and can try to find a cure.

As such, Morgana joins to keep them on track and prevent them from going berserk and slaughtering others, as it would only lead to greater harm and prevent Morgana from achieving his own goals.

Yusuke

Fourth to obtain the Atma Virus.

Avatar form is a mix of Goemon’s usual flair (a large patterned ‘coat’, the posturing, etc.) but with some more kitsune aspects. Similar to Ann’s, Yusuke’s Avatar looks more like an anthropomorphic fox with red markings on his face (to match his mask) and three tails, with the longest one bound in red string.

Like Akira’s form, a lot of the ‘cloth’ elements are altered to be layered scales that are more rigid than the baggy, thin cloth Goemon has. His shoes would be altered into keratin-made claws, he wouldn’t have his pipe, etc.

Unfortunately there’s really no good way to describe this through text. If I could draw, I would :(

Has the most experience dealing with the hunger cravings as Madarme would use food restriction as another method to abuse Yusuke.

Copes the best with his new urges, as hunting shadows and eating them does alleviate some of his human-based hunger, though not by much. It’s also arguably the strongest form of independence Yusuke has had in years, as he is able to ‘get his own food.’

Atma brand is, fittingly, on his stomach. It’s a samurai sword crossed over Goemon’s pipe.

Makoto

Fifth to be afflicted with the Atma Virus.

Handles the change the worst out of everyone, has the most intrusive thoughts and disgust, completely refrains from eating anything in hopes of ‘outlasting’ her urges. Morgana needed to be with her almost 24/7 after she obtained the brand, and she’s the least enthusiastic whenever she needs to hunt.

Has regular panic attacks about her morality, which means she partially transforms a lot with the Atma Brand reacting to her stress.

Avatar form is most similar to Anat, in that she’s a mechanical-like human, but with more of Johanna’s design elements. Her head is also more like Alexandrite from Steven universe, in that there’s a normal ‘face’ that can lift up to expose a more monstrous maw.

Atma Brand is on her right shoulder. It’s a flaming wheel.

Nearly got caught by Sae, who saw the Atma Brand due to her high-shoulder shirt for her summer school uniform. Actively breaks dress code after that and is always seen wearing a long-sleaved shirt or jacket.

Futaba

Sixth to obtain the Atma Virus

Willingly afflicts herself with the Atma virus in her own palace (we will get to how in that fic, I refuse to spoil here)

Similar to P5, Futaba suffers from visual and audible hallucinations following the murder of her mother. Her pain reaches the point of her asking the Phantom Thieves to ‘consume’ her, as she knows what they’re fully capable of with her bugs in the café.

Still suffers from hallucinations after her palace is finished, but instead of being about her family berating her, they’re about her eating and getting revenge on her family.

Copes similarly to P5, where she attempts to ignore it and shuts down. Suffers the most in large crowds due to sensory overload and struggles to not bite people. Uses a lot of stim toys, especially ones designed for chewing.

Appearance is one of the more drastically altered from P5 (like how tf am I meant to change a UFO into something vaguely humanoid). Avatar form’s ‘skin’ is the same as her full-body suit from P5 (black with green accent lines). Has long tentacles with bludgeoning ‘bulbs’ at the end, similar to Necronomicon’s tentacles. Futaba’s hair also turns into cord-like tentacles with tiny mouths on the end. Her face lacks any mouths, and instead has wide, circular eyes that take up half her face. The eyes are primarily green, except for when scanning enemies for weakness (blue) or eating (red).

Brand is on her back, directly between her shoulder blades. It’s a series of three concentric circles with a four-pointed star in the center.

Haru

Seventh to be afflicted with the Atma Virus.

Has the most altered story compared to P5, as I refuse to have Morgana run off like a jackass (especially because he would have an incredibly vital role to the team to help them not go insane).

Instead her problems with her abusive fiancé and father are discovered by Makoto, who has been hanging out with Haru for a sense of normalcy ever since she ‘helped’ with Kaneshiro.

Makoto feels indebted to Haru for her emotional support and decides to help out with making him the Thieves’ new target—this aligns with the Phansite poll saying they should go after Okumura.

Haru gets accidentally dragged in when she follows Makoto one day to try and figure out why she was so busy after probing Haru with questions. This leads to her being cornered and attacked by shadows, nearly dying, and having the Atma Virus attach to her. The rest of what happens I’ll save for her fic >:)

Haru’s appearance is another one that’s drastically different from P5. Unlike the large skirt and bodice that Milady has, Haru has a slim, almost statue-like lower-half that appears to be made of stone. This breaks at her stomach, which has a large, fanged mouth (Milady’s skirt breaking open to the gun compartment). Haru’s upper-half continues the statue motif but breaks around her arms, which are more cartilage-like axes. The final break is right above her nose, where her eyes would be. Instead, the ‘head’ of her Avatar form is filled with pink and purple Hydrangeas that mimic her hair.

Haru’s Atma Brand is on her left shoulder. It’s a gatling gun with ‘explosion’ marks around the muzzle.

Akechi

Was afflicted with the Atma virus long before the events of Persona 5.

Has been hunting for years now, primarily does this by running through Mementos.

Usually dedicates a full day to hunting as his hunger is massive. He can easily out-eat what all the Phantom Thieves usually consume in the span of a day.

When he blackmails the Thieves into Sae’s palace, he accompanies them but never transforms. He instead assists the team by shooting shadows or providing healing items.

Avatar form is identical to Loki, literally no notes needed, he’s beautiful.

Atma brand is on the back of his left hand. It’s a chained circle.

I won’t be writing about Kasumi/Sumire or Maruki in this post, as I want their whole shtick to be a surprise when I post the fic about them (also I… haven’t finished p5r… rip me I’ve had a VERY busy year).

[glitter-stained]

Some advice to protect and support your brain

1. Wear a helmet. Please.

2. I know this must feel exhausting to see repeated if it's something you struggle with, but exercise really does help, in any capacity you can do it. Go for a walk, do a light routine, anything you can. Ask your doctor, look on the internet, if you can figure out a way to do something that works for you and doesn't feel like the nastiest chore in the world I encourage you to try it, at any frequency you can afford.

3. If you get a concussion, even a light one, go to the hospital. If the hospital doesn't orient you towards a neuropsychologist for an evaluation, insist on seeing one, and if they still fail at their job, go see a neuropsychologist in private. (Again, I know this sucks because it's expensive and not affordable for everyone depending on where you live and I'm sorry, this is the best I can give.) Same thing if you got hit in the head, didn't feel like it had consequences at the time, but have since been experiencing struggles with remembering stuff, impulsivity, etc. In general if you've experienced cognitive changes I encourage you to see a neuropsychologist but if you remember getting hit in the head, do mention it to them. Also, do monitor yourself for potential epilepsy, check what the signs are (they can be much less visible than you think), if you think there's a risk make a card to let people know what to do. If you think there's a risk you might have developed epilepsy after the hit, go back to the hospital, and while explaining your concerns mention that you got hit in the head.

4. Do stuff. Look, there are so many experiments and studies about how juggling helps the brain, or music, or knitting, or writing, or learning a language, or gardening, or. So of course I could just tell you to do all of that with a list of studies and be done with it, but it would be pointless. A lot of cognitive remediation programs based on these studies fail because what happened is a therapist who liked piano saw a study on the benefits of playing the piano and shoved all their patients into a piano therapy group. People, whether they're patients with brain damage or you, random tumblr user, have tastes and you do not have to force yourself to learn a new language or whatever pop psych instagram account tells you is the newest brain-hack. It's much more simple than that: your brain grows when you use it, and that creates extra padding that protects you in the case of trauma, injury, but also the effects of aging and the risk of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's. (Well, it's not literal padding, the term is "cognitive reserve", but I think the metaphor is pretty accurate.) So try out shit: board games, reading (audiobooks are also a really cool and undervalued invention like this shit is wonderful), learning a new language (comics or watching stuff in the language helps make that fun), juggling, memorising the dsm-5 criteria for every type of disorder, get into comics, learn an instrument, get into baking, explode your microwave in the process of making raw cookie dough, try being around animals (horseback ballad at a ranch go to a cat cafe etc), learn how to dance from YouTube tutorials... Do whatever you want, figure out what's fun, try to avoid ideas of shame at not being immediately good or the idea that it's childish (it's not immature to have fun, i promise.) And give yourself permission to give up. This isn't an assignment, you don't have to push yourself, explore yourself with the energy of a fourteen years old figuring out how they want to dress: what matters is you find a bunch of stuff you find fun.

5. Socialization is really good for you, both for your cognitive functions but also in general for your mood, resources etc (and also all of those are linked). Whether it's a rpg group, an association you're at, even like people on a discord server, meeting friends on zoom, being a regular at quiz night at the club, trying to connect to people in any way you can really helps. I know it's hard, especially for people who struggle with stuff like autism, anxiety, etc. but building connection with other people, in whatever way works for you, really helps improve your quality of life.

6. Again, I may sound a bit like the doctor you want to punch in the face, but a diet full of all the vitamins and protein and general nutrients you need really helps. And honestly whatever way works for you getting these nutrients helps. I often get b-12 deficient because I struggle with the texture of most meats, so I try to eat eggs and sometimes as a kid my mom would put my steak in a blender and my doctor sometimes prescribes me b-12 supplements so I don't faint: that's what a healthy diet looks like for me. And I know exactly what b-12 deficiency does to the brain, so I use those strategies to incorporate it in my diet because I like the memory issues about as much as I like light-headedness and fatigue. (This also works for diets like veganism or gluten free or literally anything. A healthy diet isn't one where you have to eat every food, it's one where you get the nutrients you and your brain needs, and if that involves taking supplements then that's what's healthy for you.) Eating carrots in carrot cake or zucchini in brownie (getting creative with it) or eating premade soup because you want to eat vegetables but don't have the time or struggle with the texture or really hate vegetables and need them to be in a cake where you don't really taste them- that's what a healthy diet looks like. There's a lot of strategies about eating around sensory issues or restrictions and I'm not an expert but like, the ressources are out there. Keeping hydrated is also really important! Similarly, for people who struggle with water, flavouring packets and teas really help!

7. Sleep is so important. Like, to the point it makes diagnosis harder because lack of sleep fucks up everything from mood to cognitive functions to development so if your patient isn't sleeping, good luck figuring out what they have. So talking to your doctor if you have trouble sleeping, working on designing a bedtime routine that helps you, working to reduce nightmares with your therapist, all of that is super important... And don't underestimate the usefulness of napping! Napping rules.

Now, you may have notice that everything in this list (except maybe the helmet one, though these things do cost money) is easier if you have money. I manage some of the items on that list, but don't assume that I am preaching: more often than not, my diet is the cheapest ramen noodles I can find, and I sleep 4 to 5 hours a night.

That's because neuropsychology, like any form of psychology, is inherently political. It's better wages and union rights to have the time and money to afford eating the diet you need and spending time and money on activities and group outings etc. It's equality in the household so you don't have to spend all the time you do have on taking care of all the chores and kids and never getting to enjoy anything or rest. It's, of course, universal healthcare so you can go to the hospital after you get hit in the head and get those scans and EEG go see that neuropsychologist and meet that therapist and get your doctor to prescribe you medicine that works rather than the medicine your dumbfuck insurance company thinks you should fail. It's good food regulations so that you designing a healthy diet can be about getting the nutrients you need and not avoiding getting poisoned by the food you spent your damn money on. It's all of that and more; it's defending your rights, and fighting for those you don't have. So this is all the advice I have, do your best to be kind to yourself, and I hope you have a wonderful year.