#Future of the franchise chat

[xxplastic-cubexx]

hello!! i just want to tell you that your art is so goddamn scrumptious, you are literally feeding my xmen brainrot and I find myself smiling when i see your art come across my feed. I love how you draw charles, pretty privilege and post (lets be fr he's serving every time)

i hope you always have fantastic brainrot and id kiss your blessed hands for giving us the gift of cherik and charles xavier, you are literally an icon

hope you have a great day ahead of you and more!! you deserve it !!

well i'ma absolutely have a wonderful mornin after readin this AWWWW thank you so so much !!!! i haven't been postin xmen long, so it's been really heartwarmin seein the warm reception to my work in the wonderful tags people have been leavin on my posts- and especially gettin to answer the lovely asks y'all've been sendin in (❁´ ▽ `❁) !! im glad people also like my goofy text posts and esp quotes from my brother he really has no right being so funny at the most random times

i hope to be xmen posting a while: ive got at least 60 years worth of stuff to look through and ongoing, so i dont imagine my interest'll wane anytime soon :]] !!

[todayisafridaynight]

You can't die In Minecraft yet, what if they kiwami Dead Souls and Mine gets brought back 🥺🥺🥺 they already got Ryuji don't tell me there's 0% chance Mine could get revived in the most insane way possible.

love that the possibility of mine being in a dead souls remake should be hoped for more than mine showing up in LaD8

[leidensygdom]

Hasbro's CEO is, once again, expressing interest in using AI at WOTC

Not surprising, but I think his own chit-chat about it (directed at shareholders, of course) is quite the read (derogatory):

"Inside of development, we've already been using AI. It's mostly machine-learning-based AI or proprietary AI as opposed to a ChatGPT approach. We will deploy it significantly and liberally internally as both a knowledge worker aid and as a development aid. I'm probably more excited though about the playful elements of AI. If you look at a typical D&D player....I play with probably 30 or 40 people regularly. There's not a single person who doesn't use AI somehow for either campaign development or character development or story ideas. That's a clear signal that we need to be embracing it. We need to do it carefully, we need to do it responsibly, we need to make sure we pay creators for their work, and we need to make sure we're clear when something is AI-generated. But the themes around using AI to enable user-generated content, using AI to streamline new player introduction, using AI for emergent storytelling, I think you're going to see that not just our hardcore brands like D&D but also multiple of our brands."

This directly fights against WOTC's already very weak claims about not wanting to use AI (after massive backslash from players anytime they had tried to get away with it), and does paint quite the bleak future for DnD and Magic the Gathering. AI usage doesn't really benefit the consumer in any way- It's like a company known for nice homemade cakes trying to tell you that factory made cakes are actually also good and you should be buying them too. The cakes aren't better. You can get those cakes elsewhere. The only person benefiting from factory made cakes is the one selling them, because they're the one saving time and money by making them that way.

But short-term benefits (through firing large portions of their artists and replacing them with AI made slop) outweighs any attempt to maybe get some trust from their already alienated consumers back. I also find it kind of incredibly funny and pathetic how this man claims to play DnD with about 30 to 40 people and "how every single one of them uses AI". I'm not entirely sure this guy is even aware of how DnD groups are usually sized, and how you would not have any physical time to do anything if you somehow played with 40 players on the regular (that'd be about 10 games!)

Anyways, as always, there's nice TTRPGs out there that don't absolutely despise their customer base nor are obsessed with cutting any remains of humanity out of their product to save a few cents. Play Lancer, play Blades in the Dark, play Pathfinder or Starfinder 2e if you want the DnD experience without the bullshit. Plenty of options out there that deserve your money far more than DnD.

[felassan]

Notes on and quotes from today’s new DA:TV coverage content from Game Informer, the video “The Making of Dragon Age: The Veilguard | Cover Story Feature”. The rest of this post is under a cut due to DA:TV spoilers.

First I'll note that the Game Informer video contains spoilers for DA:TV, so bear that in mind before deciding to watch it or read further in this post.

There were no new images, screenshots or videos from the game in the Game Informer video. There was however a series of music pieces playing in the background of the devs talking throughout. I didn't recognize these music pieces (lmk if you did tho pls hh!), so I'm wondering if the music in this video was all-new DA music from DA:TV!! 👁️

Next I will say that there was not much in the way of new information in the video. The devs were chatting about topics, info segments and talking points that have been featured in previous articles & previous coverage on the game. however, the devs seemed really happy and excited, and proud of what they've made, excited to share about it, and that was rly nice to see. :)

For the rest of this post, it is not a 'cliff notes on everything said in the video'-type post. It's just a series of notes on and quotes from the video that particularly stood out to me and that I particularly liked. ^^

"You start DA:TV having chased Solas to Minrathous. You're there to stop his ritual, there to take him down. You're there to find this character, so you're chasing him, you're trying to stop this ritual that he has already said multiple times that he is going to perform before he performs it, because, if he does, the Veil will get torn down, the Fade and the world of the waking will merge, and demons will pour out, pretty much meaning the end of life as we know it".

John Epler: "Solas always feels that he is a tragic hero, but a hero [of the story] nonetheless. So he is coming into this believing firmly that what you stopped him from doing [Rook stopping the ritual the way they did in the gameplay reveal video] was the right thing, that you've made a mistake, but, because now he's trapped, now he can't reach out and actively affect, he needs to work with you. And that allows us to provide a lot of nuance to the relationship, because Solas sees a lot of himself in you, especially the parts of himself that he maybe doesn't like to face, so there is kinda that interesting push and pull between the two characters, Solas and the main protagonist Rook. And you can define what that relationship means. You can continue to be suspicious and hostile towards him. Or you can start to see him and find that common ground, find that connection between the two of you and really develop a different relationship over thee course of the story." Mark Darrah: "This is a good direction to take the Solas story. It allows us to hopefully give a good conclusion to all of the varied attitudes towards Solas that are gonna be coming into this game. People who love Solas, people who agree with Solas, people who hate Solas, people who want to kick Solas off of a building, I think that we give you the opportunity to bring that to a close, but then tell a greater story about The Veilguard and about the world as a whole."

BioWare wanted to tell a story this time where you literally cannot save the world without these characters

The companions have relationships with each other too. "They have friendships, they have rivalries, and lean into that concept, you're not just pulling together a bunch of people who will do whatever you say, you're assembling a family and that becomes the core of what The Veilguard is all about. It's about taking this group, this found family and saving the world side by side with them."

In the game, things and the storytelling are done towards a goal, towards a storytelling goal, "towards the future" [of the franchise it sounds like], not 'just because' or 'just to do them'

John: "The message of The Veilguard is, you’re not saving the world on your own. You need your companions but you also need these factions, these other groups in the world. You help them, they help you. Now, something we wanted to avoid, because, you know, there's always the trope of, 'oh yeah, I would help you save the world but I need you to go gather 200 wood', it's kind of a silly concept, so what we wanted to build is these factions that do want to help you but have realistic challenges, problems in front of them. So narratively, you help them with their problems, they will help you with yours when the time comes, but beyond that each faction has a follower, as well as an ancillary character we’re calling 'agents', who exist as these, face of the faction. We’re not gonna get too deep into those right now, but we didn’t wanna just say, 'here's the Wardens, go deal with the Wardens', we wanted to have characters within that faction who are sympathetic, who you can see and who become the face of that faction, so even if there's moments where the faction as a whole may be on the outs with you, these characters are still with you, they’ve still got your back. It’s a core with what we’ve done with the storytelling in this game. We wanted to make sure all the content you did felt relevant. Everything you do has a purpose and has a tie back into the critical path. Sometimes it's more explicit than others, but there is always a sense that you are moving towards the goal of stopping the elven gods, stopping the end of the world, and it's not just [like how some of the side content in DA:I was]. Helping these people, helping these groups, so that they can help you when the time comes."

In the story and tone of this game, it has the highest of highest and the lowest of lows. At the lowest of lows, "it gets gritty, it gets painful, it gets dark", but there are also nice positive moments in the game and a colorful, optimistic throughline. Corinne: "This identity is something special for the franchise now and for the franchise going forward"

"the depths of Arlathan Forest"

"In the case of Arlathan, what does it look like when you go to the place where the elves had their ancient empire that was run on and fuelled by magic? What does the aftermath of that look like, especially when the gods are out in the world and raw magic is seeping back out from the Fade."

DA has always been a series where in the world, the truth has multiple perspectives

We will journey out from the Lighthouse into the area of the Fade known as the Crossroads, "which is full of mysteries, exploration, branching paths". We will take eluvians to the far corners of northern Thedas

Some of the environments are more mission-focused, "with narrative beat after narrative beat"

"We know what's gonna happen, we know when it's gonna happen, but of course it's influenced by all the decisions you've made as the player along the way"

There are also more non-linear, more open areas in which we will be able to open up new sections of the map, find new pathways, "really leaning into solving mysteries and finding ancient treasures and some of our apex battles, there are some truly terrifying enemies that you're going to encounter when you're left to your own means to kind've explore these larger areas".

"Tevinter has always been a land where mages rule, they are in charge, they make the rules and run the show. So what does that look like? And, as we've gone through DA:O, DAII and DA:I, magic has become more and more present, and part of that is because Solas has been slowly preparing this ritual for longer than anyone in the DA universe is really aware of, but also just, going into these spaces where magic is, by definition, and by the lore, much much more present. It's been fun"

For the first time in DA BW are able to let the visuals speak for themselves (as in, the technology has caught up and they aren’t just saying 'trust us, this [magic thing] is really cool')

They took great care with how they introduce each companion and major story character

Corinne is really proud of what BW have built with the CC. "It is a game where everyone belongs"

A new to DA feature in CC: full body customization with pretty robust diversity. Body shape, body size, body proportions

They invested huge effort into their strand hair technology. There are numerous hairstyles in the game, they know how much the fans care about hair and Corinne is one of these people. They know that the range of hairstyles matters too and that it is not just about quantity. "Making sure we have diverse representation for all types of players."

They took a step back and asked, how are we going to incorporate things like your background in a meaningful way?

They call difficulty levels "playstyles". This is integrated into the CC process. You can select a number of preset experiences that your character will adopt and step into the game with, but you can also customize that playstyle e.g., if you're bad at parrying, you can ease this up

Some of the locations that we will visit are "bustling cityscapes." "We're gonna go right into the heart of the Tevinter empire. We're also going to a city in Antiva called Treviso"

Corinne Busche: "[those places] have a dense populace and we knew we needed to have the tools to support a wide range of NPCs. You will not find NPCs that look alike in this game. Each one is crafted using the same tools that we're giving to our players, with the exception of some of our custom-sculpted characters like the companions. So when you go up to that market vendor in Minrathous, you can make that character. When you see the guards patrolling the street, you can make that character too. You can therefore be inspired by the population around you and go and create that in CC."

The Lighthouse as we know is our HQ and base of operations. Each of the companions has their own sanctuary, their own room within it. These spaces become a reflection of who they are. The more time we spend with them as the game develops, as we work through their arc, their room and their personality will evolve and flourish and become more complete as they trust us and we understand them better

Corinne: "There are moments in the game where two of our companions fell in love with each other and I had to make some pretty challenging choices as it related to the quest we were on, and it broke my heart, it absolutely did"

The game tries to give the player as much agency as it can, and then reflect it back on us. Choice and consequence can be hard to show, but this is a game about agency and about giving us options

We can upgrade gear and enchant gear, this extends to the companions too

The 3 specs for each of the 3 classes are highly distinct

Every attack, every swing of a sword, when you connect you feel it, these have weight

Companion abilities can be queued up one after the other

The devs are really proud of this game and excited about it. Everything that's in the game is in there because someone cares about it. The game really reflects the dev team and it's coming together well, they are really excited for us to get our hands on it soon

[source]

[minus-plus-zer0]

The Bakusquad Gaming Group - Ch. 4 - It's Official

| Masterlist | The Bakusquad Gaming Group Masterlist | | Previous | Next (TBD) | ♡ Genre: Fluff, suggestive ♡ Pairing: Gamer!Bakugou x Gamer!Reader ♡ Tags: Crossover (MHA x multiple franchises), gaming AU, Quirkless AU, aged up

Many Let's Players, including yourself, marked the upcoming gaming convention on your calendars several weeks in advance.

You and the Bakusquad were both set to attend, but you were only welcomed as a visitor. The Bakusquad became big enough to host their own live panel with Q&A, set on the first day of the convention. You didn’t get one because you didn’t have a big group like theirs, but your fanbase was still hyped for your own attendance. Many commenters clamored for more interactions between you and Bakugou at the convention, and people expected you to visit their panel specifically. Your fans often asked when you would officially join the Bakusquad, to the point of irritation.

The Bakusquad secretly planned to have you join them on their trip to the convention center. You wanted your appearance at their particular panel to be a surprise for the fans, so you never confirmed any of the fan's theories as to whether you would or wouldn't visit the Bakusquad panel in particular. You just informed everyone that you would be attending the upcoming convention, and left it at that.

The Bakusquad shared their panel schedule with you. The entire group would be sitting at a long table in front of the audience with their leader Bakugou standing at a podium leading the event. First, they would start with introducing their members, after that they'd show some skits they put together, then they'd proceed to announcements for future projects, videos, and merch, and finally they'd get to the Q&A section where fans would line up to ask them questions. They planned for you to be the first audience member in line for Q&A disguised as a fan and from there, you'd surprise everyone by joining them on their panel table. But they weren't sure of how exactly this would work. You'd figure it out later.

All the Bakusquad members (besides Bakugou himself) would be vlogging throughout their trip and posting it all later on their shared Bakusquad channel. Your appearances in these vlogs would be your first appearance on their shared group channel, though nobody knew the Bakusquad had invited you at all. The videos wouldn't be posted until after you left the convention. Your continued collaborations with the Bakusquad in the several weeks leading up to the panel only built up the hype for how the group would handle your eventual convention appearance.

Over the past months that you've known the Bakusquad, you chatted with all their members over numerous streams. This would be your first time seeing your friends in-person. The group already planned to meet you at the airport shortly before the convention started. From there, you'd travel to the convention center together.

The day before the convention, you landed at the airport, prepared to join the rest of the group. Bakugou's head was on a swivel until he caught sight of you, then he flagged you down.

You rushed over to the Bakusquad, carrying your luggage and waving at them. Ashido gave you a big hug when you finally reached them, with Bakugou scrutinizing you two from the sidelines.

"I finally get to see you in-person!" Ashido cried. "You're so much different than what I imagined!"

"But you've seen me on my facecam..." you said, as you and Ashido suffocated each other in the hug.

"It's probably your height," Sero said. "Nobody imagines height correctly." Kirishima nodded.

"You're different than what Bakugou said you'd look like!" Kaminari chimed in. "He told me--"

"I didn't tell you jack shit," Bakugou snapped. "Raccoon Eyes, let 'em go. Don't wanna see you two snuggling the entire damn trip."

Ashido released you. "What? Afraid I'm gonna steal her from you?"

"You couldn't steal candy from a fucking baby!"

"Let's not fight!" you said. "This is supposed to be a happy occasion, right?"

"Have you met us?" Jirou asked. "We're not exactly a group that's known for getting along all chummy and shit."

You pouted. "But I like being chummy... and shit."

Bakugou patted your head. "Don't get too chummy with the wrong crowd." He glared at Ashido, who didn't care at all. "Don't worry about them, worry about yourself. We can go over the convention plans in the car. Let's move, people."

You spent the day hanging out with the Bakusquad. It wasn't so different from your chats online except that the group was much more chaotic in-person. They loved to rib one another, and sometimes it felt like it was every man for himself. For example, Jirou teased you for getting emotional and sensitive in your last dating sim and Bakugou nearly ripped her to shreds on the spot. You held Bakugou back before he could land himself in prison.

But the group members also supported one another, including you. They always made sure to include you in conversations and it felt easy to talk with them as you did before online, like they were still your same old friends. Bakugou chatted with you most of all.

"Never heard Bakugou talk this much before outside of streams," Kaminari said, as your group walked around town. "It's weird seeing him semi-friendly."

"That's a blatant lie," Bakugou snapped. "You've known me for how long?!"

"Come to think of it," Sero said, "this is my first time hearing Bakugou speak. I usually just tune him out automatically."

"I thought he was mute!" Ashido said, shrugging.

Once again, you had to hold back Bakugou from committing murder. This continued several times throughout the day, with the other members sometimes using you as a human meat shield against their leader.

The group eventually got too accustomed to you reigning in Bakugou, soon growing cocky and taunting Bakugou even more than before. They accused him of being overly fluffy, committing various crimes, and being unable to hide his fondness for you. That last one embarrassed you so much you couldn't hold back Bakugou anymore, and the entire group ran away to avoid a raging Bakugou. You were left in the dust until Bakugou led you back to where the group hid.

Afterwards, your group ate out together at a restaurant and then finally retired to a hotel. You shared a hotel room with Ashido and Jirou, each person with their own separate bed. Bakugou had his own hotel room and the other three guys shared a room with only two beds, which was quite strange. You didn't know if two of the three boys shared a bed, if one of them brought a sleeping bag from home, or if one of them just duct-taped themselves to the ceiling for a place to sleep. You didn't ask. Ashido giggled every time you mentioned it, though.

Around late evening, Ashido and Jirou left your shared hotel room to get some late night snacks. You texted Bakugou that you were terribly bored being alone, and he texted you something intriguing.

"Come over."

It almost sounded like a command, though you knew he'd respect your rejection if you didn't want to go. Still, you went.

His hotel door was open when you reached it. "Bakugou?" You popped your head inside.

"Yo." Bakugou sat on the edge of the bed, waiting for you.

You locked the door behind you and approached him, a little jittery. "I'm so excited for this convention. It'll be my first, you know?"

"Mine too," he said, as you sat down beside him. "First time being on a panel, anyways."

"I'm so proud of you," you said. "Don't forget about me after you grow eternally famous."

"...'Course I won't. Remember what we planned. And don't get too nervous, alright? 'Cause I can tell you're nervous right now."

His hand stroked your face briefly. He smirked. You bit back a smile, but it still appeared nevertheless.

"It's not really our planned surprise that's making me nervous," you admitted. "I think it's more your doing..."

"How bad is it?"

"It's keeping me from sleeping for sure."

"Why don't you go to bed?" Bakugou asked, his voice almost a growl.

"I'm already here, aren't I?" you said, innocently.

Bakugou drew closer to you, your noses almost touching.

"That's exactly what I meant..."

Your phone rang. You both jumped back. You scowled at the wretched incoming call. It was Ashido. You glanced at Bakugou before taking the call.

"Hey!" Ashido cried. "Where the heck are you?! We have your snacks right here!"

"Yeah," Jirou chimed in. "Get the fuck back here. We're getting real hungry and we might start eating your portion. Or do you want us to hunt for you?"

Jirou must've known exactly where you went. Maybe Ashido did too. You couldn't let them find you here.

"Um, gimme a second, okay? I'm kind of busy!"

"Busy with what--"

You hung up on them. Bakugou was still staring at you the entire time. His expression was unreadable.

"Sorry," you said. "I don't want them to find me in here. They'll think--"

"I know exactly what they'll think."

Your heart was still beating out of your chest, and so was his.

"I'm sorry," you said. "I have to go. I just--"

"Go."

"Okay. Alright. Goodnight."

"Night."

You didn't get to talk to Bakugou about your little tryst the following day. You felt it was your fault for leaving, but you didn't think you could convince Ashido and Jirou to stop searching for you even if you were blunt about your situation.

The group would soon start preparing for their panel and there wasn't any time to waste. As the group's leader, Bakugou would make sure that the Bakusquad got through all their panel segments on time and generally keep the other idiots in line.

You worked overtime to help manage the group, even though it wasn't officially your job. Like a true parent, you kept everyone fed, stopped numerous fights, and made fun of them even worse than how they made fun of each other. You caught Bakugou snickering at some of your teasing.

The turnout for the Bakusquad event was much bigger than anyone expected, and the audience almost filled out the entire room. Every single one of the Bakusquad members was pretty nervous. It showed in a number of ways, like fidgeting or chattiness. Bakugou was quieter than he usually was, separate from the rest of the group. Nobody else seemed to notice.

Bakugou reassured the group throughout the day that they'd 'give the audience hell' and would 'show them what they're made of'. But you still worried about him.

You found some alone time with Bakugou before the show started. You started stroking his arm rhythmically to calm him down.

"...Are ya doing this for me or more for yourself?" Bakugou asked, quietly.

"A bit of both," you said, resting your head against his shoulder. "I know you're a big scaredy cat deep down."

"You're the scaredy cat..."

Bakugou pulled you against him for a hug. You could hear how fast his heart raced inside his chest. You buried your face in his chest, trying your best to soothe his worries. You weren't sure if you were making him more or less relaxed.

"We start in a few minutes!" Kirishima called out in the distance.

You abruptly pulled away from Bakugou. You saw him mentally snap out of his reverie, and you wondered what he was thinking regarding your hug just now. But there' wasn't time.

"Got your fill?" you asked. "It's starting soon. I know you'll do great out there, trust me. So break a leg!"

"Will do." Bakugou walked away, never breaking your gaze. "And thank you, I mean it. Watch me while I'm up there, alright? Don't take your eyes off me."

You nodded. Bakugou walked out onto the panel, where the other Bakusquad members sat at a lengthy table in front of the audience. You scurried off to your reserved seat in the audience area, putting on a unicorn mask to disguise yourself. For now, you'd pretend to be a normal fan. From your seat, you checked up on Bakugou, who still seemed to be flustered from your earlier interactions.

Many audience members wore the Bakusquad's merchandise. Most members wore Dynamight's merch, with his iconic explosion logo and faceless designs. He once told you in private he hated the idea of people wearing his face, and you always laughed at the thought of it.

Some other fans wore your merch too. There was a large overlap between your fanbases nowadays. Online, there were numerous fans asking if you were present at the convention right now. The girls sitting next to you were even reading fluffy Bakugou x You fanfiction to pass the time... You hoped none of these people would recognize you now that you were disguised as a beautiful latex unicorn.

Bakugou scanned the crowd for you and spotted your unicorn mask soon enough. You gave him two peace signs that he definitely saw. He could barely tear his eyes away from your silly disguise until Kirishima reminded him to start.

Bakugou straightened the microphone on his podium, the rest of the group sitting at a long table facing the audience.

"Yo," Bakugou said. "I'm Bakugou Katsuki, aka Dynamight, the leader of the Bakusquad. And these are the lackeys that do my bidding."

"You wish," Jirou said.

"We're more like his personal group of bullies!" Ashido said. The others nodded.

"Our videos never exactly go to plan due to this type of behavior," Bakugou said, with a sneer. "In case you couldn't fucking tell, we're a gaming group. We vlog, and we enter competitions, and all that shit. You guys wanna introduce yourselves?"

The rest of the Bakusquad members introduced themselves as Bakugou asked to varying levels of applause. Bakugou garnered the most applause by far, while the rest gathered less applause, along with more formal canned reactions. You wondered how many people would applaud for you.

After their introductions, they moved onto announcements and the skits they produced. Most of the skits were just them dicking around, and often had nothing to do with video games. But the audience liked seeing the Bakusquad get into trouble. Occasionally Bakugou glanced at you to check your reaction and he looked pleased to catch you giggling. You shooed him away if he stared too long.

Finally, the Q&A section started and fans started lining up to ask questions. You got in line first before anyone else. Many of the Bakusquad members glanced at your unicorn mask waiting in line, thinking about the question you'd love to ask them as a 'fan'.

You kind of knew what you generally wanted to ask, but you didn't form an exact script. Bakugou would be handling the questions, so you'd have to improvise a bit on the fly. You walked up to the microphone set up for the Q&A fans, facing the Bakusquad with your unicorn mask still concealing your face.

You asked them a question that Bakugou knew was coming, something that fans already asked them a million times on social media.

You asked about yourself.

"When is that pink gamer girl gonna show up at your panel?"

The audience groaned at your annoying question. Some even glared.

“I dunno." Bakugou grinned. "When are you?”

You took off your unicorn mask. The audience gasped.

"Everyone, meet our newest Bakusquad member!"

You took off your unicorn mask and walked up to the stage. The audience's groans transformed into cheers upon seeing you. The fans wearing your merchandise shrieked and you high-fived them as you walked past. Even so, their cheers were not enough to rival everyone's cheers for Bakugou from earlier. You took an extra seat besides Bakugou's podium at the long table, the bright production lights almost blinding your eyes. You overheard some audience members talking about you. "Dynamight's girlfriend joined the Bakusquad!"

"She's gonna be a permanent part of our videos from now on," Bakugou said, looking happy to have you by his side. "And since she's now officially part of our group, you can start bugging her with questions too."

"Now you guys can finally stop asking us when she'll join," Kirishima said. Some of the Bakusquad laughed at that.

"But don't go asking any shipping-related shit!" Bakugou said. "That stuff's banned from Q&A. Onto the next question."

Some of the crowd looked disappointed by the shipping ban, but most were still hyped. You were nervous, and didn't know what questions to expect.

The first real fan approached the microphone after you left it, wearing a Dynamight T-shirt.

"Um, hi!" the fan said. "Just wanted to say I'm excited to meet you all, including the newest member." The crowd let loose a few cheers. "So my question is kinda weird. But it's something I ask at every panel. Uh, how did you guys sleep last night?"

"Oddly intrusive question," Jirou said. "Me and Ashido I barely slept at all, we were up gaming."

"Did you guys know that these three boys slept together?" Ashido gestured towards Kirishima, Sero, and Kaminari. "And yet they only had twoooo beds! What's up with that?"

"Speaking of which, how did you sleep last night?" Sero asked Kaminari in a sultry tone, complete with bedroom eyes.

"I slept great, thanks to you..."

"Fucking shut the fuck up!" Bakugou said, slamming his hands on the podium. "I don't wanna hear about your creepy ass love lives!"

"Clearly someone does," you said, side-eyeing the audience. "I think it's cute."

"At least we have a love life!" Kaminari cried. "What do you have? A single hotel bedroom, all to yourself?"

You and Bakugou shared a quick glance at each other. Nobody actually knew that you visited his bedroom the other night, and you sure as hell weren't going to reveal anything here.

"My bedroom is my business," Bakugou said.

"Bet there's no 'business' going on in there," Ashido said. Jirou whooped and high-fived her. The audience laughed with them.

"Fucking shut up, all of you." Bakugou glared at the audience. "All of you."

"Aw come on you guys!" you said, desperately trying to save Bakugou's dignity. "It doesn't matter if Bakugou's got nothing going on. It's okay to be single, don't you know?"

"You're making things worse," Bakugou said.

"Wait hold on a minute! Hold on a minute!" Everyone (except Bakugou) turned to Kirishima. "So you're agreeing he's got nothing going on? Even you? 'Cause by the way the shippers talk I thought you'd--"

"Don't mention the damn shippers!"

Some of the audience cheered and shrieked, and you knew exactly which part of your current audience was the shippers. It was those people in particular.

"I thought the shipping ban was for the fans only?" Kirishima asked. "I don't ship anybody..."

"No, the ban is for everyone!" Bakugou said. "For her sake, we're not mentioning any 'shipping' for the rest of the panel." Bakugou briefly glanced at you. "No shipping questions and no shipping talk from these traitors. Or else I'll fucking 'ship' you to Africa."

"I slept fine by the way!" you said, cheerfully.

The next few questions were directed to the other Bakusquad members. You drank some water as you tried to calm down, wondering when you would be asked a question. Finally, a new fan stepped towards the microphone, his question addressed to Bakugou and you.

"Is it true that Dynamight and the new girl went to university together?"

"We actually did!" you said. "He was apparently the star quarterback on the university's sports team. Made headlines and everything. But we never talked to each other."

"It's a shame I never even saw you once," Bakugou said.

"I wish we would've met back then," you said, smiling at the boy. "Apparently you had a different haircut back in uni. Less fluffy."

"Think he would've had the same personality though," Kaminari said. "The same, awful personality."

"Shut your trap!" Bakugou snapped. "The question doesn't involve you."

"Hey, I was just kidding!"

Bakugou sighed. "Anyways, if we did meet back then, our channels probably would've turned out differently."

"Oh absolutely!" you said. "The audience may not know this, but Bakugou was a huge fan of my channel before we met. We both binged a lot of each other's videos like, all the time. And he actually modeled his channel after mine!"

Bakugou averted his eyes from you, embarrassed. Still, he didn't deny what you said.

"But your content is completely different..." Jirou said, twirling her hair. "Bakugou's never done tea time with his chat members."

"Not yet!" You wiggled your eyebrows at Bakugou.

"Not ever. Next question."

A few more fans passed around questions to various Bakusquad members before the final fan addressed you, one more time. It was one of the girls reading Bakugou x You fanfiction that you saw earlier.

"Not a shipping question, but what do you and Dynamight like most about each other?"

This question was definitely toeing the line of 'shipping', but you couldn't call it out. You didn't want to be rude to your fans. So you tried playing it off as a joke, with both you and Bakugou suddenly scrutinizing each other.

"Is there anything I like about this guy?" you asked yourself, stroking your chin.

"If you don't like me, why are you always hanging out with me? Huh?"

The audience fawned over your interaction with a suggestive "Ooooo!" You really didn't mean to flirt in front of everyone, but perhaps that was how they interpreted it. Even the fan at the microphone got excited.

"You're not gonna answer the question?" Bakugou asked.

"You first." You really had no idea how to salvage this situation.

Bakugou groaned. "I don't fucking know... I really love your hair. Happy?"

You cringed internally. Couldn't Bakugou choose a trait that wasn't tied to your appearance? You glared at him but he wasn't looking at you or anyone. The man appeared suspicious as all hell.

"Well I like your temper," you said, with a lackadaisical flick of your hand. "Makes it easy to rile you up for views."

The audience also fawned and squealed over that comment, which you didn't interpret as suggestive at all. You didn't know what ran through their minds, and you didn't want to know.

Kirishima leaned over and quickly whispered to you, "You're both really awful at this, you know that?" You couldn't even snap back a response without alerting everyone in the audience watching you.

"That's one way to fucking end things," Bakugou said. "We're officially outta time for Q&A."

"And thanks to everyone else who came!" you cried. "To the rest of you still in line, we're so sorry we couldn't take everyone's questions. We really had a lot of fun today!"

The rest of the Bakusquad thanked the audience and said their goodbyes. After the panel, your group stuck around to sign autographs and take photos with the fans. Bakugou held back unless you specifically joined him in the fan's photos. Otherwise, the boy was ready to call it quits with the panel event to explore the rest of the convention. Bakugou's eyes kept shifting back towards you every now and then.

Even after the panel finished, you wondered about Bakugou's comment. Was your hair really your best trait? Or was he hiding the real answer from the audience and you? You needed to know. After all, your own answer wasn't entirely honest. You didn't hate his temper and you did enjoy teasing him, but it wasn't your favorite trait of all time. The first positive thing about him that came to mind was his appearance, but blurting that out wouldn't have helped either.

Maybe you should've denied the fan's question entirely. Maybe you should've gotten media training prior to the panel. You didn't know.

The rest of the group split up to explore the other panels at the gaming convention. You found yourself alone with Bakugou in a courtyard close to the convention center, with fewer people around. Your heart skipped a beat.

"So... you like my hair?" you asked, a hand on your hip.

"Don't read into it," Bakugou said, quickly looking away. "I had to give 'em something."

"Couldn't you give them something that wouldn't feed the shippers?"

"You fed them too! Fuck, they would've been fed off of anything we do! If we stood next to each other, they'd assume we're married! Worry about it when we get even more famous."

"Guess so... Say, what was your real answer to their last question?"

"You're asking what I like most about you?" Bakugou folded his arms and grinned. "I dunno. Guess you're pretty cute when you're all worried like you were on stage."

You pouted. "It was a normal amount of nervousness! You were nervous too!"

"Not as much as you. Probably 'cause you helped calm me down earlier. I also love it whenever ya argue with me."

"That must be why you love pestering me," you said.

"Maybe... But if I'm being honest, there's a whole lotta other stuff I love about ya."

Bakugou stroked your face. You held still, not pulling away from him. The few other people in the courtyard didn't notice you two.

Bakugou gulped.

"So what was your answer?" Bakugou asked.

"My answer? Hm... It's probably your hair that I like most. Just so soft."

"Is that all ya like about me?" Bakugou looked at you, seriously.

"No, there's so much more than that..."

"...Guess we're the same."

Bakugou leaned in and kissed you, exhaling through his nose. His lips were warm like his body, somewhat chapped yet still inviting. His hand still cupped your face, tilting your head slightly so he could deepen the kiss better. Bakugou groaned into your mouth, kissing you like a starved man. You loved the kiss but you couldn't reciprocate with half as much pressure as he was giving; the boy wanted to immediately transform his first kiss into his first makeout session. His lips wouldn't waste this rare opportunity of getting to kiss you.

Bakugou pinned you against a nearby courtyard pillar while you were all too aware of the people nearby. You broke away from his kiss, the both of you catching your breath.

"You're lucky nobody saw that," you whispered.

"Don't care," he said, voice rough. "Wanted ya so bad."

Somebody turned towards your direction and you straightened yourself, trying to act natural. Bakugou followed your lead, scratching the back of his neck to hide his face from others. A few more people poured into the courtyard from the convention center and you couldn't resume your intimacy with an audience.

You pulled on Bakugou's arm. "How about we enjoy the convention center together? I promise we can save all that other stuff for later..."

"Oh we're definitely picking back up again later, dammit!"

Still reeling from his first kiss, Bakugou followed after you like a lost puppy. You spent the entire day with Bakugou. It honestly felt like a real date, though neither of you two said anything directly about your kiss. You didn't know where your relationship was. You didn't know whether you or Bakugou wanted to be public about your relationship yet.

Throughout the entire day, you couldn't get the image of you and Bakugou nearly making out from your mind's eye. You wondered if Bakugou was the same; he kept peeking at your lips every now and then. When he held your face with one hand, his fingers brushed dangerously close to the edges of your mouth. But you two never got another private moment to kiss with all these people around. Bakugou made sure to protect you and your privacy.

You soon reconvened with the rest of the Bakusquad. Bakugou certainly wouldn't spill any juicy details to them, instead acting cagey whenever the group members inquired on your time together. Over lunch and later dinner you two didn't have much alone time to yourselves. Bakugou kept trying to invite you somewhere more private, but you never got the chance.

It wasn't until nighttime that you saw Bakugou alone again.

Overnight, all of your members kept trying to prank and mess with each other while people tried to sleep, which led to no one getting any sleep at all. 

Bakugou was the best at staying unharmed, since he had his own bedroom as well as the only key to its lock. You were the only one allowed inside because Bakugou got you an extra key for his room.  

You saw the opportunity to strike, and you took it. 

It was late at night, far later than when Bakugou usually slept. Ashido and Jirou already caught you sneaking out of your shared bedroom, but they didn't stop you. If anything, they pushed you out into the hallway. It was very encouraging.

You knew that even though Bakugou wanted to see you alone all day long, he couldn't possibly stay up this late just for that. His old grandpa genes wouldn't let him. So you crept into his bedroom without issue.

Bakugou's room was entirely dark and you quickly closed the door behind you to prevent too much light from getting in. You snuck over to him and you could hear the lazy rhythmic breathing of his body. It was so cute.

You were dead tired from staying up this late, but you needed to prank him as this could be your only chance during the convention. You gave him one test poke. Bakugou moved and your heart leapt out of your chest, but he only rolled over to the other side of the bed. He still looked asleep. 

Frustrated, you got onto the bed to get back within poking distance of the beast. You giggled quietly as you prepared your real attack.

Then, Bakugou grabbed you by your waist. You shrieked and shrieked but he wouldn't let go.

You tumbled backwards and managed to turn on a lamp. His arms had an iron grip on your waist, alongside a devilish grin on his sleepy face, as he caught you right in the act. 

"Where do ya think you're going?" he asked, bags under his eyes. 

"How long have you been awake?" you asked.

"Since you opened the door. If you wanna prank me, don't make it so damn obvious!" 

He clung to you tighter, pulling you back onto the bed. Then he rose up on his knees, grabbed a pillow, and smacked you with it (softly). 

"Stop!" 

He smacked you again (softly).

"Hey stop!"

You grabbed the pillow before he could hit you and you both played tug-of-war with it. With your free arm, you grabbed a different pillow and them smacked his face with it, forcing him back. You sat upright, your new pillow locked and loaded. 

"Did ya come here just to kill me?" he asked, still grinning.

"No, but that option isn't exactly off the menu."

"What else was on the menu?"

You were about to answer his unanswerable question until you heard footsteps and a voice outside. 

"Who's making all that noise?" someone called out.

Both of your heads snapped to the front door, and you saw that it was still unlocked.

"You didn't lock the door!" Bakugou said through gritted teeth.

You shot him an apologetic look and rushed over to lock it properly. Once you did, you turned back to him, still wielding his hotel pillow as your temporary weapon-of-choice. But you didn't want to risk making anymore noise, not while there were still footsteps outside. And you couldn't return to your bedroom with people searching outside. So that left one option.

"You wanna actually sleep for once?" you asked, holding your pillow behind your back. 

Bakugou slammed his pillow back into its proper place. "That's what I was fucking doing before you arrived!" He looked a little nervous before he voiced his next thoughts. "...C'mon back over, if ya want. They might catch ya if you try to leave."

You walked over to him, shyly. He didn't take his eyes off you as you approached. 

Once you got near the bed you lightly pushed his shoulder. "Um, move please."

"Move where?"

"...Back to where you were originally sleeping..." 

He raised an eyebrow at you and then did so, climbing under the covers while scrutinizing you. "This is the only time I'll let somebody boss me around."

"No it's not," you said, smiling. You put your pillow back into its place and climbed into bed after him, with his eyes never leaving you. His eyebrow raised the tiniest bit the closer you got to him, his body stiffening.

"Hi." You gave him a small wave from your side of the bed, which wasn't that far from him.

"Fucking hello, I guess," he said, waving back. He gulped. "If you're comfortable with this, don't be so damn formal..."

He yanked you over (a little too quickly) to his side of the bed. You squealed. You were almost nose-to-nose now, your arms defensive against your chest but your face beaming up at his. He looked down at you softly, still gripping your arm a bit too firmly before finally remembering to release you. You both looked dead tired, and you felt it too.

"Thanks for sharing your bed with me so I wouldn't get caught," you murmured slowly.

"Thanks for stealing it from me with my permission," Bakugou said, groggily. Bakugou yawned despite himself and he looked even more tired afterwards. "Stay as long as ya want. I'd never kick you out, so you're safe with me. Don't ever feel like you need to leave." He poked the tip of your nose. "Just don't try to kill me in my sleep or whatever..." 

"No promises..." you said, your eyelids doing the same. 

Bakugou stared at you for a few seconds, as if contemplating his next move. Then, Bakugou tentatively pressed his lips against yours, his breathing a bit stilted. When you reciprocated the kiss, Bakugou pushed further with growing confidence, making sure to get his fill of love for the night before sleeping. Giggles bubbled out of you and you pulled away from his long-held kiss to peck his face several times. Bakugou grumbled then pecked your own face double the amount times you pecked him, just to prove a point. When he finished, he was staring down at you again, his eyelids drooping.

He looked at you like you were the most precious thing he'd ever saw.

"You're so pretty," he said, his voice somewhat slurred. "But are we actually gonna sleep now? Or what?"

He looked somewhat desperate, like he wanted you to say no. You weren't sure what you wanted.

"You tell me..."

You wrapped your arms around his neck, waiting for his next move. Bakugou stilled, his movements stiff as his arms wrapped around you in return, holding you even tighter than how you held him. Bakugou gingerly kissed you on the lips.

If your fans could see you two now, they'd have much more ammo for their fanfiction...

(The moment when you join the Bakusquad is based off of a real life gaming group moment, if anyone gets the reference! A lot of this story is based off of real life Let's Players but especially that part. Also holy crap it took me so long just to make this chapter, it got extremely long but I am satisfied with it for the most part!)

[raguiras]

Hey chat... would y'all be interested in some original franchise content in the future...

It's a mix of genres and has a Mentally Unwell Pretty Boi Cast™️

There's also Spade of Storms in there, basically

[lyinginbedmon]

Oh lordy is there bad things going down across the VTuber space right now so I’m gonna try and unpack them for ease of comprehension.

Real quick: A VTuber is essentially just a regular livestreamer but instead of a facecam they have a custom model (usually made of layered images but also often a full 3D object) that tracks their face and such. Big tiddy anime girl representation to say the least but it’s a very creative space.

Next: Silvervale, Silver for short. Silver is one such big tiddy anime (wolf) girl, who is part of a corporate group of VTubers called VShojo. I probably don’t need to describe much more for the purposes of this post.

Hogwarts Legacy is a video game based in the bigotry-entrenched universe of the Harry Potter franchise by notorious face-of-transphobia Joanne K. Rowling. Since its announcement in 2018, trans individuals and groups have quite rightly highlighted numerous ethical and moral problems with the game ranging from the inherent bigotry of the setting, to the involvement of literal far-right YouTubers in its development, to just the basic stuff like its success greenlighting further instalments all while Rowling pockets royalties to (expressly) further fund her anti-trans projects (which includes her writing Literally being read into record to quash things like the Equality Act).

The general advice, which would be true regardless of your actual thoughts on the game or franchise, was to just not play it. That way Rowling makes less money, fewer future games are made, and nobody gets hurt as a result. You end your day $60 better off that you can spend on some other big game that isn’t basically radioactive.

To say the Video Gamers did not take that advice well would be an understatement, but things get really ugly when a streamer who otherwise professes to creating a calm and friendly atmosphere, who makes claims to being an ally, gives in and plays the Wizard Game. I’m not going to say that people haven’t been harassed for playing it, almost certainly someone has, but I just don’t have the data to be certain that it goes much further than just posting “trans rights” in chat.

Enter Silvervale. Despite half a decade of advance warning that she shouldn’t play this game, she played it anyway. Live on camera. The community she’d fostered for years didn’t take this well either, and the stream ended early amid purported harassment from the chat. Silver wasn’t the first VTuber to play the Wizard Game, but she was one of the first English-speaking ones.

Things could have just quietly ended there, but Silver then returned to streaming with more of the game and a statement that she had been “harassed” by “freaks and degenerates” on Twitter. Not her best choice of words, but the damage was done.

Because of the 5-year leadup to the Wizard Game releasing, the right-wing mob had already noticed the controversy around it and had made Huge investments into buying and promoting the game as well as spewing vitriol against anyone who even slightly suggested that doing so was in poor taste. They naturally then flocked to Silver’s defense and, following her unfortunate description of “marginalised people making their discomfort known as they had declared they would Years in advance” using language straight from 1930s Germany, started directly attacking any streamer who voiced their intent not to play the game however detailed their reasoning.

As a brief aside, there’s some confusion over how Silver’s chat moderation is set up, seemingly blocking such phrases as “trans rights are human rights”. Some say it’s an overzealous automod, others that her moderators are actually blocking the phrases, it’s unclear and not hugely worth focusing on here. But I mention it because it’s one of the common points made as people state their side on this issue.

This has essentially made Silver the face of transphobic bigotry in the VTuber community, whether or not she actually considers herself aligned with such bigots. Multiple smaller and independent trans VTubers have completely stopped streaming because of the bile being spewed at them by people with the likes of #IStandWithSilver in their bios. The overlaps between accounts on social media posting in her defense and numerous far-right hate movements is as undeniable as it is unpleasant to catalogue.

And boy that’s just the foundation of this whole sorry affair.

Another VTuber who is part of the same company as Silver, VShojo, is Apricot (more commonly called Froot). Froot not only decided to vocally not play the Wizard Game, but to post a tweet saying that she would personally donate to UK trans children’s charity Mermaids for every like the tweet received. She added that her brother is trans and she supports him immensely.

So the bigots that leapt to Silver’s defense very predictably started calling Froot a paedophile and child groomer, which is more or less what they label every pro-trans individual ever these days. Froot had to lock replies on her charity post and her post about her brother as a result, though the tweets remain up.

Most recently, a third peer in VShojo called Ironmouse came to Silver’s defense specifically in opposition to the alleged harassment she received which, again, anyone could have seen coming in the last 5 years by googling the Steam page for this game.

And honestly, at this point, whatever actually happened to Silver in that first stream is completely irrelevant because she’s become the rallying cry of people who actively want to exterminate the entire trans community from cradle to grave and literally beyond. And so much of it could be resolved or at least get the wind out of its sails if she took 5 minutes to just apologise for and disavow everything that happened in her name after she decided to keep playing the Wizard Game.

But, and I say this with no disrespect to Silver, I’m not holding my breath.

[seeker-ophelia]

IGN Articles out for DA DAY

Channeling my inner @felassan with this one.

SPOILERS ALL

With the dust settled, IGN sat down with Dragon Age Creative Director John Epler and Game Director Corinne Busche in a 45-minute conversation to dissect lore and talk spoilers for the conclusion of the game. This includes the chilling secret post-credit scene which features a group of sinister voices whispering their plans for the future of Thedas and, potentially, a future installment of the franchise.

Epler Re: The Executors:

The gods are a big unknown for them. No one really knew just until the Veilguard what was going to happen with them. So if you look back chronologically to Dragon Age: Origins, there's definitely a chain of events that leads from then to the gods being taken off the table. Solas' dagger is the red lyrium idol from the Deep Roads. Corypheus obviously had a big part to play in weakening the veil and setting events in motion. One thing that I think is fun to think about is Thedas has been around for a very long time, but these world ending events are happening with such incredible frequency all of a sudden. Why now? Why in this age, why this specific time? You start to get a sense of why that might be – not because anyone's going in and controlling kingdoms or taking over armies. Someone is seeing the end game coming and maybe they're setting up for it.

I know that some people were surprised to let go of the Keep this time around. Now that it's all said and done, are there more choices you wish you'd carried over or included?

Busche: The big thing for us is we wanted to make this story, every single choice you make, feel relevant to it. One thing that we could have stated more clearly or maybe alluded to more clearly in the game is the idea that just because these choices from the past library of games didn't necessarily impact this particular story, that doesn't mean they're gone. This is a chance for us to really key in to what matters with these events and what's happening in Northern Thedas. I do fully expect that these choices going clear back to Dragon Age Origins will again matter. So just wanted to be on record with that. Every one of your choices that people have made throughout their Dragon Age journey, those are still your choices. And if you've seen the secret 2D ending we talked about, some of these events being quite pertinent. It's easy to see how those choices can and will be relevant into the future.

[Seeker Ophelia Groans]

Click the article to read more

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There's Also this one:

Which I have feelings about that I will save for a reblog, in the essence of keeping emotion out of news (Felassan you are so strong)

[somethingforsenro]

splatoon without the splatoon

(the splatoon franchise without the new squidbeak splatoon)

so, i was scrolling through amino, the world's worst social media platform, when i found a very interesting question:

What would happen if the Squidbeak Splatoon disbanded after taking down Octavio during the events of Splatoon 1? Would that change anything down the road?

well, i looked at the comments and saw people basically all agreeing that it would be a complete and utter apocalypse. the world would end, like, three times over.

but if there's one thing i know about the internet, it's that people are stubborn little buggers who'll find their way around just about anything. so, i don't think that's right. i think life would find a way.

here's why.

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first of all, octo expansion wouldn't happen bc agent 3 wouldn't be there to fight eight before the dlc's start. in fact, eight might not be freed at all, because we know that only happened AFTER callie was brainwashed (just look at callie's mem cake in oe) and therefore happened during splatoon 2. i say ‘might not’ for a good reason, which i'll get to in a minute.

anyway, no 10008 means that tartar wouldn't find the perfect subject (at least, not with eight) and his plan would be delayed for the foreseeable future. that means octo expansion wouldn't happen, or at least wouldn't happen so soon; if it did eventually happen nonetheless, it's possible that the oe-equivalent protagonist of that timeline would find another way to stop tartar's plans, so i would hesitate to say that inkopolis is doomed in this scenario. i'll talk about that more in a minute, but first, let's get back to that ‘might not’ from earlier and have a chat about hero mode 2.

okay, hot take: even without squidbeak, i think callie would STILL be rescued either way, and the squid sisters would still perform the spicy calamari inkantation. squidbeak or no squidbeak, it's not like marie's just going to stand back and LET her cousin be kidnapped, and she still would have all the same information she does in the normal timeline. (we know that no one was around to help her when callie got kidnapped, so she figured it all out on her own.) she would still recruit agent four to help her (although she wouldn't give them that title or the agent uniform), and they would still rescue callie, so that happens more or less the same way.

however, cap'n cuttlefish and three still wouldn't be out there to fight octarians, so i still don't think oe would happen either way. that also means eight never loses their memories, never becomes a test subject, and never meets pearl or marina. even if you subscribe to the "agent eight is a clone/lab engineered" theory, then they would just wake up alone in the metro, be inducted as 10008, and then… (imho) not be special at all, because eight is only so successful through the help of pearl, marina, and cap'n cuttlefish, and pearl+marina only contact eight through the cap'n's phone. so, eight would still be a test subject, but probably wouldn't be exceptional.

but let's say you disagree. let's say they still WERE exceptional. well, then – they would just get blended and added to the ooze, at which point tartar would presumably create the perfect lifeforms as he planned. but since there's no eight escaping to the surface, he wouldn't have to resort to taking all the ooze he worked for 12,000 years to create and immediately blasting it out of the cannon. i theorize that he would invade inkopolis with the "Perfected Sanitized Army" first, and only use the mega death cannon as a last resort/when he's about to win, at which point pearl and marina would probably have figured out what was going on and take action on their own, eight or no eight.

so, all told, i don't think the world ends in splatoon 2. splatoon 3? well… let's have a look.

no cuttlefish means new 3 never checks out the manhole. there's no heroes looking for the great zapfish. so, the world is totally screwed, right? WRONG.

y'see, there is at least ONE person who exists independently of squidbeak, who also is an enemy of grizz from the start. ONE person who has ALSO lost something dear to them because of the bear's schemes, and who knew to go to the Crater and investigate more deeply. that person is none other than DJ fucking Octavio.

grizz stole his army, so he went to the crater – so CLEARLY he knew WHERE his troops went, he just didn't know who took them. in our timeline, he thought squidbeak did it, but here, because squidbeak doesn't exist, he knows there's something else afoot. he would take the refurbished octobot king out there, and because new 3 isn't clearing out the stages, he would see his fuzzified troops in full force crawling all over the crater. and octavio would be PISSED as HELL.

so, i theorize that octavio would be the protagonist of this alternate return of the mammalians. he would fight to free his people, fall/break into alterna, and beat up deep cut. he might humor them and give them the "treasure", he might not – if he didn't, they wouldn't show up to help him later on, but… that doesn't really matter.

either way, he'd eventually make it to the rocket, and just like in the original timeline, he'd go to space to fight grizz for the sake of his army and the entire world as he knew it. it would be a lot more drawn-out, but i think octavio COULD have taken grizz on his own, especially with the added motivation and anger he has in this timeline. so i say octavio beats grizz to a pulp, and the world is saved.

now, all that leaves is side order, so…

side order spoilers ahead. proceed with caution.

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side order might still happen, because it's focused on pearl and marina, who aren't affected by the whole squidbeak thing. EDIT: however, as comments are reminding me, the memverse was made to cure sanitization. no oe means no experience with sanitization, no memverse, and no side order. if you think some variant of oe would still happen in the 6.5 years between s2 and side order, and pearl+marina would still be involved, then adapt accordingly.

but EVEN IF side order happened, because agent eight doesn't exist (or never met them, at least), there would be no side order protagonist. but – and this is gonna sound familiar at this point – that doesn't NECESSARILY mean order prevails, just that the fight is closer and takes a lot longer.

acht was fighting on their own before eight and pearl came. in OUR timeline, pearl spent a while trying to wake eight up while acht fought and got injured in the spire. but here, she doesn't have anyone to wait on, so she goes straight to the spire of order. it's possible, i think, for her to catch acht BEFORE their injury, and to give them the dualies and her support (after a confused argument, at least). i think acht could then beat the spire with pearl's help, freeing marina, and the rest would go on basically just like the dlc.

however, that one is DEFINITELY the most situational. there's no guarantee that pearl would be fast enough, and if acht WAS injured regardless, there wouldn't be anything to stop order. in that case, it would probably stay in control of marina for a lot longer, at least until acht healed (which could take weeks or even months).

even in THAT situation, acht would still eventually get back into fighting shape. but would they be too late to save marina? it's definitely possible. however, we DO know that greyscaling is reversible – eight managed it. so, it's POSSIBLE  that they could free marina, even in THIS timeline.

and even if they COULDN'T free marina, they could still free (almost) everyone else. marina would be gone, but they would most likely be able to take down order EVENTUALLY, if much slower.

the only real killstate there is if order managed to greyscale acht and pearl. and if you ask me, the two of them seemed pretty fine and dandy the whole time, especially pearl – i mean, this is MARINA'S simulation, after all, so she WOULD give the people she cared about some level of protection or even enhanced access. (acht might even be able to hack into the simulation a little, although they wouldn't be nearly as cracked at it as marina is.)

so, i don't think order would succeed either way – although it might permanently greyscale a considerable number of people, including marina and possibly four. (remember, marie still recruits four's help, even if she doesn't technically call them agent four. they wouldn't be called agent four, but they still exist.)

so, that's definitely a bit more dire than in the main timeline, at least – but far from apocalyptic, i'd say.

…except for pearl. pearl would be pretty fucked up.

[lockpickingliar]

Ouma Kokichi (Gemini) on DICE

Everybody and their dog knows that if there's one thing a Kokichi cares about more than anything, it's DICE. It's almost universally accepted that it's like a family to him. It's where he belongs.

My DICE is no different, but I'll have you know I've never seen those hooligans pictured in my motive video in my life. Not in the game, at least. My motive video was very different. For starters, we had sixteen member, not ten. I'm sure it doesn't take much to realize what that implies for me.

We were all DICE. I can finally say that now.

I was the only one who remembered, as some cruel way to twist the knife. They changed things about all of us to make us unpalatable to one another. Made my tendency to lie a compulsion that made sure no one would believe me if I managed to tell them.

And I tried to tell them.

I told Kay that I knew her point blank once, before she died. But then the conversation meandered on and I tripped over my own compulsion and backpedaled. Yeah of course I knew her, we met just the other day when we all woke up here.

A lie.

I tried a different approach. I tried to re-recruit her. That didn't go much better. She didn't trust me, for obvious reasons, and easily turned down my offer because I couldn't stomach any more truth than that it was a secret organization. How suspicious.

It's not her fault, though. She didn't remember, and they changed us. They made it so no one would accept me as a leader. Isn't that ironic? Their former supreme leader, now shunned and demonized despite his best efforts to keep everything from falling apart.

Kay and Ran were super close, like siblings, y'know.

Rumi and Ryo were practically married.

Kiyo and Ten loved to discuss gender philosophy together. An painted them during a chat, once.

Go and Miu liked to bond over a joint.

Kai and I...

Well, every good leader needs a second in command.

We were all one big group. A family. Maybe a polycule if you wanna call it that, although everyone had one or two people they were particularly close with.

As you can imagine, we didn't sign up for Danganronpa. I'm not sure such a franchise even exists. It was probably just a cover to confuse us, or hell, maybe that's not how it ended at all. I wouldn't know. I'm dead now.

I do have a pretty good idea of who might've orchestrated it, though, just based on the mocking facsimile they made as our so-called "backstory plot".

A group aiming for the stars to make the world a better place...? Well, we did have Project Stargazer in the works. I wonder who might've had a vested interest in ensuring its failure?

We were a group with direction. We had a goal, and projects to reach that goal that we were working tirelessly toward. A post-tragedy world is a pretty scary place. In the midst of so much chaos that the Tragedy caused, only one organization had the power and resources to take on the task of reconstruction, which is all well and good.

Not so much years after the fact, when everything is still controlled by them.

If you want something rebuilt, you better hope they're in agreement, or you'll never get the assistance. They have their own agenda, and they take full advantage of their reputation as the sole saviors of the world.

Even better that they have the Ultimate Hope on their side to sway the public's opinion of them.

Have you figured out who I'm talking about yet?

I've gathered that in fandom, the common consensus is that the Future Foundation is a force of good. I'm sure that's the common consensus among the public back home, too.

I'm in the minority, and that's why I founded DICE in the first place. This might just be me, but I think it's kind of shady for a single organization to have a global monopoly on the reconstruction of the world. The people should have a choice between multiple, so that everyone's bases are covered and we don't fall into the trap of reforming the world into a single ideal that overlooks those in need.

DICE was gunning to be that alternative.

We were small, but that made it easier to fly under the radar. Ran, Kiyo, and Go would go on expeditions to other countries, searching for survivors, helping to rebuild in underdeveloped places that Future Foundation overlooked, and cataloging the regrowth of ecosystems--bug life in particular.

Kay, Himi, and An were our public outreach team, using the arts to sway the public in a subtle way. Maki would often accompany them for protection.

Rumi, Ryo, Ten, and Tsu were our intel team, with Rumi working as a maid for so many important people, Ryo and Ten in the sports sphere making connections at sporting events, and Tsu who could infiltrate directly with her cosplaying skills all snooping around to gather intel about whatever Future Foundation may be up to. They would report back to Shu, who was good at keeping tabs on things like that with his detective skills.

Miu and Kiibo--who was built by Miu herself, not whoever the fuck Ibadashi is--were the biggest contributors to keeping our HQ functional, redeveloping surrounding areas in no-man's land, as well as developing the tech for Project Stargazer, which I spearheaded, but Kai as the Ultimate Astronaut had the most directive power.

See, we were gonna start another space race. A post-tragedy rendition of who could get back to space first. To raise global morale and put us on the map as a direct competitor to Future Foundation that people could lean on for reconstruction. That was our goal, to break Future Foundation's monopoly on was stays and what goes, what's hope and what's despair.

And they didn't like that. They didn't like it one bit.

I don't know how they found out about us. I can imagine it had something to do with another project of ours--Project Defect--but one way or another they did, and that was when they came for us.

I imagine it pretty closely parallels what they called the "Ultimate Hunt" in their fun little fantasy story.

We were captured, changed, and plunked into a killing game where no one remembered how close they were.

Shu's confidence was erased, making him a meek shell of himself.

Himi was turned into an infuriating layabout who actually believed and insisted that her magic was real--once a mere running joke we all shared.

Maki reduced to a recluse and a killing machine, all her work to overcome her trauma from having her care for others trained out of her eradicated.

Kay's optimism was turned toxic and her memories twisted. "Piano Freak", a fun little jab we gave her (we ALL had a mean but fun-spirited nickname like this), turned into a foundational point of bullying and torment.

All the work Ran did to learn to manage his personal symptoms of chronic boredom, risk-taking, struggling to connect with others, and anger were stripped from him, leaving him desperate for intrigue and unable to look to anyone to support.

Rumi's devotion to the great good was poisoned, and she didn't even realize that it was the love of her life that she sacrificed for a faulty memory of being prime minister.

Ryo died thinking he had no one, even though he was surrounded by people he used to know and care for, and who all cared for him.

An was made into a caricature of her own culture, something she used to hold so dear to her as the last surviving member of her people.

Ten's trauma was used against her to make her into an intolerable bigot and strip her of the nuance she used to believe was so important.

Kiyo's sister's memory was outright bastardized to turn him into a serial killer, all his devotion to maintaining her shrine in his room reduced to a mere fetish.

Go's upbringing mocked and spat in the face of his intelligence, robbing him of the communication skills and eloquence he learned from Kiyo on their travels together.

Miu's care and dedication to her work was usurped to inflate her self-importance to unhealthy levels without anyone feeling like she'd earned it.

Kiibo reduced to a dense bucket of bolts with his learning capabilities drastically reduced--not to mention that he likely had to undergo constant brainwashing from the signals he received from the dumb antenna they added to his head.

Tsu... who they ironically turned against us from the start as a spy of their own, completely tricked into assisting with their entire scheme to tear us apart.

And Kai... My dear, sweet, intelligent Kai, second in command and love of my life, Ultimate Astronaut and project director for our most ambitious plan... turned into a brazen, narrow-minded bully and made to hate me and everything I stood for until it was too late.....

I don't blame them. I don't blame any of them, because they changed them. They couldn't help it if that was the reality they remembered. Nothing I said would have made a difference, either coming out as a lie or taken as a lie because they changed me, too. Made me into a liar who couldn't stop lying even when it mattered.

And so it was the end for us. We tore ourselves apart. Hook, line, and sinker, and even if there was nothing I could do to stop them, that doesn't make it feel any less like a failure to me. A failure to bring DICE--my family--back together before I had to watch them kill each other.

There was a point where I gave up. Figured a mass death would be best, to put us all out of our misery. I'll never forgive myself for using Go and Miu the way I did to accomplish that, just to fail yet again.

And then I died failing.

I don't know if there are any survivors, like in the game. I don't know if I want to know. If there are, I'm not sure I want to see them. I don't want them to know, don't want them to realize the horrors of what they just went through. That most of their family is gone.

But at the same time...

I miss them. I miss everyone, and I desperately want my family back.

DICE is finished, but I don't want it to be.

[icouldbeyourprettygirl]

May TC Challenge

I couldn't really find one for May and I'm super bored so here we go

How did your relationship start? Was it you who did most of the initiating?

How often do you think about them?

What kind of weather matches their vibes? What about yours?

May the fourth be with you! Do they have a favorite movie franchise? Do you?

Do you have a playlist dedicated to them? What are your favorite songs on it?

What's your go to fantasy/day dream about them?

If you had the opportunity, would you go on a date with them? (If they're married/taken, imagine their partner is out of the picture) If so, what would you want to do?

Do you dress up on the days you see them? How so?

What's your favorite memory with them?

Have you ever thought about a future with them?

Does your tc give you physical affection?

Happy Mother’s Day to all who celebrate! Have they ever told you anything about their family? Have you told them about yours?

Do any of your classmates have a crush on your tc?

What’s something you wished they knew about you without you having to tell them?

If your tc was invited to a wedding and asked you to be their plus one, what would you wear, and what would you want to see them in? (Theme of the wedding is up to you, so you can choose your outfits)

Do you have any photos of them? Either those that you've found on their social media or ones you've taken yourself?

Have you ever listened to break up songs/love songs and thought of them?

What style/haircut/tattoos/facial hair/etc do you think would suit them best?

Which color would you assign the feelings they give you? (Ex: happy -> yellow or something bright)

Which decade would they be best in? How about you? (Based on fashion, technology, art, music, the fun stuff.)

Have you ever run into them in public? (Or tried to?) How did it go?

What pushed you to create your blog?

If you could know anything about your tc, what would it be?

How do you think you’d react if they confessed their feelings to you?

Have you ever done/read/watched/listened to something you may not have been interested in because they like it?

If your tc was your age, would you date them? Do they have any red flags?

If your life was a book series/tv series/movie and you had a fan base, would your fans realistically ship you and your tc? (Got this one from TikTok lol because I love the thought)

What’s something that always makes you think of them?

Let’s chat for a sec! What’s something you’ve been dying to talk about regarding your tc?

Do you flirt with them? If so, how?? 👀

What’s something you’re manifesting happening between you two? (If you don’t manifest, what’s something you hope happens?)

[dust-jacket-analysis]

Watched the London special, and now I'm going to word vomit here, to then eventually (potentially) refine this post into some solid analysis. (Spoilers for the special, obviously)

First off, holy fuck that was brutal. I mean, Marinette?? Girl??/ Get therapy??? I don't think there was a moment I stopped crying. Even when things weren't necessarily sad, I was still crying?

Just the whole scene of Marinette telling Adrien his father died, and that he was hero (tf he was *eyebrow raise*) was soul-crushing. Him lashing out was so... so good. Good writing genuinely. (Also everyone who got mad at Adrien for jumping the gun and blaming Marinette, fuck off *crafting a future post in my mind as we speak*).

The fight scenes were top tier. The part where Marinette leaps through two of the little time tunnel portal things, dodging Lila, was BRILLIANT. Her sass while doing so? God she's so cool.

Also Lila's breakdown was wild. No analysis, just shock (as if there's any semblance of analysis in any of this post).

The end scene was amazing! The little hug and then the "pound it" at the end had me legitimately bawling like a baby. Rip current animation.

Now, I loved the special. But I have BIG grievances. Well, just one big grievance.

WHERE TF WAS ADRIEN THIS WHOLE SPECIAL?

Like why did the writers, once again, backseat him? The thing I wanted most was to see Adrien grieving and coping with the death of his father and how that would impact him as Chat Noir the whole time. I wanted to see him talk more about it, and see him and ladybugs interactions the whole movie.

Instead, It was the fucking Marinette show the whole time. This is not Marinette hate, she is my daughter and I will protect her from all the haters. No this is "hate" to the writers.

They do this constantly and it pisses me off. Because the show started with them clearly being co-leads. Yeah, Marinette was a bit more focused on, but it was clearly supposed to have some semblance of balance. And then season five hits and *boom* Adrien's screentime (Correction: His quality screentime) plummets. And it's never been more clear than in this special.

Like the entirety of this whole arc plot revolves around Adrien. His father is the main villain, his father's motive is to revive his mother, who died using the peacock miraculous. which was used to create him because he's a sentimonster. Mayura is Nathalie, his sort of surrogate mother who is in love with his father. His house is literally the location of that final battle.

WHICH HE"S BENCHED FOR WHAT THE FUCK

And now, in the aftermath of all that, he's benched too. No participation, hardly any screentime. It's sad, disheartening.

All in all, this special has summed up the last couple of years of the show/franchise pretty well. Great emotional impact, more plot, and more intense themes. But also the disproportionate amount of focus on Marinette and the disservice to Adrien, all at the cost of good writing.

Still, I did love the special. It was good. I just think it had the opportunity to give fans what (I think) they wanted and could've been great.

[rosetheocto]

A lot really has happened to Splatoon as a franchise in these few years. I obviously expected to have fun since this is the first time I truly played a Splatoon game during its main lifespan (I got into 2 after the Splatocalypse), but… man… I love this game.

Thank you to anyone who became my friends through this series, even the ones who don’t talk to me anymore. Thank you for all the past squid parties my younger self got myself into in Splatoon 2, being in private battles for hours, drawing in the ink and copying people’s outfits. Thanks to all the people I’m spending time with in the present, currently being in voice call with who were at first just a group of Splatoon fans in a livestream’s chat, who’ve I’ve grown to consider genuine friends as time went by. As for whatever the future for me and this game holds? Now I’m more than excited to see how it turns out!

May the best team win!!

[tobiasdrake]

It's no secret that I'm not very fond of MK1. Game design, story, roster choices, there's a lot to pick apart with regards to Mortal Kombat's second reboot.

But one thing I do hope gets carried on into the future of the franchise is the humanization of Mileena. Not the literal humanization, where her Tarkatan elements are Fantasy Leprosy. Let Mileena have teeth.

Like. All-a y'all writing Mortal Kombat stuff out there? Let Mileena have teeth. I don't know why it's been such a thing in recent years to try and pretty her face up. Let Mileena have teeth.

But I mean just... Like... The sisterly bond between Mileena and Kitana, and willingness to treat Mileena as a character and not just a scary monster. The first reboot trilogy was really bad about Mileena-as-scary-monster, and that's about all she ever amounts to in adaptation too.

Like. Mileena and Kitana's relationship is one of the most fascinating and constantly underserved pieces of Mortal Kombat background. These two characters should be the Marvel's Thor and Loki of Mortal Kombat.

Respectively.

The thing you need to understand about Mileena and Kitana as originally written is that Mileena is not complicit. And I need to specify this because their own source material doesn't seem aware of that. Mortal Kombat has always treated Mileena like she is as guilty as Shao Kahn for the crime of being made.

Multiversal colonizer Shao Kahn invaded Kitana's world when she was a baby. He killed her father and claimed her mother and herself as spoils of war. He took Kitana to raise as his daughter in the empire that butchered her people. And then, with sorcery and gene bullshit, made Mileena so he could have a version of Kitana that was his.

Mileena didn't know about that. She was a fetus in a test tube. She is not complicit in any of this.

For ten thousand years, ten thousand goddamn years, Kitana and Mileena were the twin daughters of Shao Kahn; A pair of deadly assassins who enforced Kahn's will and served in his conflicts.

Can you imagine loving someone for ten thousand years? They didn't know better. They were sisters.

Then Kitana learned the truth about her past and origin. Because the early games didn't have much story outside bios and endings, details on what went down between the sisters are fuzzy. But the language in MK3 seems to imply that Kitana struck first.

MK3 Mileena Bio: "Murdered by her twin sister Kitana, Mileena finds herself brought back to life by Shao Kahn himself...." MK3 Kitana Bio: "Kitana is accused of treason by the High Courts of the Outworld after murdering her evil twin Mileena...."

That's not really how you describe an act of self-defense. Why did this happen? Well, tensions must have escalated after Mileena became suspicious of Kitana's fraternization with the enemy.

MK2 Kitana Bio: Her beauty hides her true role as personal assassin for Shao Kahn. Seen talking to an earth-realm warrior, her motives have come under suspicion by her twin sister Mileena. But only Kitana knows her own true intentions. MK2 Mileena Bio: Serving as an assassin along with her twin sister Kitana, Mileena's dazzling appearance conceals her hideous intentions. At Shao Kahn's request, she is asked to watch for her twin's suspected dissension. She must put a stop to it at any cost.

After ten thousand years of sisterhood, Mileena discovered Kitana chatting with the Earthrealmers and tattled to her dad. Shao Kahn told Mileena to keep an eye on her and see if she's planning to betray them. Something went down. And then Kitana betrayed them and murdered Mileena.

This dynamic is fascinating. Because it's not hard to sympathize with Kitana. She's a stolen child raised by the man who razed her culture and who made his own twisted version of her to grow up alongside her. The shit that must be going through her head when she uncovers the truth about herself and Mileena? Can you even imagine?

But it's also not hard to sympathize with Mileena. Because this isn't about conquering Earthrealm or ensuring Shao Kahn reigns supreme. This is about, "We were sisters for ten thousand years, why are you betraying me?" This is personal.

There is so much about these two characters that is devastating and emotional and powerful, buried in the margins between the character bios of two old games from the 90's. It's never been given its proper due.

Partly because I don't think Midway, at the time, even realized what they had written here. The demonization of Mileena starts as early as MK3, which describes her as Kitana's "evil twin" in the same breath it uses to say Kitana "murdered" her.

By the time Deception came out, they were making wild-ass claims about what Mileena and Kitana's relationship really was.

Deception Mileena Bio: "I am a creation of sorcery, the hybrid of a Tarkatan warrior and the Princess of Edenia. My purpose was to eventually replace my... sister... Kitana, from whom I was cloned. Kitana regained her memories, however, and uncovered the plot to supplant her...."

Okay so now Mileena was actually supposed to replace Kitana post-Edenian conquest. But they needed to ease Mileena into Kitana's place gradually, over time, in the role of (checks notes) Shao Kahn's daughter and personal assassin.

Shang Tsung: Hey boss, why are we doing this? Like. If we just kill the baby Kitana and replace her with the baby Mileena, who's even going to notice? Shao Kahn: I WILL NOTICE. In order to ensure that I don't realize that my daughter has been replaced, I must raise them as twins for TEN THOUSAND YEARS.

This would work if Edenia was a place they were trying to invade through subterfuge, perhaps. But not with Edenia already conquered and merged with Outworld, and Kitana's history as an Edenian princess buried.

Yeah, the retcons to villify a character who is already basically Azula don't make a lot of sense, and further attempts have not gone any better.

Also Mileena has a secret boyfriend.

MK2 Mileena Ending (non-canon): ...She wins the tournament, and together with her secret companion, Baraka, they rule the world as king and queen. MK3 Mileena Ending (super non-canon): ...With the help of Baraka, she then takes both Sindel and her daughter Kitana hostage. Together they threaten Shao Kahn with their lives unless he lures the Earth-born warriors into a fourth Mortal Kombat where Baraka can return and regain his title as the Ultimate Mortal Kombat champion. Deception Mileena Bio: ...After Shinnok's invasion, [Kitana] cast me into her prison, where I remained until Baraka freed me.... Armageddon Baraka Ending (non-canon): ...Flinging [Shao Kahn and Onaga's] bodies down the side of the pyramid, Baraka turned his attention to a more important matter: who would be his queen? He gave Mileena a choice. She chose wisely.

Most of these aren't canon but when multiple endings are alluding to a secret romance between Baraka and Mileena and he does legitimately go out of his way to spring her from Elf Jail, there's probably something there. Mileena just wants to live her best Tarkatan life on the throne of Outworld with her sister and himbo boytoy by her side.

That has nothing to do with anything; I just thought it was neat.

This is one of the most interesting dynamics in Mortal Kombat and it's never been given its due because it was basically erased from canon as soon as it was conceived.

MK1 doesn't give it its due either, due to the great lengths it goes to erase the main point of contention between the sisters. But it comes closer than anybody ever has, so I hope it's a step in the right direction. I hope the series will continue to explore Mileena, not just as a villain but as an antagonistic character with thoughts and feelings and ideas of her own.

[nonsensical-pixels]

1000 followers gift, part 4: morning dove reshade and teeny tots collection part 2! [download - sfs | mf folder]

it's finally here: the final gift for my 1000 followers weekend! and it's a two in one deal!

over the last year i have come to realise that i really like making two things: reshades, and toddler stuff. it's so satisfying watching the environment my sims are in, and the whole mood of the game, change with the click and drag of a few buttons. also, toddlers are really cute and there isn't nearly enough stuff out there for them.

part 4 has two things: my second reshade preset ever, morning dove, as well as my first every clothing conversions--and for toddlers too! i have received many, many questions about what reshade preset i use, so this is it!

update 10-4-23: fixed issue with weird squares/rectangles on ep05 dress holiday and ep05 vest bowtie, please redownload and replace the original meshes!

credits

@kindlespice for the dove 2.0 preset i used as a base for morning dove!

ea/maxis for the original meshes & textures of the toddler formalwear

@skittlessims for helping me with all of the errors and confusion i encountered while converting the clothing, and also for just being an amazing friend and mentor in general. love ya anna 💕

for more info, on both the downloads and the future of this blog, please keep reading 😊

part 4a: morning dove

previews feature all effects except fog, artistic vignette, & chromatic abberation. these effects however are present in most of my cc posts, so if you look at my previews i believe you can see them 😅

if you've been following my builds/gameplay for awhile, then you probably recognise this preset. i use it in almost every screenshot of mine, and many people have asked for it, so here it finally is! it is based on @kindlespice's dove 2.0 preset but with a lot of tweaking to make it more versatile in ts2. this preset comes with a number of different shortcuts to enable/disable certain effects: Alt + 4 -> mxao Alt + 6 -> adaptive fog + canvas fog Shift + 2 -> ring dof and gdof Alt + 5 -> artistic vignette Alt + 7 -> marty mcfly dof Alt + 8 -> chromatic abberration Alt + 9 -> directional anti-aliasing the basic goal of morning dove is a preset that looks good in any style--maxis match, realistic, or clay!

part 4b: teeny tots part 2

this particular download just makes me very happy. i love ts2 toddlers, they'll always be the best in the franchise in my eyes, and just look at those happy lil faces! also, milo stylo is being milo stylo and looking so damn cute. there never seems to be enough toddler formalwear (imo) so it just makes me really happy that i was able to make my own.

these are my first ever clothing conversions, i did my best but they're not perfect, so there may be clipping and gaps especially around the shoulders of gp11 dress flower. i apologise for this, i really tried but didn't manage to fix it 😔

EP05 Dress Holiday - PU only, 14 colors, casual & formal, 3.7k polys [swatch] - paired with @skittlessims' base game mary-jane shoes from their lunar dress💕 GP11 Bowtie Shirt - PU only, 10 colors, casual & formal, 3.8k polys [swatch] - paired with base game sneakers taken from @lucilla-sims' ep11 suspenders 💞 GP11 Dress Flower - PU only, 10 colors, casual & formal, 5.3k polys [swatch] - paired with @skittlessims' base game mary-jane shoes from their lunar dress💕 EP05 Vest Bowtie - PU only, 9 colors, casual & formal, 4.0k polys [swatch] - paired with base game sneakers taken from @lucilla-sims' ep11 suspenders 💞

final words

well, i guess that's it then! it's the end of a long gift-filled weekend. and also, the start of a very long break.

my final exams will be starting in about two weeks and ending around november; they are the most important ones i have ever faced and i cannot afford to lose focus. after that will be exam after exam, as i enter tertiary education.

if you still wanna chat with me/hear how i'm doing you could probably join the simscord by @skittlessims, i'm a junior moderator on there now so i will still be semi-active on my break. also, if i do find the time to post cc anymore, it will probably be on there lol.

the sims has always been a sort of escapism for me, a way to pretend that the trials of real life don't exist. but in the last few months i've felt myself drifting farther and farther from it. i need to focus on my studies and stay focused on my life goals.

the future of this blog is still uncertain. i have cc queued up until june--leftovers from my original break, stuff i finished up, requests i got during my holidays--but after that, there probably won't be any more until i come back... which could be anywhere from 9 months to 9 years, tbh, with my current mood. until then, consider this blog on semi-permanent hiatus.

there are so many of you who have supported this blog from day one, who have always stuck with me even when i'm not at my best or when misunderstandings occur. i cannot thank you enough for your continued support and love. the last year has been a difficult time for me: losing pets, friends, and in general, my mental health. this extra-long gift weekend is for you--a thank you for the over 365 days of kindness you have shown me.

i am sorry for this, but for now, i am going to have to leave you again. thank you for the love, and i hope you enjoy the cc while it lasts. until next time,

~ Ky, nonsensical-pixels

[groovebunker]

can i humbly request some francc headcannons? 🫶🏻

....literally always. i feel like i'm not great at general headcanons and i'm currently very involved with future! cc x fran but here you go:

(we just talked about this in chat) fran pretends to be scared of spiders when cc's at home so that cc deals with them. when fran's home alone, she deals with spiders just fine. cc does not like spiders but she is absolutely not going to let fran know that.

in the future, cc babcock does have twitter for work purposes. she is only allowed to use twitter with adult supervision. the adult is her teenage daughter. fran finds this impossibly funny.

cc is a vacation planner. there are binders. their days are planned down to the hour. her bag is packed forty eight hours before she has to leave for the airport. which is always four hours before the flight. when they get to where they're going, she looks in the binder and finds that fran's rearranged it because cc didn't factor in enough time for making out. she cannot find it in herself to be annoyed.

fran packs the night before and inevitably forgets at least three things. cc always has spares.

they are atrocious at fighting. fran is very much a 'fight for what you love' kind of gal and cc is very much a 'if we're fighting, we're already doomed' kind of gal. the first time they argue, cc storms off to her bedroom and slams the door and is very surprised to find fran storming through thirty seconds later to tell her they weren't done yet. they're both stubborn as hell and their arguments never get less fiery. everyone does learn to get out of the way though.

(cannot remember if i have posted this one before) when they have a kid, cc wants to hire a nanny because....that's just what you do. fran is horrified bc frankly, all the people she knows who had a nanny are a little fucked up (she is counting the sheffield kids, she did her best). cc 'hires' sylvia to help (as if she wasn't going to anyway) and fran is like 'that is my mother, why would you want her raising your kid?' and cc's like 'well she raised you and you're my favourite person in the world so it made sense'

cc is a fucking nerd and fran has absolutely said 'i'm too pretty to watch those movies' about [insert franchise here] but she secretly enjoys them.

when they get married, they plan some ridiculous competition to see if they're going to be the babcock-fines or the fine-babcocks. they both bribe niles to rig it. there is never a decision made and they literally end up flipping a coin the morning of the wedding.