#GODDAMN ITS BEEN LIKE 6 YEARS OK

[bungone]

its funny because i exclusively draw noah and add but i don't play either and also they're not my favorite characters

anyway here's the loser duo i do main they just got out of jail after committing several war crimes so be nice to them theyre adjusting

[astranauticus]

really not beating the brainrot allegations but genuinely this line has been haunting my brain for ages

[the-cooler-king]

Sometimes u can't stop being weird. My coworker (who is still training me) just called me two times to walk her through cheesecakes and im sitting on the phone trying to manifest beside her. She sends me pics and a video. Im like bro its beautiful. We just bonded over this cheesecake experience bc I truly never thought I would be able to bake a sexy little cheesecake because I'm bad at baking sweet potato/pumpkin pies. When u bake u bake I guess

[skittishpuppy]

M!Werewolf x

F!reader smut

18+

Warning- monsterfucking, obviously, lots of swearing, very very slight dubcon at the beginning, knotting, use of 'it' to refer to the werewolf.

Word count- 1903

This was written by me! Hope you enjoy <3

..................................................................................

You sighed to yourself as you took the steps up to your first floor apartment. It had been a hard day at work and you were already ready to turn in for the night, despite it only being 6:30 p.m. Your boss had been particularly dickish, and you really just needed to relax, maybe have a little bit of a self care evening, then fall asleep. It was your day off tomorrow, luckily, so you could get away with it.

You opened your door and broke the threshold of your home, but immediately stopped short when you heard a strange rustling noise behind you. You looked back nervously, somehow expecting to see some sort of axe murderer. What you saw was even worse.

Twenty feet away from you, and growing ever closer, there was a werewolf. An extremely large one, at nearly twelve feet tall.

You swallowed heavily, face turning a little pale with fright. You'd never encountered a werewolf before, but from what you'd heard, they weren't supposed to be out this early… And it wasn't even a full moon. But despite that, the creature was here, right in front of you, salivating like a rabid dog that was ready to go in for the kill.

You raised your hands in surrender and began backing up slowly, not really sure what else to do. What else was there to do? You didn't have anything to protect yourself; All you had was a brain that was capable of sending prayers to a god you weren't even sure existed.

In your panicked, fight or flight state, you forgot to shut the door, and that was your downfall. The beast sped up upon noticing your retreat. A fun game of chase, it probably presumed.

Your back hit the wall and your heart began pounding so fast and intensely that you were surprised it didn't explode from your chest like in that one episode of supernatural.

Seemingly unaware, or unbothered by, your absolute all-consuming, spine chilling terror, it continued to approach you, maw gaping open, revealing its razor sharp, two inch long canines that could easily tear you to shreds.

“Um,” you said weakly as it closed in on you. “Good dog?” It was a weak strategy, but it couldn't hurt to try, could it?

It just let out a low growl and you whimpered and screwed your eyes shut, unable to look the beast in the eye as it tore you apart and devoured you alive.

After a beat where nothing but it's hot breath on your neck could be felt, you dared to open your eyes. You saw its crimson red hungry gaze staring back at you.

You swallowed heavily. This was it. This was the day you died. You hadn't gotten to do even one of the things on your bucket list yet. You hadn't even experienced much of life! You were young still, you didn't deserve to die, much less in such a gruesome way as this. You were–

Your eyes snapped back open, this time wide as saucers.

Oh…?

Oh.

You'd been right; It did want to devour you, but not in an evil-shredding-destroying-murdering way. In a sexy way.

The werewolf's furry hand had slipped under your shirt and was now roaming around, gently feeling your slightly chubby stomach. It'd taken you years to feel ok with it, and you still weren't certain of your own body, but this creature was somehow making all those worries go away.

Nonetheless, ‘What the fuck?’ was the only thought your blanked out mind could supply as you simply allowed the werewolf to rid you of your button down by ripping it off you.

It did the same with your black lacy bra, the one that always made you feel good in your own skin, and tossed the shredded remains onto the floor. What a waste. But really, you couldn't bring yourself to care. You had better things to be focusing on. Like, how a goddamn werewolf was now licking and nipping at the sensitive skin of your neck while rubbing your perky nipples.

“Mmm…” you hummed softly, tilting your head to try and escape the advances. You weren't sure if you actually wanted to, but somehow it felt more shameful if you didn't.

It didn't seem to matter, either way. The werewolf just continued working its way down your body. When it reached your pencil skirt, you squirmed, but you couldn't wriggle out of its tight grasp. It was far, far stronger than you. Able to kill you with a single bite or swipe of its large paw. And somehow, deep in the darkest recesses of your mind, you really liked that.

It tore off your skirt, throwing it to the side, and ran a clawed finger along the waistband of your panties, while using the other hand to begin feeling you through the silk fabric.

You clenched your thighs together, but it was for naught. It began rubbing your clit sensually, clearly intending to make you feel good, and you couldn't stifle the small gasp that escaped your lips.

You spread your thighs, giving it full access, and it fully took advantage of that, discarding your panties and getting on its knees. It leaned in, nuzzling you with its wet nose, and you shivered. The cold feeling was new to you, but it wasn't bad.

The werewolf then stuck out its tongue and began licking your cunt enthusiastically, focusing on the clit.

“Oh, fuck…” you breathed out, throwing your head back against the wall. It was really good at this, far better than any human man you'd been with. It clearly knew what it was doing.

Its tail was wagging wildly as it treated you to the best cunnilingus you'd ever experienced, and you couldn't help but feel honored that you made this beast feel that happy.

It ate you out like it was what it lived to do, kissing and nipping at your thighs, lapping at your cunt, even using the pads of its fingers to rub you.

You didn't take long to come, entire body convulsing, and you cried out in pleasure, eyelids fluttering. It helped you through it, licking up your cum, and the aftershocks were just as pleasurable. Your thighs were shaking, and you were barely able to hold yourself up against the wall, but it didn't really matter.

Suddenly, you felt your feet get swept underneath you, and the ground grow farther away. You distantly realized, through the haze of your orgasm, that you were being carried by the werewolf across the room, and into your bedroom. It tossed you onto the bed and you sat up, staring directly at the new development.

The werewolf's cock had unsheathed, and it was long, thick, and dripping with precum.

You swallowed heavily, feeling your mouth turn dry. It was big. Really big. You'd never taken anything near that size, even in your personal time. But you'd be damned if you were going to back down from a challenge. So you stared into the wolf's eyes. “Fuck me,” you dared, not entirely sure how it'd react.

The wolf's gaze darkened, penetrating down to your very soul, and it leapt onto the bed, muscles rippling, and shoved you onto your back so harshly you yelped in surprise.

It had definitely responded properly, you thought, as it pinned your arms above your head, gripping your wrists tightly enough to leave bruises.

Without wasting any time, it positioned itself properly, tapping its cock on your cunt a few times. You wrapped your legs around its waist, both of your bodies falling naturally into place.

You briefly wondered why the hell you'd gone along with this in the first place, you knew it was going to hurt, but you simply couldn't resist. The allure of the taboo had plagued you all your life, and this was no different. You had to try everything at least once, and this was no different. You were torn from your thoughts abruptly when the werewolf lined up with your entrance.

Fuck. This was really happening.

“Fuck!” you shouted as it suddenly thrust in all the way, balls deep, sending you forward. It pulled out, then slammed back in, setting a rough, hard pace that had you gasping and whimpering pitifully with each thrust. It was painful, god it was painful, but the pleasure far outweighed the rest.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” you chanted, your brain getting fully rewired. This was the best thing you'd ever experienced, the amazing feeling of its cock inside you, pushing your body and mind to the very limits.

It railed you, hard and fast, unrelenting and intense, holding you in place with ease. You felt tears well up in your eyes, and a sob make its way out of your throat, and holy fuck, you could hardly breathe.

It was growling, deep and low and animalistic as it fucked you with abandon, and it was a noise that sent shivers down your spine and butterflies in your stomach.

You were distantly aware you were just babbling now, unable to form any sort of coherent sentence, or even thought. The only thing you could think about was its cock ramming you, how full you felt, and how fucking amazing this was.

Eventually, its thrusts grew more stuttered and twitchy, its growls more high pitched and whiny, as it grew closer to its climax.

You let out a long, drawn out moan and shifted your hips to help him along, and it did the trick, as seconds later, you felt its cum fill you up to the brim. You gasped, surprised and extremely pleased with the warm, full feeling, and it let out a loud howl, consumed with pleasure, but continued thrusting into your pussy.

Finally, your own pleasure overtook you. You let out a string of incoherent curses that would make a sailor blush as your second orgasm rippled through you, cascading from your cunt to your stomach and your thighs, filling you with so much pure fucking ecstasy that you saw stars, your vision turning black at the edges.

The werewolf gave a few more weak thrusts, finally tiring out, but didn't pull out. Your eyes widened as you felt something grow inside you– its knot.

You tried to twist yourself away from it, not particularly wanting to be stuck with the beast inside you for an hour, but you were immediately stopped by brute force, and you just gave into it.

The werewolf seemed pleased by your submission, and moved forward on the bed. It laid down beside you, despite not fitting on the mattress, and wrapped its legs and arms around you, cuddling you.

You could do nothing but fully embrace it with a soft, content sigh.

This definitely wasn't something you'd ever heard in the stories, but you weren't in the least bit displeased about it. Rather the opposite, in fact. This had been, by far, the best sexual encounter of your life. You just hoped the werewolf would stay for the night. And maybe more… You could totally go a dozen more rounds.

As you closed your eyes, you wondered if it was possible to have his pups. It was, oddly enough, an appearing idea. You then felt his grip tighten around you, and you relaxed, feeling safe and secure in his arms, and drifted off into a peaceful sleep.

[lonelywretchjervistetch]

The State Birds Initiative: Connecticut (#5)

Hoo boy, it's been a minute! But hey, here we are again, after taking some extra time to figure stuff out. Welcome to the fifth official poll of the State Birds Initiative! Before the poll, though, one thing real quick. My suggestion is that you read the post below before voting in the poll below. That's especially important if you're lacking any context about the birds being presented as the new (or old) State Bird of the Nutmeg State, Connecticut. This is to be fully informed as to why these are being presented, and to make your choices appropriately. Lastly, some of these birds, you will notice, may go against some of the rules listed in the introduction post. All is explained after the jump where the explanations are, I promise you that. And apologies in advance, the spiel before the actual bird selection is...long. But with that...OK! Here's the poll!

Welcome to the Nutmeg State! A small state, mostly known for being between Boston and New York City, this is one of the foundational states of southern New England, while also having a somewhat...divided identity, we'll say. So, I grew up in CT, for part of my childhood, in both the classic upscale suburbs, and in the middle of the goddamn woods, right on the Connecticut River. For the record, the name "Nutmeg State" is based off of salesmen from the state known for peddling nutmegs. However, there's some speculation that the nutmegs sold were actually made of wood, but that's also probably from people who didn't know that nutmegs were supposed to be grated, and instead assumed they had to be cracked like walnuts. They tried, that failed, and they accused Connecticut Yankees for selling fake nutmeg as a result. So, yeah, a confusing legend at the root of the state's nickname.

You'll notice my use of the word "Yankee" there. Well, despite New York's domination of the term, it should arguably be most associated with Connecticut. "Yankee Doodle" is literally the state song; people from CT were previously and historically referred to as Yankees (which was also an epithet applied to northerners in general, to be fair); and it's actually possible the word was first used by the Dutch in reference to Connecticut settlers, according to multiple theories and historical references. But maybe most prominently, Yankee was used as a demonym for people from CT by one of its most favorite residents: Samuel Clemens, AKA Mark Twain.

Twain is, of course, Connecticut's most famous author, having written some of his most famous works while living with his family in Connecticut in his West Hartford house (which every central Connecticut middle school kid has been to at least once, I guaran-goddamn-tee it). Fun fact, though! Did you know...uh...ah, fuck it. Why keep stalling at this point? Look, as much as I love talking about Mark Twain, he was nothing to do with this post. Fact of the matter is...this was a hard one.

Look, I love Connecticut. It was the first state I remember living in, having moved there when I was a kid from the United States Virgin Islands, which I had been really looking forward to for a bunch of reasons. Admittedly (and unsurprisingly), a lot of that was because I was looking forward to seeing the birds! As a kid, I was also obsessed with birds, and I had never seen the birds in the US mainland before. It was an exciting time for me, and I honestly enjoyed growing up in CT, for the most part. I'd be there for almost 6 years of my life, and I have a lot of fond memories of the state. But, uh...ironically enough...finding State Bird nominees for Connecticut has been HARD AS HELL.

We will, of course, talk in GREAT detail about the American Robin (Turdus migratorius), as it's an important bird for more states than just Connecticut, but I'll give you a spoiler now: this is a boring choice for a State Bird. For any state. Don't get me wrong, I love robins! They're an extremely charismatic and iconic bird, and everybody has seen them at least once in their life if they live in the USA. They're also most likely an early bird (pun slightly intended) for people to encounter on a personal standpoint. Again, we'll get to them, but they're a notable entry in this list. And if one of the states kept the American Robin, I would understand. But, uh...is that state Connecticut?

OK, let's look at the state in the same vein as we have others. I'm sure this won't be the last difficult state to examine in the future of this project, so why not do the same here? Starting with habitat, Connecticut is another state placed within the Northeastern Coastal Zone, with a ton of deciduous forests dominated by oak, chestnut, hemlock, and white pine. There was a lot of clearance during early settlement and beyond, but succession has taken over in recent years to grow the forests back. The state's cut in half by the Connecticut Valley, with large floodplains dominated by maple and cottonwood, with the large Connecticut River right in the center of the valley. Finally, the Berkshires in the northwest corner of the state give us some classic New England flair with sugar maple (Acer saccharum), ash, beech, birch, oak, and hemlock trees on higher-altitude slopes, creating a hilly area that turns beautiful colors in fall. Man, I love Connecticut autumns. And the rest of the year, for that matter.

OK, what are Nutmeggers most known for, culturally and historically? It's a diverse state with a lot of mixed culture, partially as a result of its proximity to New York City. A lot of people tend to joke that Connecticut is just New York City, especially people from elsewhere in New England. And having been to NYC a lot when I was a kid, with a mom who worked there part of the week, and an aunt who lived there all of the week...yeah, fair. But Connecticut has a much more detailed culture than that. It's the home of the cotton giiiAAAAAAH, bad place to start that list. Uh, let's see, it's the home of whaliiiiiiing. Jesus. Uh...home of Mark Twain and Harriet Beecher Stowe? OK, that's better. It's a major seat of the Industrial Revolution in the United States, leading to it being a production hub for textiles, clocks, typewriters, machining, sewing machines, steam engines, aircraft, and honestly, women's rights to a certain degree. After all, it's the home of the Radium...Girls. Huh. OK, CT's history has some bumps in it, but what state's history doesn't?

As for modern Nutmeggers, they're industrious, generally well-educated, and honestly quite a bit eccentric. I've gone back to the state a few times in the last couple of years, and I forgot how honestly weird people are there. In a good way, not in the fucked-up MAGA sense of the word. It's a state whose people are unafraid to express themselves, from my experience. Probably a result of the diversity in the state, and the diverse perspectives that result. Its political atmosphere is a bit complicated, but overall pretty liberal. Which...doesn't translate super-well into birds at first blush, but hey, we'll see what we get!

OK, with that, let's jump into the selection of the birds for this list. Real talk, if anybody has a suggestion that I hadn't brought up here, send it my way! I will absolutely add another poll if there are entries I think could bear fruit. But, in the meantime, read on if you're interested in the possible choices for the State Bird of Connecticut!

American Robin (Turdus migratorius)

I think you'd be hard-pressed to find an citizen of the United States of America who hasn't seen a robin. This is, by far, one of our most iconic songbirds, and is certainly one of the most common and widespread. For some of us, they're a sign of spring. For others, they used to be a sign of spring, until global warming prompted some individuals to stick around through the winter, shifting their diet to frugivory a bit more and brightening the snow as well. They're prolific breeders with bright blue-green eggs (which are iconic in their own right), and can have up to three broods in a given season! Extremely successful and very common. And that...is a problem, for our purposes.

See, Connecticut, Michigan, and Wisconsin have the American Robin (Turdus migratorius) for their state bird, and none of them actually have a good reason for that choice. In Wisconsin, it was chosen by schoolkids because it was recognizable. That was also the reason for the Michigan Audubon Society to choose it as state bird. And Connecticut? Absolutely no goddamn idea. It's almost certainly for the same reason, but there is no real recorded reason for the choice of the American Robin as a state bird, as far as I can tell. For literally all of those states, it's a pretty bad choice by virtue of not being a good choice, at the very least. But that said...I mean, it's not the worst possible choice for a State Bird. For one state, anyway.

Robins, for the record, were named after a different robin entirely: the European Robin (Erithacus rubecula). Another red-breasted and beloved songbird, the European Robin was an immediate thought when American settlers saw the American Robin, hence why I keep saying "American". The two are so often confused in pop-culture, even Mary Poppins was guilty of it! That GIF above comes from the film, and in case you haven't realized it yet, that's an American Robin in England. Yeah. Wrong bird to use as a model for your animatronic, Disney. That has bothered me since I was a little kid, I swear to GOD. Erroneous film biogeography is one of my biggest pet peeves...but that's a separate conversation.

Back to the American Robin. Personally, I love robins of all species, and even recently did some genomics work with them (DNA extraction is fun). They're a commonly seen species, and a great entry-level bird for kids to get into birdwatching and nature. As an American icon, I genuinely think these guys should get some recognition...but I'm hard-pressed to say Connecticut needs them as a State Bird. We'll see what people think, but there's not a great case for them to get the title. To keep it...like I said, we'll see. Maybe the others won't be deemed as good a fit for the state. For now, let's move on from a popular backyard bird to a MUCH less popular one.

Blue-winged Warbler (Vermivora cyanoptera)

Here's the eBird pick for Connecticut, and for good reason! The vast majority of the Blue-winged Warbler's (Vermivora cyanoptera) breeding population is in...Wisconsin. Wait, what? Hold on...yeah, actually, Wisconsin, New York, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia all have higher shares of the population that Connecticut, with 5% overall. That's still a lot better than the American Robin's share in CT (0.2%), but still...seems like that eBird article is SEVERELY outdated, or I'm using the database wrong somehow. Either way...huh. Well, let's make an argument for the Blue-winged Warbler, anyway.

Blue-winged Warblers are a species of some conservation concern, making them automatically of interest. They're also extremely interesting to geneticists and ornithologists because of their relationship to other members of Vermivora, especially the Golden-wined Warbler (Vermivora chrysoptera) and extinct Bachman's Warbler (Vermivora bachmanii), with having documented hybrid offspring with the former that's of interest for various reasons. But outside of that, they of course breed in Connecticut, and represent an interesting bird to look for and find, with a recognizable song and appearance. It's also prized by birdwatchers, and would be a good bird for any aspiring or experienced birdwatchers. It also inhabits shrubland, which is of some conservation interest to CT government and environmental officials. But other than that...not too much else.

Connecticut Warbler (Oporornis agilis)

No. Look, I'm just gonna say this now: no. The Connecticut Warbler (Oporornis agilis) not only doesn't breed in the state (and possibly has never bred in the state), but it's pretty much not found there. Like, at all. This is not an easy warbler to get anywhere in its range in the US, but Connecticut isn't included in that distribution. "But lonelywretch," you scream at your computer screen, "why is it called the Connecticut goddamn Warbler if it isn't even from the state?" First of all, not to police your emotions, but stop screaming; way overboard for this situation. Second of all, it's called the Connecticut Warbler because its describer, ornithologist Alexander Wilson, first saw it in a fly-by during migration while in Connecticut. And...yeah, that's it. They do fly through the state very occasionally during migration, but it's definitely not a reliable bird to count on for local birders there. Honestly...bad bird for the state.

Side note here: there's a lot of talk about renaming birds that are named after people, and I agree with that in almost every case. But here's a hot take to elaborate on in another series: location-based names need to be re-examined. Not all of them are bad by any means, but the Connecticut Warbler is a great example of a bird whose name makes NO FUCKING SENSE. Rename this bird, I BEG of you. If anybody has suggestions for a renaming of this bird, throw them in notes for something! Keep in mind, Gray-headed Warbler is taken (by Myiothlypis griseiceps), so come up with somethin' else. Warranted inclusion in the list for its name, but we're gonna move on.

Osprey (Pandion halieetus)

It's at this point in the list where we get into some interesting candidates...and where I had the most trouble. But I'm fairly satisfied with what I've come up with, so let's move forward! This entry's a somewhat controversial pick for a few reasons, but an interesting one for a bunch of reasons. Now, I don't know about you, but I love Osprey (Pandion halieetus) a whole bunch. An iconic raptor, as well as a very unique one, they're a pescivorous bird found throughout the entire continent. And in Europe. And Asia. And Africa, Australia, and South America. Yeah, they're a cosmopolitan species, found in every continent except for Antarctica. That automatically should make them a bit dodgy of a choice for a State Bird, since they can be found in every state (yes, even occasionally Hawaii). So, why Connecticut?

First off, Connecticut has an intimate connection with the shore and rivers, especially the Connecticut River. Seemingly a loose reason, but the Osprey, AKA the river hawk or sea hawk (we'll get to that later) is an iconic riparian raptor, and a common sight in Connecticut. Having grown up on a river in the state, we used to see Osprey all the time, and it was awesome every time. But their commonness in the state is an important story in and of itself. And, if you know anything about Osprey at all, you know where this is headed. And Connecticut is a great example of this story.

The Osprey is one of the most iconic victims of the DDT crisis that hit the country, as well as a symbol of the environmental success story that resulted from its banning. I won't go into the full story if you haven't heard it, but the short of it is that the pesticide DDT was inadvertently ingested by fish-eating raptors, especially the Bald Eagle (Halieetus leucocephalus) and the Osprey, causing the eggs they laid to have weakened, soft shells. This caused a massive decrease in these and other species, nearly driving both into extinction. However, once environmental movements prompted by Rachel Carson and her book Silent Spring advocated for its eventual banning, the populations recovered. And in Connecticut, they've recovered A LOT.

In 1940, somewhere near 1,000 nests were recorded for Osprey between New York City and Boston. By 1970, the number in Connecticut was down...to 8. Jesus Christ, that's a hell of a crash! One of the worst in the country, in fact. However, today in Connecticut, there are 688 active nests in the state. Which, yeah, doesn't seem like the ultimate success compared to previous, but what's interesting is the rate of increase. Because in 2014, according to the Connecticut State Audubon, there were only 210. In ten years, the number of breeding ospreys known was more than tripled. That's incredible. This has quickly made the Osprey a symbol of conservation in the state, because of a massive amount of monitoring increase. There are states with more of a population, but Connecticut has a pretty good argument for having the Osprey. But that said...other states could also claim this species. Florida and Maryland definitely have claims on it for population size alone, not to mention, well...the most iconic state of all when it comes to having ospreys as a symbol. But we'll get to that one WAY later. just keep that in mind before you vote for Connecticut to have the Osprey.

Sharp-shinned Hawk (Accipiter striatus)

The Sharp-shinned Hawk (Accipiter striatus OR Astur striatus as of recent taxonomic proposals), on the other hand, is another bird of interest. The smallest hawk in the United States of America, this already seems a fitting choice for one of the smallest states in the country. It's listed as endangered in the state, immediately making it of interesting conservation focus. The reason for this status is likely because of window-strikes, which are common for the species in Connecticut, meaning that there's some public outreach needed to protect it. Protecting the forests they nest in (which are in danger) is one thing, but putting up protective window decals to help the species is another. Definitely a cause for focus.

However, there is one...minor detail that makes this a harder fight for public opinion, as well as a potentially ironic one. This is the first species we've discussed whose diet is basically exclusively birds. If you're in the Northeastern United States, and you've seen a bird get attacked and taken at your birdfeeders, it's almost certainly this guy. Which is cool, and important for the species' survival, but the average person being asked to protect a bird that kills other birds, especially birds like the American Robin, is...a palpable irony. Granted, it genuinely needs protecting, and has monitoring programs in the state, and it is a genuinely interesting raptor! But, this is a slightly harder fight to win because of that noncharismatic factor. But hey, it's a cool bird in genuine trouble in the state, it's a scrappy bird for a small state, and it's an interesting species to highlight!

American Black Duck (Anas rubripes)

This is another difficult bird to fight for, but one that needs attention, for God's sake. The American Black Duck (Anas rubripes) is a rapidly disappearing duck species, and not for the reason you think. Let's get to Connecticut representation first. It was the first bird to be used for the Connecticut Migratory Duck Stamp in 1993, the first one issued for the state. It's one of the few states in which it breeds (although it's not the primary state of focus, detracting from its candidacy). And, it's a controlled bird by Fish and Game, meaning hunting of the Black Duck is extremely limited. There is, surprisingly, a point to that statement, but I won't be elaborating here. We'll see how the vote goes, and I'll address it in the Results post.

So, why is this a potential issue? Well, Maine and New York arguably should get this bird instead, as they have a higher population. And the breeding population of this bird is incredibly important to promote, because it's disappearing. Why is it disappearing? Well, some of you may have looked at that picture and asked yourselves: "Wait...isn't that just a female Mallard?" And the answer is, no! But a lot of people think that. A lot of birds think that. Mallards think that. Which means that hybrids between Mallards and Black Ducks are incredibly high. SO high, in fact, the species is being bred and hybridized out of existence! They're so similar to Mallards on a genetic level at this point, that they'll be subsumed if their individual populations aren't preserved. So, yeah, these guys deserve some focus. Do I think they're a great Connecticut symbol? Well, to be fair, the state is regularly assumed to be either greater New York City or greater Massachusetts by outsiders. And it's not; it has its own identity that deserves to be preserved for what it is. So, yeah, maybe a good fit for Connecticut after all.

Also, it's the state in New England with the highest proportion of Black Americans (yes, even more than Massachusetts), so...I dunno, that's also something? Probably not, but as a black dude that grew up in CT, I felt the need to bring that up.

Snowy Egret (Egretta thula)

OK, sing it with me now!

Yankee Doodle went to town, a-riding on a pony; Stuck a feather in his hat, and called it "macaroni"! Yankee Doodle, give it up! Yankee Doodle Dandy, Mind the music and the step, and with the girls be handy!

Ooh, that last line aged a little rough, but Yankee Doodle! The Connecticut state anthem! Yes, really. Most Americans in the Northeast know this song, but it's got a unique resonance for Nutmeggers, seeing as it was allegedly based on the son of a Connecticut mayor! The state chose it as their song in 1978, and it's been a beloved symbol ever since. But, for the uninitiated (and probably to most school kids like I was), there is one weird word in there that needs a little explanation: macaroni.

Now, this does not, of course, reference the easy cheesy favorite of every child (and college student). No, this is a reference to an old 18th century term for a form of fashion back in the day. It's what the 2000s called "extra", or bourgeious (pronounced "bougie", of course). Basically, it's somebody who dressed WAY over the top in high-designed clothes and accessories to the point of looking...well, extra. Another applicable 2000s term would be "metrosexual", I guess. The macaroni became a satirical character in British culture, and would later become another character known as the "dandy". It's sort of a class-related satire, to be honest. In any case, the macaroni was known for over-the-top fashion, including...wigs.

So, what does literally any of this have to do with the Snowy Egret (Egretta thula)? More than you'd expect, actually. First off, the egret has a pompodour-like crest of feathers that makes it look quite like a stereotypical macaroni, in my opinion. Secondly, it does breed in Connecticut, albeit extremely rarely, sparely, and barely. Its population in the state used to be a lot greater...until people came around and starting hunting it down. Why, you ask?

Let's just go ahead and call that macaroni now, while we're at it. To be clear here, quite a lot of birds were used in millinery back in the day, but the Snowy Egret (and the Great Egret (Ardea alba), for that matter) are special. Those long white feathery plumes were heavily prized as hat decorations, enough so that the species nearly went extinct from hunting them for the hat trade. As a result of that, people began to turn their eye towards conservation of the species, and the protection of birds in general. Two women, Harriet Hemenway and Minna B. Hall, got a group of women together to protect the birds. They rallied the troops, and their organization became fairly popular. Eventually when they sought to name it, they did so after one of the most famous ornithologists in American history at the time: John James Audubon. And from there...well, you can guess.

The Audubon Society is one of the premiere bird conservation organizations in the world, and especially in the United States, and is well-known to the public sector. And it was born right here in...Massachusetts. Oh. Wait, have I jumped the gun on this one? Maybe a little, yeah. But, in my defense, the macaroni is linked to Connecticut through its state anthem, and the Snowy Egret is linked to the macaroni, as mentioned. But, OK, maybe this is a better proposal for Massachusetts, not Connecticut. But, uh...there may be another contender. Kind of.

Tufted Titmouse (Baeolophus bicolor)

OK, here me out on this one. Look at this picture of a classic macaroni character (on the right, for the record). Does that hairdo not kinda look like the crest of the Tufted Titmouse (Baeolophus bicolor)? Like, just a little bit, at least? I dunno, I can definitely see it. But OK, outside of that, is there another reason for the Tufted Titmouse to be the State Bird of Connecticut? Well, they're extremely common, they've got some charisma to them, and they're definitely found breeding in Connecticut. But...I don't know. I think they're plenty charismatic, but I'm not sure that makes them a great contender.

Still...they should be represented somewhere, right? I mean, the species breeds entirely in the USA, even though it can be found in Canada as well. Plus, other than being very recognizable, they're also an easy bird to find and support with backyard birdfeeding. And, if you want a fun fact about them, they're prone to kleptotrichy. That means, they pluck the fur from mammals to use as insulation in their nests! Yeah! They actually pick the winter coat off of dogs, and use it for their nests! Adorable. But yeah, does this really count for a good State Bird of Connecticut? I doubt it, but I'll let you vote! And I swear to God, it better not be just because of the name that it gets votes.

There you have it. Some complex and controversial choices. I miss any that you think are a valid choice for the state? Do let me know, and I may just issue another poll if this one isn't good enough. We shall see. But, for now, I think it's time to move onto the next state. And lemme tell you, I'm real excited about that one, since...well, I live there! And I have some ideas, lemme tell you. And some people will...disagree with me. For sure. Anyway, see you next time in Boston, kid!

See you next time, and happy birding!

[fu-cough]

I watched Disney's Wish (aka their 100 year celebration movie) and if you like the movie please just feel free to ignore me😭

ITS SHITTY.

1. Appearance - it is so bland. The castle has no color in it. It's all grey, even Asha's clothes are muted! Their city is called "ROSAS" for god's sake, they couldn't have thrown in an abundant amount of roses there?? Flowers?? They tried to do this 2d and 3d mix that the Spiderverse movies made famous and it just does not work. The characters do not interact with the textures of the background at all. It feels like they were just plastered onto the scene with the backgrounds already made. The trees and leaves do not sway. The best sequence was probably the "At All Costs" song number.

2. Soundtrack - "here I are", "Throw caution to every warning sign" (the context of the song is that she does not care about the warning signs), "I got these genes from outer space" (which does not make sense metaphorically and literally because afaik Magnifico is a human with powers). Overall, the tune is okay (more of pop music than theater style but ok) the lyrics are not. Definitely tried to copy Lin's style.

3. Asha - who EVEN IS SHE?? We don't even know anything about her except that she wanted to be Magnifico's apprentice so her family could have a higher chance in having their wish granted. Also her father died. She was so boring as a protagonist. She had an i want song where she spoke about being restricted by people telling her "no" and like WHEN?? She was never stripped of her freedom, the only time she was told no was when she asked Magnifico to have her grandpa's wish granted. She was THE SAME throughout the entire film. No development, no moral lessons, no nothing.

4. Magnifico - he kind of deserved better lmao, not the best but his character deserved better treatment plot wise. Like he turned evil in a span of 5 seconds because of some cursed book i guess. And then his wife of how many years immediately left him and took the throne for herself 😭. He granted a girl's wish about being a dressmaker and she talked shit about him the moment he was in the mirror. I don't really understand why he's a villain but that's because I don't understand how wishes worked in-universe.

5. Wishes - i dont understand THIS!! it pisses me off so much and threw me off the entire duration of the film. Like okay so the people of Rosas WILLINGLY give the King their wishes once they turn 18. Then the King grants 1 wish per month and people KNOW THIS. It's basically a lottery and there's a chance your wish will never be granted. The citizens also know that they will forget their wish once they give it and they will never get them back. So what is Asha trying to revolt against here?? People seemed okay with this entire arrangement, hell, they knew about it the entire time. What exactly is the conflict in the story?

6. Other Characters - ohh omgg Asha's friends are the seven dwarves haha nice idea Disney, if only they were fleshed out and we could've seen their wishes, right? Also there's a talking goat thing who makes butt jokes. And then there was Star that was definitely just there to make merch plushies. Asha's grandpa wants to "inspire the young generations" thru... playing the guitar??? Asha's motivations revolved around having her grandpa's wish granted and his wish is just so goddamn plain. Like where are the stakes?? It would've been better if her grandpa's wish was something life saving. Maybe her mom was sick or something.

7. Plot - there's a plot?

I am just so madd. It so soulless, stiff, and basically just an entire ball of corporate bullshit. I am not blaming any of the writers, animators and anyone in the creative field because we know damn well it's the executives' fault for making this whole mess. 1/10.

[machiroads]

anirevo 2024 con report belooooooow

THURSDAY NIGHT, AUGUST 8TH

Left my office at 4:30. Took the bus to the ferry straight from work except the GODDAMN BUS DIDN'T ACTUALLY STOP TO PICK ME UP so I had to wait for the next one and missed the 6:00 ferry so I didn't get to my hotel in Vancouver until after 10pm oof

The slow bus was very nice once i got over being mad about the fast bus leaving me on read by way of listening to linkin park. It goes through some very quaint rural areas.

I purchased a can of wine on the ferry which was like $15 for 8.5oz. I don't know how I feel about this but I do feel like I got ripped off because the wine was only ok

I edited and posted ch2 of WTBL&W entirely on my phone which may or may not have been a mistake. Getting the html formatting right wasn't too bad, but editing the splash image for twitter and bsky on photopea was uhhhhhhhhh a mistake. FAFO

FRIDAY AUGUST 9TH

My hotel had one of those fancy toto washlets so you bet your ass my butt was squeaky clean all weekend

My hotel also had a room service menu that had a bowl of oatmeal for $14 as an offering. Which. No.

I got an actual breakfast at a tiny hole in the wall crepe place staffed by a single old man, then trundled over to the con to pick up my badge at like 10ish. I was in line behind a cute couple in horimiya cosplay

The first panel I actually wanted to see wasn't until like 12 so I sat on the seawalk, finished my coffee, watched floatplanes, and replied to AO3 comments. 11/10 banger morning.

I watched an improv comedy D&D skit, which was fun, then traipsed down to the exhibition hall to do Some Shopping

MERCH REPORT: nobody really had heroaca stuff? Or if they did it was just the main kids. Still lots of people with HQ stuff, which I'm encouraged to see years after its ending. I'm happy with the pin selection this year tho, I picked up some nice stuff (but I think i will need to find additional capacity on my button collection because it's p much full oops)

BONUS COSPLAY REPORT: There also weren't really any heroaca cosplayers either, i saw like 1 shinsou, a couple bkgs, and a handful of people in nonspecific UA gym uniforms. Very strange. I did, however, see like 3 Nanamis within the span of 2 minutes on Saturday. (i don't even go here re jjk but he was the basic white boy cosplay of the year)

I spent like 2 hours in the exhibition hall and my brain hurt so I got poke for lunch, went back to the hotel to eat it, then took a nap

I went back for another couple panels on Friday night (a panel with vancouver VA graham hamilton, and another improv advice panel)

SATURDAY AUGUST 10TH

I went bra shopping on saturday morning because i accidentally overstuffed my backpack last week and zipped my bra into the zipper and tore the liner whilst trying to extract it. This is not relevant to the con, however it was an important part of my weekend

There wasn't anything I wanted to see at the con in the morning so I didn't get there until like 2:00 so I could line up for the cosplay contest. I'd never been to one before, and I don't really cosplay mself, but I've recently been watching some sarah spaceman videos, so I thought it would be fun to go see a contest for the first time.

On the schedule the contest is supposed to start at 2:30. There's like 6 down-and-backs of queueing space for people waiting to get in. When I got there around 2ish there were people milling about saying they'd cut the line. I loitered a bit longer until some admin looking folk went around telling people to disperse because queueing outside of the taped off area was a "fire hazard", and to come back at 3:00 when the event started. At this point, the line of people illicitly queued for this event wrapped probably halfway around the building, and the VCC is a Large Building.

I assume the delayed start time was probably due to pre-judging going long (thank u sarah spaceman for this education i now know how cosplay contests work), so i wasn't too fussy about that, but the fire hazard thing was a little silly to me because I'd been in the exhibition hall already which to me seemed like waaaaaay more of a fire hazard than a generally orderly line. Regardless. I bummed around on the seawalk for a bit and then went back just before 3 and managed to snag a seat. The contest itself ended up being really fun, and I'm glad i stuck around for it.

I went to another 3 panels on Saturday night, all 3 of which had similar queue capacity issues, and all 3 of which started late. Again, when the panels themselves started, they were all really fun, but logistically it seemed like they had some challenges. It does feel a bit silly to complain about though when I have literally nothing else to do that weekend tho haha

I attended the Philosophy of Science in FMA and Dr Stone (TIL epistemology is a word), a panel about adaptations that are superior to the source material, and...............yaoi bedtime stories. Which was a hoot.

SUNDAY AUGUST 11TH

Kind of a chill morning. Got some goodies at a bakery for breakfast / lunch / to bring home, checked out of the hotel, then trundled over to the con.

I went to a panel that was just a bunch of tables set up with colouring sheets and books and stuff and that was super what I needed. I coloured the eeveelutions from memory (and only forgot half of their colour schemes), and then there was a little time left so I also coloured in a cardcaptor sakura.

I thought about attending cosplay life drawing afterwards but ended up just heading home after colouring since I was kind of Done after a full weekend. There was another improv dragon ball tribute scheduled, but not until like 6:30pm and if I stuck around for that I wouldn't have gotten home today lol

No bus mishaps on the way home fortunately

ANYWAYS that's all folks thanks for reading about my dramatization of what was actually a pretty chill weekend.

[mekatrio]

ANYWAYS before i do um whats apparently the good end?? true end??? aka doors 5 -> 8 -> 6, this is what i think of every character..

1 -> FAWKINGGGG WEIRDO like seriously seriously ok first i thought maybe ace is a weirdo scientist who knows more than he lets on maybe hes an insider for zero or something but also like.. he has said some very weird stuff like during the search for ace hes like 'why wouldnt you think snake and clover are siblings? oh yeah bc they dont look alike' and also ohhhh my god i swear hes said something else that was rly weird but i cannot for the life of me recall what it was. but essentially the two weird things hes said gives off the air of like. a dude who knows jackshit abt the world.. like hes a test tube baby fresh out the tube or something idk. which again is even more weird considering how like... how to say.. like hes manipulated the events of the game a lot yknow like he was adamant in making sure that ppl dont suspect one another of being zero 🤨🤨🤨 and then he goes and drugs himself so we go in doors 3 7 or 8 without him, and if i go into door 1 he'll reveals that he knows junpei's trick w the paper and just then he went off somewhere with lotus leaving me to be SLAUGHTERED by clover like hes sooooo weird whats his deal. hes also really funny too HAH like an old man loser but srsly i dont completely trust him in the slightest i still think hes involved w snake's disappearances somehow mmhm

2 -> snake is cool as fuck like such a chill guy im sooo sad i can only do two rooms with him b4 he fawking disappears so i really am suspecting that he is inside of that coffin and ill get to do room 9 with him clover and seven pleaseee please please. other than that like I dont knowww i dont know why he disappeared.. his outfit is kinda similar to the man w the 0 bracelet so like Maybe that means something yknow i think it might mean something hmm both him and clover were previous subjects of the nonary game 9 years ago so maybe he knows his way around the ship and knows like secret passages or whatever? and also like... if he is in that coffin then whos the dead person in the shower room?? so mysteriously mysterious

3 -> funny as fuck guy who BETRAYED ME but really i wonder whats his deal huh. shockingly learned that he had a sister in the prev bad end and also hmmm its seems veryyy likely that he was another test subject too just like clover and snake. but yet they dont recognize one another as such which is ? alsooo just theorizing but i feel like him + clover + junpei + june are the same age and related to those missing children somehow and also i wonderrrrr if his sister is the girl who died hmmm? ive said multiple times like what if the one who died is akane's twin or something which yeah i think is still plausible but santa has had a few random instances of being pretty melancholic which makes me wonder if he was close to the girl who died or something yknow... also like what was that whole thing abt the black and white santa like seriously What was that it made me laugh but also ???? to me it feels like its continuing the theme of theseus' ship that has been recurring in this game 🤔

4 -> im still befhwefbjfe from the latest ending like myyyy goodness i was genuinely surprised by her tenacity to kill people cold bloodedly like goddamn. its not too surprising but its still??!? pretty surprising?!??! i still think shes a kind and cute girl but like yeah idk what else to say abt her umm i wonder if her and snake are actually siblings yknow... hmm......

5 -> THE PRESIDENT OF WEIRDO CENTRAL like seriously he might be the weirdest one of them all he reminds me of phoenix wright in the way that theyre both protagonists who i play as and yet i barely know a thing abt and i have a feeling that junpei knows more abt things that r going on than i as the player do.. cuz like firstly hes had all those rando joker moments and also hes kinda had like???? weirddd reactions to things?? like these

and not just that but also like jfc i barely know anything abt his past.. ive already said this but it bears repeating but srsly why did he grow apart from akane! they both like each other so... what happened!!! OH and also in room 8 him and lotus have a weird exchange where junpei is like 'What The Fuck Is A Wireless Display' and honestly idk whose the weird one in that situation like is it lotus for working w wireless displays or is it junpei for not knowing what that is. idk when this game was released and whether bluetooth was a thing yet. whatttt is with this dude

6 -> vice president of weirdo central... kinda not really. but yeah ive already commented on her a lot and i dont rly wanna repeat myself so to keep it brief maybe shes got a twin who died + shes probably one of the kids who got experimented one + her random fevers might be her remembering something the way seven remembered shit (or maybe shes like junpei and is also in whatever this time travel thing is??)

7 -> similarly to akane ive kinda already said everything i find weird abt this guy the main thing being that its kinda suspicious how the doors he leaves unlocked are the ones that lead a trail to a dead body w a bracelet like Hmmmmm okkk

8 -> these are getting shorter cuz im getting hungry LOL but shes also another person ive commented a lot on. i started off thinking she was a weirdo scientist involved w the nonary game and while i still think shes a scientist of some sort, the torture room revealed she didnt know abt the nonary game her children went thru which makes me change my mind. wait also omfg why the hell is there a torture room on this boat. i guess this is the gigantic (war ship) huh. ALSO who killed her in that ending huh! i feel like its ace tbh cuz the game said 'the person who would gain the most from getting lotus' bracelet killed her' and seeing ace has the lowest number while lotus has the highest like doesnt that make senseee. but yeah as of rn i think her outfit means she has some sort of connection to alice (maybe shes researching her?) and i still think shes a #LadyInSTEM

9 -> and whats this dudes deal huh..... he probably knows zero well in some way.. but other than that i dont know a thinggg. but also yknow considering that clover (and meee) think that snake is still alive somehow in spite of that exploded body, and that i think snake is the one banging on that coffin, this would then mean that body in the shower room is a "fake" somehow.. and wouldnt that mean that the body of the 9th man in the 5th room corridor also be a faked one somehow?? and maybe just maybe the 9th man is the one who killed us in some endings... maybe.. idk... itll be very junko enoshima if thats the case lol. but yeah i still have my thoughts on him.... HMMMM

[tradetobest]

dee's january 2024 fic recs

ok so. i thought i'd do a fic rec list every month this year of just my favourite fics that got bookmarked in the month (not necessarily written in the past month) that had just passed... i was a bit busy for the past few days but FINALLY i got the chance to sit down so!!

(if you want to play fic roulette here's some blind links otherwise!! enjoy under the cut

1 2 3 4 5 6)

3:30 by sevenfists

pairing: sidney crosby/evgeni malkin rating: E words: 11k summary: Napping with Sid would be inconvenient, embarrassing, and more than a little gay, and maybe Zhenya was a little gay, but he didn’t need to advertise it.

i LOVE "oh this thing we do together has become a routine now we Have to do it before games" fics and you should too!! this one is So cute i love it....

waiting for confessions of love by catchingpapermoons

pairing: jamie drysdale/trevor zegras/mason mctavish rating: M words: 41k summary: “I’ll be so real with you, man,” Trevor says, pulling back. “I had no fucking idea you liked dudes.”

one thing about me is that i am an absolute sucker for miscommunication and will love it at all costs and this fic DELIVERS!!!! and so well!!

high into the blue by idday

pairing: jack eichel/connor mcdavid rating: T words: 10k summary: Lieutenant John Eichel of the United States Navy – Boston to his squadron and Jack to the people who matter – is reckless and cocky and too smug for his own damn good. But even Connor has to admit that the boy can goddamn fly. (Captain Connor McDavid, Royal Canadian Air Force, is by the book in the worst way, conservative and careful and liable to get himself killed out there. Jack shouldn’t be impressed by him. He really shouldn’t.)

when i tell you i SCREAMED when i got the notif for this fic and then immediately went and watched top gun.,.... if you know me you know anything idday puts out i literally eat up like mceichel is the only thing that will ever sustain me ever again and this was NO exception,,,, always a pleasure to be able to experience an idday fic is what i say

play your heart out by ribena

pairing: leon draisaitl/connor mcdavid rating: M words: 4k summary: Connor loses his heart. Leon finds it for the both of them.

oughh./.. ouhhh.... what even to say.... clutches my heart (lol)...... beautiful..... i literally screamed cried went through it..... please read like literally begs you

nobody wins afraid of losing by adelphenium

pairing: tyler bertuzzi/dylan larkin rating: E words: 12k summary: It’s been almost a year since the first trade. It’s been just a few weeks since they last saw each other, facing off on the ice here in Toronto. In all the months since the Boston run, Tyler’s done nothing but read Dylan’s texts from the notifications bar like a sad and filthy sack of shit, too weak not to feel a thrill whenever a Saw that goal, what a beauty berts or a Hope you’re sleeping ok came through. Or: Tyler and Dylan during the 2024 bye week.

"hey you bookmarked this one on december 31st" IM PUTTING IT IN JANUARY!!!!! PLEASE READ THIS FIC!!!!! not only did jamie adelphenium write it but its just. it has shaped the way i view tyler bertuzzi and sparked a love for mr hockey butt himself..... what a good fic yall please read

reserve your ardors by wrightsworth

pairing: jamie benn/tyler seguin rating: E words: 9k summary: Jamie was in over his head. He had been out of his depth for months if he was being honest, ever since he picked Seggy up from the airport that first time in the humid Dallas air and his Omega genes decided to make themselves known, and loudly.

it wouldnt be me without some good old bennguin and RAHH pining and omegaverse and unrequited-requited and miscommunication like what else could you want in a fic its so good

[sazorak]

Every Game I Played in 2023, Ranked

I debated moving this list to Cohost (after all these years, the Tumblr text post interface still makes me want to punch a wall) but whatever, here we are! Keeping it relatively short this year.

A lot of the games I played aren't going to be on this list because I don't have much new to say about them (MTG, Dwarf Fortress, Strive, etc), but for those that I do, here's the games I played this year.

2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022

SD Gundam Battle Alliance - 2022 - Steam - ★★★

I really wanted to like this- you know I like me some Gundam- but the experience is simultaneously too thin, too grindy, and bereft of stakes. There's nothing like "oh no we have to preserve the Gundam metaverse from hackers ruining the archived story!" to make me go to sleep.

There's something about the progression system of every "hey, gotta catch 'em all!"-ish Gundam games that is designed exclusively for people who either played these games in the early 00s, or people with addictive personalities. There's been little in the way of evolution. Yeah, the gameplay here is different as a sort of Action RPG, but this is far more Dynasty Warriors than it is say Armored Core.

Just not for me!

... Where's my new Super Robot Wars at damn it?

9. Pokemon Scarlet/Violet DLC - 2023 - Switch - ★★★★

I talked last year about how I mostly liked this game in spite of its many, many issues. The DLC mostly plays to SV's strengths: fun plot and characters, improved open world catching system from Sword/Shield. They also run considerably better, due to a year of opportunity to make things more stable and address bugs.

That said: It doesn't address any of the other issues that have always been there. Open world exploration becomes kind of pointless when you have the ability to invalidate any level geometry. There is such a thing as too much mobility, believe it or not, when you can just jump over everything. At the same time, the ways cutscenes work is soooo slowwwww, to the point that getting through them to the "action" can be quite tedious.

This DLC also continues the unfortunate thing that drives me nuts about all these DLC, that the level scaling is just awful. It basically assumes you have done literally nothing since finishing Scarlet Violet, and not engaged at all with the post game. Which hey, works out for Lil Timmy who is experiencing this DLC in-line with the base game or only after beating it (since it does dynamically scale for earlier progression), but it makes the whole thing kind of a rote exercise for those who actually played the game more than that?

I realize this is multiple decades now of me barking that hey, it'd be nice if Pokemon didn't exclusively try to appeal to 5 year olds, which is definitely a lost cause at this point. We don't even get stuff like Battle Towers or Frontiers anymore really. Ah well!

8. Street Fighter 6 - 2023 - Steam - ★★★★

Ok, here's the thing: Street Fighter 6 is overall a very good game, lots of care and polish, but I got a few bones to pick with it.

1. I kind of hate its input buffer. Just drives me nuts, particularly with how it handles supers and specials with overlapping inputs.

2. World Tour while is neat, the progression of it is so goddamn grindy and miserable. So much HP for enemies as you go on, and you don't have access to a fighter's full skill set even at the very end due to how special "slots" work.

3. The cast feels too safe. I like the new additions a lot, and in general the old chars have been rendered quite well, but there's just not a lot of innovation going on. The system mechanics are quite good, but it's the thing where no one on the cast really calls out to me. Personal taste thing.

Marvel's Spider-Man - 2022 - Steam - ★★★★

I don't think I have anything particularly unique to say about The Spider-Man Experience beyond hey: that's a pretty good Spider-Man. I think the DLC was obnoxious as shit, and a number of the decisions tied to box-checking-completionist stuff were mean for someone like me who has the stupid brain that thinks it's important to do Everything no matter how tedious it is, but overall: a good Spider-Man. Some of the villain stuff felt pretty weak though.

7. Resident Evil 4 Remake - 2023 - Steam - ★★★★★

A great remake! They trimmed down some areas a fair but, but none of them particularly egregious (some of them, particularly a last act boss being removed, was quite appreciated), and the mechanical additions are fun.

Does it invalidate the old version? I dunno, maybe?

6. We Love Katamari Re:Roll - 2023 - Steam / Switch - ★★★★★

Hey, you know what's also a very good game? We Love Katamari. Not much new to say beyond hey: the name is accurate, and you should buy and play it. I liked it enough to buy it twice on two platforms, which is silly but it gave me the excuse to play more Katamari so quite understandable.

A thing that does annoy me about the game is them reusing certain models from the other Katamari Remake, even when they were deliberately replaced in We Love Katamari and are even called out as different in the item descriptions despite not being so. Arrgh. It doesn't really matter, but I got the dumb brain for that kind of thing.

5. Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising - 2023 - Steam - ★★★★★

A fighting game that I enjoyed years past now has actually good netcode! The mechanical additions have been very nice, and I've been enjoying myself grinding away for my meager gains. It's also funny having skipped all the base game's DLC and coming in now, since it's like this release just added 20 more chars I'd otherwise not engaged with before.

A ton of polish has made this a fantastic package across the board, so many smart decisions and little details. I'm sure for GranBlue gacha fans it's probably incredible as something that pays tribute as well.

… but see, my main annoyance with the game mostly ties to being unable to stand the source material it pulls from. It's not enough to diminish my positive feelings for the game, but none the less: man, everything about the lore and characters themselves just does NOTHING for me. This is nothing particularly unique to GranBlue itself even, it's pretty in line with how I feel about every gacha title that exists to roll out chars and appeal to as many niches as possible without real forward movement or actual story, but hey here we are.

Looking forward to that 2B.

4. Baldur's Gate 3 - 2023 - Steam - ★★★★★

A game I admittedly haven't completed yet (I got up to a certain kidnapping in the last act and had to set it aside due to stuff repeatedly coming up for the past couple months) but still: this is a very good tactical RPG. I enjoy the writing, characters, and gameplay quite a lot. A ton of polish went into this.

I don't think I have much to say about it that hasn't been said by others, especially with all the Discourse that has circled it for months-to-years now across Early Access into release.

If there's one thing that does kind of annoy me about the game design, it's the way the player characters are handled. You have the option during character creator to create a character with a number of character-build-y backgrounds, or use their pre-built characters that have existing stories. This choice is lose-lose.

A fully custom character is blank, unimportant. There's nothing special about them beyond their affinity with a certain orb and being Protagonist Man. Their background doesn't really matter, even as you express your personality. You have nothing behind you that meaningfully comes up or affects the story (no Gorion, etc) beyond your role in the conflict. In other words, there's not a lot of reason for you to exist except as a cypher for the named characters.

Playing one of the named characters also sucks, because you lose those the writing for those characters. If I'm stuck aping Karlach, I have no Karlach in my party. You barely even get voice acting once you choose to play those characters either. You effectively end up with less writing and characterization, which kind of sucks! Yes, you do get your backgrounds being looped in and mattering more, which is indeed something, but not enough.

There is secretly a third option that, the more I think about it, is the correct one, they just don't tell you it. You can choose your character background to be tied to the Dark Urge, which results in a lot unique interactions, gives your character an actual background and comes up, etc. They don't outright make this the main option presumably because it comes with a lot of baggage (which, yeah, it does), but it seems completely worth it by comparison to just flitting through the story as either a ghost or the phantom of a real character.

3. Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective Remastered - 2023 - Steam - ★★★★★

Play Ghost Trick.

2. Armored Core VI - 2023 - Steam - ★★★★★

From Software continues to not miss. Fantastic game, some of the most satisfying mecha combat I've played. Story is great; it's still your usual "oops we're not explaining much other than in medias res or by circumstantial details" that From Soft has continued to double down on, but I really enjoy that stuff so hey. I 100%'d this game, got all the endings etc. Great stuff.

Really want some proper DLC so I can do even more, though.

1. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom - 2023 - Steam - ★★★★★

Let's face it: this wasn't going to end any other way. Breath of the Wild is probably my favorite game of all time, and this is basically just more of that, remixed and remastered into a Second Quest that builds on the first one.

Something I kept thinking about while playing is that while there is volumetrically more to do, more things happening, more mechanics, etc etc, the different approach it takes in terms of focus and approach doesn't make it necessarily a "strictly better" version of Breath of the Wild.

Breath of the Wild was deliberately spare, quiet, and minimalist. Like the name says, its about the quiet wilderness, a poignant world that you explore. Tears of the Kingdom drops much of that, in many ways turning into a kooky madcap version of BOTW. You don't spent nearly as much time smelling the roses and taking in the scenery, as you're often too busy blasting by using any number of the new movement abilities or combat tools or literal flying machines you can now Nuts and Bolts together.

It's a deliberate escalation, one that in my opinion requires the preceding part to work. They add together into one complete singular experience, rather than pulling against each other. That's awesome, exactly what I wanted. Now I get to have two favorite games of all time that are secretly just one-and-the-same.

Some minor thoughts:

1. Lots of great writing and characterization, built up well on BOTW there.

2. It's kind of funny how much it goes out of the way to avoid talking much about BOTW in case someone plays this game first.

3. The last of a Master mode this time around is kind of a bummer but oh well!

4. The vehicle crafting system and everything about it, including the way it plays into the existing physics system is fucking insane. Absolutely incredible game design. Bonkers.

I'm really curious how the hell they're going to follow these games up. Going back to square-0 from this formula- one that is so built up and diverse, seems like it'd be impossible to me. What the hell could you do? Looking forward to finding out.

[princessofxianle]

Do you mind if I ask your top 10 favorite characters (can be male or female) from all of the media that you loved (can be anime/manga, books, movies or tv series)? And why do you love them? Sorry if you've answered this question before.....Thanks...

well THANK YOU for asking, you are the first to!

tbh ive been meaning to do this on my main blog bc I take these wayyy too seriously lol but ANYWAY heres my top 10 faves (in no particular order) that I can think of (tbh theres prob more i forgot about, or i wanted to keep only 1 per fandom... except tgcf)

Huge Spoiler Warning: for ALL of tgcf, 2ha, aot, AND JJK MANGA!!!

1. Feng Xin (tgcf)

do i even need to explain this one? loyal to a fault, just a cute lil puppy, one hell of a sculpted archers back, and he's head over heels in love with Xie Lian (but tbh same) i have a lot of thoughts about him on a daily basis on this blog (and also theres the #fx backstory au tag)

2. Noé Archiviste (the Case Study of Vanitas)

MY BABY

the absolute bestest boy of EVER... with a LOAD of unprocessed trauma (yknow the typical stuff like seeing your childhood bff get decapitated in front of you) and a lot more to come once we find out how he kills his boyfriend best friend, Vanitas...

i ALSO think about him a lot but over on @noes-pillow

3. Sejanus Plinth (The Hunger Games: tbosas)

hated reading as a child... HATED it... picked up the og trilogy when i was 12 and i was a goner. The funny thing is i still hated reading for YEARS up until i picked up the prequel novel then in 2020, and now ive read all of tgcf, 2ha, and more fanfic than i could ever imagine... all because this stupid boy (i love him) chose to trust the WORST person as his friend, rip sejanus my baby

the movie is v good btw, if you havent seen it you should

4. Xie Lian (tgcf)

*Taizi Dianxia Fang Xin Guoshi General Hua Xie Lian*

how this man survived 800 years of being physically unable to die and never went insane is a mystery i will never be able to fully comprehend (aaand im in love with him... hmm i wonder why...)

5. Mihael "Mello" Keehl (Death Note)

the chocolate-addicted blonde boi that was my first anime crush... by proxy I must also add Mail "Matt" Jeevas because they are a package deal

these two are also the reason i started writing fanfic so they will ALWAYS hold a special place in my heart

6. Xue Meng - (2ha)

*sigh* he's just everyone's fav peacock (yes technically the image is XM 0.5 but he had a cool ass bird so im using this photo bc its COOL anyway...) mengmeng is another one of my trauma bois who has lost next to everything and yet is STILL kicking ass and taking names #thatsmyfuckingsectleader so proud of you my son

also this might get me into hot water here but imma go ahead and say it...

this is what i wanted Jiang Cheng to be... (i LOVE my angy grape but...) through thick and thin, despite EVERYTHING, and even mo ran fucking abandoning him he will still call mo ran his "ge"...

fgjhdfhfdg THEYRE BROTHERS, OKAY???

7. Howl Pendragon (Howl's Moving Castle)

ok this one i just simply do not need to explain... if you think i do, go watch this whole movie and then there ya go thats your answer...

GENDER

8. River Song (Doctor Who)

aside from being the character that unlocked my unhealthy obsession with :) Main Character Death :) at the ripe ol' age of 8 YEARS (although Will Turner from POTC also helped on that front... Orlando Bloom my beloved) River's story was a stroke of absolute GENIUS from start to finish and i simply love how Alex Kingston played her...

"You don't expect a sunset to admire you back."

I just love the doomed ones, okay...

9. Satoru Gojo (Jujutsu Kaisen)

look... theres *gojo girlies* uwu and then theres GOJO GIRLIES... i couldn't give 2 shits about how he's fan-serviced (tho im not complaining) but have you SEEN the amount of grief pumped into that man? he could explode in a fit of fucking insanity at literally any moment and take the whole goddamn world down with him bc what happened with suguru WASNT FAIR to him and satoru has more than enough power to go apeshit... but he DOESN'T... even after losing so many of his co-sorcerers... he still puts on a brave face to the end in order to protect the childhood of his students even tho his own youth was stolen from him during hidden inventory...

SEE? The DOOMED ones!

10. Levi Ackerman (Attack on Titan)

i read the manga during my last year of uni and when i tell you i SOBBED at the end... yes ofc for obvious reasons, but mostly bc my little Levi loses EVERYTHING. He is the SOLE survivor of the veteran scouts. He's missing multiple fingers, an eye, and the ability to walk. He was the strongest (yowaimo) but wasn't even granted the mercy to die at the end of his narrative! Broke my fucking heart.

BONUS: Morph (Treasure Planet)

he's a morph!!! nuff said <3

fin

[shininguponthestars]

🍠 🍙 🍘 for the writer asks!

oh lord ok

🍠 How long does it take you to write one of your fics or a chapter/part?

let me check. sun falls was written in a day or two i think but that was years ago so i can’t remember. ummm. i think each entry for taking care of was written in like, a few days up to a week? ive lost my record of harrys bc apparently i reused an old doc, but jakes took 3 days apparently & rogers took 5 or 6. & the walt oneshot was done in a night or two because it was mostly a character study fueled by my godawful flareup. as for what im working on currently uh.

well its been rough. ive had other projects to work on. (+ writing ppl inebriated is HARD) as for active days ive worked on it id say ive spent like 4 or 5 days so far

🍙 Is there a fic you wish had gotten more attention?

honestly the jake one mostly bc i rlly like jake and think it works well as a character study. were ignoring everything else about it rn im in it for the CHARACTERIZATION. but jakes an unpopular character unless ur in The Bubble of ppl who like jake so. shrugs!

im pretty preemptively scared for how my next one will do? because its walt. nobody cares or thinks about walt. but im doing this shit myself ok. ppl will think about that guy by hook or by crook

also not necessarily fic but i wish a few of the phoney related asks on lotd got more eyes on them. guuuys the foreshadowiiiing dont we love roger and jake :( come ooonnnnn lets think abt someone other than dave <- so very silly. i love to think about dave

in general though i am astounded when my shit gets ANY attention whatsoever like i keep finding ppl talking abt my work in the wild and it ASTONISHES me each and every goddamn time. so im happy w anything

🍘 Is there a fic or idea for a fic that you've abandoned?

lets go look at a wonderful place i have dubbed my fic graveyard: my notes app!

most of these go here to die because i write them at 1am and they are illegible. this does not make sense because i also write my fics at 1am but whatever! that first one also may be familiar because it is copy paste smth i said in phonecord.

as for ones i actually started / made it past the drawing board, i had a few for miscellaneous fandoms that i just kind of got performance anxiety on. shoutout my npmd time loop fic you wouldve been so cool. sad im never revisiting that! heres an excerpt from a ypwd one

thanx for the qs ^_^ i loooove 2 ramble. heres my rogersport fics cover page which was bestowed upon me via my darling partner

[rtgame]

why does everyone hate overwatch and especially overwatch 2? i know ppl hate it but i never see anyone say why. if anyone else wants to offer opinions in the notes i'd love to hear them. i'm not defending the game(s) i'm just curious

ok so recovering from surgery has fucked up my sleep schedule so bad i'm actually up and at my pc to answer this at 7 am on a sunday bc i have a lot to say and i didn't want to type this all out on my phone lol. (also i have to take my antibiotics in an hour so i might as well get up) this is going to be LONG because i have a lot of thoughts and a lot of reasons

i think the biggest one, just to get it out of the way, is that blizzard had a MASSIVE scandal over sexual harassment. this basically changed everyone's opinions on every blizzard property, but from what i understand, the overwatch team actually didn't have a harassment problem (FROM WHAT I KNOW), but obviously it still affected people's perception of the game and i'm not defending blizzard on this issue. i think several people should die over this.

anyways, i think one of the big things was blizzard randomly announced overwatch 2 back in 2019 to distract from them banning a pro hearthstone player over supporting the hong kong protests in an interview. the development of overwatch 2 brought overwatch 1 to a COMPLETE fucking standstill like. there was literally no actual update for 3 years because they moved the entire dev team to overwatch 2 so overwatch 1 was updated by a skeleton crew, which a lot of people weren't happy about (me included). the only real difference between 1 and 2, when 2 was announced, was that it was gonna have PVE, which was already weird because in the past they said PVE was going to be in overwatch 1 and now it's not?

and then overwatch 2 finally comes out and it's like. there's no PVE. it's "coming later." they later admit that the PVE campaign was cancelled back in 2021 (remember overwatch 2 came out late 2022) BUT THEN KEPT ADVERTISING THAT OVERWATCH 2 WAS GONNA HAVE THE PVE CAMPAIGN? THEY LITERALLY JUST LIED TO EVERYONE FOR A FUCKING YEAR?

it took like 3 years for overwatch 2 to come out and at launch, all it had to offer was 3 new heroes and a few new maps and its like, if they just kept developing overwatch 1 we would've had way more by 2022.

overwatch 2 is also free to play, which is like, that's fine on paper, yay everyone gets to play it, but in practice it means that overwatch 2 is rife with microtransactions. skins cost like $26. new heroes cost AT LEAST $10 depending on when you buy them (or you can spend a ridiculous amount of time unlocking them for free) and its like. i fucking bought overwatch 1 for $40, these characters and skins would've been goddamn free in overwatch 1, i'm not spending money on this. ALSO I SPENT $40 TO BUY THIS GAME WHY THE FUCK AM I SPENDING MORE MONEY TO UNLOCK CHARACTERS???? there's some PVE missions available in game now but they're nothing like what was promised and they. also. obviously. cost. fucking. money. and i already spent $40 on the first game.

also there's a battle pass now for monetization reasons and i fucking hate most battle passes. the microtransactions in this game are fascinating because they make the overwatch 1 loot boxes look good.

also, they started the overwatch league in 2018, which is like, professional overwatch gaming, and i really liked watching it (and even went to some games irl) (i won a raffle there once!), but then they started balancing the game around the pro competitive scene which kinda made it hard for casuals to enjoy because they would keep changing the casual game mode (quick play) to be more in line with competitive, which was getting balanced around like 0.001% of players, which just made it less fun lol.

+ when they released overwatch 2, it went from 6v6 to 5v5 which was a change i never liked because my usual team was 6 people so this means that we have to rotate someone out, and they removed the 2nd tank role when switching the game to 5v5 which was uh... my main role was off tank... which they fucking removed.... because the game's 5v5 now. my main (dva) feels borderline unplayable in 5v5 because she kinda just sucks now lol. idk i don't really like the flow of the game or how short team fights are with 5v5 and i absolutely hate being the only tank. i think 6v6 was the perfect balance for overwatch but that's been thrown out the window.

ALSO they removed capture point maps which i actually did enjoy and im still salty over this

tldr basically it's like. overwatch 1 died for 3 years and blizzard killed its momentum for overwatch 2 but then overwatch 2 has literally nothing new to it and it's just overwatch 1 but worse. we waited 3 years for literally nothing.

although, i will say i saw a lot of people online make fun of the game when they announced lifeweaver because he's, iirc, a pansexual thai man, and honestly, that never sat right with me because like. it was a bunch of online leftists making fun of the game for being.... too diverse? or feeling like it was checking off a list and i was never comfortable with it because like, even just 6 years ago we would not have gotten a character like him in an AAA game. i think it's because one of the studios under blizzard posted their "diversity tool" that they used to diversify their game and it was really fucking weird and gave points to characters depending on their race and sexuality and etc, and i think they even used overwatch characters as an example, which was REALLY weird, because the tool was being used by king and not the team developing overwatch and even the dev team called it out like "we don't fucking use this, what is this shit lol, stop using our characters for this"

also lifeweaver was made by a thai person on the team to represent his own culture so i genuinely don't think he was made with the diversity tool lol.

idk i still think representation is important and i think making fun of him was weird since like. pan thai men definitely exist irl. idk. it was weird as fuck and this is probably the only thing i'll actively defend overwatch on. #LeaveLifeweaverAlone or whatever. i mean he sucks in game but that's bc his abilities are lame and his healing is shit, not because he's pan lol

but also why do they keep making their japanese characters ninjas lol. i like playing kiriko but man why can they all wall climb.

also like, the final thing, regarding everyone else hating it is like, im gonna be blunt, i think a lot of times the internet will just randomly turn on something it loved (marvel (rightfully honestly), borderlands, someone provide more examples) and say it sucks/its cringe/etc because loving something is #Cringe and hating everything is #Cool or whatever, and overwatch has reached that phase of its life, and all the issues i mentioned above really didn't fucking help. the internet adores its hate trains yknow

idk genuinely my relationship with overwatch is super fucking complicated as someone who loved/loves the game. i really do like a lot of the characters and i think the game is still fun SOMETIMES, but it's definitely lost that spark it had in 2016 thanks to shit management and blizzard focusing on the wrong things. i think a lot about a world where blizzard didn't suck and overwatch never had all this shit happen to it.

also WOW IM SORRY this is so rambly i've had like 4 hours of sleep and this is just something i do feel strongly about since the game is/was important to me and quite literally changed my life, so it sucks to see how it turned out. when i was 16 i really was enamored by this game where the whole premise was fighting for the future and it was just optimistic about the future, and i think that really was important for me at the time, as dumb as that is. a game being like "hey, the future's gonna be awesome" during a year that was really nerve-wracking for me was something i did need at the time. it really does suck that overwatch's own future wasn't as bright as the future it was envisioning.

[chaand-jalne-laga]

CJL LIVE BLOG SEASON 1 [EPISODE 2]

Hi. I had an exam on 28th and I had promised my mother that I won't write anything before that. So. Now. Come. Let'z begin :)

1.) So. Now is the time for their sweet re-union. Badshah & Deva. Deva fishes out a harmonica and starts playing 'their' melody which is also an instrumental of the titular song.

2.) Badshah, instantly, recognizes the tune and starts running towards its source, Deva as well comes down running towards him while playing it, with tears rolling down his eyes.

3.) Ok. So. Now. Badshah is doing nakhre. He wants to have a race to a tree at the hilltop. Deva mocks Badshah of his old age and inability to run at full speed. He warns him not to cheat and to start running only at the count of three. (Tho he himself breaks the rules in the next moment. Lol.)

4.) They are about to reach the hilltop and Deva realizes he is loosing, so, he takes a long-ass high jump and lands on the tree, altho the camera could not hide the actuality of the scene but theek hai itna toh chalta hai.

5.) Deva is hanging down a branch and is gloating of his victory but the branch breaks off and he falls down the hill to the-waterfall?-lake?-water body. Whatever.

6.) And, now, we get a glimpse of his trauma getting triggered due to him going underwater. We see the impact of the trauma has been huge on him too, by the line as well as the way, he says it, "Haan haan tu jeeta aur......main haar gaya."

7.) We, along with Badshah, get a glimpse of his tortured past. He(Badshah) tries to sooth and comfort him but Deva brushes it off by saying that this was the reward for trying to bring a smile on someone's face, he continues, the wounds have healed but the pain is still there.

8.) And, we are instantly taken to that certain someone who, he was talking about, moments ago. Mujhariya ji? Or? Bhojariya ji? They didn't keep track of that name. (¬_¬)

9.) Tara has. Oh. Hi Tara. So. Tara has returned home but she kept searching for Badshah, the whole day, as it is night time now. She has badgered (-Bho/Mu-)jhariya ji the whole day, he is exasperated and tells her to not disturb him as he has no knowledge of the person, who has bought Badshah.

10.) So. We hear someone shouting at the top of their lungs, asking for their 'accounts ki file' and we see Baba throw- Oh. Hi Baba. Long time no see. Hope you are fin-i think not. Did you too find something strange in Baba's behavior? Like. Wasn't he, a self-centered, stuck up 'Sehgal' all those years back? Yeh kab se Tara ki baat manne lage? Something's wrong with him, i think. Whatever.

11.) So. Tara hands him those yellow flowers from the gardens of their ex-house. Lol. Ex-house. And Baba calms down, considerably.

12.) We see Tara leaves Baba inside the room and goes to clean the now-broken expensive lamp of her chachi. Chachi warns her to tell off her Baba to be careful with the things of this house as it is their house(Chacha and Chachi's). Btw, what's with Chachi's over make-up and heavy saree? She didn't go anywhere? Did she? No? Then why the over dressing? Lol. Whatever.

13.) Oh. So. Chachi takes rent from these two. To give them space in 'their' house. To give shelter to their OWN big brother? Like? Blood related BIG BRO? Wow. Just wow. And, she orders Tara to give her additional five thousand along with the monthly rent, for the loss of that goddamn lamp. Chachi, be grateful that she has the grace to give that money, had i been at her place, i would have given you a tight slap. Now. Shut the f*ck up Chachi. You understand? STFU CHACHI.

Not-so-fun Fact : Why are all the Chacha's and Chachi's of the ITV universe doing the GREAT wrong deed / the GREAT injustice? First Arnav's chachaji and now these idiots (also chachas and chachis)? Like? Wtf is wrong with them? Whatever.

14.) Aha. See? I told you. Baba is ill, y'all.

15.) Tara pleads chachi to -understandably- show some mercy to her father but chachi backfires.

16.) Oh. So. I was right again. Chacha and chachi are going for a party thrown by some 'maaldaar investor'. Lol. What was with that shitty woofing at the end. Lol. Whatever.

17.) Hold on, y'all. Let me take a water break.

*takes a two minute time-out*

*returns back* Ok. Let's resume.

18.) Papa is ill. But brother is still the same. Asshole. You noticed how papa has softened towards Tara now? I actually feel sad for Tara. This poor little kid lost so much so soon. And, now she is the one taking care of her ill father and reckless brother. Because Rohan has to get paid to look after his ill papa for ONE FREAKING DAY. Humphf. Shit-hole of a brother.

Not-so-Fun Fact : They highlighted his gold gleaming ring and the watch on his left hand when he asked about his return gift for 'papa-sitting' which means Tara was the only one who gave those to him or at least she was the one to pay the bill. My poor little baby Tara.

LoOoOol. Again, that Sehgal Promise. Bro, the last time you gave your 'Sehgal Promise', you almost traumatized Tara. Just spare her with that shit-ass of a promise of yours and take care of your father, you jobless leech.

19.) Tara has been made part of the event today night, which is probably, being hosted by Deva and he can't wait to start on his revenge, the moment he was waiting for, for the last fifteen years.

20.) Lol. Deva is in love. Yeah. Kind of. The man has everything around him which keeps reminding him of Tara. He really loves her, actually. Had kind of fallen for her all those years back. It's just he has this misunderstanding that Tara had the heart to betray him so when he comes to know the truth he will actually end up taking revenge from those accused Sehgals for his and Tara's tortured past.

21.) Ok. So. Deva in black. His car in red. (Tara in red. Lol. I saw in the thumb nail.)

22.) Ok. So. Wow. The entry. Both of them together. In the chand's light. That? Was? So? Freaking? Beautiful? Like? Wtf?

P.S. : So. Yeah. As I said. I am loving this show. The ending scene was perfect. It was so goddamn beautiful. Wow. Everything was perfect. Deva in black, Tara in red. Btw it was kinda surprising that Tara's chacha-chachi were in black while she in red(You know how it goes in some shows. The whole family is given the same color combination.) But it is also fitting because both of them are the black shadows in Tara's life while Deva, also in black, was given a see-through shirt underneath the coat, so I guess it was to show that he won't be completely black, like, black in the surface but his love for Tara would also be very much visible, just like his own skin is. Whatever. I over-analyzed the thing which did not need any analyzing. Lol. Whatever. Ok. Bye. God bless you.

[sternbilder]

Ranking my favorite 2023 K-pop comebacks

I feel like 2023 was a year where I followed kpop comebacks especially diligently bc of my newfound interest in dance, and since it's 2024 this means an entire year has passed now of This

here's a list of my 10 personal favorite title tracks this year, happy new year all!

The Top Ten

1. Monsta X - "Beautiful Liar"

listen. when I said

in january of last year I meant it with my whole ass and I stand by it an entire earth year later. this song fucks So hard

firstable Yes I'm sad this is their last cb with most of the group in a while but also jesus what a banger to go out on

I love the guitars, the looks everyone is serving, the funky little twist in the song structure after the second verse, plus thinking always about lovemelovemelovemetellmetellmetellme + the chains + kihyun with a literal goddamn whip + the gunshot sound effects punctuating joohoney's verse. chefs kiss

2. Taemin - "Guilty"

god taemin is back and you can just feel the catholicity through the screen. the haunting vocals. the delicious string textures throughout (the way the arpeggios shift to pizzicato for the second verse!). the 6/4 time (the only choreo I learned this year that was not to an 8 count). the fucking through the shirt grab. the bridge which they extended in the MV specifically to squeeze in Even More Yearning™.

this is a perfect cb and I will say the rest of the album is also flawless and my favorite out of this list. honestly this probably would have been first if not for the fact that I personally just liked beautiful liar so goddamn much. thank you taemin. no notes.

3. SHINee - "HARD"

aka the song I previously described as "2 baddies, but Good" (no really, they have same key signature & near identical song structure. listen to them side by side with HARD on .95 speed if you don't believe me)

anyway, like 2 baddies this is SM-flavored af but I love the old school hip-hop vibes in HARD soooo much. I've had some people tell me they found it weird and off-putting but to me it's effortlessly cool but also earnest and just. fun? (not only the music but also the visuals? hello? the fashions in this MV) def gotta be one of my most played this year

4. Lee Gi Kwang - "Predator"

ok now for a dark horse pick. I feel like in the borderline 5th gen landscape nowadays older groups are often forgotten (even though hello! 2nd gen bgs are back from the military now and are having a Moment) so people perhaps understandably overlooked this one but god this song is a bop.

is it just criminal by taemin part 2 but less sexy and with a lower budget? yes. but the song is an absolute bop and the choreo slaps in its own right so imo it's a very worthy homage especially given it captures its exact gender of "pathetic sadboy making horny mistakes and needing to dance abt it" so so perfectly,

5. Exo - "Cream Soda"

tbh not what I was expecting from an exo comeback and I was surprised that I ended up liking this so much given I didn't really care for the prerelease tracks, but the more I listened the more this grew on me?

ofc it's an exo track so the vocals are 100 emoji but the chorus and melodies are simply addictive and the choreo for this one is also just a ton of fun (the sexy little head swipe,)

also I love the outfits in this MV (everyone keeps saying this is the Weed aesthetic but honestly? with korea's whole Thing? this is exo's macklemore-style thrift shopping and/or raiding grandma's attic for hidden midcentury treasures phase. to me.) but thank u @ the universe specifically for giving us back silver haired baekhyun. bless.

6. VIXX - "Amnesia"

another underrated release tbh! this initially gave me guilty vibes w/ the abundant use of pizzes since they were released around the same time but I also just independently love this song

I feel like it's a very mature song that takes itself seriously but not in an overly self-absorbed or cheesy way (another comparison I might make is to leo's losing game from last year), the chorus is poignant and hits hard because it's so earnest—maybe especially so since they were down to 3 with this cb—but man that melody is just so gorgeous, like it haunts me

7. Dreamcatcher - "Bon Voyage"

ok if I'm gonna be real it wasn't a great year for my faves—while I liked OOTD and reason they weren't top 10 worthy for me, mx had 1 excellent release before having most of its members yoinked by the military, and I didn't love either of oneus's cbs this year

that being said! I did still like bon voyage! while I preferred the first 2 in the trilogy it still felt like a good and fitting finale, bittersweet and full of equal parts regret and hope

in many ways it feels like a harkening back to classic dreamcatcher with the Big Anime Opening Vibes™ but more somber and grown up, an unexpected summer anthem from these queens,

8. TXT - "Sugar Rush Ride"

it's been a busy year for txt and while I'm not super familiar with them and their releases are sometimes a bit hit or miss for me, when they do hit they HIT

I actually considered chasing that feeling for this list too but despite adoring the take on me-ness of it I ended up nixing it after adjusting for recency bias

sugar rush ride though, I feel is a bop that stood the test of time with its catchiness and surprisingly dark undertones, and is also one of my favorite choreos I learned this year by far like. come on. it's the epitome of Boy Group Hot.

9. Taeyang - "Vibe"

this song lived rent-free in my head for MONTHS, god it's so catchy

I actually missed when my local studio taught this song but I liked the choreo so much I learned it on my own which, predictably since it literally features 2 main dancers, was not easy but extremely worth it bc just like the song itself it's just really fun

other than that what can I say. the MV is nothing special but otherwise it's just a really solid song with Big feel good energy.

10. Kiss of Life - "Shhh"

ok,,,,,,,I don't really follow rookie groups that closely bc generally I don't feel like I'm the target audience but. out of this year's new groups I did especially like kiss of life's debut!

the MV doesn't do much for me tbh but musically it sounds uncharacteristically mature to me, in a good way—it has a subtle confidence about it that I like plus excellent vocals, and is (possibly hot take?) what I was hoping to get from newjeans this year as a continuation of their debut last year tbh

Honorable Mentions

Jungkook - "Standing Next to You"

this one just felt like cheating bc it's technically an English single and there's probably some recency bias here but I can't not mention it bc I simply love this track. I'm not even a BTS stan but it's just a jam with great vocals and instrumentals (the big band notes and MJ influence! please!) and the choreo is also SO ridiculously fun, both the chorus and the dance break

BTOB - "Wind and Wish"

this is just a wholesome song that makes you feel good, like is it a lil bit cheesy? yeah, but it's also Good Vibes Comma the Song, wearing its entire heart on its sleeve in the most endearing way. it's nostalgic and mellow and full of love for its friends and a zest for life

also special shoutout to the bridge, which in such an otherwise lowkey song did not have to go that hard and yet it Did?? that harmony gives me chills, 100% certified vocal kings would cry again

Shownu X Hyungwon - "Love Me a Little"

this is a pathetic meow meow song in the best possible way and was sadly beat out by the other slightly better pathetic meow meow songs on this list (guilty, predator, amnesia) bc it was just a really good year for them but I still think it deserves a mention bc first of all yea boi @ my mans shownu being free from the military but also the instrumental/dance break at the end is dark as hell and also SO fucking tasty

Infinite - "New Emotions"

another 2nd gen group that quietly had a renaissance this year! this song is simply a bop and while the song itself is not as memorable as some in the top 10 the choreo is actually really fun

also myungsoo looks really ridiculously fine as center in the first chorus and that's the last thing I have to say about this song,

Key - "Killer"

honestly I really liked both of key's cbs this year but I feel like killer was slept on somewhat, it's got a hint of sadboi but it's tempered by the upbeat 80s pop style, plus the grungy mullet and beret outfit from the MV was a fucking Look and a Half

And my favorites per month

January: Monsta X - "Beautiful Liar"

February: Purple Kiss - "Sweet Juice"

March: Onew - "O (Circle)"

April: Lee Gi Kwang - "Predator"

May: Dreamcatcher - "Bon Voyage"

June: SHINee - "HARD"

July: Exo - "Cream Soda"

August: MAMAMOO+ - "dangdang"

September: Key - "Good & Great"

October: Taemin - "Guilty"

November: VIXX - "Amnesia"

December: TVXQ - "Down"

[sneakyspades]

ok yknow what im just gonna straight up vent about work rn bc i ran out of tags on the other post

its become such a fucking shitshow down there jesus christ i cannot fucking stand it anymore. communication doesnt exist, i dont even remember the last time back of house had a fucking meeting. the owner pushed for us to stay open during a blizzard where it was a wind chill of -40. i mean holy fuck, the city said dont travel unless its an emergency

i had issues on sunday that i wasnt sure about, but our chef was out of town doing a show with his band, and our sous chef was sitting at the bar in the restaurant a good 5 or 6 beers deep by the time i ran into this problem. i asked the other supervisor (who agrees with me that this is a shitshow) and he wasnt sure either so we straight up guessed

i only make 15 an hour despite having been there for a whole fucking year, because i only get supervisor pay when im clocked in as supervisor. which is a measly 8 of my 40 hours. but god forbid i dont act like a supervisor for all 40 hours

insurance is unsustainably expensive there. my coworker who makes 13.50 an hour takes home *more than i do per paycheck* at this point. and he works 32 hours! i havent taken home more than 750 a pay check since getting insurance! i used to be grossing 1000! IM LITERALLY PAYING 175 DOLLARS EVERY PAY CHECK! AND THATS ABOUT TO GO UP TO ALMOST 180 WHEN I TURN 27! im not making any fucking money! im not getting any savings!

not to mention they fucked up my insurance not that long ago! i was told at the doctors office and the pharmacy that i had zero coverage! but they were still taking money from my fucking paycheck for it! like holy fuck i shouldve talked to goddamn lawyer about that instead of giving them the benefit of the doubt!

i was 110% fine with making 15 an hour and doing nothing but pizzas. because the trade off was that i could cut out early, i could trade shifts, if i got sick it wasnt fucking everyone else over. but now i cant do any of that. i have to close on saturdays, dont get home and in bed until 1:30 some nights, and then have to get up and go do a 10 hour shift every sunday. every weekend! every fucking weekend! and im the only one that does that anymore! im not the only one doing a double on sunday, but im the only one who has to close the night before. and because im just exhausted by the end of a sunday, my mondays are practically wasted because im catching up on sleep!

i like. cant fucking do this anymore. i cant think of any reason why im still there. i could go worl at fucking sams club in the bakery, start at the same wage (if not more), have *less* responsibilities, be doing something i want to do, and they close at 8 every day. i dont think theyre even open on sundays!

why am i still working there? its not sustainable for me anymore. my body is fucked. its falling apart ahead of schedule. i cant even open my door in the morning because of carpal tunnel. im 26 and when i crouch down i cant always get back up. the other night my ankle just started popping every time i turned around. what am i doing? what am i doing. i dont know.

i dont even have energy left over to draw. or make stained glass. or even do a discord call. the last time i had an actual date with my partner was, what, like 4 fucking months ago? i dont have any energy left over. im using it all for a place that i dont enjoy working at anymore, and i know i wont get better hours. our sous chef has been here since the place opened and he only has night shifts. the only day he doesnt is sunday. which is 8am to 3pm.

our new hire has sunday-monday off. why cant i have that? i want a weekend day off. its not gonna happen in this industry. its not gonna happen in this kitchen. i cant do this for the next however many years,