#I KNOW IT'S NOT PARTICULARLY ORIGINAL BUT I MAY HAVE GOTTEN A BIT TOO MUCH INTO THIS

[stormyoceans]

monica monica monicaaaaaa!!! the latest photoshoot has provided great inspiration for several jimmysea series and AHHHHHHHH. like im so clearly imagining a mafia, assassin, or gang drama with them as friends or on & off coworkers that get assigned to kill each other but they can't do it bc its each other and HELP!!! 🫠

CCAAAAAAAASSSSSSSSSSIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII I KNOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWW IM SO OBSESSED WITH THAT WHOLE PHOTOSHOOT IN GENERAL AND THAT BACK TO BACK PICTURE IN PARTICULAR I TRULY HAVEN'T STOPPED THINKING ABOUT IT SINCE THEY FIRST RELEASED IT AND NOW THAT YOU MENTIONED THEM GETTING ASSIGNED TO KILL EACH OTHER I FEEL SO RABID ABOUT IT

and you'll have to forgive me for hijacking your idea but my mind is going a thousand miles per hour so just. HEAR ME OUT

what if jimmy is an undercover cop who is sent to infiltrate one of the biggest crime organizations in thailand to bring it down from the inside and expose its leader. this mission is actually personal for jimmy because his mom, who was also a cop, was the chief investigation officer in a case related to it and when she got too close to discover proofs of the organization's involvement they sent people to kill her and her family. jimmy was the only survivor, just by pure luck, and vowed to take revenge

so right after becoming an agent he is assigned a new identity and approaches known members of the organization to gain access to it, but being in a gang means that you have to climb the ladder before being trusted with information, and jimmy is aiming at the top, so it takes him years to rise to a position of power. during those first years of petty works like small scams and car thefts and running illegal gambling spots, jimmy meets sea, who just like him is new to the organization and stuck doing these lower jobs, and they work so well together that after being paired up a couple of times they start to get a reputation for getting shits done. jimmy knows full well he shouldn't get attached to anyone, but slowly his partnership with sea turns into a genuine friendship, and the more he gets to know sea, the more everything becomes so much more complicated

ANYWAY. all this to say that at some point, after they've both made a name for themselves and made it closer to the top, something goes wrong (maybe jimmy betrays himself in some way or there's a dirty cop that gives him away idk) and the leader of the organization finds out about jimmy, so they kinda set him up: on one hand, they reveal his identity to sea and order him to kill jimmy; on the other, they tell jimmy they have proof that sea is an undercover cop and order jimmy to kill him (not sure if it makes much sense, but like. maybe they start doubting sea's loyalty as well, so if sea manages to kill jimmy, that's good, but if jimmy kills him instead, they know that's the one thing that's gonna hurt jimmy the most because sea is his only weakness)

THE POINT IS!!!!!!!! most heated encounter where sea is both so angry and hurt because of jimmy's lies and jimmy is desperately torn between sea and his revenge and they're shooting at each other and beating each other up and at one point jimmy has sea pinned on the floor and sea is screaming at jimmy with a bloody mouth to just kill him already and jimmy just can't, he can't he can't he can't, and then sea is pushing jimmy off of him and grabbing the gun that he had lost during the fight and pointing it at jimmy and he is shacking so badly he can't even aim it properly and does he even want to he knows he should because none of it was real nothing jimmy ever said to him was real and sea hates hates hates him just as much as he is in love with him and before sea realizes it he is throwing the gun away with a scream

AND NOW IT'S JUST THE TWO OF THEM AGAINST THE WORLD HAVING TO LEARN TO TRUST EACH OTHER AGAIN AND ALSO TO COME TO TERMS WITH THE FACT THEY'RE IN LOVE WITH EACH OTHER AND IDK WHERE I WANTED TO GO WITH THIS BUT YWAH. YEAH

[2n2n]

I love the opening song of jibaku shounen hanako-kun and when I see the comments and reviews about the anime, there are a lot of positive reviews about the opening. So out of curiosity, what do you think of the opening in question, music and other aspects. And if there's anything you don't like

I have talked a bit about the mysterious lyrics of it here, if that's interesting (it might not be).... I'm really intrigued that it is a bespoke song for the anime ABOUT its subjects-- not just a pop song retooled or something-- I find that sweet, for aidairo-sensei it must have felt like a dream.

as for the OP's audio, it's not really my genre or style of music. It's kind of typical sounding for an anime OP, lol.... you know, 'cool'. I find it difficult to listen to all the way through-- for me, the sound is grating & unpleasant.

.... I would also say it doesn't quite suit the story to me.... ? It's 'cool' in such a straightforward way, when this is 'a heartfelt toilet comedy' as aidairo-sensei put it... it's neither particularly ah, playful, nor tender. In terms of sound/tone it feels like it could be the OP of any shounen, like a BNHA, or a sports anime. Even if lyrically, it's doing something quite intriguing.... I wish the instruments had more of a ghost-y feel to them, if nothing else... but ideally, I want a hint of romance!!

As for the visual component, I like the Yugi imitating each other's gestures, and I overall like the high-saturation or jewel-tone color of the anime. It's mostly just re-using shots from the anime itself, so I can only comment on so much of the animation. It's like a clip show.... I accept that the budget might have necessitated that, I won't harp on it-- it's lucky it has an anime at all...! but I don't have much to say about it.

On the one hand, I'm really glad they decided to animate this interstitial illustration aida-sensei did (I wish they could animate all of her stylish interstitial!) because it's a wonderful illustration.....

... on the other hand, I seriously think it was ruinous for the western fandom, who proceed to obsess over it endlessly as though impossibly significant (maybe to justify their own fixation on it lol...). By virtue of the repetition of it as one watches episodes, forcing one to consider it again & again, this image may as well be a School Mystery, for all the rumors surrounding it. I seriously think this shot alone is responsible for at least 75% of 'Tsukasa is a sexual menace' headcanons, no matter what has happened since....

In reality however, it's really fun the OP elected to pull its audience in THIS direction with THIS kind of fanservice image. It's a sexy shot and it's using its sex appeal for the greater good. This is one of the few wholly original pieces of animation in the OP, so... damn, they really made that decision, you know? I respect that. Of all the things to represent, LOL. It would have gotten me as a teenager, so..............................................

well, moving from the OP to other things you didn't ask about:

I actually like both the ED & After-School boy's ED songs much more....! I think they suit the tone, respectively, better! Also... both of those are sung by Nene-chan's VA, which is so wonderful! She's our star, truly... it's very moving that she was cast with a VA with singing experience (Hanako/Tsukasa's too though, and we know Tsukasa & Nene-chan sing together in canon eventually, so....)... TT__TT.... you don't really get any better than the VAs of characters themselves singing for the anime!!!!

in terms of the ED, the tone represents the heart of JSHK well... love, devotion, preciousness... the visuals are also simplistic, strong, beautiful, minimalist, powerful. Of all the material thus far, it's my favorite.

And then, in terms of After-School Boy's ED.... it represents the silly & flirty-wirty aspects of JSHK well LOL, I remember hearing it the first time, and being like.... they really did that.... !!!!! ....this one,, captures Nene-chan's energy so perfectly HAHA... visually it's boring, but urrggh it's a great song haha, it really ruined my husband when it came out... he had to like, forget about it to protect himself....

Cannot overstate my love for both of those songs!!!

I'm really hoping for season 2, we get a new OP/ED, & I'm hoping that the manga has enough of a presence now that it can afford to do something bolder for its OP....? I would love wholly original animations for it.... perhaps taking more inspiration from Aida-sensei's many full-color illustrations.....

I guess in terms of anime OP that I really like overall, I think Brotherhood's first OP was really, really strong. It had the right tone, beautiful animation, powerful imagery (and I'm not an FMA stan overall?)... however, obviously such a powerfully funded & supported anime/manga would be able to afford that kind of thing, I'm not that delusional to think JSHK could afford that, haha. ... JSHK also has such a wholly different tone & theme from FMA lol (a tone I like better, at that!) but something, hmm-- melancholy, tender, would capture the heart of Picture Perfect to me, you know....! Which is coming up....for the anime....!!!

This is such a basic pull I know because it's Literally a legendary anime that influences like all anime, but Rose of Versailles OP is absolute perfection from sound to visual. Oscar enveloped in the roses thorns....!!!!! it's minimally animated, but it uses its symbolism & iconography for deep impact!!! You really don't need crazy animation to have an amazing OP!!!!

I think JSHK's ED is one of my favorites overall, but another I love that suits its series so well to me, is Inuyasha's second ED. It's functioning on more of a budget & reuses footage from the anime, so there you have that-- but I like what they've added in. It feels attainable... for Inuyasha, this kind of moody song is ideal. Again it's a different tone from JSHK or FMA or RoV, but I hope you can understand what I mean by like... the vibes of the OP/ED suiting the series itself in some way.... it should be unique according to the anime's themes, you know?

[kimmiessimmies]

Plans

It'll be a while until my next story update is finished as the chapter that's due next is one I'm struggling with a little bit, so I thought I'd do a rambling post on what my plans for the coming time are.

Under the cut, for it is longgggg rambling.

Writing

As we speak, I'm writing several things at once. One of the things I'm writing is the next chapter of the story, entitled 'Bestseller'. It's not coming along brilliantly, which is mostly due to the fact that I'm feeling quite out of touch with the characters who feature heavily in this chapter. They have been slightly off the radar for a while since my student bunch, particularly Sadie and everyone around her, required so much attention. I guess I'm also a bit reluctant to post this chapter for that same reason. Many of you have gotten to know ATOH mostly for all the Sadie-drama, but there's more to it, and eventually, it all connects. So I need to write this chapter, even though the characters will probably be unknown to many (new) followers, and it may seem like a different story altogether unless you've been with me for longer.

Aside from struggling to write Bestseller, I'm also already working on the chapter after that, working title 'Starting Over', but with the way it's going, I'm probably changing that title; it doesn't fit right. Edited to add, this chapter is pretty much finished now and titled 'Now or Never.' This one is flowing from my keyboard more easily, which is mostly because it takes us back to Sadie (and James! ;) ).

Lastly, I'm writing two shorter chapters/updates. These weren't originally on the timeline, but I'm fitting them in. One might even be the first one I post next. It will show twins Viola and Rosa, nieces to James and Sarah, have their first birthday and age up to toddlers. This will show James with his family, which is interesting for reasons I won't yet go into too deeply, and it will give me a chance to stage a conversation between James and Seth they really need to have, but I couldn't build in elsewhere. The other is something I really don't know where to fit in, but it shows a conversation between Jill and Daniel, which I also really want to show.

2. Character posts

I feel like I need to do some character posts before posting Bestseller. Because of what I wrote above; the characters might be too unknown. I don't know how to approach this yet, but I feel like I should. Ideas are welcome.

3. Rachel's Dating Adventure

Thank you so much to everyone who's created someone for my dear Rach. <3 It might be a while until I can continue this because I'm still contemplating whether this takes place before the aforementioned chapters, after, or somewhere in between. But it will happen, and I'm very excited about it.

4. "Backstage" posts

Since the topic of time came up several times in replies and conversations I had recently, I've decided I'm going to write up some posts on how I do things with regard to my game and the story "behind the scenes". I'll explain a bit more about how I approach time and dates (why is it 2008 in my story, and what does that mean?), but I also want to write something on education and why my students started uni at 20 years old. Also, what's with the bees and the honey? Why all that? Maybe I'll go into that one too.

5. The Grand Honeycomb Valley Tour

I keep promising this and keep postponing it, but I will do it. I will, over time, give you all a closer look of everything I built to make Honeycomb Valley the town it is.

Is it too ambitious to want this all sorted before March?

[pkmnprofloblolly]

(@icetypelover) Hello, since biology is your thing I wanted to ask, how uncommon is a mutation where a Pokémon has two heads? I've seen it happen in Ekans and similar Pokémon rarely, but someone I know has a two-headed Houndoom, he was born with them. He's a gift from her father, back when he was a little Houndour pup, he's very well raised and gentle, though some fire can leak from his mouth when he's excited.

He's from a family of breeders who have been working with her father's family for generations where Houndoom are a Pokémon of choice, and they can't remember if it has ever happened before. The heads don't snap at each other and he's given a bit more food than a Houndoom his size would need since he has two brains, split in half so each head can eat, and he has no health issues.

I'm curious because there are two mythos I know, of Houndoom-like creatures with two and three heads, so it has to come from somewhere right? Since they're both represented as similar to Houndoom, does that mean it's maybe a mutation that can happen not so impossibly rare you wouldn't believe it in Houndoom?

wow, that's very fortunate that the fellow's gotten one just fine with two heads! extremely cool, what an exceptional lil guy, i'm glad the two get along.

polycephaly (literally "multiple headed") is a condition found all over the animal kingdom- including in humans!- and it isn't actually a mutation (with a notable exception we'll get to later). mutations specifically refer to changes in the genetic code- whether that's the flipping of a base pair, duplication of chromosomes, or so on- while polycephaly is actually a way that conjoined twinning can be expressed.

so, identical twins. identical (also called monozygotic) twins happen when a fertilized egg splits into two separate wholes at some point early in development- compare with "typical" development, where 1 egg + 1 sperm = 1 baby. identical twins happen when 1 egg + 1 sperm = 2 baby. compare with fraternal (or dizygotic) twins, which are formed from two separate eggs fertilized by two separate sperm. identical twins share a genetic code while fraternal twins do not (like any other sort of sibling). identical twins aren't super uncommon, though their rate of occurrence changes depending on where in the world you go.

now, usually this separation of the zygote into 2 embryos is complete. rarely, though, this splitting happens particularly late and doesn't quite finish, resulting in the two twins being connected in some fashion. this can result in an organism with one body and two heads, such as in your houndoom example, but can express in tons of different ways- for example, you may be familiar with the term "siamese twins" for conjoined twins: this originates from a famous pair of conjoined human twins from 1800's siam, chang and eng bunker, who were joined around the chest. in other cases, twins can be fused at the back of the head, the abdomen, the back, and plenty of other configurations.

survivability of these conditions varies wildly. some are easily separated, some live fine while conjoined, some must be separated for either of the two to survive, and unfortunately some are unable to survive at all, dying soon after birth.

the last case is usually what happens with two-headed organisms (something something, twice as many stars), but obviously, there are exceptions. while rare, organisms (of any sort- it's most famous in reptiles as you mentioned, but mammals (including humans!) can obviously exhibit it too) can live with these conditions as well.

also worth noting- when two complete heads are present, two complete brains are present! they may share organs and sensation, but the brains do function independently- so it's good that in your example the two get along! two-headed examples of less social species will often be much more antagonistic towards one another, since the two heads can recognize their counterparts as potential competitors or aggressors. this can cause problems in wild pokemon, who may waste precious time and energy squabbling over who gets to eat something that's going to the same stomach anyways (assuming the individuals share a stomach- sometimes there are two), leaving them vulnerable to attack.

(you may be familiar with 12-string, a polycephalic seviper(s) owned by virbank gym leader roxie, who famously featured in some particularly intense PWT matches- two heads means two sets of venom glands, which means REALLY effective poison type attacks!)

this also raises the question of individuality- whether polycephalic organism(s) are considered one or two beings- and perspectives on this vary. some polycephalic twins consider themselves two separate people, while some consider themself one. in what way you consider polycephalic organisms without the ability to self-define in that way is up to you, really (which is to say, if a person with two heads considers themself one person, they are one person, and vice versa, but most nonhuman animals can't decide that for themselves and probably don't care how you refer to them).

now, uh, back to pokemon specifically, and those notable exceptions i mentioned. while polycephaly is exceptional in the vast majority of species, there are of course a few where having multiple heads is the norm: doduo/dodrio, deino/zweilous/hydreigon, and girafarig/farigiraf (there are a few others- like weezing or cherubi- but i'm talking about animals specifically here. also not to be confused with conglomerate pokemon like dugtrio or magneton, which are multiple separate individuals working as one). these instances are indeed genetically programmed.

the mechanism by which these pokemon develop their multiheadedness varies. doduo could be considered to be a conjoined twin- the zygote's partial split happens in much the same way, though enforced by genetics.

(this process can indeed lead to an inverse of polycephaly, in which the two heads of the doduo fail to separate while in development. while rare, this condition is rarely fatal, and dodrio evolving from single-headed doduo tend to be two-headed. note how the dodrio's heads are asymmetrical, with one middle and one left head.)

girafarig does not develop by partial fission- the anterior and posterior heads develop separately, just the same as you develop two of each limb, girafarig develops two heads.

in cases where a pokemon gains more heads as it evolves, such as in dodrio and zweilous, the process is somewhat similar to how it happens in embryos- the head essentially separates into two in the split-second process of instantaneous evolution, with new growth making up the material lost to each head (or in hyderigon's case, the middle head keeping all the brain). in doduo->dodrio and zweilous->hydreigon only one of the two heads separates: the right head in doduo, and the left in zweilous. you can see in the two-headed dodrio above that the singular "right" head split into the middle and right heads, leaving a "blank" space where the left head would be.

you also mentioned the various mythos surrounding multi-headed creatures- indeed, some think that mythological beasts like hades' hellish houndoom cerberus may have been inspired by real-life examples of polycephaly, though we don't know for sure. cases of polycephaly are indeed extremely rare, so it'd be entirely understandable for folks in ancient times to think they're some sort of legendary beast, and you can find records of conjoined twin animals labeled as miracles or similar in some medieval texts.

[thisbuildinghasfeelings]

Last night I watched 4x12 for the first time since the finale aired and I had a lot of feelings about the conversation between Carlos and Andrea. Particularly the part where Andrea says "that is not true" when Carlos talks about how he just started building a good relationship with his father in the past two years. Originally, I saw it as a situation where Andrea was trying to reassure Carlos and express to him that his father loves him. I didn't think she was trying to invalidate his feelings, even if it came off that way a bit. I felt like it was perhaps clumsily executed on her part, but overall well-meaning. Now though? I'm looking at it a little differently.

Carlos starts by mentioning the relationship TK has with Owen. He specifically says, "TK and Owen have always had such a special relationship from the time he was little. I didn't start one with my dad until two years ago." Andrea then responds, "That is not true." But now we know that Andrea was actually right--Carlos and Gabriel did have a special relationship when Carlos was little, so while the past two years may have been a mending of the relationship that had been lost along the way, they were not the very start of it.

Obviously, something major changed in their relationship during Carlos' childhood. We know about what happened when Carlos came out, but there must have been a big shift much earlier, especially for Carlos to not remember or at least to have blocked out these memories of his early childhood relationship with his father. I wonder if it was some misguided notion of teaching Carlos to be "tough" and how to "be a man" that led Gabriel to be less sweet and gentle with Carlos as he got older. We know that Carlos truly believed that his father thought he was too soft. I think there was at least a bit of a miscommunication between them on that issue--I believe Gabriel was always proud of Carlos, though maybe a little worried about him--but Carlos' feelings didn't come out of nowhere. Also, the way Gabriel treats Carlos during most of 2x08 shows that, despite the love he clearly has for his son, there are some seriously high expectations there too. I think it's very likely that Gabriel treated a young Carlos in ways that were probably well-meaning but ultimately harmful to Carlos' sense of self and also their relationship. The true tragedy of the thing is how close Carlos and Gabriel were to fully mending their relationship and getting closer than ever before when Gabriel died.

I would be fascinated to learn more about Carlos and Gabriel's relationship and how it changed through the years. I'm not sure how much more in depth we can expect the show to go, particularly as we've already gotten way more of this than I ever expected we would. Regardless, I hope it will be a topic that will be continually explored in fic because there's really so much there and I can't stop thinking about it!

[choices-binglebonkus]

The Crown & The Flame: An Exceptionally Rare Critical

I have made no secret of how much I love The Crown & The Flame. One of the three original series that accompanied the launch of Choices back in 2016, it holds a very dear place in my heart as one of my all-time favorites. However, I value objectivity, and am fully aware (and even appreciative) that all of my favorites, no matter how much I love them and no matter how good they are, have flaws.

The Crown & The Flame is no exception to this, and though I think the books have held up remarkably well, they’re definitely very flawed. Particularly book three. Most of my gripes with the series come from book three, actually, and that is the very subject of this post: the issues that came with the final book in the series.

As always, these are just my personal opinions. So if you love TC&TF, that’s great! I love it too. I just thought that, since the series gets so little criticism, I would take an objective stance and take up that role.

Pacing and filler

The first issue I’d like to discuss about book three is its pacing. Compared to the first two books where everything was go, go, go, this book doesn’t really do that. And I’m not a huge fan of that since the stakes are arguably larger in this book since Empress Azura has literally threatened to kill everyone in the Five Kingdoms should they not submit to her.

A lot of the chapters are positively BLOATED with fluff and filler. The first three chapters take place in Ducitora and the only major plot points that occur are that Kenna meets Azura, Leon is killed, and Azura wages war on the Five Kingdoms as Kenna and co. make their escape. I think that the first three chapters could have been condensed into one and a half chapters bridging onto the next major plot point. At the very least, we should have gotten to see more of Ducitora and Marossi. We got to see very, very, VERY little of it, and with little substance to show for it all.

Dom’s chapters didn’t have a lot of substance to them, either. It’s mostly just Dom fighting Hex’s mind control, making some semblance of progress, immediately failing and succumbing further to her control, and getting frustrated or feeling guilty. And, while I’m thinking about it, what purpose did Dom being captured by Hex serve? In what way does it further the main plot? It honestly just felt like the writers had Hex capture him just so he and Kenna wouldn’t be together 24/7 to keep them separate for their dual-lead chapters. In other words, his capture seemed to serve primarily as filler as well.

My biggest complaint regarding filler comes from chapters 13 and 14, which are E N T I R E L Y filler, no two ways about it. Chapter 13 focuses on Kenna speaking with all the allies she’s amassed, and the chapter time is seriously cut down if you haven’t recruited any diamond allies. Chapter 14 is the exact same thing, but this time, Dom is the one who talks to all the allies. Why they needed two chapters of pure filler, I’ll never know. But I’ll tell you what: back when TC&TF was still releasing on a weekly basis, I was so annoyed that we had two whole weeks of filler. There was no need.

The worst part about all the filler was the impact it had on the buildup to the final battle. Compared to book one and two where we fought tooth and nail for the entire book to get Stormholt back or to prepare for Luther’s return, the buildup to the battle with Azura felt very underwhelming: the book was mostly just a little bit of plot here, filler there and there, here we are switching POVs to one of the side characters for a couple of chapters, here’s some more filler. In books one and two, there was practically NO filler, and the buildup to the final battles was much better for it.

A lot of books are pretty notorious for filler and fluff, but TC&TF book 3, dare I say it, may have been the worst about it given the high stakes and the generally fillerless precedent set by the previous two books.

POV flipflopping

In books one and two, you got to play as characters other than Kenna and Dom in diamond scenes, plus that one time where Val infiltrated the Nevrakis stronghold masquerading as a handmaiden. Other than that, the writers stuck religiously to the Kenna/Dom POVs, and the story was much less choppy, confusing, and generally less all over the place because of it.

This is not the case in book three. You play as Kenna and Dom, yes, but the POV flip-flops around between other characters as well. Leon, Val, Raydan, even Whitlock. I’m shocked as hell that they didn’t somehow manage to cram in a chapter where we played as Annelyse or Sei.

Of these different POVs, Raydan’s was the most important and by far the least filler-y. It still didn’t really sit well with me, though. The Crown & The Flame is Kenna’s (and Dom’s, but mostly Kenna’s) story. Book 3 is 17 chapters. Kenna—the main freaking character—is either unplayable or mostly unplayable for nine of them. Nine! But she gets off much better than Dom—the deuteragonist, mind you—who only gets three chapters where he’s the main focus. And, of course, you’ll recall my previous complaints about how Dom’s chapters were filler. So.

Having all these different POV switches was not graceful in the slightest. It was unnecessary for the most part, and at times, it really came across as a Wattpad POV fic where the pre-teen author interjects every few paragraphs with <{[CHARACTER A’S POV]}> and ~{[CHARACTER B’S POV]}~ because, like I said, it wasn’t graceful, and it wasn’t necessary. Especially since TC&TF is a dual-lead story.

The allies

I actually made a ranking list from worst to best of every recruitable ally in TC&TF across all three books. It’s currently unpublished on my blog, but it’s been sitting on my computer for a while. At any rate, most of the book three allies were ranked very, very, VERY low. There are 32 recruitable allies in all, and numbers 32-27 on my ranking list are all book three allies.

Aurynn Amanth, though I liked her as a character, doesn’t do shit after you recruit her and is only in a grand total of two extra chapters if you recruit her, and for 25 diamonds, that’s so goddamn steep. Clover Hapley also serves no real purpose for 23 diamonds, but somehow appears more than Aurynn and for two fewer diamonds. Florian Tartassis and Zenobia Nevrakis were recruited just to fill the allies roster, plain and simple. Anton Luno was just kinda…there. And Luther—the Blood King who mercilessly slaughtered the royals and nobles of the Five Kingdoms, who conquered the realm and waged war against any who dared to rise against him—does fuck all unless you give him control of the Nevrakis army, then tries to murder Kenna at the end regardless.

There were only a few book three allies I ranked higher than #27. The Mechawolf Pup, who didn’t do much, and who I also found annoying as hell, but he was kiiiinda cute I guess. Lia really stuck her neck out for Raydan by translating the anti-magic book for him, but she doesn’t do much when you recruit her. And I love Madeline to pieces, but she’s 30 diamonds and only appears in five chapters.

Hex was the second highest ranked book three ally on my ranking list at #6 overall because she was such a complex character, and though she was incredibly morally grey, recruiting her nudged her towards active atonement and the chance to actually do some good in the world. Diavolos was ranked #3, and I think he really could have been an awesome character in the series if we had gotten to know him sooner because the dynamic between him and Kenna is impeccable, and he’s such a vulnerable character when you think he wouldn’t be.

Unfortunately, most of the book three allies are just there to fill the ally roster or do damn near nothing once you recruit them. The only allies we got who were heavy hitters were Hex and Anton (recruited jointly to fill the ally spots) and Diavolos. Since book three is the highest-stakes book of them all since we fight an entire fucking EMPIRE, we should’ve gotten some seriously powerful allies. Instead, most of who we got were characters who couldn’t fight: Aurynn, Clover, Madeline, Lia, the Mechawolf Pup, Zenobia, and Florian.

What kind of sense does that make?

Finishing things off…

The Crown & The Flame, to reiterate, is one of my favorite series in Choices. I’ve replayed it time and time again and never get tired of it because it’s just that kind of story. And I do like book three. I’m not saying it’s a bad book at all: it’s actually quite a good book. I just think it’s much less of a good book than 1 & 2, which were absolute titans to compete with.

Even my faves are imperfect. But that doesn’t mean I love them any less. And TC&TF book 3 is a shining example of that: flawed, but still perfectly lovable.

With all that said, I think I’ll give the series another replay soon.

[decks-writing-blog]

Use This Power for Good

Summary: Gordon discovers that upon dying, he comes back and everything resets, including other people who had died.

[A/N] I'm a sucker for video game protagonists having the power to reset via death. It's neat and full of good angst opportunities. Also when I played Half-Life for the first time I was fairly save-scummy to save as many scientists as I could so upon Youtube reccing me a video about just how many it's physically possible to save, I of course watched it (I missed a bunch in my playthrough). Which, combined with the first thing, is what inspired this fic.

Also, my first Half-Life fic, yay! I'm late to the party but that's okay. Such is the case with most of the fandoms I write for these days.

Content Warning for temporary Character Death. He also commits suicide to purposefully trigger one of these resets.

~

Upon stepping out of the destroyed test chamber and realizing just how bad things had gotten, Gordon had been pretty sure he wasn’t likely to live much longer. The military showing up to clear out the alien invasion and all who knew of it made death inevitable. The HEV suit had done a lot to keep him alive but it could only do so much. But hey, he’d made it further than he ever would’ve thought he might, if he’d been given the time to think about it anyway. Along the way he’d helped as many as he could. Hopefully a few of them would be able to get out… somehow.

Gordon shifted in a vain attempt to make himself more comfortable. All he accomplished was sending a fresh stab of pain through his side as more blood welled out between his fingers. It was pooling on the floor around him and smeared on the wall behind him, filling the air with its now familiar coppery smell. If it spread a little further it’d soon start mingling with the pool of blood leaking out of the solider that had snuck up on him while he’d barely manged to fumble his way into taking out the rest of their squad. They’d died for the effort – Gordon may have never killed anything before today but he had been taught how to use a gun – but the fatal blow had already been made.

Perhaps something profound could be said about their blood mingling in death whilst surrounded by more dead, both alien and human alike. Something about the fragility of life even amongst beings from another world. Or maybe about how violence and killing wasn’t just a human trait but that of all life, regardless of its origin. … Or maybe Gordon was just starting to grow delirious with blood loss.

The end couldn’t be far off. His extremities, gone cold were now growing numb. He couldn’t even properly feel the blood oozing from where he clutched his side, his grip weakening letting it flow even more freely. Not that he’d been able to staunch it particularly well anyway. If his attempt to do so slowed his demise, it hadn’t been by much.

Darkness pulled at him, eating at the edges of his vision, tempting him to close his eyes and fall asleep. He didn’t. Fighting was futile but he’d known that for a while now, far longer than he’d been sitting here waiting to bleed out for. He was going to keep breathing for a long as he possibly could if for no other reason than to spite the world for just that little bit longer because fuck it for trying to kill him so hard.

~

Gordon blinked. Before him was a familiar hallway, leading to a closed door. On the other side of which would be a military squad, waiting to ambush him. He shouldn’t know that but he’d already gone through that door and… hadn’t survived the encounter.

Shaking a little, he looked down at himself. He was holding his shotgun as he’d been upon first going into that room, down but ready to snap up and fire should the need arise. The HEV suit was a bit scratched up and dented in a few spots but it was intact, no glaring hole in the side from an almost point blank shotgun blast that also tore up his side bad enough to leave him to slowly bleed out. It was fully charged too, meaning it could likely take such a blow and leave him only a little bruised. A quick check with the suit revealed all his ammo wasn’t as depleted as it should’ve been either.

What the hell was going on? One moment he’d been bleeding out, struggling for each and every breath. But now he was hearty and healthy again, as if the last twenty or so minutes hadn’t happened. … A dream or hallucination perhaps? This was the single most stressful day of his life after all, surely such things weren’t too far out of the question. It had felt so real though, especially the pain. Surely such pain couldn’t have been a dream. What else could it have been though?

If he went through that door, would the military squad be there again? Would the fellow who’d killed him? Only one way to find out.

He crept forward and pressed his ear to the door. … Nothing for a while but then… low muttering and the shifting of heavy boots. The door muffled the words to the point he couldn’t understand them but someone was certainly on the other side. Multiple someones since the speaker was most likely talking to someone else.

Straightening, he reached up and pressed the button to bring the HEV’s helmet up before adjusting his grip on his shotgun and bursting into the room. Exactly as before he was met with three soldiers immediately. Last time, he’d been somewhat surprised and had had to scramble. This time he knew exactly where to go and wasted no time in doing so.

Two more soldiers were waiting for him there but he was ready for them this time. As he got into position, he lifted the shotgun and blasted the closer one in the face, making their head explode in a shower of gore. Kicking the body into the guy behind them gave the perfect opportunity to blow their head off too. He hadn’t gotten a good look at either of their faces in either instance he was here but they had been standing in about the same exact spot. No time to think about that now though.

In response to Gordon moving to cover, the next two soldiers moved to the same positions as before. And then, sealing the deal that his death hadn’t been a dream, while Gordon was looking at them, the third came up behind him, ready to try to blast through the suit with a point blank shot while he was busy taking out the others. Knowing it was coming, Gordon turned and fired before they could get that close. Another close range head shot. Effective, especially with how heavily armored the soldiers’ torsos were, but gosh were they horrific. But with that guy down, the last two weren’t too much of an issue to take out as well.

As the gunshot’s echoes petered out, he lifted a hand to lower his helmet, allowing him to see properly once more. These military guys all looked similar, especially with their heads blown off, so there was still technically room to doubt they were the same ones he’d killed before dying himself. But they’d been in the same spots and had tried the same tactics to kill him so that doubt was rather small, bolstered only by the impossibility of not just Gordon coming back to life but the soldiers too.

Then again, before staring to work at Black Mesa almost a handful of years ago now, there’d been plenty of other things Gordon had thought impossible that proved to not be. Perhaps direct exposure to the resonance cascade had done something to him, altered the way time affected him or dropped him in a parallel universe upon dying. Or something else he was too frazzled to consider right now.

It was fascinating whatever it was. Oh, what he wouldn’t give to be back in the lab, studying it. … Except well, testing it would likely involve him dying some more or just again, assuming it could only happen once. In which case he didn’t really want to test it after all. After he got out of here, he’d try to find a way to study it that didn’t involve dying… assuming he ever got out of here. He’d just learned the hard way that, no matter how many aliens, zombies, or military goons he killed, he was still a soft squishy animal protected only by a hazard suit that even as advanced as it was, was still far from infallible.

~

Three more accidental deaths sealed the deal that when he died, he came back a seemingly random amount of time before that death. As before, with his death, everyone and everything else who’d also died in that time came back too, ignorant of the revival. Annoying when it came to the beings responsible for his death – though it did make killing them again easier – but a great good for the scientist he managed to save as a result. Which sealed the deal on him using this power for good.

How long had he been in this state? Presumably since the resonance cascade. If only he’d known, there were so many he’d tried and failed to save. Too late now though, he’d just have to do whatever he could to save everyone else that he could. … Which would undoubtedly mean he’d have to eventually face the decision of killing himself to reset things. Not a thing he was looking forward so he could only hope it wouldn’t happen soon. But of course it did.

The scientist screamed as the giant worm-like alien burst through the window to impale him with its sharp beak like protrusion. He kept screaming, his voice gurgling and wet, as it dragged him across the floor and out the window. It finally stopped a few moments later, leaving Gordon in a heavy silence as he stared at the trail of blood, leading to the broken window.

He took a couple steps forward and peeked out. There were three of them and they were huge. Or perhaps it was just one being with multiple appendages. Even after the horror he’d just seen it commit, it was still awe-inspiring. Alien life was likely just a complex and varied as that of Earth’s. Biology wasn’t Gordon’s passion or expertise but he still had an interest in it, enough to make him wish studying these beings were an option. … Especially since that would mean they wouldn’t be killing people because now he had to make a choice.

Continue forward and if he happened to die and come back at time to allow him to save the fellow he’d just watched die horribly or kill himself now and save him for sure. Not a comfortable choice. He didn’t even know the guy, this wasn’t the part of Black Mesa he worked in. But if he had the the power to help, he was morally obligated to, right? He certainly would’ve if he’d known it was an option back when he failed to save people he did know.

With a heavy sigh, he pulled out back stepped to where the alien creature couldn’t easily reach him through the window. That had looked a painful way to die, he had no wish to experience it. Instead he pulled out his pistol and placed it to his the side of his head. It was cold against his flesh, held steady only by how firmly he pressed it there. It would be okay though, he’d already died and come back four times, a fifth wouldn’t be too bad and this should be a much quicker death, maybe even painless. He would never be able live with himself if he had the power to prevent people’s death but refused because he was frightened.

If he had to do it though, it’d be really damn nice if he could send himself all the way back to the start though. Even if that meant restarting this whole nightmare, it’d be worth it. But even if he hadn’t known of his power then, he did now, meaning he had to use it. So after taking a deep breath, he held it for a few seconds before pulling the trigger.

~

Sirens blared as lights flashed and sparked around him, making him feel dizzy and unwell. Pushing himself up and the back to his feet, he looked around. … He was in the test chamber again, right after all everything had gone wrong. Seems, his thought of wanting to go back had somehow brought him back here; he had some control over whatever this was.

A good thing, this was what he’d wanted. But also… he’d made it so far. Now he had to do all that again. Lying down for a nap first would’ve been great but he didn’t have time. Lives were at stack and depending on him. Also, he was bound to learn more about this power of his along the way. That was going to be interesting, though likely unpleasant as well, to say the least. So he squared his shoulders, shook himself off as best he could and marched out to begin the nightmare again. This time, he was going to save everyone he possibly could, even if that meant dying a dozen more times.

[atlantic-riona]

I read a lot of books in the last ten days - a lot of them were very light, since I was on vacation - but since it's been so long since I read for fun, I thought I'd note down some things for each of them.

Completed

The Hollow Kingdom by Claire B. Dunkle: Still an absolute favorite of mine - I personally think it's one of the best books featuring a Goblin King, and Kate is such an interesting protagonist. I won't spoil anything, but I do like how the book actually doesn't follow a more traditional plot for these kinds of books.

In the Coils of the Snake by Claire B. Dunkle: Probably not my favorite, per se, of the trilogy, but I do find it fascinating. It brings back the elves, and I love the questions that get raised about the future and past of the goblins and elves. Can they ever escape their own tendencies?

Entwined by Heather Dixon: Best retelling of the Twelve Dancing Princesses ever, in my opinion. Really good characters and I loved the family relationships.

Keturah and Lord Death by Martine Leavitt: I kept seeing this in various lists and it is very good! I enjoyed reading it a lot. Kind of Scheherazade-like, where Keturah keeps Death from claiming her by telling stories and then promising to finish the stories the next day.

The Vampire's Promise by Caroline B. Cooney: Genuinely unsettling descriptions of the vampire, but in a good way. There's something about this genre of supernatural fiction that I love (pre-2000s small town America encounters something supernatural) but it's hard to find nowadays imo, because so much of it is just romance now. I enjoyed it a lot, and there's two other books in the trilogy, but I have to put off reading those because of how unnerving the first was, lol.

Mixed Magics by Diana Wynne Jones: Very fun! I always love the Chrestomanci stories, they're funny and also just brilliant worlds to visit.

In Progress

Wintersong by S. Jae-Jones: Going to be honest, I'm probably not going to finish this one. I started it after The Hollow Kingdom, because I was looking for more Goblin King-esque stories, but this one is not for me. I like some of the premise - the music aspect is interesting, and so too is the childhood friendship with the Erlkonig - but it's veering into "historically women were so repressed by society and religion and now I'm going to glory in being violent and hedonistic" and that's just not my cup of tea. I may try to push through it, but not if it's going to continue down the current path.

Fated by Benedict Jacka: This one's interesting. It's a bit like the Dresden Files, but Alex is definitely a bit more level-headed, which is interesting. I'm also interested in the world itself, but I will admit I got distracted partway through reading it and so I'm not very far in yet.

Captured by Maggie L. Wood: Didn't think I would like this one, but it reminds me a lot of the kinds of books I would devour in middle school. It's an interesting kind of portal fantasy, and I like Willow and her reactions to learning that she's not from Earth originally. The chess aspect is interesting, but I do wish they'd focus more on Willow's skills with chess, since it's so integral to the plot.

Nightwing, Vol. 1: Bludhaven by Dennis O'Neil: I have gotten maybe...five pages into this one, haha. I do like it, though! I'll have more to say later, though I do think it's funny that everybody's like "yeah, Gotham is bad, but Bludhaven is even worse." Like...you have seen Gotham, right? Maybe I just need to read more of the comic.

Stolen Songbird by Daniell E. Jensen: Another Goblin King-esque story, though here they're trolls in some kind of fantasy France? It was interesting, but I'm not going to lie, it's turning into a slog. I don't particularly find it interesting to read about characters that flip-flop their minds every five seconds, and I wasn't interested in the romance part, which is turning into the focus (I don't know what I expected, it's marketed as a romance, bahahaha). I probably will also not finish this one.

The Light Ages: The Surprising Story of Medieval Science by Seb Falk: Only made it through the intro and first chapter so far, but it is FASCINATING. It will probably take me a long time to finish, but that's just because I find so much of what's being explained interesting that I have to track it down further or include it in my own stories.

Ladies of Liberty by Cokie Roberts: Didn't get through much more than the intro (it was buried in the car during the trip), but I love this period of time, and I love when historians dig into women of history without acting as if only women pursuing masculine activities are worth studying, and the intro makes it seem like this is one of those books where all kinds of women are being studied. So fingers crossed this one works out!

[cannonfullofcanons]

I think I ought to clarify that my Unohana portrayal is largely divergent from canon. Primarily because I haven’t gotten into the TYBW arc yet, and don’t want to deal with too much of that without really knowing the whole story; if my portrayal’s a bit odd, this is why.~

If you haven't gotten to that arc and don't want spoilers, don't hit the read more!

The super abridged version? Unohana doesn’t acknowledge her original title anymore. She doesn’t even acknowledge her original name. As far as she's concerned, Yachiru Unohana is dead. She suffered greatly following her last battles under that name, and having endured so much pain and suffering, she completely lost her taste for inflicting it on others. She came to lead the Fourth Division in the first place to find atonement, to heal instead of harm, and in time her personality changed to match her new goals. She recognizes fighting is a necessity, still, but she doesn’t take any pleasure in combat any longer. There is no aggression within her eyes, no barely-withheld violent intent masked by her smile. She’s a warm and welcoming Captain, one who is very kind and compassionate to those under her command, and sometimes extends the same to others, outside of her Division. She, quite literally, acts like a mother to many in her Division.

But her kindness is the farthest thing from weakness. There are times her resolve is tested; when she starts to slip. Eleventh Division men groping and ogling her nurses, Isane being harassed, and disrespect to herself, are fine examples. When pushed to the brink of her patience, one may just see an echo of the Kenpachi in her gaze, hear that edge in her voice. Anger and hatred can bring it back. A dull urge; a temptation long ago forsaken. The 11th members are quite good at picking up on intent, and have felt it from her one too many times after their antics; they're afraid of her, and for good reason.

Unohana also provides wise counsel & therapy for her Division. She completely ignores her rank in these instances and will approach her subordinates as a friend, someone they can talk to, if they’re particularly down or under the weather. Mental health is just as important as physical health, and she makes sure she’s there for her subordinates when they need her, even for the unseated members. She takes good care of her people, regardless of rank, regardless of origin. As far as she’s concerned, the Fourth Division is family - and considering ohana is literally in her name…

If my Unohana sometimes seems a little too friendly, or seems to dote on others too much, this is why. I am largely unfamiliar with events after the Fake Karakura Town arc, so I developed my portrayal with the information I already had, and brought forth Mom Captain™. This may change when I finally get around to reading through the blood war arc, but who knows. I like Momohana. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[get-your-fuckin-star-bitch]

[Unwinding AU]

Just realized that if things go generally the same as they do during Infestation and Human Remains… and Michael gets Basira’s statement later, and the tapes…………..

Cause he’d DEFINITELY still want to, now more than ever, cause she was the one who really knew things! And he feels completely lost in the middle of everything that’s been going on. He really, really wants/needs to hear some of his old mentor’s advice.

(Jon’d also be, uh. The way he is in the original canon, to an extent… lol. Though this time Michael’s probably his prime suspect… for, er… odd reasons. He’s ironically worried that some supernatural creature took Michael’s form and killed Gertrude to take the position, which is so close but also no, Jon, he’s just as scared as you…)

And of course he recognizes some of the files-

God, probably almost cries when he finally hears her voice again for the first time in way too long…

…Only to find that she’s… not who he thought she was. Not in any way, at all. Every single thing he thought he knew about her has just been thrown to the floor and shattered by the end of the first tape.

The archivist doesn’t know what to do with this information at all.

He just. Is a mess of emotions for a while after this. All of which probably isn’t helped by the fact that Jon keeps looking at him suspiciously/like he’s seen a ghost, every time Michael’s around.

CONTINUED BELOW, (this turned into A Thing again lol)

(OH YEAH OK FORGOT TO MENTION UH)

(So basically before this: Michael finally gets jumped by the door, terrified out of his mind… and escapes! Though not in the way people usually do it. And as he discovers very shortly after, the method has left a mark.)

(And now he’s struggling to fight the occasional compulsion to basically do murder, and he can’t look at his reflection cause it’s all warped and stuff.)

(Elias is very intrigued about this.)

(Still working out the details of many different events, which is why those bits haven’t been posted)

Anyway-

So the whole Jon thing isn’t helping him work out how Gertrude basically lying to him the entire time feels, much less how his actual physical/mental/creature state feels.

Not sure how Sasha and Tim are yet, but Martin is probably gonna be nice to have around in the middle of all this.

OOHHHH BOY HELEN

Michael goes for a walk while upset over a particularly world-shattering tape. Sees someone get trapped in door. Hesitates at first, but then runs after her, trying to help. Jon thinks it’s him when she comes in for the statement, until Michael comes in JUST after the door closed, cause he felt it open in JON’S office and even if Jon HAS been snarky, it’s “for GOOD REASON” and so he BURSTS in, panicking, and jon’s like “AH FUCK- WHAT-????”

So Michael’s briefly VERY relieved, and apologizes, then realizes that someone else must have been there- then gets the whole story and is mortified.

Just… walks away to lie down.

Does not even bother assuming his “normal” form.

Nearly gives Martin a heart attack when he walks in to make sure everything’s ok- but like he’s not even threatening at all, he just seems really, really not ok, so like… why panic?

He just asks if Michael wants a cup of tea, and Michael almost starts crying again, but from GOOD feelings this time, and thus Martin keeps Michael from falling down an awful downward emotional spiral simply by fucking caring. I love Martin so goddamn much.

Over time, Michael starts learning more and more about a lot of things, actually. He may have been wrong about Gertrude as a person, but he had been right about her maybe knowing stuff that could help him understand. VERY right, indeed.

And even though he now knows she lied to him, he still finds comfort in hearing her voice. On some level, he’s gotten it into his head that maybe she just did it in the hopes that he wouldn’t ever have to worry about these things… after all, hadn’t she once said something about how he “really should be quitting by now”, or something?

Regardless, he finds that he actually sort of likes the new face of the old woman. She had this sort of fire in her… and he wishes he could have really known that side of her. Gotten to experience it a little. I mean, come on- she was honestly a bit of a badass!

And this new image he has of her just makes him miss her even more, on a whole new level.

And then he starts to wonder if maybe she knew anything about the door, remembering how she’d reacted to that awful book, ages ago. Maybe she’d (posthumously) be able to tell him what’s going on with him, and maybe even how to fix it?

So he tries looking through her tapes for anything regarding doors.

He finds nothing.

Maybe… creepy mirror-people?

There are a handful of incidents involving that kind of thing, but none that describe his situation.

He does find the one about the stair dude, and has to take a day off work after that, but he’s starting to feel pretty sure there’s nothing in the archives that matches anything he’s seen.

…Until he stumbles upon that worker-in-clay statement. The one in “sculptor’s tool”.

Reads the date on the statement after reading over it, (not aloud, or on tape), and it clicks. The boat ride. The one that he almost thought he’d just dreamt because of how bizarre it had all been-

She had said they were going to Sannikov land.

No wonder she’d been so worried about the boat turning around… they’d been off to go stop “Gabriel” from succeeding in starting the thing that had happened shortly after! But it had stopped… so clearly they’d messed it up anyway, thank goodness.

…but…

…why hadn’t she mentioned all of this to him beforehand?

If he was supposed to help her in that mission, why hadn’t she told him anything about what they were supposed to do?

How could he help her if he didn’t understand?

…If he didn’t…

In a moment, all the recent conversations and interactions he’d had with with others came back to him at once, and he looked into the mirror at his distorted reflection.

…what was it she’d called it…?

“It is not what it is?”

Indirect answers. The door. Mirrors. Even his own appearance never quite showed the truth.

And he’d been subconsciously noticing how much he relied on the confusion and lack of understanding of others in order to-

No.

He was thinking too far into this- and going based off of almost nothing at all, and-

Dark.

Snowing. Crunching ground under feet and footprints in shifting snow and the world around is wrong. And yet is also right, it knows better, much better, and more than he does, it is more than he is, to it, he is nothing, and-

Map. Door.

Go through.

There is

no

Way

Back.

And he is gone, but no, he is elsewhere, he is

It is there.

The center.

Replace it.

No. No, no no no no no no NO-

The fear crackles and piles up into a buzzing crescendo as the feeling of his entire body being rent apart and reshaped like clay is etched into his brain. And no one is going to save him.

She wasn’t there. She had won. He had just been an offering.

She was satisfied.

He was screaming.

The image broke like glass around him and he slid to the floor, gasping for breath and clutching at his head, hands, torso- reassuring himself that he was still there.

Still… whole.

He was still in his office.

Still sort of held the statement in his hands… although-

Claws. Laughter, and laughter, and laughter that would not stop-

He frantically shook off the punctured paper with a strangled cry, willing the talons to go away.

His fingers returned to normal.

But the feeling — that horrible twisting sensation, like his whole entire being was suddenly just putty, held firmly in a pair of hands that were warping and stretching and pulling him apart — stayed.

…and then, from somewhere in the direction of artefact storage… someone screamed.

[help how do I tag this- my head /gen hurts 🫠]

[quibbs126]

I decided to start drawing my favorite Cookies

These aren’t all of them, but I didn’t want to put too many without the canvas getting super stretched, so I just put three of them. However I do plan on doing more of them, so this is Part 1

Aight, let’s get into it

Dark Choco Cookie: he’s quickly become a hyperfixation for me, mostly due to him checking off my list for hyperfixation character traits (mainly tragic backstory, tragic family drama, at some point an antagonist). But anyways, I just like this cookie, his backstory’s really tragic, and as I said, I hope he’s able to find happiness by the end of the story.

Also, I drew this the day before the Holiday update, but from what I can gather (I haven’t gotten there yet because I’m out of Baker’s Piping Bags) it seems like this may very well be true

Though, I do have to say, his voice acting doesn’t always hit it for me? Sometimes it sounds a bit like a Batman impression and I can’t take it as seriously. Though other times his voice acting is good. I just think maybe his voice needs to go at a bit of a higher pitch sometimes, particularly in more emotional moments, instead of his really deep voice

I was originally going to draw him with the Strawberry Jam Sword, but given what happened in Episode 14 (which I haven’t gotten to, I just started Episode 9, but I have seen cutscenes of), I thought it would be better to draw him without it. So instead I drew him doing that dramatic cape flutter thing Descole sometimes does

Side note, but have any of you seen Ginjaninjaowo’s Cookie Run humanizations? And how like, with some of them at least they tried to make the humanizations more than just “make them human” and put some sort of spin on their designs? Well I realized while drawing Dark Choco (specifically his cape and shoulder pads) that his design could translate well to a gundam sort of outfit. You know, have the shoulder pads be mechanical or something? I dunno, it’s what I thought. Or maybe I’m thinking of Megaman characters, specifically from the X series. So maybe mecha is what I’m thinking?

Dark Cacao Cookie: I like him for very similar reasons to Dark Choco, particularly the tragic backstory and the fact that he’s the other half of the family drama, but I also like him on his own as well. He’s just this old man who’s also a badass king and warrior willing to do whatever it takes for the good of his people, no matter the personal cost, and there seems to be a lot of nuance to his character. Honestly I think it was the Sorrow of Dark Cacao Cookie video that made me like him just on his own as a character. Unfortunately I have not met him in game yet, so I just have a few cutscenes to go off of

Also, his voice acting is really good. Speaking of which, funny story but back when I had just seen the characters (I mean Dark Choco and Dark Cacao) and hadn’t seen their voice actors, I thought “you know, I could see Patrick Seitz voicing one of them”, as I’ve heard him before as Olberic, the legendary but disgraced warrior from Octopath Traveler who also carries a large sword (also I’ve heard him as Dio, but that’s irrelevant). Then one day I’m watching some of the voice actors reacting to fanart, and I see that Patrick Seitz actually does voice Dark Cacao, and honestly that blew my mind. Didn’t think I would be able to guess that

I swear, when drawing this, it went from Dark Choco’s fairly simple design, to “dear LORD this outfit is so much more complicated”. The sword as well. I gave Dark Cacao this outfit mostly just because I like it

Onion Cookie: As I stated in my last post, I find Onion Cookie to be adorable, but also her backstory is really sad. She’s a literal child who died and doesn’t know she’s a ghost, and she’s also scared of ghosts. I want her to be happy as well

Also, I’ve used her in game as part of my B Team, and honestly her ability’s pretty darn strong. I’m also convinced it has like the longest cooldown of any ability. It’s just that the rest of my main group is a lot better than her in terms of strength

Also the little gasp thing I have her doing was just something she sometimes does when you interact with her in your kingdom that I thought was cute. Also I didn’t want to draw her crying

Yeah I don’t have as much to say on Onion, she’s just a baby that needs to be protected

[paintedscales]

arms: Does your OC have any weapons? What weapons do they carry, and how do they wear them when they're not fighting?

Happy patch day, Briar! I hope that you enjoy the 6.55 drop today! As of this post, I still can't get in game, but hopefully by the time you've seen this, you've gotten to experience what's been given to us and have enjoyed it! :> ♥

OC Asks: Character Design Edition

One of Nomin's earliest weapons is a dagger that her adoptive sister was a little hesitant on getting for her, but is something that Bayarmaa and Esenaij were willing to trust her with knowing her history with the Tumet, as well as seeing that she expressed a kind of maturity about handling dangerous tools / weapons. The dagger itself is something that was crafted by the Ura with ore they gathered and then smelt themselves. With this dagger in her possession, Nomin remembers fondly the words spoken to her by the Ura tradeswoman: "May the ever tenacious mountains keep you safe with that made of their bounty."

This dagger actually didn't see a lot of use, and it was kept safe in Bayarmaa's possession for a while after Esenaij's death and Nomin's being kidnapped. Bayarmaa kept it and a number of Nomin's other belongings for a little over a decade. At least until Nomin returned to the Steppe, where Bayarmaa handed off a number of things that belonged to Nomin so that they were with their rightful owner. When Nomin gets it back, she wears it on her person at her belt, but never really uses it except for quick cutting for rope, tinder, striking flint, etc.

Nomin's main weapon is a bow. Her starting bow and Esenaij's bow were taken into the Jhungid's possession when they captured several of the Sagahl. One of Nomin's permissions once she rose through the Jhungid training ranks was that she wanted both bows back for training and to use in her conflict with the Kharlu. She used Esenaij's bow since her original bow just was too small for her when she grew up. Granted, Esenaij's bow is a bit big for her, but she adjusted. Eventually, it broke, and Nomin used the pieces to make a new bow for herself that is the only weapon that has a name: Akh (pronounced simply: "awh"). Essentially, the name of the bow is 'Brother' to keep Esenaij's memory close.

Nomin keeps her bow mounted on her back, and she has a hip quiver where her bows are instead of a quiver on her back. It's just easier to get her arrows from her thigh than it is to grab it from a quiver on her back.

Though Nomin can use a lance, she actually doesn't have one that she's particularly attached to. Since she learned how to use a lance with the Jhungid, she's a bit more reluctant to use the arts of the lance unless it's necessary and she has the means to do so. I think I want to have Estinien give her one after they're more amicable toward one another that she doesn't mind it as much. Either him, or maybe something from Alberic. Maybe even something from Hraesvelgr, recognizing her as a fellow Azure Dragoon, and enlightening her to the history of Azure Dragoons like he did with Estinien. Not sure, genuinely. I'll get there.

Nomin does not keep a lance on her person. Not often at any rate. If she has one, she is usually holding it.

Then there's Nomin's rapier and focus. She never really learned how to wield magic well on the Steppe, and always thought herself magically inept with her aether. However, once she meets X'rhun, she learns that she just never really had a good teacher. She broke her first rapier and focus that was given to her after one of the conflicts, her inability to control the amount of aether she was drawing from herself overloading the focus and rapier when they're put together and shattering them. Her current rapier and focus are parting gifts from Venat / Hydaelyn as things that can easily handle the amount of aether Nomin can channel through them.

Nomin's rapier and focus just hang at her hip in their holsters. Nothing special or out of the ordinary.

And now that Dawntrail is bringing us Pictomancer, Nomin will have her comically oversized brush with the relatively normal-sized palette! She won't have a name for them, either. There's nothing special about naming them or how she gets them (yet), but boy does she absolutely adore the very idea of using her aether to bring her paintings to life!

[brewing-radianite]

You've given me a new obsession. Thank you. Anyway ramble and question time... Is Killjoy still Brim's legally adopted kid in the Brim/Sage/Viper universe? If so, how does that change Viper and Sage's interactions with KJ after they all started dating? KJ has to be sus af because this is her dad, lol. If not, aww... shame to lose that opportunity that might make them come out in a way to someone. I'm very interested in seeing all the agent's reactions to their relationship tbh. Not everyday the top 3 commanders decide to hook up this way. Next question, will you be addressing their personal identities in relation to their unique relationship? They gotta be shook up over it in some way. It's not exactly a conventional relationship or situation after all. Especially when you mix sexuality in there. Do they even have labels? I'm guessing Viper wouldn't. But I'd still be interested to see her acknowledge her preferences somehow so we the audience know if nothing else. Last question... You've written some smut in the ot3 universe but Viper hasn't really played a main role in it... Is this just her character or have you not just gotten around to writing Viper more in those situations yet? I'm curious to see how a full night of fun would look like for all 3 of them. Thanks for reading! I rambled a bunch, lmao.

i received this a while ago but college is turning my brain inside out so please forgive me (and pray for me while you're at it, if you'd be so kind)

I'll always see KJ as one of Brim's little pupils/youngest agents he's closest to, similarly to Jett and Sage, or Raze and Viper! Viper's pretty fond of her too, appreciates her genius (women in stem solidarity), even if KJ tends to ramble a bit too much sometimes, haha! Somewhere in that cold demeanor, she finds it at least a little endearing. Sage isn't particularly close to KJ, but certainly harbors no il-will for her either, I think they'd get along just fine.

As for your other questions, I am working on a multi-chapter OT3 fic for them that is already up on Ao3 with the first 2 chapters. Admittedly, due to school and health concerns, my original track of progress has fallen off horrendously. I'd hoped to at least be a good 15 chapters in by now, but as you can see, life just had some other priorities. That being said, the fic is by no means canceled, and I've been finding some time to work on it little-by-little these past few weeks. I have to prioritize school first always, but I definitely want to continue it when I can.

In terms of their sexualities, I imagine Sage and Brim struggling more with their feelings (being polyamorous and bi and/or pan, i mean). I like to think Viper's probably had some flings or explorations in the past, but isn't too fond of labels or strict definitions; she just feels what she feels, and that's alright so long as it's genuine (and it is). I may touch up on this more in my fic.

Lastly, in regards to smut, I tend not to go too into detail here because this is my SFW account; but I am open to writing more smut (hcs and fics) for them and would like to find the time to do so soon. Thanks!

[inoppositionflorien]

Here's a thing most people don't understand about US domestic politics: from me, a political scientist.

The parties. No one actually seems to like their party. This is true broadly across the political spectrum.

There also is no real voting market for a third party, but unlike people think, this is not (only) because FPTP voting is pretty bad for choosing between more than two options.

It's because these people who are broadly unhappy with their party are unhappy for extremely different reasons. Now, many of them will self-describe as "Centerists" or "Moderates". They are almost invariably neither. What they actually have are beliefs that neither party contains all of, because they're not nor have they ever really been on the same platform! They're anti abortion, but really like gun control, or anti tax in general but also pro government services, or other such things. No party ever can cater to what they want, not really, because their ideals are so different from each other (well not anti tax pro service but most others) that any party that hits enough of their boxes to be approved of would get almost no votes.

No one's going to vote for the Free North Florida Nationalist Orange Farmers Who Like Guns And Thinks Pork Consumption Should be Outlawed so it can be Sold to Foreigners by the Government to Subsidize Oranges Party except Dr. Amelius Agriculture and Bill H. Unger, and as that specific set of most important beliefs are held exclusively by them, the party's going nowhere in any voting system.

A party almost never moves its voters somewhere. Parties do not guide the voters particularly much, it is the voters who show the parties what face to put forward to attract votes. It is extremely rare that a party changes its position then finds a bloc who likes the position. They take the position once they've found the bloc. It's much like how public services get more funding when they get more use.

The previous is broadly true of people discontent with the two party system on the farther left too, at least currently, who fail to understand the lack of control US parties have over what happens (understandably, after all political science and more general civics is not taught much). We don't elect Anticapitalists for example, (outside of a few cases, mostly federal representatives and sometimes state level people) not because the Establishment Democrats, (an apparently invincible and all-controlling force) say we can't, we don't because anticapitalism is broadly unpopular outside of cities, and fairly unpopular even in them! There are myriad reasons for this, it's much more complicated than "the cold war" or "red scare 1 or 2" and I'll talk about it some other time maybe, but the point ultimately is it's a messaging issue. Voter suppression and gerrymandering in many places certainly doesn't help, but the thing is, cities are not only easy to gerrymander, but also are nearly impossible not to gerrymander even if you're trying to be fair for geometry reasons! There are few communists or indeed anarchists (who know that they're anarchists at least) in the rural areas for numerous reasons. (Put a pin in that bit we'll get back to it.) Rural areas are prioritized heavily in power because of the aproportional constitution parts (which have actually gotten a little better since the start, and needed to be in there for Rhode Island and a few other tiny states that needed to be on board originally) taken advantage of by Benjamin Harrison (boo hiss) and his congress (boo hiss) and their blatant gerrymandering of the American West (those low population rectangles and the Dakotas in particular are their faults. They added them specifically to add a bunch of senators.) Rural areas are also harder to gerrymander against, harder to voter suppress in, cheap to buy enormous amounts of land in (I have a whole spiel about land ownership that I may bring up in the future but let's for now just worry about this part) and crucially the towns rarely have more than one major industry which completely dominates local politics and information. Sometimes they don't even have that.

For example, in Central California, some counties don't have a water district, they have a company that owns pretty much all the infrastructure for water in the region and does whatever they like with it, usually a subsidiary owned by a farming conglomerate. Further, the western state counties tend have an enormous amount of autonomy that their eastern relatives tend to lack, and while this can be good (large unitary republics kind of are not good) it also makes them small enough to easily be bent to corporate influence. This is often compounded by how many there are. Texas doesn't need 212 counties, some with two digit populations. (California has 51 with only a couple below 10,000 people I think, for reference of what a reasonable county count should be for a high population state) those low population counties are among the worst places in the country for corruption and graft.

So remember how I said to put a pin in the rural areas lacking Anticapitalists thing?

Well, the communities are often so small they develop anarchist tendencies, (when they aren't doing Sumerian-Style Religious Kind-Of-Socialism-But-Worse). There's a culture of mutual aid in many of them. Now, I have my own problems with anarchism which I'll address some other time, but for now nearly any anticapitalist will do, and you, people of Tumblr, may be aware of at least one or two anticapitalist forms of anarchism. Maybe you even are one of them! You might also recall that land is cheap in these places as I said earlier. You might also be aware that these places often are almost completely isolated from high speed internet and the news primarily comes from TV and the radio, and perhaps you are also aware that mail campaigns (a relatively inexpensive thing) are more effective in such places for a few reasons.

This is a hypothetical long term project, BUT, it is theoretically doable. The land is cheap. It could be purchased, even a few acres in each small town would do. From there, construction. It's not extremely cheap, but nor is it prohibitively expensive to set up a network of simple community centers and radio stations. Local TV may even be an option if enough money can be brought in to the hypothetical project, though that may be more difficult. Do some mailing campaigns too. A network of anticapitalist community centers in the rural parts of the country could be established. It could be possible to mainstream anarchism in those communities if it's made clear that the centers are anticapitalist. (This may run into the slight issue that it's difficult to make an organization with a clear ideology a non-profit and claim the tax benefits but it's probably doable even if religious protections have to be taken advantage of.) In the more optimistic cases, it may also be possible to use the network to reduce rural food deserts, though that might be harder and not worth the immediate effort.

This project would probably take a few years, maybe over a decade to fully pay off, but these rural regions could become anticapitalist and, if they improve enough that it's not unreasonable and unsafe to migrate there for many people, the small populations could make it easier to mainstream things that aren't widely discussed in public non-online spaces, if the people there already don't start trying things out on their own. (Mostly the currently more "exotic" (probably not a great word for it but I can't immediately think of a better one) forms of queerness and other invisible social minority things).

From there, it should be possible to start taking local elections, and from there, build up to state level relevance, maybe even national relevance!

Now, remember how I said US parties have very little control over their membership and who's acting in their name? If this project is nominally affiliated with the democrats, even if in truth it's not financed by the party, the democrats will experience an influx of anticaptalist voters in regions where they'd previously stood no chance. The national party may even see "wait we could get a senator in like Wyoming or somewhere if we play this right", and suddenly we've got an anticapitalist senator from Wyoming with a D next to their name, and so the democrats would go lefter than the sort of center-left-on-nearly-everything-except-economic-stuff-where-theyre-generally-centerist-or-right-with-some-exceptions thing they've got going on right now, because the voters are suddenly there for anticapitalist causes where they weren't before.

I'd certainly take notice if I was a pragmatist democrat of the kind who seems to have a stance of "I'm going to try to sit at the mean average of my party's views and move with it", which is pretty clearly what a lot of the so-called establishment democrats (most notably the current president as of this post) have done for decades if you follow how their stances have shifted over time on social issues. (Economic issues tend to skew a little more rightward for the simple reason most people who can afford to be politically prominent are at least somewhat rich and also they're generally required to spend several hours a day telemarketing to donors in a building to meet a funding goal to maintain good standing for committee seats because the campaign finance law is thoroughly broken for reasons not just limited to the Citizens United Decision, but also other thing like the low public funding cap for campaigns and other stuff so obviously they're heavily incentivized to just get a few rich donors to meet their goal quickly so they can get out of being a telemarketer, which I am reliably informed is miserable work, so fair, if not good for anyone but the rich really.) But anyway, if I was one of them and saw a large amount of anticapitalists in Senator-Rich regions calling themselves reliable democrat voters who would really like some visibility in the national party, I'd happily invite them in. Even if I didn't really like their views, I'd do it, because Senate seats are valuable and they'll caucus with us anyway. And besides, if there are any consequences down the line, Hypothetical Old Establishment Liberal me would be dead or retired before anything came of it, and before then there's court appointments to make with this defensible senate majority.

A major problem with the Republican party was that they invited the fascists in because they thought they'd be a good voting bloc to have. This has been the story before with right wing parties inviting the fascists in and the fascists eventually becoming the real power in the party (or coalition.)

But that could cut both ways if we play our cards right. The democrats would definitely invite anticapitalists in much closer if they thought they could gain from it, and we could come to be the most powerful part of the party from that.

On a final, sort of extra note that doesn't really fit elsewhere here but is important to add, I am aware about the worry of the cooptation and weakening of anticapitalist movements by accepting the invitation in from liberals. I think it's a valid concern, but not a truly justifiable one, and I may talk more about my thoughts on that particular idea in the future.

[memoirsofareddittroll]

AITA Shitpost #1: If you're from Africa, then why are you white?

So, here we go with the first one dating back to January, 2022. This one I'm particularly proud of, as it was my first, and it reached over 100 comments shortly before being recognized as fake by the mods. You can find the original post here (although, since it was locked, you won't be able to read it). Luckily for you, though, I still have the account and can thus share the post with you below.

"AITA for not knowing a lot about geography?

I use a throw away, because this situation is apparently embarrassing for me, so I would prefer not to be traced to my real account.

This started when I (24M) overheard some friends M (24M) and G (25M) talking about economics. I decided to join in, because one of them said the phrase “African immigrants,” which I thought was quite humorous, because it is an oxymoron. I pointed this out, and they both just looked at me. G asked me do I know what an oxymoron is? And I answered yes, I think it is a contradictory phrase. G then asked me what was the contradiction? to which I responded that “immigrant” implies to leave ones country, and one doesn’t leave ones country when he or she goes from Africa to the other states. Then M asked me what had I meant by “other states”? I responded that I had been fairly certain that Africa was a state, and that if it was not then it would not make sense to say common terms like “African-American,” as then being African would not make you automatically American.

Indubitably the conversation devolved to M and G mocking me for having thought that Africa would be apart of the United States. It became particularly bad when M said that what I had said was stupid, which obviously angered me, so I told him to shut up, cursed him out, and then remarked that him being a knowitall was the reason why no one liked him. M and G became really defensive after I said that, therefore I have seen neither of them since the argument. Since then, all of our mutual friends have been phoning me and saying I was rude.

On one hand, I feel that I may have been a bit harsh on them. On another hand, I have always considered myself a considerably intelligent person, so I think it rude and dishonest for M to insinuate that I am stupid. So, Reddit, AITA?"

Looking back on my first piece after a year of shitposting, the most striking part to me is that my work has gotten kinda sloppy over time. I put a lot of effort into my first post—here you can clearly see a well-defined character (well, more like a caricature, but in r/AITA terms they might as well be synonyms) which was carefully infused into the writing in a way that I unfortunately haven't been able to replicate since. I'm sure you noticed how pretentious I sounded throwing in clunky grammar and misusing words like "indubitably" and "therefore."

I also had a good bit of lore prepared—my character was eventually intended to whip out the fact that he was a member of Mensa as a last resort (as if that somehow excused thinking that Africa was a state in the US). Unfortunately, this is where I got a bit carried away with the commenting and eventually got my post taken down.

My personal favorite exchange in the comments was my third (and last!) comment here, which I think might have been what gave me away to the mods.

I learned from my mistakes that Africa is not a state in the US, and I now know that it is a country in its own right!

The thread got reposted to r/AmITheDevil, which is one of my main criteria for success in these stories. Most people there were calling me out as an obvious troll (one even dared to call me a low-effort troll, which I took particular offense to), as opposed to the maybe one or two comments on the original post calling it out as a shitpost.

Maybe I leaned into the dumb American stereotype too much, but I guess that's the whole point of these shitposts. Either way I still look back on it as a success, even if it did have some rougher aspects.

Anyway, my second post was more successful and was never removed (and even includes some DM action!) so I might post these out of order to let it stay up for a bit longer. Let me know if liked this, thought I was a pathetic loser with no life, or want to see more, or just generally what you think.

[theeangeltimes]

Ranking and Rating We Are the Future Covers

Sooo this may seem like a weird first blogpost, but it’s the only blog I’ve been able to write without my writer’s block getting *TOO* much in the way and I need to do something to keep myself on my self-enforced break from twitter. So this is what we’re getting!

It’s also somewhat fitting to me since We Are the Future by H.O.T. is a song that I for some reason associate heavily with winter. I think it has to do with the fact that, to me, Dreams Come True by S.E.S. is a similar albeit far superior song and Dreams Come True is basically synonymous with winter to me. And, well, it’s winter time, is it not?

Before we get into the ranking and rating though I feel like I should talk about my complicated (that’s being dramatic) feelings about We Are the Future; I feel like it had the potential to be an amazing song but was ruined by the switch-ups of its sound throughout the track. Lots of people may think switch-ups—or whatever the technical term is—is a newer phenomenon within kpop, but it’s really not. H.O.T. did it here, Click-B did it in almost all their songs back in the 90s/00s much to my chagrin, and Girls’ Generation of course did it with I Got a Boy in 2013. And there’s probably several other examples I can’t think of right now.

Anywho, here is my ranking and ratings of We Are the Future covers done by boy groups, ranked from worst to best 🏹

VERIVERY

It pains me a bit to put VERIVERY dead last on this list because I really do love me some VERIVERY, BUT THEY WEREN’T EVEN SINGING??? They just lip-synced to the original. The styling and dancing were good though so I give them a 5/10.

Wanna One

They did original production of the song and it really slayed at some parts but at others it was just mediocrity. AND there was not one, but TWO of the raps AKA the worst parts of the original. BUT, Minhyun sounded very pretty as per usual and overall the group did good. I give it a 6/10.

Monsta X

Their voices sounded soooo pretty on this cover and I loved the original production, I wish I could hear the studio version of this. Plus, you know that Monsta X’s fine asses are always gonna put on a good show so performance wise it was also great. *However* whoever it was that put those illy arranged bandanas on Wonho and Shownu’s head is one of my enemies…

8/10, good job boys!🫶

TVXQ

They get a ping knocked off for including the rap, but they’re TVXQ so they’re still this high on the list🤭

Changmin and Jaejoong’s voices sounded particularly pretty over this instrumental and I’m obsessed with how Jaejoong just shows up out of nowhere to sing the bridge and then leaves. Major slayage, if you ask me! 9/10!

(NOTE: in order to watch tvxq’s performance, you have to go to its segment in this compilation. Annoying, I know, but I couldn’t find a video of it alone)

EXO

If I were a petty person, I would knock off a point for the fact that this cover is NOT LONG ENOUGH and has no studio version that I can stream to my heart’s content. Nobody on this planet understands and loves this cover the way that *I* understand and love this cover. The production is pure euphoria, BaekXiuHan sound like angels (and I wish we had gotten more trios with the three of them because gosh do their voices compliment each other nicely), and there’s no wackass rap!!! In conclusion, exo are gods and this cover is 10/10💋