#I didn't sell it I equipped it on another character

[hes-sunshine-im-midnight-rain]

his speedos don't even cost nightmare pancakes

[dc-polls]

Biggest DC Misconception

Round 1 - Match 5

Tim Drake grew up next door to the Waynes

Misconception: that Tim spent his entire childhood living next door to the Waynes, in a suburb of Gotham rather than the city itself. Canon: In the post-Crisis pre-Flashpoint era of comics, Tim Drake's family had at least one residence in Gotham City on the island itself, and are never directly referred to as living anywhere else. After Tim's mother Janet dies in the comics, Tim convinces his father Jack to buy a house in Bristol (a mainland suburb of Gotham) next door to Bruce Wayne (Alfred found the listing for the house and passed it along to Tim). A few years later in-universe Jack, Tim, and Tim's stepmother Dana have to sell that house (referred to as Drake Manor) and move into an apartment once more in Gotham City on the island itself. Some fans see Tim living in Bristol for part of his comics, or see other fans mention it, and assume that Tim grew up in that suburb next door to the Waynes his entire childhood. This leads to misconceptions about his family's relationship to the Waynes, Tim's relationship to Gotham City, and what his early childhood experiences may have been like. It can further lead to fans insisting Tim has less connection to Gotham than other Bat team members.

And another submission...

Fanon constantly puts Tim at Drake Manor as a child but he didn't move in until after Jack woke up from his coma. Alfred gave him a newspaper listing for it. Bruce made a secret tunnel to the Batcave under a cistern in the basment. And they had to sell it after Jack made some bad investments in the stock market, lost Drake industries, and they had to move back to the city. Tim was at Brentwood during this and had to go to public school and wasn't rich anymore, just upper middle class. (Also he didn't inherit Drake Manor as his father didn't own it when he died)

--

Stephanie Brown is from Crime Alley

Stephanie Brown was solidly middle class when she was introduced. Although a lot of her problems (pill popping mother, villan father, teen pregnancy) were viewed as "poor people problems" she was not. She had a regular house in the suburbs and had her own motorcycle and equipment (although she could have stolen it from her villan father). (I think she was supposed to be relatable in that these problems can happen to anyone but fannon has taken that away from her and said that those are poor people problems so she must be poor)

And another submission...

The misconception is that Stephanie Brown (Spoiler, later the 4th main continuity Robin, later Batgirl) is from Crime Alley, also known as Park Row, or sometimes other impoverished areas of Gotham City such as The Narrows. In the Post-Crisis Pre-Flashpoint era of comics, Stephanie is canonically from a mainland suburb of Gotham, not the island city itself. In her introductory arc, the Bats specifically track her down to the "Manchester suburb" which is seen as having a low skyline, unlike the tall buildings of Gotham City. In a later comics, Stephanie describes herself as Spoiler as the "defender of the suburbs", pointing out that Batman and Robin focus on the city. Why it's important to know: fans who place her childhood in Park Row or the Narrows are often drawing direct parallels between her and Jason Todd or Duke Thomas, and a contrast to non-urban-childhood characters, completely inaccurately, ignoring her actual canon experiences. Suburbs of Gotham still deal with similar issues, but they aren't interchangeable with the urban center itself. Characters can have parallels without having grown up in the exact same place as each other; the misconception flattens and simplifies all of them. Additionally, this era of comics had Stephanie dealing with stigmatized issues such as a criminal father, a drug addicted mother, a teen pregnancy, and childhood abuse. The canon made it clear these are problems kids in the suburbs may experience. The misconception that Stephanie is from Crime Alley reinforces the stereotype that crime, drug addiction, and teen pregnancy are only urban issues. Reinforces the classist myth that suburbs are "nicer" and "safer" than the city.

[pennyplainknits]

More Coffee Steve

so I was tagged for wriggly Wedneday by @steddieas-shegoes and @runninriot to share some more thoughts for Wriggly Wednesday.

I've been discussing Coffee Steve with @torakowalski again. Once Eddie and Steve start...well maybe not dating but with a certain understanding that they are moving TOWARDS dating, Eddie really wants Wayne to come and visit the cafe. Wayne always starts his day with at least two cups of coffee that are blacker than the Under-Dark and Eddie's sure he'll like Steve's place if he gives it a chance. He also wants Uncle Wayne to meet Steve because no one is a better judge of character than his uncle, and Eddie's been hurt before.

Steve of course is dying to meet the famous Uncle Wayne and has been gently quizzing Eddie about Wayne's preferences so he can brew him the perfect cup, even though Eddie is unsure what those preferences are other than "black" and "wakes you up." He's kind of worried Steve might be a bit snooty although he knows that's unfair- Steve likes his fancy coffee machines that look like alchemical equipment but he also has a regular old filter machine like they have at home and he's seen him sell many a cup from there too. People can have their fancy donut-flavoured coffee. or a regular cup of black with half and half and Steve serves both with a smile.

Finally Eddie convinces Wayne to try "that yuppie place with your yuppie boy" even though Eddie says Steve's a self-made man, no help at all from his rich parents. Steve carefully pulls down the tin of the beans he decided on for Wayne, grinds them, puts them in a french press and brings it and a cup over to where Wayne and Eddie are sitting. Wayne thinks this looks a bit too fancy, but Steve is quick to point out that you can get French presses in any Goodwill. All polite and bashful, and so respecful to Wayne. He's left the plunger up because Eddie likes pressing it down, and perhaps Eddie would ike to show his uncle?

Eddie would. And Wayne drinks his coffee. It's really good but not quite there yet. Steve spends 30 minutes trying to pin down what he liked and what he didn't, and then next time Wayne vists there's a different tin of beans, and another and another, until Wayne has exactly the coffee he likes, not fancy, not dessert flavoured, no hissing machine or glass globes needed, but always there with his French press and his orange mug.

And Wayne says if that boy takes as much care with Eddie as he did finding the perfect coffee for an ornery old man, than he's not going to break Eddie's heart.

[cas-backwards-tie]

Chapter Six: The Summer of a Lifetime

Heiress of Gotham

Bruce Wayne x Daughter!Reader

Previous Chapter | Next Chapter

Summary: With things out of the way and perhaps a little more trust, maybe the reader will finally start to make some progress, and a few friends along the way.

Warnings: Spying, Being Spied On, Insects, Wet T-Shirts, Flirting,

Words: 3.6k

A/N: While this chapter may seem like it takes a lot of twists in turns in the vignettes, it's sort of meant to reflect the ups and downs and small moments we have during summer. Honestly, though, this is perfect for the introduction of certain characters and plotlines I wanted!

It'd been an interesting end to the school year, really, and that's aside from the fact that you'd had to deal with and go through the grief of your Mother passing. Within the few months you'd been at Wayne Manor, the family had quickly learned many things about you. Bruce had found out how frugal and tenacious you are, insistent on selling some of your old articles of clothing for money on some app he could never remember the name of, meanwhile refuting the many attempts he'd offered to take you out shopping. Who wants to go shopping with their Dad anyway? He'd been consumed with work, and therefore more time had been turned over to your brothers.

While school was out for both you and Damian, Tim had decided to take summer classes at the nearby community college since it'd make his college applications only look better. Dick, of course, was still working, and Jason, really, you had no idea what was going on with him since it seemed he had most days free and nights taken. While you'd considered the possibility that someone associated with the Wayne family had a night-time job, you also didn't want to think of someone who very quickly became a big brother to you in that manner. That was just... ew. With the three eldest gone or rarely home, you'd been left with Damian and Alfred mostly.

--------

“So… you’re spying on your own child because…?” Tim draws out, leaning against the motherboard as he crosses his arms over his chest.

“Because it’s Bruce? You’re not the first. Thought you would’ve been the wiser, Green Bean,” Dick chides as he manually stitches another loop into his uniform. Seated on the edge of the metal table propped against the railing on the opposite side of the platform.

“She’s been watching television for over two hours straight. Is this unhealthy?” The man of the hour speaks, eyes unmoving from the image of you through the lens of one of his pesky drones.

“Hey, you’re the one who’s supposed to be parenting, yeah? You chose to bring her in, you choose what’s healthy and unhealthy,” the elder boy retorts, a clear sass in his tone that reminds Bruce where Damian’s gotten it from.

“Hn,” the old man groans, “That doesn’t mean I know what’s currently the standard in teenagedom,” he grumbles more to himself than anyone.

“Have you tried, I don’t know, just talking to her?” Tim asks, an eyebrow quirking as he doesn’t try and hide the amused smile breaking across his lips.

“You’re one to talk,” Bruce teases the boy. He’s still somewhat resentful of the way he’d handled things with Stephanie a few years ago now. Leaving her in the lurch only for her to seek answers by prying into their life.

A huff of annoyance leaves Tim and he rolls his eyes. Pushing off the computer, he turns to head for the stairs when he spots movement on the monitor. Dick doesn’t seem to care, rather, he’s focused on fixing and upgrading his equipment. However, Tim had come to a halt, now watching from just a few feet behind the old man’s chair. His drone follows you as you get up, bringing an empty dish and glass to the kitchen. You don’t notice, of course, as Tim knows this has to be one of the nano drones, most likely disguised as a fly following your movements through the Manor just a few hundred feet above them.

It’s uninteresting, really, the way he watches you put your empty dish in the sink along with your glass. Your visage shifts, heading back to the living room, but doesn’t fail to notice the nano drone. “Spotted,” Tim announces, curious to see where this goes.

“That doesn’t mean anything. Most people aren’t fazed by an insect,” Bruce defends, finally taking his gaze off the screen for a mere moment as he turns to Tim. The boy watches as you step closer to the drone; the still fly on the fridge’s handle was easy to spot, and while your eyes quickly move on in an attempt to seem as if you hadn’t noticed the bug, not wanting to disrupt it or scare it away, you step closer to the fridge.

On top of the box lies an item you’ve been grateful for ever since you’d gotten your Mom to buy it for you offline. Easily stepping on your tiptoes you grab the object’s handle and have your finger ready atop the trigger. Now all that’s left is to catch it off-guard.

The amused look on Tim’s face makes Bruce paranoid; blue eyes racing back to the monitor, he watches as a tennis-racket swatter comes his way. Lifting the nanodrone up and off the surface he barely escapes the touch of the electric swatter. Bzzt! He’s hit. Flying across the kitchen and landing on the counter, he turns the drone around to get you in frame again. “And you thought she wouldn’t do anything,” Tim laughs. An error message pops up, screen turning red along with the artificial voice alert. Clearly you’ve damaged the drone.

“It only took twenty-five percent capacity,” Bruce announces, clicking different keys to get everything back to neutral.

This elicits Dick’s eyes as his focus shifts up to the situation before him. An amused smile graces his lips and he can’t help but sometimes pity the man. Bruce… tries. He means well, but he doesn’t always have the best approach. “Gotta say, this is better than reality tv.” His Father shakes his head and, attention finally returning to the monitor once again after being distracted by Tim.

“You risked a drone for this? Come on, man. This is your own daughter we’re talking about,” Tim chastises. Even if he’s still laughing and more than amused by this. If he wants to waste his tech, by all means, let them watch. It’s not like he can’t get more.

The men watch as you look around the kitchen, eyes taking everything in. With an occasional turn, and a flip of your hair, he’s spotted again! This time Bruce sees you coming before he can be squashed. Out of sight, out of mind, he thinks. “Honestly, I’m just lucky she didn’t spot me earlier. Ace and Titus weren’t the most helpful considering they kept tracking my movements, clueing her in. But she didn’t get me until now.”

“I’m impressed she even got you at all, honestly,” Dick comments, drawing their attention again.

“Not a fan?” Tim asks, curious to hear his thoughts. After all, he hasn’t been around as much considering things have been busy with school, and hectic with Stephanie. Therefore, he doesn’t know as much about you. He hasn’t spent as much time around you as the others.

Met with a noncommittal noise, Tim watches Dick shrug. “I’ve got nothing against her aside from what she said at dinner and obviously her hate for the BPD,” he trails off, a shudder running through him, “then again, she was kind of insane when we were moving her stuff. Threatened to kill us and all. Not really the type of vibe you wanna have running around the house, you know? At least, not mine, I’ll tell you that.” With a chuckle, Dick lifts the needle to his mouth, teeth going for the fabric since he hadn’t bothered to grab scissors.

Tim almost laughs along with his brother, that is until he processes what he’d said. “Wait, what-?!” Eyes quickly darting between him and Bruce, he’s suddenly alert. “What do you mean she tried to kill you?! What’re you talking about? Hey- why didn’t you tell me this?” He zeroes in on Bruce, determined to get an answer. “Does Damian know? Why am I the last one to find out about anything around here?” He complains.

“I mean she tried to-” Dick begins.

“She did not! Dick, stop exag-”Bruce interrupts, turning to face them and argrue.

“Bruce-” Tim interjects, eyes suddenly on your approaching visage in the drone’s visual. “Bruce!” You’ve got the fly cornered. With one swift sweeping wack, and a press of the button, it’ll die.

“What?!” He yells. As soon as he turns back from Tim to the monitor he’s too late. Zzztt!!! They all grimace and wince. An alert pops up on screen:

‘V I S U A L L O S T’

The options to ‘connect to different device’ or ‘relay input’ lie underneath the big text, but ultimately you’d destroyed the thing. With the click of a button Bruce closes the tab and the background feed of the Manor’s security cameras linger. Alfred dances in the office as he dusts along, presumably, to music—Bruce knows his routine. On another, you’re carrying the nanodrone on the electric swatter to the trash, disposing of the ‘fly’ you’d killed. Lastly, Damian is reading, doing his homework as he sits in an armchair by the fireplace in the Library, Titus curled up by his feet.

“Dammit! This is why you can’t just be in here. You’re either here for a purpose or you’re out,” Bruce dictates. “Dick is actually doing something, Tim. You’re just gossiping.” With a defeated drop of his hands to the desk, he raises himself from his computer chair and rounds Tim.

“You still didn’t tell me what happened,” Tim argues, the anger in his voice no longer hiding. “I’m tired of being out of the loop! What happened?” He demands. A sigh weighs Bruce’s shoulders down, and as Dick finally lifts his gaze to take in the men before him, he doesn’t dare to add any more fuel to the already burning fire.

“She was involved with Marin. Alright? She thought he was coming for her, momentarily figured we were in on it. Satisfied?” Bruce responds, turning to face the boy.

They all know he’s been hurt. That he has trauma… it’s no secret. Yet, it’s only in few and far between moments that the boys are able to see things for what they are in a crystal-clear view. This is one of those times. Their warped views on good and evil, right and wrong, revenge and punishment… they blur the lines of reality in ways he’s sure that you, a civilian, would never understand, and yet… Tim realizes the weight of this.

“Who-?”

“Angel Marin. Bludhaven’s biggest mob boss,” Dick informs. A ‘Hn’ leaves Bruce’s lips as he makes his way toward the stairs, and a sigh leaves Tim. With a grateful nod in Grayson’s direction, Tim follows after Bruce.

------

“You know, someone mentioned your birthday is coming up,” Bruce teases, a hint of a smile hiding behind his wine glass.

The quick flash of a smile overtakes your face before you try to hide it. None of them miss it. “Um… yeah. W-who said?”

It’s invisible, perhaps, to all besides those who know him best, however, Bruce pales at the question, faltering. While you’re good at reading people, you don’t notice. Whether it’s the subject matter or the way everyone’s staring, you simply wait for a response.

“Uh, the-” he clears his throat, eyes suddenly downcast as he reaches for his knife and fork to cut his steak, “the social worker! Yes, she mentioned it while you were in your meeting.” Obviously a lie. If anyone truly knows Bruce the way most at the table do, they'd know he found it in your public files and digital footprint.

“Oh,” you respond, putting on a fake smile as you too attempt to hide behind the meal. Birthdays can be a big deal for some, and others, not. It all depends, and you aren't sure where things lie in this family. You still feel like an outsider, despite their attempts, and you don't want to burden them further.

“We could have a party!” Damian suggests, to everyone’s surprise.

“You just want a party,” Jason comments with a chortle.

“Is there anything you want?” Dick asks thoughtfully, looking down at you from your side, putting you on the spot. His kind blue eyes stir something within you, and you turn your gaze back to your plate. Busying yourself by cracking your knuckles, your lips purse into a line. With a shake of your head, it’s clear no one is sated.

“There’s nothing you want? At all?” Bruce prods, eliciting your eye contact again. Lips pursing even more you shake your head again.

“Um,” eyes falling to your lap you collect yourself, not allowing your imagination to run wild. “You taking me in was enough. Thank you.” Voice quiet, everyone has their own reaction to your words, albeit unbeknownst to you.

“Oh, shut up! You know there’s at least one thing you want,” Jason teases from across the table.

“Oh? And what’s that since you know her so well?” Tim pries, knowing he’s setting his brother up. Jason hesitates, almost choking on his drink which elicits laughs from the boys, and an amused smile from Bruce. As bickering starts to ensue, you decide.

“I-” all eyes turn to you, “I want a party!” You announce. With a confident smile, you figure, how bad could it be? After all, parties don't need to be big! Something sweet, the family there, and a boardgame is all you'd need for it to be considered a party to you.

“See? At least I know what she wants,” Damian chides proudly.

“Oh? Well what kind of party would you like?” Bruce asks.

“Who do you want to invite?” Dick inquires.

“What’s the theme?” Jason adds.

“Actually, isn’t your birthday coming up now that I think of it?” Tim voices his concern over to Jason.

“Uh…” Jason shakes his head a little, taken aback, “I mean, I don’t really celebrate anymore since-”

“-the same day as Alfred’s, that’s right,” Bruce saves them, an unfazed smile on his lips, “though I believe we can celebrate both, can’t we?” While you’re not exactly paying attention, to the rest of them there’s a silent, yet menacing request behind his eyes. It’s clear they’re not allowed to speak freely anymore, no matter your new seat at the table of their family.

“Okay, but mine comes first- or did you forget again?” Damian asks with a bite. Upon the silence, he rolls his eyes and goes back to his meal with the exasperated sound of his breath hitting his tongue against his teeth. An audible ‘Tt’ sound.

“I didn’t forget, Damian,” Bruce clenches his jaw and grips his glass a little tighter. Does every family dinner have to turn into a fight? “You know I was with the Just-” he catches himself, “Hn- that I had to-”

“-just business calls… we’re well aware, Father. Perhaps you’ll do yourself a favor and won’t miss your other child’s birthday,” Damian finishes the conversation. “Not that I count on it.”

--------

Walking through the pool room, you’re focused on texting Daisha, intent on telling her the good news!

‘Omg you’ll never guess what just happened! I’ll hav-’

Splash!

A dissatisfied shriek escapes your lips as you stare at the wet stain on your shirt. “Really?! Dami-" looking up from your drenched navy tank top, your eyes widen and lips part.

“Oh my god, I’m so sorry! I thought you were Damian.”

You quickly take in the super-soaker and the boy’s apologetic expression, and it’s easy enough to put two and two together. As footsteps quietly click against the tiled floors of the locker rooms leading toward the pool deck, you grab the boy’s hand and drag him back the way he’d come around the corner. There lies a linen closet between the pool, laundry room, and stairwell. With a swift hand, you open the door and shove him in, following after as you quietly shut the door.

A bemused smile appears on his lips as his eyebrows furrow. “You’re his sister,” he whispers with certainty, “I’m Billy.”

Whispering back your name, he repeats it. Visibly eager on saying something else, you place your fingers on his lips to shut him up. He follows your eyesight, both of you staring through the slats in the closet door. With a keen ear, he gets the gist and remains quiet. As moments pass, you can feel the boy, Billy, staring; curious, you meet his gaze only to find him searching your eyes. You can’t help but notice how pretty his are. Though you almost get swept up in admiring his features, you hear a faint creak only meters away outside the door; with a motion of your other hand, you beckon him to hand you the gun.

Transferred into your open hand, you slowly remove your fingers from his lips, cupping the barrel of the super-soaker while the other wraps around the handle, fingers ready at the trigger. With a head nod toward the door, you mouth the words: ‘On three! Ready?’

Billy seems to understand, as he holds his hands up in a ready stance to push open the doors. Together, you both mouth the countdown (which is really a count up, but anyway): ‘One… Two…’

“THREE!” Busting out of the closet, Damian is just a few feet from your right. It’s easy to spin and shoot as you’d been prepared, having watched him walk past the door together. Your brother had jumped, yet shot a few instinctive rounds of water, splashing both you, Billy, and the wall.

“Shit! What the hell! What are you doing here? Who let you play?” Damian curses, saying something in a language you don’t recognize, holding his gun in a stationary position once you’ve all recovered from the attack. His suspicious green eyes narrow as they dart between the two of you.

“I figured it was only fair since you didn’t let me know about your little game and I got caught in the crossfire,” you reason, pointing to your shirt with the gun.

“I accidentally shot her thinking I had you cornered, so…” Billy’s words die on his tongue. Without sparing the kid a glance, you shove the super-soaker back in his hands before offering him a grateful smile. At least you’d hit Damian once, you figure. With that, you’re more than happy to abandon the boys to their games as you walk toward the laundry room to see if your clothes are finished drying. That was the whole reason you were down here in the first place, after all.

“You didn’t tell me she was my age!” You hear Billy yell before a series of exclamations and curses follow with the sound of splashing water and rapidly receding footsteps.

--------

As stupid as it was to find your thoughts continuing to drift back toward a certain brown hair, green-eyed boy, you couldn’t help it. Though you’ve grown more tolerable of one another over the past few months, you still can’t believe that one of Damian’s friends is who’s on your mind. Nevertheless, fate would seem to have an amusing time linking the two of you together, constantly running into the other.

You suppose it isn’t strange after all, especially when considering he is one of Damian’s friends… however, you find him over the at Manor more and more often after the initial time he’d quite literally bumped into you.

--------

“Grab me a juice box? I forgot one too-”Damian’s voice echoes throughout the theatre as Billy yells back an affirmative answer and heads back toward the kitchen.

“Oh, hey-" You greet, backing up as a familiar figure exits the home theatre.

“Hey- what’s up?” Billy asks, a friendly smile gracing his lips.

"Was just gonna get a snack before we start," you tell him, "Guess we're headed the same way then," you tease. Walking down the hallway and up the stairs to the kitchen, you're aware of your brother's friend just a few steps behind.

“Are you gonna watch with us?” Billy asks hopefully.

“I mean, if that’s okay, yeah, I was planning on it." You respond jokingly, not thinking about it too much. It is family movie night. After all, you’re focused, wanting this popcorn to be good, not a burnt pile of charcoal.

“Oh, I didn’t mea-”Billy goes to correct himself.

“It’s fine. I’ll be down in a minute, I’m just making my own popcorn because the boys would eat it all otherwise,” you joke. Surely since he's friends with Damian he knows what the guys are like.

“That’s smart- that way you don’t have to share and keep passing it back and forth the whole time.” Billy adds on.

“Yeah. Do you want some? I can make another little packet,” You offer.

“Sure! I can do it though, you don’t have t-” He argues.

“-I don’t mind! I've gotta wait for it anyway and grab some bowls. So I'll see you down there!" With that reassurance, Billy offers you one last smile before taking the juice boxes downstairs.

The older boys and your Father had insisted you pick the movie considering it's your first movie night with the family, and while most of them had been dreading what genre you'd pick, everyone ended up excited to watch a classic comedy most of them hadn't seen in years. Snuggled up under the fluffy blankets with your popcorn and the laughs of your brothers all around, you couldn't help but enjoy the fun.

--------

Most of the summer felt like it was spent in your room. Whether it was trying to explore the things that truly make you happy, or being lonely in a place that still feels entirely all too unfamiliar despite the fact that it's been a couple months.

The material things did help at first, the new environment, the little gifts your Father and brothers would treat you to, like those little Squishmallows you'd always seen and wanted at the store, but never bought yourself. They were more expensive than you'd ever thought to casually pay. Nevertheless, you've started to make your room truly your own. With decorating, personalizing, and getting into your own sort of routine, it seems that everyone has been slowly becoming used to this new lifestyle.

Alfred insisted that as summer begins to come to a close, you all decide on either making time for a vacation, or perhaps you and Damian get involved in extra curriculars. In the sake of preparation for school, you'd taken up driving lessons as you'll soon be old enough to begin the process of obtaining your permit. Then there was also the announcements from the school you'll be attending in the fall; with sports and clubs gearing up for homecoming, tryouts were coming up. Your Father had insisted that Damian consider a sport this year, and Alfred equally has been trying to push you in any sort of direction that'll lead to getting you out of the house and your room.

Needless to say, he wouldn't let go of the idea that your mental health could use less isolation and more friends, hobbies, and pursuance of your 'passions' even if you're not entirely sure what those are yet. It didn't take long for you to succumb to your butler (essentially) grandpa's badgering. Though you have a plan in mind for what sport you'll be trying out for, you haven't revealed them to the family. The way they seem to share everything is... still new, and somewhat unsettling to you.

~~~~~~~~

forever taglist: @ohdamnadam , @safarigirlsp , @jynzandtonic ,@moonlightsolo

hog taglist: @luvly-writer , @clairese1980 , @theroyalmanatee ,@azazel-nyx , @nightrose-18 , @vanessa-boo , @ih4temy5elfs0b4d , @agent-nobody-knows , @scarlett13 , @hoeinthehouse , @huhhuhh , @maxinehufflepuffprincess

[edgyedgelord]

With Instagram suddenly diving into the AI hay wagon head first full speed I feel like people need to be reminded about something.

ofc warnings for talk about AI and AGI but this is a hopecore post because i'm tired of the fearmongering

From my own personal look into the state of things, AI is starting to look more like a scarier version of NFTs so I choose to believe it's going to fall harder than they did after this high point. NFT's died out when the markets crashed due to courts coming in and commenting on the legality issues in their economy and cryptocurrency. Once they didn't make a good enough profit anymore and the get rich quick scheme died out so did they into obscurity.

I believe AGI and AI as a whole will soon have their theft of content and data exposed to courts or some sort of more powerful folk, like what happened to NFTs after the art theft with that one artist, and we'll see the models quickly fade out and return to just being chatbot partners for the losers who live in basements and swear their ape JPEG is still relevant and profitable.

And if I'm wrong they can't legally stop us from making art nor can they stop us from making counter programs that poison their models, lil reminder that those do exist and some programs are starting to put those into their stuff so you can easily poison your art in the program. It doesn't matter how advance their models get because since the renaissance an artist's main supporter were other artist's. As long as we continue to make and do what we love to do and support one another then that's all we really need.

So, I propose a form of counter attack.

Go to your local stores and look into making a business deal with them to sell your art or offer to produce advertisement flyers, signs, whatever they need. That way you get your art out there and you're supporting other folk struggling in this capitalistic hellscape.

Using the funds you get from that, go through commission pages and support your fellow artists. If you can, try and find the younger or beginner artists to support. We often look over them and they deserve as much support and encouragement as the experts.

And of course don't forget to share around commission ads as much as you can. The only form of advertisement we get is from us reblogging each other's stuff or recommending one another to other folk.

A large reason as to why artists aren't getting support against AGI right now is because of the public eye seeing us as nothing but a bunch of nerds who draw anime all day. We need to prove that we're people with a passion in this stuff and how we're useful. We also need to speak out how most of us are neurodivergent and careers in art are what fits for us best since it plays into our interests and our skills are best equipped for this.

In summary, don't lose hope. The moment you start talking about how advanced AI is and how nobody is supporting us you're basically saying you give up and that is not how you should ever think about anything. In the theme of pride, when everyone else is against you remember that there are others like you who will continue to support and protect you no matter how long it takes for things to get better. Those who led the queer revolution didn't quit when they were being threatened or detained, they kept on leading the parades and now we have openly queer characters and people in mainstream media. Change happens, sometimes for worse, but time and time again do I see that what is right will always come back on top.

I choose to live through this artistic struggle of an era with hope that in the end human produce media with love and passion and talent will come out on top and prove it's worth over artificially generated content. Even better, I keep hope that after this obstacle for us all it will only go to show our resolve and the public eye will finally look at us with awe at the strength and determination that we have.

Art by human hand has existed since we lived in groups in caves as our first form of communication and it still is such. Stories are told through art, messages are delivered through art, and that is something a robot can never recreate no matter how much techbros want you to believe it can. We are some of the most important and strongest people to be on this planet because we are a community of people who have struggled so much that our understanding of human emotion allows us to put that into images made with ink, pencil, pixels, words, sound, voice, whatever medium you may use. We are masters at what makes us human, communication and complex thought and emotion, and that can't be taken away from us.

[ner0scum]

Magia Record just released new witch forms in the latest Factor of Despair event and I'd like to go through them and give my thoughts!

Do be aware that these are just my opinions :3 (also don't expect an in depth analysis this is just me gushing incoherently over designs)

Spoilers Below

Starting with Obariyon, Tsumugi Wakana's witch.

I'd like to start this by saying that this might be one of my favorites of the bunch. They're all really good, but something about this one just really pleases me. When I first saw it my first thought was "witch" and I know that's silly because obviously it is a witch, but the design really encapsulates the witch designs in the series, at least to me. What I'm trying to say is that it fits. It's beastly, it's bizarre, and it has a theme*.

I wasn't exactly sure how a vacuum witch was going to look but they pleasantly surprised me with this one. I especially like how they turned her into a bear, I find that very neat.

*Note that this is a crude list of what witches are. I'm sorry for the shallow, dumbed-down tldr of a witch but I really liked this design and couldn't find the right words to explain why, plus my brain is running on fumes. I hope the paragraph made a little bit of sense to at least someone reading ^^;

Carmela, Manaka Kurumi's witch.

What I like about this is how they continued to play into the jellyfish idea. When looking back at the doppel form, it gives me the idea of the jellyfish life cycle: going through the ephyra stage and transforming into the medusa stage, where the tentacles grow longer. It also eludes to an octopus with its many arms all multitasking, but the jellyfish idea still works, and is probably better.

Jellyfish have two kinds of tentacles: the stingers to paralyze the prey, and the oral arms to bring food into its mouth. Carmela has these two arm types as shown above: the ones with the burners and the ones that hold the cooking equipment—the dangerous arms that could harm anyone if they got too close, and the arms to serve food.

It also appears that Carmela lost her chairs that once stood on her face, only to be replaced by some kind of mass. I'm not sure what it could be, but I think it could either be fuel or the mysterious meat that she serves to guests.

Hevelius, Mifuyu Azusa's witch.

I'll be honest and say I didn't know what to think of this witch form at first. I'm not exactly a huge fan of the witch designs that are more on the humanoid side; however, this design does make sense for the bird-catcher theme.

A bird-catcher isn't just an object like a cage (which was what I originally thought of when hearing the term), but also a person who catches birds, and as we know, Mifuyu's doppel's description is a reference to the bird-catcher character from the novel Night on the Galactic Railroad.

When I remembered that detail, I came to appreciate the witch form much more.

Pennen Nenemu, Nemu Hiiragi's witch.

I originally didn't like this witch form because I thought it broke the whole bird-theming shared between Iroha, Touka, and Nemu's doppels (the loss of the red beak the doppel had). The only thing it has left that could tie into birds are the tail feathers and cape but that seems about it.

Still, I don't hate this design and I in fact still like it in its own way. I know I said that I wasn't a fan of the more humanoid witches, but that's not to say I outright hate them. Besides, the more I look at the picture the more I come to admire it.

Pennen Nolde, Touka Satomi's witch.

Something I liked in Pennen Nolde's doppel design was how the matchsticks were attached to its hanger, but here it seems more like she carries them around in her little basket. Another thing that's different is the clothes. The more elegant, frilly cloak/dress the doppel had is now more modest and meek, which does tie into the character that the doppel/witch references: the poor girl selling matches in Oscar Wilde's The Happy Prince.

Still, in my personal opinion, I feel like they could've done more with this design while still maintaining the ties to the girl from the story. I feel like they should've kept the matches attached to the hanger (which in turn would still be coming out her back) as that would've made her seem more intimidating, kind of like a peacock. But then again, Charlotte wasn't intimidating and she was still dangerous and kicked ass.

Overall it's solid.

Finally, Old Dorothy, Alina Gray's witch.

Obviously we weren't going to get a bunch of paint splatters as those weren't the doppel's true form and was instead the cute little paint tube that sprouted from Alina's back. I was most excited about this one as Alina's one of my favorites and I have to say I wasn't disappointed.

I adore the gas mask as it plays into the toxicity and virus-like quality of the paint she produces. The little blue lines on the face also play into that theme as it appears she's sick as well, putting her in a perpetual state of dismay. Perhaps she looks like that because Alina herself is disgusted that she got a cute witch form as opposed to a nightmare creature.

Unfortunately I don't have much to say other than I like it and would love to see how Old Dorothy fights in battle

Finally, we're done. Feel free to share your thoughts and opinions of these designs if you'd like.

[kurorenji]

Beginner Tips : Wuthering Waves

I want to compile informations that I thought useful or I have missed the first time I play WuWa and only realized after my friend mentioned it to me.

1. Shilang is a shop owner in Tiger's Maw mine that sell a lot of useful things including a 4* weapon selector (the currency : Lampylument ore)

2. When you mine in other player's world, both you and the other player received the ore. No matter how far apart you guys were. That's why I used to mine together with my friend, I went to pick lampylument and he would pick the red ore. So it get done quicker. (This doesn't work for any other resources tho, as far as I know)

3. Idk since when, but you actually can create weapon exp and echo exp in synthesizer. Just for a small amount, but better than nothing I guess.

4. Uncle Wei, in front of craft station, sell some material for weapon/forte upgrade. Sadly, it didn't reset.

5. For faster mining, I used Calcharo to mine. He need only 1 hit to break the ore. Jiyan need 2. Basically use broadblade user to mine faster. BUT, Changli also just need 1 hit (her BA1 slash multiple times).

5.1. After version 1.2 , we have a new utility Hoverdroid, you can use it to mining faster as well. Just need one shoot per ore, much more like using broadblade user but better since now you can even mining from afar.

6. Don't build too many character. Resources are pretty limited here. If you ended up with all half assed teams, it's going to be hard going forward. I stick with 2 teams until UL 55 I guess? Before building my 3rd team (after getting Changli) and now this 3rd team sucked me dry fr, I'm UL 61 now, with 40k shell credit and no other resources lol.

7. Do illusive realms. No matter how suck you're at it. You can get a lot of materials upgrade there. Just do it slowly, since you can save your progress anyway (you need to quit properly tho, tap door icon > save progress. If you just quit or disconnected the progress won't be saved and you won't get any score).

8. You can skip Scar's story telling if you insist on attacking him. Attack him, attack him, attack him. Be aggressive. Beat his ass immediately. Lol.

9. Animals have a much lower def than Tacet discord. And Goat have lower def than Cow. You want to showcase your burst damage to your friends? Go find a goat...and use your ult. You will see big number. BUT I'M NOT PROMOTING ANIMAL ABUSE OKAY, don't be cruel towards animals irl guys, don't. That's horrible. We do this in game because we need the meats to cook. Yes, definitely that.

10. Talking about Cook, every recipes have a certain level of proficiency. Each time you make the recipe it will increase the number until it doesn't lol.

After reaching the maxed proficiency, the recipe you cook won't increase your chef level anymore. Go cook another recipe.

11. The same with Research point in Synthesizer as well.

12. Let's talk about echo. If you're a new player, save all the echo you got until you reach data base lv 15. Then you can combine it for a chance to get 5* echo. Or if you patient enough, wait until you reach data bank 21. The chance getting 5* become 100%. But fighting mobs without equipping any echo is quite tiring, so... just do it if you think you can.

12.1. If you finish hunting all 5* echoes but somehow haven't enough experience to reach 21, go check your guide book and see Milestone, one of the rewards is actually data bank experience.

Hmm, I don't know what to add anymore, maybe i'll add it later when I remember something. See ya.

[ewesless]

I have the flu. I Crave Death (Thirteen) So it is time to post my fav Thirteen cards!

Double Hide and Seek

The outfit I would sell a kidney to see again 😫 She may be a punk rocker, but she wears Goth so beautifully! The thigh high lace ups fuel my fire and nourish my soul. This artist without compare draws the most beautiful Thirteen 🤌

Diavolo's Diner Dash

THE BOOB WINDOW!! I did not have optimism about fanservice even though Thirteen was specifically included to appeal to the audience who want to date women! She is the most flirtatious and only newbie who actually like likes MC and wants to spend time with us. NB fed us well and you can view any of her interactions as platonic, but in my opinion they are unambiguously her asking us out on dates and even though she's a harsh woman, a bit of a drama queen with a short fuse she is kind, protective and cares about supporting us. Characters who are mean or "mean" to everyone except one special person are my thing. She also equipped us with an item that could oneshot Lucifer. Why else would the guys get huffy and jealous if they didn't feel like she was a threat? 😂 I'm disappointed we couldn't return to the scene at a proper time and promise her our soul the way that MC can make promises with other characters. :/

Matching Costumes

MY FAVE OF FAVS!! The cutest of all! I pretend the men don't exist and that she is holding her skirt up and flashing her thighs like a showgirl. You literally cannot stop me.

Western Showdown (Not my pic, I don't have the access to my side account anymore 😭😭😭)

THE CORSET. THE CORSET. The worst plotline with Thirteen. MC behaves jealously and Thirteen serves as an "antagonist/rival." WHY. WE SHOULD HAVE BEEN ABLE TO HAVE FUN WITH HER NOT BE PETTY AND JEALOUS. I can't think of any other card where MC could be 💩y to a character and behave possessively over their preferred partner. I like him, but I would have thrown Diavolo under the bus so fast if it meant I could choose Thirteen. The cute artwork and Yeehaw!Thirteen save it for me though hehehe.

Thirteen Thoughts

I think they messed up the opportunity to give Thirteen a navel ring. She has her midriff exposed and with her style, piercings and tattoos it makes NO SENSE for her not to have a belly button ring. I headcanon she does and has other body piercings.

I hope we get Candy next season. I have so many unanswered questions about Thirteen and her sister. It feels like they just scratched Lilith off the list, but I thank them with all my heart for fleshing her out more and giving her a non-passive personality. That she wasn't just attached to a brother the whole time or her human lover and that she had a bold, outspoken personality which is what I treasure about Thirteen too. Thirteen is allowed to be dumb, make mistakes, be rowdy and rude just like the male characters are which I ALSO treasure! I believe that too often women are othered as "too good to do any of that so let's leave them out of the fun". Thirteen and Mammon and Thirteen and Barbatos have some of my favorite interactions, she is far from boring and that she includes us and thinks highly of us despite being such a standoffish loner who prefers solitude...man she is TSUNDERE.

Her history and the Reaper Realm are overdue especially since she's not just an active member of the cast, but one who seeks MC out. She crosses paths with us way too often and "coincidentally" to be anything but intentional since Reaper Realm is described as far from the Devildom. A rant about Michael and Raphael is for another day though. 😒

[lpjillian]

Quite often I see Maul's humanizations, this time I was finished off by woody's humanization and I decided to make my own, finally. Of course, along with the humanization, I also thought of a modern AU, so I will briefly talk about the character and his story.

Young Maul Opress, being the son of the owner of a large network of private hospitals, was given as an apprentice to his mother's friend. She did not want to give her son to this man, but the hospitals she owns are just fronts for her shady business of selling organs and people. Sidious blackmailed Talzin, and she eventually agreed, because promising her son a good future. Young Opress began to live with a new owner at the age of five, from the same age he began his studies in various fields. His program included hard training, various tests on his many physical and psychological characteristics, learning martial arts and the use of various weapons, as well as the study of many other knowledge aimed at improving his survival and skills as an assassin.

But in addition to such a difficult training, other hardships fell on his shoulders. His new teacher, Sheev Palpatine, was born insane and psychologically unstable, which only worsened the situation with age. Because of this, Sidious became filled with delusional ideas, as a result, over time, he engaged in illegal activities, while raising his authority in the shadow community, like Sidious, and authority in politics among normal people under his real name. He has two businesses, one for the sale of various substances, the other for the sale of illegal weapons and equipment. Although he also has many collaborations.

Back to Maul, Sidious also often tortured his student in various ways, in order to break his psyche and enjoy his torment. Maul himself fell in love with the culture of decorating his body with tattoos and various piercings. Sidious, having learned about this, also decided to use it as a method of bullying, so any procedures were carried out under his supervision and also interference. He tried his best to make every procedure more painful. Up until the age of 18, it didn't go too far, but when the guy came of age, Sidious had a new idea for fun.

This particular art depicts Maul at 18. I plan to draw another art, only for the 30th of Maul. You will see what changes his body was subjected to, and also learn another part of this story.

[randomnameless]

Forget Holoholo bird, that thing was a piece of cake compared to Guillo -

I legit took 2 hours and a half to beat them like what the fresh fuck

Big reveal was the big reveal -

Sagi's growing more and more doubtful and annoyed with you, the player who's supposed to play the navi "hey listen" like entity because plot wise you're supposed to give him super powers, and yet we keep on fighting battles with plot mandated losses lol

+ coupled with flashbacks where Thoraxn and pals pick the worst option available, and Sagi (nor the player, I tried to pick the "no" option when asked if we were ready to sell our souls lol) cannot influence those events eithers since they already happened : he feels useless in the "real timeline" and in the "flashback timeline" and I thought it was nice to have the protag, well, lash out at the so-called omniscient player

(Imagine if Eliwood, just after Elbert's death, lashed out against Mark because for a supposed tactician they failed him and Elbert, and if they had been better maybe they could have arrived faster to the Dread Isle and saved Elbert!)

Remember how I've said Gena and Sagi's bond was important in the plot?

Granted, it's always the "female character who suffers to make the male protag go berserk" trope, and yet, as opposed to a certain manga that makes us want to believe the protag and his "more or less" stalker are in such a relationship that her death means he loses controls, as opposed to the death of his mentor or of ramen guy (tm), here, as I mentionned in another post, Gena always writes letters to Sagi, giving him pocket money, items, asking how he's feeling, encouraging him to do something he wants, etc etc.

Gena is Sagi's world - hell he becomes a soldier/mercenary because he wants to help his mom and her orphanage!

Short story big story : the evil guys tear her wings out (apparently it spells death if not treated), Gena passes out and Sagi rages and transforms in one of the Eldritch Abominations we've been fighting (and losing against).

The plot continues and once Sagi and the player make up, Sagi gets his power-up and can finally start winning some fights!

However, Sagi is driven by revenge - and while Shanath deserves an ass beating for what he did to Gena - Sagi killing him puts Savyna, Shanath's own daughter, on the path of revenge, with the events we know in BKEWLO.

Enter the "Baten Kaitos character sidequests before the final fight" (tm) - and I nearly ragequit'd for the day after the Seginus fight

Sure it doesn't hit as hard as Guillo does, but fuck, fighting two godcrafts in the same day is a hassle lol

More flashback time where we see the events from 1k years ago from someone else's POV, and how Seph'n'Thoraxn's plan to make a deal with the "Dark brethren" fucked everyone over (them included!), because while they supposedly got a super power to defeat their enemy, well, they didn't and created instead a sea of corpses, poisoning the Earth so much that the only solution for people to survive was to send some parts of the land to the sky, effectively creating the setting's floating islands.

I still have some sidequests to continue with but while the plot is interesting, in the sense that you discover the reasons/secrets/origins (lel) of the first game's plot points and lore events...

Well, the playable character are more engaging plot-wise than the ones from the first game, and yet, the battle system becomes kind of stale.

Sagi got his ultra super duper combo that can wipe 1 enemy, Guillo can do AoE stuff, and Milly... well, she can be used for support and MP charging (so Sagi and Guillo will be able to use their combos).

It's not boring at all, but I feel like I was more engaged with the first game banking on each character's deck and their own stats/equipment.

[astra-galaxie]

😺💔🪢🌟😶💄❤️‍🔥🫂 for Derek Stone please

Derek Stone! (Or, as I have the habit of writing, Darek!) It's been a long time since I've focused on him, but he’s one of the first characters we meet in Pacific Bay, and I think he’s a well-written character!

That being said, let’s see what headcanons I have for him!

😺 An animal related headcanon

Derek’s favourite animal is sharks (though he'd never say that around Trevor Fin as he doesn't want the guy thinking that's an invitation to ramble to him about the creatures!). Living in Ocean Shore allows him to see sharks up close through cage dives. While he's not stupid enough to go out into the water while sharks are in it without the cage, Derek enjoys watching the predator of the sea prowl the water with only its dorsal fin visible.

💔 An angsty headcanon

Derek developed severe breathing problems following his time in The Wastes. Despite wearing a respirator and taking Tesla's anti-radiation pills, Derek didn't leave The Wastes unscathed. Now, he suffers from chronic asthma attacks and doctors suspect his breathing will continue to get worse and have deemed him high risk of developing lung cancer later in life due to the radiation exposure.

🪢 A headcanon about their family

His grandparents were immigrants from Romania on his father's side. His real name is Derek Dumitrescu, but he goes by Stone on the streets to protect his family. He might be mixed up in some bad crowds, but that doesn't mean he wants his family to be punished for his crimes!

(HC brought to you by the fact that Derek was initially named “Derek Dumitrescu” in a promo artwork before officially appearing as “Derek Stone” in the game.

🌟 A headcanon about their desires/wishes

Before his life of drugs and crime, Derek dreamed of being a professional race car driver. But he couldn't afford to become one, which led to him selling drugs to earn and save up money. This eventually led him to be introduced to street racing, and Derek quickly fell in love with the high-stakes sport. A part of him still wants to go professional one day, but for now, Derek enjoys the money he makes and the fancy cars he gets to ride without all the extra weight of protective equipment.

😶 A random headcanon

Derek loves neon lights and things that glow in the dark. It's why he's rarely seen without his glow stick necklace, even in the daylight. He's got several neon decorations around his house and even customized his car to have neon details and undercarriage lights. He also loves throwing black light parties and watching people’s clothes, accessories and makeup glow.

💄 An appearance headcanon

Derek pierced his own ear when he was a teenager. It was done as a dare during a party, and he has never been one to back down from a challenge. Thankfully, it didn't get infected, and Derek kept the pricing. He has more pricings on his body, but the ear one is the one he always has something in.

❤️‍🔥 A romantic headcanon

Derek used to have a girlfriend whom he was planning on proposing to. She was a local model who loved surfing in Ocean Shore and the only person Derek ever considered marrying. Sadly, she died due to an overdose after a rival dealer sold her and her friends a bad batch. Derek tried to save her, but she died in his arms before the paramedics arrived. After she died, Derek never let another person into his heart as much as he'd let her and stuck with one-night stands and casual relationships.

🫂 A friendship headcanon

Derek doesn't have many people he would actually call his friends. While he has people he parties with, street races with, and gets high with, that doesn't automatically make them his friends. Those whom Derek actually considers his friends are treated well and get special privileges, like riding in his cars or smoking and drinking from his private supply.

I hope I was able to do Derek justice with these headcanons and that you enjoyed them!

Thank you for the request!

[willofgamesposts]

My Thoughts after Beating Castlevania: Circle of the Moon

Recently, I had played Castlevania: Circle of the Moon via the Castlevania Advanced Collection on Switch. I had not played it before (only played around 3 entries), so I figured it was time to give it a go.

And now, having played the game on Twitch (didn't complete it), I can say for certain that it was one of the more frustrating Metroidvanias that I've played.

About the game

To lead into why, let me give a small synopsis on the game, to get you all on the same page. In Circle of the Moon, you play as Nathan Graves who, along side his friend Hugh and Hugh's father, have just stormed Dracula's castle to prevent his resurrection at the hands of Camilla (Carmilla depending on the game/media). As they arrive, Dracula is resurrected and separates the vampire hunters. From there your objectives are: reunite with Hugh and the master, and defeat Dracula.

With that stage set, you begin to explore the castle doing the Metroidvania thing; explore the environment, defeat enemies, level up (if it's an RPG), and find movement upgrades to explore earlier areas further.

So far, things sounds as normal as can be for a Castlevania game of the Metroidvania variety, so where do the problems start? The answer is in the gameplay--specifically how Nathan controls, and how it affects the rest of the game.

My Grandpa Walks Faster than this Guy

It's something that can be immediately felt when you gain control of Nathan after being separated. When moving, Nathan walks at a snail's pace, roughly the same movement speed as the Castlvania heroes of old (Simon, Trevor, Richter, etc.) and this presents an immediate issue as the enemies attacks, projectiles and movement speed feel more in line with a Metroidvania.

The game attempts to help in this matter by providing running boots early on, but that presents an different issue, one where you only have two modes of movement: being so slow that you won't be able to dodge attacks in time, or too fast and run into a hazard or attacks that you can't react to in time. 0 or 100.

It's an issue because having proper control is a fundamental thing you need to figure out for a video game, if the character you're controlling has movement speed that clashes with the how the rest of the game is designed, then there's something wrong.

The best way to sum up the problem is that controlling Nathan is like playing as a classic Castlevania character in a Metroidvania designed world, with enemies and bosses that doesn't match well with what the character is capable of. This even extends to Nathan's capabilities in combat. He only gets a whip to use for the game, as well as the classic sub weapons that the series employs throughout its many entries.

This movement problem became a particular thorn in my side in the final segment of the game, where I was having to get to a boss room by jumping around enemies that could take off around 10% of my health with their projectiles moving far too quickly for me to avoid, alongside another enemy that can petrify Nathan, which turns that 10% to 50%.

This would have not been as annoying if there was a save room near the boss room like the other bosses in the game, but I suppose Hugh's boss room drew the short straw and ended up with no save room.

If it weren't for the rewind feature that the Advanced Collection includes, I would have quit the game on my live stream.

Other Issues

The movement is not the only problem that makes itself known. I also found an issue with the inventory, not so much in finding equipment and usable items, but in their distribution. Let me present a question: if you are playing an RPG and you have an excess of a type of armor that you don't use or need, should you have the ability to sell or drop it to prevent inventory clutter?

If you answered yes, then you and I are on the same wavelength. Throughout the game you pick up different kinds of armor that can affect your stats and have some kind of passive buff. The problem here is that I ended up with so much low-level armor that it cluttered my inventory (55 leather armors for a specific example). It stacks thankfully, but with no shop to sell or discard items, it just makes the loot system feel excessive. A shop really would have benefited this game in another aspect: the limited ways you can heal in the game. You heal fully at save points (as you should), and enemies *can* drop potions, but that's the problem: can. In my playthrough, I counted that I picked up around 8-9 potions from different enemies. 8-9 through the whole game.

So to count with the issues of start and stop movement and limited healing together, it feels like the game is putting rocks in your pockets and telling you to swim.

DSS the (sort of) Saving Grace

There is something of a saving grace for the gameplay that can help with combat and exploration, something that I sadly did not employ until about halfway through: the Duel Set-up System. The Dual Set-Up System (DSS) is probably the most interesting thing about Circle of the Moon mechanically, and something that saved me a lot of frustration in my playthrough. How it functions is like this: you have two rows of cards, these cards can be found throughout the game by killing enemies (though they are very rare) and they essentially acts as Nathan's version of spells.

The difference is that the card system is based upon pairing a top and bottom card to have effects that can help in combat and exploration. These effects range from: the whip being replaced with different weapon when attacking, different types of projectiles that fire from the whip when attacking, to even my favorite, a barrier of varying elements that damages enemies *and* block some projectiles.

There are some things that could be fixed regarding the DSS, I would have preferred that the cards were in a fixed location in the castle and you had to find them instead of them being enemy drops. But DSS is OK as it currently is.

Would I Recommend?

I suppose for this final part I'll say that you really should only play this game if you're interested in playing the series in its entirety. It's not the worst Castlevania out there, but it definitely feels like a first attempt at a handheld metroidvania. Though there are some cool ideas and designs, I just can't recommend it. If you are still curious to try it, please get the Advanced Collection, it has that rewind feature that basically salvaged my playthrough from being a rage fest. From that collection you also get Harmony of Dissonance, Aria of Sorrow, and Dracula X. Thank you for taking the time to read this. I get that this is a little sudden, but I wanted to practice this kind of blog style writing, and I find that Tumblr is the right spot for this. I'm not sure if you could call this a review or a rant, probably just a guy talking about a video game that irked him.

Hope you all have a good rest of your day.

[a-master-procrastinator]

When the rewards for galactic season 3 were announced, I didn't care for a lot of them, but the armor sets looked promising. So when it turned out that both armor sets were subscriber-only rewards, I was a little disappointed, because the jacket is cool, plus those sets have loose pants that non-subscribers can't have unless they can afford sets from cartel market.

Then another day I decided to check what items GS vendors have, and apparently one of them (with seasonal rewards, I think) sells one of those armor sets! It costs 5 galactic season tokens, so if any non-subscriber players want the cool jacket, better save up those tokens!

The box is bound to character, but the pieces themselves are bound to legacy, so don't worry about buying this set on a wrong character. However, it seems that once you buy the set on one character, you won't be able to buy it on any other character across the whole account. Good news is once you equip all pieces on one character, it's unlocked in collections, and getting it for the account only costs 60 cartel coins, so yay!

Bonus:

Jaria wearing bright-colored clothes for once? It's more likely than you think.

[fatedreamsend]

The journal of Anise Greenleaf, Entries #12 and #13

[Side note from Anise's player: I started this as a writing experiment waaay back near the start of the campaign as a way to try to explore Anise's character a little and give her some backstory from before the started. I hand wrote it in an actual journal because I thought it would be fun. These are scans of the journal.]

Back to Entries #10 and #11

Transcription below the cut:

1/20/2003

Today I finally got to meet my neighbors! Not the goliaths, the halflings. They were quite busy in the fall and they take an extended vacation for their winter holidays. They just returned yesterday and today their shop was open. I was quite curious so I went over to check it out They are so nice! Mr. and Mrs. Reedfellow. I don't think I got the husband's first name, but the wife's is Yasmin. They are both so sweet! They are retirees, apparently they run the shop for fun, mostly. They hope one of their children or grandchildren will want to inherit it, so they won't have to sell and risk Clock Tower buying it. That's another thing - I didn't realize that a branch of Clock Tower was so close by. We're practically neighbors! It's a little scary! Grandpap used to tell us stories about fighting off Clock Tower mages. I'm starting to think he was being serious!

1/25/2003

Today, I am snowed in. No, I do not mean there is a little snow on the ground and I am choosing to stay in. I mean I would literally have to jump from my bedroom window or the attic to leave. Quite a lot of snow fell over the past few days, and the wind all blew it against the front of my shop - most shops on this side of the street, in fact - and it also has pooled in the back yard to a height that has made it impossible to open the back door. So, I'm stuck. The situation isn't all bad, though. Thanks to Ignatius I have been able to stay warm without needing to burn any wood, and the kitchen is quite well stocked for now. I had been shopping and keeping stock with three extra people in mind, and men at that, so suffice to say I won't be going hungry any time soon. Uncle Heath and the cousins were at their place across town when the snow started. I'm sure they'll be by to check on me, unless they're snowed in, too.

NO, this isn't all bad, just very frustrating. I can't get to the workshop in the back yard, so I have very limited resources or equipment to make potions. I can't do anything to pepare for spring, either. It seems all I can do to pass the time is read, listen to the radio, and write in this journal. Winter is a lovely season, bu tit is quite inconvenient!

On to entries #14 and #15

[kierancampire]

I nearly rage quit the game :')

So I've been playing for a few hours today (32 hours in total) and yeah, some things are really starting to bug me. Firstly, the game wants you to collect dinos, rare/ultra rare especially, but the issue is there are 38 species, some may only have a few variants but others have loads, and while one colour may be rare in one species, it isn't in another, and although the game tracks how many rare dinos you have seen, it doesn't specifically show you anywhere which ones. So I am *CONSTANTLY* having to pull up Google to repeatedly look at dinos to see what patterns are what, which the game could solve super easily by just displaying this all in game

But also, every single time you put a dino to sleep to check it, the game locks only your character to focus on the sleeping dino, then keeps the game paused to pop up with text saying "This dinosaur is bored." and then you can finally move, but my issue is, not only is this 5-10 second process every single time you try to check a dino grating and tedious, but the issue is, only your character can't move, nothing else pauses. The *AMOUNT OF TIMES* I have got a dino, put it to sleep, then before the text box appears or before I can move, another dino suddenly barrels into the one I put to sleep, wakes it up, then I need to restart the whole process. To say as well, sometimes it *****RRREEEEAAAALLLLYYYYY***** is extremely hard to tell what is and isn't a rare/ultra rare dino as sometimes the colours look SOOOO similar to common/uncommon ones, so you need to sometimes just straight up check the dino as even looking at Google you have no idea which is which. Which once again, this all could be avoided if the game just didn't lock me into position each time I put a dino to sleep and showed me in game what are rares and what I have seen

But then another issue I am having, so the game is getting a lil monotonous now. I'm doing the same thing every morning with checking on my dinos, cleaning their paddocks, tending to my farm, which takes a while, and I need to do this every day or crops die and dinos leave. I then am doing the same routine at the same shops in the same one area checking for items/getting things I need, talking to the same NPC's and doing the same fetch quests over and over. I'm then equipping the same set of items, to go on the same track, to check the same areas, to check the same dinos over and over hoping for a good rare/ultra rare, more often and not coming back empty handed. And the issue is, there's only really one story quest to the game, and I had no idea I'd need turnips, so for the past few (in game) days now, I've been stuck waiting for these turnips to grow, as no one's selling them and I can't find any to forage, just doing the same thing over and over. Just constantly pausing the game to check if the dino is rare, having to put it to sleep multiple times when I check as dinos keep bumping it awake, and it just all slowly was grating on me more and more as there's nothing I can do about the situation, just unable to make any progress or accomplish anything as I have no quests to do, no dinos to get, nothing, just stuck waiting on one quest

So I decided that (in game day) the next day, if the turnips are not ready I'm turning it off as I am just getting more and more frustrated and I just need to shut the game off. But I see the turnips are finally done, I give them to the character and get told that nope, still can't progress with the main quest as now I need to find all these little things to be able to progress with the story. Thing is, I've now gone around this map so many times and I have no idea which pieces I have collected, or where the last few are that I need, and again, the game never made any inclination I needed these. I've been getting them every time I found them as I thought it was just for a secret collectible, so thankfully I have most, but up until this point the game has made no mention of them or that I need them. So now I once again need to go around the same 3 areas looking for I think 6 tiny things I am missing that are hard to make out and see. Which means going back over every area, again. Thoroughly using Google, again. Because the game puts almost no information in the game, again. And like, it has a map, the game has an in built map, but practically all it shows you is pathways and where NPC's currently are. It doesn't display collectibles, where you got collectibles, if you have any collectibles left to get in that area, goals, missions, dino locations, item locations, nothing!

That obviously just kinda angered me even more, as now once again the game has completely halted the minimal progress I was able to make, by forcing me to acquire something it made no mention of before, and is doing absolutely nothing to help me get, and I am just stuck until that thing happens. But I did know where one part of this quest was already, so I went there, ended up being this ultra rare dino, but me now just wanting to rush things, I didn't bring any dino taming items with me. So I rush back home, get all my stuff, come back. It's disappeared. It wasn't meant to be there and was only there for the quest. So this ultra rare dino just disappeared and hasn't reappeared elsewhere. Thankfully I manually save each morning, and upon restarting my save manually (as clicking to just reload the game started at an auto save when I entered the area), it also saved the ultra rare dino so I was able to get it this time, but I swear if that thing disappeared!

Also just venting about two more issues:

1. When trying to tame dinos the game glitches sometimes and it just won't move even though you do the inputs correctly, which is frustrating. Also sometimes when trying to feed a dino a treat it glitches and gets stuck in a looped animation so you have to try again from a different angle. Or it glitches and acts like you can't feed the dino and you just gotta keep trying till you can. Or dinos will suddenly glitch outside their paddocks seemingly and can glitch getting back in, as in, they won't go back in their paddocks. Again. Super tedious

2. So NPC's can be in multiple locations, which sounds great on paper and adds life to the game. But my issues are firstly, they can only be interacted in certain ways in certain locations, so if they're not where you need them to be, you're fucked. Secondly, I have had some quests for ages, or have been stuck unable to do quests as for multiple (in game) days, cause they won't go where I need them so I can't progress the quest. Then lastly, I dunno how, but I feel I must be missing an area as I am missing dream stones (used to keep dinos), as well as multiple other things, but the other reason I think this is multiple NPC's show up still as at "?????" location. I have no idea where this place is, how to get there, or interact with them, and once again, the map offers no help, there's nothing in game to show me this area I am missing, I've searched repeatedly all over and found nothing, so NPC's just disappear randomly and I have no idea where they are or when they'll be back! And again, this could be super easily resolved if the map was better or the game explained things to you, but it never does!

I think that is my two biggest critiques so far, I wish there was more story/in depth quests in the game, instead of the singular one, so I could have other things to do while I am waiting on things to progress the main quest. Also, just, yeah, I wish the game actually provided more help and info in game instead of telling you almost nothing. It tracks a ton of data, it lists multiple things, it provides insights into your gameplay, NPC' relationships, your latest discovery, how many things you have seen, stuff like that, so like, they easily could put more in the game, they're already showing they're tracking it. But instead the map is useless, the in game facts are useless, the in game systems are useless, it just tells you nothing, gives you none of the information you need, explains nothing, and does nothing to help you! If objectives just displayed on the map, or it showed where I already picked up collectibles, or displayed the dino variants I have already seen/what ones there are, it'd just make my life so much easier!

[the-firebird69]

There are more companies we're going to announce coming up

*we have 50% of rental toomey it's a very large company it's like number 6 but they rent certain equipment that others don't track drill rigs and underpinning machines and dewatering it's a very odd company but it's a niche and it's very much needed and we needed them to be active and they sucked the management is crap and they decide not to do anything all day and it's terrific it is idiots who want everything for nothing and want to do nothing I can't believe how sedentary these people really are and lame and mean when they're not so we went in and we took over there's more companies that we are acquiring and their construction,

*we are acquiring construction heavy equipment manufacturing companies. Case 90% they have heavy and super heavy up to about a mile and a half for tractors and 2 mi for trucks and so on very big and have drilling and more, caterpillar 10% and we are buying a division of there shortly and it is the small equipment division and we will have 30% of caterpillar total and they're thinking of selling another division but we will still be part of caterpillar at that time we'll have 40% and there's a few other divisions they don't want up to 45% and will be halted it that number they say they also say the other companies will grow but so will we, komatsu 70%, and yes it becomes a paper chase with character with, with caterpillar, it's a paper chase. 40% of John Deere and they came to the table and said we have to sell it's going to get much worse we are buying their heavy equipment company no it's the whole thing their lawn mowers are selling faster than people can build them even though they cost $2,000 people are using them to tow things around usually they buy the 550 or bigger and that's what they have to do there's nothing else that really doesn't there are small tractors the reason why they're doing it is for factories and things like that so he's gone to the guys and told them it's time to build Hera's Trojan and they are RTA and they are more powerful and made for towing than the John Deere and they want to start it up and they're buying these things all over the world and we can make it a subsidiary of a company we have, Mitsubishi 10% and China heavy equipment 10% and the rest of the world is 10%, but 90% of the heavy equipment is made by the United States and companies that are here this one big huge company that we didn't mention and it is American and it is like case it's really not like case it's bobcat so he was time to and that's a smaller equipment company 40%, we expect another 30% this week or more and they're selling their equipment is not selling that much and we know why it's too heavy too clunky and too hard to drive and it is easy fixes that we're going to do and keep the employees there and they'll have jobs and they'll have better pay better hours and lighter work and they'll have better toys to play with at home seriously they sell them too from the factory and they sell a lot of them and we need that, Arians Toro in a series of lawn mower companies 40% and we expect 10% this week or more lawn mowers are selling and they're the rider type and once again it's for towing things and moving things around it's not for making small cars but they're old ones are going to that and they're getting the bigger ones they've been depressed because they don't tow as much as I thought they can't buy a big enough one and they can't buy tractors during too much demand Troy-Bilt is the company we have some assembled we're going to send out brochures to people who are buying other types of tractors their small lawn tractors and we're sending them out as quickly as we can, and that's about it for this type of stuff except for cream companies and his other heavy equipment there's a about three Crane companies and he just doesn't remember them right now we heard about 40% and then the three major Crane companies

We're going to publish

Thor Freya

Olympus

Good going we got some out

Hera