#I don't have much to say compared to when I finished the main game tbh

[dash-n-step]

Final Cutscene and End Credits featuring Toby Fox remixing Ed Sherran's Celestial

[ika-himee]

Artist Loft vs Himi Jelly Gouache

Out of curiosity, I decided to try the Artist Loft jelly gouache set. (My boyfriend took me to michaels to buy some art supplies to entertain myself during game night because i had a slightly stressful day and didn't feel like playing games lmao, so i just kind of stumbled across it and said, wth why not XD)

Here are my opinions on the set. I purchased the 24 set that comes with the brushes. It retails for about $24-$25. I had a couple coupons ($5 off $15+ and a 20% off) I purchased other things, but had I only purchased that, the set would have cost somewhere around $18 after tax i believe.

On amazon, the Himi gouache 24 set costs about $25-$26 and I think it also comes with brushes. So the sets are pretty comparable.

I have the 18 set of Himi gouache, that does not include brushes (tbh I cannot remember what I paid for it I bought it a couple years ago).

Having used both, I would say that the paints perform similarly and act as gouache should. (I could not find any information on the artist loft set about archival quality, but I scan most of my finished pieces, so it isn't a huge concern for me tbh.

The packaging is identical, the only real difference I noticed packaging wise is that the foil sealing the cups was incredibly difficult to remove from the artist loft set. I literally spent a collective 6 hours over 3 days peeling the foils off because they were stuck (and it would have taken longer had my dad not offered to help).

Content wise, the biggest issue with the set compared to himi was the quantity. Himi gouache cups contain 30ml of paint and the artist loft cups only contain 27ml i believe it is (which is not disclosed on the external packaging like it is with himi). They also seem to stain a bit more than the himi gouache, but probably not much more really. The artist loft set is also a bit more temperamental when it comes to adding water. Just a touch too much water, and the paint became extremely thin and streaky. I mostly got by with just the water left on my brush from rinsing and used that the thin the paint enough to use properly. The himi gouache was a bit more forgiving with the water, though it also gets streaky if you add too much.

Pigmentation was fine and each color acted as I expected it to. I did notice that the gouache skinned over rather quickly (within about an hour of use, the top layer already skinned, which the himi gouache did not skin so quickly when I first got it.) Overall, I think for a house brand, it did quite well and the price was well enough in line with the competitors to make it a solid choice if that is what is available to you (especially if you have coupons and vouchers).

HOWEVER, the fact that I had to spend hours (my fingers are still a little sore btw lol) peeling foils off of the cups before I could even dive into the paints was enough to make me low-key regret buying it. Now that its open and I've used it, I very much enjoy the set, and having 24 colors is great for people that want some variety and dont want to mix their colors. (I default to color mixing all the time though, so I could literally get by with the main 4 paints if i needed to haha, I just like options).

Do I recommend Artist Loft Jelly gouache?

Yes I do. However, I only recommend it if you can get a discount on it. Otherwise, I think you would do just as well getting the himi gouache unless you don't want to wait for it to ship and Artist Loft is in stock at the store. (remember, opening the artist loft cups is a literal nightmare and himi peeled off much easier).

[insanely-lovely-and-random]

So just finished The Last Of Us Show and it was fine but like that's it. It was fine. I gotta say I'm probably suffering from a bit of the classic "Books better than the movie" except obviously the games better than the series. And I kinda knew I would feel that way, the game just had the advantage of A) Being an incredibly immersive and unique form to tell the story and B) I played it first so this is always gonna be compared. BUT also I do think the show has some flaws for me personally.

To start I genuinely don't think I'd have liked this show at all if I HADN'T played the game. Zombie shows just aren't my thing, I have low attention span so in a game thats a mix of story and playing it keeps me invested. But in a show like this it's a weird mix of some cool stuff happening and then stuff I find boring that goes on way too long. And I don't mean I need it be all action, boring action is also bad but like so much is weird explantion moments and backstory that I found threw the whole pace off. The pacing in general was WEIRD.

I know a lotta people probably find episode 3 and 7 the best but for me I just found them.. oddly placed. 7 in particular. 3 is cute as hell yeah but also just felt uneeded at that point like we're barely introduced to our main duo and then woosh here's some other guys. I actually think this should have been a 20 episode show. Have more depth added and more scenes of the bleakness of this world, have them find the after effects of Bill and Frank and then LATER you can maybe have a radio play that song or Joel open up a bit about Bill or some other convoluted reason so flash back to their story. Use it bring a reminder that life can still have great meaning and hope in the apocalypse. A break in the hopelessness of it all but having it at episode 3?? It genuinely took me out of post apocalypse atmosphere. Which when moments of brevity do happen they don't feel earned.

Episode 7... sorry but again if it was a longer show put it in there, after Ellie opens up to Joel about her past for example. Flash back. But in the show it was bloody frustrating. I was like omg I don't care about this right now because Joel has been injured! God knows how people who only say the show felt I'd have been pissed.

Personally my favourite episode was number 5. It felt claustrophobic, high stakes, genuine threat and we are rooting for all those kids to make it out alive even though we know that ain't gonna happen. And I don't mean because of having played the game cause even in that you just know those kid's won't make it. It's a harsh world and it's clearly a 2 man type of story sadly. The real terror and sadness felt was fantastic tbh, and the little moments of hope seeing them play and bond before having it all ripped away? That was brilliant. The truck going under? The creepy as hell infected child killing Kathleen? Kathleen her awful bitchy self?? All great. Loved it. So so so let down the show didn't keep those high moments for me personally.

Now... I'll say it Joel and Ellie in the show? Yeah it's fine. Joel's pretty cute, Ellies a firece gal. But their relationship didn't feel rewarding. Again maybe if it was longer the Joel arc would have felt better but the show just didn't cut it for me. Joel was too nice to begin with and it felt more like they became friends early on than father and daughter. Which happened way too fast for my liking, then when the episode 9 happened he DID feel more fatherly but I got whiplash because it felt outta nowhere. I think they're great actors but they only have the script to work with and I found it rushed.

Honestly the whole show felt too low stakes and not bleak enough. The game feels bleak and scary but that's what makes the wonder and warmth of those quiet hopeful moments truly wonderful. The show world felt like post apocalypse on easy mode. Even the moment's that were meant to showcase how horrible humanity can be e.g. the cannibal preacher didn't feel like it went hard enough. The biggest comparison to what I hoped to get with this show is the movie Snowpiercer. (With a slowburn father daughter relationship thrown in). I hoped for real threat, a bleak world, interesting characters, darkness of humanity shown AND those few examples of light in the darkness that humanity's not all bad. BUT at the end of day for sure fuck humanity if it comes at the cost of your new daughter. I mean obvs they followed the ending pretty spot on so I did get that bit at least. Although it did make the Ellie confession of what happened with Riley feel incredibly hollow considering we had already see it all happen. The cast did a good job it just didn't feel half as rewarding sadly.

[ask-the-reaper-conspiracy]

To OP: what do you think we can expect for the next AA (if we get one)? :3 and what are your thoughts on Spirit of Justice?

~~also for some reason, Tumblr is burying your posts so I can't see them on my homepage :(~~

:O Hard to say when we're not even sure who'll be writing the next AA game.

I think the only thing I can expect for certain is that Athena will be the one undergoing character development, since that was a hanging plot point in SoJ. That doesn't necessarily mean she'll be the player character for the entirety of it (Apollo finished his character arc in a game where Phoenix was the main character for a large portion of it) but she will probably be the central focus by the end.

Considering how long we've had without an AA game, I also fully expect a gimmick to draw in new players. Potentially this will be a new setting, a new main character, or a new mechanic--I'm leaning on the side of there being a heavier supernatural focus (or at least superhuman, like Athena's hearing and Apollo's eyesight) but I don't really know :o

I'm sure there will be returning characters too, as well. Hopefully Gumshoe this time > >

Whatever they do, I'll probably be there for it.

As for my feelings on SoJ, that ended up being wayyyyy too long so it's under the cut.

I really enjoyed it! and idk what the tumblr opinion is on that, all I know is that they really hate it over on reddit, so, sorry fdgkfdkgfk

It is the best looking Ace Attorney game outside of the spinoffs, and in particular I think the character models and in-game animations are at their best, so that's one huge point for me. I also loved pretty much everything surrounding the seance mechanic.

I thought each case was consistently exciting. Phoenix traveling to a different country with a radically different culture high-key appealed to me, and I thought the higher stakes of his trials fit that feeling that he was far from home; on the other hand, I liked that the filler cases that were literally closer to home employed themes from the previous games that are more personal to the characters (expanding on the legacy of the Gramarye family in 6-2, developing Athena and Simon's relationship in 6-4.) I also just liked a majority of the supporting characters---I found most of them pretty memorable and fun to watch, especially the culprits (aside from.... ehh, Paul. Ga'ran wasn't my favorite either post-outfit change, but I was going nuts over Inga at the time so I didn't mind as much.)

I liked how the returning characters were handled. Maya got to finally make it as a spirit medium and was acknowledged for all her hard work, after the first game in the franchise ended with her powers only working as a deus ex machina. Ema's crabby attitude was believably dialed back to RftA levels now that she had her dream job (with Apollo justifiably being nervous seeing her again,) and she struggled with themes of being professional and sticking to her duties vs. not wanting to see the justice system screw over her friends again, which I saw as a believable character arc for her.

And I liked Nahyuta! I know a looot of people did not, and while intellectually I can see why, sometimes I feel like I must have been playing different games than them with how much hate he gets compared to other prosecutors in the series. I found his ultimate theme of controllable helplessness, masking itself as restraint and enlightenment, to be very fascinating. And tbh I liked how chill he is in the courtroom, which makes it more notable (especially for comedic purposes) when he slips up and shows how passionate he actually is as a person.

His biggest flaw as a character to me was that his arc was underbaked. There needed to be more time to unpack everything he'd done by the end, and the things that were at stake for him just, weren't quite impressive enough when put against the things he'd been an accomplice to. But I feel like he was so close in that regard, as I can imagine a million little ways they could have fixed it.

-

Now this is my big rant dfgkdfks

Something I liked the most about this game, probably the biggest point that left me emotionally compromised towards it, was that it brought back some of the themes introduced in Apollo Justice that got dropped in Dual Destinies.

I left AJ frustrated by the fact that Apollo's first forays into being a lawyer featured him being manipulated, ridiculed and led along, mostly by his own mentor (Phoenix Wright, no less,) alongside being an orphan whose mother just... didn't want him to know she was still alive dgfkfkhdkgf and none of this actually got addressed by the end of the game. and then Dual Destinies completely ignored it, meaning I was never going to get closure on it.

But SoJ touched on those feelings again and actually gave me some closure. Looking broadly at what happens in the game--Phoenix finally does show that by this point, he trusts Apollo with even his own daughter's safety. Apollo finally does vent to SOMEONE about how hard it was starting out as a lawyer, and confronts a parental figure for abandoning him. He confronts Phoenix in court, and his relationship with Phoenix even seems to be characterized as "different" from that of his other allies. This is mainly because Phoenix is a mentor to Apollo more than a friend, but I like to think their bad first impression of each other was a contributing factor, too.

Yes, many of these are not exact follow-ups to Apollo Justice. A lot of them either touch on the story vaguely, or invent new scenarios to make these themes relevant to this specific game (like Apollo's backstory in Khurain was obviously not envisioned during AA4.) But considering how old Apollo Justice as a game was by this point, and that the writer evidently did not expect everyone to have even played it, I at least understand the decision to tie these themes to new plot points.

Also, I really like Dhurke, so I don't reaaally mind that he's a new addition to Apollo's backstory. Also like the idea that Apollo might have followed Kristoph as a mentor for so long because he bears a superficial resemblance to Nahyuta---cool-headed, confident, hair over his shoulder...

Like it's a bit weird to wrap my head around that Apollo spent his formative years in a different country/culture and this wasn't touched on in previous games, but I'm just not too stressed about it cause I got the core feelings I wanted dfkgsfdkk and Apollo just, has good chemistry with the new characters,

I could go on and on about all the little things I liked, but those are my big points. I think the game gets a lot of backlash nowadays, some of it fair and some of it I feel is unfair. But me personally, I liked it from start to finish, and the things it did wrong didn't bother me enough to take me out of my enjoyment of it.

[navree]

Finished my reading of F&B, and to my shock Rhaenyra's character is pretty dark there... Like they've whitewashed her to an extreme degree

And there is no prophecy , no righteous goal etc.. and that's really good tbh because in that way the whole conflict feels more human. Like people irl don't need prophecy to be ambitious or power-hungry . Aegon is not a crybaby , Alicent is more ambitious and shrewd, Daemon is definitely much darker than his show version but also much more interesting...

I wonder why they didn't keep with the main characterization of the characters and tried to flesh them in the show instead of changing them completely.

Yeah they've lightened Rhaenyra up a lot in the show, though to be fair we haven't gotten to some of her darker stuff, but even things that have already happened, like her involvement in Vaemond's death or the Silent Five has been incredibly watered down.

Things like the prophecy providing a goal and some plot contrivances I think are largely there for two reasons: one, George told the showrunners that Aegon the Conqueror had foreseen something involving the war with The Others before he decided to conquer Westeros, and they added that into the show, two, because it's a prequel. Because Fire & Blood is a textbook and mostly just a supplementary piece of reading and not a story in its own right, it doesn't need to be connected to anything involving the main story other than the fact that it's about the Targaryens and there are Targaryen characters in ASOIAF. But because House of the Dragon is a direct prequel, a narrative that is adding some background depth to the original narrative of Game of Thrones, there does need to be some interconnectedness. There needs to be a thread tying one end to the other beyond just "Dany's a popular character and the Targaryens have the most recorded history about them when compared to the other major families", and the prophecy tying into the central conflict of GOT is that. I've been on record saying I don't think it was a good idea or very well done, but that's what they did.

As to why they changed certain things, it is largely to make them more palatable, and I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing. For one, I'm personally a fan of Aegon as played by TGC being this pathetic pretty boy, sopping wet kitten with big needy eyes, desperate for love bundle of issues type of character, I think it's very fun and creatively fulfilling (and Tom and his tear ducts are killing it). For two, when converting any written narrative into a visual format, you're automatically put at a disadvantage by removing things like inner monologue, internal character voice, thoughts and observations, and really anything that cannot be externalized via facial expressions and spoken word. You can try to make up for it in a myriad of ways (Die Hard took a very stoic and quiet character from the book and made him a chatterbox in order to verbalize the thoughts he was having even though it completely changed the characterization, Twilight just plugs in Bella's narration everywhere, the first Dune adaptation did that batshit thing where it added internal monologue for like literally every character, it's so fucking nuts) or you can just ignore it (the Hunger Games movies kept Katniss's stoic characterization but didn't add in any narration to make up for her blank façade and let us see the complexities of her inner character the way we can in the book, which made movie!Katniss a faithful book character but kind of bad as a film protagonist). It's why, in the original show, Tyrion ended up getting a lot of his bad qualities washed away, because without the benefit of his inner monologue and his thoughts and viewing the world through his eyes like we do on the page, instead seeing things objectively on a screen, him doing things like slapping Shae and pawing at thirteen year old Sansa or constantly talking about all the women he wants to sexually assault (to say nothing of the women he actually sexually assaults) would make him completely unsympathetic and turn audiences against him. It's probably why they softened some of Theon too (he's a lot worse in ACOK than he is in season 2) and also why they made sure to show us everything he went through rather than have him vanish and then reappear as Reek the way he did in the books.

The characters in Fire & Blood are not written to be likable, they're ambitious and power hungry and while we all have our favorites and people that we're willing to excuse anything for ("Alys blew up someone's head" "Rhaenys torched people during the Conquest" grow up and have some fun, God forbid women do anything, I support them), we all know that this is one family full of dramatic bitches fighting for who can be the absolute monarch in a brutal feudal system and birthright monarchy is a scam anyway. But in a show, with a narrative, where you do need to have something approaching a protagonist and antagonist (GOT had good and evil on both sides of every conflict, but Joffrey and Ramsay and the White Walkers and the Essossi slavers clearly filled the roles of "big antagonists" for all the characters no matter whose side you're on), having everyone be miserable drama hoes 24/7 from the word "go" just isn't going to get audiences interested. And that's not gonna fly if you're HBO and you are a company attempting to make a profit like every other company on the planet, you need to get general audiences invested when there's clearly not much of an audience for "book only" people who'd shrugged off HBO's version ASOIAF ever since D&D started mucking it up atrociously. So lightening certain characters, making them more palatable in order to have their intricacies conveyed better in a visual format, that makes sense, that's what they ultimately had to land on to make the show work.

I'm not even against it per se, I like the starting off point we had for most of the characters and the change made to things like Rhaenyra and Alicent's dynamic and the new undertones in the subtext. It's mainly how they built on it from there, and some of the choices they've made, that I've had an issue with. But even then, as I've personally said, my critiques tend to be along the lines of liking the foundation and just wanting to build something different, or thinking certain plots and elements were an example of good idea but bad execution. If they'd started the show from the beginning of F&B, then maybe we'd have gotten a more book accurate Dance, since it would come a lot later and we'd have had time to get to know some great Targs but some incredibly awful Targs as well, but that's all in the past at this point.

I tend to just accept that book canon and show canon are different stories, which they are by design, and appreciate them both on their own merits.

[kieuecaprie]

So... I finished the main taskline (for now) for Toontown Corporate Clash. I won't say too much about the end but it was definitely a journey to get through, especially when the server started having issues and districts had to be reset which made making and finding groups a bit of a drag.

So, I figured it'd be nice to have a little collection of screenshots I took over the course of my journey. Of course, I won't dump all of them, just a select few I found neat.

There may be spoilers but I think most of the screenshots I'm about to post are just out of context stuff anyhow so... I'm gonna give you a fair warning anyway!

I believe I posted this a while back effectively saying that I have been playing TTCC and wanted to post this screenshot. I managed to catch the tailend of the St. Patrick's Day code event so I was able to snag some stuff, including the clover that became a mainstay on my deer.

I think this may have been the first of many buildings I would take on by myself over the course of doing the main taskline so I guess I took this screenshot to comemmorate my first building (plus it was in Toontown Central, where buildings are kind of a rarity even on private servers) and the fact I barely made it out alive.

This was before I learned the power of Prestige Throw, btw, that little prestige gag carried me pretty hard with its self-healing properties.

I just liked visual bugs and this one kind of tickled me. You can still get on the elevator, it's just bugged for some reason. No idea if this was a server thing or the behavior of the base code of the game that it ran on.

Funnily enough, BB was the first playground I got to the final kudos rank-up task for just so I could go see Rainmaker, who would otherwise be known as Misty Monsoon if you searched through some ARG stuff (or read the wiki, I guess).

Her fight was an ordeal the first time through and was frightening and was definitely a step up from the easy gameplay of the babby game that came before it.

I spared her, in case you were asking. Fortunately, my group decided to do the same.

I hated going through YOTT even though I liked the vibe of it all. The dialogue was painful to read but this one with Seymour in particular was chuckleworthy. Kind of appreciated that. Keep at it, TTCC writer's team!

I think this was taken during my runs through Sellbot Factories for the Sellbot parts. I admit, it was a little nervewracking at first to utilize the group finder because, up to this point, I was just using it to set up groups for battles I absolutely needed to do (Derrick Man, Land Acquisition Architect, Public Relations Representative). No idea why this screencap in particular, maybe I just found the name "Medieval Pheasant" on the Turkey toon to be quite amusing.

Fishing was my first activity I'd end up maxing on this server. As customary, I grade games based on how fun their fishing is. I'd give the Toontown fishing, as a whole, a decent 7/10. Fish Bingo is a nice sidegame and casting and reeling is super quick, also a good source of currency and ended up filling my bank to the brim.

A screenshot from... some attempt at mity, I don't know the number tbh. Tried the old "befriend a cog" trick during the mist phase and my heart shattered into a million pieces afterward...

Going through Mezzo Melodyland (At the time of writing, I have the rank-up task available to go from 9 to 10, gonna hold off on that for now but I'm coming for you, DAVE BRUBOT!), and I run into a taskline about a kazoo maestro who wants me to go find someone who is the kazoo kid. I already knew where this was going but I didn't think they'd actually go through with the bit.

Good one!

Shut up and leave me alone.

The only screenshot I ever took in a Cashbot Mint. Honestly thought it'd take a while to clear out the 4 Coin Mints, 4 Dollar Mints, and the 2 Bullion Mints but they were snap compared to the Lawbot and Bossbot facilities... especially in wait time, yeesh.

Come on, you had to break into Reid's van at LEAST once! I hope she didn't mind me coming in, I mean, I do pay her a ton of jellybeans, after all!

My first capped track was Throw, predictably. And I think Lure followed soon after and then it took a while before Sound, Squirt, Zap, and Toon Up would join them. Still got Trap and Drop left to go and I don't look forward to levelling Trap again.

This wizard really wanted the... ahem... minglussy. iamsosorry

Lawbot Lawfices... They were kinda fun but waiting was a bit of a drag. Although I think at one point, someone pointed out that you could play Toono on the couches. WHY COULDN'T BOSSBOT HQ HAVE SOMETHING LIKE THAT?!

Speaking of, here's a screenshot from a Bossbot Cog Golf Course. Don't tell me which one because they all felt the same to me, and it was at that point that I really felt the drag. This part was probably one of the biggest hurdles imo and I don't blame anyone for not really wanting to do anything related to Bossbots unless they ABSOLUTELY had to. (Speaking of, if any friendos wanted to do cog golf courses, I'd gladly run it because I don't want them waiting half a century for a group.)

Short detour into the High Roller stuff for MAYpril Toons event. I was sad that I couldn't fight Sads but the High Roller fight was definitely something else. And if they could pull that off for a permanent, non-canon joke of a manager, what could they do for 2.0? Gosh, imagine. The next few are also High Roller related, I had to grind for a bit to get the stuff out of him. (I still need one more item from him, barring another update that adds yet another goalpost, but it takes a while to beat him even with optimal strats.)

Holy meh, Toriel Toontown real.

This one is from one of the CEO fights. I took this one because the game was taking its sweet time waiting for everybody and found the cogs with their hands in the same position as the grief kiwi sticker to be quite funny.

While I was doing the DDL taskline, I ran into this where Featherbedder and a bunch of cogs were just... snoozing. And there was literally nobody fighting them. Guess they just wanted a slumber party, huh?

Hehehe... yeah, game show. Would be crazy if there was one in Mezzo Melodyland hosted by a robotic green duck who is a fusion of two cog managers that we've previously fought, right?

And the end of the road, for now. It feels... weird now that I have ALL FOUR task slots to fill up but it'll be a great boon when grinding out those kudos tasks! I'm not quite done yet with TTCC and I don't think I will be for a while, after all, I have drops to collect, suits to perfect, departments to experience fully, and a couple other stuff left unfinished.

I will say that I absolutely enjoyed my time in Toontown Corporate Clash and I wish the team good luck as they push onwards because this is probably the most polished Toontown experience I've ever... erm... experienced.

[noodlegirl-googlyeyes]

hey! im noodle, or Ellie, and i was tagged to answer some questions abt myself by the wonderful and very rad @theprocfilesystem, thank you so much!

relationship status: single and not at all looking. i don't know if i ever will be, tbh, mostly just because i don't see myself as the kind of person who would want to. but, since it's late, i'll go ahead and overshare that i do have a regular hookup going with my main gal lliJ (im left handed) that meets my needs for sexual expression quite adequately

favorite color: for a long time it was deep purple! it was my sadboy color for sure. now that im a girl, though, it just feels sad, so i decided my favorite color would be yellow! so, yeah, its yellow :>

favorite food: carne adovada, a New Mexican dish made with Hatch red chile and (usually)pork! red chiles are dried and ground, as opposed to the green variety, which is usually roasted fresh. sauces made with red chile tend to have a very dark, smoky flavor, and have a particularly exquisite spice to them. there are many varieties of a protein in a sauce eaten in/on some carbs, but a carne adovada burrito really stands alone, for me <3

the song stuck in my head: unfortunately, it's 'Hip to Fuck Bees'

the last thing i searched online: i had to start typing in the word 'etiquette' because i couldn't remember how to spell it, but the last actual search i made was 'wired switch controller'(im just gonna get the gamecube style one probs)

the time right now: 11 pm exactly

dream trip: honestly it's less about the location and more about me being somewhere with someone who knows the area and culture well. partially it's because i won't enjoy anything if i don't feel safe, and/or if i feel alone, and partially because i hate being a tourist. i just wanna be there.

something i want: ive wanted to get a PC for awhile, it's been years since i had one. it doesn't have to be super fancy, just something that can handle a half-decent DAW and, like, be able to play my metroidvanias (lone fungus is out now btw and it looks amazing!) cherry on top would be someone to help me get started using linux, bc windows and apple can both go fuck each other.

thanks again for tagging me UwU i appreciate u! i would like to nominate @star-crossed-animals , @spoopyscaryalien , @dominoscarsidedelivery and @zoeadrien but u dont have to if u dont want to! also if u wanna do these kinds of games but no one ever tags u, u always have my permission to say i tagged u :>

in addition i'm adding another question: whats a piece of media(book, movie, show, album/song, etc.) that you feel represents you or an aspect of you that you haven't seen a lot of representation for? i know it's kind of wordy, sorry. but for example, mine is bojack horseman. when i was deep in my dark times, there were so many things about myself i hated. i started watching the show around season two, and i saw some of those parts of me in bojack in a way i'd never really seen before in media. in diane i saw some too, as well as some of the things i'd forgotten i loved about myself, but it was mostly bojack. he is not a good character, or role model, and the fact that i related so much to him was disturbing, sure, but also strangely comforting at the time. as the show continued to air, i grew as a person. i never finished the last season. by the time it came out, my values had diverged so much from his that it was kind of hard to watch. and for all my mistakes, i'm so proud of who i am today compared to that lost, lonely, angry figure slowly torturing himself to death.

like i said, its late so im oversharing lmao anyways ty again and peas and love on planat earf ✌️

[lesbiancarat]

PREACH IT!! SAY IT LOUDER FOR TH3 PEOPLE IN THE BACK!! *stands up and claps*

Just your comment, please I want to tattoo that entire response on my forehead so people could understand some stuff fjshdhsh. I very much agree with everything you have said, like I do think the bighit deal was more so with the help of say with western connections (which again does NOT mean pledis could have done this without bighit. They clearly could but I saw a theory on a YouTube comment where someone said they focused on the core fanbase aka in Korea which is their main market and it paid off imo) from helping with buisness side of things like we do have merch to buy directly (which I have my opinion on some merch ideas like why the fudge is bighit selling us water!? Bro you thought that worked with bts doesn't mean it will with seventeen) which wasn't common in the past or being able to film concerts with ease during the pandemic. Bighit clearly acknowledges that seventeen is a monster group in their own right I mean as you said, they break records and are 2nd behind bighits own group. They are EXTEMELY big in Japan. They are their own song makers, bang pd confirmed this when pleids was first announced in a press video so the fact people brush all of their achievements and statements because why, their streaming numbers are low?

And oohh such an interesting point as well! Very much i think the current mindset of kpop fans (or at least some) is that streaming is what equals success which to some degree, yes but as you said, many ignore the casual side of listening. People that find the song due to it being viral for whatever reason, a fancam getting popular like in the cass of hani from exid or whatever reason. Dwc is a great example and I saw those comments under their recent performance of that song and it makes me proud that the boys have a song like that. That it has its own "fanbase" quote on quote with how well loved that song simply is and well known. You don't have to have fans doing crazy streaming to be considered "popular", I mean I could give more examples but I don't wanna make this too long nor cause unwanted fandrama lol. Those casual listeners are extremely important and powerful I mean brave girls is a great recent example of that I think! It very much does seem like that when looking at the views, its mainly the core fanbase which isn't bad nor should we feel bad for not having crazy numbers. They seem more organic if that makes sense? Plus I agree, we can stream and can explain how it works, clearing up confusion about it like no emojis don't take down views and yes youtube does take away views but that is due to it making sure it isn't bots only viewing the video. Explaining that streaming should be done with a chill mindset and its ok if you don't stream. But hey, maybe we're too weird of fans to think like this fjajdjajs.

But some few updates! Seventeen is back on Instagram, fully everyone is posting away. Makes me happy hehe m, a bit funny it took so long for them to comeback but am happy nonetheless. The interactions that seungkwan does makes me super soft. Seventeen are also back with doing proper promotions so yay (also pledis is S Wording people over the mingyu issue finally so bless). As for me on the personal side of things. I have OFFICIALLY finished that video game ^_^ it took me a while but I have finished it, my last goodbye was completed and am at ease so to speak? Lowkey am planning on beating all the trophies in the game cx also may I ask about your thoughts on the album? Favorite songs, have you bought the physical cd?

ok finally getting around to this lol!!

and yeah that's absolutely true, pledis focused on kr promotions/fanbase first and foremost (and then expanded to Japan and is now looking toward the US/western promos in general). which i agree was a good thing. i think some companies get too greedy with wanting a group to be ~internationally famous~ that they ignore their Korean fanbase a bit too much and I've seen groups that have failed bc of it, so I'm glad that didn't happen w SVT

and yeah in terms of merch I'm genuinely grateful as an american that for this cb at least there was a US distributor which made things super convenient but wtf is going on w hybes merch those water bottles are not it TT it just sucks to see bc it's clear that at least as far as merch goes hybe doesn't have an interest in like. doing market research to figure out what carats want. which is funny bc they don't even have to start from scratch they could literally just ask pledis?? and tbh what's sad is i don't think hybe is like. purposefully trying to sabotage SVTs merch from my limited perspective i get the feeling they treat all their groups merch like that :( but since us carats have seen in the past what kind of merch we're capable of getting it's disappointing to see such a downgrade. and like tbf pledis's merch decisions were never perfect like that time they tried to sell replicas of the SVT rings and carats were rightfully pissed bc those are something the members earned, not something to be bought. and i also don't think hybe never has or never will make good merch, I'm sure they're fully capable of it. but it just seems obvious that they've put WAY less if any effort into understanding both the market (ie carats) and seventeens brand compared to pledis so like of course most carats aren't gonna like it :/ i really hope they step up their game and do better research or bring ppl onto the team who better understand svt's brand

and yeah i very much agree with everything u said about streaming! tbh i think this mindset isn't as uncommon as you might think, I've actually met a fair number of kpop fans who are critical of streaming culture but as u know there also are a lot of ppl who are really into it and those ppl tend to have the loudest voices. and unfortunately part of streaming culture is that if you question the methods or don't participate you must be a bad fan or secretly an anti or something ridiculous like that. so ppl who aren't into streaming culture end up learning to not be too vocal about it bc of how bad the backlash can be

yes! I'm glad to see insta line (+ now dk!!) active again. i still wonder why pledis made them stop using their ind instas, like I know all the theories people have as to why but honestly none that I've seen seem to fully make sense. it will probably be one of those things where we'll just never know the full story. but i digress!! regardless of the reason I'm just glad to have them back after all this time ^^

congrats on finishing the game! I'm glad it was able to help you work through your grief a bit and that you feel more at ease now ;-; and good luck with the rest of the trophies if you end up trying to get them!

as always I'm answering this a bit late so you may have seen already but i did get the physical album! it was a birthday gift so i only got it the other day, but according to my mom it arrived almost immediately after the album was released so as i said before, I'm very grateful for the US shop this time around ;-; as for the songs usually it's easy for me to pick one or two favorites but this time around it's genuinely a 4-way tie between heavens cloud and all the unit songs TT (i also love anyone and RTL, they're just slightly lower on the list in terms of preference if u get what i mean). i really hope some time in the future we get some kind of performance or special video or something for heavens cloud, since so many carats and the members themselves seem to really love it. i also think it's a song that brings up such beautiful imagery that it would be a shame if it never got any type of visual representation, you know? I'm also really curious to see a performance of wave, since iirc the members said the choreo is a lot more laid back/different from other perf unit choreos?? + that song also evokes such great imagery for me that like... makes feel like it needs some kind of movement so I'm just itching to see a performance. kind of like... even if i didn't know it was a perf unit song i would think it would be great to choreograph to if that makes any sense dhfkf. but yeah overall i think it's just a really solid album, as expected from summerteen ^^

[nalyria]

God Michael! 🤣🤣 I finished playing Shadows of Saintsfour about two days ago during the Freeplay event and my LI was Michael.

I played SOS awhile ago but didn't get pass season 1 because I thought the series was super predictable which made it boring, but WOW DID IT PICK UP IN SEASON 2, esp 3!!! I can't believe it got better within those 2 seasons. I thought the story would be dragging on for no reason, but was pleasantly surprised that season 3 and season 2 were tied together with 1. And they existed in one cohesive story! I can't believe that I would have never, and I mean NEVER, would have touched this story again if it wasn't for the Freeplay event. I completely underestimated this story... I would have missed out this gem. Now I see why this is one of the more well-liked and popular book of the app now.

That being said, I love Michael. No not love, I ADORE him. Seriously.

I never screencap game moments but I had to for Michael. I never felt so much adoration for a character that made me want to do this 🤣🤣. I love the romantic scenes between MC and Michael and the conflict that was presented in season 2. And his asshole-douchery flaw....

In his next line, he says he's worried about you. He's just worried, but still Michael, no need to bring your girlfriend's friend down. ESPECIALLY WHEN THAT FRIEND HAS BEEN WITH HER THROUGH THE THICK AND THIN THAN YOU DID IN SEASON 2 and 1!!! (ofc Michael saved MC's life in season 1, but Derek has been sticking with MC when Michael hasn't, which is alot)

However, his sweetness towards MC is altogether too much. I wish he had more interaction with her friends tbh. But now I present the last line (I think) and perhaps the best from Michael...

So sweet 💕. Gosh he is still fallen head over heels for us 😳😭 like the first time. The sex scene with him was also so sweet... the line said everytging about him is familiar, yet there is something new to discover. 🥺I love how protective he is of MC and how absolutely loyal he is to her. He runs away with her FFS!!!! He leaves a gang and family with an equally traumatized brother just to be with her. He leaves everything for MC and if that doesn't scream Bae material, I don't know what else. He is the epitome of a ride or die partner and I cannot, I don't think, can feel the same attachment to the other LI's in this book. Probably John though lol.

I was super anxious during the train station scene because I thought I didn't have enough points with Michael for him to run away with me and the writers made it seem so, so I tapped pretty fast, half reading the lines in trepidation. When I read that he actually came and then we held hands as the train departed... my heart... 😭💔💔💔💔 RC don't play with my heart like that 🤣🤣🤣

That aside, I wish Michael had a bigger role in season 1, 2, and 3. He did in season 1, but he stopped appearing frequently, esp in 2 and 3. I thought he would appear more often because he's MC's bf. And it would make more sense for both of them to search together. Even unromanced, it would still make sense for Michael to hang with MC's group because they're the only ones who are really actively looking for Bobby. This would have led to more dynamics and interest in MC's friend group..alas, this didn't happen. A missed opportunity IMO but I suppose his absence could be explained by this: he has his own life. Lol. Or a different way of doing things. Still doesn't really make sense to me, but oh well. I still very enjoy his route and his development nonetheless.

I also wish other LI's had more moments with MC. I heard Stephanie was sidelined, not sure though because it was as though the main love interests would only appear around the time our chosen love interest appears. Not sure how much that is true since in season 1 I didn't romance her. Strange how she barely appeared in my route though. I thought she would help us more or become part of the gang, but she didn't. Disappointed because I would have def liked another best friend besides Candy and again, more layer to the friend group. Her interaction with Michael would have def be interesting.

I also wish that non-romanced main love interests appeared more than the Black dragons. To me, I don't think their role fit with the story very well if you think about it. Luke and Stephanie def would. Stephanie's grandma is acquainted with Mrs. Hill and is a witch; Luke's family's hold over the cursed painting. I wish the black dragons' appearances were at least shared with the non-romanced ones. Like I wish I knew what Luke and Stephanie were up to in detail. It was seriously strange for Luke to not be around when Bobby was missing and that he never tried contacting us. In both seasons 2 and 3, I couldn't stop wondering what they were up to and missed them (although Luke drugged us lol).

So imo, the black dragons' role should def be less than Luke and Stephanie. Definitely weird, but it is what it is.

Speaking of the Black Dragon's, Aaron is a hot daddy. Like GOD DAMN. I couldn't help but flirt and kiss with him although I was scared that it might ruin my relationship with Michael 🤣🤣🤣. Cherry.. i would like cherry if he was drawn better. At first, I couldn't like him because of his sprite but his personality is ahh, so mischievous, I love it. I would have picked Aaron over cherry though LOL.

I would replay season 3 to romance them again, but the scenes are very few and I already played most of them. I'm just missing their final sex scenes really, so it's not really worth it to replay the entire season just to get their ending and final sex scene lol.

I can't bear to cheat on Michael with Aaron or cherry, I can't do him dirty like that. Like for FFS, Aaron married Luke's sister and we never, at least imo, build the same heart wrenching connection we do with Michael compared to them. And the fact that he freaking left everything in his life for 10 years to be with us!! Like nooo I can't!! 🤣🤣 there aren't enough scenes with the side characters to justify the cheating 🤣🤣 Michael is too gentle and sweet for the hurt.... but i did cheat on him with Derek HAHHAHA mostly because 1996 Michael wasn't available so I thought something happened so I was like ALRIGHT GUESS WE FUCKIN'. I was tempted to choose Derek over Michael because Derek has been with us more than Michael has. Not to mention, he really cares for MC. Wish there was a 3p ending with both of them 😭😭 they're both super loyal to MC and would lay their life down for her.

The same thing with John too. I can't bear to see Michael grieving over MC and MC picking John over him... can you imagine Michael dying and finally seeing his dearly desired dead gf in DreamWorld but only to see her gettin' it down with some guy who tried to kill everyone in the past? 🤣🤣🤣 nah man I can't do him dirty, especially when Michael saved us from the Faun. Speaking of that event, it was weird that there wasn't a conversation/consequence from Michael who saw John kiss us LOL. And he definitely heard us talking about the intimate moments we shared HAHAHAHA. Though, John's short route is terribly cute. I really enjoyed it tbh. Surprised that we didn't have any repercussions for cheating on Michael with him. Moving on, I watched his ending on YouTube and it was super bittersweet.😭

I honestly like his route a bit more than Aaron's. Or equally. Can't decide! Aaron's route is basically MC still in love with her old crush who used to intimidate her and was exciting since he's someone you wouldn't acquaint yourself with, especially as a young, inexperienced student. And then coming back as a mature woman, and still knowing that you're in love with him and he is still too, ah so cute. That moment you share with him in the snow on the swings 💕💕. Honestly I feel like that moment MC needed a proper adult figure to comfort her so that scene was a bit weird and made me think, hm, MC is probably crushing on him because he is older, hot, and is sort of providing a parental comfort to her lol. In my HC universe, MC crushes on him, but it quickly dies because she was vulnerable in the moment. I'm happy that that moment didn't escalate any further and that Aaron didn't chase MC unless MC did in the end. It would have been very weird because it would have been a moment where he, as an adult figure, take advantage of MC. Then again, it's fantasy/fiction. To each to their own eh? I still enjoyed it. I honestly could personally relate to the line where Mc says that the experience and age (something like this) provided comfort to her, so that moment felt awfully sweet to me.

In the end, there could only be so much you can push in in a story game app.

I still really enjoyed this story. Despite the flaws I pointed out, I love this story to every bits. I find this much more entertaining than SOTF, so I'm glad that it is written the way it is. Perhaps I should write a post about SOTF in the future since I'm close to finishing it, but I don't think I will since I don't like it much.

[splashinkling]

Mary Skelter: Nightmares is mediocre

two things I took away from playing this game:

Mary Gun is the only good joke I made for its entirety (because I have a friend named Mary)

I read one (negative) review that said "you will feel DIRTY playing this game" and I'm going to have to agree

honestly, Mary Skelter: Nightmares probably wasn't worth it to spend 51 hours to 100% the game

tldr: Mary Skelter is an okay dungeon-crawling RPG with visual novel elements that have too much reading compared to the investment I have with the characters. The story and setting is interesting to say the least, especially because the atmosphere would be so intense if the characters were darker. there were interesting time-sensitive mechanics in dungeons, but everything else was standard. the roaming dungeon bosses were kinda annoying though. tbh, would rather just play Etrian Odyssey on DS than this

(this is just the Steam store pic, I forgot to take any screenshots before immediately uninstalling the game after finishing it)

first off, man did that one review speak the truth. I tried my hardest to ignore and skip all the dirty, and I still felt kinda bad (especially the character side-events and the stupid mini game at the base).

let's also get my recommendation done and say that I don't really recommend playing this.

a kind of bright spot of the game was the dungeon-crawling. it may not have been interesting to explore (again, Etrian Odyssey does it way better), but they include a lot of cool mechanics like the nightmares and the girls' exploration abilities. albeit, it could have all used some polish and cleanup, but it was interesting.

the art wasn't bad, either. it was just really strange, especially for the monsters and stuff. to be fair, the setting is strange and so the art reflected the atmosphere of the game. the character were typical anime art, which, for the most part, was well done. it did fail to make it the dark and depressing atmosphere though because of the disparity between the characters' art and the setting/enemies

the story has a kind of intriguing plot and setting (there's a tower that mimics places and life and the inhabitants/trapped people are trying to escape). unfortunately, the characters are flat and tropey granted they are influenced by their fairy tale counterparts. some of them have interesting developments, like Kaguya, but others were there just to serve tropes and be redundant (with classes), like Rapunzel. I just had such little investment in them that I couldn't really pay attention to the story. I started skipping most of the character side-events cause they really just didn't matter to me other than for unlocking their extra strong skills. not to mention all of the characters joined underlevelled, smh

speaking of skills, the main battle mechanics are pretty standard. 5 elements and most enemies are weak to certain elements. there are pretty standard class archetypes (healers, attackers, mages, support, etc.). however, the Snow White/Gretel classes are just inferior to the rest of them. I could see how it would be cool to use and the ideas are there but there's no real reason to use them other than the fact that they could use items and can see enemy HP. Red Riding Hood/Rapunzel act as better supports then them and the rest can work better as physical/skill damage, with mostly lower costs.

the combat doesn't really go much further than big damage and heal. there are status effects, but when you can one- or two-hit everything, they don't really matter and bosses aren't affected. and once you have your party of 3-5 characters, you can just use them for the rest of the game. you don't need to switch them out or anything. (partners also get partial exp from battles, but you wouldn't switch them out anyways).

unfortunately, because I played the game on auto-pilot, I'd been listening to my own music (and talking on discord) so I just didn't get a good feel for the music. I really wish I turned the music back on eventually so I could know it's all about. however. the VA, while they did a good job, was kinda cringey in English. either that or I'm just way too used to Japanese. likely the latter.

again, I don't really recommend playing the game. it's alright at the beginning, but it gets to be a huge time sink in the long run.

[sillyfudgemonkeys]

question, what do ya respect about Kazuhisa Wada? Not to be mean, I just only know him from Ultimax and last I checked you don't like that game

I should note if I had to choose between Kido and Wada, I’d prefer Kido but only like by a little (dat FeMC :V). (note: whoops when on a little gush about the guy but if you want the short answer check the bold at the bottom) Anyway, I respect Wada cause of Persona 4 Dancing All Night. You know, the one spinoff game where everyone was 100% in-character, but it’s also the one with no “scoring” jokes from Teddie, “meat” never comes out of Chie’s mouth. Naoto isn’t uncomfortable (my issues with her is when the whole team makes her uncomfortable in public like with the beauty pageant, not when she’s just in general flustered or embarrassed or is trying something out she’s never done before in private), Yosuke doesn’t have any pervy jokes (I think the closest we get is “oh man I’m so excited to be near idols” or something along those lines) and no one treats him bad either. Everyone is having fun and no one is mean to each other and it’s just a nice game (nice change of pace compared to PQ, which isn’t bad, esp since Kido practically wrote it all herself, if she actually had help along with more time then the problems with PQ could’ve probably been resolved....another thing to keep in mind is that due to her being the main writer and working on it almost alone she purposefully made the decision to make the characters mostly traits due to wanting every character to have a chance to talk....so she knows what she did....but it wasn’t like she could do anything else). The thing is, they are more in-character in this game than in any of the Labyrinth trilogy games (my name for PQ/Arena/Ultimax). It also did such a great job giving P4 such a nice send off. 

Yes, Ultimax was kind of....a mess..... But considering that was the one that got rushed the most, and they had actually too many writers, I can understand why it happened. But then with P4D they delayed it, they gave it more time. They didn’t want to rush it like they did with Ultimax. This is where we finally got to see Wada shine, he had the time to showcase what he could really do. (I should also note that Wada has worked on Catherine as a chief designer, P3FES, P4/P4G, and from my notes from investigating the credit’s list it seems he co-directed Arena....which iirc is one of the spinoffs the fandom actually really likes). 

The thing about Wada and Kido is that they have showcased the ability to understand the series’ lore and characters (in terms of P3/4 at least)...maybe even better than Hashino himself (not saying they do, it’s debatable, but it’s something to consider so put down dem pitchforks)..... But yeah....if they were to bring P3/4 people back into the mix (either cause of a crossover or whatever), Kido and Wada def need to be on the team. The only issue with them is that....it doesn’t seem like they had too much input in the making of P5 (Kido might’ve at least with the CoOps, but nowhere near as much as she did with P4 or the FeMC’s story).....but I think they can pick up on the P5 characters and the lore (and probably fix them *cries over Anne and Ryuji* save them please save them ;w;). So yeah, what I respect about them is their ability to understand and respect the Persona lore, and even have the ability to add a fresh perspective to the games (best showcased with the FeMC with Kido, and all of P4D with Wada). 

As for me and my issues with Ultimax.....well I can’t say I hate it..... at least it’s not my least fav Persona title (tho you guys can guess what that is), but it is probs my least fav spinoff title (but P4D’s mah fav, PQ mah 2nd fav....with Arena being my 2nd to least fav...I dunno what’s up with me and the fighting games tbh XD...anyway not sure where P3/5D or PQ2 will fall....P3D will probably be tied with PQ tho). While it’s story is a little messy, the gameplay is at least great. And I like what the story is trying to be (the manga is doing a much better job portraying that imo....speaking of which now that I’m kinda not sick/feeling better I need to finish doing that..... haha... ;w;), I do like Sho, I think he’s interesting, wish he wasn’t handled so poorly, I’d like to see more of him. So yeah the content of the story isn’t bad, it’s just the execution. Ultimax is one of the spinoff games that I think should really get an anime, it would benefit so much from it (the manga kinda already proves that too tbh). 

Sorry for the incoherent rambling, and sorry if my sentence structure is even more out of wack than usual...... @.@

[puckish-saint]

hiya~ just passing by and thinking about reaper76 (no reader insert) and their pretended marriage au 😏 whatcha' thinking 'bout that love? p.s. just wanted to tell you that your writing always bring smile on my face, the way you have with words captivated me from your first posts and i don't think i will ever forget your style (just really love your humour the jokes in it work every time) (although i find your blog only when you started writing overwatch fics i wish i found you sooner)

(my jokes work, thank god. You have no idea how long I’ve been chewing on that one, waiting for someone to tell me if my attempts at humour land. This really made my day Also Fake Marriage, yes pleas.Because just, hnnngh. Gabe more or less reluctantly teaming up with Overwatch after it turns out he’s been set up/lots of misunderstandings/shenanigans. But he and Jack have been drifting apart for so long and even though both technically know they’ve been played out against each other, knowing it and acting accordingly are two very different things. They fight, they argue, they can’t stand being in the same room and it’s worse because both remember they used to be inseparable.So, shit happens and they have to pretend to love each other. They have to dig deep under all the baggage to find that affection they used to hold for each other, and what’s scary is that it’s easy.The first morning Gabriel shovels six spoon fulls of sugar into his coffee cup, hesitates, then just upends the whole damn sugar bowl into his coffee, Jack doesn’t have a problem hugging him from behind and kissing him good morning.And when Jack loses horribly at some video game because he’s too busy admiring the scenery (”look at those trees, Gabe, they’re all handcrafted. Every one of them. Look at the trees.” “Will you please look at the giant venomous spider instead?”) Gabriel laughs like he hasn’t in ages.

I will go down with that trope tbh, and because I have no restraint, I wrote just under 2k words which may or may not be the beginning of a multichapter fic I’ll be putting on AO3.

Gibraltar base in low energy mode creeps out everyone. The lights are low, turning longhallways into twilight suffused tunnels with no end in sight, entireportions of the base void of life and activity. Only the dormitoriesand kitchens still have full power, a warm haven surrounded bymonsters in the dead of night. Everyone deals with the creepiness intheir own way. Lena drives her accelerator to its limits, skipping inand out the darkness as fast as she can. Mei asks a friend toaccompany her, whereas Hanzo plain refuses to go.

Lúcio talks.

“I’m here one time and theymake me go to the damn locker rooms to get some trivial shit nobodycares about,” he mutters under his breath, chasing away theoppressive silence. “First time in months we see each other and Ibrought them all souvenirs, but they’re all like, oh Lu-lu can youdo us a huge favour and get this random shit from our demon cellar,and if you get eaten do we get your skates?”

He turns a corner and comes face toface with a demon. Black holes where the eyes should be, a being ofpure darkness melds from the shadows to take his soul. Lúcio’scomplaints stick in his throat, hiding just like he wants to be. Theshadow seems to stare right through him. Then it moves.

“Gabe! Puta merda, you scaredthe crap out of me.”

Gabriel chuckles deeply and the grimreaper hunting for his innocent soul becomes the latest addition totheir ragtag bunch of misfits. They fall in step together, Lúciomuch more at ease now that he has someone tall and strong to protecthim from Overwatch’s version of a haunted house.

“Wimp,” he says good-natured.“We’re needed in the conference room. Something came up.”

“What, now?”

“No, the next Saint Patrick’s day.”

In the beginning Gabriel’s sarcasmput him off, but by now Lúcio has learned to appreciate it. Theyspend more time together than most anyone on base, seeing as hismusic is what’s slowly but surely healing Gabriel of his specialproblem.

“Your skin hurt again?” he asks,gesturing to the mask he wears again. Lately he can go mostly gowithout, but every now and then the degeneration flares up again andforces him to protect himself. Gabriel shrugs.

“It’s nothing compared to what itused to be like.” he says.

“Still. I can write you something tohelp, okay?”Gabriel argues only a little and by the time theyenter the conference room he has convinced him. Half the team hasgathered, including Fareeha through video conference from Cairo.

“... spotted them twice coming in,but they have an alternate route for leaving. I’m on it right now.”

“Good work, Amari.” Winston turnsto face the team. “We have eyes on Vishkar’s top suppliers. Idon’t need to tell you this op could make or break our effortsagainst them. Yes, Lúcio, you’ll be on the team to take them in.”

Lúcio has barely opened his mouth andnow grins, leaning back as they watch the low-res pictures Fareehamanaged to take of the couple they’ve been after for months.Vishkar’s increasingly unsavoury activities rely almost completelyon these two people, elusive as they are efficient, supplying Vishkarwith everything from stolen technology to weapons. Whatever thecorporation needs, they can get it. And now Overwatch knows wherethey are.

“We need to send in a strike-team,”Jack says once they’ve gone over the bullet points. “And quick. Idon’t suppose we can get Miss Song on such short notice, but withmyself, Lena and Fareeha we can move quickly enough to evade a drawnout fight. Lúcio should stay back until we’re well into it. Ifthey spot him before-”“Hey,” Gabriel barks. “Who died andmade you boss?”

“I don’t see you contributinganything of value.” Jack shoots back with just as much venom.

“You wouldn’t let anyone get a wordin edgewise, golden boy.”“You act like I’ve beenmonologuing for hours, it figures you have to make up something to beupset about-”“You don’t even hear yourself speak, doyou?”“Guys? Stop fighting.”

Both Jack and Gabriel fall silent underLena’s soft but firm rebuke. They won’t look at each other, sitwith crossed arms through the rest of the briefing. Two teams will goin, one lead by Fareeha closing in on their targets, the other leadby Reinhardt blocking off their escape. Winston reminds them to atleast try and bring them in alive for interrogation.

A few hours later the team sets out.

A few hours after that, a furious duetof Amaris relays the mission to Winston.They’re speaking over eachother, curse the sky green and look one wrong word away from becomingphysically violent.

“-completely disregarded theplan-”“-charged in there like madmen, fighting each other,like they didn’t even see all those damn turrets-”“-Reinhardtkept shouting at them to listen but they were too busy with theirpissing contest-”“-had to double back and bail them out, TeamB got pinned down by drones-”“-targets almost got away, if ithadn’t been for my daughter, we’d be back to zero-”

“-can’t work with those two, theycompromised the mission, the team, themselves-”“-likechildren in a playground, no professionalism-”“Alright,alright!” Winston interrupts holding up his hands to protecthimself from the Amari wrath. He doesn’t want to know what Jack andGabriel had to hear before they called. “I’ll talk to them. Inthe meantime, what about our targets?”

The targets are secure and brought tothe base and surprisingly accommodating. They have no loyalty forVishkar and eagerly share everything they know in return for a deal.Jack and Gabriel are taken off the mission roster for the time being,although both had to be persuaded to stay at all, ready to walk outafter this latest fiasco that proved to them trying to work togetherafter everything that happened is a moot exercise.

“We used to joke they could read eachother’s minds,” Reinhardt says while they wait for Winston andAna to finish up with the intel they gathered from their targets.“You have never seen closer friends.”

Lúcio looks up from his tablet to giveReinhardt a look of pure doubt.

“Hard to imagine, I know” Jessesays, smoking despite everyone’s subtle and not so subtle-nods tothe no-smoking rule. “But it’s true. Took the UN almost twodecades to push them apart, and that’s sayin’ somethin’...”

Lena makes to answer but is interruptedby the arrival of Winston, followed by Ana and, surprisingly, Jackand Gabriel.

“Thought we were benched.” Jackvoices everyone’s thoughts.

“Something came up,” Ana repliescurtly and loads their info up on the main screen. “We got ourtargets just in time. They were ready to retire and Vishkar promisedthem new identities and a safe home.”

“If Vishkar made them disappear, we’dnever have found them,” Lúcio says and then whistles when Anabrings up a picture. “That what I think it is?”

“Jannat, Vishkar’s top-secret gatedcommunity. It’s their magnum opus, located an hour’s drive fromUtopaea. The families of their top executives and scientists all livethere. It’s also where they keep all their records.”

“So what?” Jesse says. “We’regonna wire them and let them go?”

“Better,” Ana shows a grin that’sall teeth and even though she hasn’t so much as glanced at Jack andGabriel, they both swallow, knowing whatever she has planned, they’llbe the butt of the joke. “Our targets were extremely careful. Noteven Vishkar knows who they are. They have a vague description of twomales in their fifties or sixties, one of which is black or latino,which puts us in the prime position of being able to send two of ouragents in their stead.���“Fuck that.” Gabriel says, wellaware of who’s going to end up playing the part. Jack at leasttries to be a bit more subtle about it.

“Reyes and I aren’t exactlynobodies. They’ll recognise us.”

“They’ll recognise your faces, butit won’t matter. We can fool their DNA sensors.”

“Still, they might getsuspicious.”“It’s a risk we’re going to have to take.This is our only chance to get into Jannat and we don’t have thetime to hold castings.”

Jack knows when he lost a fight, butGabriel keeps arguing. He damn near flips the tables when Winstonwon’t be persuaded to use someone else, gets into a shouting matchwith Ana that lasts for hours. Mission prep lasts a little under aday and when it’s done and their identities forged, they have todrag him kicking and screaming onto the plane, less metaphoricallythan anyone would prefer.

“He’ll get us killed,” Gabrielspits while Lúcio walks him through the last few points. “He didit before.”

Jack tenses but says nothing, sittingat the opposite end of the aircraft and pretending to read the news.

“It’s going to go fine,” Lúciosays cheerfully. “Mister Jack’s got you. Now listen, because asfar as we know there’s a sort of quarantine and we won’t be ableto talk for at least a month. I’ve built you a miniature version ofmy sonic tech and packed every song I ever wrote on that. Nothingwill go wrong with our treatment plan, but if it does something onthere will help you, okay?”“Yeah, yeah, fine.” Gabrielswats at him, cheeks hot with embarrassment at being mothered bysomeone half a foot shorter and almost three decades younger thanhim.

And then it’s just them and Lena inthe cockpit, flying them to their destination. In less than an hourthey’ll be Sam and Steve Carter, married for thirty two years,criminals for slightly longer. They’ll have to kiss and hug and saystupid corny shit and for all that Gabriel wants to forcefully ejecthimself from the plane, he knows they can’t blow this one. The endof Vishkar for good lies just within their reach. If he fucks this upbecause he couldn’t play nice he’ll never be able to look Lúcioin the eye again. The kid was the only one who accepted him with openarms after the whole mess with Mercy and the UN was over. When evenReinhardt and Ana kept their distance, it was Lúcio who sat with himfor breakfast, who included him, who went up to him in all his 5’3’’glory and asked to spar because even Jesse wouldn’t. He can’tfuck this up.

They step into the sweltering Indianheat arm in arm and gritting their teeth.