#I got turned into a marketable plushie lol

[froztox23]

Ummmmmm new fursona!!!!! let’s go girlies!!!!!!!

Species is felid-adjacent plushie!

[sol-consort]

Regarding the human kink thing when it comes to turians, some people actually do be nesting, omega-verse style. Imagine being a human assigned to a turian ship, and you just over here in your bunk, innocently arranging the pillows and stuffies, while these guys are just standing there, slack-jawed and harmonizing their subvocals lol

[updated post]

A/B/O is not for me, but I dig the concept of aliens being intrigued by plushies. They are weird when you think about it.

The weird part isn't the plushies–it makes sense for warm-blooded mammals who value skinship to enjoy cuddling soft things, hugs are fundamental for your health—No, The weird part is how the most popular plushies aren't human shaped.

You could argue dolls, but dolls aren't used as plushies. They're more hard and sturdy, something that can withstand being played with. they have joints and brushable hair. Dolls are puppets to tell a story with, a psychological form of play through creativity.

I want you for a moment to imagine an advanced civilisation of bears with me.

With metropolises and bustling economy, they haven't mastered space travel yet but they've been eyeing the planet closest to them, bringing back rocks from the moon, etc.

In one apartment complex, there lives a bear family. The furniture is more accommodating to their larger build, clothes are more of an accessory to them considering their luxurious fur coats keeping them warm.

It's nighttime, tomorrow's a Sunday and mom bear has to leave to work early, she's currently washing the dishes leftover from the wonderful dinner the family just had. Her wife, however, is putting their son to bed. it's his second week in elementary bear school! he's unhappy with his seating arrangement in class however, the teacher placed him too far from his best friend.

His mother promises to have a chat with the teacher about it when she drops him off tomorrow, the son bear is very delighted and roars happily. A big yawn escapes him as his eyelids get heavy.

In his arms, there lies a cotton friend. His most beloved treasure, the most precious inanimate object to his heart. His plushie!

He adores it. It makes him so happy. It helped make him feel safe when he first started sleeping alone after his moms got him his own bed.

Now, I need you to tell me what does the plushie look like?

For me, these are the options that instinctively came to my mind when attempting to imagine what sentient bear cubs living in a 21st century would gravitate towards in a plushie.

A) a teddybear, more fluffy, abstract, and cartoonish looking

B) a plushie in the shape of a honeyjar

C) a plushie in the shape of a fish–more specifically, salmon or trout

D) fuck idk man leave me alone

When compressed down to their core, in the most simplfied form, the choices are:

A) Identity

B) Food

C) Food

D) How did you get into my house?

-

With that long analogy out of the way, when you compare that limited selection to the actual things humans have already turned into plushies, it just doesn't make sense.

Food, yes we have plushies of food but also of animals we do not eat. rabbits, cats, dogs, dolphins, bugs. We have plushies of predetors even, things that once hunted us down, beings that still could very well kill us if we meet face to face, tigers, sharks, bears themselves even.

Animal cartoons are much more popular amongst kids. Fables about talking animals have been a stable genre ever since humans invented writing. Animal plushies are popular amongst adults too.

Plushies of inanimate objects, of plants, of fictional characters and fantasy creatures.

I'm willing to bet that humans already made plushies of verans since the first year they came into space, that they sold out on earth immediately. Hell, I'm sure there are plushies of reapers, of protheons and even of turians and other species.

Not even abstract ideas were spared from being into marketable plushies! isn't there a series designed to raise awareness for mental illness?

The whole meme of "turns your fav into a marketable plushie" spread so much because it is true. If there is one thing humans love, is making plushies of anything not human.

And that's the weird part to aliens, the big boy of human anomalies. "Why do they want to cuddle literally everything in this universe? and how come plushies of other humans is the last thing on that list"

You try to explain it to a salarian once but they just look at you in confusion. What do you mean you sleeping with plushes resembling your species is "weird"?? Don't you humans like hugging each other so much? Yet cuddling the soft imitation of a reaper each night isn't weird to you????

That's not even mentioning how the bear society analogy is flawed because we are biased by nature. We projected the bear society onto our human agriculture and based it upon our own popculture.

When in reality they would hold very different values, a different emotional range. They'd be as diverse as the other alien species in mass effect, sharing more resemblance to them than to humans.

We see someone sad, and we have this need to touch them, pat their shoulder, rub their back, hold their hands, and give a hug. Bears let their children walk on their own while we carry our young more, much like aquatic birds in more ways than we'd think.

A/B/O nesting isn't my cup of tea, but with turians, it's easier to digest. Yeah, they are birds. It would be literal nesting. That's kinda cute.

We like caves, it's also cute. Would turians prefer the top bunkbed? Anyway.

Birds usually throw clutter away from their nests, anything that's not a straw or building material is disposed off to make space for their eggs.

While we like the opposite, clutter fucking rocks! at least for humans.

We have a mattress, then a mattress cover, then a sheet.

Then we have pillows, stuffing, then pillow covers, decorative pillows.

After it, multiple blankets! a soft one, a heavy one, an airy one. Sometimes, blankets come with blanket covers.

Finally, the plushies arrive. Multiple of course, some for decorations, others well worn with cuddles. Sometimes a gaint big one to fully wrap all of our limbs around.

Sometimes our beds have crumbs from food we eat in it, othertimes it has a stray sock we took off while in bed and forgot.

Most of the time it has our phone in it, a pet joins us there, book we're reading, laundry we were supposed to fold but forgot, a bag, or several outfits as we get ready to go out.

That's a cave, much like bears leave the skeletal remains of their prey, we have crumbs from the cookie we suddenly craved at 3am.

Nests are neat and clutter-free, at least the bird ones, always getting cleaned from waste. Eggshells are thrown out as they hatch, baby birds waste are immediately disposed of.

Lizard nests aren't that different.

Because the equivalent to a nest foundation isn't the blankets, plushies, or pillows. it's the house foundation itself!

The concrete walls and the sturdy floorboards. The whole bedroom is already a well-built nest. The bed is just an extra cushion. The fluffy material and loose feathers birds leave at the very top, so the twigs don't scratch the fragile eggs.

So, in conclusion. Turians and Salarians would get VERY overwhelmed in a human bedroom, let alone a human bed with plushies, stuffies, and blankets.

They're like, "Are you expecting a baby???" When they notice what their brain consider is extra protective fluffing for eggs.

Turians even more because of their lack of skin nerves, hard plating, and all. Their outershell makes it hard to appreciate soft things, let alone hugging them, when they can barely feel it.

Salarains? They're softer, more squishy, and they might enjoy the way it feels against their skin. Most reptiles do, and they're the closest thing for reference.

They're warm-blooded, but they do originate from a fully tropical planet + they're amphibians and might have used to be semi-aquatic? Meaning that while they still produce their own bodyheat, it wouldn't be that much to begin with. Space is definitely much colder to them than to a human.

That's why hugging a human is so nice to them! They can leech off of your body heat as their very own sun–or at least a substitute for a heatlamp.

But plushies and blankets are a different story. With blankets, they might make them cold or freeze since they blocked whatever light or heatlamp the salarians must need for sleep when they're not wearing their temperature adjustment suits.

And if you sleep next to them under the blanket, your trapped body heat will cause the temperature to rise above what's comfortable for them and risk overheating them. Same with the fluffy sheets, pillows or plushies.

there's the risk of overheating them with your body as the blanket traps in the heat. it will happen slowly, but that just makes it more dangerous. A slow simmer of rising body temperature as they realise what a death trap a human bed actually is.

Plus, salarians only need one hour of sleep per cycle, it seems very excessive to them that you'd build a whole room and make the biggest piece of furniture in it solely for the purpose of sleep. All of those plushies just to hug to sleep?

Drell, who breathe through their skin, would view blankets as a total nightmare. Their clothes already need a lot of adjustment to accommodate their conditions, only certain material is airy enough to allow them to get a lungfull, and you want to suffocate them with cotton or polyester?

They know you only breathe through your nose, but it still...makes them feel uneasy. Seeing you covered completely in stuffies and thick blankets, only your head poking out. Much like what it would feel for us to see someone go to sleep underwater with a flimsy mask connected to an oxygen tank. Now, this is truly a death trap–the salarians were right.

As long as you forgo the blanket and...allow them to fully strip down, they will give this whole human bed thing a try. Silk or satin sheets and pillow covers feel the best against their skin, smooth surfaces that seamlessly glide, air particles passing through it with little trouble.

Anything fluffy, feathery, or with fur will irritate their skin. It's like something brushing against your nose. They sacrifice a lot of comfort when it comes to indulging the human need to cuddle, but most drell rarely complain as they accommodate to your need, even if it meant you'd be slightly cutting off their air circulation.

Maybe their society is exceptionally polite? Maybe devotion and sacrifice for the ones you love are just ingrained in their biology? It would explain their endless royalty to the hanar despite how staying on that planet is literally killing them.

Oh yeah, owning a humidifier in your room will cause them a lot of pain and discomfort. Turn it off, or if you really want to woo a drell, get a dehumidifier.

Krogans would fucking love our beds tho. Might make fun of it at first, but they secretly also want a soft mattress and plushies to cuddle with.

Get close enough with a Krogan, and they'll start crashing in your room and taking naps on your own bed whenever the chance presents itself.

Don't the asari sleep in pods? I'm thinking of that sex scene in ME, she fucks you in a pod. That's something. At least...Liara gets used to human beds?

-

Anway! having established all of that definitely vital and necessary world building, I can finally talk smut about the turians! the original context of this request!

One look at a human's bed and their minds are definitely going south. First of all, human, you're in desperate need of a mate because your nest is a mess! Why do you have so many different fabrics? Aren't you worried you'll suffocate yourself with a plushie or too while sleeping?

Second of all...they didn't know humans were this soft. You mean, most humans sleep like this? In very comfortable beds? Even like...the army tough ones? Oh, that's why they get so excited for shore leave? so they can return to their actual comfortable nests–sorry yes "beds" and have some decent sleep?

huh.

And none of you are expecting children, correct? This is just how the average adult human goes to sleep?

Turians don't have the heart to tell you that they associate soft beds–ones like yours—to the human equivalent of a heart-shaped bed with rose petals scattered around, candles illuminating the room and a very deliberate lack of condoms.

They try not to...think about it whenever they come into the room. A bluish hue adorning their cheeks, trying to avoid eye-contact as they explain that uh...fuck, they accidentally glanced towards your bed and forgot what they came here to say.

I talked before how jarring it's to them that humans easily allow others on their bed, be it human or not. You just casually invite your friends to sit on it? The same sheets you sleep on each night? the one so heavy with your delicious scent they can practically smell it the second they stepped foot into this room?

And now you're telling them to take a seat, even handing them one of your plushies to keep in their lap. What's a friendly gesture and a show of trust is being very very badly misinterpreted by their brain chemistry, their biology going haywire at what they consider the declaration of "Get me pregnant" Whether you're actually capable of it or not.

-

Sidenote, the angara might be the only ones to share our bed preferences, not only that but show enthusiasm at the mention of plushies.

The only difference is that their society values plushies that resemble people more, angara like them. The dolls and plushie lineup are very intertwined.

Cuddling very intimately with someone isn't sexualised either, nor presented under a romantic light necessarily. Their society prides itself on love and affection; they're direct with expressing their emotions.

A single angara family can have many mothers and fathers, tens of sisters and brothers. Cuddling and sharing a bed is very normalised even far into adulthood.

They might be the ones giving humans the wrong idea by immediately inviting them back to cuddle on their bed after only the second meeting. Just because they decided they like you :) It's the equivalent of going out for coffee.

Protheoans, meanwhile, fall on the opposite spectrum. Javik doesn't have a bed, does he? He never asks for one either. They're a society of warriors, they value strength and abhor tenderness. Brutal honesty is their forte.

But...they also read each other's emotions through touch.

While beds are a foreign concept, plushies are not. Javik can sense the history of a room just by directly touching its floorboards. Plushies and other sentimental objects must be valued very greatly in their society, doesn't he hold onto the disk of memories from his time back before being frozen?

He understands why his own species came to value plushies, but why the hell does yours do it? You lack his abilities, all humans do.

You try to explain it to him, but it just sounds like you're describing vague and badly done emotion reading with extra steps.

He concludes that humans must hold traces of these abilities. It just translates into safety and the need to cuddle others. Also, it is clearly inferior to the protheon's advanced ability, so yeah.

Javik dislikes your bed but likes your plushies and actually welcomes cuddling. He remains stoic throughout it but you can feel him poking through your memories.

Same with your plushies, he asks that he may keep one as a relic. A piece of your soul, your history is encased in it like an artifact in amber.

Touching it almost feels exactly like travelling in time to meet your old self, getting to part the curtians of space itself and get a front row view on the person you used to be.

Plushies immortalise you to protheans, who would've thought.

-

I had so much fun with this an analysis it <333 I know it isn't exactly what you had in mind anon, I'm sorry, A/B/O is listed as a "no" in my requesting list. But the concept was so good I had to approach it in a different direction.

I hope you still enjoyed it!

[good-beanswrites]

WAH HEY BEANS!! okay so i was looking at the plushies and merch again and i suddenly had a thought in LCSyS, what are their thoughts on like merch?? i have no idea if you've mentioned this before and if so i am silly. i can totally see fuuta go OH NO IVE BEEN TURNED A MARKETABLE PLUSHIE

YES AHAHAHA I love that!! This is for the gone-public variation of the au

This made me realize the wide range of official merch, plus I think a lot of them would love supporting artists once they're out and have access to the internet again lol. Overall I think the plushies would cause the biggest stir around the facility 😂 I mention bootleg merch, like when you have random companies making weird/ugly knockoffs -- I don't think real Milgram has that but it was a fun idea for the story lmao

Haruka isn’t used to having his own image on so many things. The others are really sweet about taking care of his plushie and doing kind things for it to boost his own confidence (although there was One Singular Moment of jealousy where his tiny counterpart was getting more attention than himself and needed to be talked down lol) He and Muu have plushies of each other that they’ll plan cute matching outfits/accessories with.

Yuno loves her own plushie, and is excited to share it with Yura. She takes really good care of all the plushies she has, and they genuinely bring her warmth, especially post-milgram when they all separate <3 She (or maybe Mikoto, I haven’t decided) gets only the weirdest/most concerning buttons on her personal bag. She loves her Borderline Suicidal Fuuta, Crazed Bug Muu, Grieving In A Hospital Shidou, Rats Mahiru, and so on. She asks Amane for permission to add Waterboarding Button to her collection. For her more public displays, she likes the aesthetic things from the anniversaries and birthday art. She loved those days of dressing up for the photoshoots, so they carry nice memories as well as being super cute. 

(I tagged you in the art I thought of, but yeah,) Fuuta puts up a big act about how weird and capitalistic it is to have merch of oneself, how plushies are “for kids,” and also how ugly/skrunkly his t2 one looks... His refusal to interact with it only makes the others interact with his more. I can see some of the prisoners (*cough* yuno *cough*) carrying around their Little Fuuta and sharing full conversations and activities while he looks on in horror. In the end, he caves in order to set a good example for Amane, and keeps a few in his room. He never admits that he also gets really attached >:3 Another secret -- he likes using the special bluetooth headphones. He thinks they look cool and the voices are a fun touch, but he’d never dare tell the others. 

Muu has one of those really aesthetic merch bags where she keeps buttons, plushies, stickers, keychains etc. She has a little something for every prisoner, but there are definitely a few who have some shameless favoritism… Once out of Milgram, she makes a lot of social media posts focused just on the plushies in different locations and outfits. She keeps them in pristine condition, caring a lot for them.

Shidou gives the plushies to his kids, and the prisoners laugh/brag about which one each child chose as their favorite. (I also like to imagine the conversations Shidou must have with strangers: “aww your daughter is so sweet! Who do you got there, honey? Aw, you’re squeezing ‘em real tight! Is that your favorite disney princess or something?” “Ah, that’s a little doll version of the divorced cop who lives a few streets over. In a prison uniform.” “O.oh…?”) He likes adding stickers to his tech, using some of the cases, and thinks the album covers look nice to display.

Mahiru goes crazy over the plushies. She sews little mv outfits for all of them, alternate outfits, and other accessories to hand out. She starts planning on making custom plushies for other people – her bf, Hinako, Shidou’s family, Lucky, etc. She was genuinely upset by how sad her T2 plush looks, thinking no one will love it – Jackalope breaks his experiment-long internet ban only once to sit with her and scroll through pictures that people had posted of them treating the plush kindly because of her looks. Also, even though they broke up, she excitedly shows her bf the buttons that feature the two of them 😅

Kazui already has a lot of records/CDs collected, and he makes a really nice display of all the albums for his wall. The other prisoners love gifting him bootleg merch of his own videos – tshirts and things from random companies that are juuust off somehow. (I have no clue about her sense of humor, but maybe one day Hinako wears one of the Cat marriage buttons like “I got married and traumatically divorced and all I got was this this stupid button)

Amane would have tried to match Fuuta acting too cool for the plushies… if it weren’t for every single other person absolutely fawning over them. She can admit to loving them and carries a different one to set with her each day, treating them kindly and dressing them up with Mahiru. She also enjoys adding stickers to her notebooks and things, they end up completely covered by the time the later mvs come out. At the very end of the experiment, she ends up using merch to cover up the old cult stickers on her backpack.

Mikoto owns the most of his own merch, claiming “it’s John :)” (and then John points to the same things claiming “it’s Mikoto :)”). They each have a T1/T2 plushie to carry around, though they end up like that Garfield "to be loved is to be changed" plush -- they really go everywhere. Mikoto gets those anniversary art shirts with the prisoner’s face taking up the whole center, and wears it to each of their mv shooting sessions, much to their embarrassment. He owns a lot of the stands to keep on his desk while he works, using them for rubber-ducking when needed. He posts I feed him rocks.

Kotoko prefers the more general things when she goes out, feeling like it’s odd to show off the other’s faces out in public. (They claim they’re famous anyway, but she insists you can never be too careful.) So she wears a lot with the main milgram logo/inno and guilty symbol/Jackalope/etc. In her personal space, though, she has a ton of the others’ things, and tries to play down how much she really likes the plushies :3 When Mahiru’s finished with it, she’s excited to show Lucky both of theirs.

Everyone owns a lot of Es merch. They try to be subtle about it post-reveal and not overwhelm their poor guard, but it comes out eventually and does scare them just a bit. 😅 Later, Es really enjoys having something of each of the prisoners close even when everyone goes back to their lives.

[kuromipuzzles2000]

Some Mr. 4 Facts i drawed:

Mr. 4 when he lose his patience the equivalent of Mr. Puzzles showing his realistic eyes and mouth is that Mr. 4 shows his demon half, his eyes turn fully red, shows sharp teeth and his scars start growing to total cover a part of his face he grows horns and the diamonds on his hair break to half

note: Mr. 4's scars come back to normal and his diamonds restore once he had calm down

*

Mr. 4's way of teleport is him peeking out his hands from inside the screen as a red eye appears between all the static, for then fully slowly crawl out of the tv the tv disappears after a few seconds he had fully got out from the tv

*

and have a funny marketable plushie i did for Mr. 4 cuz i saw it funny to do!

editor note: you can ask Mr. 4 as well lmao you can interact with the "high class" tv productor himself~ (he isn't a high class tb productor he is a moron lol)

[bfilm]

after watching muppet tv series episodes basically at random for a bit, i finally finished all of the jim henson hour!!

some thoughts below, but overall i really enjoyed it, even though the shifts between tones in some episodes was kinda jarring at first lol. i feel like more people should know about this show, especially after seeing all the technology they used in the secrets of the muppets episode.

digit is still a character created specifically to my interests and i am still so so sad he isn't in anything else :( literally just a socially awkward semi-robotic latex puppet who loves synth music. he is perfect and they threw him in the closet never to be seen again.

all the other new characters were very nice, but i especially enjoyed the "bean bunny is there to be cute so no one else has to" bit. while i also appreciate him as "guy to throw around" it's a fun added layer to his character!

i think sci-fi -> ocean transition was the most jarring to me, after the sci-fi episode ended with turning louie anderson into a non-marketable plushie i was expecting ocean to be more silliness, and it was up until clifford tells the story of how ted danson ruined the ocean and kermit solemnly says goodnight. and then i still had to watch lighthouse island after this!

i did have to get used to the jim henson hour -> storyteller/other segments transitions but i am very glad i did not skip them or the non muppetelevision specials. my favorites were probably the true bride, the soldier and death, dog city (MUPPET DOGS ARE PERFECT!!!!) and the song of the cloud forest (as a dedicated member of dave goelz nation). i also got unexpectedly invested in living with dinosaurs even though i'm not sure much was explained or resolved that well, the human cast was really good and dog is such a good muppet (why is there no official plush of him!!)

i knew gorilla television wasn't in it much but i didn't expect them to only be in 2 episodes, one of them being in the batch that didn't in the original run. they could've done so much more......i liked their concept as being "above" muppets despite their segments not being that much more cool or complex lol

favorite episode was probably videotape? i might have to rewatch to define it but also like. the music just keeps on rolling along. all night party. the true bride. banger after banger

also jim himself is funny too. the concept of the thought lion for him to bounce off of is so good because in the true bride he's a mystical giftgiver and to jim he is just his really weird cat. awesome dynamic

i really wish more people had watched this show cause it has a lot of fun bits!!! it's so weird to me that so much muppet stuff is lost media or could have been lost media if it wasn't recorded, and this is one of them!! my ideal blu-ray now is a blu-ray of all the episodes of this restored/hd plus a selection of other movies/works by jim (i gotta watch some of his pre muppet show work, including his weird experimental films) but it will probably never happen cause of copyright stuff </3.

[xxmia0wm4yh3mxx]

hey guizs! remember Angellerina?

that Deltarune FC I made?

well i wanted to give out some lore for her so here

Angellerina in her light form is a beautiful and expensive porcelain ballerina music box that Noelles mom bought at an Church Fair auction as well Eboena (a romani wooden figurine with moveable joints made out of ebony wood) that she got for Noelle to play with

Angellerina spent most of her days on a shelf collecting dust, only being held when Noelle's mom came to clean her, Little Noelle Loved Angellerina though (even though she wasn't allowed to touch her because she was extremely fragile, she would also often hold Eboena up to her and pretend talk) But but one day, Noelle climbed the shelves just to get a closer look at Angel, when the shelf fell and Angellerina broke her leg

Angellerina never held anything against Noelle, Actually she liked her alot and always thought of her as her Lightener and was very happy to be held even if it was for a moment, Noelle's mom got very mad at little noelle though and grounded her,

Noelle's mom eventually got her fixed and Since Noelle's mom couldn't have nice things her house she gifted it to the school as a thank you for sponsoring her to become so she could become mayor

after the dark fountain opened, Ebbie (who saw a vision of great war after the kings took Angellerina and fought over who got to keep her, but also great peace and happiness if she became a part of the royal court) took Angellerina under her wing and cared for her and they became very close, but this also made Eboena wanted by the kings for not giving them such a precious Treasure) Ebbie was very protective of Angel because she could easily break, and Angellerina also was very shy and overwhelmed easily, That was until she met Jevil and Seam

(Okay so I have this HC/Fanfic where seam was like 5 they also felt out of place because they had the uncomfortable powers of the red Joker and when he found Jevil and they grew up together and formed a queer platonic relationship and knew that they would separate, But as they grew older they became mischievous outlaws because they disrespected the rouxls rules and they dreamed of one day becoming royal Jokers who could do whatever they wanted, well mostly seam, Jevil just wanted to go were Seam went)

First when Jevil saw Angel he was awestruck by her strange angelic aura, he always tried to get close to angel but she would mostly run away and Ebbie would chase him away, But Angellerina eventually started to come out of her shell, little by little, and was in enticed by Jevils Confidence and Mischief, and soon enough they fell in love with eachother (their dynamic was kinda like Suselle lol)

(also, seam and Ebbie got along well with Ebbie's seriousness mixed with sass and seam's go with the flow and cheery attitude and fell in love to ^w^)

they were a merry band of misfits together! who somday hoped to join the royal Court, but one day after charming the Queen of spades, the crew got to become a part of the royal court! much to rouxls annoyance

Angellerina was able to spread love and peace with her Heavenly aura and was able to become more confident (and show a bit more of a mischievous side!) with Jevils influence, She finally was able to be free and happy with everyone she loved

But after Jevil met the "man" the spade king wanted to kill Eboena for her crimes (also she was romani) But seam begged him not to, so He put her in the dungeon in return that Seam hanged up his Magicain hat

Angellerina was locked away in a crystal ball so she couldn't escape, Even though all seemed hopeless for her, She still loved Jevil and her Friends and still believed that they would be together again

okay know that thats out of the way, if Spamton is somehow related to Noelle, Does that mean Angellerina and Spam are related in some way? I mean Eboena would sure as hell not let anyone capitalize on Angellerina and turn her into a marketable plushie, but also Spam would HATE Jevil as in inlaw but also I keep thing of this

[cheddar-baby]

So this project im working on has now ballooned again. Its now comfortably a full installation that could easily fill most galleries lol. I think the plan is a good 8-9 full magazine print ads printed poster size, 4 silicone cast sculptures that are very realistic skin texture. 1 short infomercial 5ish minutes, 1 custom designed kids toy style box (imagine oozeblasting oozinator), at least 3 short tv ads mostly voiceover maybe one or two actors at most, and a crispy windows movie maker product review youtube video from like 2009. Oh and a full website with lots of write-ups, lore.

Its been a lot of fun working on this and im being pretty vague about it still but its a piece that imagines an alternate timeline where companies got their hands on bio-engineering in 2001 and follows along the timeline of a single products life through its marketing campaigns and pr in the form of a indepenent website that someone made about it long after it has failed. Sort of like down the rabbit hole or defunctland. Scorn if it was turned into a marketable plushie

[eyedi]

seeing how many young kids have been debuting lately is genuinely depressing... and you can literally SEE how young they are it’s so creepy and sad these are just babies. i’m starting to turn away from kpop as a whole because of it. and you know these companies are only debuting these idols at 15 or whatever because they want to drain them of their youth (a time where they should be getting to know and understand themselves better instead of being turned into the human equivalent of a marketable plushie) and these kids don’t know any better bc all they want to do is chase their dreams! idk i feel like we’re going to see stories from former idols soon about how they never got to enjoy their teens/twenties. like idols already talk about it in a “i wanted to be a singer so bad i sacrificed everything including precious years that i can never get back lol :’(” way

but besides that. i don’t understand it from a logical standpoint because 1. it’s not enough training time 2. it limits the type of concepts the group can do? we’ve already witnessed the weirdness of newjeans and how careless their company has been with protecting the minors in their group... and i feel like we only see girl groups with super young members correct me if i’m wrong

anyway i don’t want to be like we’re doomed. BUT WE’RE DOOMED LOLOLOLOOLOLOLOLOLOL

[pawblez-drawz]

GIFT ARTWORK

I finally got around to finishing this design for one of my best friends! I've been promising to design her a fursona forever now, and I've finally made good on that promise!

The original concept was to base it off of a golden doodle, but then during the coloring process I thought it was kinda funny that my friend with dark skin had a pale fursona, compared to me, a white person with a chocolate lab as a fursona lol. Then I pondered if maybe she'd prefer a darker pallete to match her skin tone more, so I made an alt! As of typing this she hasn't responded to the message yet, so I'm just posting both versions!

I ALSO turned her OC into a marketable plushie for her sona to carry around with her hehehe

Hey! I'm doing art fight this year, I'm on team seafoam! I'm trying to do as many revenge attacks as i can, feel free to come at me!

[the-rogue-mockingjay]

9, 15, 21 + o’ravi for the pre-DT questions? 💚

ty dani!! i'm gonna answer these out of order because the answer for 9, what's in wol's bag, got really fucking long 😂 (there is a gpose in there 👀 and a lot of Ravi lore)

15. what would your wol be if they weren't the wol? what would they do as a job or career? would they be happier?

O'ravi would've just kept doing the stuff she was doing pre-ARR- namely, traveling the realm as a minstrel, and supplementing that with her skills as a huntress if she didn't make enough gil with music. She would've been SO much happier with that, but it wouldn't have filled the hole in her chest that longed for purpose and deeper meaning. (Obviously, the pursuit of art and sharing it with others does have meaning, but she still wanted more, if that makes sense.) She would never in a million years have been a Scion- as it is, she very nearly turned tail and ran after first meeting them ldfkjghdjgh. (She felt very small and stupid around them in ARR, and she felt like an outcast among them up until the end of base ShB.)

21. what does your wol do to unwind? any hobbies? reading? sewing? croquet? sitting in a dark room in complete silence?

Laying on the floor in a dark room is how she calms down when she's overstimulated/having a panic attack FDLKGDLHGJKH

To unwind, she always goes somewhere very quiet, maybe wraps herself up in a big soft blanket if temperature allows. She'll read letters, perhaps write some letters, do some embroidery or make a tiny stuffed animal, or literally just sit there doing nothing and maybe doze off lmao. She used to refuse to do any weaving as a "fuck you" to what her tribe/family expected of her, but she takes it up again post-ENW now that she doesn't have to worry about her work being compared to her mother's masterworks. She also likes to people-watch from rooftops or balconies or wherever else people are unlikely to notice her.

As far as hobbies go, perhaps her favorite is music. She plays the lute, the harp, violin, and later, the piano. The piano and harp are the most calming for her to play.

Other hobbies are:

collecting flowers during her travels and pressing them in journals

collecting mammets (specifically, the wind-up little guys you get in-game; she has probably a dozen different wind-up O'ravis at this point, as well as minions of her friends, enemies, allies, the entire First Brood, and random others)

collecting plushies (her collection includes the stuffed Estinien and Hraesvelgr, as well as every single adorable little thing on the market!! tonberries, chocobos, baby dragons, sheep!!)

drawing her favorite locations (she is bad at it. this does not stop her)

collecting orchestrion rolls and sheet music, as well as a small collection of musical instruments which are of a dramatically nicer quality than the ones she started out with FDLKHGKJH

gardening and tending to animals

riding chocobos (she's a horse girl without the horses LOL)

Now, lore time!!

9. what's in your wol's travel bag? any trinkets? any vital items they can't go without? do they travel light and figure stuff out on the fly, or do they bring way too much with them?

Hmm....a good question....well for starters,

she NEVER goes without her purple lipstick (she has a few different shades, and the worse she's doing mentally the darker the color she uses- for the record she doesn't do that on purpose lmao)

she also has a small array of jewelry that she pretty much always keeps with her. For practicality's sake, I like to think there's enchantments on them that prevent them getting lost or broken lkjfghdkgjh. She decides which things to wear based on either aesthetics, or which memories she wants to keep closest to her today

In ARR, she was always wearing a pair of fluorite earrings, which was the first thing she bought as soon as she had the money; in Heavensward, she had a set of opal jewelry Haurchefant commissioned for her; from the HW patches on, she always wears at least one piece of Fortemps jewelry, usually the earrings + choker; after ShB, she started wearing Amaurotine and Crystarium rings; and post-ENW, she has rings from Asphodelos and also her wedding rings! 💞

She also has the Dravanian earrings of aiming, which I like to think are shards of Shiva's ice (pretend they glow lol). The Orthodox ring that I think drops from the Aery is what I use for a wedding ring in-game lol- I like to think that she bought it from some random jeweler because it reminds her of Aymeric :> She also has Zenos's ENW necklace. Probably.

As far as more practical travel items are concerned:

she buys paper and ink just about every chance she gets, so she can write letters to people back home; she also has a journal that she keeps notes in. They're extremely disorganized

obviously, she has all her job stones; from the Zenos assassination attempt in Doma onwards, she fights the same way Meteor does in the ShB trailer, switching between classes mid-battle (in rapid succession, once she gets really good at it). The gear she's not currently using gets stored in the job stones, and she switches between classes by slightly shifting her aetheric attunement to the stones so that one takes priority over the others. This is all headcanoned bullshit based on my very limited understanding of how aether works, the gear set system, and the ShB trailer LMAO

whatever the Eorzean equivalent of ibuprofen is 🥴 probably some Thavnairian potions lmao

bandages and shit for cleaning wounds. She is very particular about not letting any of her injuries, no matter how minor, get infected!!

SOAP. for being an adventurer she actually hates being covered in blood, dirt, and sand so fucking much she cannot STAND it. Begone, damned texture!!!!!!

comb. She hates it when her hair gets matted (if her hair's a mess, that's a sign that things are Very Bad)

glamor prisms :> she will not prioritize fashion over comfort, so if she really wants to wear a pretty shirt/dress/whatever but it has a bad texture or something, she'll just glam it over something more comfortable. It also means she can shake up her accessories without needing to take the time to actually switch something out

Azem's crystal is with her at all times, no exceptions. She also has some other similar crystals that she's experimenting with (with the help of Y'shtola, G'raha, Urianger, Professor Claudien, and some folks back in Elpis who don't know the full scope of her project), with three main goals: enshrining all her knowledge and memories in them so that people who don't have the Echo can see her memories as if they did; preserving her history and journeys so that future generations will have access to the facts, no matter how warped the stories get; and tying these crystals as well as Azem's to her soul so that when she dies, her reborn soul will have a means of learning their past, if they so choose. Taking a page out of Erichthonios's book for that idea lol

if she anticipates an arduous trip or incredibly difficult fight, she brings a cane. Such things take a lot out of her post-ENW and she finds herself in need of a mobility aid at times. I think she also has a variety of potions and tonics to help manage her conditions, courtesy of Nidhana, probably.

In general, she's pretty meticulous about packing things ahead of time, and ends up bringing a whole ton of shit rdlkfjghfdgj. But she just gets anxious thinking about "I probably don't need to bring this but what if x ridiculous scenario happens and I do?". Pre-ARR she just grabbed a few things and made shit up as she went.

[deepfriedseagullfeet]

I need a side job for an online shop but I can't afford a printer to make stickers or art posters what are your suggestions of other craft things I could learn?

I thought about pins but I'm not sure how they're made.

this ask actually came at a funny time cause i am closing my etsy shop until further notice cause im not really interested in selling rn haha, but!!! i do have some ideas for you!!

clay pins! these can be really fun to make and i think theyre still popular! theres a lot of tutorials on youtube on how to make them, but youre gonna need white clay and paint (or colored polymer clay if you dont want to paint them), pin backings (you can get these at any craft store) and something to seal them (you can use mod podge or polymer clay glaze for this!) theres a lot of fun designs you can make for these and theyre cheaper than making enamel pins

painted wood things! if you are artistic and can paint stuff, get some mini wood circles/hearts and paint a design, then superglue on a pin backing, then boom its a pin! this is an alternative to clay pins if you dont want to deal with clay haha. i can find small wood pieces at any craft store for cheap and i have too many of them lying around lol

go to any store that does printing and print stuff if you dont have a printer! for awhile before i got my printer i would order printed stuff from staples for cheap. id look into this if you have a lot of ideas for art prints or zines, theres a lot of options!!

if you have some cash to spare, look into stickerapp!! they print die-cut stickers and sticker sheets, and they havent failed me yet, all their stuff turns out good and they have options for different quantities of stickers.

you may want to look into digital products if youre tech savvy! on etsy you can make good passive income from digital items like downloadable prints, digital stickers, desktop icons, templates, etc. this is kinda a hard market to get into cause theres a lot of competition, but theres a lot of different things you can do with digital products.

going back to clay cause its the most affordable thing i feel, you can make trinket dishes, charms for jewelry, keychains, figurines, etc. people always seem to be interested in little things like that, and i feel like clay, especially polymer clay can be a fun rabbit hole to dive down with all the different tutorials and things you can do with it out there :) air dry clay stuff is great too!

resin can be touchy for some people cause it can be messy and toxic if you dont have good ventilation, but i used to make shaker charms with molds i got for like 2 bucks off etsy as well as jewelry! check out some tutorials for this one if you'd like to get into this world, it can be fun!

if you want to get into button pin making, id check out badge-a-minit! they were my first intro to pin making, and you can get a starter kit for like $30 i think?? the price may have changed but thats what i paid for like 3 years ago lol

do you know how to crochet?? crochet plushies and even digital patterns are still super popular!! its fun and relaxing too if you want to get into it

overall these are the first things that popped into my head when it comes to crafty things to sell, i hope it was somewhat helpful ;_; if you'd like to really dive into the world of products and marketing for artists, i highly recommend checking out kelsey rodriguez on youtube!! she has lots of good advice for artists and just recently came out with a video specifically for products that artists can sell!

[cerealmonster15]

two more days btw... and i'll be busy/away from laptop on the 25th so i likely wont be able to check any on the final day except maybe that morning if i remember!!!

JAMIAZU i was agonizing yesterday about how i havent drawn them in. well probably just a few days KJLFJDSKLFJDSL but they never relent in my mind. look at them over there. being red and purple. fjsdkljfdksl the little blushies and the little heart and the little sweat LOL theyre so cute forever OUGH

MY BOY FIDEL AND HIS PLUSHES OF CHOICE!!!!!!!!!!!! i forgot to update the oc tag with the last few of him but perhaps when this is all said and done ill just grab all the fanarts of the ocs and place them in solo posts lol. omg tho i love this theyre so CUTE!! let my boy go thru the snow...

fjdksfdsklfh hermie's a marketable plushie!!! god i would buy a hermie tsum for real 😔 anthony burch if you're out there- jkfsdljfdsl i like to think normal was just going about his day at the library looking for books for homework or something and then just. sees this creature. and hes like oh god hermie is under a curse he turned into a peanut <- having a ruggie bucchi moment actually JKFLDJSKLFDJS

omg plz jfksdjfklsdh AND AN ACE OF HEARTS NO LESS!!!! thats so cute i love u magic boy i love u adeuce!!!! hes even sparkling for extra effect ✨

FSJKEWFKSDFKJLDS BLEASE ..... shroud boys on their woe is me type of game or whatever..... ortho squared....... why must he go thru double the pain fklsdjflsj

how many wailing boys of misery are we at now. have u been going in order actually fdskjlfsjd im scrolling back and i see pomefiore... scarabia... i feel like i remember u sending the bananas and probably heartslabyul ... i dont see them but that was probs before my box got reset again lfkjFKDLSHFDSJ but it is ok they are preserved in my tag somewhere >:]

ok u know how i just made a new drawing box bc i had to clear my cache or whatever. i forgot i checked this box

so i kinda deleted the one i made yesterday too jklfdjksljfdsljfjld OOPS. SORRY AGAIN. I dont know if anyone used it but ive unchecked the box and made. a new one . again 🧍

[seven-thewanderer]

Okay I know I just posted something about things that excited me about the DLC, but screw it imma share that thing I said I had that I will not clarify above here what that thing is cus spoilers

but yeah

SPOILERS BELOW

Okay so Ruin DLC Eclipse, amiright?

but I love Eclipse, I just wanna squeeze em in a tight hug!!!

But that's off-topic

So you know how Sun was saying stuff like "I am trapped in a nap" and "reboot" and "we need to be whole"?

What if- and hear me out (you don't have to lol)- Sun and Moon weren't a jeckl-hyde situation of 1 person with two personalities, but 1 person that split into 2, those 2 being Sun and Moon?

Eclipse was the original DA, and when the virus happened, he got split into 2, Sun and Moon, Sun being... idk how to describe canon Sun, and Moon being gremlin-like, evil, and full of murderous intent?

However, though that could make sense, that wouldn't explain all the posters, and the plushies. Thus, I did do a slight mental editing to my theory, thinking back on what I heard someone else once state months(?) ago, from the books (about Sun & Moon being theater kids)

Eclipse was the main guy, the star of the show, the solar act (get it? solo? solar? okay I'll shut up). However, Eclipse wasn't really alone, as he had two smaller personalities inside: Sun and Moon. They were mainly forms for acting, and played different roles, Moon always being the villain. Then, they were repurposed to be daycare attendants, however, still also being used for the theater, whenever they were available to (however, the daycare became popular cus of people not wanting to drag their kids along with them, so they'd drop em off there, basically giving them no time to act, and the theater was slightly taken over by Comedy Bot) Eclipse was the main attraction of the theater, but they did use Sun & Moon for marketing purposes, as they were still favorited characters from their acts. So, since they were mainly daycare attendants now, that's why there were Sundrops and Moondrops. However, with their coding slightly changed, and Eclipse and Sun loving to bond with the kids (Moon was never intended to be around the kids, he was only still left around because they were intended to be in the theater again, but never got the time, so he rarely got time to roam, until they decided to turn the lights off hourly during closing time, so he could go wild and crazy), Eclipse got most of the attention, and Sun (and Moon) got jealous of him being more famous than the two. So then, Sun started taking over more often, leaving the lights high and bright, and rarely letting Eclipse take control. Sun didn't want the lights to be either dimmed, nor turned off, because dimmed meant Eclipse, and off meant... Moon. The violent, bloodthirsty Moon, who was tired of being locked up, and only having a few chances to even be in control. Then, after some time, Sun had been taking control for so long, that Eclipse was forgotten about. By the staff, by the kids, by Sun and Moon, and nearly... by himself. He was closed away, trapped in a nap, and unable to do anything. Then, Moon, still wanting control, just grew more violent, and bloodthirsty, and malicious. So basically those two fighting, while Eclipse was locked away

What wakes up Eclipse? idk. The virus? Balloon World? Cassie entering? Who knows, but eventually he wakes up, realizing he's been gone for too long, and things had gone chaotic, to ruins even (ill stop ill stop).

So, long story short (in a way), Eclipse was the main act, with Sun and Moon as personalities he could swap to whenever he pleased for the acts, and then became a DCA, and his personalities actually became personalities, and they were jealous cus they wanted the spotlight, and shut him out, and Sun begging you to help was not actually Sun (in my silly theory), and was Eclipse speaking through Sun the best he could, begging for you to save him

Obviously, that last part can't be true, especially with how Sun straight up thanks you for saving him from Moon afterwards, making it that it truly was Sun begging for you to save him. Sun wanted to be whole. Moon, however, did not.

but anyways that's that, idk what I was rambling about, but yeah it was just a silly lil theory about Eclipse

[okaymybeloved]

dates with enhypen (*≧∀≦*)

heeseung

since he’s the oldest i feel like he would want to take you somewhere impressive

he takes you out to a nice restaurant

you both are enjoying yourselves and talk about your careers and future plans

but you both feel kind of unsatisfied? after it? like somethings missing?

somehow you both end up at the amusement park

riding all of the roller coasters and ending it off with the cliché ferris wheel

“no offense hee, but this was much better than the restaurant”

“i paid good money, how dare you”

“it’s the truth, babe”

sharing a loving evening together, watching the city lights below you was one of the best things you could ever ask for

you both shared a sweet kiss under the stars, making your hearts flutter like little high schoolers with their first love

[ more members under the cut! ]

jay

jay

he tells you to dress your nicest and that you did

as soon as you walked out of the door, his jaw was on the floor

as soon as you walked out of the door, his jaw was on the floor

“wow, i am so lucky”

“oh shut up”

“you’re blushing!!! how cute!!!”

he brings you to one of seoul’s best restaurants, requesting a table with the best view

you both shared a bottle of wine together, laughing at all his ridiculous trainee stories

whenever you talk, he focuses all his attention towards you

heart eyes going crazy rn

you finish dinner and get into the car

“did you enjoy it?”

“of course i did. anything with you, i always enjoy”

jay gets so flustered, face red as a tomato

you thought it was hilarious and teased him more by giving him a kiss on the cheek

“please stop, my heart can’t take it anymore” he means this in the most loving way

jake

i think he would enjoy simple dates, like picnics or going out to do little things

he loves cuddling, so he decided to do a fort date

grabbing all the blankets and pillows in the house, even the couch to make the comfiest fort

sososo nervous and excited for you to come home and see what he did for you

as soon as you walk into the living room, jake is waiting for you with matching onesies and open arms

you were so excited and got changed quickly so you can jump into his arms

in the fort, he pulled you into his arms and picked to watch rapunzel

being in jake’s arms was heavenly

you turn your head up at him, smiling, “thank you, love”

“anything for you”

sunghoon

i think most people would write about how he would teach his s/o ice skating for a date but i think otherwise

he’s one of those people who really enjoys quality time so i feel like he would make a date to learn about something you love to do

an example would be a painting class

you love painting and have always wanted to take a class, so sunghoon took it this opportunity to make it a date

he surprises you at your apartment but doesn’t tell you where you guys are going

arriving at the class, your eyes immediately lit up, taking your seat right away

he looks at you throughout the class, loving how much passion you put into painting

after the class, you were so happy, showing him your painting multiple times

“sunghoon, look! i cant believe i painted this masterpiece!”

“did you have fun, my love?”

“yes! thank you hoonie! i love you!”

walking hand and hand to his car, his heart is filled with love for you and sharing your passions with him

sunoo

he’s a major foodie

he heard about a night market nearby and asked if you wanted to go with him

you said yes of course

you both walked in, hand in hand, looking at all of the different stalls and what they had to offer

getting food from the most popular ones, you found a table and sat down with all the food spread out

of course you had to take pictures, taking most of sunoo bc he looked so pretty, but some of the food as well

eating and enjoying each other’s company made this one of the best dates

after finishing, there was a game area that you wanted to play in i’m just describing the la night market at this point lol

he won a hamster plushie and you won an octopus plushie

while walking out, you gave him a kiss on the cheek

“thank you for today, i got to spend time with my favorite person while eating yummy food”

“i wouldn’t want anything else different, cutie”

jungwon

he’s still young so he would most likely will take you out to somewhere small and cute

he brings you to a little cafe that you haven’t been to

ordering for the both of you, even getting your favorite chocolate bun

as he was ordering, you were looking around at the cute place

a small meow came from behind you and you realized that he took you to a cat cafe

immediately, you put the cat on your lap and started petting it

jungwon came back with the order and just melted as soon as he saw you with the cat

“wonie, i might cry. it’s so cute”

he sits next to you and pets the cat as well, somehow he attracts 3 more cats

he puts his head on your shoulder while petting the new cats

overall, you were just having a great time petting cats with jungwon

you were gonna do it, you were going to say ‘i love you’ for the first time to him

“hey jungwon, i love you. a lot.”

he immediately jumps up and stares at you with wide eyes

he surges forward and gives you a peck on the lips

“i love you too”

ni-ki

he loves your hugs and cuddles so much, but he can’t bring that out in public so the next best thing is bringing you to his dorm

okay maybe it wasn’t the best idea inviting you to a dorm with 6 other boys but he just wanted to spend time with you :(

as soon as you get there, he greets you with a giant hug

the other boys wanted to watch the new horror movie so you guys got situated on the couch

to be quite honest, you didn’t really mind horror movies, they’re actually more entertaining than scary

however, ni-ki was the complete opposite, but you thought this was adorable

“y/n, please hold me i’m scared”

“i got you love, don’t worry”

when the movie ended, you both were so sleepy

both of you guys were cuddled up next to each other under a soft blanket

you guys already fell asleep before the rest of the boys got up to get ready for bed

awoken by a camera flash, you saw the culprit, jake

“sorry, you both were just so cute!”

looking at ni-ki and smiling, “actually, send me the pic later”

you gave him a kiss on the forehead

“goodnight, love”

cuddling further into him, ultimately falling asleep as well

[haveyouseenthisskeleton]

Dealers choice on the skellies but how do you think they would react to a touch averse s/o? I'm not cuddly on my own and often when people go to touch me (especially without asking) I'll flinch away or something. I'm okay with hugs here or there or holding hands but the idea of engulfing cuddles for hours makes me uncomfortable.

I’m touch averse too ahah. I hate hugs. When I go in festivals and cons (well, you know, when it existed a long time ago), free hugs are truly my worst nightmare. On a Christmas market, I once accidentally kicked Santa Claus in the nuts because he hugged me by surprise. So yeah, I feel this.

Undertale Papyrus - The first time you did this, he got very hurt because he thought you were mad against him for a reason he didn’t understand. But one little talk will solve everything. It’s hard for him since he’s very tactile with everyone, but to prove you he really loves you, he will make huge efforts. He’s often presenting himself as your personal hugger. If someone wants to hug you, they hug him, then he patpats you on the head so you recieved your affection. (lol, my best friend is actually doing that. I worked for two french popular YouTubers a few years ago and one of them is very tactile and was very excited to meet me. So I throw my human shield friend at him so he can give affection to her :’) )

Underfell Papyrus - Oh god, THANK YOU. Until you, he thought all humans were madly in search of physical affection. Edge is actually touch-averse too and hates cuddles, especially from strangers. He’s ok for small cuddles with S/O, but not for long because it’s making him uncomfortable. So knowing S/O is actually like that too makes him feel like he discovered a brand new world. He is so happy right now.

Horrortale Sans - :(. He’s sitting in front of you and looks at you like a sad puppy, his jacket open, waiting for you to come. He understands why you don’t want to hug, but still. Oak really needs to feel S/O against him at some point because their smell comforts him when he feels insecure. It will probably not work for very long with him.

Swapfell Papyrus - Oh, that’s ok ! He bought plushies. You live your smell on the plushie and he hugs the plushie when he needs it. It’s almost like hugging S/O, right ? You spend nights hugging the plushie by turns. It’s your thing now.

Outertale Sans - A bit like Rus, you’re wearing each other clothes to conterbalance this. When you feel sad, you can still hug Moon’s fluffy jacket. Moon doesn’t care. He’s ok with hugs and stuff but he’s not really a cuddly type either.

Dancefell Sans - It will probably not work either. Rumba is always holding S/O one way or another. He’s hugging their legs, climbing on their back, dancing with them, cuddling for HOURS. If he can’t touch S/O too much, it’s going to stress him out too much.

Error - That’s literally all he asked for. He doesn’t like any for of physical touch, so yeah, a S/O who understands this and is actually a bit like him is the perfect match. He feels a lot more relaxed and he’s more easy to live with like that, since when S/O is too tactile, it tends to make him grumpy. 

[hamofjustice]

Well, another two months of no friends later, we've got our release date: December 14th. Maybe this last month and a half will finally address this. Y'know, now that the pre order windows are closed and they're not obligated to give us anything, of course. (More Teal Mask spoilery at the end but you probably know this stuff by now)

You'd think they would have finally said something to reassure us in the two months playing the teaser first part of the DLC, which does not add a single mention or line of dialogue to the main characters/friends/rivals, only introducing two or three new ones and creating five or six different character and friendship arcs they now have to satisfyingly wrap up in one DLC (they won't lol), rather than... letting the hype train come to a complete standstill until now.

Unless they, again, think those characters that were initially all over the base game's advertising are now a detriment to it instead of its saving grace, because gamers hate reading and love marketable plushies, or something.

It's not spoilers to new players that Nemona, Penny, and Arven are our friends, it's really not. Showing new Paradox Pokemon in Area Zero when they should know what neither of those things are yet was spoilers.

I don't get it. Was $35 for admission plus seeing people jump to buy up all the overpriced human character plushies not enough to get a promise of the postgame the base game pretended it was going to have, before Paldea turned into a monochrome world of those poor kids' ghosts repeating their lines over and over with half of the adult characters just fully gone? Could we not have gotten a blink and you'll miss it frame of Nemona getting to enjoy the place that was made for her to finally belong in after all her time feeling alone, and after all our time playing the game without our friends in it anymore outside of (admittedly fuzzy and feel-good) repeating battles, with the looming threat that we may be about to ruin their happy endings and traumatize her in particular? A single hint that we won't be forced to leave them behind and undo the game's (and even ed sheeran's) message of there always being someone out there to connect with among your peers if your support system lets you down no matter how unlovable you feel, that doesn't have to be pried from the jaws of TPC unwillingly?

And I'm going to keep asking this about the base game, because it's the reason I care so much about this in the first place: What was the purpose of giving us access to their rooms for this past year if there's nothing to do or talk about in there, not even take pictures with them? Why is there no way to adventure with them again after the first time, in the game that features four-player parties so heavily? Why does Nemona never change or get any stronger, after we promised to be her best friend, rival, and true equal forever? Why doesn't she get any special treatment over any other character you can rebattle? How long would it have taken to just put in a few more teams, or randomize them? At least? Something? In the last year? Something that would probably take like... a week? Or make the raid helper NPCs actual characters, like they were in the previous game?

Yeah, this is the transfer student DLC where we're always depicted alone, without our greatest treasures, without the people who are emotionally dependent on us right now, don't worry about it, this has no implications... especially not after the first half of it ended by ruining one of our new friendships because the dialogue boxes forced us to, in a somber-songed new region that talks about death and blood a lot. Don't worry about it! For months and months on end!

very slight teal mask and indigo disc story spoilers (the kind that'll probably help decide if you want them or not instead of ruin it for you, probably?) and very long commentary about it. mostly about how they've chosen to advertise it

gonna hit you with my longest run-on sentence yet, here we go.

the fact that we had to datamine the teal mask, a DLC whose only returning character is jacq and does not add a line to or scene of anyone else (well, mentions of heath and clavell, i guess?) due to being available to do at any badge count, the fact that we had to dig and pry in unintended ways, just to finally prove that our implied greatest treasures nemona arven and penny would at least be available to hang out with in the indigo disc...

with no new images footage or mentions of the friend trio of in any of the six months since the DLCs were announced, and ten months after these kids opened their hearts and dorm rooms to us, saying we could hang out any time from now on, and turned out to be statues with one line of dialogue after we had already gone on an adventure with them following us around, helping us in battle, and getting to know each other as we walked, and our rival promised to keep up with our strength forever, then never got any stronger...

and now, in the narrative's timeline, we run off to another country to transfer away from our rival for life's school to one she would fit into perfectly the MOMENT she opens up to us about her problems and how she's so much happier now that we're the first person she can actually connect with and be herself around, and shows clear signs of worry that you're going to leave if she doesn't make you promise not to...

and also shortly after Arven became effectively a high school orphan, who's still treated as kind of a butt monkey dumbass for some reason, when he was putting everything he had into researching how to save his dog, his only dependable family, instead of going to class (i guess he's not telling anybody what he's going through, as usual with these kids)...

because TPC did not think these characters being present in the second DLC in any form and not actually having their newfound, hard-earned sense of belonging ruined by the basic premise of said transfer-student DLC was worth advertising at any point, and only showed off gym leaders Katy and Kofu... and that was only if you even bothered to look at the website to notice the feature at all, because hanging out with, battling, and trading with all of the past characters who aren't present in Paldea anymore is now actually a feature, but wasn't in the trailer...

is fucking mind boggling to me.

why is it a secret that they're in the DLC. why would they not just. tell people that as soon as they revealed the DLC. why is it still supposed to be a secret now, half a year later. why weren't they in the first half. why did they not think we'd be worried that they aren't in the second half.

silly me, why would you want to advertise giving people more of the story and main plot-driving characters, the main thing people defend the rushed game for, or that they might get some resolution, or reassure them that the vaguely happy ending to their sad stories isn't going to be ruined like they've implied it will be? that'd be silly. the only way anyone is going to find that out is through hacking

but at least we were finally able to pry that basic fucking information out of them against their will, the only thing I wanted to know about the DLC before I'd buy it, because they left in placeholder stubs for it by accident. oops. wouldn't want to tell people who were on the fence about getting the DLC this information on purpose or anything. need to keep it a secret

we were able to confirm through our own digging that nemona (and many others) are at least allowed to hang out with us, but the thing that would make both her as a character and me as a Pokemon player happier than we've ever been is if she actually got to enroll with us. why wouldn't she go, right? what do a school and society that don't respect her and an empty home where her parents should be have to offer, compared to living her dream with her favorite person, surrounded by people just like her? who can stop a champion from going wherever she wants? but for that to be the case, one of the "club rooms" we found references to would have to be hers. only us kieran and carmine clearly have what are marked as dorm room objects.

i'm glad we're getting what we're getting, but it's still no guarantee that nemona arven and penny will continue to be important to the story that they were the driving forces of, or get the true resolutions and healthier happy endings that they deserve, or that our "true equal" will ever be any stronger or more important to our character than our home ec teacher, or that they'll ever actually get to be a friend group on screen without life or death situations or harrowing grief being involved

oops! accidentally wrote decent character arcs and relationships in a pokemon game! they're going to spend time together in the postgame! abort abort abort quick shove them off into different countries before they hug

okay that's just me being cynical, they will almost certainly be important to the story, but... TPC has the power to make me not cynical and they keep choosing not to do that. but they do keep making really sappy recap videos using previous cutscene footage, like this attachment and uncertainty is something they're milking on purpose

maybe stringing people along with how much they miss the funny, cute, loving, strong characters, or are worried about these three lonely and isolated kids dealing with parental neglect, ptsd and self loathing, autism and motor impairments, identity issues, and more, whose problems are clearly not resolved yet if they can be at all, will... help sell more plushies and gacha pulls, and get people consuming more spinoffs, or something? idk, maybe

love to stop and helplessly gaze upon penny's depression pile every day before i go do tera raids / link battles with strangers (i don't actually do this but i might if poke portal worked indoors)

that all being said! it's pretty damn cool that hanging out with NPCs in a meaningful way and staging selfies with them and stuff is actually a game feature at all. that much is reassuring. it's a step in the right direction considering 90% of pokemon gameplay for a lot of people takes place after the credits roll and everyone normally despawns or becomes a one liner / repeating boss fight statue, or maybe if you're lucky a Multi Battle partner. it was just implied this game would be different, is all. i just don't know why they've chosen to string their audience along this way. wanting to have friends shouldn't throw up a $35 tollgate right as you go to talk to them that takes a year to open, and over six months to find out if it'll kill them when it opens.

i'd like to see pokemon postgame feel more like an animal crossing life sim type game in the future, personally, and this feature is a step toward that. i'd love if it one of your rewards for completing indigo disc was being able to take anyone you like as a follower as you go about your business and have them get on miraidon/koraidon with you as needed so your movement isn't impeded by it, even if there was no dialogue for it or anything. it's 2023, i shouldn't have to imagine something happening in a video game, or have to fill in my own fanfic to make a story satisfying, it should just be happening, on the screen. dammit. having a follower that goes with you everywhere even if you drive or have a following pokemon already was a feature in teal mask, so why not utilize it permanently?

(is the obvious player arven nemona penny 4v1 battle being saved for the final boss or something, is that why tera raids with them aren't a thing you can just do normally?)

Long story short: The basic transfer-student premise of The Indigo Disc implies that we ruin Nemona's happy ending and rub the one she really wants in her face to go enjoy it with Carmine instead for being more marketable, and I don't think they're even aware of why that would be a problem. Why have we not been reassured to the contrary in the last 6 months? I think a lot of us are waiting for this DLC anxiously instead of eagerly, especially after the first half.