#I haven't done the shadows and so on but i literally suck at this

[skyfallscotland]

Things that got me a little frustrated with Onyx Storm in no particular order 💔

Please be nice, this is an addendum to my main Onyx Storm review post, and there is also a post about things I loved 🙏 I'm just a sensitive heart with superior pattern recognition (I'm mentally ill lol) and I struggle when I don't understand things—and I understood nothing.

I find it really hard to just go with the flow, I hate it when I don't understand things, and being confused just didn't make for a good reading experience for me. So here goes:

The magic system being entirely retconned.

“It’s beautiful,” I whisper. I’m marked by their magic as a rider now, as their rider.

It's consistently referred to as "their" magic or "Andarna's magic" or "Tairn's magic" in the first two books, but in this one, the continent has magic and outside it, they're powerless?

Oh, except Vi for...reasons?

The marked ones all having second signets? This felt like fan service or a retcon. Why haven't any of them gone crazy? Because statistically some of them should have (and it would have at least been interesting). And if Liam could wield ice and use farsight, and that wasn't initially an error, why not wield it when Deigh was literally being chewed to death?

Continuous mentions of Xaden hearing actual fucking thoughts for god's sake that just get dropped and never picked up again? Par for the course. Don't even talk to me about it, I'm done.

Sgaeyl not talking to Xaden all book? Does she realise she would have died too, they all would have died if he hadn't done what he did? Mum pls the silent treatment sucks (this might be a personal trauma so we can probably scratch it, actually)

Andarna leaving then coming back almost immediately? I get it, she wanted to meet her shitty family, but this would have had more impact if she'd stayed when they were on the island. It felt like I got teary at her exit for nothing, like it was a ploy. I think I have whiplash.

Violet saying quite literally her most pressing need is information and then deciding no actually it's to know what her baby dragon is dreaming about in her dreamless sleep? Is this a joke? 😭

Violet is suddenly Adrian Ivashkov 💀 And what’s that got to do with who they are at their core? I’m lost! 😭

Also, those not-dreams never being explained? Like we know it's Berwyn calling him, but seriously Xaden, click on pls!

Xaden's mother showing up for...no reason? Really? Nice emotional arc, I enjoyed it, it was one of my favourite sequences, but she wasn't important to the story at all and we just?? Left?????

(I also want to punch her in the face, how dare she)

Finding out Halden's been doing...something??? At the Isles this whole time?? For Reasons, I guess??? I don't know, someone else might need to explain that to me.

(How I felt ^) Oh! And him being a twin? Basic information we could have known before—and I still don't know what happened to Alic, really. Like I want the whole story? 🥺

Violet's hair, the temple, all of that someone's going to have to explain to me like I'm five too because it's not clicking, I'm sorry. Also the temples/priestesses have magic? Their own different type of magic? And they aren't venin either? What makes a venin, a venin? My head is still spinning.

Aetos being back defying all logic (the aide to exile to in charge of everything pipeline really is something) and then he disappears entirely and is irrelevant? 😭 Why bring him back at all? What was the reason?

This is like the continuity that says Degrensi kicked Varrish out for being too torture-y and then they put him in charge of torturing kids, and then Degrensi followed Varrish's orders (even though he's below him in the chain of command and he hates him) last year to keep Xaden away from Violet all the time, but wait, now Degrensi gives no fucks about following orders???? I'm?? I just spent so much time being like wait, what?

Xaden who can literally command shadows for some reason not being able to sneak into Violet's room? And that same Xaden having zero control so they can't have sex, but then suddenly when it was time for another evenly spaced out sex scene, him being totally fine????? Is it ✨a mindset✨ ??

Violet having her memories wiped? For? Reasons???? Seriously for what purpose could the literal wedding ceremony part not have been remembered, please, that’s just mean Rebecca.

Aaric just Not telling anyone about his signet even though it would have meant more people living??? Aaric's name being CAMLAEN?????

I get that that’s a literary device, but on top of everything else I still felt like I was chasing my tail 😩

Professor Riorson teaching everyone for months, incl that signets have perfect counters, like his shadows and Violet's lightning, then sending Violet off to face the lightning/storm wielding gal while he went to face a guy he's literally incapable of killing? HELLO, should you not realise and switch?! Don’t be a dumb dumb (also a literary choice but it annoyed me so it’s here, please never battle the elite four Xaden, you’d fail).

Also oh look there's no rune on Brennan's neck like the one on his hand—sorry WHAT? are we implying that's from Naolin mending him or what? Do you know about it? Fucking say so, you sure as fuck haven't told us Vi???? It really bothers me that Violet apparently knows things and we don't. I feel like that's what third-person-POV is for, if you want to do things like that.

I still don’t know why venin can channel within the wards at all? And the wardstone was so easily altered after all that drama in IF?

Why aren't we reading Lilith's journals? Vi, sweetheart, please, give me some joy here.

Where are the other foster kids??? I still can't see how they're safe and not leverage, especially now it's looking like it will be a full-on secession bid once more.

Tyrrendor mines talladium?!

SURPRISE GRANDMA??? PLEASE!!

As you can see, I have a lot of questions—more than I had at the end of the last book, because none of those were answered, so I just have...this bigger pile of questions.

If you can read along and not think about any of these things and just not be bothered by the not knowing of it all, then I'm jealous of you. I really, really wish I could, but that's just not how my brain works and as someone with a mental illness I get tired of having to defend that to other people, it makes me feel like shit, honestly. I don’t want to think about these things, I just do. Like yeah, I hate my brain too but I have to live with it.

There were plenty of things I liked about this book, but my overall experience was that it felt messy, chaotic, and overwhelming.

Even the end—I still don't understand what happened fully, and I know that's on purpose, but after not understanding anything the whole book and having my questions from the last book go unanswered, I don't exactly appreciate it as a literary technique, I just find it frustrating 😟

In any case, these are just my out-of-pocket, personal opinions typed up late at night with zero filter, please don't come for me (lol), you don't need to agree—in fact, I know people don't, I ran a poll—this is just...how I'm feeling right now. It's a sucky feeling, but it is what it is.

I hope I can do a re-read at some point and enjoy it more, and get a better grasp on things, but for now...🖤

[sonicranger1]

I'm still pissed at ROTT so since I'm not a YouTube reviewer you get this text wall of me explaining why while the ending of the movie does indeed suck it isn't just the ending that sucks

Why didn't Jim put on any armor till the very end? you pretentious child why should I care if you got injured when you're running around armorless just because you can't have your magical amulet armor anymore

Why was Jim questioning if he was still the Trollhunter when all the way back in S2 E11 'Unbecoming' of Trollhunters he himself said "I know I'm the Trollhunter. I'm the Trollhunter, Amulet or not"

Why did Jim suddenly start caring about his father in the movie? Aside from the fact the conversation leads to nothing and you could've easily cut it out and it wouldn't have changed anything it was established all the way back in S1 that Jim never cared about his father so why retcon that?

They shouldn't have killed Nomura off so early when we've barely been able to see her dynamic with the Trollhunter cast outside of being an antagonist and let alone see her dynamic with the cast of 3below and Wizards

Following up on the last one why did you send Trolls to the only Titen in broad daylight, you can't tell me there weren't better picks then Nomura and Arrrgh

And on that point, here's my little fan reassignment of the teams

(I put way to much effort in this literally sobbing, pls click 4 better quality :'()

Anyways time to explain my reasonings

Team Sword: the OG was fine I have almost no problems with this one but Krel could've been utilized way better imo, also Arrrgh is perfect for lifting up a giant rock with a sword embedded in it, he's literally always described as a hulking brute by other characters so ??

Team Orb: same thing with Team Sword I have nothing against it and it's probably the best one out of all of the originals but man Nomura interacting with Blinky is just... such an amusing thought to me, it is partly fueled by the short kinda interaction they had when Krel was playing music earlier in the movie but anyways more serious reasoning is I think she's the best alternative to Claire since it's not like her shadow magic was- or could've been used at any point during the mission乁(ツ)∫

Team Sunshine: once again what the hell was Jim thinking with this one? The only one that made sense to be there was Douxie, anyways reasonings with this one is that 1. Toby would actually be utilized lmao 2. Toby and Krel interactions fuel my soul 3. With Toby's hammer and Krels tech they'd probably have a way easier time getting up the Earth Titen

Team Icy: Claire Shadow magic = no rope snapping and lesser chance of Strickler dying aka less unnecessary deaths yay :DDDD

The mission assigning was such a good opportunity to have characters interact who haven't interacted prior/flesh out previously established relationships that didn't get alot of screentime and ROTT blew it, truly so much missed potential but I suppose you can say that for the entire movie

Why did they just casually mention there was a heartstone on Akiridion-5 like we knew that information prior to the movie? no one commented on it and it made me feel insane while watching

GET. RID. OF THE. MPREG. SIDE PLOT‼️‼️‼️ you're not Fairly OddParents it doesn't work and doesn't make sense, Aja and Steve have entirely different biology

(These next ones are more personal/general nitpicks but whatever)

Call me a hater but the whole "Arcadia is the center of the universe" is so dumb, I remember first hearing that little bit of info from a fancomic and i thought it was just having Blinky be egotistical but no, apparently that's a fact of life now

Idk I think it's cooler and funnier if all these guys came to Arcadia out of pure coincidence yknow?

what/where was Dictatious, Chompsky, Nancy/Nana and anyone else I'm forgetting doing during all this especially when Arcadia was being destroyed at the end, just feel like they should've atleast done a quick cut away shot to what they were doing during all this chaos (translation: I miss Dictatious)

Why doesn't Blinky use Dwärkstones anymore, I thought that was gonna be his signature weapon after The Eternal Knight but apparently not I guess, seeing him chuck explosives at Gods definitely wouldn't have been cool anyways...

Blinky sure has alot of time on his hands for being the supposed Head of New Jersey Trollmarket

Btw does that place even exist cuz for all intents and purposes it doesn't, so serious why didn't we ever get to see it dude 😭

Before I get to pointing out the obvious with the ending I'd like to highlight scenes that I actually liked and were actually good!

I liked the scene in the somewhat beginning with Blinky and Arrrgh talking about if the other dies they were glad they got to know the other that was sweet, loved it, 10/10

Like I mentioned earlier the brief scene with Krel playing music and Blinky and Nomura being annoyed by it was great, got a chuckle out of me and I wish we got to see more of that

Blinky being electrocuted was pretty good 👍 the pilot unnecessarily pointing out his multiple eyes and arms was funny to me

near the end where Blinky went to comfort arrrgh when Toby died was another 10/10 I love them ur honor

Okay being nice over, time to dig into this movie again

Toby being the Trollhunter is such a terrible idea for multiple reasons

For 1. It just makes Jim's job harder now cuz changing something as fundamental as who's the Trollhunter is gonna drastically change so many things which inturn makes things far less predictable and unless Jim has the new amulet still (which is unlikely since he's never shown with it after going back) he can't just Undertale-style reset if something goes wrong

2. Toby has never shown interest in being in any leader-type role (unless you count him directing his short film in 3below) and considering part of being the Trollhunter is basically leading an entire race...

3. Sorta following up on point 2 The role of being Trollhunter holds so much responsibility and burden and it just... dare I say, doesn't make sense for Jim as a character to put that burden onto Toby, his best friend

Guys this is the same kid who went into the darklands alone to take on Gunmar because he didn't want to see anymore of his friends/family getting hurt and you expect me to believe he'd then put that all onto Toby?

4. Toby even getting the amulet doesn't make sense considering in 'Unbecoming' the amulet was already taken by Draal by the time school ended

5. Speaking of 'Unbecoming' that episode also established that if anyone but Jim got the amulet Arcadia- and in extension the world- would be doomed and the eternal knight would happen so I guess he wants everyone to die ! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Anyways I'm done (hopefully) TLDR: the movies awful, makes dumb decisions, completely ignores or retcons things established earlier in the franchise and didn't utilize it's extensive cast at all

And if you've read this far, thank you I appreciate it and I'll use this time to recommend the original Trollhunters book, it's awesome and has an ending 10x better then this slop please go read it (IHaveATotallyLegalWayForYouToReadItEasily)

[punkpandapatrixk]

Slow Mornings~♪

Hello lovely peeps. I'm popping in to say that I'm so sorry I haven't been as productive as I’d hoped. I had all of these plans, and literally 3 years’ worth of content ideas, but my body has not been able to catch up! I’m now behind on all of the readings I’d scheduled for the entirety of October XD

The truth of the matter is a little bit convoluted but I’ve been both experiencing a series of burnout—autistic burnout, which I didn’t even know was a speciality thing—as well as being in this healing phase where my body simply wants to catch up on sleep, after years and years and very long years of being on edge. There was a meme I forgot to save that says something to this effect:

'Your body is healing from years of trauma; you’re not lazy. You deserve this peace.’

Actually, the above could as well be a mash of two—or three—separate memes LOL Here’s another good one from a sub maker that I feel captures just thee vibe I’m feeling right now:

‘Maybe you're simply perceiving how a lovely sensation of closure & calm gently fills the air around you, feeling a little sleepier than usual. Or maybe you can sense how a massively positive change is coming, seemingly eager to go with it and that's great as well.’ – The Witch of Drown Shadows

I believe many of you reading this could relate as well. A new beginning is on the horizon for sooo many of us who’ve been on a soul-search to liberate ourselves from the chains of the toxic Matrix. I hope you're doing well, and excited for what's to come before the year even ends ^o^v

Forget the grind, leave behind soul-sucking deadlines, and enjoy the slow mornings~♪

Naturally, I’m going to be more productive again once I’m done stabilising myself—all mind body and spirit aligned. I’m not saying this out of a sense of ‘obligation’; that all people ideally must be a productive member of society. No, not that. I really want to get productive on this blog because I’ve a shit ton of good content in the works XD

I’ve so much new content on career, luck, character glow-up, soulmate friendships!!!, celebrity life, life purpose and other esoteric shit I’m eager to put out \^-^/ Not to mention the fiction that’ll go on Wattpad. I’m making progress on Punk Panda Stories but slow…very slow XD

For now, I’m aiming to post one PAC every week without fail. I’m just going to expect this much from me in the meantime, so as not to burn myself out on the psychology level just yet. When you expect too much from yourself, the stress could deter any progress instead, right?

This is especially true for those who don’t necessarily have a deadline. But that’s the thing, I don’t wanna strangle myself with deadlines anymore. So I’m not gonna work like that anymore. This ain’t 9-5 corporate, girl. Stop thinking like that! Is what I’ve been telling myself. Gotta change the whole way I approach my soul-work~♪

Until the end of the year, I’m teaching myself to enjoy slow mornings™️ I’ve been starting my day with just cleaning myself and my room; having a breakfast of lemon tea w/ a dollop of strawberry jam + a CVS croissant; playing a game on my dusty-but-trusty old PSP when I’ve got the time; and reading a few chapters of an actual book.

In the afternoon, I’ve been back on teaching myself ballet and strengthening my vocals. It’s nice. I feel very healthy and like myself again, but better <3 We were born into this world to enjoy our hobbies and hopefully, ideally make money alongside those hobbies <3

Never forget that, girlies. Hard work doesn’t suit us <3

How the Boredom Epidemic Ruined Hobbies by Nicole Rudolph

[hollowwish]

List of arosepc headcanons I have below (it is quite long) (list subject to future updates/suggestions (you can send me propaganda for your blorbo))

Ford Pines - he literally just has the vibes tbh. Crazy uncle who doesn't want anyone bc he's aromantic and obsessed with portals. also it would make billford worse.

Mable Pines - she literally picks her crushes and then stops 'liking' them in week. Do you know how many aromantic people have done this.

Hollyleaf warrior cats - fallen leaves was her qpp. Okay. The website family tree is lying to you. If Lionblaze asked her when she would get married she'd respond with "I'm already married to the warrior code."

Sonic T. Hedgehog - it's in character. Sega themsleves said he would hate settling down.... (I also think hes bi)

huey dewey louie or webby duck(tales) - at least one of them is arosepc I just can't figure out which one. Or maybe it's all of them

Della duck - cool aromantic lesbian mom. She does not need a husband or a partner she just needs her ducklings (and donald ig)

lapis lazuil - ngl I was rewatching steven universe and I just had a Feeling. Also she's one of my favorite characters, so.

Rise Leo - he's like Mabel he's doing comphet. (I think he's gay aromantic specifically and just keeps mistaking "I want to be friends with this guy/wow they're attractive" with "I want to date him") (also makes the fandom wide headcanon of aro donnie really funny. Wrong twin guys..)

C!peal and c!gem - especially empires s1. Pearl being aroace and gem being arospec but she hasn't figured that out yet (insert "I'm probably nonbinary but I have a job" image)

On that note, empires 1 fwhip has and will always be demiromantic in my mind

No idea what e2 fwhip has going on but he is somewhere on the aro spectrum. Maybe it's why he's so weird abt jimmy.

ONE Jimmy solidarity character is also arosepc I just don't know which one. But one of them is i know it in my bones.

grian and scar - they are both aros who fuck and 3rd life was world shattering platonic love.

Donatello tmnt - I haven't seen every tmnt iteration but like. ONE of them is aro and it is NOT rise donnie

Scott smajor - @/funkily suggested he was cupio and it made way too much sense

Saiki kusuo - do I even need to explain this one. It's basically canon (unless it is canon and I just missed something)

Wednesday Addams - most aromantic coded girl ever and I'm going to fight netflix for making her kiss barista boy

Shadow the Hedgehog - he's arospec but has no idea bc he sucks at recognizing his own emotions. ("Im probably aromantic but i have a job and trauma")

Twilight Sparkle - if you asked her what love is she would give you the dictionary definition

Rainbow Dash - it came to me in a vision

Silver the Hedgehog - also came to me in a vision

Honorable mentions -

Oli theorionsound (suggested by sage thinkingabout-girls)

Whatever the fuck was going on with divorce quartet in double life specifically

Violet and lena saberwing ducktales

Also ducktales gosalyn

At least one of the powerpuff girls

Adrien agreste because (iirc) he sucks at romance and I need to escape love square hell

Mumbo jumbo

Arospec mythicalsausage

Maud Pie (I think if I finished mlp she'd be on the list)

[kosmokhaos]

Hi love! Your sims are GAWJUSSS. Literally breath taking. I’ve recently got back into playing ts3 and am loving it. I was wondering if you can recall the skin and/or makeup&accessories you used in Nyanaath’s makeover update here: https://www.tumblr.com/kosmokhaos/733942789751078912/i-feel-successful-now-cause-damn-ignore-the

I’ve been struggling so bad to find skins of high quality and detail that are darker hues, or eye/nose masks that don’t lose detail the deeper the shade gets. I saw that you gave a resource list of skins a few years back when Nyanaath looked a lil different, so i wasn’t sure if there was anything relatively new that you used or not. I see the pores and details in Nyanaath’s skin and am just dying to know how to get like you lmaoo

First of all, Hiii and thank you! 😁💕Happy new year! Prepare for a bit of rambling but I link to some stuff in the end.

I want to start off saying that most of my sim pics are edited to some degree, especially previous pics from the past. I'm trying to rely less on editing to make my sims looks nice, but of course there is only so much you can do in a sims game.

This is an example of what Nyanaath's skin looks like unedited. EA lighting sucks ass and looks patchy in Sims 3 on dark colored objects in general and unfortunately, sims are not excluded. I end up smoothing the discoloration and patchiness with editing 😭

Before vs After

Skins as dark as Nena's have to be made dark from the start because using a pale/light based skin and trying to use an in-game slider to darken it never turns out good in any game. Dark skin reflects light and shadows differently than light skin and needs its own already-dark base.

I will seriously consider trying to throw together a skinblend for male and female skins that are dark like this because I truly think there are none. BUUUUT LOL rambling aside I do have new recommendations for makeup and skin details since that post:

1. First up is @sourlemonsimblr for makeup. Especially for eyebrows and lipsticks! A lot of their lipsticks are insanely detailed and recolorable enough that they can fit most darker tones. Their skins are lovely too and they've even recently made a dark skin which I will💗Link Here💗. I haven't gotten a chance to play with it yet but they always have quality stuff. Take a stroll through their Downloads page because it's definitely worth it. 2. Next up for skin detail makeups is @smallsimmer. They have so many good nose makes and eye/lip details that can be recolored to use on your darker skinned sims! If you ever had a skin you really liked and wanted to switch up the nose, eyes or lips, their skin detail makeup will absolutely come in clutch. They even have a few converted for child and toddler sims (something ts3 is lacking in)💗Link Here💗 3. If you want some AF skins for darker sims that are readily available and detailed, I'd suggest @annoyinglydarkblaze I learned a lot about making skins from watching their journey into skin making a few years ago. Since they aren't as active anymore and their posts are a bit scattered I will link the skins I like best: 💗Here💗 💗Here💗 and 💗Here💗 4. My next pick for more masculine/male-centered CAS makeup and CC is @nectar-cellar Their cc has been helpful as I slowly update my male OCs. The Beards/detail makeup torso muscled-torso meshes and clothing are some of the best. 5. I also suggest @simtanico for sliders and their detail makeup. I have just about every slider they've created 😂They also make really well done maxis-match kinda styled clothes for male sims too.

I'm sure there are tons of other people I'm missing but its been a minute since I've been around simblr myself so I'll try to update this list as I go.

I'll also leave you with a little tip: Do NOT be afraid to use the opacity slider and layering with makeup on darker sims. Layering and opacity is your friend!

Happy Simming! 💗✨

[faranae]

So the mainstream media is basically bullying Biden for ratings and indirectly helping Trump's campaign. (Rant.)

It's cooling down a little now, but it's been genuinely distressing how even the more left-leaning mainstream media won't shut the fuck up about Biden doing bad at the debate.

We get it: Biden is old. But why so little coverage on all of Trump's lies through and since the debate? Because the American people already know Trump lies, and they're desensitized to it. Talking about Trump's lies doesn't get clicks. Making people angry about Biden, however, does bring in the views. Lemme say that one more time:

Reporting on Trump's lies doesn't make them as much money; Exaggerating Biden's flaws, however, does.

Americans are literally fighting to keep their democracy and these outlets only care about bringing up the same drama over and over again for ratings. They can hardly mention a single good thing Biden has done without shoehorning in at least one or two comments about how "everyone is saying he should step down." If Biden steps down, Trump will most likely win. Full stop.

The other day I was listening to 4 different mainstream news outlets talking about how "so many" Democrats in the house and senate had publicly called for Biden to step down. The total at that time? Nine people. That's 9 out of over 250 Democrats. A few more have popped up since, but that was "so many"?

It has never been so obvious that CNN was essentially taken over in the shadows a couple years ago by billionaire John Malone (who claims he's a Libertarian, but is a Trump donor who hangs with far-righters.) Watching otherwise competent newscasters and panelists resort to soap opera-levels of bad acting to push the narrative their bosses wanted was some painful secondhand embarrassment.

Another example: MSNBC, which is pretty damn left, posted the following the other day:

That sounds pretty bad, doesn't it? Here's the thing though: SEN. BLUMENTHAL LITERALLY DID NOT SAY THAT. The actual quote is as follows:

"I am deeply concerned about Joe Biden winning this November, because it is an existential threat to the country if Donald Trump wins. So I think that we have to reach a conclusion as soon as possible. And I think, Joe Biden, as the Democratic nominee, has my support."

What kind of context-shredding garbage was that, MSNBC? It's straight-up misleading; A lie through omission. But unless you were to look up the video or a full article, you'd never know that.

We get it. Biden is old. Here's the thing though: It's not only a vote for Biden, it's a vote for the Democratic administration he brings with him. Biden may be the nominee, but he is surrounded by highly educated folks who have the American people in mind rather than blind MAGA loyalty. You may not agree with some of their policy, but you cannot deny that a MAGA administration would be far, far worse.

If you haven't yet, please look up "Project 2025".

As much as it sucks being in what is essentially a 2-party system, it's what the Americans are stuck with for now. So I leave you with this:

Not voting is a free vote for Trump.

Voting third-party is a free vote for Trump.

Voting for a write-in is a free vote for Trump.

For the love of democracy, vote blue; No matter who.

/endrant

[bogginswritings]

Little Astarion blurb

Little Astarion x Tav. I haven't finished the game yet, like not even close, but I thought this was cute. I saw a couple of these prompt fly by on my tiktok fyp. I haven't written in a while, so Astarion might be a little OOC. Also, not proofread. fuck it we ball. I guess this has minor spoilers for the game?

Word count: 1000+ Summary: Astarion told Tav he doesn't remember what he looks like, Tav decides to help out.

It was his rare moment of vulnerability with me. One where I had to hold him, unable to comfort him with words. I could tell him it was okay, or that I could fix it, but the harsh reality was that I could not. Astarion knew that, I think it is why he accepted the hug. IT was the most I could offer and the best he could take.

It was in a random chest along the road I found it hidden; a sketchbook and a pencil. Some of the pages had been filled out already, drawings of animals and what not. Though there were enough empty ones left. I am far from the best artist around, but I am decent enough when I have a reference. And luckily, I had.

The lanterns around Astarion’s tent accentuated his face even more, the shadows casting over him. His features appeared even sharper. I sat by the campfire, a reasonable distance away. Thankfully, the vampire was rather focused on whatever book he was reading. He seemed to read something every single night, and I still had no clue what exactly, just that he was pretty invested in it. I was thankful for it now, though. He wasn’t exactly paying attention to his surroundings, so it didn’t look too weird when I was staring directly at him while scribbling away on the blank pages. It took me a while, wanting to make sure it was perfect, to get his features right.

When I was done and ready to show it, I suddenly doubted if it was worth it. Maybe it would look weird; you do not just draw your road companion. Right? I shrugged, to hell with it. Surely doing something with a good intention shouldn’t be a reason for him to suck me dry. Literally.

With a sigh I stood up, closing the book. I walked over to his tent, the toe of my boot nudging the pillows he was seated on. Astarion looked up, his red eyes meeting mine. Everytime I see them I wonder why it took me by surprise he is a vampire. He rested the book in his lap, an eyebrow raising, “Well, hello, darling. Is there a particularly good reason you’re interrupting a perfectly good read?”

I had to resist the urge to roll my eyes at his dramatics. Instead I flopped down on some pillows next to him, my legs crossing, “I think my mere presence is a good enough reason,” I retorted. To my amusement, I got “I can’t argue with you there” back. I let out a sigh, holding up the book, “I drew you something.”

His brows raised, an intrigued look etched onto his face, “Oh?”

I opened the book, quickly flipping through it to show it to him. He frowned as he examined the paper, taking the book from my hands, “Well, thank you for this perfectly good drawing of a goat?” He looked at me, “If this is your way of flirting with me, I have to admit you could do a lot better.”

“What?” I snatched the book from him. I had opened it on the wrong page, a drawing of a goat with some information from the previous owner drawn on it. “Shit-” I muttered, trying to quickly flip to the correct page. My calloused hands, however, had some trouble actually grabbing onto the correct page. It took some colorful curses and angry fingers, but soon I had the right page in front of me, a drawing of the man before me on it. I handed it back to Astarion, “That wasn’t- This is what I drew you.”

His hands took it again, his eyes widening as he skimmed over the page. I held my breath as he did. With this elf, any reaction was to be expected. He is not always the most predictable, to say the least. “You drew this?”

My eyes met his again, and I nodded as I slowly let out that breath, “Yeah.”

It was silent for a brief moment, though I felt like maybe time had stopped and it just started playing again. “Why?” he asked.

“You told me you haven’t seen what you look like in a long time. I don’t know- I guess I wanted to show you. I’m sorry if that’s weird- or creepy. I didn’t-” I was cut off, the breath pushed out of me as he lurched forward. My initial thought was that he definitely did think it was creepy and now came to fucking eat me, or something, but instead his arms wrapped around me. His embrace was cold, but it still warmed my cheeks and I could feel my heart increasing speed. I then realized my hands were stiff next to my body, and I decided to return the hug.

“Thank you,” his breath tickled my neck, “I forgot what I looked like, what others saw when they looked at me. You just gave that back to me.” With a sigh he pulled away, a grin on his face as he looked at the drawing, “I’m so beautiful, you must be horribly in love with me.”

I snorted and rolled my eyes, “Oh, totally. Simply irresistible.”

“Exactly what I thought,” he chuckled, “Oh, and darling, if this is your way of flirting with me, I’d be lying if I said it isn’t working.”

I could feel the flush return to my cheeks, I was sure he saw it, too. “Of course it does, I’m a treat. Prettier than you, even,” I retorted. His hand flew to his heart, “How you hurt me,” he said, “Now, if you will; you could use your rest, and I was getting to quite a cliffhanger before you decided to interrupt me,” he glanced at me, “Though for good reason.”

I smiled and was about to get up, before I felt a surge of confidence. I sat on my knees. One of my hands came under his chin, my fingers tilting it up as I leaned down to place a kiss on his cheek. “Goodnight, Astarion,” I whispered, before rising to my feet and walking to my bedroll. As I got comfortable in my sleeping bag, I saw Astarion caressing the drawing from the corner of my eye.

[markantonys]

Reading Lord of Chaos now and there's SO much good Gawene content. "Rare was the man who wanted to marry a woman who, with the Power, could handle him like a child if she chose." Well this man likes it!!

It feels weird to me that people hate him, because malewives are such an important part of the Wheel of Time world of gender relationships, and Gawyn is the Ultimate Malewife.

LOC was the book that first got me truly invested in gawyn and in gawene! and what a top-tier line that i'd forgotten!! rare is the man who wants to marry a woman who could handle him like a child but gawyn is over here going "mommy? sorry. mommy?" god bless him. he IS the Ultimate Malewife! he's crucial to the ecosystem!

it truly is baffling that he is the #1 Most Hated WOT Character. he doesn't do anything! at most i could see people finding him boring or annoying, but the level of hatred directed at him just makes no sense. most of the Reasons Why Gawyn Sucks posts i see are just people deliberately interpreting everything he does in the most uncharitable light possible, or hating him for things that they straight up made up and that did not happen in the text lmao

but also, getting briefly into a couple instances of Narrative Malpractice (to use @butterflydm's recently-coined phrase) re: gawyn later in the series. if i'm remembering correctly, you know most/all spoilers but this is your first time reading the series, so i'm putting a cut here to be safe - i don't mention any big spoilers though, just a few things that may not make total sense if you haven't read the book in question haha (mostly with TOM and point #2)

i feel like the biggest actual, not-made-up-by-haters issues are 1) gawyn was sooooo slowburned because his storyline can't move forward until egwene's does and hers can't move forward until the ta'veren boys' do and mat is busy getting walls dropped on him and fucking around in a circus for 4 books and killing the pacing, and so the ripple effect out from that makes it feel like gawyn is sitting around stewing in indecision for way longer than he actually is.

and 2) when sanderson took over, he brought with him a hell of a lot of real-world patriarchy-rooted assumptions of what it means to be a prince, and applied those to gawyn in a way that does not make sense since gawyn is a prince in a matriarchal society (or rather, in a country with matriarchal royal succession; culturally, andor is definitely not a full matriarchy despite what reddit believes). so he invented this whole arc of "gawyn needs to learn how to be a warder instead of a prince aka how to step out of the spotlight and live in a woman's shadow" but as the son of the reigning queen and brother & protector to the future queen, gawyn was literally raised from birth to be in a woman's shadow instead of holding the spotlight himself. this is not an issue for him. he literally swore the oath "my blood shed before hers, my life given before hers" as a toddler and was raised with that mentality, which translates pretty fuckin directly to being a warder and being in the shadow of a woman who's more important than him!

but sanderson assumes that a prince would struggle to play second fiddle to an aes sedai, because that would be the case for a prince raised in a patriarchal royal family. which is a shame because it leads to takes like "gawyn hates that egwene is more powerful than him" which is patently untrue for his original characterization, as you point to with this line straight out of RJ's mouth! (and even for his sanderson characterization it's patently untrue since the conclusion of that arc is that gawyn DOES happily step into egwene's shadow.) it's also a shame because that struggle between his identity & duty as a prince vs. as a warder could have been really interesting, but sanderson approached it from the wrong angle. alas!

in conclusion, the only things wrong with gawyn are things that are the authors' fault, but gawyn himself has done nothing wrong ever in his life <3 i have faith that the show can bring more people around to him! especially because galad will be there being so rancid in comparison as a show!whitecloak.

[kwaggysshardmindemporium]

Okay so all my fellow Arcane fans Riot uploaded a cinematic that seems to simultaneously be a preview for the next show and for League's next ranked season. (To be clear, this is not any kind of announcement for the next show's release date.) Even without any concrete news it's still pretty hype.

For some reason I've decided to do a breakdown of the characters in here for people with less familiarity with this nonsense than me below the break:

First and foremost I really like most of the redesigns. Most. Not gonna lie I hate what they did to Vlad but also Vlad sucks so who cares. Everything else, aces I love it.

Bit of a primer on Noxus as a setting: think ancient Rome if they had the aesthetics of the barbarians who *sacked* ancient Rome. They bill themselves as a true meritocracy where you get by on your own strength and wit or you fucking die. This has exactly all the problems you immediately just thought of with that philosophy. Riot keeps trying to make them a nuanced counterbalance to their in-setting rival nation Demacia, but can't seem to escape the pull of how bad guy coded everything about them was when the game first came out.

First character to appear is Mel. I'm not recapping Mel. If you're reading this, it's probably because you like Arcane and know who the fuck Mel is. She rules, moving on.

Couple of characters who appear in more detail further in. We'll get to them.

That dude with the huge fuckoff axe is Darius. Higher-up in the Noxian military. Boring as shit. This trailer is literally the coolest he's ever been in anything they've done with him and he's only kinda interesting here. He has a brother who is roughly eight gazillion times more fun to talk about but does not appear in this trailer. He's (Darius) basically the stereotypical square-jawed slab of meat hero, if such a guy was from a place run by shitbags incentivizing shitbaggery.

The dude he's fighting? That's Trundle. Not from Noxus, but the neighboring country of Freljord. He's king of the trolls, and also a servant/thrall/pawn of one of the ladies vying for power over that region. He's a brute and a villain and words cannot describe my seething contempt for the retcons that occurred to *make* him a brute and a villain but that's its own post.

That lady dancing in a mask then busting out some knives? That's Katarina. She's the daughter of a major Noxian noble who was assassinated, and she's on a vengeance quest to find his killer and return the favor. She has an on-again off-again thing with a character not in this trailer who acts as Darius's foil, a bodyguard/minion also not appearing named Talon, and a sister who's half snake. I literally do not know what the present lore reason for the sister being a snake is these days because I know it's been retconned and I haven't checked.

The spider lady she's fighting? That's Elise. I *think* she's a member of the Black Rose (mentioned in Arcane S2 but not fleshed out much) but don't quote me. Her whole thing is luring nobles who want a piece of that action off to their deaths when she does all sorts of evil sacrifices with them.

And lastly, we have Vladimir and LeBlanc. Vlad looks like a vampire but very explicitly isn't. He's a blood mage. Which is a totally different thing. Totally different. 100% not the same thing. He just looks talks dresses and acts like Count Dracula for fun and because it's kind of on vibe with the whole blood magic thing. (I'm making fun of them not making him a vampire in setting, but not exaggerating.) He works for LeBlanc.

And LeBlanc. She's a master manipulator and illusionist, head of the Black Rose. Honestly, she doesn't have a ton a of development beyond "she effectively rules Noxus from the shadows with an army of altar egos she can illusion herself into." So I cannot fucking wait to see what they do with her. Like, right before Arcane S2 dropped a buddy of mine asked me what I'd want them to do next and my number one answer WAS "a Game of Thrones-y drama in Noxus with LeBlanc as either a main protagonist or a main antagonist." This is exactly what I wanted. My personal hype is through the fucking roof.

[highfantasy-soul]

i saw your post about wanting to make a fix-it fic for the legendborn series and i loved how you mentioned that you wanted to critique the corrupt system that isn't criticized in the books. I haven't read the books, I should clarify. But after seeing a weird amount of stories where corrupt systems don't get the narrative analysis they deserve and sweep everything under the rug by putting one of its oppressed minorities at the top......it's so refreshing to see posts like yours critiquing that. It's frustrating when books will take all this time to set up an oppressive political system and then just do nothing with it. like are we not considering the implications of what YOU (the author) just told us?

I don't know you, but I believe you'll dissect this set-up well. hope you're doing well :)

Thank you so much! And yeah, it's one of the main reasons I took a step back from YA fantasy - the 'corrupt system' trope is done so much and resolved so poorly (let's just put OUR person in charge (who is almost always a literal child with no experience leading anything) and it's all good now) that I was hoping, with the rave reviews Legendborn got, that it would take the story in a different direction, show a different perspective.

I think a lot of authors get caught up in the aesthetic of it all and forget they just brought up serious social/systemic issues that people really want to engage with and when the author doesn't engage, it's really disappointing.

Even an open-ended 'this sucks and I don't know how to fix it' is better than the 'actually, being born with the 'good blood' IS the thing that makes you special and let's ignore the bad system because we got a diversity win!'

I think we're all just chasing the high of The Hunger Games and authors are forgetting that Katniss was a figurehead who didn't want to be there and the 'rebellion' was corrupt as well. Katniss didn't end up ruler of Panem - she was a traumatized kid used and abused and there was no glorious 'now everything is alright' system change. (I think it's a reason that, while I had massive issues with the Shadow and Bone trilogy, I really like how the last book and ending of it was handled)

I get authors wanting a happier ending, but surface-level changes to the system creating a perfect future just feels mocking at this point

[cheese-anon-real]

New Year's Cheese

2023 has been one wild ride of a year for me Writer content in the latter half of this, below the cut!! do be warned! So. In 2023 I went from Cheese the Anon Asker to Cheese-Anon-Real. I’ve formed what I like to consider my little family, with the Sparda Boys and my fellow anons! Gods below I am so grateful for all of you, you made the last like, 3-4 months of the year so much better. Got sent to Space Jail twice, broke out twice with help Found Kaz again!!! Already touched on the family, but just Met Dante, Nero, and Vergil, absolutely love them to bits(Please be alive over there, Vergil, and not split in 2. Urizen’s cool and all but good god I wanted to shadow your devil hunting so bad when I got free) and Griffon I miss you come back you dumbass ball of feathers where’d you GO- Azuree may not be an anon but gods below, do I love them!! They’re such a sweetie like wth Joker, Fresa, Queen and her daughter Kaylee, and Candy have won my hearts, as my funny little family. You’re all being adopted by me now, face your future hell with me. UwU or smth idfk Am I an UwU-ass bitch or an OwO-ass bitch? Partner says it depends lolol. On what? Who knows. I love them so much too, they’re my world. I’ve had a lot of fun meeting you all, and I hope to hell and back that we keep up these silly little interactions over the next year. I know it hasn’t been perfect, but here’s to a good ‘24 for us all! Thank you for literally existing. I hope the other anons join the official family soon. Happy New Year, @pizzalover8969, @thebestsonofsparda, @thebluerose, @the-thunder-chicken, @azureedoodles, @anonjoker, @bizcochodefresa, @anonymousqueenofrandom, @princessanonofrandom, @therealcandyanon, and finally, @reece-piece-puff

sorry if the @'s is a bad move or I like, piss some of you off with it ;;

Love, Cheese(Roseanna)

P.S. I promise I'll get on writing my lore soon, I just haven't had much time :')

Reminder; Writer Content is Below The Cut. Beware!!!

2023 was even wilder for me than it was for Cheese lmfao.

I finally got into DMC this year, after being drawn in by Gura and the OST in summer of ‘21. On a family vacation, at that! Finally played 5, beat it, beat it again as Vergil. Played 3, beat it with some help from my partner. Started a Vergil run of 3, and started 1, never finished either, because life kinda got crazy Started playing C.O.D??? Somehow?? Never thought I’d play a C.O.D. game but here I am and I like the campaign for the MW2 remake, I suck ass at it but that’s a me problem lmao Got into therapy, finally, actually working on my problems now and really happy about it Went through several Vtuber avatar designs, finally settled on one I like and I’m almost done with it!!! Just gotta struggle through the hair, hand toggles, and the face! Wow!! Went through endless self-discovery, thought I might be trans(I am in fact not trans, I am Fluid! As far as I know. Still working on that. And other things, but one step at a time!! FINALLY reunited with my two best friends. In person. In another state. One of em, I've known since we were 11 and they moved away when we were 13. I had never hung out with them outside of school, and they introduced me to my other best friend, who came up to my state to meet me in late spring of ‘21, hadn’t seen them since. That friend actually paid for the trip themself, because I went through a god-awful breakdown for a solid 2 weeks and tried to. Isolate myself from everyone I love. But thankfully they talked me out of it and got me back into the group, got me going again when I was at probably my second lowest point since I was a preteen. Got oddly close with another friend while I was there, met the majority of my friend group, and now that friend I got close with is EASILY my third best friend! Not third-best, they are also a best friend and I love them so much?? We hyperfixate on like, all the same things. Dragged them into loving Ghost(band) and they’re dragging me into Scott Pilgrim! Woohoo, here we go! Left my friend group like a month ago because one of them is uh. Not. the best? But only sometimes. They don’t have bad intentions and they’re not outright toxic I don’t think, but I uh. Got kinda sick of their sense of humor. Not always funny, kinda mean to a certain other member. Not always though. But like we can work on it when I go back its fiiiiiiine! Learned communication to a degree, holy shit I hate talking about my problems, oh my god please I don’t need help I’m just a burden anyway(I’m working on it, don’t come at me with support I’ll get there with my family and friends eventually. Not attention-seeking here, I’m building my support group as I go.) Had 13 house emergencies!!!! Will list them! Woo! 1 - water heater leak 2 - gas leak 3 - roof leak again(we had a roof leak in ‘22) 4 - house flood 2 electric boogaloo(house flooded like a week after my partner moved in, in ‘22, before I arrived) 5 - flood 3 6 - roof leak 3 7 - roof leak 4 8 - heater died 9 - bathroom door handle fell off the door for literally no reason 10 - house flood 4 11 - roof leak 5 12 - house flood 5 House Flood 5 caused us to get renovations in the organized housing, and after that, they just straight up moved us to a new house. We had 8 fffffffucking days to get the hell out of our house and into the new one. Like, they actually put the time constraint on us. So funny of them! AND THEN THE NEW ONE DIDN’T HAVE SHUT-OFF VALVES FOR EITHER OF THE HOSE SPIGOTS AND WE HAD TO GET THAT HANDLED BUT THEY DIDN’T HANDLE IT. HELP. BROTHER WE ARE TRYING TO FOLLOW THE RULES. WHY ARE YOU FORBIDDING US. so. 13 - no shut off-valves(technically an ‘emergency’ bc the pipes could freeze and then burst) Got summoned for Jury Duty in my parents’ state! IN THE TIME WHERE WE WEREN’T CERTAIN WHEN THE CONTRACTORS WERE COMING. OR IF WE WOULD BE IN THE SAME HOUSE NEXT WEEK. JESUS CHRIST. But, did also get to go on another family vacation. We got to watch the Perseids! I saw a possum there. Literally loved that so much.

Also got SUUUUPER into Ghost(band) in the last like 3 weeks and I'm head over heels for 99% of their songs that I've listened to?? Hell yeah.

It’s been an intense year of ups and downs, but I’m really determined to turn my life around for the better, now. I’m gonna put my all into actually improving my health, both physical and mental/emotional. I didn’t want that to be like, a new year resolution, it just kinda lined up with the new year.

[sleepy-crows]

So, @calamitaswrath tagged me for some tag game about video game backlogs... Personally, I prefer the name "pile of shame", but here we go I guess. Note: These 'lists' are in no particular order.

So first, there are my "running projects", means games I started and I am also technically playing currently or taking a break from:

Boktai-Series: To keep it short, the second Game in that Series is my favorite video game ever! And I started replaying it recently. I also want to play the third game which only ever released in Japan, so I need to find a patched rom for that... And then there is the Fan-Made 5th entrie in the Series, called Kura5 (go check it out right now!) which recently got finished, so that's also on my bucket list.

YU-GI-OH GX Spiritcaller: I already forgot again what brought me back into old school Yu-Gi-Oh, but this is the game I currently spend the most time for. I finally have a somewhat working Deck that's specialiced on a single type! Lets see how long I will see it through before I put it away again because I end up only grinding for better cards (which is still playing the Card-Game, so...)

Armored Core VI: My very first AC-Game since I am already done with the Soulsborne-Games. A nioce, typical Fromsoft-Game, with cool robots. I am also somewhat capable to handle the face paced combat. I paused it because I started Baldur's Gate

Baldur's Gate III: Everybody talked about the game and I like the DnD-Setting. Turns out it is only half the fun if you're going at it alone and your OC has no agenda/backstory whatsoever (or any lines besides Dialog-Options). It seems also quite big and has to many decisions. That's scary. For some reason it doesn't scratch that itch for me like it apparently is for everybody else...

Pokémon Crystal: I started it on the N64 when everybody talked about Pokémon Violet and the other red color. It's way better than these, I still need to do Kanto, but I am kinda drustrated that I can't find a Waterstone for my Eevee.

The Legend of Zelda - Tears of the Kingdom: I still think taking the weapon durability-'feature' from Fire Emblem and put it into a Zelda-Game is dumb. Sure, finding new weapons because your old ones broke is a good way to fill an open world, but it is annoying. Even when the vehicle/warmachine-building is funny (tho I suck at it), I prefer the old, classic way with like 10+ dungeons per game.

Final Fantasy XVI - There is the DLC which I haven't played yet but I already started another run to get there!

Final Fantasy XIV - Dawntrail: For how much I love this game, it is surprising that I am still at the beginning of the expansion. But Viper is cool and fun to play, it really did take over the Dragoons spot for me (but I will never forget you Dragoon-Job, my one true love. And I am still the better Azure Dragoon!) But I actually told myself that this is the next game I'm gonna finish!

Elden Ring - Shadow of the Erdtree: Remember how I said I finished the Soulsborne-Games? Welp, the DLC for Elden RIng is still not done, I tend to get lost in this world... So my problem beating this game is literally that I can't find the way. So I either have to keep smashing my head against walls until I find the right path, or to get a friend of mine roped in to show me the way (And no, looking it up online is not an option!) The game I probably will actually finish next, sorry FFXIV.

Dragon's Dogma 2: Kinda on a weird spot here. I literally finished the game this morning, but the ending was a bit odd and there is at leats one Trophy still open which kinda hints at and alternative ending, or at leats a kinda important quest I haven't done. So I might play it again. Tho it took me like 100 hours playtime to beat it....

Remnant - From the Ashes: It's a Souls-like, with guns. I like those games and it's fun. No idea why I haven't finished it yet. Probably because I wanted to play it with friends but they never have time or stuff!

Little Witch Nobeta: A witch themed Souls-like with a cute little witch as Protagonist. The combat is also neat and fun and it has some good puzzles in it too. I really wanna finish this game somewhat soon. Or even start playing it for real.

Astral Chain: My biggest blemish. I bought this games year ago when it came out and even pulled through to the endgame. I think I am in the last or pre-last chapter of it? But for some reason I put it to hold and when I picked it up some time ago again, I had no idea how to play. So I ghuess I have to go through it all again to relearn the mechanics and everything. Which is something I masterfully procrastionate right now.

The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles: I am on the third case currently. I thought the Cases in the Phoenix Wright games have a tendancy to get extended, but these right here are on a whole different level!

Touhou - Mystia's Izakaya: A funny, pretty and cute spin-off. And the Touhou-Game that apparently will get the first "official" anime, at least non that's fanmade.

Touhou - Imperishable Night: It's the eight game in the mainline touhou series. You know, the games with all the bullets that are near impossible to dodge and have little to no Yuri in it. I will finish this game at least on normal difficulty some day! And people say Dark Souls is hard...

There are also a couple of games (mostly Metroidvania-games or other Souls-likes) I have started and not finished yet, but if I start naming them all, this will get to long.

Then there is the "Next-in-line"-list of games, means games I bought but haven't even started yet:

Star Wars Jedi Survivor: The first game was nice. It's Star Wars and a Souls-like, so the combat is also neat. No idea why I haven't even started it yet. Oh right, there are already several other games on the burner.

Esperia ~ Uprising of the Scarlet Witch: A Fire Emblem-like. Looks cool and stuff, bought it year sago when it released. Haven't touched it yet. Don't ask me why.

Ender Lilies: A Metroidvania I was looking forward to for a long time. Then it released, i bought it and never even started it yet. I always tell myself: I'll finish that game first before I start this one too. Works good!

Honestly, I think listing those games is also futile. I have a really bad habit of buying games and never really playing them. My steam library has roughly 250 games in it. How many have I finished of those? Like 15 maybe? And I am sure 5 of these are VNs. Okay, I got a couple Rogue-lites and Farmsims and Survival-games, so these don't really have an end, but my point still stands.

And then there is the list of games I call "Uh-oh, there's more coming", means games that I actually haven't bought or aren't released yet but I do wanna play them:

Xenoblade Chronicles X - I have played the game for the WiiU, never finished it, but that's because I kinda softlocked myself in the very last mission right before the final boss-battle(s). I also never really understood the Combat-system or how to improve the Skells correctly. So I want to try it again on the Switch!

Final Fantasy VII - Remake Part 3: I NEED to know how it ends! The first part teased us with it maybe taking a different path than the original game, which brings up my hopes as the typical Zack-enjoyer, but the second part seemed like it pulled the rug from under our feet and goes back to the original route, so I really want to know how it goes on! (also I never played the original game, only all the spin-offs, but I know it's story. But with the end of Part 2 also ends my somehwhat informed knowledge about the story. All I know about the last part is that there is an infamous snowboarding minigame that's mandatory, Sephi calling down a huge ass meteor and then getting beaten up by Cloud in the lifestream.)

Monster Hunter Wilds: Looks like it has some more than overdue improvments in it's bags and I like these games in general. Even more if I can play them with friends.

Monomyth: it's a King's Field-like (King's Field are the games FromSoft made before AC and the Souls-Games) and it looked pretty fun and liek something new when IronPineapple introduced it in one of his videos.

Castlevania: I especially wanna play Alucard's game. But also the one with Shanoa looks quite interesting. I like those types of games and also retro games, so I just wait for this Dominus Collection to have a good price, then I'll probably buy it. When I might play them is a totally different question.

Ace Attorney Investigation: I played the first part as a rom on my phone, I wanna play the second game too! Playing as Miles is a nice change of pace and Kay is the best weird little girl side-kick in my opinion!

Honestly, this list would also get to long if I keep naming every game, my evidence: My Steam-Wishlist is over 100 entries long. And that's just steam, leaving out Nintendo and Play Station-exclusive titles...

So, after all that unnecessary rambling, I guess I have to tag some other people now too? Pretty sure nobody cares about my opinions and plans and will spend the time to read my stuff. So, if you made it until here, congratulations, feel yourself tagged!

[y0orpth]

@zombearzy tagged me in sum silly thing so I GUESS I will do it (I am bored) love u/p

3 Ships

I don't exactly ship anything that doesn't have to do with OC's, but for this, I will try to keep it to Canon characters only. Is it a coincidence all of these have to do with characters I kin strongly? Probably not. I obsess over specific characters when I kin them. that is probably the reason LMAO.

• Donatello x Casey Jones (TMNT 2012)

My one and only. To be honest, I haven't been that into shipping recently other than Jonatello. You can't look at those two boys and tell me there isn't gay tension. They totally want to kiss and hold hands secretly.

• Papyrus x Mettaton (Undertale)

An OG!!!!!!!! Dumb little guy pulls hottest hunk known to man! Metatton so got nervous holding his hand, and when Papyrus asked him what was wrong, he said it was just a robot thing and he wouldn't understand (He was feeling gay).

• Tillman x Glenn (BKMN)

Literally, my only reasoning for this is that I kin Tillman and Glenn is so hot. My baby girl. He would cuddle Tillman all day... little guys..

First Ship

I don't really know, If I were to guess it would probably be some cringey thing all the way back from the first fandoms I was in when I was around 11. Either something like Bonnie x Chica (FNAF), Toriel x Sans (Undertale), or Frisk x a friends minecraft OC (Undertale). Tbh it was probably Frisk and the friends OC, it was such a cute ship. Maybe ill make a OC based off that somehow :3.

Last Song

The last song I listened to is My First Kiss by 3OH!3!!! This is quite shocking because I usually only listen to Set It Off, Falling in Reverse, and Pierce the Veil. But I guess I'm just in a silly little mood right now!

Last Movie

The last movie I watched was probably the new Ninja Turtle movie, Mutant Mayhem. I watched it like 3 times in theaters, LMAO, and I don't watch/pay attention to movies when I'm watching them in someone's home.

Currently Reading

Currently, I'm reading the TMNT IDW comics! I got the book with the comics 1-12 , so right now I'm reading that, and when I'm done, I'll buy the second book! if it's not obvious yet, I have a very big hyperfixation with TMNT right now.

Currently Watching

Currently I am watching a couple shows! TMNT 2012, obviously, as well as Brooklyn 99 and What We Do In The Shadows. I've already watched Brooklyn 99 multiple times before, but I love how funny it is :3. What We Do In The Shadows is my favorite so far, though. It's a mix between Brooklyn 99 and The Office, only with vampires!! It's a bit sexual (mostly jokes, nothing super explicit) but it makes it funny so I think it's great!

Currently Consuming

Currently? Nothing. Just some water, but I'm about to make some chicken wings! or if my sister already got to them, I'll make some bacon :3

Currently Craving

Poutine. God I want pouting so bad right now, or some popcorn chicken. I'm craving so much! Cookies and cream milkshake.. Cookie dough blizzard.... Noodles!!!!!!! rahh!!! I want to eat the world!!!!

Now.. I will tag....

no one!! L!! suck it!!!!! I don't know anyone on tumblr. I'm just chillin' like a villain.

[utilitycaster]

I'm still early in act 2 for my second go (Save Minrathous) so I can't speak to everything but honestly I think the problem is that with the Shadow Dragons, there ARE a bunch of people around, but they're mostly leadership. Marisa is in the basement, which you could very easily miss; Quillon shows up in one quest; and everyone else is a faction agent or a magister/ex-magister and (spoilers) makes it to the end and survives if you play your cards right, even in a Save Treviso game. Meanwhile, there's SO many named Crows around that are unavoidable and several have died of blight in the Save Minrathous questlines in pretty heartbreaking ways no less. This might be influenced by the fact that I did a Save Treviso playthrough first but like it SUCKS that Jacobus hates me and is dying and Heir is dead and I had to mercy-kill a blighted Chance Candide after telling him Fletcher is dead. And more generally, there's almost no ambient chatter in the Shadow Dragons safe house! There's no Fledglings Timetri and Dartonia whom you have to pass pretty much every time you go out! Tarquin and Mae have one long conversation with you each, but otherwise the dialogue if you engage is literally just "Rook!" and "You good?" whereas Teia and Viago are chatty as hell. It just feels empty, and I'm playing a Shadow Dragon!

I haven't done The Soul of a City yet which I'm excited for, and to be clear, The Cobbled Swan Case is MUCH better in a save Minrathous run and I'm VERY excited for the heroic Neve option and you absolutely feel the difference with Neve, but honestly, a little ironically, while Lucanis holds you abandoning Treviso against you much more than Neve does for Dock Town, and the Shadow Dragons hold you abandoning them against you much more than the Crows do, because the Shadow Dragons simply disappear until endgame and like, none of them have names except the leaders and the choice happens very early in the game I feel like it just doesn't hit the same way. Like...it's not like Dock Town is unaffected, and the Shadow Dragons disappear because, to be clear, there was a raid and many of them are dead, but with the exception of Lorelei (and you only have a sense of Lorelei if you bought something - which to be clear I did - or brought Harding for one of the few pre-dragon quests) it's a red shirt (red sash?) problem. The city isn't choked with blight (the catacombs quest happens either way), the central marketplace isn't a field hospital, and while I suppose this could be a commentary on blindness to the horrors of war, the wagons of dead felt much more missable than the massive blight boils and darkspawn and destroyed public spaces. You can still go to the Minrathous cat cafe like everything's normal in a Save Treviso run; you really can't avoid that the Treviso market is full of the dying or that Chance Candide (RIP, mustache king) heroically went out in a blaze of glory or that I'm pretty sure the endgame Treviso quest will be different because Jacobus hates you and is almost certainly blighted.

will have to make a post when CR is not on in 3 minutes but I do stand by my argument that you feel Treviso being blighted much harder now that I'm midway through a Save Minrathous Run. This doesn't mean there is an obvious answer; Neve's throughline is very different and I haven't gotten to the big political set piece, but essentially, a fallen Minrathous is marked by an absence and a fallen Treviso is marked by you having to find blighted Crows and put them out of their misery and I think the latter is much more visceral.

[crazypotatofan]

It was supposed to be an attack for @ampreh but I was soooo tired and had no motivation at all because of my work that I finished it in AUGUST (just now :'))

Coal belongs to ampreh, obviously.

[scarfacemarston]

Hey there. So I've been following your blog for a while and I don't know who to ask. I've been in the fandom for about seven months and no matter what I do, I can't seem to break into the fandom. I haven't been able to interact with many people and my writing seems to get nowhere. Have I done something wrong? Am I just not a good writing? What should I do?

That is a tough question and I feel for you. I really do. I’m just as frustrated and have been since I joined the fandom. I know tons of other people are in your boat, even some of the bigger blogs have talked about this. I doubt your writing sucks. It really is hit or miss here. I don’t really have any advice, sadly. A lot of this is stuff out of your control. Part of it may be that the fandom is three years old and a lot of people have moved on. This also happens to artists, role players, people who do original photo edits and those who share youtube content. TLDR: It’s luck, algorithms, who the fandom chooses to interact with, character choices and format. 

I have a few ideas as to what may be happening. Please realize I am not coming for individuals, but I am pointing out trends. First of all, fandoms and people, in general, are entitled. I think all of us are to a certain extent and many of us may not realize it. But I’ve seen people in this fandom be especially entitled and rude whether it’s through requests or criticisms. I rarely get a please or thank you and I just delete the rude ones outright.

One: this doesn’t quite exactly deal with being rude or entitled, but I feel like it relates in some ways. Some people RARELY like content and it is even more rare to reblog. Reblogging is literally how people see your work. Even then, a lot of people don’t tag what they reblog so showing up in tags is another way we as creators “survive” so to speak. I can’t fix that. No one can. It’s not great in this fandom and that’s one of the reasons why some people move on. However, all fandoms have this to a certain extent.This is out of your control. Two: Tumblr’s algorithm sucks. It really does and there is no rhyme or reason. I don’t understand why that is or how to fix it. Some of my favorite blogs don’t get the attention they should and I think that is in part because of the algorithm. If you haven’t posted for a while, I noticed the algorithm gets worse. I took a few months break and it took ages until my stuff started showing up. I had that just happen a few weeks ago when I briefly opened my requests. It didn’t show up in the tags. There is no way to fix that.

Three: People can be shadow-banned and not know it. I don’t quite understand the process myself, but someone suggested a while back that I may have had that happen to me because my stuff wasn’t showing up in the tags at all. I know it’s something that trolls do - some people will gang up and report you and so you get kind of soft banned. (please feel free to correct me, anyone.)

Four: Do you write for what some may consider a niche character or controversial ones? Niche people seem to include Mary-Beth, Kieran, Rev. Swanson, Tilly, and Lenny. (hmmmm I wonder what the last two have in common…..)

If so, people tend to ignore those characters because I noticed the tags are empty. Five: Controversial characters - Everyone knows Micah is a controversial character. Dutch is as well, however, I think he and Arthur have the most fans out of anyone. Now if you’re a Molly, Karen, Grimshaw or Abigail stan, you’re shit out of luck because again - what does this last set have in common? They’re women. This fandom is very sexist and one of the most sexist ones I’ve been. Abigail and Molly are especially controversial. I deal with Abigail a lot and that is actually because others were making anti-sex work and nasty sexist comments so I wanted to correct that. I didn’t mean for it to happen, but it did because I was trying to slow that down so my blog is known for that rather than my writing. If you’re a Charles, Sean, Javier, Dutch, Arthur or any of the other mains - you tend ot have it easier,- but there is more competition. Some of these tags may also have a lot more fighting and drama. Abigail, John, and Dutch seem to have a lot of people arguing. Josiah, Hosea and Sadie seem to be wild cards. 

Six: For some people who have been around What are you known for in the fandom? Do people find you controversial? I think I have that status and that’s part of my issue. If you’re newer and haven’t gotten into any drama, that shouldn’t be the issue.

Seven: People rarely interact with each other or at least, that is what I have noticed with me and a few blogs I really like.

Eight: Finally, Formatting. This is the oddest one to me and it shouldn’t be the case. Again, I will be clear that I am not coming for bloggers themselves. They earned their success, too. But pictures. I write a lot of meta. I don’t know if people think I’m elitist or anything by how I write because it can be academic. However, I work very hard on meta.and for many, I rarely get the views, interaction,s or reblogs I wish I got. Yet people can put in one picture or more and get hundreds of likes and reblogs. A picture shouldn’t make a difference in if people read or like your content or not. My only guess is that it breaks it up and people are less intimidated by that rather than seeing a block of text. But it’s very frustrating because people like myself or others work JUST as hard as anyone else and yet something so simple makes such a difference. My metas take sometimes hours to write and have true historical research. I’ve even had similar questions with my opinions and others have similar opinions. I’m not at all saying they stole it - not at all - we agree, but their work gets noticed and mine doesn’t It’s not just me and it’s not just you, anon. It’s a lot of people. I cant add pics to some of my posts because it would be rude to have such a long post and make it longer with pics. I learned this was the case because out of all my metas, the one that has the most interaction is one with a picture. I’m serious. It is the same with people writing headcanons or fanfics, if you have a picture or gif, you’ll get more attention. I know that sounds ridiculous, but that’s the trend I’ve noticed. Overall: It’s not fair, but you can’t control what people read or how they interact. If you put pictures in and your work is shorter, then you might find more success. That’s my only suggestion and maybe I should take that advice.

I know people are going to say I’m whining, and maybe I am, but I have the right to be frustrated with how my content is received, just like how you, anon is concerned and how people have been talking for ages. I mean literally, tons of people in this fandom have talked about this people from newer blogs to even some of the “biggest” blogs here. Everyone wants to feel like they matter.

It could also be as simple as for whatever reason out of your control, people don’t like what you write. For some of my stuff, that is probably the case, especially since I have some hot takes.

So I wish I could give you more help. I really wish I could. But these are at least some reasons why your writing may not be getting traction. I’ll put tags and see if anyone else has suggestions or ways to fix it.

I have a feeling that I’ll get some interesting messages and anons because of this. I might be unfollowed and I can’t stop you. However,  if anyone starts sending me abusive asks, you will be blocked. Plain and simple. I was asked to give my opinion after being here for over three years and watching  many blogs say the SAME thing. So if you’re going to come for me, you have a lot of other blogs to come for, too. These are just my observations.