#I was otherwise very careful with them

[quantomeno]

This reminds me of a story:

When I was a kid my family and I went to Thailand for a holiday and for whatever reason I decided to bring the DS lite (I say 'the' DS lite because at this point my siblings and I each had our own DSis but the DS lite was shared because we had an R4 card which only worked on it, so we would all use it to play the games only on it, and this is probably why I chose to bring it specifically rather than my DSi). I didn't use it much (because, well, why would you play video games when you can swim in the pool? I still kick myself for bringing it to Thailand because it was so pointless but I was a kid and it seemed like a good idea to have something to play if I got bored for whatever reason).

On the way home, for whatever reason some security woman at the Thai airport opened up my luggage and was poking around in it (I don't know if it was just some random search or what but I think it was just random) and she takes out my DS and looks at it. But the thing is, she's wearing like disposable gloves and the DS lite has a glossy exterior. It's slippery already and with the gloves it'd be worse and the device slips out of her hands and hits the hard airport floor. We get a bit 'oh, hey!' with her and she's clearly embarrassed and stuff and we just pack up the suitcase again and move on (it was kind of funny in that the search ended so quickly because it didn't seem she was done yet, but I think she wanted it to be over after that kerfuffle). Anyway, checking it later, the DS was broken on the right side, at the hinge bit, but it was just the plastic bit around the hinge that held it in place. So it was a little loose, but it was still held in place.

So OK, no big deal.

But as time wore on, it got looser and looser, until the screen would go kind of red if you moved it too much. But it was OK, if you just jiggled it a bit eventually it'd sort itself out.

But then as time wore on further, it got worse and worse and worse. Now it's permanently red.

Which was a shame, because of the R4 thing. We had a number of games only on there.

But then one day we found a second hand DS lite in an op shop and so we bought it. And that one worked pretty well, except its microphone was broken.

OK not many games use the microphone, right? But one of the games we really loved on the R4 was Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, and in the final case you have the ability to test for fingerprints, which requires you to blow away the dust. Which would be ok because normally you can just exit the fingerprint test thing, save, move the R4 to the old DS and then use that one's microphone (and just deal with the bad screen for that moment), save after that and return to the better DS.

But the thing is the first time you do it, there's a tutorial you can't skip or exit, so you can't do this and my younger sibling had to restart the game from quite a while back (and I had to replay the sections up to that point for them) and yeah. It was bad enough to consider getting another DS lite.

Also WarrioWare Touched uses the microphone and we had that on the R4 too.

(Hotel Dusk: Room 215 also allows you to use the mic and we had it on the R4, and I got to the point in the game where you can use it and I was like no... I can't do this puzzle. But then I tapped the screen instead and I realised the mic is a red herring and it actually makes you fail the puzzle so yeah, it actually wasn't needed)

Anyway, so we bought a third DS lite online. This one works fully.

We also wanted to see if we could swap the microphones of the old ones to get an extra fully functional DS, but it seemed like it'd be too hard.

The other DSes we own are all in good nick and we are ultra careful with them now. There is a bit of poor connections or whatever on the LR buttons with some, and the volume switch of the 2nd DS Lite was also dodgy, and our 3DS' coating is peeling and the circle pad's rubber thing came off, but in terms of serious, game-ruining damage, they're fine.

Anyway, moral of the story is don't take your DS overseas.

if multiple parts are broken just click the first one you noticed!

[jessmalia]

Mal's Avatar: The Last Airbender rewatch: The beach 3.05

[wyvernity]

sss day my favorite national holiday WOOOOHHHH

bonus

[stellar-collective]

Feel free to take this time on this request. /gen

Since your Phoenix can come back from the dead, I wonder if you can draw Reginald's reaction to finding out about Phoenix's multiple deaths.

(How he finds out is up to you. But if you want an idea: Zoraxis memory reading machine upon Phoenix getting captured.)

rule number one of being a handler: never, ever panic in front of the agent. if you stay frosty, then they won’t panic either. Reginald is going to hang on to these feelings and quietly have a crisis once they’re safely back at base, where Phoenix will never know.

[aethersflood]

Just don't say I didn't warn you. You're Cid now, and if anything happens to him, we're finished.

[dykedvonte]

I think it’s so ironic that the Pony Express escapes a lot if not all blame in discussion. I can’t even say I am excused from it but it’s just how hard people circle back to the characters alone without considering the environment they were made to be in.

Why would they design a ship where only two of the rooms lock? Not the bathroom? Not the sleeping quarters? We assume that all the companies in the universe are this shallow and careless to their workers but we explicitly know the Pony Express in extra vile. They are fed processed slop pack they can’t even really cook and the ration of those pack is meager at best. They hired and made people with a plethora of conflicting demeanors and beliefs work together on a mission where cohesion is important if not an outright necessity and punish them for not being happy about it. There’s no social protocols, not chain of command other than Captain’s word/choice and the only way to enforce that is with a literal firearm. They don’t allow them to celebrate freely and even took away leisure activities that would make them less stir crazy. They are only allowed a few hours of sleep despite their being no other real responsibilities or work on the ship, no matter the position or its importance. With any crew, with any level of synergy, this was a powder keg waiting for a spark.

I’m not saying characters that made mistakes didn’t make huge ones, but I think part of the horror is that at least for some (this is targeting Jimathan) those mistakes are partly made by a force of the hand. There’s a running theme of lack of choice and being forced into something and the very nature of how The Pony Express expected them to function plays a big part.

[quinn-pop]

mtdd week day 5 - au

idol au moment yayyy. they have history

[dxxtruction]

Louis' "You're boring!" Could mean so many things, but I think what's most apparent about that line is that Armand takes no initiative just for himself. He's not really anybody, because he never goes out and finds himself or gets attached to anyone but Louis. Without Louis as his guide he's literally just sitting on a couch picking lint! That's the thing.

He orbits constantly around what would make Louis happy, and never really fully going what would make me happy? Ultimately that drive to please Louis is what drives him to torturing Daniel, not so much that he'd care to just do it. Ultimately, not giving proper care to Louis is just a way to make sure Louis knows he has to orbit around him as well, with shoving Lestat onto him just that other nail on the coffin. So, even if he fails to figure out how to make Louis happy with him, he still knows what Armand is good for, and better than.

That dependency is what drives Armand's abuse. It really just comes down to that. Armand doesn't even realize how suffocated he is by his own dependency. This is just how life is to him. (It shouldn't be lost either that dependency is a theme considering this episode also deals with addiction).

Daniel's fascinating because he's just so driven to be somebody. He's largely independent, he seeks things because he wants them. It's his drug to poke and prod at all the things that he shouldn't. Daniel's exciting because he lets Louis in to something different, lets him in to all this potential in another person that he can also do the same with for himself. It's a real connection. A two way street. It's easy to tell how Armand can be smothering then because he's never introducing him to anything really new, and most the ways both of them connect are all painful and traumatic. It's never just fun because there's always that layer of that pain. Fun died with Claudia.

50 years on they've gotten to a lot better place, both of them, but it's still that same shit. No seriously, "How is this any different from last time, Louis?"

Well... Because Armand's going to be, at the very least, making one [1] decision only for himself - and that's to hold power over Daniel's life. Fucking sick foreshadowing.

They aren't driving each other to the brink anymore but "The vampire is bored" STILL. Maybe it's even worse, despite being in better places, because Louis' sort of just been defeated by it. (I mean, can he even really leave this either?). He's accepting the dependancy cause he kind of has to. He'd literally ended up letting all the enjoyment be up where he can't reach [The book shelves]. Armand so desperately wants Louis happiness but what really ends up happening is that Louis ends up having to give Armand all his own. He's got no one or anything else to get it from. But like an iPad and an over the top eating ritual. Two extremes of what's just more lint picking.

This whole relationship is one I find just tragic inside and out. You have to just pity it, really. There's ways in which you can find yourself feeling bad for both of them. But you can only really be mad at Armand for any of it. Armand, who isn't even 'free' in any sense, having so little concept of his own independence, but is at the same time so controlling over other's. It's a tragic cycle. It's an infuriating one.

Louis at least has the mind to know when enough is enough. If just needing that extra push to get there. Armand's too scared of it being over to even try.

[malenjoyer]

"In 2023, I was really into the whole thing where Damian has a supportive older brother that wanted to support his growth."

Aaa an end of an era but thank you for the art that spawned in that year! I started reading Dick and Damian comics because of your art of them, and now suddenly I'm a comic collector!

HOLD UP I STILL LIKE THEMMM 😭 it’s just the more I read Damian comics the more I feel like…

Dick was really important for the beginning foundation of him settling into the family. Damian has been in for the family for a while and I kind of want to see him grow outside of the bat family. So I do still see dick being supportive but more of in the background? It’s like when you watch a baby bird safely take it’s first flight out of the nest. After watching them for a while during their baby steps, you feel safe letting them explore on their own.

I feel like it’s very complex of a feeling and hard to draw. I still want to draw them sometimes but I really want it to be in a way that isn’t regressive to Damian’s character development. I don’t know if that’s something that makes sense.

I do have a plan on working on an animated video focusing on Damian that will have dick in it. It’s just a very ambitious goal that I need to build stamina for 😤 wait for me

[galactic-rhea]

Thoughts on Padmé x Anakin x Rex?

Padmé and Anakin are so mutually obssesed they would first have to check into that before trying to bring another person to their carefully-balanced-kind-of-damage or something it's going to explode.

Honestly it's a fun ship! But I don't have too many thoughts about them because when I consider them is usually in very low-stakes-fun-AU-scenarios.

And I'm actually a bit of a fan of Rexwalker myself! Athough I tend to like them more as very good buddies, the covering-for-you-dynamic it's so funny for them, lol It's also angsty and complicated because, y'know, the power-imbalance and unchecked trauma? Is funny that the clone that's actually a slave for the republic is the most normal if you bring him into the anidala romance circus.

Also shout out to @phoenixyfriend , she has a lot of rexanidala fics and recs for anyone interested reading this!

[rileys-battlecats]

was trying to figure out why I feel so Wrong rn and I think it's because I didn't follow my usual daily routine like At All and now my brain is freaking out. woke up at a vastly different time, had entirely different tasks throughout the day, took a nap at a weird time (to make up for the fact I had about 3 hours of sleep last night), zero human contact for the past 15 hours, and ate different food from usual (various leftovers from social events/thanksgiving, instead of cooking for myself like normal). and before I really realized that these were all things that were Bad For My Brain I was just wandering around my house like "why do I feel like garbage?? I've literally been outside so much today my brain should be happy"

ANYWAY here's to me not remembering I have issues with unstructured living because my days have been so similar for the past 4ish years that I straight up Forgot that things being too different too fast makes me crazy ✌️

[yarrowleef]

I am actually (tentatively) intrigued by moonpaw's mind ghost. the idea of an entity that can make themselves look identical to you and appear to other cats (sometimes?) and maybe do nefarious things with your face is a fun spooky concept.

I don't know how long my intrigue will last, but it exists for the moment

[mukuharakazui]

"Alphabet mafia" was funny (courtesy of @birthclod) so here are my alphabet mafia + nationality headcanons for Town of Salem's best faction (sorry to the roles without skins </3)

[quietwingsinthesky]

journey’s end au where the doctor tries to kick everyone off the TARDIS and they just go, ‘???? no?’ and won’t leave. can’t be stupid and think everyone will leave you when they won’t get out of your house.

[spotaus]

Hey i am back with a thought.

I know we already mentioned like. The future future plans concerning kids in the New Age storyline.

I was thinking. Who would carry/get the kid in the couples? (Yes this implies mpreg. If this aint your thing no worries you can just ignore everything else :3 )

As you mentioned before. Nightmare and error would most likely adopt.

Between dream and blue i think blue would end up carrying the kid. Dream would feel too locked up and locked down if he had to take it easy. Also. Let this man pamper Blue. He deserves that.

Ccino and Killer. Ccino wouldnt want kids for a LONG time and even just the idea would be slow going. But killer has his soul situation (is that also a situation in this story?) And he is a knight being out and about. Ccino is safely at home and would be the safer option. But they would need a long time before ccino would feel comfortable with the idea.

Horror and Crop. Crop. Hands down. Horror with his work and Crop has help on the farm. But i doubt thwy would get a kid because they have along distance relationship.

Cross and Lust it depends on who wants it more. I can see both being the one who does it mostly because i can see pros and cons for both sides.

Reaper, Geno and Dust. Only one option. Reaper. Dust doesnt have a healthy enough soul and that with his spell around it? No way he can carry a kid. Geno meanwhile only has a soulshard so he isnt healthy enough to carry a kid either. Leaving only Reaper as an option.

Okay that was it. :D

Haha! Omg I keep forgetting this is smth I can think about! Usually it's not my scene so it might not cone up much in-stiry but it IS how I picture the cast having kids in this one, so!!! We're diving in!!

Like u said, those boys are adopting hehe-

With Dream and Blue it's a bit hard, because I think that Dream would be really really worried about Blue the entire time. Like, terrified his magic would accidentally trigger the whole Twin thing. But, ultimately, yeah, probably Blue! Dream *would* get too restless, and Blue rlly does deserve to be pampered hehe- (I just think Blue would have to really really talk Dream into it. Dream does NOT want to be like his mother anymore.)

Killer and Ccino... let's go with a yes on Killer's soul situation, so Ccino would be their only option. But, like you said, it would be ages before they even thought about discussing the idea, let alone actually having a kid.

Ohhh yeah. I see Horror and Crop as the ones least likely to have kids (as u said, long Distance relationship, but also they just have to much on their plates? They're practical guys and focus on their work and existing families first. Plus, someone has to be the cool uncles to their nieces and nephews!) But definitely Crop. Especially because Horror is pretty low on natural magic as-is and even though his soul is healthy, his body might not even be able to form a firm ecto, let alone anything safe to harbor a forming soul. (Unlike Ccino, Horror was born that way, and the injury didn't help lmao-)

Cross and Lust? I think they'd both regularly get baby fever, but neither of then would be ready to settle down for a *while* in that way, so I think they'd push off the question until years later. Then when it comes up, they 'fight' over it. Insisting that they should carry- I think they'd end up choosing Cross though! As much as Lust seems like the more convenient option, as he's not a knight, Cross is just built different and insists that if anything goes wrong he wants to be the one it happens to. Which, ofc, leads to him doing training whilst in the early stages until someone (probably Killer or Dust) notices he's a little off and then Cross admits he's got a soulling. He did not expect to immediately get horrified looks (because they were fighting someone with a lil guy inside them, not because he has a lil guy) or to immediately get ushered out of training and to his room because??? Idiot??? What were you thinking??? Cross is the worst at staying off his duties, but his brother's have him covered, thank god-

And yep, put perfectly! Reaper is so genuinely the only option! It leads to some odd interactions, since Reaper can't exactly stop being King, but he manages shockingly well and has Geno there to help him (and probably later on Dust, since Night isn't about to leave Dust out of that due to work-) And. I like to think these three in particular have multiple kids perhaps, Kane and then another, and it's kinda a running joke that Reaper's the one hauling them around lmao- (Also very convenient! Because Reaper is the one with death magic in his soul, the kids are effectively immune to it! They were made from that stuff basically, so ofc they're fine!)

[my-current-obsession]

every time i see bakudeku compared to k/ance (now specifically in terms of them getting shafted in the ending and/or accused of queerbaiting) i take psychic damage