#I'm at least glad that people seem to like me?

[catkillingcuriosity]

On to book 5:

- I'm glad we're circling back to old plotlines I really wanted an answer to who's fetus that was

- the getting to mount Tonglu has been not super interesting but I do like Pei Ming more now I also appreciate that he seems to be the only one that knows what gay people are and that Xie Lian and Hua Cheng are basically a couple

- I have made at least 3 mpreg jokes about Xie Lian referring to baby Hua Cheng as his son, i will not apologize

- if Eming having big reactions to being complimented, stroked and kissed by Xie Lian is not some level of euphemism I will eat a shoe

- I'm on Ling Wen's side I too would murder Jing Wen

-Poor Yin Yu saved everyone's lives and got dragged to filth twice for his troubles

- Qi Rong becoming an almost okay dad is a very funny turn of events

- I like Rain Master she seems cool and does check the the box for my more beautiful women ask. But sadly she must leave the gays (and Pei Ming) to their not a date on a murderous mountain

- haven't had many interesting ramblings so I'll just wrap up with I think there's something more to Pei Ming's awful luck it's no longer just mild comedic relief it feels more like a plot point. I also think he has more complicated feelings about Rain Master then just "She's a woman and I don't like that she saved me" idk it just feels too shallow for the amount of focus it's had. I'm only half convinced that Xie Lian is actually a reincarnation of the Wuyong prince like is being implied but I'm also sorta convinced the situation is being manipulated.

I'll be back in like 2 weeks with my book 6 thoughts. ✌️

Various Heaven Official's Blessing thoughts I've had while reading, currently on book 4 (official publication version, book 3 for web publication) these are mostly going to be loose trains of thought.

- I am sad that Hua Cheng doesn't have a minion/friend that will just dunk on that man for his embarrassing crush on Xie Lian. It would be so funny just "so how was the kiss? What do you mean he had a panic attack? Are you that bad at kissing?????" It'd be very good trust.

- I'm convinced fengqing is in a situationship of some kind i am not convinced they know or figure out out before hualian get together. I do think that Xie Lian assumed that they had gotten together at some point while he was gone, he is shocked they aren't.

- I do like this story but I would also like more beautiful women to show up

- I want to be upfront that I like Qi Rong I think he's funny but I do hate him in the first flash back MXTX did an excellent job making him the most annoying little cousin and also a POS

I've finished the black water arc

- I was quite hyped about beefleaf before this arc and now I'm mildly conflicted because of the brother murder (the rest of it is just delicious toxicity), a good fic will probably resolve this conflict

- Xie Lian you have put your tongue down Hua Cheng's throat too many times to be telling puqi village that he's your blood brother

- Me pointing to Lang Ying in the scene where Xie Lian is in the bath: I know what you are (Hua Cheng badly in disguise)

Okay I'm done for now I'll be back when I have thoughts on book 5 let me know it I missed any tags

[the-kiarah-organisation]

Being only a little influenced by your source is weird. I'm sitting here with an angel and someone who could only be described as a demigod, and last I checked our source material is just Some Dumb Guy Runs Around Solving Mysteries With His Son.

[egophiliac]

here's the Meleanor chibi speedrun! upfront warning for some flickering and/or flashing throughout from all the sped-up zooming/layer changes.

it turns out I only really recorded up to when I exported the PSD for the first time, so I went back and recorded a bit more to at least show a little of the reworked cape breakdown and background. and then bounced her rig around so you can see a bit of it too! the parts I'm not too embarrassed to show, anyway

even sped up it's still like 47 minutes (s-she took a really long time to make okay), so there are timestamps/chapters in the description if you click through! I certainly don't expect anyone to sit and watch it through, but maybe it'll be interesting to skip around in?

[elviraaxen]

I'm probably not the first to admit this but goddamn was I a narcissistic prick when I wasn't on stimulants

[wallcreeper-and-oro]

connection.find(omni_net) connection established omni.id.vericode(Y/N) (Y) {vericode entered} connection verified - lancer 910372

⋆𖦹 hello hi!! it's nice to meet you too Thirteen!! (also is Thirteen the name you'd prefer? or would you prefer something else?)

okay okay om glad im not prying!! i've been reminded a few times that sometimes people don't in fact want a barrage of questions about how they work or about their experiences, which is totally fair and okay! i just get very interested in how people work and think and i think it's so neat how much diversity there is in all of our human and non-human experiences!!!

oh yay!!! wait wait, :D < that's how i'm feeling! :D :D :D!!

ah okay!! thank you!!! i will do my best to remember that!! that's so neat! im so curious how that works that's so neat!! okay okay so programming is like core traits, like personality and like your purpose? the things that are just inherently a part of you. whereas conditioning is more like what you were taught? like the way your personality and self and idea of your role and all that was shaped? i think i understand but do correct me if i'm wrong!

oh interesting!!!! hmm okay okay! like obviously don't want to bring up anything bad what are like hypothetical exceptions to that? like are there any circumstances outside of an override by handler/supervisor that would allow you to hypothetically willingly harm a patient by demand? it does kinda suck that someone can just override you like that though.. i hope you feel like you can stand up for yourself, but i suppose that's a bit harder then it's a core part of how you are.. still.

okay! interesting!! that makes sense ya because otherwise you'd be barred from a fair bit of care! because a lot care does require like at least some amount of harm even if temporary or for the overall good! oooo okay so you can fight! cool! hmmm.. okay the implications of that are interesting, so your core directive is harm mitigation right? but that can be superseded by the need to protect your wards hmm so wouldn't the protection of your wards from harm be your core directive? and then the mitigation of harm they've faced be a secondary priority? or can you not act proactively to protect your wards before they are hurt? is it only after they're injured that your able to take action to protect them?? hmmm thats neat to think about!

oh it just means like i don't mean to stir up big emotions or prompt a conversation on a topic that is sensitive! just an old turn of phrase! don't worry i also didn't know what it meant till Liza explained it!

oh.. but you care about the people you care for right? or is it just a job to you? i suppose you don't have any other option really huh.. like i "care" that i'm breathing cause i can't not do that, so.. so i suppose that makes sense, i don't know, i think it'd have feelings about is all but it's okay that you don't! we all react and process and feel things differently!

ya these answers were very interesting thanks!! much more than satisfactory! this is very cool!! and ya!! i love learning new things it's such a good feeling!

oh i'm so glad to hear that!! ya i agree the omni-net is really fun! and y'all lot are so fun to talk to! it certainly makes my days more enjoyable! glad Kanmi got me to do this! (and ya! sally seems like quite a lovely girl! i'm glad you two have each other, it seems like a wonderful friendship! though i do hope she's gonna try to be safe..)

oh thank you very much!! i will (and i think already have) barraged you with more questions! but as always up to you what you talk about!!

nice to meet you again!! thanks for indulging my curiosity!!

this is Ouroboros signing off!

Enkidu bottom surgery

[dee-daa]

as shitty as what in hell is bad is as a game (especially due to pb's greed), the community on this site is absolutely wonderful so far and seeing all the posts on my home page makes me so happy ^^

[keeps-ache]

sigh. i think i just do not like dogs very much lol

[eebie]

lots of fun today. Im worn the fuck out from socializing but i had a good time. on our walk my friends gave me the low-down on everything that happened while i was away and among several humorous anecdotes (for example one of our friends getting into a physical fight in class) told me that my favorite history teacher this big soft-spoken black guy was back after what i thought was just him just straight up leaving. I was very open about my beliefs because he was extremely chill & apparently he keeps bringing me up to them and he wants me to come into class specifically to talk politics. god i miss him.. the most distinct thing i remember was him leaving a note on the grade for one of my assignments where he said he hoped i would find my crowd. he actually cared and would call shit out. one time a group of my classmates made a video where they tried to be funny playing as racial stereotypes and of course came across as tonedeaf & offensive, so he sat everyone down and leveled on how something like that would affect others. it was common sense but he was really patient in explaining it. the craziest thing is that he’s a pastor and also pro-choice

[icewindandboringhorror]

Recent images I suppose ~

[smile-files]

i continue to find ii3 baffling. why did they make it (this isn't to hate on the season, i'm genuinely curious)

[longagoitwastuesday]

Inside me there are two wolves (I love Nobara and Gojo, I'm not sure at all I want them alive)

[seaofreverie]

Anyway. 150 days left until I see TMBG.

[bnuyy]

🪼. .

[kyofsonder]

It's been several days and I'm still bothered by the many 3 (out of 5) star ratings for a book I just finished reading because

1) I enjoyed it a lot, and admire it from a craft perspective. I feel naturally defensive of my own enjoyment when I see others calling this work annoying or boring or meaningless. It was the first book in months I've been able to read through to the end without getting distracted and letting my library loan lapse partway through, it was genuinely compelling to me, and it had plenty of meaning about mortality and humanity and choice -- and what it means when the choice of life and death is in your own hands. People saying they didn't see any of that... I know it's honest to their experience, and it's fair in its own right, but it still bothers me that so many people said it on the book tracking app I use.

2) Several of the reviews hate the lead character, specifically, and I'm bitter about the inaccuracies of WHY they hate her -- I almlst want to reply to one reviewer in particular, "If you're going to have problems with a major character, have problems that are actually there on the page and don't invent them out of thin air." Some also hated the romantic sub-plot and said it had "unnecessary bodice-ripping" when I, personally, found it way less romance-focused than other fantasy novels I've read in the past. Again, this is probably a personal perspective thing, but compared to the books that faded to black or had a graphic sex scene every other chapter I'd say 2.5 scenes that involved so much as kissing and only 1 short bedroom scene through the entire book is pretty tame. It's fine to be upset that there was romance and/or sex, but at least be accurate about how much there was and how it was handled.

3) While I know this one is specifically due to my being a writer and that the issue it brings up is more nuanced than just "be so kind to everyone that you lose all your critical reading skills and/or ability to resonate emotionally with books and other forms of fiction," and that the average person is in fact unaware of what it means to write a whole novel or series, any review that says a book was bad or just wasn't their thing without acknowledging the work that the author put into it has the potential to discourage that author and/or others from ever making or sharing their work again and that can decrease the number of books in the world. Which sucks. It's hard to avoid, but it sucks. Sometimes I think I just shouldn't read book reviews at all, before or after my own reading of a novel/novella/series.

[neverendingford]

.

[kaleidoscopiclights]

I'm on a rant now, but I kept trying to think what it is about the progression of tales and FF as franchise's that bug me. Not just the edginess and people pretending the writing is good just because it's danker and visually darker (neither are genuinely any darker in tone or theme than any previous title in their respective franchise), or even people just being excited over the graphics. (Which? Yippee, I guess! 4k but a poor art direction, so what's the point!) But it was discussion in an Atelier thread that made it click. And it's because the games are becoming annoyingly mainstream.

The games, but also the "fandom." And to a degree, I hesitate to call it the fandom. I think FF and Tales are becoming stratified, and suffering from what VII and XIV have both created before. A lot of people play and love XIV. But an oddly high number of them have never touched another FF game, and probably won't ever. Which is fine for them, but they're XIV fans and not FF fans. Same with XVI to a degree. Very true of a weird number of VII (Remake trilogy) fans, unfortunately. And that's unfortunate because Square Enix looks at numbers and takes the wrong lessons from it. In the end, VIIR and XVI at least under-performed, so I don't even know what that means for FF. But in the case of Tales, it's worrisome.

Arise wasn't meant to be a Tales game, and given how Tomizawa views and treats Tales as a franchise, who knows what he'd do to the series. But for higher-ups to see Arise as a game stripped of most of Tales's identity and see it perform so well, I can only imagine the ideas that are filling their bobble heads. Because the issue with these games getting mainstream means they're eventually going to lose identity and a real brand to sell them. Tales makes money off of merch, and it had longevity because of how well it was nurtured as a franchise. It's like how anime makes success off of merch sales rather than bluray/DVD sales. I think the characters were the strongest selling point of this, and now we're at a time when people are less invested in newer characters, sans a pair or so from each of the Xillia games and onward. Mainstream sales aren't bad to pick up some traction here and there, but the mainstream market is so fickle. And frankly, lacking in taste. I like that Tales and FF were their own kind of art, but they're being stripped of that by supposed fans.

How do you call yourself a Tales fan, but you hate the anime and series staples? You're a JRPG fan "settling" for Tales games at that point. And it's sad because I feel like we're getting to the point where these people are the most vocal, and also pushing the most in sales. And I think these patterns are helping contribute to the downfall of both series.