#I'm going to be a wreck when [redacted]

[eves-da-best]

I am absolutely ON MY KNEES FOR HER - EVE, HOW?!

[seeingivy]

method acting asks!!!

first of all, thank you anon!!! you're so so kind - i'm so excited you're here in my little universe with me. I THINK I ACTUALLY SAID THIS TO SOMEONE BEFORE about francesca and work song by hozier

I think hozier has really raw and love songs that depict a very sheer devotion, which is something I think eren as a character generally possesses - which is why I think the hozier comparison is spot on. he would go through hell to hold her again, no grave will hold him down he WILL crawl back home to her

first things first, I LOVE YOU!!!!! y/n healing era makes my heart warm AND I totally agree regarding venice bitch. speaking of norman fucking rockwell (MY FAVORITE LANA ALBUM), i also think that she would write the song normal fucking rockwell about eren (back in the day, obv)

@itzmeme always spot on. chefs kiss songs from you, always.

ARGGGGGG ANON I COULD YAP FOR DAYS. I imagine edits about them are basically like the edits that people make about taylor/joe and joshua/olivia. the one that's been trending recently is the lyrics from wrecking ball that's like "I never meant to start a war, I just wanted you to let me in" lIKE PEOPLE WOULD MAKE THOSE OF THEM SO BAD.

I feel like after the documentary is released, people would also make edits of eren and y/n to that audio that transitions from midnight rain to daylight - the first clips being of like eren/hyla to eren and y/n - and you can visibly see that he's just so much happier with her.

also think that people made cunt edits of y/ns because I liked a boy performance and her look what you made me do. y/n also getting edits of her and clips of her w/ sukuna and eren to maneater like.

I love edits. you are amazing and I love your mind.

LIKE. LIKE ITS A NEED. I also think of them doing silver springs sometimes during their beef era....LIKE YOU WILL NEVER GET AWAY FROM THE SOUND OF A WOMAN THAT LOVES YOU.

@najaemism HI!!!! hi, I love you. second, I leave little hints like people like this that are perceptive about this type of thing (and I have promises to reveal all my hints when the fic is well and over) BUT EEK MY HEART GETS SO WARM WHEN PEOPLE CATCH THEM. I literally think scott street is probably what she felt so bad during that era of the fic, like the nostalgia of losing eren and realizing like all of her childhood memories will be tainted with him now

LMFAOFJDIOSFJIODSF STFU. this is so funny LIKE HE'S SO CORNY HE WOULD

another ask about necklaces BUT REAL. I also think that on their car keys they remake lego figurines of each other so that they're always with each other whenever they aren't 😁

@astroswift HARD ON THE AGREE. i've got a moment on this chapter i've been itching to write since this bitch character got introduced. and my love, you are spot on. champagne problems, is in fact, in the method acting playlist (I LOVE WHEN PEOPLE PICK UP THE CRUMBS MY HEART GETS SO WARM)

@elliesbabygirl do it. I wrote a stupid fic about gojo to speak now by taylor swift and now i'm here. yolo swag.

I WAS AT GUTS TOUR LAST NIGHT. the second she crawled on the fucking moon it was all I could think about. and seeing the grudge live just killed me thinking about the awards show that I started crying (I am in general a concert crier I had already cried at that point but it was crazy) and seeing all american bitch and REDACTED that are involved in the story too EEK I WAS GOING CRAZY she's so hot im in love with her

random last tidbit:

here's some method acting spoilers with no context for the next chapter:

a double whammy of a slap and a punch to the face

what am I to you?

the sister to lady gaga's meat dress

l/n-jaegers

matching tattoos

WHATEVER THAT ALL MEANS!!!

[tenpintsof-sundrop]

ASK GAME ! ASK GAME ! ASK GAME ! which as I chant out loud sounds like I'm saying "ass game" ... same difference honestly sksksksk

Hiii for the violence ask game (love being a hater) I wanted to know 1, 2, 3 and 23 for whatever fandoms you feel the most passionate about

I wouldn't say that I love being a hater, but I do love being right lmao

also I am feeling spicy so these are gonna be for different fandoms

1 - the character everyone gets wrong

JASON. MOTHER FUCKING. TODD

especially the fandom interpretation Titans version, but like damn

(even other canons get him wrong, and Titans did him so right and people refuse to acknowledge it)

(I could also say Lori Grimes, and Andrea Harrison, and Dick Grayson, and Michonne Hawthorne, and even Gar Logan tbh but this is the rant I am picking)

white cis fanboys just see him as the violent revenge perpetrator - distilled rage, 'the bad sibling', the criminal, the cool one, the gunslinger. fucking whatever

but I am not even so big on a lot of women's interpretation of comics Jason - as some big soft cuddle bug who just needs to be treated softly and cuddled uwu, someone who rip out the throat of anyone who looks at you the wrong way and basically acts like a big bad doberman guard dog in your life (someone possessive and angry and jealous in a love life). again - no

Jason is one of the most emotionally complex characters and the only people who truly understand him are me and Curran Walters.

Jason is a wreck. he was set up to fail - his backstory of poverty and sadness isn't just about giving him some revenge to seek or making him a more conventional criminal, it's his emotional core. everything that has ever happened to him in his life makes him who he is, and so many people don't understand those layers. (so many people don't even acknowledge the differences between him and Dick before Jason became Red Hood). Jason is depressed, he's insecure, he thinks that he's nothing but a problem in other people's lives.

he uses violence as a tool because it's all he's ever known. in a relationship, he would be difficult to connect with because no one has ever truly tried before. he wouldn't be instantly loving - he would be guarded as hell.

I could go on a long time, but anyway - Titans Jason is largely a thing that the show got right and so many people refuse to acknowledge it because they just want to mock Curran's looks and it makes me want to bash my head into things

2 - a compelling argument for why your fave would never top or bottom

I have to do it to em - Spencer Reid would never be a fucking dom. NEVER

(also I know that bottom and top aren't synonyms for dom and sub but I think this ask game was created with mostly mlm ships in mind, so I am talking about this in a dom/sub context because I mostly write and consume x reader fics with bdsm dynamics)

Spencer is a sub. anybody who says that he is a dom, even a 'soft dom' is fucking lying to themselves because they have a particular fantasy that they want him to fit into. even later seasons Spencer would never be a dom

just because someone has rage and acts intimidating towards someone they consider an enemy doesn't mean they would ever feel the confidence to actually be dominant and in charge in bed. that man is walked like a dog constantly by other people in his life, and the only time he 'takes control' of a 'romantic' interaction is when he is with Cat - someone he also considers to be an enemy, an unsub that he can psychologically control. see the pattern?

3 - screenshot or description of the worst take you've seen on tumblr

I have discussed this before, and I wish I had a screenshot because without proof it almost doesn't seem real

someone saying that Spencer loves Henry more than JJ does - in a massive post where they listed all the reasons that JJ 'ruined' Spencer's life (which just gobsmacked me)

that post was a huge inspiration for the JJ/Spencer friendship scenes in [REDACTED]

I just cannot believe that the fandom is so fucking detached and unrealistic about JJ

23 - ship you've unwillingly come around to

...Richonne

this is in large part from what I have seen about The Ones Who Live spin-off, and I recently realized that the title of the spin-off comes from a scene where Michonne punches Rick in the head in order to literally knock some sense into him, so I fucking love that (and it seems like that's what the whole show is - her literally forcing sense into him after he's become detached from reality due to being held hostage by whatever the fuck that group's name is)

and I think The Thrifty Typewriter really put their relationship into terms that I was struggling with. so many Walking Dead ladies were relegated to nothing but being 'the love interest' once they became a love interest to someone. and if they were struggling with what to do with a female character, they turned her into a love interest for someone

Andrea being paired with a Governor, Rosita not getting more interesting storylines until after she parted from Abraham, Sasha being with Bob and then Abraham and then dying (although I think Sasha has a lot of interesting emotional beats, I see the point in saying that), Jessie (who could have had so much potential outside of just being a love interest for Rick, especially when they clearly had Richonne in mind), Lori's entire existence, etc.

So my huge problem with Richonne is that Michonne was so interesting before she got with Rick. And after she got with Rick, she lost all of her interesting traits, and she was stripped down to 'Lori 2.0'. Pregnant housewife character who stays at home and almost never fights. Rick was spotlighted and she was almost never around until Rick drowned. And I think I loved The Ones Who Live because it gave her back a lot of her fire and her autonomy as well as adding more to the romance, so it was the best of both worlds. (And it really made me come around to the pairing.)

And another huge problem I had with Richonne is the same problem I have with Dickkory - people who ship them act like the entire show was created to drive the ship. And the shippers get really annoying because they act like all the other interesting characters and plot lines do not exist. They act like the producers and writers made the show as a vessel to carry the single ship when that is clearly not the case.

For Dickkory, people boil Dick and Rachel's entire relationship down to 'omg, she is Dickkory's child' - which is very annoying. And for Richhone, people act like Andrea just does not exist, when she pulled Michonne out of a very dark place - Rick did not do that. Michonne said so herself. Andrea is a very important character in Michonne's story.

Anyway - I do like Richonne a lot now. More than I ever expected I would

[wishlikes]

holy shit. looks at you with my massive autistic eyes. what’s bad future time traveler ritsu PLEASE share with the class. and if you don’t want to share with the class that is ok but also please if you are so inclined then at least share with the me

Well. You see.

It all started when I was running low on time to finish Whumptober prompts and... well, I had just come from the rottmnt fandom. I had 'character time travels from a bad future' on the mind. So I drew this and thought 'surely no more will come of this'.

And yet the concept stayed in my mind. I drew this sketch page several months later. Someone's tag on it inspired me to actually write the story, as explained here (along with more info, though I'm going to change some things from what's written here).

There's also these two drawings that take place in the bad future, although I didn't draw Ritsu old enough in the second one, because I hadn't figured out the timeline yet when I drew it. (warnings for blood and injury on both of them)

I've figured out the timeline of the bad future now, though. And I am cursed with the knowledge that the very little I'd already written needs to be rewritten to suit it. This writing/rewriting will not be happening until I am done with my current wip (which is almost done... but might need a sequel because i am cursed).

So I myself know very little about what's going to happen in the bad future time travel fic that i had better fucking write because I desperately need to know what happens.

Some Key Events of the Bad Future:

Sep 2015 - [Redacted] is murdered

Nov 2018 - First anti-esper laws drop

Jan 2020 - Shou 'goes missing', his father is 'convinced' to identify several espers- including the one he couldn't beat

Feb 2020 - Shou escapes custody in an incident his father doesn't survive, Shou is labeled a terrorist, Mob is arrested, Shou and Ritsu go into hiding together

Dec 2021 - Shou is killed (among others), Ritsu fakes his own death

Jun 2023 - [Redacted] informs Mob of Ritsu's 'death'. As you can imagine, this is a bit like setting off a bomb. A bomb that can self-heal and keep exploding until the rage burns out, until only despair remains, until there is no longer even the barest sub-conscious thread left of self-preservation. And so the wounds stop healing, and power dies down, and only then can Ritsu come close enough to help, to show that he's still alive. But it's too late, too late. This place, this time is not safe for Ritsu; they would kill him. And Shigeo has not seen him in over three years and he looks so awful now, and Shigeo cannot protect him. He has to send him away, away to somewhere safe. And then Ritsu is gone, safe. And there is nothing left for him here.

Jun 2011 - Future!Ritsu arrives

So. Ah. I got a bit carried away there. I wouldn't normally include that much, but Future Ritsu is such an emotionally devastated wreck of a man that I can't bear to write from his pov, so i don't know how much of all that ^ is gonna make it into the fic anyway.

What I do know is that Ritsu thinks he's been sent to the past specifically to Fix Everything. And that's the only thing keeping him from just lying down and not getting up again. The knowledge that his brother only wanted to save him would probably make him worse actually.

[isabeljkim]

Hi! First I just want to thank you for putting your work out there. You have one of my favorite writing voices I've read in ages. I was wondering how you go about the process of plotting. I think you do a really good job creating emotionally satisfying setup/payoff and question/answer cycles (the pod-switching in Benthic especially was really satisfying!)- do you usually plan them out before you get to the story proper, or is it more a matter of pantsing it and then going back to plant hints?

hi! thank you so much, this is deeply flattering to hear, and i'm glad you like my stuff! :D

well you see doing a plot is essentially just: :3 ????? ?????? [redacted] [airplane woosh noise] [cartoon cussing] ?? !! [muffled bangs] > story is done.

ok jokes aside, the way i think about plots is that... one way to think about a story is that x amount of the story is about setting up a problem, and setting up the pieces that are part of solving that problem, and y amount of the story is about actually resolving a different problem related to the first problem (which is actually the real problem!), and using the pieces in a novel but satisfying way.

so i usually have about half figured out when i start a story, and the other half is a puzzle box i've given to myself, and through writing i figure out the other half and then go back and weave it in more conclusively. i have the question to begin with, but i usually have to build myself the tools to find the answer.

[under the cut if you want disjointed rambling]

sorry. that's vague. lets do an example.

when i start a story, i usually have the idea of "what the story is about" (the problem and premise) but not necessarily the "resolution to the story" (whether the first problem is actually the issue, and what the solution is).

so for example, bc you brought up Benthic - the orignal idea was that i wanted to do something about spaceship scavengers carving up a generation ship as a whalefall metaphor, and space as an equivalent to the deep ocean. so then the logical next step is that "ok, whats inside?" > and then whalefalls, spaceship wrecks, shipwrecks..... "its got to be a survivor."

so then the story becomes "ok, the generation ship scavengers find a survivor in the generation ship, but this needs to be a problem for them, because otherwise...there's no plot. there needs to be a problem. so ok, culturally, what if you need to kill survivors on the generation ships for [some reason]."

and that creates the problem, which is the ethical dilemma: will the protagonists kill the kid, or will they choose not to kill the kid, or will they find some other way? I don't know what they're going to do! and from there i write the story and build the boat as it is being floated. i add in cryotubes, and i add in the idea of it being a legal issue, and i write seam and mica and figure out their personalities a bit, and i extrapolate out what leads a person to being a scavenger in debt... and then i figure out that the logical past for them is haunted.

and that nails it all together. the story is is ethics, emotion, and scraping the barest bit of humanity you can get on the edge of the world.

so the solution to the problem has to be kind, but grim. because all of the above has created a world where the logical, practical outcome is cruelty. but because this is a story the ending cannot be the logical, practical outcome! the characters must change, or rail against their situation. (this is one of my tenets while writing - i used to be awful at endings, and i ve gotten much better. i think a good ending shifts your understanding of the prior work/uses the pieces given early on in a surprising way)

so then because i've nailed enough elements in place that have extrapolated from my original scenario, the only solution is then: the cryotube swap.

i dont know if any of that makes sense to anyone but me. i honestly just come up with fuckup premise problems and then write half of a story and then think about it in the shower for a few days and then write the rest. (i'm lying that's only like, a third of my stuff that gets written that way)

[thatiranianphantom]

Nancy Drew Rewatch 104: The Haunted Ring

(as always, thank you to my excellent rewatch partner, @middleagedresidentofriverdale)

Oh man this episode is RAW. Someone on this writing staff has lost a parent before, and it shows. It's brutally real.

This is also a character-driven episode in a way that feels completely different from the last one. Ostensibly, very little plot happens, but we unpack some things we've needed to since the pilot.

An incredibly Nick-light episode.

Look, if I start hearing the noises they are, I'm burning the place down, not investigating. Nancy Drew I will never be.

The jumpscares actually work for me in this show. I am a wimp, and they are ridiculously easy to anticipate.

Maybe it's just me, but I like seeing glimpses of Nancy's room. She's portrayed as so tough and guarded and her room is just very...pink and girly. It's an interesting contradiction.

I love the Ruth Bader Ginsburg art on her board though.

This episode really seems to lay out that no matter when you lose a parent, it's devastating. Nancy was 18, and it nearly wrecked her. Even when you're older, the death of a parent is shattering.

Laura Tandy. Another entry in the "I know Ace is dating her but I don't know why and I am not sure if I'm supposed to be rooting for this?"

Oh Ace, sweet baby. Subtle as a train wreck and adorably unable to lie.

"OH WOW! THIS IS RANDOM!"

Eventually babe, Nancy is going to rub off on you and you'll get a TOUCH more subtle.

@middleagedresidentofriverdale excellently pointed out that Tiffany Hudson is the Jason Blossom of Nancy Drew.

Oh thank GOD the American accent is gone, watching the British leak through all the time was so distracting.

"Just because family isn't that important to you" exFUCKINGscuse me?

Redacted not tumblr safe opinions.

EVERYONE LIES TO NANCY.

This scene at Kate's grave...sweetie. You just want to come through the screen and hug this poor girl.

Ace forgives WAY too easily. Beautiful scenery though.

Nancy and the beanie. I get that Kate knit the beanie, but if it's meant to hide the very distinctive hair I....don't think it's working?

Anyway, no Nace interactions in this episode but this was devastating even to me, a person with both parents still alive:

And Ace just looking his best here

To 105!

[anghraine]

The best friend and I played a bunch of Mass Effect 3 over the last few weeks! The things I remember most clearly are Thessia, Leviathan, Sanctuary, Horizon, the Citadel DLC, and the initial return to [redacted].

Long ramble about all of it:

My best friend had me choose the companions for the run to the temple on Thessia, and naturally I chose our beloved Liara and problematic fave Javik. I wasn't glad to see it fall (quite the contrary), but it seemed a bit apropos that the asari leadership's various choices wrt the war came back to bite them. Still, it was really sad, esp since it's the only time we really saw it and Liara was really upset.

...all the more because we brought Javik and he kept interrupting her explanations to be like "all your religious beliefs are gifts we gave to your people's ancestors before they figured out writing." It was a lot for her, but I did feel a touch of annoyance at what seemed a bit of an unspoken assumption that this might happen to other people's homes, but not hers. Very asari, to be sure. And I like it as a subtle aspect of her character—not a criticism of the game there, just a sidenote, I guess.

Kai Leng showing up was just ... /sigh. I don't really get what his deal is beyond being Cerberus and hating Shepard a lot for some unknown reason. Eventually we do see the past!Illusive Man comparing him to Shepard (in a positive way!), so maybe it's something to do with that, idk. He feels pretty underwritten to me compared to the rest of the major cast, who are generally super vivid (I mean, I love background characters like Westmoreland!). So I'm just irritated when he shows up and disrupts interesting things.

The Leviathan DLC was a really good horror episode taken in its own right, but as part of the wider game, I'm not sure. I kind of ... didn't want to know more about the Reapers? The sequence was fantastic (especially down in the bottom of the sea!), yet the less mysterious the Reapers get, the less engaged I am by them. Whatever the hell is going on with Cerberus and the Illusive Man is a lot more compelling to me at this point.

Speaking of whom, Sanctuary was just what the fuck?! from beginning to end. I've always been suspicious of the whispers about it, but I didn't guess that they were transforming refugees into husks to experiment on, you know? Damn. Miranda was not exaggerating about her father's callousness even a little.

Speaking of Miranda, she is probably at the top of my problematic ME characters list, and ... look. Okay. I know the mechanics of the game suggest she's straight. To me she has the most intense bi energy of just about any human in the game. I love (female) Shepard/Liara, a lot, but I just feel like there's a ton of UST between our Shepard and Miranda, all the more by the end of the Citadel DLC. I'll just leave that there.

After that, it was extremely cathartic to wreck the Cerberus base on Horizon with EDI. No gods no masters <3

And then we got to finally kill Kai Leng for good. Asshole. Blahblah, more villain monologues from the younger-looking Illusive Man (/suspicion). I suspect he's in cahoots with Harbinger or something and thinks he's actually the one in control.

Then there was the Citadel DLC, which I've heard a lot of great things about. Early on, I wasn't actually sure I'd like it as much as other people do—self-referential humor and stakes-lowering banter are not to my taste in general, and there were several times in the earlier parts that it didn't quite work for me (not because it was bad, but I just don't like that kind of thing by and large). I did laugh at the "I should go" jokes, though!

We did it with Wrex-Liara and then Garrus-Liara, which felt very apropos to the storyline, since the whole deal with the clone is that she has all of Shepard's technical skills but overlooks the importance of Shepard as team player and friend. And Wrex, Garrus, and Liara specifically go way back with Shepard.

When the clone was going on her villain rants about how she has everything Shepard did, she can do everything Shepard can, I was like "but she can't do everything Liara and Garrus can ... oh. This is about the power of friendship!" And it was, in a really charming way.

I did think Brooks was suspect as hell the whole time, so that was validating.

The clone's obsession with being The Real Shepard and having the grand mystique and galactic stature and all of that did highlight something interesting to me. I'd read an argument that ME1 is actually the best ME game, and one of the reasons in that argument is that ME1 Shepard is ... cool, but not nearly the superstar legend she becomes later on.

And Shepard's super special awesome greatness is hammered in a lot through ME2&3. I'm not sure that's actually worse than being scrappier, in terms of some artistic merit kind of thing, but the DLC is so reliant on Shepard's mystique that it got me thinking again about how easily this could become really annoying.

Like, I've loved many special or chosen male characters, but the idea of male badass Shepard seems just incredibly tedious to me. I'm not sure I could buy into this except with the pretty specific scenario we have of a lesbian Shepard who came up through a hard childhood on the streets of Earth.

Anyway, I absolutely adored the end of the clone arc (Garrus and Liara pulling the real Shepard up ;_;) and then the entire rest of the DLC, except the pull-up thing with James (very tiresome mechanically and he's my least fave of the ME3 squad). Miranda and Jack semi-reconciling was really adorable and I loved all the bizarre inter-character dynamics at the party. Also, Traynor winning against an asari named Polgara made me cackle. And my absolute most hated from ME2, Zaeed, was kind of delightful. Zaeed vs The Claw was just ... jafdkk;jadfjk;a

And Glyph's little bowtie! Incredible all around.

Oh, and the little date with Liara was super sweet. I loved that it stopped where it did, just that image of them embracing. It's great.

It was nice to see them seriously together even later, of course. And we got back to Earth! I was incredibly tired at that point, so my main thought was that the imagery of the united galactic fleet was essentially what The Rise of Skywalker tried and failed to do, but it was fantastic here, especially after everything we've done to get (almost) everyone together. (We did basically tell the salarians to go fuck themselves wrt the genophage.)

London looks suitably dreadful and we'd just gone around and talked to Anderson and then essentially everyone. Pretty much everyone continually brought up how awesome Shepard is, again, which reinforced my sense that this could be really annoying but is very nice for lesbian Shepard, and in any case, it feels like it's going somewhere now. We'll see where exactly that is!

[poeticdevastation]

hi chūya. do u read manga

Do you really want me to answer that.

All seriousness, I've read some.

Shingeki no Kyojin was good n' I liked Tokyo Ghoul.

Out of animes I liked their intro songs- especially Unravel, Shinzou wo Sasageyou, n' The Rumbling.

Another one I loved was found & lost by Survive Said the Prophet.

That band is insane, man. /pos

I have a small playlist dedicated to some of my favorite songs by them.

Of course I gotta mention the GOATs, Akira n' Fist of the North Star.

I tried Given- n' I guess this would be a "hot take" or whatever you guys call it- but if I'm bein' honest, I was more into Bocchi the Rock.

Still a cute one, though.

Nothin' will ever give me chills like Banana Fish n' this scene from Bocchi.

Death Note was another one that was pretty good but drove me nuts- loved the second op though- n' I'm excited to continue Boku no Hero Academia n' Demon Slayer.

I think the two I'm most excited to read/see more of though are Trigun/Trigun Maximum/Trigun Stampede n' Rurouni Kenshin.

Vash is a pretty cool guy.

Oh yeah- One Punch Man was hysterical, too.

Princess Mononoke was gorgeous.

Y'all can hate on it all ya want or be judgemental to it's chaotic n' broken fandom but RWBY rocks.

R.I.P. Rooster Teeth

Death Parade n' Satsuriku no Tenshi were interesting, & I'm interested in continuing Moriarty the Patriot n' Link Click.

I liked n' gotta continue/rewatch:

Assassination Classroom

Full Metal Alchemist

Interstella5555

Monster

One Piece

Owari no Seraph

Pluto

Mob Psycho 100

Sonic X

Dungeon Meshi

Spy × Family

Steins;Gate

BNA

Tokyo ESP

Re:Zero

Kiznaiver

Black Clover

Noragami

Phoenix Wright

Soul Eater

Ao no Exorcist

Tokyo Revengers

Durarara

n' ESPECIALLY Gurren Lagann n' Cowboy Bebop

I've been told to check out

The Great Pretender

Afro Samurai

Baccano

91 Days

Kaiju No.8

Berserk

Bleach

Evangelion

Vinland Saga

World Trigger

Tate no Yūsha no Nariagari

Cyberpunk: Edgerunners

Dorohedoro

Enen no Shouboutai

Great Teacher Onizaka

Hunter × Hunter

Hellsing

Hotaru no Haka

Detective Conan

Lupin III

Jujutsu Kaisen (That one guy's voice is. Drivin' me nuts. Where have I heard it.)

I don't plan to watch Chainsaw Man but the manga looks good.

As for games: I've played that [Redacted] series n' saw the anime for it as well as read some of the novels when I had the time.

I liked that Hagakure guy, but I can't put my finger on why... oh, n' Leon was pretty cool, too.

I loved Mondo n' Taka, not gonna lie.

Also liked Nekomaru n' that Kaito dude.

What was up with that Gozu guy too- he was interestin'.

Persona games are pretty good, too.

I played Genshin for a bit. I like Diluc. I swear- that Itto guy sounded familiar, but I'm not sure where else I'd heard him from.

HSR might be more my thing, but I like the fighting style more in Genshin if I'm bein' honest. Otherwise, I'll still be more active on Star Rail from now on.

I like Boothill n' Aventurine.

If you've read this far then here, have some of my guilty pleasures- if you can call them that;; basically:

You will never catch me admitting to liking these.

Violet Evergarden

Lucky Star

Horimiya

Shimoneta

PaSwG

Osomatsu-san

Ouran Koukou Host Club

Kaguya-sama: Love is War

Puella Magi Madoka Magica

Howl's Moving Castle

Princess Tutu (Wrecked me)

Fairy Tail

Kill la Kill

WataMote

Your Lie in April

Sasaki to Miyano

Sword Art Online II

Tian Guan Cifu

My Neighbor Totoro

n' especially Toradora! n' Buddy Daddies.

^What can I say, the last two were too-darn-adorable for me to resist.

Oh yeah, speakin' of animes people refuse to admit likin' n' reachin' this far to be deservin' of seein' my "honorary mentions"...

Y'all who are still afraid to like Kekkai Sensen are cowards.

Go check out Blood Blockade Battlefront, losers. /endearing

By the same guy who made Trigun, iirc.

There's one that keeps bein' brought up around me though... the Hell was it...;;

Bungou...somethin'...

...Bungou to Alchemist.

That's definitely what it was.

[curbhitter]

I want to get a cork board and a cute frame so I can put my polaroids on it with the cute little pins that I have for the ~aesthetic~.

I have so many polaroids and they're just collecting dust in a polaroid photo album that I have in my room and I want to look at them for the good memories.

Plus when I inevitably move to [REDACTED] for school (pending my acceptance) I want the Idaho memories close to me since I know I'm going to be a wreck because I'm so attached to this place and this area.

I just need to find a cork board. And then a cute frame for it. That shouldn't be too hard.

[talesfromsiteredacted]

Random Grabbag of Interesting Threats and Insults Heard at Site (REDACTED)

Various and sundry threats overheard around site, some directed at the staff, some at the anomalies, some at the Chaos Insurgency. Some are from the anomalies. Hell, I've got a few here. There's rumor about a Most Inventive Threat competition starting. No context, just hostility.

"I swear, if you start in with the singing again... I'm going to cut out your vocal chords, nail them to the front gate, add a warning sign, and spread the word far and wide the Viking penalty for raping eardrums applies here."

"Whomever decided Doctor Bright was Site Command material is gonna get a very special lemon basket, with combustible citrus."

"You're going to get cheesed, mate." "Cheesed?" "Like getting creamed, but a longer, more involved, and more agonizing process. With knives possibly involved."

"Wow... in the D&D game of life, you rolled a nat 1 on not just intelligence, but wisdom and charisma too."

"Keep staring at my sisters like that. I'll show you the Sumerian Cheese Grater trick."

"Keep pushing. Heard Ferdinand would just love a dinner date with you. One more comment like that, and I'll butcher, cook, and serve him your corpse."

"Wanna find out what happens when an idiot gets thrown in a miniature black hole? Keep asking 'When's lunch?' and you'll get firsthand experience."

"Why do you make easy-peasy lemon squeezy into hard hard lemon impossible?"

"Clef... touch my dark roast again, I'll shoot you with your own shotgun."

"Mock Dr. Kondraki again, you'll find out why butterflies can be terrifying."

"This. Is. Why. You. Leave. The. Keters. Alone. Now, piss off before I spank you again with your own baton, kid."

"Meh. You may have top clearance, but you don't have friends, and you don't have taste."

"The Keter? Nah, your willy isn't even Euclid." A pause. "Really weird thing to call your dong, Doctor Bright."

"What do we do with a drunken Bright? Lock him in the brig, and turn a very cold hose on him, of course."

"Interrupt my work once more, and I will be forced to suture your mouth shut."

"Those bastards! I'm going to carve their livers out with a rusty dull spoon!"

"It shouldn't be possible to play a ukulele with malicious intent, but here comes Clef, proving me wrong. One more super slow Tom Petty song, he'll be wearing that damn ukulele as a necktie."

"I could put a sack of manure through 914 on rough and get a better argument than that."

"The Chaos Insurgency must love stupid people, there's so many. Either that, or they need to start using a better temp agency."

"You call this coffee? I call this a mug of disappointment."

"Say it. You'll be eating Tuna Surprise slurries for weeks." A pause. "Why Tuna Surprise slurries? You'll be missing all your teeth."

"Huh. Surprised you can even breathe with your head so far up your own ass."

"Jeremy. My dude. You. Reek. You're out here, smelling like one of 682's chili farts, unwashed, ungroomed, uneducated... and you want a piece of my cake? Hah. Until you rediscover the wonders of a shower and soap, you ain't even touching my ladyfingers."

"Listen to me, Leonard... there is no place in the entire fucking mulitverse where I would find your creepy ass attractive. Now, fuck off before I treat you like a lich, you worthless wreck. You got no game, and lo! No maidens. Maybe 073 can teach you 'Not Being a Creep 101', you need it. Get the fuck out of here, pathetic maidenless wretch!"

"Big Brother told me about this thing he did to a guy with a wire waistcoat and a bicycle pump. Thinking of trying it on a certain annoying doctor."

"Put another fish in the damn fountain. I'll pulverize you with a trout."

"Dr. Gears... I know you're trying to set a good example, but right now you look like a poster for 'The Horrors of Insomnia and Overwork'. You need a long ass nap, boss."

"Grr. The Chaos Insurgency, can't stop them, but can't round them up, push them into a meat grinder, and use them as mutated shark bait."

"Okay... someone get Dr. Glass up here. Dr. Clef is delusional again. He just said Dr. Bright had a good idea. That's not possible."

"Wow. Contracting 008 might actually make this moron into a mere fool."

"I'm not sure if I should hit you with a shovel, shove a live snake up your ass, or just throw you in the incinerator."

"I'd sooner gnaw my own leg off and beat myself to death with it instead of have even a cup of coffee with you. Go away, Karin."

[maximuswolf]

The arcade racing game genre is in desperate need of innovation.

The arcade racing game genre is in desperate need of innovation. I've been a fan of racing games my entire life, all the way back to playing San Francisco Rush on the PS1 when I was barely big enough to press all the buttons on the controller. I've seen and played pretty much every halfway decent racing game between then and now, and it's clear to me that the racing genre is staler than ever before.You can sum up the entire genre in one review:REDACTED is a brand new open world racing game in the long-running REDACTED series, beloved by many. In this entry, you'll be playing as a fully customizable silent protagonist in a lush open world where racing is celebrated, because it's a culture, and emphasizing that is important. You'll be accompanied by a female AI which speaks to you at random and sometimes ad nauseum who is here to "help you" by being a glorified GPS. She's overly enthusiastic and is more than happy to help you out as you traverse the city of REDACTED, a gorgeous tropical paradise where you can unleash your supercars at your own will. You'll start the game out driving one of the flagship models of REDACTED in order to get you situated with the island in a few tutorial races, where we'll show you the game's laughably minimal exposition that pretty much sums up to "island-wide car festival," where the police don't really exist at all. There's 46,853 cars for you to choose from, all of which you'll drive about twice for a specific event or two before it gets lost in the massive garage, because hey, quantity over quality, right? Who wants to bond with a specific car and tune it up to make it feel like yours, when EVERY car can be yours instead? Dotted around the island are various mini-challenges for you to complete, such as speed traps, drifts, and jumps, which are graded by a 3 star rating system. Also hidden around the map are wrecked vehicles, which you can find for cool classics with the help of an annoying radar ping! Also, don't forget about the other types of collectibles you'll be able to find around the map, just smash into them or press X to collect them for added goodies such as new vinyls, discounts, or free money! This is a feel-good type of racing game! Everybody is happy to see you, now go wreak complete havoc on the people who actually live here!Did you catch what game I'm referring to? Could it be The Crew: Motorfest? TDU Solar Crown? Need for Speed Unbound? Forza Horizon?The answer is *yes.*Ever since the first Test Drive Unlimited hit the shelves back in 2006, the arcade racing game genre has felt stagnant. There has been very little innovation in the genre since Forza Horizon came on the scene in 2012 and introduced the idea of the "festival racer," and while the games themselves objectively aren't too bad, why should they be worthy of my time? Even The Crew, an open world racing game series I genuinely enjoyed just due to the sheer scale of the map, is nothing more than Forza Horizon: Ubisoft Edition now. None of the games feel like they have balls whatsoever. They're so "pick up and play" casual that the games basically play themselves, especially Forza- a game that literally rewards you for NOT playing it with wheelspins- 10 to 20 at a time if you wait longer than a month. The genre is so soulless. Submitted January 14, 2025 at 07:28AM by nine16s https://ift.tt/in5B8rk via /r/gaming

[venturetranscripts]

Banquo Orbit 5K

"Banquo Orbit 5K" is the first mission of Wreck Runner.

Welcome to Solfleet! A routine salvage mission to a debris field reveals more than you bargained for and threatens to turn deadly.

Cast

Duffy - Christina Greatrex

Eats - Sarah Griffin

Peter Cassidy - Philip Nightingale

Control - Julianna Kurokawa

Drone - Beth Eyre

Wreck - You!

Crew

Writers - Alasdair Stuart and Mur Lafferty

Director - Matt Wieteska

Sound Designer - Mark Pittam

Plot

Race You!

Duffy welcomes you to the team, and apologises that you're being immediately thrown into a mission. Eats will partner with you for this, and tells you that you're checking out a shuttle trapped in debris. Recover any survivors, and salvage anything useful. Better get going!

Follow Those Drones!

Eats wonder what such an old shuttle was doing this deep in the Boneyard. You enter through a hole in the hull. Eats doesn't register any survivors, but it looks like life support is still working on the other side of the airlock. Time to get to work.

Circuit

The shuttle is huge, but Duffy says that it apparently had only had a skeleton crew of three people. Duffy seems to be hiding something from you, and tells you to just bring the crew home. The drones sense a life sign and it seems agitated. You head through the next door and find the room trashed. There's a man standing outside an occupied stasis pod. Duffy tells you that's Peter Cassidy. Cassidy says that he won't go back, and then comes after you with a knife.

Debris Ring

You lose Cassidy and hide in the ship's kitchen where you are confronted by Kurokawa, the ship's Control. They tell you that Cassidy had lost it a week ago, and the struggle caused the ship to crash. A drone notifies you that one life-sign has left the ship. Control says it's probably Cassidy trying to steal your shuttle. You can run through the ring of debris to try to catch him.

Short Cut

Duffy needs you to do one more thing; Cassidy has something that you need to recover, and you can't let it fall into the wrong hands. Control has a short-cut in mind for you.

Emergency Action

If you jump from the hull, inertia will carry you straight to the shuttle, and you should be able to beat Cassidy there. Eats is uncertain because of the lack of a tether, but Control insists that it's the only way. You release you mag-boots, and manage to make it across open space to the shuttle, just in time to catch Cassidy. You try to get the data off him, but he jumps into space rather than give it up. And worse news! Eats missed the landing.

Swarm

Eats is still out of reach and your suit is going to run out of air soon. Duffy suggests turning back so you don't lose two crew members. Thinking quickly, you separate one of the drones from the swarm and throw it to Eats. The drone manages to drag Eats back towards you when it tries to return to the others. Duffy worries about the efficacy of the drone swarm, but they seem to have taken a liking to Eats. You'd better get back to the shuttle quickly though.

New Family

You make it back to the shuttle and close the airlock. You can remove your space suit. Control is welcomed to the team, and says that she has a copy of the data that Cassidy took. Eats demands to know why she didn't say that earlier, and Control explains that Cassidy was listening in and they couldn't risk him sending the data to anyone else. Eats demands answers considering you're all going to be working together. Control shows you some of the documents, much of which is redacted. It seems to be about a ship called the Minerva, which vanished in a possible first contact situation.

Transcript

Race You!

(Ongoing ambient sounds of a space shuttle)

Duffy: Codename Wreck. I'm glad you were able to join our team on such short notice. We're sorry to throw you into your first mission so quickly, but this is extremely time sensitive. Dock with the other shuttle and rendezvous with your team for briefing. Welcome to the runners, Wreck.

(Door opens)

Eats: Wreck! About time, we were about to go on without you.

Drones: Untrue! No human embarks on a mission alone!

Eats: You drones ruin everything.

Drones: Untrue! A mission is impossible without us!

Eats: God, you're annoying! Anyway, hey Wreck! Seems we're gonna check out a shuttle caught up in a stretch of hot debris. Gonna be around 5 kilometres to do the whole run.

It's just you and me, you know. Mission's not important enough for Circuit or Control.

Duffy: We haven't hired a Control for the team yet, and Circuit is still recovering from Martian flu. For now, the drones will brief you.

Drones: You'll go recover survivors and salvage from derelict Shuttle, Diana, currently moored in the ring of debris orbiting the South Pole.

Eats: A. K. A. the Boneyard, right? And these floating cricket balls come with us! Let's go, Wreck! Hey, race ya!

Follow Those Drones!

Drones: You have travelled one kilometre.

Eats: Look at that, Wreck! That's an early Zeus shuttle. Still space worthy. Well, not so much now. What was she doing so deep in the boneyard?

Duffy: The only question you need is, can you find survivors and salvage?

Eats: I suggest we enter through that burning hole in the hull. You go first, Wreck.

Uh, sorry you missed the Meet Your Crew And Get Drunk party. In short, my story is, I'm a runner because I'm a terrible shot. But I can cook, and I keep a mean inventory spreadsheet. So, I'm your Eats runner …

(The sound of burning)

And we're in! I'm seeing no survivors, Duffy.

Duffy: That's not surprising, Eats, since you're in the burning cargo bay.

Eats: I guess we keep moving.

Hey Dronie, can you unlock this door?

Drones: Ooo! Whee!

(Drones open the door – presumably with laser and little robot hands)

Eats: Brilliant. Looks like life support is working on the other side of this airlock.

(The airlock opens)

We are into the ship's living area now. This hallway has lights and gravity.

(Eats and Wreck land on the ground. Eats takes off her helmet. She is much clearer to hear now)

Phew. Which way are the quarters?

Duffy: The drones have a map of the old Zeus style shuttles.

Time to run, Wreck. Follow those drones!

Circuit

Drones: You have travelled two kilometres!

Eats: This Zeus shuttle is huge!

Duffy: Early Zeus class shuttles were the largest in the fleet.

Eats: Do you have a plan of how we're to bring a huge shuttle crew home in our little shuttle?

Duffy: Intel says the Diana crashed because it had a skeleton crew … three crew members.

Eats: I'm feeling like there's something you're not telling us.

Duffy: Just … bring them home.

Drones: Sensors indicate one life signature inside. Copy [sic?] is agitated.

Eats: Agitated? Wait a second!

Drones: Open!

Eats: Whoa! Shouldn't we come up with a plan or something?

(The airlock opens despite Eats’ protests.)

Duffy: Who's inside?

Eats: This place is trashed! Equipment smashed. Glass all over the floor! I think that's blood on the walls. Two people, one in a stasis pod. The guy outside is … tall? White guy, white hair, about 60.

Duffy: That is Peter Cassidy. This crew's Circuit.

Eats: Mr. Cassidy, I'm Eats, and this here's Wreck, and I'm sure that's not blood on the walls, right?

Cassidy: Uh ... No! I won't go back! You can't take me back!

Eats: He doesn't look happy to see us and he's got a knife! Oh God. Run Wreck!

Debris Ring

Drones: You have run 2. 5 kilometres.

Duffy: Runners, report.

Eats: We ended up in the kitchen. Crazy guy stopped chasing us. We have to get out of here!

Duffy: Not until you confirm the whereabouts of the third crew member.

Control: Psst. Over here.

Eats: Gah! You Diana crew just like scaring people, don't you?

Control: No, no, I need a lift. I'm Kurokawa, but you can call me Control.

Duffy: Oh, I was hoping you'd find Kurokawa. Are they alright? Get them an encounter suit so we can communicate.

Eats: Yeah, they're okay. I'm Eats, this is Wreck, and Duffy's yelling in my ear to report how you're doing?

Control: I'm alright. Just a bit of a stab wound. Cassidy lost it about a week ago. We were at the shuttle in the fight. Kept talking about his 'mission'.

Eats: Duff, Control says 'alright' and 'stab' in the same sentence.

Drones: Alert! One life form has exited the ship!

Control: Cassidy's probably off to steal your shuttle and abandon us all here to die. That's just like him.

Eats: We still need to get you a suit! There's no way we'll catch him!

Control: We can run through the ring of debris. Won't be easy, but we don't have a choice.

Run!

Short Cut

Drones: You have run three kilometres!

Control: Hey, Duffy, I'm good to go.

Duffy: Good to have you Control. Runners, you need to do one more thing.

Eats: What's more important than beating a psychopath back to our shuttle?

Duffy: There's something in that shuttle Cassidy didn't want us to have. We can't let it fall into the wrong hands.

Eats: Not only no, but Hell no.

I'm getting out of here and back to Earth and then … I'm gonna become a chemist! Chemists don't get stabbed!

Duffy: Wreck? I'm cutting communication with Eats.

Control, did you get the data we were looking for?

Control: I didn't get it, but it's something Cassidy would have taken.

Duffy: Why? Who … is he working with?

Control: He wouldn't tell me.

Duffy: You must stop him from getting it into the hands of anyone other than us.

Eats: Hey, are you talking to Duffy without me?

Control: She wanted to talk to us while you were busy planning your new career. We need to get going. I have a shortcut in mind. Let's run.

Emergency Action

(A door opens, we hear the creak of the wreck and debris. Everyone’s helmets are back on)

Drones: You have travelled four kilometres!

Control: This debris forms a ring. If we jump from this hull, inertia will carry us in a straight line to the shuttle, beating Cassidy.

Eats: Across open space without a tether?

Control: It's the only way. Grab onto something to stop your fall. Duff, we still have a chance. Cassidy's had to slow down.

Eats: I don't see -- Oh, wait, there he is. Wow, he's got terrible running form.

Duffy: Focus, Eats. You're trained for this. Disconnect your magnetic boots. Jump, and you should reattach to debris on the other side.

Eats: (groaning with apprehension and discomfort) When did 'should' get so scary?

Control: Come on, we have to go now.

Eats: Go ahead, Wreck.

(Wreck disconnects their magnetic boots, takes the leap, and lands with a thump.)

Hey, you made it!

Control: Let's move! Cassidy is coming around that old rocket shell.

(Wreck – and maybe Control – detain Cassidy, keeping him from going further)

Cassidy: Get off me!

Control: Cassidy, we're taking you back to Earth. SolFleet has some choice things to say to you.

Cassidy: Someone has to turn SolFleet over and reveal the worms wriggling underneath.

Control: That's poetic … and gross. Wreck! Get the data! Rip the suit if you have to!

No! Cass - Cassidy! Don't!

Cassidy: Give my regards to Duffy. Be seeing you!

Control: Duffy. He's jumped into space and the data's with him.

Eats: Hey team! Team! Help! I missed the landing!

Duffy: Runners! Emergency action! Now!

Swarm

Control: Eats is still just out of reach. We've followed them for half a kilometre. We can't keep up.

Duffy: You have to turn back. Wreck's suit is going to run out of air soon. We can't lose another team member.

Eats: Oh God. No! Don't let me suffocate out here, Wreck! Please!

Drones: [sic] This is highly embarrassing! The swarm hasn't -- Whoa!

Control: Hang on, Wreck. You're not supposed to separate the drones. Oh. I see. Eats, heads up!

Eats: Why'd you throw me a drone? What's a freakin’ cricket ball gonna --

Drones: Gotta get back. Gotta get back. Be the Swarm, swarm, swarm!

(The Drone continues in the fashion until it is reunited with it’s pair, heard in the background saying things of this nature.)

Control: Hang on, Eats!

Duffy: Don't separate the drones.

Drones: Gotta get back. Gotta get back.

Duffy: They could act unpredictably.

Control: The drone is returning to the swarm and is pulling Eats back.

Drones: Gotta get back. Swarm, swarm, swarm!

Swarm, swarm, swarm! Ooo! Whee!!

Eats: You saved my life, little buddy! Quick thinking, Wreck! I didn't know these things could drag a human!

Duffy: I'm glad you're safe. But I'm worried about the efficacy of the swarm now.

Eats: Aw, they seem alright. Except they're swarming around me now. Oh, how cute! They think I'm their mama!

Duffy: This debriefing is gonna be a nightmare.

Just run back to the shuttle quickly.

New Family

Drones: We have run our maximum of 5 kilometres! Our air will run out shortly.

Eats: Made it! We're at the airlock, Duff.

Duffy: Good work. Get inside. Take off your suits and cool down.

(The team does just that)

Eats: You know, untethered spacewalks weren't in the job description. I thought we'd see new places, meet new people!

Duffy: You just did both of those things. Plus you got a new drone family. I'm gonna have to ask Circuit about how this happened. Control, have you seen any sign of Cassidy?

Control: Long gone, I'm afraid. Let's get autopilot going.

Wreck, check life support in the engines. Eats, make sure the crew have water.

Eats: Wait a second, who died and made you boss?

Duffy: Her call sign is Control, Eats. She's part of the team now.

Eats: Finally! Another crew member! Welcome to the Athena, Control. We can have a drink and swap stories when we get back to Earth. I guess you two know each other from Duffy sending you on a super secret job that she decided not to tell us about, huh?

Duffy: I'm glad you're coming home safely, Control, but the loss of that data is huge.

Control: Don't worry, Duff. I have a copy.

Duffy: Why didn't you say that earlier?

Control: Because Cassidy had to be listening in and the real threat was him delivering the data into the wrong hands.

Duffy: I forgot how insufferable and pedantic you were sometimes. Come home safely, crew.

Duffy out.

Eats: Ooo-oo! I think I'm gonna like working with you. So, what's in the file?

Control: Classified.

Eats: Wreck and I nearly died today saving your life. And if we're on the same team, you gotta trust us.

Control: Mmm, That's true.

Here's the scan.

Eats: Great. Hang on. Half the words are blacked out. We risked our lives for this?

Control: Duffy will have to decipher the redacted words.

Eats: Good Lord. Is this document about the Minerva?

Control: Yes. It covers Captain Mallory's last mission. The official mission was to find scouts lost in the irradiated wormhole sector, but SolFleet really expected a first contact situation, which they intended to escalate into a military incident. Before she disappeared, she sent three messages back.

Eats: I heard she sent only one. ‘Crew is safe’.

Control: The second one was, ‘I can't wait for you.’ The third is blacked out, but it looks something like, ‘peace through any means necessary.’

Eats: That's ominous. So, we're returning redacted SolFleet data to them? Don't they have this already?

Control: Um, not to SolFleet per se. We're returning it to Duffy.

Eats: I see what you're doing. Sort of. Hey, Wreck, did you think you'd be landing in such an adventure when you joined the Runners? I sure didn't.

Control: So Eats, are you still going to quit the Runners and be a chemist?

Eats: Are you kidding? This just got interesting! Besides, I can't leave my new family, can I?

(Eats sounds like she’s hugging a drone in gratitude. The drone exclaims in pleasant surprise.)

Drones: Oh!  

Control: Good. Take us home, Runners.

Mission completed.

Codex - Bonus Features

Letter

FROM: Control TO: Wreckrunner Team 01 SUBJECT: Saving My Life

So, thanks for saving my life.

I’m not one for speeches. Never know who might be listening.

Look, here’s the thing. You folks took the call on your first day out and pulled me out of the fire. You had no reason to, no reason to trust me even. And even then, when I told you the worst news people in our business can hear, you took it in your stride. SolFleet may be not be honourable, but you sure as hell are. You ran towards the burning building. You put yourselves to one side in return for saving me. That’s not something I can forget. I’m not sure I know how to. Or how to express my gratitude.

My hope is that serving beside you, having your backs when you’re out there on the edge, will be enough. Because I’ll always be there. Right next to you.

Thanks, folks. Stay sharp.

Control

[ladyazulina]

Azu is Talking — A Little Too Personal at the End

This week, the dental pain I have been updating you about has been decreasing. Slowly but surely. I was able to stop numbing my mouth to fall asleep earlier in the week, so that’s… good? I guess? It’s still hurting, but I see even the smaller of steps as progress, so.

This Creative Monday was… intense, to say the least. Fortunately, the mechanic of this game seems to be coming pretty nicely. Wordy-wise, at least. I easily spent the whole afternoon working on it, seven hours. From late morning to right into the evening, with a long break to prepare and eat lunch (watching a series episode~) and a shorter one to have a coffee.

My eyes were tired of seeing words and I still wanted to try to add something to the [REDACTED] adventure, ‘cause that goes whenever I can, remember? And I did, though very little, and my eyes ended up also hurting after that. I still have just a bit more than two weeks left to work on it. Not sure how many words missing just yet. But with just an hour or so to end my working hours, I wasn't really sure about my odds (I did the add-up with five minutes to spare). Don't have to rush and worry about it just yet, but the sooner I can end it, the better I will feel. And I always want to feel the better.

That’s not what usually happens on Tuesdays… Particularly this one. When reading a book in which you have 50+ favorite highlighted quotes, Review Tuesday becomes a nightmare.

Read this week’s review:

Posting each and every one of those quotes individually (because I want to 😭) is a heavy job. I can try to quell it a bit by listening to music and reading those quotes during the arduous posting to remind myself how much I loved that book, but it still leaves a toll. Especially if after the first massive posting on Tumblr, I'm doing the same on Patreon, repeating it on Ko-fi, and doing it once more on Co-host! Doesn't surprise me that it took me a whole day. But a whole day trying to post a review was going to easily become a killer instead of a cause of excitement. That's why I rebranded my Ko-fi and the way I shared the reviews on Co-host! Now it's a headache, but a headache that takes a slightly less amount of time and leaves me with enough left to try to fix the rest of my day. Or madden me even more, who knows?

Iron Valley, Linney's Campaign, is being live every Tuesday.

Yeah, kind of that is what I meant. Not only that, though.

I started the day by sharing everywhere I could the second post of Linney’s campaign on Iron Valley. Then I worked on posting the review of the week. All those reviews are from books I read in 2022 and 2023, I haven’t had that much of a reading spur this year mostly because I wanted to slow down and read some books I wanted outside of ARC and Beta picks. It hasn’t worked like that, if I have to be honest, but it’s like I needed the rest. I am still reading (or trying to 😬) for the teams I am already a part of, just took a year’s pause from actively looking and pursuing new teams to apply for.

After that, anyway, I had a really motivating brainstorming session with a trusted friend 💙 (my heart aches for being able not only to say but also believe that I have friends I can trust) that led me to dive for almost six hours on the [REDACTED] adventure. I was satisfied (and oh so tired) for basically finishing it with a little more than two weeks before the deadline (being aware of the time was, is, and will still be jamming my head), but I still have to make a few editions to make it the best I could. I feel so low-key hyped.

Working Wednesday, though, didn’t have much of ‘Working’. I started the day with a power outage and that wrecked my plans, even if they were really not that time or head-consuming. I could have finished with my Collaborative Writing Workshop later on, but I wasn’t feeling it. Had enough of a time figuring out what I was going to eat and how I was going to dive into the darkness of a kitchen I had even in the brightest of hours (and I had, for a change, the brightest of days so far lately). Fortunately, the power came back for a little bit to let me fix my breakfast. And then came back again so I could fix my lunch (really, really thankful for that). It went out for a little bit again when I was prepping my dessert (the first time in a long time, I can get accustomed to that 😏). But so far it held. Still have no idea what happened that day (to warrant the power outage, I mean).

So, when I finally was able to settle, it was already time for the coffee break (sacred, do not disturb), and I felt so out of sync that I just made some last-minute editions and called it a day. I added a few more things to my schedule (’cause I just remembered), but so far it could have totally gone as an UnPlanned Resting Day. I took a book from my small, brand-new, growing, personal library collection and read for hours. I don’t remember when was the last time I read a physical book I physically held in my physical hands (my last birthday doesn’t count because the book wasn’t mine yet and I was in a bookstore 👀), so it was nice. Now I just have to finish it. Preferably before the end of the month. Hopefully more on that next week 🤞

Backstage Thursday was… backstaging, ba dum tss 🥁 I did an orderly move of tasks to help me manage a bit better few certain things outside my thematic days. Like an edition I had to start because of me getting into a new project… as an editor. It took me longer than I expected, but I had so much fun starting to dive in there and I’m loving a lot the setting and the concepts and I’m into the idea that my ‘boss’ is such an easy-going person, it will be hella fun to work with them. I did my scheduled task as well, and also had to reject a possible paid project because I didn’t find myself fit enough for it. Mature decisions. I’m growing way so fast 🥺

I also found a solo TTRPG game I could playtest the week after next. I know I ‘should’ have finished the previous one by now, but life happened. Anyhow, I’m happy and excited for the new game. I really can’t wait. I’m surprisingly content as well with the subjects I was able to grab for my incoming semester. I had to withdraw all of them last semester, so I wasn’t sure how things were going to go on this one, but I even found a virtual class! It’s the best of the best of what I can get. I will totally talk a lot more about my college life after the semester starts in three weeks anyway, so let’s wait until then.

On Secret Friday, though, I was not having it. I woke up in a m o o d, that much I noticed. Last week I signed up as a player for an incoming charity weekend stream to raise funds for medical aid for Palestine by playing TTRPG games. I woke up that day overthinking the help I could give as a player with my need for accommodations. If I haven’t said it yet, I’m hard of hearing and that is such a Big Thing™ in my life… at least for me. All the session zeros and games seemed to be taking place on voice channels on Discord, and Discord doesn’t have yet closed captions integrated (w h y?!). The session zero for a game I wanted to play was taking place that day, so my mood wasn’t helping. It was pushing me to just withdraw altogether, not wanting to be a bother by switching the calls to Google Meets, which could be a problem during a live stream if none of us had a paid account cause Google would be kicking us out every hour. For a game of at least three hours. I… I wasn’t having it.

Fortunately, it did not have a grasp of me. The session zero was held on Google Meets, and the organizer said we would have an account with a Google free trial, so it shouldn’t be able to cut us out during the stream. I had a lot of fun meeting the cast and was glad of hadn’t listened to my head. Now I can formally invite you to accompany us from August 2nd to August 4th on Desis & Dragons’ Twitch channel, we will be playing a lot of games with huge diverse casts for such an amazing cause.

Still on that same Secret Friday, I was also having sad feelings, finding an article in my inbox that very morning that started like this:

Living with hearing loss impacts every aspect of my life. It shapes how I communicate, navigate the world, and connect (or, more often, don’t connect) with others. During Disability Pride month, I find myself thinking lately about unexpected support — the small, impactful ways people have shown up and advocated on my behalf when I couldn’t. There’s my wife, of course, who helps translate basically everywhere we go, and who’s learning ASL with me so we can communicate a little easier. — Pride and Perseverance by AnnaGrams.

As I said, I was having feelings, and I was already a filled well, so I was overflowing. That start hit me somewhere and thought about approaching the author, Anna Pulley, but I was at a loss for words.

I tried to do things that day, but nothing (apart from the session zero) seemed to be working for me, so, understandably so, I just let it be. My partner spent a lot of time with me and, after the session, we had our coffee break (I started having coffee breaks thanks to him) and a few hours watching a series.

I partly knew what I was feeling, so when I didn’t wake up on Playful Saturday feeling better, it didn’t surprise me. It took me a while to figure out what it was though, but after the first harsh wave, I noticed there is only one thing able to destroy me completely overnight. The hormones were shifting to prepare for the period.

What’s the problem with it? The feelings, thoughts, and emotions I have been feeling for the last decade around the hormones have been extremely radical. I don’t consider myself an impulsive person… in this sort of thing, at least, but the intensity that overcomes me has been huge enough to scare me. Of myself. For myself. I’ve been fighting depression all my life and earlier with this I noticed it is something that affects greatly my style of life. Very few people believe me, not the ones who could help me do something about it though. Yet. So it hasn’t been funny.

After communicating with my partner, he decided it best to keep me in his line of sight. So dear friends I also kept in the loop were checking on me. I felt a prisoner of my own body (though this happens often and not only because of this particular matter) and a hostage of my own mind. I made the smarter move, but it was a difficult day.

Reaching the evening, my partner started looking for activities to actively distract me. We ended up playing a few (many) puzzles from Baba is You. It was highly stimulating and I ended up deeply engrossed, so much so that when he had to leave me to spend time with his family, I shifted the attention toward the TTRPG game I’m playing. Instead of the four parts I used to go over in the previous weeks, I was only able to focus through one and a half of another, but so far that was more than I expected to do that day. Depending on how this new week goes, I may or may not finish this first campaign there. I’m excited.

The excitement doesn’t break through this mood that’s bringing me down, but now that I recognized it, it’s slightly easier to fight it. Just slightly. Being able to differentiate when something comes from you and when it comes from the liar you have as a brain makes it all a bit less strenuous. And, sometimes, that’s all you need.

I’m only playing in one game so far next weekend, but nonetheless, I hope to see you there. Until next week 💙

[kusogamesss]

Splatter

If the last half-decade has demonstrated anything, it is that the terminally online rhetoric of post-ironic who-gives-a-shit is metastasising. Vine was a benign growth, TikTok a malignant tumour. The netizen-hive-mind-collective that 'solved' the Boston Bombing is directly responsible for the fashwave that is/has/does/will erode democracy. Your grandpa has FOMO and bought $GME to 💎🙌 to the moon and we're all gonna make it, gm, gn, and you're buying into my shitcoin so I can rugpull you because Blizzard nerfed Siphon Life during Obamna's first term. Video games and anime used to be so much better before this forced diversity bullshit ᴡʜᴀᴛ ᴛʜᴇ ꜰᴜᴄᴋ ᴀʀᴇ yᴏᴜ ꜱᴀyɪɴɢ ᴅᴏ yᴏᴜ ʜᴇᴀʀ ᴛʜᴇ ꜱʜɪᴛ ᴅʀɪʙʙʟɪɴɢ ᴏᴜᴛ ᴏꜰ yᴏᴜʀ ᴍᴏᴜᴛʜ yᴏᴜ ᴄʀᴇᴛɪɴ took away the possibility of me getting a tradwife with Abigail Shapiro's body and Marin Kitagawa's face while I [REDACTED] to Angela White after a month of semen retention and get those GAIN$$$$ because there's always a bigger fool and it sure as fuck isn't me and you just don't get this new meme and I'm being gangstalked and I haven't [As the owner of a LandNFT, you own your individual Metalverse patch and secure a permanently assigned place on the Met---

The Milennials are the new Boomers [GEN-X ERASURE] and even the Zoomers are coming of age and they've been inundated with information and bullshit bullshit bullshit so they're casting a mirror back at this fucked up world we've made for them in their own art but some people are trying to be cute and coy with it and you get a YIIK or a Neon White but at least one of those was a good game even if it was still corpo-white-washed faux-sthetics. And your cute and coy attempts and being quirky fail to represent how angry you should be that you were born into this mess of a world because don't you know anger results in nothing? Why yes my favourite podcasts are My Brother, My Brother & Me, and The Adventure Zone, I love to choke down the fetid slurry that is the McElroys' toxic positivity of no bummers and horses and you're being force fed advertisements for fast food and you can't even open your eyes to realise it.

So when a game has the moxie to be viscerally angry, I have to take notice because that feels so genuine in the hyperrealistic world we inhabit. And Splatter is mad that the Internet has made us manipulative, lonely, nostalgic, deluded, greedy, and ultimately willing to harm others (or ourselves) for some gain, be it financial or spiritual or egotistical or chemical. This works where other games borne of the online mindset falter because this runs deep. Rat King Collective didn't disconnect to craft up some malformed half-simulacra that is outdated before it comes out. They never stopped being online, they didn't go for the here and now, they struck at the core of fourteen-year-old-me's identity. This isn't the cream of the crap, this is the dregs of a multitude of online cultures that you, yes, had to be there for. Or maybe you didn't. Does it matter? This goes deep enough that a missed referential quip refuses a reading of "oh this is one of those internet things I don't get," it simply recedes into the background, a cacophony of noise.

It isn't as if the gameplay is some marvel though. It's a spongy xoomer-shooter affair with hand guns and a Dark Souls Borne Ring dodge and commitment to the bit. A leaping enemy is gonna leap! Your dodge isn't going to give you i-frames but it'll get you out of the way and into a new harm's way. I'm not here for the gameplay anyways, it's a means to an end.

This is the video game equivalent of B.R. Yeager's Amygdalatropolis and I ravenously ate it up. Get mad. Wreck shit. Tear it all down. WORLD IS A FUCK

[dormienschas]

The o ly time I love villains is when they're not making the good characters life into a living hell. Take Quinn from Redacted as an example.

When he's not wrecking havoc towards David, Darlin, Sam, etc etc, I love that bastard. But the second he fucks with the others is when I'm all like "Yeahhhh nooo. Quinn's gotta go bro." Like...let him wreck havoc away from the precious characters lmao.

[exhausted-enby-vibes]

thanks for the tag!! this looks so cool!

but also you’re gonna get all my commentary about this

how would you describe yourself in one sentence?

it's 4 AM and i'm fucking tired - gut punch/don’t meet your idols - everybody’s worried about owen

so real

what kind of (redacted) are you?

and i'm sorry i left, but it was for the best, though it never felt right - fourth of july - sufjan stevens

don’t really know what this one means but it’s a good lyric

you’re visiting your favorite spot, what are you thinking about?

you were supposed to be my light and keep me safe against them all, how could you leave me here - welly boots - the amazing devil

dang ok that’s sad

if your life was a movie, what would the first review say?

you'll be walking out early, but the show must go on - i/me/myself - will wood

that would be such an interesting review lmao, i can’t tell if it’s a compliment or not

what would you title your memoir?

heavy is the head that gets no sleep (we carry our lives around in our memories) - cold is the night - the oh hellos

it’s ironic because my memory is shit

what would you say about your best friends?

fuck, i’m sorry you feel all alone - nights like these - pigeon pit

yikes

what was your life motto when you were a teenager?

there is love that doesn't have a place to rest, but it would have buried you if it had settled on your shoulders - never love an anchor - the crane wives

or

i am selfish, i am broken, i am cruel - never love an anchor - the crane wives

still am lmao

describe your current aesthetic

like you're not really happy but you don't wanna die, like you're hanging by a thread but you gotta survive - numb little bug - em beihold

love this song!

a lyric they'll quote at your eulogy

in the wreck of all we burnt stands our piano like a wound, i play our song to see if it's in tune - ruin - the amazing devil

or

i’ll sing silence - ruin - the amazing devil

or

nothing quite prepares you for when they don’t come back - ruin - the amazing devil

i love this song so much it’s so sad! and the last one fits the prompt so much

what would your soulmates first impression be upon meeting you?

why are we so young with tired, sunken, baggy eyes - mawce - everybody’s worried about owen

another great song!

GUYS THIS IS SO COOL I LOVE IT

no pressure tags: @trans-dwightschrute @thatonesongyouretryingtoremember @sorry-i-panicked @pimplepogue @stellarismidnight

Music thingy

(thank you @murderoushagthesequel and @shipsgaysfordaysfor the tag)

so the rules are: you put your playlist on shuffle. for each question, choose a lyric from the random song that comes up (if the song has little to no lyrics you can skip) also make sure to put the name of the song and the artist

how would you describe yourself in one sentence?

"even in the dust, we shine with fire and gold in our eyes" (fire and gold by bea miller)

2. what kind of (scorpio) are you?

"im sure that i could be a movie star if i could get out of this place" (piano man by billy joel)

3. you're visiting your favorite spot, what are you thinking about?

"in another life" (the one that got away by katy perry)

4. if your life was a movie, what would the first review say?

"i swear this town's a battlefield" (weapons by ava max)

5. what would you title your memoir?

"well, then you might not like me" (might not like me by brynn elliott)

6. what would you say about your best friends?

"Divas, queens, we we dont need no man, salute" (salute by little mix)

7. what was your life motto when you were a teenager?

"nothing ever hurts when you feel no pain" (fighter by the score)

8. describe your current aesthetic

"paint your lips that way...you are a monster from hell" (michelle by sir chloe)

9. whats a lyric they will quote at you eulogy?

"this is brave, this is bruised, this is who i'm meant to be" (this is me by keala settle/the greatest showman)

10. what would your soulmates first impression be upon meeting you?

"watched my favorite shows on your tv" (fingers crossed by lauren spencer smith)

lightly tagging my friends (optional ofc) @romanticeulogizingelegies, @silentwillowwhisperer, @rhmis-user-2020, @siriuslybea, and @not-rab