#I'm tired and I don't trust the developer of the game

[thunderboltfire]

I'm gonna be real with You guys, I've already been immensely concerned for the new Dragon Age, and the trailer didn't help much, unfortunately. I'm not a fan of the usage of stylisation in the artstyle - I have nothing against stylisation itself! I think it's a valid direction they could go with the visual side of the game. Matt Rhodes, who developed a lot of DA's visual characteristic definitely loves stylisation. The rejection of the photorealistic approach would lessen the scrutiny over the game's graphics and animations (and TBH, it would make it less probable that it'll immediately get compared to BG3 which has stellar mocap, something DA series isn't really known of).

The problem is that the stylisation is applied pretty inconsistently here, so the characters look like they're from different games. As far as the aestetics go, the promotional materials don't really reflect the direction BW said they were going to go with the next DA game - it was supposed to be a return to the dark fantasy roots of the series, and the colorful, flashy presentation doesn't really read as dark fantasy. It of course can very well be the case of the trailer not representing the game well - that yet remains to be seen.

My biggest concern, as always in case of RPGs is the plot, and You cannot gauge it from a trailer. Good for Harding to get more spotlight, though. There's never enough dwarves, and especially dwarven ladies. But overall, especially after the recent awful treatment of their employees, I'm not sure at all if I want to give money to Bioware.

[thesilmarillionblog]

𓏲 𓂃 L o s i n g Y o u

Part:𝟷𝟼

Click here to read the first part.

Summary: Everything was good as a member of Payback and Soldier Boy's secret girlfriend until the team and your relationship with him began to fall apart due to a new member and her developing relationship with Ben right in front of your eyes.

Pairing: Soldier Boy / Reader

Warnings: +18! (MINORS DNI), angst, hurt, language, mention of sexual assault (the deep, homelander)

Word Count: 5002

A/N: English is not my first language.

* This story is inspired by the song "Losing You" by Dream Evil.

You did your best to ignore Ben throughout the past week, despite the fact that you have not spoken much. Despite your immediate interruption, Ben was eager to continue his conversation with you. Furthermore, with all of the Vought business, things were becoming crazy. Not much had changed with Mindstorm, even though you and Ben continued to appear on TV every night on the news.

Ben was difficult to deal with and had a difficult personality in general. Now he was willing to get a little intimate, and he wasn't pushing you away this time, which left you confused and angry. In the past, you always pushed hard to be with him in every minute and every second, as if you were obsessed with him, even though he was occasionally distant from you when he didn't like being with you. If he had stayed as the same jerk from decades before, it would be simpler.

Actually, you were upset with yourself for allowing yourself to be affected by him. It was quite simple for him to show you compassion and behave as though he genuinely cared about you. It's highly likely that you were the most naive or stupid person to fall for him. You had admitted to him that you no longer loved him, and you weren't even ready to be honest with yourself about it. But at least you knew this: you shouldn't forget the damage that he had done to your heart since it was far more severe and strong than anything he had ever made you feel.

“Hey, it looks like you're deep in thought. Are you alright?” As you two watched a movie together, Annie asked. 

Ben, Hughie, and Butcher had gone shopping before coming back. Ben asked you to go out with them since you haven't left the house for a very long time, but even though you really wanted to go out, you refused to spend time with them, with him in fact. As much as you could hear, Frenchie and Kimiko were in their rooms playing video games.

“I wasn't,” you held your head in a mumble. “Maybe I'm just tired.”

“It seems like you're missing going out,” she said, raising an eyebrow. “You know, things may be a little rough around these places, but you wouldn't be noticed. You can take in some fresh air.”

You gave her a meek grin and lied, saying, “I'm not in the mood.” You were actually itching to leave the house and breathe some fresh oxygen. It was as though you were choosing to be in a cage. “It's better to stay here until things get a bit better at least.”

“I actually don't know if it will though, but let's hope.”

Annie went on, “By the way, I'm sorry for my attitude toward you, weeks earlier. I suppose I was a little impolite, rude, and judgmental of you.”

Her abrupt admission and apology surprised you, but it also made you feel a little better. You whispered, “It's okay; I would be meaner if I were in your shoes. I am aware that trusting someone is difficult.”

“Yeah, but I feel bad about it,” she added, looking shy and placing her hands on her legs. “I should not have treated you the same way since I know how comfortable the firm is with lying to the public about you for the sake of themselves. The things I went through while I was a member of the Seven were similarly horrible. It wasn't right to judge you right away, not when I know the dynamics between the public and the firm and how it feels.” 

Her genuineness toward you made your heart melt. “It's actually not that bad. Don't let it bother you. I'm simply relieved that you don't feel the same way about me anymore.” You asked her gently, wanting to build a connection, “What have they done to you?”

She inhaled deeply, looked around the room as if she were searching for words, and then blurted out, “I am..sexually assaulted.” 

You whispered, “Oh, god,” and supportively touched her hand. “Can I ask... who?”

“I'm not sure if you've seen him on television. The Deep,” she muttered scornfully. “And Homelander is no different than him.”

“Yes, I did see him on television. Fucking bitch fish,” you mumbled. “You mean Homelander is the same as him. Is he also..?”

“Don't tell Butcher that I told you; don't actually mention it ever, but his wife was raped by Homelander.”

Your mouth dropped open in disbelief, and you were silent for a long moment.

“That is.. horrible. I have absolutely no idea what to say.” At last, you murmured, “I can't believe Vought is full of disgusting vile men,” remembering Butcher's expression when you had questioned him about Homelander. He was quite right and had his own reason.

“Yes,” Annie said in a sour tone. “No matter how many decades have passed, Vought is still the same asshole, whether you're a Supe woman or not. In actuality, they have gotten worse.”

“Leaving them behind was the right decision, and having Hughie with you is a gift.” You mentioned their relationship in an attempt to lighten the mood. “He seems like a very gentle and kind guy,” you remarked. “It's a good thing he's not supe. He has to understand who is in charge.”

Annie blushed and laughed when you brought up her lover. “Yeah, he's unlike anyone else. He's one of the key reasons I am here. I'm happy we got to meet.”

“By the way,” she muttered in a lighthearted manner. “What about Soldier Boy and you? It's obvious there is something between you two, even if I know you're going to deny it. Do you have a friends with benefits thing?” 

Confused, you asked, “What is it?”

“Well, it's just a term for people you know who have sex but continue to be friends. You don't grow any feelings or attachments for each other. It's all about sex.”

After considering the phrase she used a moment to reflect, you finally responded, “No, no, actually we are not something like that.” Leaning back in the coach, you whispered, “It's a bit complicated, actually,” as you recalled every memory you had of him. Your cheeks heated and your heart raced as you recalled the last conversation you had with him, the time you orgasmed on top of him. 

Annie may have noticed the shift in the body and smiled slyly, “It's probably not that difficult. But I had assumed that he was with the Crimson Countess. They must have been fan favorites or something.”

Annie's mention of Crimson made you uneasy. Because Ben had chosen her over you, knowing she was gone didn't provide you any comfort. You felt awful, thinking back on those dreadful times and how badly Ben had broken your heart. It was difficult to embrace such memories. 

You murmured, “We were a thing,” and acknowledged it. “Before Countess joined Payback.”

She just exclaimed, “Oh,” in an astonished tone, after realizing what you meant. “He's a vile asshole.”

“Yeah,” was all you said. “So, we are no longer a thing. Until that situation gets solved, I'm just going to hide like this, like a submissive rat. I don't want to deal with anything, but I'm not sure what to do after. Though I sincerely hope you succeed in eliminating the Seven—especially those bastards—I no longer want to be a part of it. I hope you can understand my reasons.”

“Obviously, you don't have to participate in anything or do anything, but your strength and assistance would be really helpful. It will be simple to make amends after Homelander dies, and you'll be free. I only hope Soldier Boy can kill him off. If not, we're not even sure what to do.”

“He made a deal with Butcher and promised him to kill Homelander.” You were aware of Ben's strength, and you could not see any other Supe being able to damage or beat him. “Once he made up his mind for something, Ben never stops until he gets it done.” 

Annie responded, "That's a relief," and she smiled a little. "Hey, let's not miss the movie," she murmured, gazing at the TV.

You nodded and offered her a feeble smile. You quickly grabbed your phone off the pillow when you noticed a notification, glancing at Annie as she got back to eating popcorn and watching TV.

Naturally, it was Ben who sent the message.

“?Do you need something????”

How considerate.

After giving Annie one more look, you leaned back on the coach to take up a more comfortable position.

You typed, “No.” after giving it some thought and then waited for another notification.

He was typing, typing, typing and typing.. It was taking taking him to write something for so long you got frustrated at some point. Then you finally got another notification.

“?Sure?????”

Asshole. Instead of punching your phone, you took a long breath. Although you were itching to argue with him over the phone, you tried to divert your attention to the movie Annie was watching.

You received another notification almost five minutes later. Ben had sent a blinking eye emoji. It seemed as though he was aware of how angry you were at the moment. You let out an irate sigh, grabbed your phone, and informed Annie that you would be in your room.

With a sense of relief that your period had finally ended, you took a shower. Ben knocked on your door, which was already open, and you made a tiny sound to let him in just as you were getting out of the shower, wrapped in a short towel. 

“Hey,” he remarked in a low voice, clearing his throat and quickly shutting the door to ensure that no one would see you half naked and wet. Ben went straight to your room after learning that Annie and Hughie would be staying tonight. It surprised you that he didn't argue with them about his bedroom. “Why is your door open all the time? Someone might have saw you; you're almost naked.”

As you kept using the towel to dry your hair, you rolled your eyes at him. “If someone was watching me, I'd known it, Ben.”

“And,” you said as you raised an eyebrow. “Someone is already watching.”

Ben inhaled deeply as he searched for a way to express how you had managed to rile him up. Okay,.

“It's not the same,” he asserted in a quiet yet assured tone as he observed you discarding the towel you used to dry your hair on the bed and opening the wardrobe to find something to wear. “And why didn't you text me back?”

You muttered, “Tell me how it's different.” and glanced at him as he approached cautiously, his fingertips resting on the furniture. “And well, because I was busy.”

“You already know why,” he remarked, licking his lips as he kept examining your body. Refusing to remember your orgasm on top of him while you were just getting your period was making him hard. Considering that you had never had a period while being together for a considerable amount of time, he questioned why you would now be getting one after all this time. 

You merely replied, “No, I don't know,” hoping to provoke him just a little bit. 

He continued shamelessly, “We fucked and still get off together; that's why, baby,” and you blushed. “Though we are not very active compared to the past, which is upsetting of course.” 

You opened your lips to deny and dispute with him, but you stopped yourself after taking a deep breath. You knew he would try hard to make your cheeks blush even more. 

You found a t-shirt and some underwear, which you put on the bed while you shut the wardrobe. At last, you were able to remember Annie's comments and say, “We were friends with benefits.” 

If you were the same person today, you would actually detest the idea, but since you are more grounded in reality, you can accept the circumstances as they are. In contrast to you, he had never developed feelings for you, which proved Annie. 

“What the hell is that?” Ben asked in an angry tone. He thought your statement sounded terrible and didn't like it at all. Ben sat on your bed as you hurriedly put on your t-shirt and underwear. Ben's hard look on your bare back was palpable. 

“It means engaging in sexual activity without developing an emotional bond. You maintain your friendship while having sex nevertheless.” You essentially gave him an explanation of it as though you'd known about it for a long time. “Getting off together is included.” 

Ben winced as you described the most idiotic and stupid type of relationship as though it were the most ordinary thing imaginable. “Who taught you such stupid stuff?” He asked furiously, unable to help but feel irritated that you weren't bothered by it. 

“Annie told me about it.”

Ben groaned as he removed his shoes and lay down on your bed. “It's not shocking that an ignorant woman is bombarding your thoughts with modern nonsense. I should have known only she could say such a stupid fucking thing. That must be her relationship with Hughie. Fuck, it's not shocking that he can't open his mouth while he is with her. What a fucking weak pussy.”

“Oh, god, don't talk about them in this way. Ben, they have a connection, a real one, a healthy one,” you murmured as he spoke in the most irritating tone imaginable. It was annoying that he didn't even take into account the nature of your previous relationship. “For the record, he is not concealing his relationship with Annie and vice versa. She really did walk out of the Seven. The company most likely had no approval of their relationship.”

“Touché,” he replied, observing your face fall as you sat on the bed and cast a dejected glance in his direction. He continued, “But our relationship was... health too,” when you turned away from him and lay down in bed.

You mumbled, “Sure,” and settled up in bed as comfortably as possible. Ben's huge and strong body was covering the majority of already limited space. It took a lot of work to stay away from him. 

Ben sighed as he watched your back longingly and heard your slow, deep breathing, as if you were holding back all you wanted to say. He was prepared to start over, make adjustments, and put things right even though he knew he deserved your attitude and that it would be preferable to push them beneath the debris, but he wanted you back so badly.

Ben finally murmured, “I care about you,” struggling to find the right words. “Very much.”

Ben tried to tell you how he felt, but it was difficult because you were constantly pushing him away. 

You quickly turned to face him since you didn't want to look at the walls any longer. “Did you care about me when you fucked Countess?” 

“Oh god, I didn't even fuck her,” he exclaimed harshly as soon as you brought up the redhead wily bitch. Because Stan Edgar was causing so much trouble, he should have killed him. 

When he revealed that he hadn't fucked Crimson before, you gasped. You just kept staring at him in bewilderment and surprise, as though you were about to dispute with him. You managed to whisper, “Liar,” not sure if he was telling you the truth or not. 

With an upset voice, he added, “Fuck, I'm not lying,” and he placed his right hand under his head. “I was told to have a relationship with her for the media by Stan fucking Edgar. Son of a bitch.” 

Ben was telling you the truth, and you could tell by the look in his eyes. You had no idea what to say at all because he was acting so very serious right now. You always assumed they were going all the way since they were always kissing when they were together and posing for pictures with the media. 

“Why didn't you tell me this before?” you asked, glancing out the window behind you as Ben hesitated. 

“I know, it's still unfair,” Ben said, attempting, though he was never very successful, to express himself. “I wasn't fair to you. You remain the last woman I have touched, even after all this time. I'm not sure if that means anything now. That's all I need you to know.”

You mumbled, “It's still cheating, Ben.” After his admission regarding Crimson, words were difficult to come by. You didn't want to admit it, but it did feel a bit better knowing he didn't touch Crimson Countess.

Ben opened his mouth to deny it, but then he sighed as he saw your look, which was a mix of disappointment and sorrow. There was no turning back to undo the damage he had done. What was done was done. He only hoped he could figure out a way to get your love back the way it used to be—with all of your devotion, passion, honesty, and loyalty. 

You asked gently, almost in a desperate tone that would make you loathe yourself, “Why did you leave me?”

As he saw how vulnerable you were, Ben softened his gaze and shifted positions in the bed, hesitantly moving closer to your face. Thankfully, you didn't even flinch, instead looking at him expectantly, as if you were ready to forgive him and let everything go. But he was aware that you were not yet prepared for that. You needed time, and he could give you everything you needed.

Ben found it difficult to speak as his fingers gently traced your hand. When he finally confessed, “Stan Edgar knew our relationship,” he was unwilling to tell you how much he was mistaken about you and how manipulating he was about you at the time.

You asked gently, “Did he want you to be with Crimson?” as if you understood him. 

It wasn't necessary for you to know how Stan Edgar found out about you. It would be shocking if Stan was unaware of you and Ben during the final months of your relationship because you two were acting quite recklessly. 

“Yeah,” he responded simply, meeting your eyes with his darkened ones. He seemed ready to act as he continued to study your wet lips and hair. 

His face continued to inch closer to yours as his one hand traced around yours, but you remained motionless. He was cautiously gauging your response every second. 

You mumbled, “Yet,” unable to stop your heart from racing when he was that close. “I don't want to love you ever again.”

With a groan, his soft lips found yours before you could even finish your sentence, and you were left wondering who started the kiss first.

When he eventually realized you had kissed him back, even if it seemed like your kisses were doubtful and ghostly, his hard and tight hands on yours loosened. His tongue slipped into your mouth as he noticed you were willing to go one step further, intensifying the kisses.

When your hands came to rest on his thick beard, it was unclear who was moaning more loudly in the other's mouth. The way he kissed you was different from the other kisses you shared; it was more intimate, but there was still this passion. Perhaps it was because it had been too long.

This time, Ben's hands weren't as strong or harsh; instead, they were surprisingly patient, understanding, and caring.

Your hands stopped behind his thick neck and slid to his powerful and warm chest, and he slowly pushed you against the pillow and went on top of you, making sure everything was done correctly and that you were completely alright with it.

For a brief time, you withdrew yourself to catch your breath while your hands lingered around his clothed chest, perhaps in anticipation of his response. As you both gasped deeply, his swollen lips waited on yours. You both gave a loud groan as soon as he pressed his hardness between your legs. Your legs involuntarily spread a little to give him space to move, and your heart began to race.

His lips were waiting on yours as his hands were fisted in the blankets, but he wasn't kissing you as if he were savoring this private time. He remained motionless and patient as you lifted your hips in an attempt to create friction.

He pulled his hips back, and before you could complain, he smacked his clothed hardness between your legs, causing you to gasp and grab onto his back with your fingers, holding onto his t-shirt. He went above you, but he didn't keep kissing you; instead, you were only touching lips and quietly moaning at one another's mouths. 

With a grumble, he pulled back his hips and gave your covered pussy another firm stroke. “Do you like this?” he asked as he repeated the movement.

Rather than responding verbally, you nodded in agreement and waited for him to continue. 

Ben stopped moving, gave you the command, “Tell me,” and waited on top of you.

You elevated your hips to create the same friction once more and muttered, “Yes,” weakly.

Your body needed to relax even though you weren't sure if you were ready for sex. Ben and his supe hearings have recently made your fingers unfamiliar with your pussy.

With one hand slipping under your t-shirt and his eyes fixed intently on you, he repeated, “Do you need me to make you come?”

Ben's hands carefully lifted your t-shirt. When your tits were exposed to his sight, he ran his fingers over one of your nipples, which made you gasp. 

He observed you intently, picking up on every facial emotion you made as he caressed your nipple. 

With a rough voice, he said, “You like it when I play with your tits, don't you?” Taking pleasure in watching you try to get some friction from his hardness by desperately lifting your hips to meet his. He was aware of your precise needs. “If you tell me to suck your nipple, I will.”

You gave him a quiet sigh into his mouth and pleaded with him with your eyes. He was enjoying seeing you like this, at his mercy. He knew exactly what you wanted. Even though Ben didn't do anything at all, you felt so close, even if it was difficult to force yourself to come. Being that near to him and tense while he was merely fiddling with your tits was embarrassingly good. 

“Tell me, baby.” You gasped in delight as he said, “I'll do anything you want,” and put his thumb to your hardened nipple. 

Please,” you eventually pleaded, desperately staring into his eyes. 

Ben sighed, grinned a little, lowered his head to rest on your body, kissed your breast, and started to suck so hard your entire body shook with ecstasy. Your hips lifted in anticipation as your fingers closed on his hair, forcing his head against your tits even more.

The sounds of wetness flooding the room as Ben was moaning around your nipple was filthy. As he played with your nipple with his tongue and licked it, his other hand gave you a hard squeeze, and you felt your walls tighten.

“Oh, Ben,” you let out a loud cry. He groaned loudly in delight as you pulled his messy hair. Your face reddened, and your heart began to rush rapidly.

This time you groaned in protest when he withdrew. You gasped sharply, leaving you on edge with burning cheeks as you glanced at Ben. Your fingers trembled in his hair.

Ben smiled at you because he could see you were desperate for him to continue, and he could also smell your swollen, aroused pussy leaking under your underwear.

With a quick sigh, he exclaimed, “Let me go down on you,” causing your eyes to widen. “I fucking need you to cum in my mouth so bad right now.”

His suggestion made you feel so shy that you released your grip on his hair and put your hands on his chest. 

You said, “But we... didn't do such thing before,” unsure of if he was really willing or not.

As he adjusted your t-shirt as he added, “I know, I know, that's my fault,” and then his fingers stopped on your underwear. “That's something I need to fix immediately.”

He kissed you firmly on the lips after noticing your hesitant and bashful expression and waited for you to answer. “Let me make you come.” 

You nodded briefly to him after a while and anxiously awaited his next move. You were a little anxious since you didn't know if he would really want it or would back out in the middle because he hadn't gone down on you before. 

Between kisses, Ben leaned down on your body and murmured, “Look at me,” causing you to gasp in shock as he planted a wet kiss on your covered pussy. You couldn't decide if his touch was making you too sensitive or too responsive. It felt like there was a lot of leaking beneath your underwear. 

He placed your legs on his shoulder and pulled your panties aside, revealing your wet pussy to his eyes and making you flinch for a moment while you continued to stare at him with flushed cheeks.

Excitedly, you put your hands on the sheets and waited for him to continue.

Before you could react, his warm lips reached your pussy lips. You gasped and tried to move your hips, but he stilled your body as he proceeded to kiss your clit. “Fuck, I missed your beautiful little wet cunt so much,” he muttered.

Ben's balls were hurting and his thick cock was twitching beneath his boxers, but he did his best not to remove it and stroke himself while he used his lips to fuck your swollen pussy. Now, your needs took priority.

Ben began to suck your pussy with a full tongue as you squeezed your lips together and clenched your hands into fists. You tried to shift your legs away from his shoulders, but he stopped you right away and sucked harder.

You let out a loud gasp as your hands found his hair and pulled his head closer, pressing it even closer to your pussy, just as Ben suddenly pressed his tongue into your hole. For an instant, you sensed his lips curled around your pussy, and he proceeded to fuck you with his tongue. Your voice was shaky as you began to murmur his name, your back arched.

Your legs trembled on his shoulders as he waited for your cum to fill his lips, pressing his tongue even farther into your hole. You began to cum into his mouth with a loud moan, unable to hold back yourself any longer. You were under so much pressure in that instant that you were about to cry for two reasons: excitement and embarrassment at not being able to contain yourself for even two minutes. You were unsure of the previous time your climax had struck so strongly.

You tried to push his head away from your body and adjust yourself, but he held you firmly and let you ride your orgasm into his mouth to the very end. “I'm sorry,” you muttered in a panicked and embarrassed manner. 

He planted a hard kiss on your clit, cleaned you off with his mouth, and adjusted your underwear when your orgasm subsided and felt too sensitive. 

“You taste so fucking sweet, I should have done this sooner,” he remarked, kissing your forehead for a long time after licking his lips. Though Ben's cock was hurting under his sweatpants and he was extremely hard, he knew that his desires could wait and that this wasn't the exact moment. 

While Ben's hands waited on the both side of your belly softly, you made a move to get rid of him, but he gently stopped you, saying playfully, “Hey, wait wait, what about a pillow talk?”

“I need to clean myself,” you murmured weakly, still feeling shy for letting yourself go in his mouth without a warning and too soon.

“I've already cleaned you up good, baby. You don't have to be worried about that.” He waited on top of you, with a smile on his face. Both of your hearts were still racing.

“Sorry,” you muttered shyly. “I didn't- couldn't warn you.”

“Come on,” Ben exclaimed, grinning broadly and sincerely. “I already tried to make you cum in my mouth. You did incredibly well. That's something I can do every night.”

He moved both of your bodies in the bed when you stopped moving beneath him. Without a word, you turned your back on him before he could embrace you. 

Ben moved to get close to you and held you in his powerful arms despite the bed's small size. You weren't strong enough to be hurt again, but your heart melted when his hands paused on your stomach and he hissed again behind your head. 

Knowing that his compassion was always accompanied by cruelty, you answered, "That doesn't make a difference, Ben. I still don't want to love you." 

Rather than responding to you straight away, he took a big breath, gripped your body tightly, and said, "I know."

Next Chapter

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A/N: I hope we are good so far.. Comments and reblogs are very appreciated. They keep me going. ^.^

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[duckchu]

Hello, honey! I've been following you for a long time and I adore your works! And I want to make a request! HEARTSTEEL members x Fem!Indie game developer!Reader. Reader has been creating indie games for a long time (such as Undertale and Deltarune), and also writes soundtracks for them (like Toby Fox. I love this genius!). I would also like to create an indie game based on the League of Legends universe (I would choose Targon from the regions, and I would choose Aphelios from the characters that the player would control). But I don't have any programming skills! So I'll have to write interactive fanfic... Thank you very much! You're just a sunshine!💋💋💋💋

Sorry for the long wait (I recognise how long actually named asks sit in my inbox for rather than anon ones, idk why) and thank you for the kind words

I also kinda didn't know how to go about this so every guy has 3 "parts":

You working late

Putting one of their items as cosmetic (kinda changed in Kayn's and K'Sante's part)

And music

Kayn

Thinks you're cool

Enjoys sitting with you late at night while you code

May or may not convince you to sneak a Rhaast easter egg in

Though will often try to distract you if you're not paying enough attention to him

Enjoys bothering you when you compose

He's silly like that

So please, for the sake of your sanity, lock your room

Yone

Doesn't mind your work, but will make you stop if you're pulling all nighters

Might even pick you up and carry you to bed, telling you you need some sleep

One day, while he was watching you play test, noticied one of the items in your game looked suspiciously like his mask

Finds it really cute

Will help you with the music, if you'd like

Loves working with you

Aphelios

You stay up all night working?

Cool, he is too

Unless he notices you're tired

Then he pulls you into his lap and works with one hand while petting your hair with the other

It makes you fall asleep in seconds

Let him play test pleaseee

When you do, he 100% the game in a week

Not because it's easy, but because he's a sweaty try hard

Found you put his mask in the game as a cosmetic

Melted on the spot

Sometimes will give you songs as gifts

So you can put them in the game

Loves hearing them if you decide to use them

Ezreal

He's such a bitch if you overwork yourself

Will try to direct your attention to him at all cost

-Y/N, I'm boreeed -

Please keep on torturing this little shit with lack of attention

He deserves it

But also

If you put his sunglasses as an item, he will love you ten times more

As for the music?

Doesn't really know a lot about composing but loves listening to your pieces

Sett

You're overworking yourself?

No, you're not.

You're sitting on his lap and watching a movie with him

Doesn't care about your protests, you have to take care of yourself

When he first saw your character having his beanie on when you were playing the game, he had to do a double check

Gave you a big hug

He thinks it's really cute

As for the music, he thinks it's really good

You scrap something?

He's gonna use it as background for his totally awesome solo

Don't tell anyone else tho

He'll get embarrassed

K'Sante

He can't force you to rest, but he will insist on it

If you have some important work to do, he won't try to stop you, but will bring you meals and drinks if you want

Will usually chill in your room and design while you work

Speaking of designs... he was surprised when you asked him if you could take a look at his tablet

But he trusts you, so why not

Was shocked when one day he saw you putting one of his designs as a clothing option

Loves it and thinks that it looks good even when pixelated

Although he's not the greatest composer, he will try to help you

It usually turns into fan favourite soundtracks

So you don't mind his suggestions

[oweninadaydream]

𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭 𝐰𝐚𝐫 ||𝐇.𝐀𝐛𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐡𝐲

summary : Haymitch finds solace in a friendship with young (Y/N). Now Haymitch is outside, watching. (Y/N) is in the Arena, fighting.

song inspo: "There's no morning glory, it was war, it wasn't fair" - The Great War by Taylor Swift

pairing : Haymitch Abernathy x fem!reader (platonic)

word count : 1.8 k

contains : angst, hurt no comfort, betrayal, found family trope, violence, some gore, death, this story is set way before Katniss and Peeta's games. Also, first time writing for this character so probably a bit OC Haymitch hahaha.

a/n : Here you have my first moodboard !!! I wanted to try and capture the vibes of the story in three images and I'm pretty proud of myself. Anyways, I hope you enjoy the story :) PD: shoutout to @sarahisslytherin for being so supportive everytime I have a crisis hahaha. Comments are always appreciated 🩷

“I think it’s time I have another dose of that medicine they've sent'' she said as a cue for him to get up from his spot and hand her the remedy inside the metallic jar. (Y/N) had been sick for a day and a half and, even though it was the boy's fault that they had encountered the monster that had bitten her, she wasn’t holding it against him. She knew she could trust him ; at the end of the day, the male tribute from her district had made an alliance with her and she had been doing everything in her power so that he didn’t die. He stood up and handed her the jar. 

Haymitch had awoken suddenly after falling asleep on the couch while watching the games in the room designated to the mentors. The constant worry was affecting his sleep schedule and his appetite detrimentally. Not for the boy, no ; he didn’t give a shit about that brat who had skipped all the training sessions and had dismissed his mentor every time he tried to give them valuable advice. He was anxiously picking his lips for her, for (Y/N).

People thought Haymitch had met her after the Reaping, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. Ever since (Y/N) was little, she roamed the District streets in solitude, as her mother had died and her father was extremely neglectful towards her. A younger Haymitch had recently become the District 12's victor and was beginning to develop a certain addiction to alcohol when, one cold afternoon, he encountered a young child by the gates of Victors Village.

Her sparkly eyes caught his tired gaze and a stare contest began. "I don't have time for this bullshit" he crankly thought while looking away. She asked him his name and that if that big house was his. He turned around and wondered whether he should engage in a conversation with the child who obviously had no better place to be at. He noticed the kid was underfed and didn't wear any winter clothes. The heart that had stopped beating after surviving the Hunger games came back to life , like a phoenix being reborn from its ashes. From that day on a very special bond was created between the two unfortunate souls. He was still very grumpy and had a little problem with drinking, but (Y/N) made him want to do better. She was incredibly smart and her sarcasm was one of the very few things that made the former tribute laugh. Their talks and dinners were a secret to the rest of the world ; he couldn't risk hurting the girl he had grown to love as a daughter.

He soon discovered her birthday was the day after the Reaping. This year she would turn 19 and the panic the Reaping used to cause her would finally end. Just one more year of not getting chosen and she could live a peaceful life, just like she had always dreamed of. The latter year Haymitch had been talking about taking her in as his daughter, as her father had also passed away. But before that could happen, the most disgustingly ironic thing happened.

"(Y/N), (Y/N) (Y/L/N)" 

One day, she only needed one more day. But it seemed useless to whine about something that would not change anyway. The other tribute was a boy nobody really talked to, so neither she nor Haymitch had any idea of what to expect from him. To say that the mentor was devastated was an understatement. But he could not show it, his face impassible as ever instead. 

He was there for every meltdown before the dozens of events, for every doubt she could have about how to make it out of the Arena alive, for every nightmare about what fate had planned for her. Haymitch observed with a worried frown how nobody approached (Y/N) during training week ; she was very astute but her mentor had stressed the importance of making alliances in order to have more chances to survive, and seeing how she was going to be all alone out there compressed his chest with acute pain.

He did everything in his power to prepare her for the multiple dangers she could be facing out there. Still, Haymitch’s mind couldn’t help but explore the darkest scenarios ; optimism was never one of his qualities. In the end, the apathetic boy from 12 decided to make an effort at the end of training season and he turned out to be a magnificent and stealthy climber ; he also started to get close to (Y/N) and they decided to team up. The change of attitude shocked Haymitch but since (Y/N) was much more calm and focused, he didn't put too much thought into it.

The District 12 mentor stared at the bright screen in front of him and watched how (Y/N) was sound asleep. The last 3 hours had been pretty dull on their part of the prefabricated habitat : he had gone out to collect some wood and after he had returned, he lit a fire and offered to watch out for any intruders while she slept. 

Suddenly, Haymitch noticed how the young male had started pacing back and forth in a nervous manner. His instinct of suspecting of everything anyone does kicked in very quickly. The tribute started sobbing heavily as he wielded the dagger he had managed to obtain from the cornucopia a few days earlier. His shaky hands lifted the weapon in the air and, with all the strength the teenager possessed, he stabbed her. 

The blade of his dagger penetrated her back with disturbing ease. He felt as if someone had put him on autopilot and, despite (Y/N) turning to feebly try to defend herself from the unexpected attack, he kept her still against the cold ground and continued to inflict the fatal wounds.

Her shuddering screams reached her assailant's ears like a distant echo. On the television, however, (Y/N)'s last words were perfectly understandable. His name. She was screaming his name. Haymitch couldn't quite detect whether the screams were a conscious call as a hurried form of farewell or a primal instinct in search of comfort triggered by a delusional pain that caused her to abandon all logic or coherent thought. If he had to bet, he would go for the second option, considering how quickly she was bleeding to death and the panicked expression on her face as she realized her life was rapidly coming to an end.

The stabs were becoming significantly weaker and that could only mean that the adrenaline rush that had originally enabled him to act in favor of his secret plan had slowly faded, only to leave him stranded in the tragic reality he had created. The screams stopped quite quickly, as she was choking on her own blood. The lack of cries caught the attention of the aggressor, who looked down and saw how (Y/N) breathed out for the last time. His shirt was a crimson mess. However,  nothing could compare with the bloody puddle that was coming out of her body. 

Leaving no time to mourn or process the scene in front of him, the Careers appeared and found the violent scene already over. Without an ounce of remorse or repulse, one of the District 1 tributes made their way towards the paralyzed teen and the corpse.

“There’s no time to waste. Give us her supplies, we’ll take them to our hidden spot in the skirts of the mountain. Meanwhile, you must go to the Cornucopia and bring some more food and weapons. You’ll join us later” The commanding voice of the male tribute intimidated the boy from 12 who obediently began to hand them what used to be (Y/N)’s : the matching axes, the food she had collected and had determined to be safe to consume, the medicine that was supposed to help her heal from the bites of the venomous creature. 

Haymitch beheld the horrific scene shown on the gigantic TV totally disassociated from reality ; he couldn’t move but the uneasiness crawling up his skin created a tight and uncomfortable feeling that he urgently needed to shake off. How could the boy be so stupid, so naive ? The Careers would kill him after he had completed the tasks they had ordered him to do; he was just a pawn in their master plan to win that hellish competition.

The camera pointed towards the interior of the cave where the body of the young woman laid still. Haymitch could barely recognize the corpse; that could not be the girl that brought light back to his life after living in the dark for so long or the young adult who respected him but also held him accountable when he messed up. No, that was not her. His brain could not assimilate the idea of her dying in such a vile and miserable way. That scum, poor excuse of a man would regret breaking his word, backstabbing his daughter like only a coward would.

He wished him a slow, painful and sanguinolent death. Actually, he wished he could have entered that damned Arena and done the job himself ; if you want something done right do it yourself, right? After a couple of seconds, the sound of the canyon and the image of (Y/N) projected in the sky appeared on the TV and as fast as they came, they disappeared from the screens, moving on to something much more entertaining for the expecting audience. 

He quickly excused himself from the room before anyone could begin to notice the grief in his expression. In the quietness of his private room, he started wailing and throwing everything in his way around, tearing all his belongings to pieces as a way to channelize his pain. After a while, he stopped only to approach the drinks cabinet provided by the generous Capitol, and he poured himself one of the many drinks he would have that night and the days to follow.

His heart began to develop another stone wall around itself, but this time it would never ever be destroyed, not like (Y/N) had managed to all those years ago. This time he would drown all his sorrow and any kind of emotion in all the types of liquors he could find. He would close himself to the world ; nobody would carve him open again, nobody would get so close to the real version of himself. He vowed then and there to abandon all hope and just let the years go by until the arrival of his final day. 

He exited the room only to sit on the balcony floor. While staring at the night sky, he felt a tear rolling down his left cheek ; after releasing a shaky breath, he raised the glass that contained his numbing remedy and murmured : 

" 'till we meet again, sweetheart"

[reilleclan-blog]

Ok I have been obsessed with cyberpunk 2077 for about 5 years now and it's definitely one of my "special interests" but I did stop playing it for a while b/c the PL dlc made me very emo. And I needed a break from a game that I've played so much (while waiting for the sequel that will be a while before it's out)

But today I was talking to myself about how much I've been enjyoying another game indie game called "Being a dik" and before u judge me lol it is a AVN adult visual novel. And funny enough I did stop playing that game for a long while b/c the new seasons are still in development but for a time I was obsessed with it as well. Recently I got tired of waiting for it to be released on steam and I decided to get the Patreon version and subscribe to get two episodes early . And I have to say this game genuinely feels like it had so much love and care put into it. Like genuinely yes it's a AVN but actually has characters that have their own lives and interests it's not just about ur character getting a fuck. Which I think BaD does a lot better than most AVN . (I haven't played many after BaD b/c most don't look that interesting and $15 I'm not trying to spend on them) but anyways BaD made me feel as a player like I was "loved" and yes that may seem weird but to think an indie Dev is taking so much time to make their game more interesting than their last and listening to their audience and actually giving road map updates on the game. It genuinely makes me happy and ofc the story was already interesting but it just got ten times more interesting with the new 2 episodes and I just love it so much. And it feels weird but i appreciate so much effort the dev puts into his game especially when so so many triple A games have been such a let down recently. Yes not all triple A but it's enough to make me not trust a lot of them recently. (Yes fem presenting mfs play AVNs at least this one does🤧)

And i talked about this before but cyberpunk 2077 almost made me feel like it was made with love yes it wasn't perfect but it was still cared for very much so and the way it was constantly updated and how much cdpr listened to their audience with so many changes and updates it made me feel seen and "loved" as the audience . I doubt many ppl would ever say a game "loves them" but lately idk. These games have been feeling like a warm hug hitting all the right spots of my brain and I love them. And I think all game devs should strive to make their audience feel loved when playing their games I'd say it's what the consumer deserves loved so much u enjoy it yeah

[bonefall]

Could you give us a run down of what the leaders were like in shadowclan from marshstar on? I feel like we have a good idea of the thunder clan leaders but not the others

The succession of leaders in BB!ShadowClan is Marshstar, Houndstar, Cedarstar, Raggedstar, Brokenstar, and from Nightstar on you know the drama. Ragged and Broken will get covered in 'Brokenstar's Cataclysm' eventually.

Marshstar

Was Ripplestar's lover and deputy. Survived the disastrous defeat at the Gathering.

With their ambitions to bring SkyClan back dead, Marsh had to focus his attention on his Clan. They lost a lot of warriors...

But, some of the rebels of other Clans had been exiled, so there was a small boost in population.

ShadowClan developed its "reputation" in the Ripple Era, of being cold and cruel hearted. They were attacked a lot and became notoriously aggressive at defending their borders as a result.

He wasn't a 'happy' person. Always a bit forlorn and defeated.

Really did not like being a leader in these circumstances. His warriors didn't usually feel comfortable approaching him, you could tell he did not want to be in this situation.

Eventually, he picked Houdfang as his deputy. Houndfang was extremely aggressive, but not ambitious. Marshstar wanted to leave a leader after him who would be strong, forceful, and defend the Clan ruthlessly.

When he died, he was buried beside Ripplestar. ShadowClan has a complicated relationship to their legacy, their graves are far out of the way in the Forest Territory, and overgrown.

Marshstar sat through about half of their StarClan trial, but quickly grew annoyed. He hated this game of being interrogated, questioned for his sins, his life being weighed. Like... screw you people, "I can already see that Ripplestar and Spottedpelt aren't with you so why should I care about this? Thank you for your time, this is a waste of mine."

In terms of personality, Marshstar is soft-spoken but tired. He can be a pessimist or a realist depending on his mood.

As part of the Dark Forest crew, Marshstar is usually tagging along with Ripplestar's clique.

Houndstar

They weren't lying that Hound can Star

He was BRUTAL. He was always skirting just around the edge of the code, he "encouraged" disproportionate violence against attackers.

His punishments for violating the code against killing was light and his punishments for violating the Law of Loyalty were heavy.

During Darkstar's Commandment, Houndstar took Oakstar's side at first. It seemed like a foolish dream, and the fact this would put an end to kitten stealing seemed odd. Yes, he'd seen kits stolen from his Clan, but he'd stolen from others equally. Challenging each other for resources is what warriors do.

However, he turned around on it before Oakstar did. Houndstar was still a pious cat, with much faith in StarClan. If Darkstar had been given a commandment, he trusted her. Three kits dead was a heavy cost.

He believed very strongly in the idea of legacy and was very close with his children. I'm planning for him to have at least two litters; BATEAR might be in the oldest one, Mousewing was in the younger and was never able to meet her brother.

I might hit this character with the Woman Beam

Cedarstar

Wasn't actually very violent. He was a logistics guy. Fantastic deputy.

Not even half as peaceful as Pinestar, but they vibed. Did a fair amount of trading, particularly flax for leather. Cedar chips as well, as the only cedar in the territory is planted by Carrionplace.

I think Cedar had some corny satisfaction in being The Cedarbringer. He was a bit of a nerd.

DON'T mistake this for nonaggression though, Cedar was just as willing to push borders as any other leader.

His deputy, Stonetooth, is his dad. He chose him for his age and wisdom. Cedar also definitely had kids of his own, I'm planning for this family to have been pretty big at some point.

When Heatherstar took power and started their campaign to take the Mothermouth Moorland, Cedar rose to the challenge. The conflict was standard at first

But as it dragged on, as ShadowClan stopped having access to flax and was losing their important summer hunting grounds, it stopped being the normal amount of inter-Clan violence.

The battles got larger and bloodier with each season

The war drained his lives away. Though he'd overseen the gentler years of the Campaign Era, the stress had caused him to lose weight and turn gray before the end.

He passed on the baton to Raggedstar, commanding that he never let WindClan take their territory from them. At first, Raggedstar agreed wholeheartedly, ready to win the conflict for ShadowClan.

[saturndigital]

Hellooooooo

I may have just followed but I always love asking fellow GOW lovers what they’d love to see in the next game? I’ve gotten

-Kratos x Freya (or Kratos x someone else) and a new kid

-following Atreus and whoever he ends up with and their kid

-back story to Mimirs life

I personally would love to see Freya and Kratos together, only because I’m soft for kratos and he deserves to have a wife live 😭 but I think maybe Atreus and whoever has a kid and that kid is a pain in their a$$ and it follows that storyline. But yea would love to hear your thoughts!

HIIII Ooo okay you asked me a question I've been dying to talk about. This is my personal opinion and no hate at all to people who like it!! I 100% get why it's so popular lol:

I think Freya and Kratos getting together would be a bad move. With how their story has played out I just don't really enjoy the idea that Freya is SO forgiving they end up together after everything Kratos did. I get "it's what he had to do" but Freya loved her son so dearly she ignored how terrible of a man he had become and I do not see her getting over that in just a couple years. Yeah they trust each other a ton now and I do love they're companions after Ragnarök but idk I'm not big on them in a romantic partnership.

I'm also just tired of seeing man and woman duos immediately get paired together I think it'd be so much more interesting if they are just best friends from here on out! I enjoy they're playful friend banter soooo much more. If Kratos is to find love again I don't think Freya should be the one or even if he should settle down again at all. I'd love to see him protect and love the family he has gained without any romance (and I'm saying this as someone who eats romance plots UPPPP LMAO).

Idk if it's obvious but I'm a big Faye x Kratos guy I love them sm and I wish we had more content of them <\3

Also Freya should have a sapphic love interest next- I'M JUST SAYING IT'D BE REALLY NEAT AND I THINK SAPPHIC/BI FREYA WOULD FIX EVERYTHING IN ME LISTEN HEAR ME OUT-

Okay moving on from all that lol I would love to follow Atreus' story and see how him and Angrboda's relationship plays out! They're so cute I really enjoyed what they've set up between the two I'm intrigued to see where they go with it.

I also would love to see more of Mimir's bg yesss the story we've gotten from Ragnarök and Valhalla are so good I need more!!

Okay rambles over I don't really have anything else I'd love to see in the next game tbh I'm just excited to see how these characters grow and develop from here on out!

[smilesrobotlover]

A smile for smiles:

:)))))

So l got the notification when you first posted the chapter of love at twilight, but l've just now been able to read it and I love it of course. I was so so excited for Edmund and Zelda backstories and bonding rkdfijfofkh

I wanted to ask if Auru knows about Kori yet? You've probably already said that somewhere sorry, I'm just curious about what his thoughts are.

And Ashei ahhhh I love her so much- you've done so amazing I love how you've incorporated the resistance's different language styles and kept their traits from in game.

Also I literally love Amber and the detail of her loving birds- she talks to her mom about birds and then she's cuddling a stuffed bird... oh my heart

... did... did half asleep Sheik just stumble into the same rooms as Link and Rusl? If I reread right they both went to the first room... bless them they just need sleep. You don't have to answer that I just don't trust my eyes right now I'm too tired. But not as tired as every character apparently is right now

I love your writing so much, and the whole time I've been rereading it I was just in awe like... this is something you're capable of and you can do this and write these stories and just. Gosh you're so cool.

If I worded anything wierd or wrong or something sorry... I'm tired. But your writing makes me smile so much, thank you.

:))

OIUHFKDBDK I needed this!!! 🥺🥺 thank you for the kind words they indeed made this smiles smile :D work kicked my BUTT so this fueled me 🧡🧡

And thank youuuu I’m so proud of this chapter, mostly cuz despite its not action packed, it’s very much character-developing packed, so I’m so happy everyone likes it!! And yeah Edmund has no respect for Hyrule but he does respect Zelda and that’s mostly cuz of his past experience with her :) he’s a fun character to explore

And yes, Auru knows Kori! All the resistance do! It was hard to Link to introduce his son to them and they were out off by a Twili but they grew to understand and care about him!

Thank youuuu I try not to overuse the “yeah?” And “old boy” language that Ashei and shad have cuz that can get super annoying but I’m glad it’s going well!

And yesss that detail just kinda happened XD it’s cute!

Haha yeah that’d be pretty funny huh haha

Anyways thanks so much for this it made me so happy!! 🥺🥺

[mbti-notes]

Anon wrote: I'm an ENFP, I'm 30 years old and I’m really needing to work on my self-confidence for me and for dealing with people. I’ve read in our blogs some posts that reinforce the importance of developing skills to have confidence. I think it's very legitimate.

In this process of learning new things, I often find myself in great difficulty and my inner child agonizes with insecurity. I look at friends who have confidence in themselves as something natural: confidence that they will learn, confidence in themselves, but unfortunately I am very unstructured (poor growth environment, without incentives), so I have a lot of difficulty trusting myself: especially being so inexperienced, clumsy and slow to learn everything.

What gets worse is being in environments where people don't have patience with beginners. Like now I'm living in a foreign country where people are very rude in the workplace. This hurts me a lot, because I have problems asserting myself and being respected. I discovered that they need rudeness to respect others. How to deal with this? Would I be able to impose myself without getting nervous and acting rude (as they usually have to do)?

And more, how can we learn from this situation? How can I be truly confident and also how can I simply demonstrate more confidence to make myself respected? I'm tired of conveying weakness. People don't value my sweetness it's not a good tool for me right now. How to develop self-confidence, at least start to demonstrate a little confidence and boundaries! And in the midst of this, the most important thing: how do you deal with such unpleasant people? Especially me being used to being such a sweet, "silly" person, always with my guard down, calm and considered weak by others.

---------------------

You seem to be talking about two issues that need unpacking separately: 1) personality, and 2) confidence.

You're having a personality clash with the people at work. Analytical psychology posits that personality clashes are disturbing because they remind you of negative things in yourself you dislike, so there is a need to go within to see what's really happening.

To be clear, I'm not denying that toxic people/environments exist. I believe your description and I would certainly dislike the workplace myself. The point I'm making is, when you have no choice but to be in that sort of environment, there are healthier ways to navigate it, but being judgmental about people is not a healthy way. Judgmentalness is a sign of projection, which is an unhealthy defense mechanism, see previous posts on the topic.

One basic thing type theory teaches us is there are different people in this world. Therefore, one must always begin with acceptance of differences, if one hopes to have healthy relationships in every realm of life. You've come to identify with the so-called "sweet" aspects of your personality. When you identify with one side of yourself, you tend to unconsciously valorize that side, otherwise, you might end up hating yourself. However, in the process of valorizing that side, you inadvertently end up denying, devaluing, dismissing, or denigrating its opposite. It's no accident that these "rude" people trigger you. They bring to light your unconscious self-rejections.

Workplace = professionalism. To succeed in any workplace, it's important to set a clear boundary between private and public. It isn't appropriate to use the workplace to hash out personal issues. E.g. It's not a place to play games about who you favor or dislike. It's not a place to seek validation to soothe your insecurities. I would even argue it's not a great place to seek friendship or companionship. When you bring the personal into the professional, you are more likely to create mess, drama, discord, and conflict. Of course, there are people who live for messiness. Ask yourself exactly what role you want work to play in your life and behave in accordance with those values/principles in every workplace.

When you describe yourself in mostly positive terms ("sweet") and describe other people in very negative terms like "rude", "impatient", or "unpleasant", there is a possibility that you are biased. Typism is a bias. It means you believe some personalities/traits to be superior or inferior to others. ENFPs typically hope to get along well with all sorts of people. If you hope for that, you need to eliminate typist thinking. This requires learning to always approach people in a neutral/professional manner, even when you dislike them at first. You don't know the full story behind people. Oftentimes, the majority of people in toxic environments are just like you, i.e., struggling to survive and doing whatever it takes to keep out of trouble.

When you approach people in a neutral/professional manner, you should adopt an objective perspective about them. Yes, you see their faults, but you shouldn't lose sight of their redeeming qualities. When you're being judgmental, you're likely to dismiss people whole-hog, unable to see their redeeming qualities. Being blind to the positive means you lose opportunities for improving the situation, which means losing hope, which means losing self-confidence as you feel more and more passive and helpless.

How about, instead of using the word "rude", call them "direct" or "candid"? Instead of "impatient", how about "efficient"? When you use more neutral language to characterize people, you reinforce the idea that every personality trait has its pros and cons. When you can finally visualize the upside, you can harness it to your advantage. This allows you to let go of negative feelings and focus on the work itself. Nobody is asking you to marry these people. All you have to do is work with them long enough to get stuff done. Keep your feelings to yourself and stick only to the facts. Once work is done, go home, put it out of your mind, and get on with the rest of your life. If there are things you need to learn to improve your performance in the workplace, spend time on self-improvement outside of work in order to speed up your progress.

.

With regard to confidence, when people bring up "lack of confidence", they often conflate several different concepts including: self-confidence, self-efficacy, self-esteem, and self-worth. It can be a complicated topic, so I'll elaborate on it for future reference. Some non-native English speakers have mentioned to me that their native tongue doesn't have direct translations for these four concepts, so beware that language might be a barrier for understanding them.

These four terms are relatively new in English as well; it wasn't until recently that they've started to filter down from academia into mainstream vocabulary. We know that these four concepts are distinct because, in the course of examining people who fall broadly under the category of "confidence issues", psychologists discovered that different people had somewhat different underlying processes happening, e.g., you could be good with one but struggle with the others. Of course, over time, how people use these terms in everyday language gets fuzzy, as the meaning diverges from the original academic definitions. I'll explain my understanding of them. You specifically mention learning issues, so I'll also connect to that.

I. SELF-CONFIDENCE arises from the degree to which you feel in control. If you 1) have good self-control, 2) feel as though you mostly have control over the direction of your life, and 3) feel as though you have enough control over your environment, then you're likely to feel self-confident. Thus, reflect on whether you feel some deficits in any of the above. There are things you can do to get a firmer sense of control.

Self-control is sometimes related to discipline, which means the ability to delay immediate gratification for a more important future goal. If you tend to be spontaneous, impulsive, or rebellious, then it's easy for you to lose sight of the bigger picture and it's hard for you to follow good learning procedures, which can easily derail your learning process. Some ways to improve your self-control over time:

improve your big-picture thinking so that you don't forget about your ultimate goal (through Ne)

learn the value of following good methods/procedures for achieving a goal (stop resisting Si)

structure your environment more intentionally to eliminate distractions/temptations and reward progress (tap into Te)

Having enough control over the direction of your life often relates to your ability to make good decisions. If you tend to be very emotional, indecisive, or easily overwhelmed by too much information, then it indicates you don't have a good system for processing the information required to inform your decisions. One way to improve your information processing ability is to improve your critical thinking skills. Critical thinking involves parsing information correctly, understanding its meaning, and systematizing information, in service of determining the best course of action (see past posts and recommended books). When learning, not being able to organize information and create feasible plans means slow progress.

Feeling a sense of control over the environment is often related to problem-solving skills. What happens when you meet a problem or challenge? Anxiety? Panic? Anger? Spiraling out of control? To have good problem-solving skills involves: deducing cause and effect, analyzing situations objectively, drawing valid conclusions, and generating good ideas and action-plans. Problem-solving is an important part of the critical thinking skills mentioned above. The process of learning is never completely smooth. You are bound to meet challenges and obstacles, so how do you address them? Self-confident people don't tend to focus on how they feel about problems, rather, they mostly focus on the problem itself and try to solve it as quickly as possible. When the problem is gone, the negative feelings go away.

II. SELF-EFFICACY arises from the degree to which you have faith in yourself, specifically your abilities. Efficacy means being able to bring forth an intended result (effectively) or reach an intended goal (efficiently). When you meet a problem/challenge, do you believe you have enough knowledge and skill to overcome it? If so, you have good self-efficacy. If not, do you believe, with enough dedicated learning and improvement, you can overcome it eventually? That is also good self-efficacy. In essence, it means you believe in yourself, with regard to possessing the resources or being able to obtain the resources necessary to succeed in reaching your goals.

Self-efficacy is sometimes related to competency and mastery. Being young and inexperienced, it's normal to have lower self-efficacy than someone older and wiser. In the learning process, it's important to have compassion for yourself and evaluate your progress fairly. Is the level of competency/mastery you expect from yourself proportional to the reality of your situation? If you haven't had many learning opportunities, through no fault of your own, then you shouldn't feel ashamed for being a bit "behind". This is NOT a personal flaw/failing that deserves punishment.

Note that "ahead" or "behind" are relative terms, meaning they can be understood from different perspectives, so are you using the right perspective? For example, are you evaluating yourself through your own eyes, through the eyes of your rivals, or through the eyes of an expert on the subject matter? Use fair and reasonable benchmarks/standards to measure where you are and where you should be. One reason people of any age suffer self-doubt is because they are too honest about what they don't know or can't do, to the point where they become dismissive of what they do know and can do. It's very important to be objective and balanced when assessing what you lack by also fully recognizing what you already possess or have achieved so far.

In my humble opinion, I believe people already possess everything they need to have good self-efficacy. Human beings evolved to be adaptable and that is largely how they have succeeded as a species. You have the capacity to learn and adapt to your environment. Get back in touch with it, have faith in it, and harness it as necessary. Instead of thinking there's only ONE WAY things should/must go, be more flexible and open to alternatives (use Ne).

III. SELF-ESTEEM refers to how you generally feel about yourself. This is usually related to the kinds of beliefs you have about yourself and the part they play in constructing your self-concept. The beliefs you have about yourself (e.g. about who you are and what you are capable of) are heavily influenced by your past experiences.

One of the most common signs of low self-esteem is negative self-talk. Observe the kinds of things you say to yourself in your head. Is it mostly negative, neutral, or positive? If it's mostly negative, how are you meant to feel good about yourself? People with low self-esteem say very nasty things to themselves that they would never dream of saying to others. Why the double standard? As a "sweet" person, you have empathy for others, so be sure to extend the same empathy to yourself.

An example related to learning: I've unfortunately known too many students to abandon a subject simply because one of their (jerkass) teachers told them they would never be good at it. The negative experience led them to form the belief that "they weren't meant to study it" and couldn't succeed even if they tried. Every time they encountered the subject, the belief would rise up and they'd talk themselves out of trying. Of course, watching themselves fall further and further behind through repeated failures made them feel worse and worse about themselves. Self-esteem can be damaged in a vicious cycle: By believing the worst of yourself, you aren't properly motivated to learn and improve, and then you meet failure after failure, which then confirms your negative beliefs about yourself.

One good way to tackle low self-esteem is cognitive-behavioral therapy. A cognitive-behavioral therapist is trained to bring to light your underlying beliefs (and how they interact with your feelings and behaviors). By bringing unrealistic beliefs into consciousness, you open up space to change them or adjust them to be better aligned with reality. Perhaps you need to reflect on the beliefs you have about yourself, regarding who you are/aren't, who you're supposed/not supposed to be, what you hope/don't hope to be, what you are/aren't capable of, etc. Are your beliefs attuned to your current reality? Negative past experiences don't have to dictate your future, but they will if you're unaware of how they still influence you today.

IV. SELF-WORTH refers to feeling "good enough", specifically whether you believe you are worthy of acceptance and love. When you're young, your sense of self-worth arises in large part from how you were regularly treated by the people around you. If you grew up in an environment where love was conditional, then your self-worth likely became tied to those conditions. For example, if your parents only show you love when you get As in school, it's likely that your self-worth will become tied to your academic performance and future professional success.

Self-worth can also be damaged in a vicious cycle. If you believe you aren't worthy of love, then you signal to others that it's okay to treat you poorly, which reinforces the idea that you aren't worthy. One common way people defend against low self-worth is to make themselves into something "better" or more "worthy" to their social environment, or to obtain something they can offer in exchange for social validation of their worth (e.g. wealth or status). This striving can lead to problems with overachieving, perfectionism, anxiety, depression, self-blame, or self-harm.

One common way to tell if you suffer self-worth issues is if you are often engaged in social comparison that leads you to envy people you deem somehow "superior" to you and/or feel shame about being "inferior" to them. If that's the case, it's likely that you need to correct some faulty thinking patterns:

Don't make illogical comparisons, such as comparing your first step against someone else's thousandth step. These kinds of illogical comparisons exacerbate feelings of unworthiness. You're inflicting pain upon yourself by thinking this way.

Don't be superficial and judge people only by their cover. Remember, you don't really know what someone went through to get where they are today. Perhaps if you knew the full story, their situation wouldn't seem very enviable at all. Maybe you want to play golf as well as Tiger Woods, but would you also want to give up your childhood and constantly suffer harsh treatment as he did?

Don't expect that every person should be the same, know the same things, have the same abilities, live the same life, etc. Respect individuality, which means allow for differences between yourself and others. Understand that everyone has their own path in life rather than believing everyone should conform to the same crude standard (i.e. avoid Te loop).

Do you desperately need everyone to like you or think you're great? Wanting the approval of toxic people is basically granting them power over you. Don't hurt yourself by trying to become something you're not just because someone triggered your insecurity. Insecurity is your problem, not their problem. It is the insecurity itself you need to face up to by reflecting on where it really comes from and what it says about your ability to accept and love yourself as you are (this is related to problems with Fi development in ENFPs).

What many people with low self-worth don't understand is that self-worth starts from within; it doesn't come from the people out there. When you're able to accept and love yourself and stand proud in who you are (without all those "conditions" that were imposed upon you earlier in life), you'll then be capable of teaching others to respect you. With healthy pride in yourself, it's far easier to be assertive, set boundaries, and advocate for your needs. Why? Because you firmly believe you matter, you have a right to the space you inhabit, you have a right to be yourself, and you deserve to be treated as an equal. It's also easier to ignore, dismiss, or eject toxic people when you finally realize that you don't need or want anything from them.

All four of these concepts relate to how you perceive and evaluate yourself, but from different angles. You mention feeling insecure, but which of the above gets closer to the root of the issue? It's important to be more precise about identifying the problem if you hope to come up with the right solution.

[sereneabyyss]

An Actual Unbiased Review on Wuthering Waves

Tired of seeing either people absolutely bashing Wuthering Waves with refusal to actually talk about the good parts? Or exhausted of people calling Wuwa the Genshin Killer and refusing to accept that two games can exist and competition shouldn't kill each other completely? Well as a certified 'gacha is gacha' enthusiast who's actually played multiple gacha games and not just hoyo games and has gone through multiple games with maintenance and consistent updates, I'm here to give an actual unbiased review of Wuthering Waves and what it already excels at and what it needs work in. This won't go into any story details or anything that would be spoilers so don't worry about that

Instead of talking about the pros and cons individually I'm gonna talk about different aspects of the games and talk about the pros and cons of each thing. Because trust me everything has its pros and cons. I'm also going to do some comparisons for certain things and explanations for my thoughts on the individual topics.

For those who've played the game, let's start with the most obvious thing. Game optimization.

Cons:

The ping has been horrendous

Movement has been clunky and laggy because of bad ping

Some people had issues with npc faces looking blurry and weird skies? I didn't personally have these issues so I'm not sure

Some people have been having issues with crashing. Again, I have not, so I'm not sure if that's been fixed with the latest update

Pros:

Kuro has been pumping out update after update since launch to fix the known bugs and optimize everything

Since the update earlier ping has reduced significantly for me and I know it has been better for some of my friends

Now some of my thoughts on optimization and why the lack of optimization is actually fine and not proof that the game is crashing and burning: ahem.

EVERY SINGLE GAME UPON LAUNCH HAS BUGS AND OPTIMIZATION ISSUES

Betas are great and all, but they are NOT a representation of the strain a global launch has on servers and the game itself. Having the game in beta longer would NOT have prevented the optimization errors. These are so common in games it's genuinely astounding that there are people who think this is showing how bad the game is.

Let's do some comparisons: Tower of Fantasy literally flashed rainbow lights at players as a bug and it did not get fixed within the first week that I gave it a chance. Enstars' global release was an absolute disaster and was completely unplayable for a length of time. I didn't play Genshin when it first released but even when I started playing it had optimization issues. Genshin STILL has optimization issues that they fix with every update.

Games constantly have issues and bugs and need to be maintained 24/7. The thing to look at is NOT if it has bugs. It's to look at how the developers deal with those bugs. And like I said, Kuro has already done multiple emergency maintenance fixes and it fixed the ping spikes majorly for me.

I agree that bugs and optimization errors are frustrating, but they happen with every single game ever. What's important is how fast Kuro is working to fix those bugs!

Story/VA (Kuro lumped these together in their survey so I'm doing the same)

Cons:

The voice acting for Yangyang is so bland

They tried to do a mix of the characters trusting Rover and not trusting Rover to appease multiple audiences and it's just awkward

Dialogue boxes aren't entirely working properly so you just don't see the subtitles for half of a character's lines sometimes

Pros:

The story is interesting and intriguing (this is subjective but so is hating the voice acting)

They actually give the players real choices in certain instances of the story

Rover having actual voice lines is a breath of fresh air

Some of my thoughts: there's a lot of rumors surrounding the voice actor choices and that hoyo "sabotaged" Kuro by not letting voice actors for genshin voice wuwa characters. Whether that's true or not doesn't really matter in my books it doesn't matter if a name is big or not what matters is if they're good and while I think the voice fits Yangyang I don't like the acting part of it and it reads as bland and apathetic. It might improve in the future but otherwise I don't like it but I also don't like Paimon's voice in Genshin so I'm fine with not liking a voice actor. I won't bash an entire game for that.

I have been really enjoying the game so far and it's story is very intriguing. They use a lot of music terms for the lore and I enjoy that a lot. I'm interested in not only the Rover but what's going on with the world itself which is very important in a game. While I do have an opinion on how the story compares to other games I won't give it as that is purely subjective but just know I do think this is one of the better 1.0 stories I have played.

Gameplay/mechanics

Cons:

The Ding for the character switching perfect timing for a special attack is not always the easiest to hear. It's gotten better but the sound is very faint especially when listening to music while playing

Pros:

The tutorial/practice stages for the resonators and the dodging mechanics are a life saver

The combat is skill based yes but you can also button mash your way through

The world is very fun to explore and the chest puzzles actually had me thinking but were still very intuitive on how they actually worked

Echoes are genuinely one of the most unique "artifact" systems to come from gacha and it has been fun collecting them and using them

Comments: I genuinely don't have really any cons for the gameplay. I think it's phenomenal and a really unique and fun experience that while can make you think "oh this is similar to this game" still has a twist to it that makes it its own thing. I'm not sure how they could fix the dinging issue and not being able to hear it, but I do have to mention that it can be hard to get it because of that but honestly you can genuinely button mash through a fight. They aren't that hard in base game. And this is including bosses.

Overall: Like I said at the beginning. Gacha is Gacha. Enjoy whatever games you want to enjoy. I enjoy Gacha and I love open world. So I like both Genshin and Wuthering Waves. There are issues in both games and you have to recognize that but that doesn't mean you should use those issues to tear a game down to boost your favored game. Play what you want to play and recognize competition is good for video games. No I don't think Wuthering Waves will kill Genshin. And no I don't think Wuthering Waves is going to crash and burn. I enjoy playing both games and so this is my overall review for Wuthering Waves within the first few days and just how things have continued to develop after the initial launch.

[breyito]

Batfamily Introduction- Matt Reeves universe

So...this is how I'd go about assembling the Batfamily in Reeves verse. I have (at least the movies about Jason) completely developed in my brain, but well, writing the scripts is a whole other issue. I could, but 2k fics are too much for me at the moment, so I thought I'd share this with the world, free some space in my brain, so to speak. Praying that someone out there, that has the actual pull to make this happen, reads this and maybe uses it a little. Mainly about Jason, because my poor boy deserves better, and an live action portrayal that is accurate and true to character, instead of the constant angst trainreck that is his life in the comics, for some reason.

The more detailed an idea is, the more doubts I have about it, idk. Dick's is less developed since pretty much everyone is familiar with him, so I kinda skipped him, sorry. And Damian...well, I don't know enough about him to write him much more than he is, and tbh, I'd like to do something with him and Jon more than anything else.

Here it goes!!! (Also, I'm just a fan, so please don't hate on this, yeah? If you don't like it, move on.)

Batman: Gravity / Gravitas/ Gravitational Pull

(Dick's origin story as Robin movie, Zucco,  Selina helps, Ace shows up, Zucco almost dies but D!R decides not to, little scenes with Batgirl (?),etc)

      •Robin the first*: Dick's solo movie when he's older, establishing the Titans (Babs, Roy, Donna, Joey(?)), Deathstroke as antagonist(?). He ends the movie as Nightwing (?).

Batman: Mind Games

(Jason as Robin origin story, Jason steals the Batmobile tires, B sends him to a home. Mad Hatter/ Dollmaker is buying kids from Ma Gunn's and Jay helps B & Gordon realize this and to put a stop to it, B ends up kidnapped and Nightwing isn't answering Agent A and Batgirl is holed up in the precinct with Gordon; so Jay dresses up as Robin and goes to try and stop the freak. He trips the rogue with his marbles and knocks him out, waiting until Batgirl/Nightwing come to free the hostages from the tech, keeping the conscious kids calm. Dick is surprised about Jay but not a dick about it. Bruce offers to adopt Jay, and says it's not necessary to be Robin too, but Dick Is all "unless you want to, little wing! I'm gonna teach you all the *best* moves B is too old to do!" Sue me, I want one happy Batfamily, ok? Ok).

      •Robin the second*: Jason's solo movie, Kid Devil Pen pal, Kyle(?), Rose(?), Gar(?) or the Titans say he's too little?; Catwoman/Ivy/Nocturna as mentors/aunts? Heist movie. Professor Pig/Toymaker as antagonist? He ends up saving the Titans/Batman despite the doubts about him.

Batman: "A death in the family"/[?]

(Garzonas/child trafficking ring; they butt heads about 'procedure' and 'too much violence'; Barbara is paralyzed; Jay looks for Haywood, she sells him out to Joker, Jason dies. A few months later, B gets called to deal with Flashpoint and finds out Flash is the reason Jay died ("Allen, you killed my son? You killed my SON!" "I'm sorry- Bruce, I'm-" "Effective immediately, Allen's tenure in the Justice League is terminated. Central City will be relegated to Wallace, if he's ready to take on the name." "Bruce!" "If he can not use his powers responsibly, he can not be trusted with them. Unless you want me to give you an antidote." "...you don't have one." "Are you willing to try me?" post-credit scene. Jay's hand breaking the ground of his grave post-post credit scene)

Batman: [?]/Bane of the City

(Tim as Robin Origin story. Broken back, Dick as Batman for a little while, they defeat Bane, Bruce heals a little bit, Barbara remakes herself as Oracle and saves their asses at a crucial moment, etc. Jason is alive and with the LoA, baby!Damián? post-credit scene.)

    •Robin the third*: Tim's solo movie, he finds Connor and goes against Lex? + Cassie and Bart, of course. Steph is introduced at the end (iconic brick-in-the-face moment).

Batman: Under the Red Hood/[?]

(RH takes over the Alley in a couple of weeks; steals the kryptonite and ruins deals for Black Mask; kills the leutenants of the mobs and gains control over them, etc. ("B, this guys is not out of control." "Dick?" "I'd say this guy is completely in control. Look at these! He hasn't killed a single innocent. Every one of these men and woman have charges for murder, rape, abuse, child pornography or molestation, human trafficking... and all of them got away with it or got the minimal sentence or had the charges dropped or the witnesses killed. They weren't casualities, they were targeted." "It doesn't matter, he's still killing people." "Yeah, bad people! The worst society has to offer." "Dick..." "Bruce, we have bigger problems than a man that keeps the civilians out of things, the children protected and only takes his rage on the worst of humanity.") Jason still attacks Tim at TT, but only to keep him out of the final confrontation -broken wrist, ankle and bruised ribs- ("No more dead Robins" is written in Jason's blood on the wall). Jason as RH reveal; B accepts Jay killing Joker -he turns around and gives him permission- but the damn clown blows up the building before he can and scapes even after RH shoots him a few times. Jason collapses in Bruce's arms, sobbing, terrified. B asks Jay to comes home and he does, to a heartfelt reunion. Jason apologizes to Tim, giving him the R he cut off the Robin suit in the case instead of the one he took in the Tower. Damian's existence bomb drop post-credit scene. One big happy Batfamily, see?).

    •Robin the fourth*: Steph's solo movie. She starts the movie as Spoiler, ends the movie as Robin but dead. Steph tries to stop her dad, meets R!Tim, they fall in love somewhere in the middle. R!Tim wants her as part of the Titans, she refuses cuz her mom doesn't know about Spoiler and she wants to stay in Gotham due to Cluemaster. Jack Drake forces Tim to give up Robin (Steph finds out his identity due to him screaming threats to Bruce) and Bruce offers R to her a few days later, she agrees. Tim doesn't like ir, but Steph is Tim's only contact with the Batfam, so he's ok-ish with it. Cluemaster realizes his daughter is Spoiler/the new Robin and sells the info to Sionis, hoping he'll get him out of prison (he thinks Black Mask will use it to find out who Batman is, not torture her to death, but still). B&Steph butt heads, some "you're too much like Jason" comments/classism thrown her way (Jason is in the LoA trying to convince Talia to give up Damian to B, btw) She starts a war between two gangs to stop them destroying her block/neighborhood's business and homes. BM kidnaps her then, and tries to torture the info of Batman and Red Hood (his bitter enemy) out of her. She holds out until N&B&RH rescue her, but too late. She "dies" then ("was I a good Robin?" "you were a great Robin"). (Post-credit scene is her waking up gasping in a hospital bed, her window shows a Savanna.)

Batman: Blood Son/ Blood Feud

(Damian gets to Gotham to witness the end tail of the gang war after Steph's death. Tim is back in the Manor, back as Robin (he put on the suit to stop the war and BM; since Jack is in a coma he doesn't care anymore), working with B & N & RH to clean things up. R almost kills BM by beating him, so RH puts a blade to the guy's throat and says he will kill him if Tim says the word. Tim, in the end, says no. RH then cuts through BM's spinal cord, leaving him paralyzed. ("As a compromise" he grins savagely at Batman, winking.) Damian tries to off Tim the moment they meet, but Tim is very on edge and puts him down quickly and brutally ("You want to be Robin, remplace Steph, with *those* skills? Ha! Give me a break/Pathetic.") Dick tries to explain how fragile Tim is at the moment, while Jason & Alfred try to make them bond by cooking together, and B makes them solve cold cases together (it turns into a competition, of course, but since it ends with Tim spending less Time on the field, B doesn't stop it). Jack dies after an attack at the hospital by Cap Boomerang; after the funeral he goes out as RR, to get revenge. Zsasz gets him first, since RR is out of it. Damian -who was following him, not worried- ends up saving Tim after Zsasz kidnaps him on BM's orders, as payback. He stalls Zsasz until the others get there and cuts off one of his arms while trying not to kill him. (I wanna add Killer Croc here somehow, he's hired but Damián either convinces him to leave or beats him by drugging him or something). While Tim is recovering in the hospital/cave he passes the R to him. (''You'll do a good job." "Tt, of course I will." "Just...maybe get a less sharp weapon?" "Because blunt force trauma is more elegant?" "Nop. It's usually less deadly, tho."))

The (*) means I have no idea for a tittle. I know I want it to be secuencial, like a series, because that's what they are lol.

[maxwell-grant]

Reading you post about Seth made me imagine a world where Ryu winds up taking Seth on as a student. I thought Ryu's journey to overcome the Satsui no Hado could give him insight on how to help Seth overcome their own hatred, and meta-textually, becoming the main character student is about as far from trying to be the final boss that you can be

Hmm, you know, that is frankly pretty damn inspired and I don't think it's something we've ever really seen before in a fighting game, a former final boss getting kicked so far down the ladder that they wind up being the main character's student. It's the kind of sheer indignity and downgrade that would destroy most villains, but also, you can't destroy or make Seth less dignified than they already are, and their SFV story opens up a number of possibilities to take them afterwards if brought back. There's even some existing parallels between Seth and Akuma that could be worked into this, and Seth's already dropped out of official villain status enough to not be missed as one.

Main issue I have with this though is that "Final Boss gets beaten by Ryu, changes himself to become more like Ryu, and becomes a redeemed pseudo-ally to Ryu while still being plenty intimidating and arrogant to stay in in-character and remind you they used to be a Final Boss" is already very much Sagat's thing and you are never, ever, on your best day, not coming up short next to Sagat. Honestly even Akuma started heading there a bit in V. And it works for them because their appeal as characters isn't really mandated by them remaining full-on villains, they are cool badasses who get to sit in more morally grey clubs. Seth's humiliated and tragic aspect is what sets them apart from all the other main villains and I wouldn't want to see it done away with, but you can't really have them stay static, especially with 6 being serious about developing and pushing all of the characters forward in a way the series never really did before.

I've never been super in love with the idea of Ryu sitting down and training a new character to take his place, part of why I'm glad that Sakura turned out the way she did and that both her and Ryu were freed from the burden of the most tired story idea you could possibly think of with them. But there is a world of difference between "Ryu mentors a rookie who looks up to him into a new fighter because, idk he's just nice like that", and "Ryu has to mentor a monster that once tried to kill him and lay waste to the world with his exact power, to help them as he was helped and try to stop them from being consumed by hatred just as he once was". The former is just, eh, you can get a decent version of that by playing World Tour, but the latter, well, there's a pitch there, there's stakes, there's a story worth telling.

Ryu putting himself on the line, abdicating from his journey, possibly getting on really bad terms with people he knows (Is Chun-Li gonna be okay with this after all the work she put into destroying Shadaloo for good? what about Ken, who's JUST had his life ruined to shit by Shadaloo leftovers, how's he gonna feel? At minimum he's gonna have C.Viper and Juri and Abel and Guile on his ass 24/7 because they are not letting this pass), to stop the Shadaloo-Satsui cycles of violence and help a victim of them who can't be trusted, but also can't get up on their own and has no one even trying to save them, no one. Ryu had Ken, he had friends, he has Sagat to eternally remind him of the consequences and push him to be a better man, he had Dhalsim, he had Gouken (which I think was too much, old man should have stayed dead, not a single story in the franchise wouldn't be better served by Gouken staying dead), in the manga he even had Birdie and I like that so it happened shut up, where as Seth has nothing and no one other than people who tried to use them, and people who very justifiably think Seth needs to stay dead and only endangers others by being alive.

Nobody on the planet is gonna think Seth is remotely worth the effort of saving, except for Ryu, who wouldn't wish what they're going through even on his worst enemy. There's like an interesting tension here, of whether Ryu is doing something incredibly stupid because he doesn't understand firsthand what Shadaloo scum are actually like and is just empowering a monster to kill them all eventually (something that Guile would probably say to him), whether he's just trying to help someone the way he wishes he'd been helped and not thinking about the risk, whether he's actually being very practical because redeeming Seth is a net positive for humanity that only he can achieve (well really it should be Dhalsim and Gouken's jobs but, they can't be fucked), how much of this is him acting from pure kindness versus a pragmatic understanding that he is in a position to stop the next Akuma or Bison from forming even if no one is gonna help him do it, the toil it takes on him, and so on.

Again, there's a story here. Not sure if I'd want this like, canonically, but there's something really good here. That could be as good a justification as there ever was for a story to remind us why Ryu is the Hero even when they're not actively at the center of things.

[asktheahogesandblondes]

Ok I trust yah enough that it's ok drunkness can be debatable but your love is true so I'm sure is ok! Man this is last ask of m/a so how was your drunk experience for my birthday I hope you had fun, man your all so miserable as drunks though alcohol is a depresent after all on bright side since it was from my magic this won't add lasting brain damage to your developing brains

So like drink in moderation! I hope you had good experience

Natsumi:Hey! I'm not *hic* miserable.

Miu:Me neither.

Makoto:*Even though he doesn't talk he's not miserable*

Shuichi:Alcohol just makes me want to sleep.

Hajime:I hope we managed to entertain you as drunks *hic* you should see us when we try to play games like this *hic*

Junko:I hope me being a crybaby made your closer to death day a good one.

*M/A Counter:0*

Hajime:Finally, it's over.

Shuichi:And no hangover as promised, nice.

Makoto:I'm just glad Junko is not sad anymore...are you feeling alright?

Junko:Yeah, it passed, thanks for sticking with me as you always do.

Makoto:Don't thank me, I'll do it any time for you.

Natsumi:Are you ok Hajime?

Hajime:Yeah, I am...as long as I'm with you.

Natsumi:You're always such a corny sap regardless if you're sober or drunk, at least to me.

Hajime:And you're always so sappy when you're drunk.

Natsumi:I don't need to be drunk to be sappy to you, you're the only one that deserves it.

Hajime:Hehe.

Miu:Are you still feeling tired?

Shuichi:No, though I still want to cuddle with you...and yes, on a bed.

Miu:Of course honey, anything you want I'll give it to you, Besides, we both know my body is the greatest pillow...

Shuichi:Yeah, I know...

*They all wave at you one last time for today*

Happy birthday!

[haeresys-realm]

Please DON'T READ IT if you simp her. Because this is mg blog and I can tell what I want to tell (and I forbidden to show everyone everywhere my massages to say – look my jackals how stupid and wrong this man is; I'm really tired of contemporary childish manners and no aim to education. And yes, everything I will say will sounds stupid because I have a pooer English vocabulary and grammar, so, please, if you can correct it, do ut, but dont to correct my further opinions and try to say shit about me) and there will be my first reaction of all this shit happened in spite I thought I was ready for it. But every time it gets worse than I expected. I can't bear it, really.

... because unfortunately she was the reason I started to hate this game. All I've written before was because a year ago it was leaked she is the 4th. Now she and her pathetic pathos that was just taken from other character model is forced so much that I can't see anything but childish praising for such a trivial cliched character.

It is so funnuly because she behaves ABSOLUTELY LIKE THE DOCTOR. As if he was her REAL FATHER AHAHAHA.

And after that this idiots on developpers say this!?

https://youtu.be/SycnWxUMvpU?si=fINqhY0EyT5JJw5l

I guess the author of this cringe deleted my most emotional comment for my canonical pointing out that this is an illogical delirium.

And I'm absolutely horrified of what a shit character they made of her. Just a stupid good-mommy with sad fate who got everything from nowhere. There's no reason she could live so well with such a "curse". There's no reason she would be forgiven. They said she's insane cursed child – no, she's just an absolutely fanservice character for nowadays teen girls and nothing else. Absolutely nowaday-teengirl-fanservice character.

Arlecchino is just a female fanservice mommy character of the so-called strong woman with bad fate. It's disgusting how hoyo uses this image to attract teen girls to this character. And this empty cliche really works.

How idiotically stupid should this little girl be to threaten a GOD. Dottore power lvl can't be even compared with her. Kusanali said he is God-leveled and she isn't EVEN a rival to him. I really feel sick of what a shit these idiots on game developers made with characters and harbingers now just to show stupid children cliched black and white morality that doesn't work in life and what made us all (adults especially) feel too boring while watching it agaaaain and agaaain. I never were so dissapointed in this game. The worst character for me ever.

The girl with Mary Sue powers from nowhere tells she could kill a 500 years old genius who made himself a god who can defeat archons. But children say they like it and respect her. I have no words. If you want the science to improve and new developments work on people you SHOULD TEST IT ON THEM WHETHER YOUR LIKE IF OR NOT. And if there are people the society don't need it is the only way to do, ESPECIALLY when we are talking about JUST A GAME. Fuck. This is not just boring, it's the worst scenario it could be. Some girl killed a Harbinger when she couldn't. And everyone just forgave her and gave highest rank and trust. Just because children wanted to see a mommy character with manly outfit, strict character and transgender nickname. The woman can't be a father. Live with this information. And good luck in your mental evolution, because there's no way for degradation if supporting such a cringe and see no strange things and insane idiotism in it.

Because I know how inadequate the childish community for whom it was done are I know that soon there will be plenty of so-called "arts" with Arlecchino humiliating Dottore, dominating him, etc, and he, perverted as a character, crying and begging for mercy as Furina. I really feel too sick of all of this disrespectful attitude to canonical images and characters stories and core. Bur now I'm afraid the so-called contemporary developers are doing the same shit. They are not much smarter than these teens because they have chosen not to improve their concepts but to make a fanservice primitive shit instead of it.

And you can think what you want but if there are her lickers everywhere, you shall know that there's another point of view and if you're not that dumb and mind-limited child you shall listen to the alternative side and accept it's existence. Don't answer me if you want to say some shit about me just because you feel offence for your waifu. I warned you before you read. Have a nice day.

P.S. The moment of sudden faith in humanity. I must mark it.

[breadotop]

what happened to me/my art/etc

I don't have the willpower to revise this post. This is all off the cuff. If you ever felt like we were friends/on good terms at any point, I'd like you to read this.

For the past few years I've been struggling with multiple unhealthy friendships + working relationships and the trauma/feelings of paranoia associated with them. All of this had left me feeling pretty worthless as an artist, a game developer, and a person, moreso than before anything had happened. I'm still struggling with it now, but I think I'm dealing with it better than before.

Up until recently, I'd been experiencing nightmares and flashbacks related to things that'd happened between me and some people I used to be on better terms with. A lot of these thoughts and memories had to do with me (or someone else) speaking out about an issue and either being ignored, handwaved, or gaslit for it. Regardless of how firm the confrontations were, change either came at a glacial pace or never at all. Eventually I got so tired of speaking up that I just stopped. I silently left a lot of friend groups I used to be in because I either felt like I wasn't being heard or didn't feel like there was a chance I'd be heard in the first place.

I'm being purposefully vague in this post because I can't let go of the belief that anyone is capable of changing for the better, and I don't want to be making a whole ass callout post in the year 2024. I also don't feel safe being open publicly about a few of these things.

If you'd ever considered me to be a friend or at least a friendly acquaintance/mutual, and if you've been wondering about me, feel free to message me wherever (except on the website formerly known as the bird app). I want to talk with people again. I miss many of you dearly. I just genuinely do not know who I can trust, and don't know what else to do about it. Maybe a cowardly move to put the ball in (collectively) your court but it's really the furthest I can push myself about this stuff.

Some of these things that've happened feel really humiliating to think about, specifically how heavily it's affected me, but after several years of opening up to my closest friends about it all, I've started to understand how unusual these events were, and how difficult they are to deal with for anyone.

Anyway..... I'm doing okay enough right now. I'm trying my best. Sorry for being so quiet, the Mental Illness got me by the throat for a long while and I'm only now relearning to speak again. Miss you all, to all the people that hadn't severely hurt me or my friends. I'm still here. Finally got some of this off my chest.

[ask-the-cosmic-duo]

Long Time No See!

//Sorry I've been gone! I'll place an explanation at the bottom, but feel free to read the story for an in-universe explanation.

----------------------

Stella was resting on the couch in the gaming room, and stared at a TV screen displaying the PS5 home screen. She looked tired.

"I need to update the blog..." She groaned. "But there's so much going on all of a sudden..."

"A bunch of new visitors, plus pre-existing obligations and desires... How do I keep up with all of it? Especially when I'm now taking care of a kid..." She looked to the side. "Well, I guess he doesn't really trust me right now, since I slipped up kinda hard, but still. I think Sol has his back."

Back to the screen. A development build of her game was currently selected, with the option to play it highlighted. She looked to the side again, specifically at her racing rig. It was nearby, so all she'd need to do is slide it over. But... she wasn't feeling it right now. She wasn't feeling up for much of anything. Yet another dip in motivation. This happened way too often... What was she supposed to do about it, though? She was sure there was a way, but she didn't know what that way was.

"I've experienced a lot in my life. And yet, I sometimes can't figure out how to overcome this... executive paralysis. You'd think my Determination would help, but not always," she explained to no one in particular. Not that it mattered who she said it to, because there wasn't anyone in the room with her. She was alone.

"... I wonder how my friends on Tumblr are doing."

----------------------

//Right, so, I've been taking care of things of varying personal and overall importance for the past while. College is chief among them, though I've actually been on break for a while. I just feel burned out from having to work way harder than I wanted to towards the end of the semester. Annoyingly, I'm starting back up next week. There's also additional worldbuilding I've been doing, plus experimentation with AUs.

//No, I haven't canned the story, I'm just not sure how to actually continue it because I feel like the current method isn't working for me. I'm too focused on the RP it's meant to come from. That's not saying much though, because I'm having trouble focusing on that as well. Being me sucks, you don't wanna be me.

//I can't promise I'll always be active. My focus and motivation waxes and wanes, but I'll do my best to at least keep the blog from dying outright. Don't assume I'm dead until both of my blogs have been dead for months, because I'm probably thinking about you guys every day.

//This may be a small blog, but you guys have shaped it quite a lot already, as well as the universe it's bonded to. Want an example? I wouldn't have given Stella back her void powers if it weren't for @ask-gadzooks. They're masters of worldbuilding, and know the original pony lore a lot better than I do. Truth be told, I tend to just wing it. And yes, the blog is still canon to the original world that the original Stella is from. Fully canon.

//Either way, I apologize for my silence on this blog, and I hope you guys haven't forgotten me. It's midnight, so-

//oh crap i forgot about duolingo

//... Ahem. Anyway, I don't think I'll be doing much else tonight. I'm tired, and I need to sleep.