#This makes 100% more sense when you learn they're supposed to be looking at the spell circle diamante boosted hartwin out of in the middle

[ghostytoad]

* Fun n' Games *

ROTTMNT Boys x GN! Leo-esque reader who enjoys drama, making jokes, and being overall awesome

Summary: The Hamato brothers unexpectedly fall for the smug, but genuine, fun-loving reader despite their egocentric habits

Headcanons for: Leo

GN! Reader; Romantic; Fluff, Mild Angst || Words: 2.3k

Raph | Donnie | Mikey | Bonus!!

Leo:

oho, hello good lookin'~ it's nonstop flirting and banter from the minute they met and it's not going to stop anytime soon

finally! someone who has a sense of humor and can appreciate a good one-liner or two! and they can dish it out as well as they can take it? be still, my beating heart!

leo genuinely finds it to be a gift from the gods that y/n shares his brand of comedy and will not let up on it when he's around them

the romantic tension between y/n and leo is so thick that he could probably slice through it with his odachi - it makes his brothers sick to have to listen to all the schmoozing but leo ADORES the flirting praise

the boy would bend over backwards for y/n; he'd sell his prized jupiter jim collectibles for them if they asked him to (maybe… he'd probably still keep one or two tho)

there's an unspoken and ongoing (very friendly) rivalry between them; leo and y/n are constantly looking to one up each other and it's getting to ridiculous levels of competitive; they won't stop until things hit "deadly" levels and one of them almost ends up getting hurt

even little everyday tasks become a competition for the two of them, there's just no end to their games

grocery shopping? betcha i can save more money than you! pizza night? i can stuff twice as many pizza slices in my mouth than you can. hanging out in donnie's lab? hoo boy, i guarantee i can make him snap first.

it's the bane of donnie's existence, considering he's the target of most of their shenanigans; if he has to endure another one of their "who can ruin donnie's day" games, he swears it'll be the start of his villain arc

mikey's the unofficial score-keeper and peacemaker when things get too heated between the two of them; although he's more likely to stoke the flames than intervene… he just happens to enjoy watching them get carried away (not that he'd say it to their face). definitely enables the chaos to a terrible degree

"no way, you know i totally had that game last night before you went on to blow up my spot with your little tackle! next time we portal our way onto the superbowl field mid-game, i'm leaving YOU on the sidelines and scoring that touchdown solo!" (concerned raph sounds in the background)

they've absolutely plotted to portal their way into "hard to access" places like the white house or splinter's secret lounge room, but raph and donnie made them promise not to do it for very different reasons (donnie doesn't want to have to bail them out if they get stuck and raph is just being raph)

leo and y/n's carefree attitudes combined has landed them into trouble with the law a few times, both in new york and the hidden city

together, they're banned from like 10 different places and they're legally not allowed within 100 feet of any magicians; leo's only explanation for that is "we couldn't tell if it was part of the costume or if the guy actually had a barber-stache and how were we supposed to know he was blind?!". to this day, no one knows what he's talking about.

leo would absolutely hide the evidence of a crime for y/n; he ain't no snitch either and he's not going to let his bestie take the fall for something that TOTALLY wasn't their fault! more than likely, he'd blame their antics on hypno or if it's something not so bad, splinter.

senor hueso has an entire wall dedicated to leo and y/n: The Wall of Failures and Stupid Mistakes That You Will Surely Learn Nothing From

it has photos of all the times leo and y/n went on a fun little adventure and ended up being taken hostage by a villain, thrown in jail, or overall just beat up (they're mostly selfies and yes, leo is smiling and posing in all of them)

he would never let y/n get into any major trouble and he has the common sense to remember that y/n is only human, so at the very least he knows not to do anything too dangerous when they're around; he's reckless but he doesn't have a death wish

"i'm all for a good espionage mission and all, but this is big mama we're talking about! i say we sit this one out and wait for another chance to come along so we can try on these rad bellhop uniforms."

the two of them have made it a point to announce their arrival anywhere by doing the team rocket motto; occasionally mikey or april will join in as meowth. they have the costumes to match and will inexplicably be wearing them every time they do it.

they truly enable the worst in each other; raph insists on tagging along as the unofficial babysitter to every little hangout because of their chaotic nature, meanwhile donnie has protocols for every possible "doomsday" scenario they could initiate with their little stunts. zombies or accidentally reviving the shredder is at the top of that list.

matching outfits are a big must for leo; someone as UH-MAZING as y/n is absolutely worthy of leo's impeccable fashion sense and there's no way he's gonna pass up a chance to twin with y/n. if they refuse to match with him for whatever reason, he will pout about it for days.

whenever leo is sad or feeling a little down, y/n is the first person he goes to for a little cheering up. they somehow know just what to say to make the boy feel like a champion. and no, he didn't give them a script to read off of! (he totally did)

even with all the flirting and pick-up lines, leo still dreads the thought of ever admitting his feelings to y/n; he's a confident turtle, sure, but that's just the face part of being the face man. he's secretly an insecure mess when it comes to them

will become a flustered mess if y/n genuinely compliments or praises him; he'll stutter for a good minute or two before finally snapping back to his suave cool guy persona (which doesn't fool anyone, he's OBVIOUSLY crushing hard)

after an unfortunate night of misadventure, leo's forced to confess to his feelings AND his crimes

Well, some adventure this was turning out to be.

"Get in there! Y'all got the right to keep yer traps shut!"

Yep. What a real swell time.

Being hauled away in a prison ball, headed to the Hidden City Police Headquaters, all the while Big Mama's men chasing close behind.

"So much for the adventure of a lifetime." Y/N hissed bitterly as they tugged and pulled from the tangle of limbs they found themselves in, trapped inside the small bubble with Leo tightly packed alongside them.

"Well, maybe if SOMEONE weren't such a slowpoke, we'd have made it back! And I'd like to say for the record, you are the WORST lookout. Maybe next time try to keep up, will ya?" the turtle spat back with a scathing glare.

Y/N could only muster a hearty scoff as they balled their fists, unable to throw a punch from how they were positioned. Their heel found a suitable landing in the direct center of Leonardo's plastron and dug in with a stomp, eliciting a pained groan from him and a satisfied smirk from Y/N.

"If you weren't so cocky, we might've ACTUALLY pulled off your little stunt! But nooo, Leo just HAS to get in the last word!"

"OHO, pot calling the kettle black now, eh?" Leo wore his signature smug expression and attempted to jab a digit into Y/N's forehead. Given the way his arm was caught between his bent thighs, he only managed a slight graze before opting for a flick instead.

The two bickered and took shots at each other throughout the trip, much to the chagrin of the arresting officials steering nearby. It was gonna be a long night for everyone.

At the station, Leonardo and Y/N were placed into holding together, both of them choosing to sulk in silence on opposite sides of the confined room. It wasn't until Y/N was being processed that the question of what to do with the human came up for the arresting officers. With Leo's odachi confiscated, it wasn't like they could just send Y/N home on their own, but they couldn't leave Y/N in the same cell as powerful, human-loathing yokai. Leaving the pair to stew in their anger, the officers left to deliberate on Y/N's fate.

Silence followed. Neither one wanting to give in to this bitter game of chicken, Leo instead let out a loud, exaggerated sigh.

Silence.

Irked by the lack of response, he threw his head back and gave a loud, guttural groan of frustration.

"Right. So you aren't talking to me." he rolled his eyes and forced his gaze back onto Y/N, who sat indignantly across from him on a cold cement bench, their knees held close to their chest.

Not even a glance back.

"Oh, come on! You can't actually believe this is my fault! If anything, you should be mad at the guard that threw us out and called the cops! He's the one who got us in this little mess!"

Nothing.

The silence tore at Leo's chest, his heart thumping heavily against his plastron as he dejectedly sat back against the cold wall. It was unlike Y/N to ignore him like this. With every second, the stillness became unbearable. This little adventure was truly a disaster, not just for the predicament the two found themselves in but also for the lengths Leonardo had gone to ensure Y/N would have a good time. So that HE would have a good time with them. It didn't matter to him that they could be facing time in prison. That whole deal was practically child's play to the mischeivious mutant. It didn't even matter that they faced a total ban from the mystic city itself. It was the fact that he might've dashed any chance he had of winning over Y/N's affections.

'You just HAD to fuck it up, didn't you? You had to go out and be an asshole!' a booming inner voice fed into his insecurity and the crushing weight was enough to curl the red-eared slider into a fetal position, his lower lip quivering as he fought back tears.

"I…" a sniffle broke Leo from the spiraling despair he'd been wallowing in, unsure if the sound came from him.

"Am I… holding you back, Leo?"

Another sniffle and this time, he was sure the sound came from across the room. Peering over at the source of the sound, he found Y/N curled in on themselves, little hiccups causing their small form to quake and shudder. They were crying.

"Y/N?" Shifting from the bench, Leo took a few hesitant steps towards them as his hand ghosted across their shoulder before pulling away. His face wrought with guilt and worry, he debated scooping them up in his arms and holding them tightly to him right then and there. But he couldn't bring himself to do it. The thought of rejection stopped him in his tracks.

"I don't know why I do it. Why I try so hard to prove that I deserve to be around you." Y/N continued, their voice muffled as they buried their face in their knees. "I'm- I'm just a human. I'm not as strong. I'm not as quick. I can't compete with you and your mystic skills. I can't even keep lookout for you!"

"What? Y/N, no, you got it all wrong! Yeah, you're a human but I-"

"Just stop it! Stop!" Forcing back a loud hiccup, their head shot up to meet Leo's concerned gaze with a fierce, stubborn glare.

"You DON'T have to feel sorry for me and you DON'T have to keep me around! So why? Why keep me around when all I do is drag you behind?"

Their narrow eyes locked themselves with his, desperately searching his expression for any hint of pity. All Leo could do was chuckle, his concern melting into fondness.

"I don't feel sorry for you. Sure, you've looked better but I was so afraid I was the one holding YOU back."

"H-Huh? Me?"

"Y/N." The turtle sighed as he plopped himself down beside them, allowing their back to rest against his side as they unfurled from their little ball of sadness. "You ARE a human, yeah. But do you get how cool that makes you? You can do so much more than I ever could! Look, I might have my good looks, my mad skills, and my amazing charm, but you have that and more in… whew, in spades and for you, it's practically effortless."

As Leo moved to wipe a tear from Y/N's eye, he cupped his other hand on their damp cheek and with a tender tap of his thumb, he parted their lips slightly and moved in to plant his lips softly against theirs. The ghosting of his lips left enough room for Y/N to pull away if they felt uncomfortable. Instead he was nearly knocked back with the full force of Y/N's lips crashing against his, their body leaning over him and practically trapping him underneath their warmth. Leo's hands held firmly onto Y/N's sides and he eased himself back against the cold of the bench, breaking the kiss to let out a soft chuckle.

"I love y-"

"Well, well, well~ Looks like someone owes me 3 months of chores." a familiar, taunting voice hummed not too far from the two.

A jingling of keys had them both whipping their heads towards the now-open cell door, spotting the unmistakable, cocky face of Donatello leaning against the bars with crossed arms.

"D-Donnie?!"

"Yeah, yeah, you two can get back to your little makeout session. But I thought you'd like to know I paid your bail, you're welcome." He waved them off as he began down the hall. Some adventure this turned out to be.

Bonus comic: Leo definitely used his one phone call to call Señor Hueso

[27daisuki]

Hello again! I recently added subs to the dmmd stage plays (except Ren's! i do not take credit for that). Originally i only had 4 routes, but I received Mink's and ViTri's routes and just finished subbing! (thank you @minkiemoo for sending them to me!!)

They're all updated on the same Google drive that i posted before but I'll repost it here

I hope you all enjoy!! please let me know if I missed anything or if it's not working (I didn't finish subbing the post credit conversations but i wanted to get the rest of the play out there first)

translators notes and general thoughts below if u care

Woo!!!! I'm so happy i got to watch all the routes and I'm very happy to make it easier to consume for English speakers! the game blew up in 2014 on tumblr from a fan translation iirc? so I think it's only fair that I do my part now that I'm at a level of fluency where I can do that too! my goal since i was a kid to be able to watch/play things in jp without subs or translation, and i think i only recently realized i can do that now lol

it has been a very long time since I started learning jpn (i believe in total it has been 18 years on and off 💀 god) and i just wasn't confident in my skills but when i was watching Ren's route (it was the only one available overseas without vpn shit and had subs) and no shade to whoever had to sub Ren's route but i noticed some subs were just straight up wrong? (there's a part where aoba is looking at a screen at toue's speech and it was just all wrong) so i think that coupled with having friends that also like dmmd and wanted to watch the other routes inspired me to do my own damn subs lmao 😂

I'm absolutely not saying my subs are perfect, I'm sure there are spots that aren't 100% accurate (mostly because i can't 100% hear exactly what syllables they're saying sometimes because they talk so fast or just the audio quality or mumbling lol noiz I'm looking at you), but if i was unsure at any point I'd cross check the game lol if anyone notices any point where my subs are inaccurate, please let me know! i take no offense and honestly would love to be corrected so i can know for the future

also lastly, i did wanna touch on my strategy for subbing! jpn and English don't translate very well to each other all the time so there are some things that are said in jp that if i wrote literally in English would feel awkward or be hard to understand, so for some dialogue i tried to convey what they were saying with phrases that would make more sense to an English reader. So if you hear some sentences/words and you're like, wait that's not 100% exactly what they said, there's a good chance I know and i made the choice to translate it differently. it can be really hard to know when to leave something literally translated and when to localize it, or how far you should change the wording even if you keep the important information in a sentence, and which words i can leave out because of how fast they talk😭

jpn is also a very context heavy language, which means they leave out words in a sentence because it's implied that they're still in the sentence but you're supposed to fill them in. so there are many times where it sounds like in jp, they say 2 words, but it could really actually be like 6 because they're assuming you filled in the other 4 words. English you can only really get away with so much not said, and it can feel a bit weird when u read 6 words on the screen but hear the actors say 2 words lmao but just trust me on this, i promise I'm not adding words outta no where😂

one example: when Mizuki is holding a knife to Tae, he says 後悔すんなよ which literally means "don't regret this", but with the full context he's saying something close to "don't regret this because it's gonna be your fault your grandma dies" which obviously is a lot more than what he said and I can't write all that on the screen for 2 seconds. The best equivalent to this (imo) was too write "You'll regret this", because even though it's not what he said in jp, it still gets the point across to english speakers and eng speakers can fill in the blank that he'll regret this because he didn't take Mizuki's threats seriously. It's less words and it's easier to digest in the few seconds that you have to read the sub

anyway i just want it to be known that i put a lot of care into these subs and thought very hard about how I translated each sentence, so i hope that you can trust my work!

Thank you again for all the kind words! I hope you enjoy the plays!!

[kazz-brekker]

hotd episode 4 thoughts:

bro!! that was fucking BRUTAL! i've known it was coming all season but holy shit i was NOT prepared for all of that!!!

before this season started people were saying that blood and cheese was going to be this show's red wedding, but honestly i 100% think it's rook's rest, actually! do not argue with me!

okay hang on let me try to have some coherent thoughts.

as a lover of all things gothic and weird, i am absolutely loving daemon having a terrible time at harrenhal. get haunted by your past bad decisions, loser!

i've been waiting all season to see how the alyn and addam subplot will play out and i really like the choice to have rhaenys be aware of her husband's bastard children (in the book she never learned), it makes a lot of sense since she and corlys know each other really well and she's very familiar with driftmark.

also i was not emotionally ready for them to take the route of rhaenys learning hours before her death that her husband repeatedly cheated on her lol.

alicent taking the moon tea as a parallel to rhaenyra doing the same in season 1 was a bit unexpected but i actually liked it, i feel like if you're going to write a story that's supposed to be heavily inspired by medieval history then you should include how women deal with contraceptives and abortion in that world.

jace and baela trying to run the council in rhaenyra's absence…they're doing they're best! but they really are just kids and should not have to deal with all of this!

getting the sense that gwayne hightower is maybe not super down with this whole "war" thing after all.

aemond shit-talking aegon in front of the whole council and using high valyrian so they don't understand him was such a delightfully bitchy usage of the language that i actually yelled aloud.

i have not forgotten season 1…whenever alicent and larys have a scene together i live in fear.

i'm also loving alys rivers so far, she's so perfectly unsettling and i'm really pleased they let gayle rankin keep her scottish accent.

they mentioned the names of TWO of the muppet tullys! and benjicot blackwood! and the return of willem blackwood! and a laena hallucation! gosh, daemon's little harrenhal council scenes had so many delicious callbacks and namedrops this episode.

alicent snarking at aegon…oh she really is losing her patience with him and just doesn't care at all anymore.

it's so good to see rhaenyra really taking a stand and making decisions this episode, but my god the pit of my stomach really dropped when rhaenys volunteered to fly to rook's rest.

i really liked the parallel moments with aegon and rhaenys getting ready to go to war, especially how it emphasized that the targaryens see their dragons not just as weapons but as companions too.

truly did not have on my bingo card that one of the participants of the first proper dragon battle this season would be drunk.

rook's rest was just! man! it was brutal!

this show really made us wait for the first dragon versus battle dragon battle, and it really didn't let me down.

the bit where aegon realizes that he's severely outmatched by meleys…the looks on everyone's faces when vhagar arrives…the dragons just screeching and clawing at each other and laying waste the whole field below them without even meaning to…those soldiers being crushed beneath vhagar's feet without her even noticing…vhagar seizing meleys by the throat and just shaking her…the look on rhaenys's face when she's falling…the impact of sunfyre and meleys just totally crushing everything below them…it fucking slapped!!

the aftermath was just as brutal as the battle, tbh. the look on criston cole's face when he realized what he set in motion and that he maybe just killed the king…oh buddy you fucked up REAL bad.

on a better note…more harrenhal drama and jace in the riverlands next week?

[late-draft]

HAIII!!! quickie ,whats something you DISLIKED about the live action of avatar,like for me, its zukos scar ,like it feels like a tiny red slap and not a burn scar in my point of view, also love your things xoxo!!!

Hiiii!!!!! Thank you so much!! I always smile when I see how enthusiastic people are about my art!!

Hmm yes I will agree with you on that 100%, if there's one thing Live action should do visually, it's to make disfigurement look realistic; but you remember what the live action movie did to the character from Mortal Engines? Same thing. Super toned down, and I'm not sure why. Is it because of crunch filming and no time to apply detailed prosthetics? Or because they're trying to keep the actors looking attractive? I don't think there's anything they could have done to Dallas Liu to diminish that, in fact Zuko is supposed to have that aspect of Facial Horror trope and he'd still be very appealing, not in spite or because of the scar, but alongside it, if that makes sense.

It's meant to shock an average member of the audience on first reveal, add to that initial "yikes" and stereotypical "villainous" design and then pull the rug underneath that. What Zuko went through was horrible, and an equally horrible realistic depiction would resonate with the audience.

One of the other things I disliked about the Live action... I'll list one of my criticisms, and that's that it feels super clear to me that it was filmed as Children's Entertainment. It really carries that vibe and I think that cascades and hurts many other aspects such as character reactions. You can feel it in how scenes quickly become jovial or carry this air of carefree-ness. Yes, original ATLA was also made for children and it also visibly gets gimped by that in many moments - most easily evident when Aang has to recite "I have learned my lesson". It's a terrible shame because this framework restricts the in-universe tone and behaviour of characters. The plot and characters are perfect for a more serious tone.

But I'll also add a positive note that, disregarding the obviously-crunch-fast-made costumes, the show looks very pretty. The colours are pleasing to look at!

[a-vessels-thoughts]

Random Naegi HCs

The Naegi family are naturally good marksmen. Makoto has more raw talent in this than komaru does. This makes them, ironically enough, bad at baseball (their throws are too clean, too straight, and they don't have the raw strength to blitz people) but really good at basketball despite the height.

Komaru is stronger than Makoto, and by a landslide. Makoto is way more flexible, though, so at least he has that over her.

Both can't dance to save their lives. They're singers, leave their two left feet alone!

Komaru can't cook. She will make a fire with water. Makoto will make your kitchen look like a warzone. Everyone thinks the taste is worth the clean-up; it also looks really good!

Komaru is the first to notice all this and just sighs, muttering under her breath, "Isn't it supposed to be the opposite?" She's more jealous that she can't cook than anything. Was in a cooking club to learn before the tragedy.

Komaru calls Makoto Lil bro (as a jab at his height). This has made many people think she's actually the older sibling. There was an event with the future foundation, and komaru was listed as his elder. She laughed her ass off.

Komaru has NO charisma (the utter girl failure) Makoto stole it all. She talked her way INTO a fight with a pacifist by pure accident (both were trying to avoid conflict).

Makoto's talk no jutsu could almost count as brainwashing. Assassins after his head have learnt to plug their ears, because You Stand No Chance Otherwise.

Makoto is scared of fighting any woman, not out of a sense of honor or anything, he just assumes they can bend him like a pretzel (he's right, 9/10 times he's out under 5 seconds in direct confrontation).

Makoto only read manga because Komaru was into it, he's more of a... literally anything else guy. He liked some of the fluffy and Shonen manga the most.

Komaru reads BL (and yes, Makoto read some of them with her), and Toko Can't Stand It, literally has a No BL policy. Genocider and Komaru have a sorta book club over it. Could probably stop Genocider from committing any crimes (or drop anything she's doing) by saying Komaru wants to share manga recommendations.

Makoto is a complete malewife, cleans, cooks, does the laundry, is good at makeup if he ever learns, can wrap up wounds and scold you (gently) so well, but is utterly horrible at fashion. ("I can just... grab whatever, right?") He has no idea why Komaru is so smug that she has good fashion senses.

Makoto is super naturally cold, even with his shirt, thick jacket, and BLAZER combo he sometimes still feels cold! Could lowkey function as a refrigerator even in the summer. Komaru is the opposite. As kids, they were inseparable when sleeping and are cuddle monsters to this day because of it.

Makoto is naturally drawn towards caliginous colours. Give him all the edgy dark colours, they're his; black is probably his favorite. Komaru doesn't actually have a preference, as long as it doesn't clash when she wears it.

Both naegi's are really good at spotting romances and pairing people up... when it isn't themself. It's genuinely frustrating for others because they can call people getting together before it even gets platonic, but you could pin the naegis to a wall, whisper huskily in their ear before kissing roughly, and you'd have a 50/50 chance that they interpreted it right.

"Oh, we're just friends, why would they be interested?" -both naegis, despite literally raising children with their partners. Both are Actively at risk of becoming black holes.

Komaru is somehow an amazing and HORRIBLE mother. The girl failure energy is too strong. Her (likely adopted) children would trash talk her before they could crawl. It might've been Toko's doing, but still... trash talked by babies. At least the family is loving, and she would never lock any child in a closet... on purpose. 100% apologizes profusely if it happened.

Both are incredibly snarky. Makoto is way less obvious, and he rarely has the chance to be during/after the killing game, but Komaru is a ball of sarcasm and teasing after some therapy. Hina finds both of them bickering with each other and kind of short circuits. (They were both so kind normally??? What was this??? ) She can barely wrap her around the fact that this is their Natural State. Makoto decides to use this to his advantage by being sarcastic/jokingly passive-aggressive when people are least expecting it; Komaru lives for it. It catches even Kyoko off guard for the first few times.

Komaru is good at physics; Makoto isn't and hates it like any other maths related subject. He actually really likes history. Komaru sucks at psychology. Both agree that English sucks. Literature is kinda... there, to them. Both are good at chemistry, but for different reasons. Makoto has a great memory, Komaru is Just Good At It. Can also make it explode at will, for some reason??? No one understands why.

Makoto was gloomy and shy as hell as a child (also an outcast), Komaru was the brave and outgoing one. No one believes her when she says this, ever. (Even as children, people thought Komaru was older because of their dynamic and Makoto relying on Komaru way more than she did him, to outsiders).

Their parents kinda suck.

Makoto has broken several laws, got into fights, and was probably a vigilante at some point. He rarely talks about this. People don't believe any of it until he committed treason.

[dr-futbol-blog]

Home, Pt. 1

Home (S01E09) gives us insight into the characters by delving into their subconscious. The misty alien entity enters the minds of the characters and constructs illusions from their thoughts. The illusions lack a sophisticated understanding of our world. Unlike the others, Sheppard is noted to be capable of manipulating his fabricated reality, which also gives us another level of insight into him while at the same time allowing him to hide parts of himself from both the audience and the other characters.

It has been suggested that Sheppard was able to do this because he lacked any real ties to earth and had no desire to return there, unlike the others. In Letters from Pegasus (S01E16) he claims not to have family back on earth, which we later learn is not exactly true, and in this episode he notes that he had spent 11 months in Antarctica prior to their departure. But -- and I'll return to this topic in the future -- his strong ATA gene also seems to make him mentally different in various ways. For one, he is able to sense or get a feel of the ancients just by being near them. But I also think that it was not just window-dressing that there was an active stargate in his subconscious mind in Doppelganger (S04E04). He is wired differently.

The episode starts in the real world, on the planet of the mist.

The team is really starting to gel together, all of them getting to become familiar with each other. While we meet them in medias res, again we get an indication of Sheppard and McKay spending time together apart from the others (and more than we see on screen) in his line "You talked me into coming here because you thought those energy readings indicated the presence of a civilization." This is the first, but it will not be the last time that Sheppard agrees to go on a mission and to drag out said mission way beyond its expiration date just to please Rodney.

Again, they walk hella close even though this time they're not even alone together:

On the planet, we see John check out hot and sweaty McKay.

Where in the previous episode Underground (S01E08) he was quite unabashed about his gazing at the other man, we also saw a change in him toward the end of the episode. His interest had suddenly become more serious. You can see it here.

He looks, and then forces himself to avert his eyes. He looks deflated, almost sad here. And he very much keeps not looking at McKay after this which is even more noticeable on this planet that has nothing on it to look at. He literally forces himself to look at nothing to keep from looking at McKay (and we are emphasized this not-looking by how both the DHD and Ford are placed between them).

The context here is that Sheppard is having to be the boss of him, the leader. The way he very softly says "Alright, then let's call it a mission" shows that he's not entirely comfortable with it, he's not quite sure how he's supposed to be navigating the situation. Like it's a suggestion, not a command. He also starts explaining himself to McKay, giving him reasons why they really should be getting back.

So, Sheppard attempts to keep a distance. But he can't manage it. After they dial the gate and McKay suddenly gets excited about the energy readings, Sheppard not only approaches him when he could well have made his inquiries from where he was standing by the gate, he walks right up to McKay, right up in his face. This was 100% unnecessary. For some reason, he just wanted to get close to the man. He's not even trying to look at McKay's device or using any other pretense for why he approached. He also utterly forgets his earlier apprehension and is suddenly real animated.

My guy.

This is also the first time of something that we see a lot in the first season but not so much later: Sheppard short-circuiting McKay's brain by saying something unexpected. The dialogue isn't usually correctly rendered in transcripts:

Sheppard: How much is a lot? McKay: What, in terms of joules or ergs? Sheppard: In terms of... lots. McKay: Well, lots and lots. What the-- Enough to open a wormhole back to earth!

They omit the middle part that expresses his utter bewilderment. This is a theme that repeats. Sheppard is forcing McKay to think of things he had never thought of in a way he had never thought of them which is definitely one of the reasons he comes to like the Major so much. McKay is so smart that he is rarely challenged, and Sheppard does it so effortlessly, in effect hacking his brain.

Also, they sure do be looking each other in the eye for a long time here.

Again, upon returning to Atlantis and in a meeting with Elizabeth, when Sheppard quips "You said it wasn't fog" his tone of voice is not in the least argumentative but is actually pretty flirty, like catching McKay contradicting himself is the most adorable thing he's ever witnessed. Accompanied by this, what can only be described as a seductive look.

Sheppard also only really relaxes, leaning back in his chair, once he learns that McKay doesn't actually want to leave Pegasus unless he knew that he could come back. So satisfied, he's suddenly fully on board with Rodney's plan. See his subtle look at Rodney as he leans back, smooth operator that he is.

A bit later we learn that he also does not want to go to Earth. In fact, he pretty much refuses. He can't even meet Weir's eyes when she mentions "home," it seems very much like he no longer considers Earth home.

Also, uh.

Was it absolutely necessary for you to be sitting next to the DHD with McKay grunting and breathing heavily under the table while he was removing the crystal, Major? Good god, the parted lips, the shifting in the chair, catching his breath before he can start talking, putting both of his hands quickly on the table and then deciding he doesn't actually know what to do with his hands right then, interlacing his fingers and pulling them back on his lap. Or... over his lap. As it were.

Please give me an innocent explanation for all of this because I just. Can't. There's even innuendo in dialogue with plugging things into empty slots with McKay making eye contact with Sheppard when he says this like we needed contextual help with eroticizing this scene.

After this, Sheppard actually zones out for a bit. Like he's in a completely different world while the others are having what is a pretty important conversation around him. Military leader in charge of the security of the mission. Where are you?

Not looking at McKay, that's for certain. Not looking at anything at all. But oh, his mind's eye is clearly seeing something, this is made clear with the raise of the eyebrow. Also, we know that he's thinking about McKay here because this is supposed to be when he's doing mental math to calculate how long it would take for them to come get McKay by jumper.

Also important: Sheppard is not the only one with flirty rejoinders and sultry looks here.

Like what is this if it isn't flirting? What?

And then there's the disappointed look on McKay's face when he ever so subtly implies that he might require some assistance on the planet and Sheppard swiftly pawns the task off to Ford. Where he is sitting right now, Sheppard does not think he should be alone with McKay on the dark, hot, sweaty, foggy planet. Like, he's not getting up from that chair for a while if you know what I mean.

But on more serious note, the episode actually comes a full circle and returns to this topic toward the end:

Sheppard makes the calculation because he actually has no intention of leaving Rodney stranded on an alien planet. He would have gone to get him even if it had taken 800 years.

Continued in Pt. 2

[jelzorz]

Not a ship, but I'd love to hear more on how Claudia and Opeli's dynamic works in the snake! Correct me if I'm crazy (I sped through all the chapters and haven't re-read them yet), but I don't think they've had a ton of interaction yet? Or even just less general sisters-in-law headcanons, if you didn't wanna give fic details away!

OH CAKE I WOULD LOVE TO TALK ABOUT OPELI AND CLAUDIA AS SISTERS IN LAW! @raayllum and I were talking about it once the concept of them as sister-in-law threw is both for a loop for a second but nevertheless

I actually have a wip in my drafts about how Claudia finds out. She comes back to the castle and is relegated to the castle gardens to tend to their medicinal plants as per her sentence of service and starts to notice... some things. Soren and Opeli are hanging out a lot when she returns, and even though they're not really doing anything (yet), Claudia is also familiar with Soren's tells and starts to wonder if there's something she should know.

She says nothing though. She tells no one. It's Soren's business and she doesn't think Opeli would appreciate being asked. She'll admit she's a little surprised because historically (according to Claudia), Opeli's never liked them, but things have changed and. Well. Okay.

Meanwhile, Opeli is. Cautious. To be fair, she was a little wary of Soren when his allegiances were still ostensibly to Viren, but she learned quickly enough that he wasn't like his dad At All, especially after he got her, Corvus, Barius, and most importantly, Ezran out of Katolis during Viren's coup in season 1. She can extend that same grace towards Claudia on her return, especially because 1) Ezran vouches for her and insists they give her a chance, and 2) Soren wants to keep his relationship with his sister. She isn't Welcoming exactly, but she is less hostile than certain other people for sure.

So for a little while they don't have a lot to do with each other. Claudia is very quietly keeping tabs on the way her brother behaves around Opeli, but so too is Opeli keeping tabs on Claudia's interactions with Ezran. She doesn't approve per se, but she also can't say anything about it because. Well. You know.

Quick recap from the fruit: Rayla is about 20 weeks pregnant when Claudia comes home and goes into labour in the early morning at the end of that summer. She has a bleed shortly after her baby is born, but it's not one the midwives can control with their standard procedures. Normally, women with bleeds like the one Rayla has die, but Claudia is present and knows exactly what to do. The midwives let her in, Ez fetches the appropriate remedy, Rayla comes out of it fine. By this point, Ez and Claudia are a little more than friends but not formally courting, and after they know Rayla's okay, Soren makes it clear that he isn't just hanging around Opeli for fun. Their physical fling starts shortly afterwards.

No one says anything about anything. Opeli and Soren's thing is supposed to be a secret but Claudia's been onto them for ages, and she Knows what's up the moment Soren appears at breakfast looking a bit more cheery than usual. Opeli is still wary about Claudia hanging around Ezran but won't let herself say anything about it because of the thing with Soren. They're not Friends at all, but there's a sense of respect there, and there's enough of it that they don't pry into each other's business more than they need UNTIL

Opeli misses a bleed and starts throwing up. She essentially breaks up with Soren in her panic but won't go to Claudia who 100% has the herbs that she needs because her brother is the reason Opeli needs them at all. Rayla goes in her stead and tries to be vague about it. Claudia admits she already knows what's going on. She hands over the herbs and keeps her lips tightly sealed.

[insert the rest of the fruit here]

They have a proper talk about it after Opeli is released from the infirmary. Fresh starts, you know? The bottom line is that they want one thing from each other, and that is to keep their boys safe. Claudia swears on her life that she would never hurt Ezran. Opeli swears to LJ that she would never hurt Soren. After that, they are considerably warmer to each other and frequently have tea together with Rayla to get breaks from the dumb ass things the boys get up to.

It's a shame BC the snake starts off with Claudia saying some nasty things to Opeli in light of the situation with Viren but in this timeline, they actually get along fine! Opeli's heard worse and she doesn't hold it against Claudia, and ultimately, she's advocating for Viren—which is something she never thought she'd do, but something that Claudia is ultimately grateful for. I won't spoil the snake, but things get better again for them and altogether, they make p good sisters-in-law.

[almightyhamslice]

Versus Meta Knight! Been a while since I drew him, huh? Did you miss him...? Anyhow this version of him is different from how I normally draw him cuz he isn't handsome he's just funny and cringe tbh LOL. Like maybe I would've liked this version of him when I was 14 or smth lmao! He's about 16 and NOT actually a knight yet! So maybe we should just call him Meta..?

He comes into conflict with Kirby this first time over Mr. Star. Kirby's never actually met Meta before and doesn't even know his name, but Meta is well aware of who Kirby is (he saw him in the news after he saved Popstar from Dark Matter!) but doesn't like him much. I suppose it's kind of like... an Elina/Sunburst situation (have you seen Barbie Fairytopia 3??? LOL) where Meta Knight knows of Kirby's heroism but doesn't buy that he's such a great guy. Meta would rather help Mr. Star gather his pieces instead of Kirby, because he would prefer to swordfight about them rather than settle things over advanced connect 4 star stacker. Kirby has no sword, so star stacking it is. Meta is so sure that Kirby's an idiot because he's 4 years younger than Meta, but he should honestly look in a mirror... Meta has a long way to go and a lot more things to learn about the world!

I am not 100% sure what he n Kirby's deal is species wise... I guess they're like, a subtype of human that doesn't exist irl? that gives them the ability to fly (among other things). So getting all spec bio or whatever, I guess their bones are probably hollow. I dunno how they'd identify that in each other, but there is this weird sense of kinship between the two, and eventually between Kirby and Keeby too (Kirby DEF met Keeby at a doctor's office or smth super mundane like that LOL. Those two just play advanced golf together haha) that makes them realize they're sort of the same. Magnetism/gravity I guess? I think those are good words for it. They aren't blood related but they feel connected because they're the only other members of the same race? That they know of, that is.

To reflect Meta Knight's youth and inexperience, he wears no armor at all! His mask is plastic, and the only true 'knightly' thing he owns is his sword. His coat's way too big for him, and he's rather overdressed... who wears this many layers during the summer? Meta does, because he thinks it looks cool. He also might be insecure about his body or identity & wants that to be secret?

[mirjtsu]

Me trying to understand Yuumori (help :'3)

So, in these days I decided to start re-reading Moriarty the Patriot (I'm at volume 4), since I was forgetting stuff. I love this series so much, the art style, the characters, the relationships they built (cough Sherliam cough cough).

Since I appreciate this manga so much (with all the mysteries and references to the original books), I want to understand a few things.

I had a few problems with some parts of the premise of this story. Maybe some of you know the answers to my questions so I wanted to ask you!

1) Liam overtaking the real William's identity

Maybe it's me, not aware of the noble system and their interactions at a young age, but... How is it possible that no one, NO ONE, questioned Albert's claim that Liam (I'm gonna use "Liam" referring to our fav Lord of Crime and "William" referring to the original one, that jerk) is William?

Wasn't there anyone who met the real William before? Anyone who clearly understood that Liam wasn't the real one? Really? Even if William studied at home, with a private tutor, that kid still went out, probably hanging out with other nobles' children.

Liam is completely different from William, they don't resemble each other at all so I don't understand. The fact that there was no explaination for this made it even more confusing. I can imagine infinite schemes or stuff they did to eventually quiet down those who could unveil the truth, but what really happened?

2) (Wil)Liam's age

If I'm not wrong, William was about to turn 13 when he died with his mother, father and the servants. So Liam, who became "William", was supposed to be that age or at least pretend to be. At the end of chapter one, we learn that there is a 13-years time skip, from those event.

If you look at the Yuumori's WikiFandom page about Liam, you can see he was 24 at the beginning of the story, meaning when he became "William" he was 11. But shouldn't he be (or claim to be) 26? He attended public school, in the real William's stead, after the mansion's fire (so he should have been of age for that). His students said he entered university at 16 became a professor at 21 (if I didn't mess up with the numbers). So my question is: did they fake Liam's age too and the information we have regards his real self, right? Does that mean that Liam was 14 and 19 when those facts happened? If so, wow! I'm impressed. If not, I'm confused (also, we know such a few things about his true identity; his personal data we're given generally refers to his identity as "William" so I wondered if that was the real or the fake age).

3) Louis and Liam are not twins but seem like they are

More than a problem or thing that I don't understand, I'm just asking myself "Why making them literally the same when they're not twins?". I swear, at first I was 100% sure that they were twins but then I noticed the ages don't match (just look at the info on WikiFandom pages: Liam is claimed to be 24/27 years old, while Louis 23/26). Also, if they were twins it wouldn't make sense that people didn't question the fact that Louis, the only supposed adopted child, was identical to the second son of Lord Moriarty (when they shouldn't be related by blood in any way, in the public's eyes).

An interesting thing about this is that if you look at the volumes' covers (not recent illustrations), there were some slight differences I didn't focus on before.

Liam has light blond hair and fire (or maybe blood ;3) red eyes, while Louis has more of ocher hair and red-brownish eyes (I just noticed that Liam is a bit taller than Louis). While in the anime, their colors' palettes are identical.

I wanted to highlight this, looking for someone like me who was confused about this. But since there are various unrelated characters that resemble each other (because of the art style), it's not a big deal.

There are probably many things I'm not aware of, so if you want to share what you know, I'm here, craving for more intels!

~°~

Thanks to everyone who tried to help me understand I'm less concerned about (1). Also, in chapter 9, as I was told, they explain a bit better the situation so finally I feel more at peace XD. THANK YOU ALL!!!♡

[a-dauntless-daffodil]

no but like here's the thing draculaura came out to lagoona, lagoona gushed about star-crossed lovers between a with and a monster, lagoona and draculaura did this while having a specific spot they always hide

draculaura id'd with lagoona's story and was told she would find a light on your horoscare while lagoona was going to find her true love via music (draculaura wrote a song for her friends prior)

DRACGOONA AND CLANKIE REAL

ur under selling it, mon fiend

these two ghouls are CLOSE ok

i remember watching Over Bro-Tective and being like, well first of all

wow

(finger boo-oop for the win!!!!)

it's a gag bc they can't risk waking the baby leviathan so they can't actually clap or high five but why did this have to be so cute

that's not the thing though this is The Thing

clawdeen and clawd are having sibling trouble, which is awkward for the creepoever party

(also love frankie's trans pride boxer shorts shoutout for style)

so drac suggest "partner hide and shriek" and gets insta dibbed by lagoona, which makes her giggle

and drac lays down the rule NO UNDERWATER LAIRS they're too wet lagoona no soggy vampires pls

so APPARENTLY lagoona and drac team up enough for there to be this running gag of lagoona getting them to hide in the pipes. And for drac to be like Not This Time Okay We're Not Hiding In The Pipes This Time Lagoona I'm Begging You Listen Water Is Wet And Wet Is Ugh

this happens so often the other teens are sure, absolutely certain, that Lagoona WOULD get Drac to hide in the pipes anyway. Again.

(bc apparently drac can't say no to that razor sharp smile i guess)

"Let's check the pipes! I'm sure Lagoona convinced Drac to hide in the U-bend, for the hundredth time."

-my man Duce, laying shade on these idiots.

and that's exactly where they find them

(THEY LOOK LIKE THEIR IN THE MIDDLE OF A WASH CYCLE SKSKSKSK)

stuffed in the pipes, drac in a snorkling mask, splatting onto the floor and repeating, tiredly, NEVER AGAIN

(Next Time There Will Be NO PIPES LAGOONA) (suuure)

i was so happy and giggly to see that. so happy the show didn't forget what these two WENT THROUGH together, in Witch Hitch

they didn't forget drac has a running losing streak when it comes to resisting lagoona's smile and lagoona's enthusiasm and lagoona wanting to do things together with her

you know what let's revisit that too!

Witch Hitch

draculaura tells lagoona she's a witch right after lagoona admits she's being blackmailed by toralai, and WHILE the blackmailing was still going on

draculaura looked at this face-

and told her, hey so, toralai's not lying. im a witch.

lagoona didn't even ask her about it

drac said "i know exactly how you feel", lagoona just Looks At Her Like That and drac decided, yep, i actually feel ready to tell my dangerous secret right here right now to this person specifically

she trusted lagoona not to use this against her, despite the blackmail

or maybe she felt it was worth the risk??? getting to open up and connect with someone in a similar situation is worth the danger of it blowing up in her face?

and it WAS worth the risk, bc lagoona was 100% excited about drac's magic, totally delighted, called it incredible, asked if she could watch more

(love how ppl are worried about witch stuff until they learn that DRACULAURA'S the one doing it)

(feels real to me. if you know and trust a person, and then it turns out they're doing this thing, a thing you've got no personal experience with and only know you're supposed to hate bc someone told you so, makes sense you'd have more faith in the person you know and give them a free pas at it)

lagoona's SO into it she even asks to see more magic

which we know. we know drac is staved for getting to show her witch side. it's part of her she that makes her feel happy and good and like herself, not being able to open with it is, isolation

isolation for a vampire that gets her vamp energy via positive attention from others. ouch

so here's lagoona, lagoona who is being blackmailed to work against her, lagoona who is all bouncy and twirlly about drac's magic, lagoona with her own secret side she's not ready to share yet

and drac let's lagoona WATCH HER make the single-use, anti-secret-telling potion that she plans to use on toralai

toralai, the one who is still blackmailing lagoona

lagoona, who's secret (that the fiercest monster in school still cuddles with her childhood fish squishy) while very personal and potentially embarrassing, is NOT actually might-get-expelled-or-banished levels of dangerous if it gets revealed

unlike drac's

(first time watching this i got nervous for a moment bc in several other shows i've seen, a set up like this would mean lagoona gets pressured into revealing the potion to toralai too and blah blah blah, angst betrayal misunderstanding eventual forgives etc. Buuuut in monster high....)

the risks involved are different, but Draculaura knows what having the secret FEELS like

the secret's not the important part for her and lagoona, losing control over WHEN it gets told is the painful scary part!

So when lagoona panics thinking the potion won't be able to protect draculaura, when she tries stopping toralai, when toralai gets pissed and is about to make good on the blackmail against lagoona-

drac uses the one safe use of the potion, to protect lagoon's secret instead

not hers

she chooses to be outed to the whole school so lagoona won't be

LAGOONA LEGIT TELLS HER AFTERWARDS

"Oh thank you, thank you! You're like a princess that saved the damsel in distress!"

and when toralai tells the school and runs to drac/frankie/clawdeen's dorm to proove all the witchery,

(side note i love that when using the potion twice comes up dracs like No I'm Not Willing To Risk Permanently Hurting Someone Just To Keep My Secret Safe- this is why everyone trusts her to be a witch ok, they know she WOULD NEVER use it that way)

when drac is panicking, bracing herself for impact- LAGOONA BREAKS HER OWN RECORD SWIMING THROUGH THE PIPES TO GET THEIR FIRST AND HIDE ALL THE MAGIC STUFF

my heart! i can't take it!!!

she puts it all in her own room, in the tank, in plain view of anyone who might be passing by and stick their head in like drac did earlier and get the wrong idea about who's doing magic

but she can't stand by and let the witch secret get pulled out and proved true like this. she knows what the secret feels like too!

these two take such risks to protect each other's chance to choose im crying ok

Draculaura: "Lagoona- I, am eternally grateful!"

Frankie: "Eternally? And you're immortal! Oh zap, that's a looot of grateful."

Lagoona: "I'm the one who's grateful! Thanks for keeping my secret safe."

IM CRYING, OKAY!?!??

like to hell with shipping! You don't come out of sharing something like this without a forging a bond that's special and deep and just for the two of you!

the writers didn't pass over that. they didn't forget it

i could kiss them for it

(remember when lagoona made a script based on her own lonely childhood then threw it out and replaced it with one where she gets friends but is worried about chomping them and drac vibed so hard with her character she begged to play lead role)

(drac the vampire who went vegan and doesn't bite or drink blood even though she COULD and still has the instinct to as seen in Creature Clash hey hey the parallels are getting to me)

(let lagoona have her freshwater boyfriend and daydream about being rescued by princesses her hair is the dang PAN PRIDE FLAG)

in conclusion

if lagoona wants to partner up for hide and shriek again and hide in the horrible wet water pipes again, we know drac's gonna end up going along with it.

AGAIN

for the hundredth-and-whatever time

romantically or not, i think she kinda loves lagoona a lot. same as how lagoona loves her

and u know what? same

[monsterfucker-lisa-swallows]

i've said before that it is completely out of line to look at a person recounting painful memories of childhood abuse and then bring up their past mistakes and i'm standing by that. i know some of you are going to jump on me for saying "mistakes" but this isn't me trivializing. this is me looking at things in context.

i haven't seen these supposed sources where they say drake bell's victim admitted to lying. i looked at news sources from the time and looked at statements given and haven't seen it anywhere in there that she admitted to lying, which i would assume would be front page news. if anyone wants to direct me to something verifiable that isn't part of a tiktok conspiracy, i would be interested. i have seen that bell wasn't convicted of actually touching the girl and they found no evidence of pictures ever being sent. the internet keeps vaguely saying the girl stalked him before and lied about her age and i don't know how true that is. it's always reprehensible to groom children and there isn't a justification for that. a few years ago i might agree with commentators saying "you don't just not know that someone is 12" but i worked at space camp for the past few years and there were a few times where i was looking for my assigned group and was told that the group that i'd assumed were 17 and 18 year olds (because they were taller than me and more muscular or filled out) were actually 12 and were actually my assigned group. idk what they're putting in the water but i assume it's these damn tiktok beauty standards. and i often have the opposite problem - when i was 16, people would assume i was 13. now that i'm 29, people assume i'm 19-14. i have a friend in her mid20s who is constantly mistaken for a 10 year old boy. it is fucking hard to tell how old someone is and if it's true that she was in his shows which were meant to be 18+ he'd have no reason to know her age. i've seen commentators state he immediately broke off contact when learning about her age.

i want to give benefit of the doubt in this case. i want to believe that the apology given was with complete accountability and remorse. imagining being in his position and realizing he may have contributed to an unsafe situation on par with one he himself experienced may have been a huge wake up call for him. i want to remind everyone though that we are not called on to forgive drake bell. we're not the wronged party in the case. the only one who can give forgiveness is the victim and victims do not owe that.

and with that i feel i should say that i can unfortunately believe that the domestic violence accusations may be true. the timeline seems to match up with the years immediately following what happened with him, the years he'd be more likely to flounder and struggle with the secret he was keeping. who knows what unprocessed trauma he was living with? it doesn't make it okay by any means (and again we are not the ones tasked with "forgiving" him and victims don't even owe that) but it makes a certain sense in context. i do think drake bell needs to come forward and tell people to stop attacking his ex on social media because come the fuck on. just because someone went through something horrific doesn't mean they can't do fucked up shit. i know i've done fucked up shit and i've worked through it as best i can. internet harassment and hate campaigns are not the way, but we didn't learn that lesson with amber heard (who i 100% believe sorry not sorry).

i think we need to move on from this mentality of holding people (particularly child stars) up on pedestals then dragging them down when they do fucked up shit. i have to believe people can change and grow. i'm willing to give people the benefit of the doubt so long as a pattern doesn't emerge. we need to move on from thinking that there is a "perfect" victim or that if someone has transgressed in later life that means their victimhood doesn't matter. we can mourn the child that drake bell was. we can mourn the child that amanda bynes was. we can mourn the person that all these people could be if they weren't swallowed by this cesspit. that is a separate conversation from talking about the ways they fucked up after coming out of that environment irreparably damaged.

leave behind the mentality that to show compassion for another human being is the same as "forgiving" them. and move on from the mentality that you personally are the one wronged when these people's lives have nothing to do with you.

[alchemiclee]

people always wonder why I don't read for fun. I have a few reasons:

slow. you know how some articles tell you how long of a read it will be? I just read one that says "less than a 5 minute read" and you know how long it took me? a little over 15.....this was a distraction-free read. i'm just extremely slow.

speaking of distractions. from inside and outside, they are everywhere. i'll either stop reading completely and not realize until who-knows-how-long later, (I have 100 unfinished tabs open on my web browser i started reading at some point...) or i'll be reading words, but my mind is elsewhere. so I need to reread it because I forgot everything immediately or didn't process anything at all.

dyslexia. reading comprehension isn't my strongest skill. often, things don't make sense when I read them, so I must reread. sometimes more than one or twice. sometimes I can reread the same sentence 5 times and its different every time. brain likes to mix things up to keep it fresh, at the cost of it making any sense at all. eventually I can get there, but at what cost.....

sleepy. when I try to read for a long time (which isn't that long tbh,) the processing my brain has to go through—deciphering dyslexic jumbled up nonsense, trying to concentrate and not letting distractions pull me away, in general trying to understanding what i'm reading—I get very sleepy. it's exhausting. the whole process of reading for me is so exhausting. the concentration it takes is too much for my brain so it literally shuts down and gives up. at least that's why I think I fall asleep every time I try read anything that's longer than this post (though sometimes even this much is enough to make me fall asleep). I have no control over when my brain decides it's time to fall asleep.

visualizing. i've always been extremely envious of everyone who likes to read. you can all see what you're reading in your heads as if you're watching a movie. when I learned people can do that, I got so shocked and jealous. it always confused me when people would hate on movies because it "doesn't look how they imagined" while i'd rather see the movie because it shows me how things are supposed to look. I would enjoy reading too if I saw more than words on a paper! I can get the general concept, like I know what a tree and a bird nest are. if a story says "the heavy wind knocked a bird nest out of the tree beside me" I won't see it happen in my head, but I know what it means.

processing. while having to deal with all this above, it can lead to me lacking the necessary skills to even process what i'm reading. if i'm reading a research paper or textbook, most of it can go over my head and i won't understand most of it. the words are too jumbled together, there's too many, and they aren't simple enough to quickly make sense of them individually. the boredom from the subject might also affect processing ability if it's something I don't care about, like school textbooks. if i'm reading a story, I might get the general idea of what's happening, but I will miss all the deeper details and hidden meanings. i'll hear/see people talk about something from a story that I never caught. it's like they're enjoying a secret they found in the pages that I never got access to. everyone else enjoys stories so much more than me, because they're doing it in such a different way. i feel very left out because I know i'll be missing out on a lot of the story.

people used to (and still do) always shame me for choosing to not read or not enjoying it. but if you had all these conditions applied to you, would you still enjoy reading? or would the struggle not be worth it? I do know some people can have one or more of these problems and still enjoy reading. i've met them and they have shamed me because they "have these problems and still read and enjoy it anyway." i've recently been trying out audiobooks. this is ever so slightly easier than reading, but still comes with some of the same issues as well as its own, such as my auditory processing disorder. this is basically the audio version of my dyslexia.

in the end, I still need a visual. I listened to an audio version of tgcf, for example, and then watched the donghua. suddenly, things I heard in the audio version made sense because I saw them for the first time! most of what I was hearing didn't make much sense because I can't simply "see it in my head" like everyone else. so watching the movie/show adaptation is better for me, even if it's not "good" or the best option. my preferred reading material is comics. it has both reading and visuals. if you want me to read something with you, present me with a comic/manga!

[nopeferatu]

i started rewatching book 1 of the original atla series today to compare it to the live action show and yanno what? it's actually making me appreciate the new version of the show a lot. not in a negative way ofc, like me appreciating the new show doesn't negate my love of the original, but i reaaally like some of the choices they've made to differentiate this adaptation from the original series.

just as an example at the top of my head, i remember being kinda iffy abt the way King Bumi was handled bc Aang realizes who he is almost immediately and it's only after this reveal that Bumi tests him with the different challenges. they also made Bumi a lot more hostile to Aang than in the original series. i kept waiting for the act to drop the way it did in the og series, cause Bumi was pretending to be a dickhead to Aang in order to get him to approach his challenges in unconventional ways, but that really... never came? like... it didn't feel as if it were an act, yanno. he threw it in Aang's face that he was abandoned and left alone and that people only have themselves to rely on in the world, and he looked like he genuinely meant it.

and idk like in general, the world of the natla series is really mean and hostile towards aang. most of the towns/villages he's visited have been iffy and unwelcoming to him at first, even after they've learned that he is the avatar. it's soooo different from the og show, cause (at least within the first 8 eps of book 1) basically all the locations the gaang end up at have been really welcoming and accomodating of them. it was kind of jarring at first to see aang met with so much distrust bc he's the avatar! he's supposed to give people hope! but now that i think about it, it makes so much sense to me that the world would be wary of him after the 100 years of misery they've gone through im his absence.

like. if your world's status quo is that you have a christlike figure who's just kinda Always Been Around, and that figure disappears one day and the world is immediately thrust into chaos afterwards, would YOU immediately open your arms and embrace them when they suddenly reappear again 100 yrs later??? i doubt it.

so yeah i really like this more darker/grittier approach that the series is taking. it still has lighthearted elements, which are really needed, but i really appreciate how much more realistic the character's feel due to their apprehensions and reservations. thanks to it being on netflix and having a higher rating, they're able to explore the effects of war in a lot more explicit ways that make the world's fear, loss, and hopelessness feel a lot more palpable than what a show on Nickelodeon could get away with

[charlieslowartsies]

RAHH it’s so cool to see that other people are rereading kgau too, cuz it’s done nothing but lurk in my mind ever since I first found it a few years back, AND that’s what IVE been doing too and I’m having a blast!!

Any commentary on Danny or his character? Or how you came up with him as Jeremy’s kid? Idc I just love that little dude he’s so cool

I often wonder how many times people have reread. If we go by hit count on ao3, I THINK GS or DS has been hit the most? What's funny is they're older and they've been completed for a hit minute, and they're around 10k hits. LW is ongoing, incomplete, and arguably one of my faster completed fics and it's at 10k too lol. I have Danny Fitzgerald comments I suppose! I am VERY tired so I hope these make some semblance of sense xc

Danny was created because I kind of felt Mike had grown used to his surroundings very well. I liked that about Mike! One of the blanket themes of KGA is of course, Found Family. But...I also wanted to explore a more 'holy shit! living robots' reaction. I also needed someone Mike wouldn't LET the gang bully/be cold to.

While Mike worked on ridding them of that learned fear, in the meantime he focused on hiring people that were chill and wouldn't give him more headaches.

So I needed a teenager I decided. I was very hesitant to make him at all. I'm not a huge fan of OCs when it comes to my own writing. It complicates things, and if I wanted a story of OCs I would make that. (Reading them is more fun ^^)

However, the kga series proved I could make something I liked well enough from scratch. Like I've said before, the content we had for Mike Schmidt's character was, yanno, zilch. He might as well have been an oc for a while, until more games and lore appeared over the years. (Obviously KGA does not follow the 'correct' lore. I'm 100% okay with that.)

I hemed and hawed a lot with just keeping Jeremy alive and making Ghost Strings star him, but a fic I loved reading at the time also had an amazing Jeremy and I didn't feel I could write my 'own' version and do it justice. Jeremy as well, if anything, would have a much darker history with the restaurant. Danny was essentially a blank canvas, while still having a reason for being there. He was a fraidy cat--rightly so--but he was determined and he forced himself constantly out of his comfort zone. (I'm sure GS would have been a much different story if Mangle had been active/in the restaurant.)

So, Jeremy had to go. And then I realized I wanted to work on death and loss and that kind of pain.

Danny obviously joins the restaurant for deeply painful and close to selfish reasons, but he's still someone we root for. He's just a dumb teenager looking for something of his father's, not realizing he's the reason he has so little to remember the man by.

All we are made up of is memories. Ours and others, things we take from important people in our lives.

Danny's theme/lesson in GS was 'Even bad memories have a place in a Good life' after all.

Danny's presence in the story helped me explore that mystery, and grief, and what happens when we try to heal ourselves, or when we rely on others to help us, like Bonnie helped Danny. It became a great parallel for Michael/Max Afton, since we learn in Last Shift, YEARS later in the story, this wasn't the first time Bonnie kept something safe for someone out of sheer love and devotion, like Max's beloved cassettes and music-tastes. This was despite Bonnie and the gang being so deeply hurt by Max's attack on them, but he still held on to the Good alongside the Bad.

And of course, giving Bonnet to Danny seemed...so fucken cute and fun and easy. She needed someone, he needed someone, and they just clicked.

My favorite thing about Danny is that everyone liked him so much more than I expected, even just in his first fic. I pursued Finding Freddy with the best intentions, and as hard as that fic was for me, I do not regret making it a Danny!centric fic. It also helps that when he shows up in Lies Within he's clearly done lots of growing, but he's still very mortal and he's very able to die. He still tries to help the restaurant, choosing to embrace the mantle of Day Guard that his father held in the Toys' era. That continued loyalty to Mike ends up being a pretty powerful weapon against the Virus.

Also something I need to explore more is Max is such a puffy little trash cat over Mike when Danny comes onto the scene, although he does lower his hackles within a few months, (and by the time of Lies Within) he's guarded and cautious around Danny. However once Max decides Danny belongs with them, that's it and Max considers him family as much as he's attached to Mike.

One thing I hadn't expected was liking the broship between Ness and Danny that's cropping up in LW. I absolutely want to mull that over more! Vanessa obviously has different...ties and hangups... to Bonnie models, but they really are interesting foils for each other. Esp considering Danny's choices in his older stories and her choices now, including the ones she might still have to make ;)

[whenwillderekhalebehappy]

so i just started playing fallout 4 ,,, here are my preliminary opinions

- lame storyline, i don't want to be married heterosexual. idc abt this fuckass baby either.

- fr tho, it feels like the devs just chose the most generic backstory they could think of so they could get that part out of the way. it's not interesting or good. moreover, if that actually happened to a person, they'd be traumatized and terrified, not running around looking for guns and stimpaks. like, it feels like my character doesn't even give that much of a shit that this happened. like ooh the world ended, my wife was murdered, my infant child was kidnapped, it is 200 years in the future, but yeah no i don't have any questions, ill just roll with it. LAZY WRITING!

- also: how does the survivor know that his baby is still alive. the story has him frozen, unfrozen to witness murder and kidnapping, frozen again and then unfrozen to start the game. how am i supposed to know when that kidnapping happened? like yeah it could've been recent but it could also have been 100 years ago.

- upon exiting the vault you immediately start like 11 quests. why?? for what reason?? i just got here??

- do not love that feral ghouls will just lay on the ground waiting for you to get close enough so they can attack you. 1. its annoying, you get ambushed every time. 2. why would they be doing that, are they sleeping? waiting? doesnt make sense for them to be doing either of those things. they're feral, they wander around attacking whatever comes near them, they don't lie down and wait for prey, thats just ,,, not how they work?

- i especially dont like that the ghouls also dont show up as hostile on the little navigation bar until they get up. the whole point of that is so i know if there's hostiles in the area. if all the hostiles just sneak up on you, there's no reason to look at it.

- the fact that you can just max out your SPECIAL stats kinda defeats the purpose of those stats. the point is that it allows you to pick strengths and weaknesses for your character, instead of it being skills you can learn. it adds difficulty and personalization.

- i genuinely don't like the "improved" graphics. maybe its because my pc is shitty and i have to run low quality, but i cant see shit. especially all the harsh shadows make it really hard to gauge depth and to see things on the ground (like feral ghouls waiting to attack you).

- why is VATS under Q. thats dumb

- follow up: why are we now using the enter key and arrow keys in addition to wasd. let me keep my hand on the mouse instead of constantly having to switch (update: after 10 hours in-game i found out you can also press E, still stupid)

- why cant i just go up to people and ask them shit. why do i have to wait until they want to talk to me.

- i do like the whole settlement building thing. ive been having more fun with that than anything else tbh

- it is nice that you can make radaway and you dont have to rely on scavenging or bartering for it

- they are harsh on the raiders. like i get that they're enemies but labelling them 'raider scum' is a bit much. like thats still a person.

- in the intro thing they say war never changes at least 3 times. i get it. dont overdo it.

- also in the intro, they just say the US ended ww2 by dropping the bombs on hiroshima and nagasaki which is a VERY BOLD statement about history.

- i've barely encountered anyone who's nice. ive met preston and his friends but beyond that its basically been nothing but raiders. where are the friendly npc's? it makes the whole world feel hostile and empty

- the variety of weapons and mods is ,, actually a little too much. i don't know the difference between a pistol and a revolver, let alone what a receiver is. the game kind of expects you to just , understand what all these things mean and how to best modify your weapons. I don't. i barely know what i'm supposed to be looking at. "um yeah i definitely prefer the hardened enhanced glowsighted tempered auto pipe revolver pistol over the hardboiled standardized incendiary double barreled shotgun rifle" <- statement dreamed up by the utterly deranged

- recently encountered super mutants, why do they yell at you that they are super mutants. i know that. i mean, the character technically doesn't since no one's bothered to explain all the new creatures to him, but still.

anywho, ive only been playing for a week or so, so there might be more redeeming qualities later on. but so far im not very impressed

[graphicabyss]

DOS2: A Tale of Frustration

So BG3 doesn't run on my old PC so I turned to DOS2 to fill the void and I finished it out of pure spite. I'm sorry to all the fans but... omg why is it so frustrating? So I'm putting some of the things that were driving me crazy to get it off my chest.

the skill icons on the panel keep disappearing when I try to click them like 30% of the time

the 98 damage types and every enemy has a resistance to each of these

the undead heal from poison damage for some fucking reason

the fucking clouds. poison clouds can be extinguished by fire? makes total sense. Electric clouds? You're fucked unless you know a specific spell.

in half the fights everything ends up on fire, often cursed or necrofire. good luck!

Don't you just love the fights where you start of fighting 3 enemies and end up fighting 12? Not my idea of subverting the expectations.

crafting makes no sense, there are 6834673 items to be crafted and half of them are only useful in early game

how are you supposed to learn the recipes? you get some from dozens of crafting books but it's still only like 30%. How am I supposed to know hammer to a potato makes fries?

I was googleing up quests, crafting, combat and everything else every 5 minutes because I'm tired of going into shit blind but honestly it wasn't enough.

you are free to go anywhere except the areas all have specific levels so you struggle through enemies that are 2 levels higher and then find areas that are 3 levels lower you missed

And what's up with Arx? You expect a chill city phase and end up slaughtered wherever you go. And good luck finding those source points!

Half the quests only work if you have a specific character, specific race or trait and you don't know which. Better prepare for a fight.

Persuasion checks make no sense and you only know the requirements once you fail. Have a fun fight!

Finishing a really tough fight, being really proud of yourself... Looting the dead enemies only to fight... Sir Lora. That little bitch has a deathwish and shall run through necrofire and deathfog like its full of nuts. I redid almost every late-game battle more than once. Goddammit.

I appreciate the immersion but could the NPCs stop pacing for 5 seconds? I need to talk to them! I was running after Hannag for 5 solid minutes and only managed to speak to her after I froze the water making her fall.

The inventory drove me crazy... It's not just gear and potions. You have a pyromancer and the enemies are immune to fire? You better get those scrolls. 97 ingredients half of which you're never gonna use. And I just love putting all my keys into my bag of keys manually.

The armour, man. The armour has physical/magic protection stats, skill points, ability points and sometimes spells. So you wanna swap those gloves? LOL now you can't use 3 spells and are also overburdened.

Faithful Item Set. Just that alone. The set has like 9 items and they're all dispersed all over the map, with the most important parts found on random NPCs! Like, there's no quest relating to it, there are no clues. Just... look in every crate and trade with every single character, bro. Good luck! I got all the items using a very detailed guide... except not. Turns out I got the boots first and sold them off at some point. Woo!

Right-clicking doesn't work half the time. Wanna identify shit or disarm a trap? Nope. Wanna look up that boss that you're about to fight? Don't be a pussy, just hit them and see if it works.

I am using a reasonable number of giftbag perks. I'd probably quit without them by now.

Spent about 260 hours on this game and about 100 of it was just inventory sorting.

The final battle... where do I even start? You get all the spells, all the scrolls, all the potions... only to get one-shot by the fucking Kraken. I expected something epic and received an utter clusterfuck. I only managed to win after about 6 tries and only by drinking invisibility potions, waiting for everyone to murder each other and then finishing Rex.

Thanks for coming to my TED Talk. Sorry for your time.