#also i posted some much older gifs that i know my skills have improved

[myfictionaldreams]

Winter Soup // Mafia!Stucky x F!Reader

Summary: There was no better feeling than a bowl of hot soup when you're feeling unwell and, what's even better is when it's delivered to your door every day by your new guard. It tasted amazing and you could always trust everyone in the Mafia... right?

Requested by: @senjoritanana​​ thank you so much, I hope you enjoy all the angst!

A/N: PSA I don't know the specifics of how poisons work and didn't want to risk it on my google history lmao so please ignore any inaccuracies. Please read the tags if you're affected by near death experiences, please proceed with caution and if I've missed any tags/warnings, please let me know!

Warnings/Tags: 18+ readers only, hints of smut, angst (LOTS BUCKLE UP), fluff, polyamory relationship, poisoning, blood and injury, anxiety, crying, begging, near death expierences, reader is injured, pain, emotional hurt/comfort, hospitalization, protective Steve Bucky and Sam, everyone needs a hug tbh

Words: 7.7k

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The warmer months were slowly starting to shift into winter and for some reason this year, the weather change was beginning to affect your health. You’d heard of the phrase ‘seasonal depression’ but you were convinced that it was due to the cooler weather that was making you feel this rubbish.

It had been happening for a week now, and some days you’d feel fine, normal in fact but then others your chest felt so tight as if an elephant was sitting on top of you, nausea, vertigo and heart palpations that would have you clutching your chest with fear you might explode. With each passing day, you would be praying for the summer months to return, especially as the snow and ice increased with intensity outside of your home.

You were fine for the most part, good days and bad; yes you might be getting worse with each passing day but you were adamant that the seasonal illness would pass. However, the frosty weather was also a minor blessing because it was your excuse to stay home and be a pretty housewife for Steve and Bucky. Being able to stay home made it easier to keep the illness to yourself as well, it was a busy time within the Rogers mafia and you didn’t need them wasting their time fretting over your wellness when they had a lot of other things to do. They had many international deals that were so close to being signed for and contracted that every waking hour was spent at the office, on phone calls, and emails, trying to talk to locals across the world to attend meetings on their behalf so the boys were thoroughly busy.

There were a few occasions you’d attended with them to the office if you were feeling particularly needy or lonely but it unnerved you to drive on the snow and ice so when you suggested that you might stay at home, Steve and Bucky offered no complaints.

At home at least you were able to mop about, trying to perk yourself up with movies, pyjamas and your favourite bowl of warm soup. Over the last few months, you’d been trying to improve your cooking skills, especially to impress Steve who usually cooked for three of you. This became more interesting as the colder months drew in over Brooklyn as this meant you could cook more homely, hearty foods such as soups and stews, especially as you had recipe suggestions from the newly hired grounds guard Rafael.

He’d been recommended by a friend of a friend for Steve to hire which was perfect timing because the last grounds guard had retired. There were a few occasions when he was the guard to bring the post to the front door from the front gate and you soon found he was enthusiastic and easy to talk to, even though he was a little bit older, which was how you found out he had previously been a chef and offered to give you recipe ideas. As winter drew in, Rafael began turning up when he knew you were by yourself to deliver some of his momma’s family recipe soups, hoping that the meal would perk you up which it did, they tasted so delicious that you were secretly hoping he would keep bringing them to you, especially as you continued to feel unwell.

“What is it today?”, you asked voice full of hope and trying to sound as upbeat as possible. Even though you were desperately holding onto the door handle as your head was spinning and scared you’d fall over.

“Potato and leek soup and they’re all grown in my back yard so hopefully you’ll love it even more than usual”, Rafael smiled as he handed over the container, his smile broad and causing the aged creases at the corner of his eyes to deepen.

Gleefully you accepted the soup, opening the lid slightly to smell the delicious meal, your stomach grumbling with hunger. Your appetite had reduced significantly over the last few days due to always feeling nauseous however it seemed the only thing that you could stomach was his delicious meals and therefore his arrival was always welcomed.

“Thank you so much! Please will you let me pay you this time? You’re being way too kind to me, always giving me free meals, you’re going above and beyond a usual guard”, you pleaded whilst also having to return holding onto the door handle as it felt like the ground was moving with your dizziness.

Rafael held up his hands and shook his head, taking a step back, “Absolutely not! Just wanted to give you something to make you feel better and make the fairies go away”.

The guard halted, a look of embarrassment passing out his features as he realised what he just said, especially as you asked, “Fairies?”

He awkwardly looked down at his shoes, rubbing the back of his neck as he tried to explain, “Yeah it’s just something my momma use to say. If we were feeling unwell, it’s because the fairies had crept into our stomachs and were being naughty and making us ill and now I’ve said it out loud to another person I’ve realised how insane that sounds so I’m going to stop talking”.

You squeezed your lips together to try and contain your laughter but that lasted a moment before you were both laughing which only turned into you losing your balance against the door and swaying to keep yourself upright. The laughter died in Rafael’s eyes as he reached out to you, “Woah, you ok, Ma’am?”

Quickly brushing him off, you took a step back into your home, trying to ask nonchalantly about the situation, “Yeah sorry, probably just the fairies pushing me over”. Your joke didn’t seem to comfort him in any way as he continued to look uneased by your appearance.

Thankfully Rafael didn’t push the situation any further, seeing that you wanted to escape back into the comfort of your home, he took his step back with a simple smile. “Get back inside before you catch another cold from this snow. Eat the soup whilst it’s still warm and I’ll be back tomorrow to hear the verdict on the taste.”

“Thank you Rafael! Enjoy the rest of your day!”. You waved him off and rushed to slam the door, sliding down to the floor against the wood, losing all energy that you’d built that morning just for that one conversation. Ok yes, you were feeling sorry for yourself as you tried to catch your breath, heart pounding violently in your chest that it also echoed in your ears and your vision was still seeing double of everything.

However your stomach continued to gurgle with hunger so without wasting any more energy, you opened the lid and ate the entire contents then and there. Releasing a satisfied sigh at the delicious meal, you took another couple of minutes to gather your senses before dragging yourself over to the living room, collapsing onto your back on the couch and letting sleep take you into a dreamless realm.

A violent shake of your shoulders by a hard grip on your shoulder was what startled you awake as Sam’s voice then surrounded you as he shouted, “Hey! Wake up!”.

“I think this is the first time I’ve ever been close to hating you Sam Wilson”, you croaked before coughs shattered your chest, rocking your body as you tried to sit up and suck in any air between the painful coughs. Finally, you calmed down enough to collapse back against the decorative cushions of the couch and open your eyes to look at the three Sam’s that hovered over you. After a couple more blinks, they merged into one, very distressed-looking bodyguard, eyebrows knitted together and jaw muscle clenched harshly.

Sam reached towards your face, pressing against your cheek in concern, “Why didn’t you tell me you were ill?”

“What? I’m not ill, I’m just tired, can’t a girl nap around here?” you questioned with a raised eyebrow, trying to look as relaxed as possible. 

The man didn’t look convinced as he sat on the edge of the couch next to you. Releasing a heavy sigh which only twinged something in your chest that made you want to cough but you refrained from doing so as you emphasised, “Sam seriously, I’m fine”.

Sam gave you another serious glance, eyes hardening as he explained, “You didn’t sound fine, you were wheezing so hard in your sleep I thought you were going to stop breathing”.

There was no denying the panic that filled your heart and would explain the tightened feeling in your chest but you tried to not let the fear show on your face as you rolled your eyes, reaching for his hand and squeezing it.

“I appreciate your concern Sam, but I feel ok, I’m just tired, I was probably just sleeping in a weird position and look, no wheeze now!” Taking a deep breath to show there was no more noise coming from your chest, however, it didn’t seem to comfort him in any way.

“Yeah well you’re still looking peaky and why are you so tired all the time recently, you’re never usually like this”.

“It’s probably just the cold weather or something. If I start to feel unwell, you know I’d tell you. I’m a big baby when I’m ill, you’ll be the first to know”. Sam looked to be contemplating believing you and all you were silently begging for was that he didn’t call Steve and Bucky, they just didn’t need this stress right now. Even though it was in his contract to call them at any sign of injury or illness but as Sam looked at you, other than looking tired, you seemed to be fine and still joking with him. Finally, he gave you a simple nod and you couldn't hold back the thankful sigh. “Do you mind if I go back to sleep for a little while longer or do you need me for anything?”

“You’ve been sleeping a lot recently”, he stated his earlier point again.

“What, so I’m not allowed to nap now?” you teased him with a subtle smile, hoping to crack his worried exterior. It only half worked as he shook his head to himself, standing up and pulling the fluffy blanket that had been left behind you on the couch and throwing it over your body. Before you could even thank him though, sleep had stolen you back into its resting state. 

Sleeping for a few more hours, Sam was nowhere to be seen but he usually liked to check the perimeter ever so often and speak to the other guards so you weren’t worried about his whereabouts. As you shuffled to the kitchen, you couldn’t tell if you felt any worse or better after all the sleeping, haven’t wasted another day feeling sorry for yourself, you tried to snap out of it by glancing through the refrigerator and cupboards and deciding to ssurpriseSteve and Bucky with a romantic meal.

The house was soon filled with delicious scents of sweet and savoury as you’d baked and were in the process of cooking their dinner. You were in your own little world and had only stumbled a handful of times with dizziness and the headache that was building was currently mild in comparison to others you had, it was fine you determined to yourself

Still lost in your own thoughts, you hadn’t even heard the front door open as you were suddenly enveloped by a muscular chest and arms, a smile aching your cheeks as you nuzzled back into Steve’s body. His lips danced over your cheek and down your neck as he held you close, the roughness of his beard comforting. “I didn’t hear you come in”, you commented, turning your head slightly to chase after his lips, sighing deeply in your chest as he held you tighter for a second, hands dipping beneath your shirt at your waist so that he could feel the warmth of your skin.

“I did shout”, he revealed whilst moving back to neck, not to kiss but just to smell you in, his body almost melting into the floor as he felt at home with the familiar scents. “I’ve missed you”, he whispered against your skin.

Goosebumps instantly flooded over your body as you shivered, turning in his arms to hug him properly, your fingers scratching through his hair that was beginning to curl at the ends where he’d allowed it to grow out over the winter months. “I’ve missed you too”, you whispered against his lips, lazily kissing and breathing each other in.

“Come with us tomorrow, I want you to be near me”, he admits with words that were making you cling to him harder.

You wanted to say yes and the word was on the tip of your tongue but then your thoughts drifted to the soup coming. “I’ve got a delivery coming that I can’t miss, I’m sorry”.

“The guards can get the delivery”, he counters.

“It’s fresh soup I want it whilst it’s hot”, an embarrassed smile finds its way to your lips as he leans his forehead against yours, his eyes closed as he just enjoyed the moment of the two of you being together.

“Soup? But we could order that to the office if you wanted it, you know that’s no issue”. 

You pout dramatically, hanging off his neck as you whisper with a childish tone, “But it won’t be the soup that I’ve ordered and want”.

Steve rolls his eyes but you know he's being playful, he could never find a reason to be upset with you. Rolling back his shoulders, he stands back to his full height, opening his eyes to cup your cheek with his massive hand but this was when he took you in and a frown dawned on his face just like it had on Sam’s. “Are you feeling ok?” The hand on your cheek moved towards your forehead, expecting to feel a temperature but it felt normal.

“I feel great”, you say with as much cheer in your tone as possible, still holding onto his neck but mostly because another wave of dizziness had rushed through you and you needed some support to stay standing.

Steve didn’t seem convinced, “You just … look a little off”.

You playfully rolled your eyes, similar to how he had just done, “Wow thanks Steve”.

“You know I didn’t mean it like that”.

“I know, I’m joking, I’m fine - really, it's nothing to worry about”. He eyes you and doesn’t fall for your grin so you tried your next trick up your sleeve. Leaning on your tip toes whilst pulling his face closer, you whispered against his lips, “I love you, Stevie”.

The tension momentarily eased from his shoulders as his grip around you tightened, “I love you too”.

“Sorry to interrupt your love fest but I want my own loving”, Bucky broadly announced from the entrance of the kitchen where he was leaning against the wall with his arms crossed, a twinkle of mischief in his blue eyes however as you pulled back from Steve and he could finally see your face, the happiness seeped from his face. “Woah, what happened? Are you ok?”

You gave a frustrated huff, finally releasing Steve’s neck as you pointed in the direction of the decorated table. “Right, both of you go and sit down before I decide you don’t deserve any food for being mean”.

Steve shuffled away first as you continued to cook the food, Bucky looking ashamed as he came over and kissed your cheek but before he could pull away, you quickly captured his lips in a kiss to show you’d been playing before and weren’t upset.

“Why are there only two plates on the table?”  Steve questioned as he took a seat.

Without looking over your shoulder at him, you casually answered, “I’ve already had mine, I wasn’t sure when you were both going to be home and I didn’t want to wait”. They both seemed to accept your lie and you happily sat with them as they ate, asking about how the deals were going. They both seemed to be agreed that they were sure to have contracts signed tomorrow and had even been able to pay off some of the international police so that shipping of the goods could occur. In truth, after the soup, you were not feeling at all remotely hungry and even the smell of the cooked food had turned your stomach over.

A couple of hours later, the three of you were preparing for bed. Steve is in the middle and you are to his right and Bucky is to his left. You and the mafia boss had been kissing deeply for a couple of minutes, his hands beneath your shirt, brushing against your breasts, rough fingertips peaking your nipples as you ground down on his thigh. You were soaked and he could feel the evidence of it as you weren’t wearing any underwear but the longer the touches and kisses went on for, the more you were feeling unwell.

As his teeth tugged on your bottom lip and he began to trail open-mouthed kisses over your jaw and down your throat, you noticed Bucky was doing the same thing but to Steve’s neck from behind. However, there were two Bucky’s instead of one as your vision swayed and it felt as if you were on a water bed with how unsteady you felt. The headache was close to a full-blown migraine as well now which only continued to make you feel nauseous so even though there was nothing more you wanted than to continue where this intimacy was leading but, for once, you had to stop it.

“Wait, just- just one moment”, you pushed against Steve's shoulders at the same time. The blonde's hold on you loosened as he moved his face back to look into your eyes but you’d closed them, trying to hide your face from him and Bucky who had also sat up further to check on you. “I just- sorry I’m tired and I… I’m not sure- sorry.. I don’t think-”.

Steve’s fingers tipped your chin up to look at him as he smiled softly down at you, “If you don’t want to do anything, we don’t have to. If you’re tired then I’ll just hold you close, ok? Please don’t apologise for not wanting any of this”.

You relaxed in his arms, feeling grateful for him but also bad that you could feel how aroused he was against your stomach. “Thank you. I’m just feeling so tired today. Please don’t let me stop you both, continue without me, I just want to go to sleep”.

“You don’t have to give us reasons why you don’t want to do it, baby, we’ll do whatever you want to do. Me and Buck don’t have to fuck if you want to be held, I don’t want you thinking we’re neglecting you”.

Affection and love warmed your heart as you kissed Steve’s lips and then reached over his shoulder to kiss Bucky. “I love you both but seriously please continue, I like watching you both anyway so that’ll satisfy me enough if I’m not asleep by that point anyway”.

They both gave their love back to you with praises and pecks to your face before rolling away from you and beginning their exploration of each other's bodies. You watched with a smile on your face for a couple of moments and your core ached with need but as a burst of pain pounded through your temple, your eyes shut automatically to help ease the pain and from there, they never opened again as sleep took you soon after.

The next morning, your migraine had gone but your entire body felt weak and drained of any energy. Steve and Bucky took one look at you and determined that they’d be working from home, wishing to remain near you but they still needed the comfort of their home office upstairs whereas you remained downstairs, pretending to watch TV.

Somehow, you had continued to hide your seasonal illness, they just thought you still looked peaky. Today was the worst you’d felt so far, even having to use the wall as support whilst walking around the home, silently coughing into cushions so that the boys wouldn’t hear upstairs and this only increased the sharp pain shooting through your chest.

At lunchtime, Sam came over to visit and found you at the table in the kitchen, head lying against the table top as you dipped in and out of sleep. You were too tired to even pretend to joke and thankfully for once he didn’t pester you with being unwell, especially knowing Steve and Bucky were home, he assumed they had seen how bad you were so he just sat next to you at the table, easing his hand under your head so you had some comfort against the hard surface.

Soon after, Rafael knocked on the front door with your soup delivery. Usually h,e would stay at the door, never coming into your home but Sam insisted that he come out of the cold and deliver the soup to you in person.

“Yay!” you croaked, reaching out for the warm container, seeing the soup within and seeing that it was a deep red colour today, possibly tomato.

“I didn’t know you cooked, Rafael”, Sam noted, taking his seat next to yours once more as the new guard stayed standing at the head of the table. Other than Natasha, Sam was the lead of the security and guards and technically Rafael’s boss.

“Oh yeah, he used to be a chef”, you explained to Sam, whilst opening the lid of the container, smelling the delicious food and confirming your theory that it was tomato soup.

“Chef? I didn’t know you worked as a chef”, Sam remarked with a frown, eyeing Rafael with confusion as he’d been the one to complete the job interview and didn’t remember seeing chef on his CV.

Rafael casually shrugged his shoulders, looking somewhat tense at the questioning but still forced a smile to his face to please his boss. “I didn’t think it was relevant to the job, to be honest”.

“We’ll have to get you on the bbq when the weather perks up, maybe that’ll stop the arguments between Steve and Bucky”, Sam mused over the thought.

You tried to chuckle but the exhaustion had you slumping against the table as you mumbled, “I feel like shit”.

Sam tensed next to you, “Maybe we should call a doctor. You know, I’m surprised Steve and Bucky aren’t down here right now looking after you, do they even know how bad you’re feeling today?”

“Wait, they’re both here?” Rafael asked Sam but he ignored him, his focus solely on you.

Once again you’re too tired to think of an answer and shrug your shoulders, turning your head to look up at Rafael, “I think the fairies like me too much”.

“Fairies?”, Sam questions thinking that you’d become delirious.

You smile genuinely to Sam, reaching to tap his shoulder, “Inside joke Sam, keep up”.

There was no further discussion of fairies as more hacking coughs ripped through you. It took a couple of moments and Sam rushed to get you a glass of water before you slumped back against the table in exhaustion.

“Why don’t you have the soup and then see how you’re feeling later? Maybe the rest is all you need”, Rafael suggested, filling the silence with his voice.

You couldn’t see it but Sam gave his employee a scathing look, “Rest is all she’s been doing. I’m calling the doc and then I’m going upstairs to tell Steve and Bucky”.

“Aren’t they busy?” Rafael continued to question Sam. “I’ve heard they’ve got that deal coming up from Italy and France, they might appreciate it if you wait a little bit before calling Doctors”.

Sam’s voice was quiet and stern but you were too tired to notice. “That’s not common knowledge, how do you know that?”.

Massaging your temples with the pounding thuds that hadn’t stopped since your coughing fit, you decided that Rafael was right, usually sleep made you feel better. Reaching for the soup one more, you opened the container as you addressed your bodyguard, “he’s right Sam. I just need today for all the work stuff to be over and then I’ll call the doctor. The boys don’t need any distractions, especially today, one more day isn’t going to kill me”.

Sam didn’t look happy as you began to idly sip on the thick, delicious soup. As you thanked Rafael for the meal, Sam finally looked back to him, his frown deep and unmoving as he asked, “Don’t you have work to do?”

Rafael’s spine straightened, “Oh yeah, right. Sorry, sir” and with that, he left to return to work.

“You don’t have to be so bossy you know, he’s just trying to help”, you tried to reason with Sam.

However, your friend ignored you and moved to hold your hand to pull your attention away from the meal and towards him. “I’m giving you until the evening, wait no- if you get any worse before the evening, I am calling the Doc, no arguments, understand?”

“Yes sir”, you say with a little salute.

Finishing your soup, your boyfriends finally came downstairs and you attempted to straighten your posture and plaster a fake smile on your face. Bucky paused in the entryway, sniffing the air and asking, “What’s that smell, I know it's from somewhere but can’t put my finger on it”.

“Is it my soup?” you say, trying to stand up and act like the floor was spinning beneath you.

“No, it’s not that”, he pondered, still looking around and trying to smell whatever he recognised but couldn’t pick it up again. Steve and Bucky both walked past you, kissing the back of your head as you casually explained that you were going to lie down for a little bit. “Wait, let me come with you-”, Bucky started but you held out your hand to stop him.

“You’ve got a busy time at work and I’ve got Sammy boy here anyway so you two continue with your work and we’ll have a nice evening in, Ok?”

“Yes Ma’am”, he mutters before continuing to make his lunch. It wasn’t often that he listened to your instructions but both men were so busy and overwhelmed with work and the consequences that could come from it all that they were all over the place.

The next hour passed by slowly and you didn’t manage to sleep even for a moment because your symptoms were making you feel so awful. You were wheezing so bad that each breath felt like you were suffocating, your eyes began to roll with how much the room was spinning and a violent tremble rocked through your entire body, you didn’t feel right, something was wrong and it was beginning to scare you.

“Sam?” your voice was nothing more than a rasping whisper but he still was able to hear you from where he had been on the phone with the doctor from across the room, having noticed your deterioration in health. He was kneeling by your side in a couple of broad steps, the phone balancing between his cheek and shoulder as he rested a hand on your temple, feeling your spiked temperature. “I don’t feel good”, you admitted, voice full of terror before more coughs ruptured through your chest, leaving you struggling to breathe.

“Steve! Bucky get down here right now!”

“No… no, I just need to sleep”, the fear had disappeared from your voice as you wished for the exhaustion to take you completely, hoping that in sleep you wouldn't feel the pain destroying your insides.

“Hey! No!  Don’t go t sleep, need you to stay awake for me, Doctor Banner is on his way but you can’t go to sleep”, Sam urgently tapped your face, rousing you from the sleep as Bucky had all but jumped down the entire flight of stairs at the shouting.

“What’s going on- What the fuck? Doll?” he replaced where Sam was so that he could continue to explain to the doctor what was happening.

“I’m just not feeling ok, it’s fine Bucky go back to work”, you were somewhat delirious, still not really opening your eyes but leaning into the coldness from Bucky’s hand as he cupped your face. Bucky looked to Sam for answers, his eyes bright and alert with fury and worry.

When Sam shrugged his shoulders, not having any answer as to why you were suddenly so unwell, Bucky quickly turned back to you and assessed your deteriorating health and noticed just how laboured your breathing had become. As he spoke, it was with surprising gentleness but still held authority, “I need you to take a deep breath for me, honey, I want you to try and fill your lungs with air”.

“I’m trying, it’s just seasonal illness, it’ll be ok”.

“What are you talking about?” Bucky asks, not letting go of your face but just moving in closer.

“It’s just seasonal”, your words began to slur as you became incoherent.

Steve finally descended the stairs with just as much purpose as Bucky as he demanded to know what was going on but Bucky couldn’t answer him as he continued to talk to you and keep you awake. “It’s not seasonal, you’re not breathing properly, it’s not-”. Bucky was leaning so close that he was able to smell your breath and he froze, it looked like he now wasn’t even breathing.

“What is it Bucky?” Steve demanded, kneeling next to him and reaching over to take your hand but also feel your pulse, which only made his own increase with worry.

Bucky leans closer and smells your mouth again, so close that you tried to move away as his nose nudged your lips. “What did you eat?” Bucky asked in a tone that forced your eyes to open with concern.

“Huh? Um just my soup”, you say whilst blinking quickly as he still wouldn’t come into focus.

“Soup? Where is it? Where’s the container?” before you could answer, he was on his feet and running into the kitchen as Steve continued to demand answers from his boyfriend, his hand now moving from your wrist to directly over your heart, continuing to count the beats.

Bucky cursed so violently that it actually made you shrink into the cushions but the movement only made you cough more and chest tighten as you struggled to breathe. He returned to the room, his face a deathly white and green shade as he uttered just one word: “Hemlock”.

There was just one brief second where not a body in the room breathed or even moved, one single second to process the poison that Bucky had spoken, the planet that he only knew about because of his time as the Winter Soldier and using it on his target. The poison that he could now smell on your breath, that originated from your container of soup.

It was Sam to speak first, Sam to snap the two men out of their frozen states as he gave the orders from Doctor Banner who had heard the word over the phone. “We need to get her to a hospital right now”.

Steve picked you up, and his entire body began to tremble with adrenaline and fear as no one even stopped to properly dress for the snow outside, only putting their shoes on before rushing to the car. Sam thankfully was able to use the adrenaline to remain headstrong as he climbed into the driver’s side of the car so that Steve and Bucky could both hold you in the back seats and try and keep you awake.

You were lying with your head in Steve’s lap with your body lying across Bucky’s as they clamped their arms around you as makeshift seatbelts. You had heard the word that Bucky had said and even though you knew what it was, you didn’t want to believe it, even as you continued to feel worse. “It’s not poison, it’s just soup”.

However, those words triggered something within your throat and once more you were coughing so hard that you thought you were going to vomit and cringed as metallic warmth filled your mouth and leaked out of the corner of your lips.

You slumped onto Steve and Bucky, head lulling back but Steve was quick to grab your face, tapping it and forcing you to stay awake, “Baby don’t go to sleep! Please stay awake for me! Stay with us, we’ll be at the hospital soon, I promise”.

You were scared, even though you were half-conscious, you were terrified now realising the severity of the situation, knowing that you were coughing up blood which was now soaking the front of Steve’s shirt and hearing how panicked your boyfriends were only made it worse. Through all the scary, dangerous times in your life, they always remained calm and in control but now they were both frantic and frightened. 

As all three men continued to plead with you to stay awake, you forced yourself to open your eyes, only allowing yourself the luxury of blinking occasionally as you kept looking into Steve’s ocean-blue eyes. With his body and face so close to yours, you used him to ground you in the situation, trying to copy his breathing which had slowed since you’d opened your eyes; ignoring the pain from the breaths and resisting the urges to cough even though blood continued to fill your mouth.

“Am I going to die?” you whisper, not being able to ignore the questions now in the back of your mind anymore.

Steve’s breath hitched for a second before he tried to confidently whisper, “No, you’re not going to die”.

You didn’t believe him, especially as the trip to the hospital was delayed by the snow, every second feeling like it could be your worse, you didn’t want it to end like this.

“I love you.”

“You’re going to be ok, just keep looking at Steve, keep breathing”, Bucky pleaded, squeezing your freezing cold hand.

“Please, just say it back”, your voice was hardly audible anymore as your mouth was so full of blood.

“Stop talking and save your energy for when you’re feeling better”, Bucky tried to keep his composure but you knew he was close to snapping.

Your breaths were wet and laboured, wheezing so violently it rattled and echoed around the car but you still managed to plead, “Say it back-”.

“I love you, I love you so fucking much, please don’t leave me, baby”. Steve snapped first, his eyes were wide, fearful and yet beautiful with how stark the blue was as his eyes filled with tears, leaking down his cheek and into his beard.

You were thankful, for both of them, for everything and you wish you could have told them, wishing that you could have heard Bucky’s own declaration of love and adoration for you but the pounding of your heartbeat became so loud in your head that you couldn’t hear anything anymore.

But you continued to hold on, never once looking away from those pretty eyes of Steve’s as Sam finally screeched to a halt outside of the hospital. Once more, Steve carried you and there was a flurry of people in different coloured scrubs suddenly surrounding you as you were placed onto a cold bed.

One moment you were staring into Steve’s eyes and the next you were looking up at a stranger and the comfort you’d once felt, the thing that was grounding you to life was now gone and you couldn’t find him again, no matter how much you moved on the bed, even as the strangers poked and prodded at your body until you couldn’t deal with it anymore and finally closed your eyes.

Do you ever have those naps where you wake up and forget where you are, or what time or day it is? That was currently how you felt except the added sensation of floating encompassed your body as well. The only sort of normality felt throughout your body was a cool feminine hand stroking across your temple in a soothing, repetitive manner.

Your toes wiggled firstly and then your eyes behind your eyelids and even though you knew who was stroking your forehead, you still croakily asked, “Steve? Bucky?”

“It’s just me Sugar” Natasha sounded calm and peaceful as her fingers didn’t stop with their soothing motions. “The boys are going to be so pissed that you’re awake before they’ve got back”.

You huff and dared to open your eyes, grunting at the brightness of the room but thankfully your eyes adjusted and only one, still, Natasha smiled down at you. Seeing that you weren’t going to vomit or freak out, Natasha sat back in her chair, moving to hold onto your hand to give you some comfort. “You gave us a real scare”.

You thought back to everything that happened, some of it was a blur but most of it still played through your mind like a horror movie that you couldn’t look away from or escape. “Was I really poisoned?”

There was one thing that you appreciated about Natasha and that was her blunt honesty, not one to ever sugarcoat her words, “You were”.

“But… But how? I mean… the soup, Rafael, he wouldn’t-”. You stopped yourself talking, trying to envision all the interactions you’d had with him but only one thing repeated through your thoughts: Don’t trust anyone. That was one of the first rules Steve had taught you. “I don’t understand why? He seemed so nice to me, is his name even Rafael? Was everything a lie?”

“That’s what they’re just finding out. Apparently, the friend of a friend rouse was made up including his credentials, usually, our background checks are very thorough but he had some help to slip through the cracks”.

“Do you know what help he had? Who it was, I mean?”

Natasha for once seemed to think before she spoke which unnerved you, knowing that whoever’s name she spoke next wouldn’t be good news.

The monitor displaying your heartbeat began to beep as it increased with the dread that was settling through your body.

“All signs are currently pointing to Pierce”.

Your eyes closed as you tried to remember how to breathe. You knew about Alexander Pierce. Everyone did. He was ruthless and had plenty of finances and power to pay for his success but not only this, he had been one of the top employees of Hydra and usually in charge of the Winter Soldier. So yes, you all knew a lot about Alexander Pierce and his name was one to send fear through any of those involved in the Rogers mafia, even Steve.

As you opened your eyes again to look at Natasha, you could tell she wanted to tell you more but was holding the information to not panic you further but you needed to know. “Please just tell me whatever it is you’re not telling me”.

“We think he paid this guy to come and spy on Steve and Bbucky and it seems he put his sights on you. Specifically.. Because you’re their biggest weakness and it seemed like everyone knows that”.

Your face warmed with fear and anger, as fear prickled the corner of your eyes, “So what, now I’m not even safe in my own home?”

“That’s not-” Tasha began to lean forward in her seat but another voice cut her off.

“No, you weren’t safe in your own home”. Steve stood at your hospital room door, dressed casually in a black shirt and jeans, looking nothing out of the ordinary but his face was wrath of calm and anger. Your eyes snapped from him to Bucky who had looked just as serious but as your eyes connected with his, the hard lines of his face smoothed out into a weak smile.

The two of them step into the room as Natasha stands, informing everyone that she’d give us some space and guard the door.

You’re trying desperately to keep the tears at bay, to keep them from slipping and cascading down your cheeks, not wanting your boyfriends to feel any more guilt but as you took a deep breath in, a sob erupts through you and you can’t keep the emotions back anymore.

You attempted to hide your face with your hands, even with the added difficulty of having tubes and wires attached to the backs of your hands and the tips of your fingers. The realities of everything that had happened began to destroy any hope that you had. You’d nearly died, in your own home where you were supposed to be most safe.

Steve and Bucky sat on either side of your hospital bed, moving silently as they always did and with careful ease, gently took a hand each and pried them away from your face, stroking away any tears that continued to escape.

“I’m sorry, I just- I don’t know… It’s a lot”, you tried to give reason for your crying, even though it was unnecessary. Bucky tilted your face towards him, his voice was so soft and caring that it nearly made you sob with how careful he was being with you, “Don’t apologise for crying, I tell you this all the time, Doll”.

You offered him a wet giggle, taking a few deep breaths before rambling on with your anxiety, “I bet I look like a right mess right now, I don’t even know how long I’ve been asleep for”.

They let you calm yourself down before Steve praises with his low captivating voice, “You always look beautiful, no matter how much snot is on your face”. He smiles as he manages to make you laugh before he turned serious, “It’s been 5 days, baby”.

Your face drops, “5… I’ve been asleep for 5 days?!”

“You passed out when we arrived and when they could finally stop the bleeding you-”

“Bleeding?” you questioned, remembering you were bleeding from the mouth but it didn’t seem like that much.

“The poison you’d ingested that day was a higher dose and caused internal bleeding. After they were able to stabilise you, they needed to detox you from the poison and make sure your body was healing so it was safe to keep you asleep”.

You tried to process everything that Steve had told you, it felt confusing for you to have been through so much and yet feel such little pain in your body.

As if reading your mind, Bucky once again captivated your attention as he asked, “How are you feeling? Are you in pain?”

“No I’m not in any pain but I feel wrong like my body is floating in the water or something”.

“That might be due to the medications that they’ve got you on, they’re pretty strong Sweetheart”, his pet name helped to calm your disorientated mind, clinging on to the familiarity and focusing on the way both of their hands were holding yours and stroking tiny circles in your skin,

“Did you get the answers you wanted, from Rafael, or whatever his name is”.

Steve and Bucky shared a glance between each other but Steve decided to be the one to answer. “We got the answers, it was as Nat was explaining. Pierce wanted someone in the gang, spying and getting as close to us as possible and I guess they somehow managed to weasel their way in and tried to succeed with their plan to hit our weak spot”.

You took a deep breath to try and reduce the rising anxiety in the pit of your stomach before asking tentatively, “So what happens now? With Pierce I mean.”

“That’s a problem for another time, just need you to get better first”, Bucky interjected, lifting your hand to kiss the few fingers that were attached with clips or wires.

You tried to smile at him, wanting him to know how much you appreciate him but the feeling never met your eyes and this seemed to twist something in Steve and Bucky. Both of their demeanours changed, no longer were you looking at just your boyfriends but also the mafia boss and his second in command, mixing business with family.

Bucky began talking first, tone strong and husky, “This isn’t something we are taking likely. Sam’s already spent the last day and a half revisiting everyone’s past, making sure there are no other moles that have slipped through the cracks. No new faces are allowed anywhere near our home or you.”

As he spoke, you managed sure to nod your head and try to squeeze his hand in understanding. Steve shifted in his chair, capturing your attention as he continued the discussion. “You are safe and you should have been safe but we let you down, you were vulnerable when we weren’t there to protect you like we promised we would. We let you down, we broke our promise, we could understand if you didn’t want-”.

“Whatever you’re about to say you better forget about it right now”, you say sternly, heartbeat beginning to race on the monitor again as Steve’s mouth shut quickly with a snap. “The idea of being your weakness has always frightened me but, I could also be your greatest strength. I mean - Look at what you’ve been going just to protect the house, to protect me. I know you feel like you’ve let me down but I don’t feel let down in any way. Yes, of course, what’s happened is scary, especially in our home but I doubt it’ll ever happen again. They can try and tear us apart, they can try, but they won’t break us, they can’t break us. We have to remain on top ok? I always feel safe and trusted when I’,m with you both so please, don’t ever feel like I'm not because I am. I’ll always love you both, I’m not going anywhere”.

You sucked in air greedily after your short speech, the building emotions spilling freely everything you truly believed to the men beside you, not wishing for them to ever feel doubt for the relationship or how you felt.

Looking between them both, your heart sank as you noticed Bucky quickly wipe the corner of his eye. “I thought you said no more tears”, you spoke softly whilst trying to wipe away a stray tear.

“That’s before you decided to swoon me with your speech”, he quipped back, the light returning to his eyes once more as you laughed.

“I love you Bucky”.

“I love you, Doll”, standing from his chair, his metal hand stroked over the side of your face as he captured your lips with his, lingering for a few beautiful seconds before sitting back down.

Steve had lifted your hand during your speech and was kissing your palm and you reached out to stroke his beard, “I love you, Steve”.

He too stood, just as Bucky had but he kissed your forehead first, breathing you in for a moment before doing the same against your lips. “I love you too, so much baby”.

As Steve sat back down, your eyes began to feel heavy, all of the strong emotions exhausted you completely. “Will you both be here when I wake up? Not that I’m complaining about Natasha but she doesn’t spoon me like you both do”.

They both chuckle under their breath before Steve promises, “We aren’t going anywhere, sleep, Sweetheart”.

[johnmarstonisawolf]

I love both John and Arthur

“RDR1 Represents John’s Character Growth” Argument… 

I’ve seen people get blocked for disagreeing with the types of posts that complain about “Rdr fans disliking John’s characterization in rdr2”.  I’d rather just agree to disagree but if anyone doesn’t like where this post is going, please feel free to use the block button.

Also, in this post, I am repeating some things I’ve written in past responses/posts. Plus I have read other fans’ posts and opinions about this topic, which will be sprinkled throughout this post. 

Here it goes… Mainly for me, it’s the ret-con. It’s not that John can’t be this man with flaws, but in the first game (rdr1) they hint a lot at John (when he’d been in the gang in the past tense, before the events in rdr2) being this quixotic, well-spoken, “right-hand man of Dutch”, which were traits that were all given to Arthur in rdr2. Even Bill and Abigail hint at this. If you want to hear another rdr fan go more in-depth about this, read here. Plus Rockstar in so many words had explained why they made John a humiliation conga because they didn’t want John to “overshadow” Arthur. 

Yes, Arthur is older and yes, John could’ve been influenced by Arthur (but only by so much, I mean, c’mon John and Arthur are their own person). Yet the fact that Arthur is not even mentioned in rdr1 (yes, rdr2 hadn’t even been created yet. I know.) and they decided to “downgrade” John in rdr2 and give all of these admirable traits (they allude to in rdr1 about John) to Arthur is what baffles me. 

Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE Arthur’s character. However, it’s the high pedestal that this fandom puts him on, emphasizing his positive traits while continually bashing John in the process, that does me in.

We get it, John wasn’t a good father or a good husband, he treats his wife and kid like crap (he gets better tho), he deserves whatever criticism he gets for those horrible actions of his, but we got to remember this is the Wild West; Abigail nor John had the resources or skills to deal with their own trauma much less even raise a boy in a gang, especially Abigail. But that’s not downplaying the fact that John is a very emotionally-mentally damaged person (as a result of many forms of abuse and being raised by Dutch, Hosea, and Arthur, who aren’t the best examples) while at the same time, Abigail is a very emotionally-mentally damaged person (as a result of many forms of abuse and being raised and working in a brothel) who’s had to carry a kid for 9 months and march on through with barely having much help, aside from some individuals in the gang who helped her—I’m not gonna go with the narrative that not a single person in the gang helped. 

Listen, it’s not that we can’t handle seeing John being this pathetic version of himself that the devs chose to portray him as in rdr2 (so he wouldn’t overshadow Arthur and lazy writing) or that we can’t watch him grow from this immature and flawed human being to a man who loves his wife and child and would do anything for them… but it’s how it was done and how rockstar did it. 

They also did Johnny boy’s physical character design very poorly in the epilogue; in the epilogue (1907) he barely showcases any of the traits we see in (1911) rdr1 (a four-year difference, timeline-wise, which really isn’t that long). Although NPC John and Epilogue John might look different from each other, their personalities aren’t much different. So there’s not much of a change in my opinion.

Also, I just want to clarify that this post isn’t about the fandom preferring Arthur over John but more so about how John’s characterization was done in rdr2 compared to rdr1, which can’t merely be attributed to “character growth” rather than lazy writing.  Understandably, many people prefer Arthur over John. Hence compared to the first game, rdr2 has better accessibility, players get to go more into the protagonist’s mind, and many game mechanics have improved/developed since rdr1 was released. But rdr1 was an acclaimed game when it came out with many fans that still remain in this fandom, in spite of rdr2’s wider exposure. 

And if I was going to mention anything that the games were kind of consistent with when it came to John’s characterization, is that he has a dry and cynical personality that reflects the protagonists of old spaghetti westerns, and the unforgiving world that makes up the Wild West.

Personally, while I do like his character in both games (he’s my fave) I still feel like there’s a bit more they could’ve done with his character in rdr2, in regards to missions and stuff, I would even say the devs had put more effort into some supporting characters compared to John, but that’s just my opinion. And I was really hoping for a rdr1 remaster but more so in a Yakuza Kiwami way (amped-up gameplay, fixed plot holes, better character detail, quality improvements, etc…)

[marshmellopie]

[This post updates constantly!]

HEY EVERY !!

–My name is Half-Price, but you can call me Price, Mello, or Kālā too!

–He/Him primarily, I also use Xe/Xem and They/Them

–17!!

–Asian/Pacific Islander, predominantly Kanaka Hawaiʻi. Aloha kākou! ʻŌlelo au i ka ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi, akā ʻaʻole nui loa... ke ʻaʻo nei au. (I speak Hawaiian, but not much... I'm still learning.)

–DNI: Basic criteria, NSFW/Fetish blogs, proshippers.

–Depending on my mood I may type in all lowercase (or all uppercase), keysmash, and sometimes use emojis/kaomojis ٩( ᐛ )و

–I bounce between hyperfixations, but the ones currently invading my mine are:

• Spamton G Spamton (Deltarune)

• Glam (Metal Family) [Main Hyperfixation!! But I'm scared to consider myself part of the fandom because the more I look into it the weirder it fucking gets.]

• Hunter/The Golden Guard (The Owl House)

• Simon Petrikov (Adventure Time/Fionna and Cake)

You'll mainly see Spamton, but I will occasionally draw other hyperfixations, or maybe my sona.

–I mainly draw! Sometimes I animate, too. I also love roleplay and writing, but I'm too shy to share that ^^;

–Ask box is always open and I love asks/comments/etc!! In fact I BEG you to give me asks /hj. You can ask me things or I can make Spamton reply instead if you'd like to know more about him. I might take a while to respond because I'm nervous ANSJSSJSJ and I take even longer if it's a request (which I don't mind! I enjoy y'all wanting to see content of my Spammy). Sometimes I may not answer your question at all if it's out of my skill level or something I legitimately cannot answer, I'm sorry!

–I have bad paranoia and anxiety online so I have a hard time reaching out to others, and I take a while to respond in conversations because I take a while to formulate something to say. I'm honestly scared for my life here LOL I constantly fear saying/doing something wrong or coming off the wrong way!! I wanna make friends/moots but I'm too scared to say hello!! I appreciate all of you, though, and I fanboy over all of your guys's wonderful art. I ramble a lot in the tags whenever I reblog things so please bear with me, I have a lot to say X]

–I tend to disappear randomly for days to weeks at a time. I lose energy and motivation online really easily, or my anxiety flares up and I get scared to do literally ANYTHING online. I get scared to reblog, to post, or even to like things?? And it's often hard for me to come back.

–DO PEOPLE CARE IF OTHERS LIKE/INTERACT WITH THEIR OLD ART?? I scroll through people's older artworks a lot just because I either like seeing the improvement or I'd like to see other posts y'all made, but I accidentally interact with them sometimes when I don't mean to, sorry if I do that– I don't mind if people spam like my art or interact with my old stuff though!

–I'm also on Instagram (same user), but I've become more active here. I love reading the tags on reblogs here they're so funny/nice and I read every single one JAKSJJSKDJS

Here are some some of the tags I use for my posts:

• [HALF-PRICED SPAMTON] ; Art I make of Spamton!

• [THIS IS 4 ME?!] ; Art people have made for me! I love you guys nasksnssjdn ;;

• [PRICE SPEAKS] ; Answers to asks!

• [PRICE RAMBLES] ; Posts without art, literally just silly little rambles!

• [COME BACK SOON] ; WIPs and unfinished projects.

Anyway that's it for now! Thank you for reading this, you're cool :]

[team-heavenly]

Drumroll‚ please! 🥁

It’s been some time, and I managed to slip on my promised deadline once again (thank you for your patience)... But finally‚ we return to the story of Teresa and Andrea in our Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky Randomizer!

A few items of note before we get started (and yeah sorry this is overly detailed and lengthy because idk what it means to be concise, just scroll down if you're not interested):

Please be aware: updates to Team Heavenly’s story will not be as frequent as they were during main. I now work a full-time job in a field where my schedule is somewhat contingent on unanticipated emergencies. And in general‚ I’m just a very busy adult! So I unfortunately can’t give you an exact (or even rough) timeline of when posts will be released— It basically comes down to whenever I have the time to do it. But rest assured‚ the entirety of this tale will be told… eventually!

I’ve gotten my hands on a newer tablet since last year, so my camera quality is much better now! …However. While snapping pics for this post‚ a seemingly unavoidable digital blue glare persisted‚ no matter how I adjusted my screen brightness. When I subsequently ran these photos through the auto function‚ they didn’t really… improve? So I had to do a lot of manual tweaking… Anyway‚ all of that to say if one shot doesn’t look visually consistent with another, it’s because each image got edited a little bit differently.

I will link multiple posts for a single "chapter" (see last bullet) in the same manner as before, with preceding and succeeding parts linked at the beginning and end, respectively. I’ll also update the table of contents in the pinned post for continued ease of navigation.

Also, please note... last year, my older iPad somehow managed to circumvent any sort of (consistent) image limit. But that is not the case this time! There is a strict hard limit of 30 images per post. It's therefore likely that post-game chapters will have more parts than the main-story chapters ever did. (Though whether that actually equates to a "lengthier" chapter is up for debate.)

As the post-game content does not get separated into official chapters‚ I will be partitioning the story based on subject matter! For example, this first act will focus on the guild’s graduation exam, the next will include Sky Peak, and so on. I also intend to use a random number generator to select chapter names from this list. (I mean, c’mon, that's part of the fun of a randomizer!) But for the sake of clarity, I will be including the actual subject matter after the chosen title in (parentheses). Thus‚ this first unofficial post-game chapter is known as…

Chapter 21: Would you like to eat moss?

(AKA: The Guild’s Graduation Exam)

As a result of Teresa and Andrea’s heroic actions… The destruction of time was stopped and peace returned to the world of Pokémon. They went back to Totodile’s Guild and fell back into their daily routine of vigorous training.

One morning‚ several months later…

Pineco: “:/ Hey hey, why can Teresa and Andrea take the graduation exam before we do? We’ve been around a lot longer…”

Tropius: “…They literally saved the world and have proven themselves to be worthy many times over. Also skill issue lol.”

Don’t feel bad for Pineco though; he’s not the only one getting roasted.

Lol rip.

Anyway‚ Andrea asks the very sensible question of what exactly this exam entails…

Dark Chasm? Evil MANSION?!

Are you— are you sending us back to the future‚ Totodile?! WTF??

Oh! That’s easy enough though. I mean‚ compared to scaling a collapsing tower while Time itself crumbled at our feet? Pshaw! This will be a cakewalk!

...You know, this is really the first thing that should have tipped me off as a kid 🤦‍♀️

🤨 How convenient.

Okay, so he's not gonna be any help, unfortunately. Looks like we're going in blind. (Haha unintentional pun...unless?)

But for real, anything that makes Mewtwo cry out in fear and run away is a force to be reckoned with indeed.

As we enter Nautical Cottage to begin our preparations, we run into our stand-ins for Teddiursa and Ursaring! After a quick chat, Horsea reveals they are also headed to the Dark Chasm...

*seen (sorry).

Also, at the risk of beating a dead Horsea (aHA! TWO FOR TWO ON THE PUNS!), y'all go play WHERE? *gets hit immediately by a Snipe Shot*

Andrea immediately suspects something is sus. Unfortunately, this is the smartest she's ever gonna get about it.

Anyway, it's been a hot minute, so I go to check my storage and evaluate what I have to work with...

BRUH?? I do NOT remember picking this up omg 😳

So my plan is to equip this for the exam, right? But then I totally forgot to do that 😅

Also I don't have a picture for this but I was able to buy 3 Poké from the Finnkecleon shop for free lol

✅Mission: set ✅Destination: arrived ✅Chance of success: 💯😎🎆

Oh my god, this really is the future of darkness!! I guess our efforts to save the world weren't enough, damn 😓

🎶I'm starting with the man in the mirror I'm asking him to change his ways🎶

A couple of Gummis later, Teresa learns the Lava Evader IQ Skill! Neat!

Me when Ivysaur used Fly:

Believe it or not, this actually almost killed Andrea at 96 damage. But the stairs were nearby and I wasn't too worried about it until...

Go figure, amirite?

Then Andrea reminded me of the awesome power of Blizzard and we knocked out everyone except Combusken and the Kabuto on the first turn <3 And she got right back up again in no time with the Fast Healer skill!

Does anyone remember that one time when I had the foolish idea to forget Quick Attack in favor of Helping Hand? Yeah, not one of my smartest moves. But I managed to find a TM in this dungeon that does the same thing as Quick Attack but better!

Here's the info for Quick Attack:

And here's the info for Mach Punch:

Higher power and hit ratio? Yes please! (Yes, I'm aware both are only one star stronger. But hey, every bit counts.)

I teeechnically have enough room for three more images, but this feels like a natural transition point so click here to advance to Part 2!

[yukihime242]

Today is the last day of 2022 and I thought that I should write something to end the year off. What better way to end this year with posts about the games I am playing for the year? 

I will be splitting the posts into three parts else it will get very long. This post will focus on the games I have stopped playing for various reasons. I will provide a rating at the end of each game, and do note that all of the remarks and comments, including the ratings, are my personal opinion.

1️⃣ King’s Raid

(Picture Source: Wikipedia thru’ Google Image Search)

Those of you who have read some of my posts would know that I constantly talked about this game. 

This game is about a young squire who went out to search for his older brother, who was sent on an expedition to eradicate demons but failed to return. That journey turned into something much more than the squire anticipated. Players will go through the story with the squire and his friends to learn more about the past and what his destiny is. 

The game is absolutely beautiful. You see the designs in the picture up there? It is exactly the same you will get in the game itself. The graphics and special effects will blow you away. The story itself is also captivating.

But why did I stop playing if it sounds like such a wonderful game?

Well... The game is just too difficult. This game forces you to pay attention 100% of the time to every battle. You will need to know when to apply certain skills, counter attack, defend, or even block attacks coming from the enemies. It may be fun for the pro-players but for casual players like myself, it is absolute nightmare.

I really love the graphics and such, but the story battles just makes me want to rip the phone apart some times. 

I would say that this game is way too advanced for casual players like myself. Even if there are guides available to show you the best way to build your Heroes, it is not a 100% guarantee that you will be able to pass through the stories with ease. Unfortunately, although I did enjoy the game, I had to stop playing it due to the amount of frustration I had with this game.

Rating: 5 ⭐/10

TLDR: Game is gorgeously beautiful but too difficult and advanced for casual players.

2️⃣ Tower of Fantasy

(Picture Source: Epic Games thru’ Google Image Search)

This game was very short-lived 😂

The thing about this game is that people are saying it is an imitation of Genshin Impact. But there are also people saying that it is not. 

Anyway, I am not here to debate about that. I believed this game did not managed to capture the players as much as it could. The only thing that really captivated players was the character creation page.

(Picture Credit: Forbes thru’ Google Image Search)

Otherwise, it was simply a game that is... meh.

I have only played it once and after I logged out of the game, I never went back to it. Moreover, I feel that the character movements in the game can be better improved. I get that not all companies have great technology, yet, small indie companies seems to be doing a better job in their motion graphics than this game.

I think that this game has potential but the developers needs to think of something that would hold players interest, apart from the character creation page. 

Rating: 3⭐/10

TLDR: Only the character creation page is the most interesting part of the game.

3️⃣ Atelier Online

(Picture Source: QM Games thru’ Google Image Search)

I love anime. And when this game came out, I was thinking to myself, I must get that game!

But after a while, it starts to get boring...

The game follows a young alchemist, also the protagonist of the game, on her alchemy journey. The game is absolutely beautiful but every rose has its thorns.

Firstly, the maps to explore is too small. You will find yourself repeatedly going through the same areas countless times because you have yet to unlock another part of the map. 

Secondly, I feel that the stories leading up to the chapter where we can finally leave the school grounds took way too long. 5 chapters may not seem like much but when you actually go through the story, it is very long. 

Thirdly, I feel that it is redundant to have a gacha shop in the game if you need to pay some real money in order to use it. What I meant is that you need the in-game gems to pull on the gacha, but the game doesn’t really let you earn the gems easily. If you really want to pull, you will need to pay some money. 

I feel like the game could have done better. I know the focus is on the story but the requirement to unlock the next chapter is quite grinding. 

Rating: 4 ⭐/10

TLDR: Nice beautiful game but eventually becomes boring

4️⃣ World Flipper

(Picture Source: Cygames thru’ Google Image Search)

I was a high scorer in pinball games. And I also love anime. When this game came to my attention, I was thinking, why didn’t I know about this earlier?

I was not expecting a pixelated game but that is something I can overlook because PINBALL. But what I was not expecting is the flippers.

The game does not allow you to control the flippers separately!!! 

(GIF Source: Tenor thru’ Google Image Search)

I understand that the “easy” mode is to control both flippers together. Meaning that with one tap on your screen, both left and right flippers will hit the ball together. But not all “easy” modes are easy.

For me, I prefer to be able to control the flippers individually. Meaning a tap on the left side of the screen controls the left flipper, while a tap on the right side of the screen controls the right flipper. 

I have scoured through the entire settings of the game, even googled how I can control the flippers individually, but there was no option for me to do so ☹️

Then I thought, perhaps I’m just too used to my method and maybe I will get the hang of it after a few rounds. NO. IT DID NOT GET BETTER. 

I lost more balls than I did in my old pinball games. 

I am also not a big fan of pixelated games but I am willing to overlook it in this game yet not allowing us to have the option to control the flippers individually has made me throw this game into the gutter.

Rating: 4⭐/10

TLDR: It would have been a lot better if the game has an option to let us choose how we want to control the flippers.

[akakeiiji]

-`,✎ Filipino!Iwaizumi Headcanons

I couldn’t sleep at all today and spent the entirety of the night thinking about Filipino Iwa, so here are some Filipino!Iwa headcanons that nobody asked for

Most of these are based off of my friend’s family that lives in Japan, so thank you boo for being my inspiration

First of all, Iwaizumi is half and half; his mom is Filipino and his dad is Japanese

His mom was born and raised in the Philippines, she moved to Japan as an adult to be an English teacher

Not long after, she met Iwa’s dad and they eventually got married and blessed the world with Hajime

He grew up speaking Japanese, Tagalog and a bit of English so he’s kinda sorta trilingual

His mom always speaks to him in Tagalog whenever she can, so as a kid he would sometimes speak in Japanese but with a few Tagalog words sprinkled in

“Tooru, what’s your ulam?” “What’s ulam??” “…I forgot what it’s called it in Japanese.”

Speaking of Tooru, he absolutely loves coming over to Iwa’s since he is madly obsessed with Fiipino food

The first time he went to Iwa’s house as a kid, his mom just made turon and bITCH ATE LIKE 10 OF THEM BEFORE IWAIZUMI COULD GET A SECOND ONE, HE WAS SO MAD

Also, Tooru knows a bit of tagalog too

By a bit, I only mean Tagalog swear words

Not because Iwaizumi teaches him but because Iwaizumi always gets mad at him in Tagalog

“Putangina mo Oikawa, gago ka talaga, walang hiya—”

Swearing in Tagalog just hits different, it has a certain oomph to it that Japanese or English lacks which is why he loves it so much

You’ll always see him grumbling in tagalog in class or at practice, the more frustrated he is the more tagalog he speaks

“Tanginang subject na ‘to, feeling major.”

“Hayop ka, Oikawa—” “Iwa-chan, what are you saying, stop—”

BUT YOU’LL NEVER CATCH HIM SWEARING IN FRONT OF HIS MOM

One time he stubbed his toe and instinctively let out a quiet “Puta.” and the next thing he knew a projectile slipper hit him on the back of his head followed by a long sermon from his mom 😩✋

Speaking of his mom, he got his kindness and caring nature from her

But he also got his temper from her lmao; filipino mom things 😔✋

He is the epitome of aggressively cares for you and that is totally something he got from his Filipino side

He and his mom always visit the Philippines at least once a year

He’s really close with his cousins and practically idolized them as a kid, he just thought they were so cool

I JUST REALIZED THAT HE DRESSED LIKE A FILIPINO KID WHEN HE WAS YOUNGER; ISTG THIS IS CANON

In grade school, he once brought home an arnis and beat the shit out of Oikawa with it

Now that Iwa is older, he can’t come to the Philippines as much as before but he always keeps in touch with his relatives via Skype and Facebook messenger

SPEAKING OF FACEBOOK, HIS MOM’S FB ACCOUNT IS THE BANE OF HIS EXISTENCE

ITS LIKE SHE MAKES A POINT TO POST ONLY EMBARRASSING PHOTOS OF HAJIME, IT’S SO TRAGIC

In high school, Oikawa finally found it and he deadass printed like 20 photos from her account and Iwaizumi almost killed him

Iwaizumi’s favorite filipino food is definitely crispy pata, he inhales that shit

His favorite street food is fish balls though, which he thought were actual fish balls when he was younger so he didn’t eat them until his mom told him that they weren’t 🤧

IWA ALSO LOVES UBE

BITCH WILL EAT ANYTHING UBE FLAVORED, HE IS ADDICTED

One thing Oikawa will never understand about Iwa’s household however is the fact that they start putting up Christmas decorations in October 😩✋

Iwa only realized that this wasn’t normal when Oikawa pointed it out to him, he just thought that everyone starts celebrating Christmas 3 months before December too

MANGA SPOILERS

Iwa’s pretty good at English since his mom is literally an English teacher which was one of the other reasons why he decided to go to the US for college

Before he left though he studied so hard with his mom to improve his skills and I think that’s adorable (He absolutely despises how we a word can have a bazillion different meanings depending on the context, istg eng can be so confusing sometimes)

END OF MANGA SPOILERS

On a softer note, when Iwa is dating someone, he’ll sometimes get too shy to outright tell them sweet stuff so he’ll usually say these things in Tagalog just for the sake of getting it off his chest

He will also call you things like “Tanga” or “Bobo” but in a loving manner if that makes sense

BUT WHEN HE GETS SAPPY HE WILL CALL YOU THINGS LIKE MAHAL OR SMTH KEWJBVHEBIUEWF IM BLUSHING

[theanimeview]

Jobless Reincarnation - Worst of the Worst: Let’s Talk (Review)

DISCLAIMER: This post contains content that we at The Anime View do not think is suitable for everyone. The genre of the work being reviewed is Hentai. Possible triggers or subjects could include sexual assault and pedophilia. There are no images of such, but these topics are discussed. By clicking “Keep Reading,” you understand that you may encounter such content. Viewer/reader discretion is advised.

By: Peggy Sue Wood | @pswediting

We’re a little more than halfway through the second season of Jobless Reincarnation and I really need to talk about it. This hentai should be at the top of the controversial titles to like this (or any other) season, but a large number of people have been defending the series for reasons that are beyond me. 

In fact, I had a very real conversation recently with someone trying to tell me that this is not a hentai--it’s just a bit more vocal about the perversion than other isekai series. They are very wrong, by the way--this is NOT a series approved for all audiences. It is hentai, and blatantly leaning on the border of pedophilia. 

Some of the defenses I’ve heard when people talk about this series are “it’s the grandfather of isekai” (a title renounced by the author), “the animation is spectacular” (well, it’s ‘good’ but also pretty standard for the current season), and “the magic and world-building are amazing” (I actually heard someone say “unheard of” but that’s also very wrong). 

I’ve even heard one VERY well-known member, like Mother’s Basement, of the anime analysis/critic community state that it’s less creepy than By the Grace of the gods--which, if you’ve ever watched By the Grace of the gods, you’ll know is very wrong as it is probably one of the most wholesome series that’s been released in a while. (Mother’s Basement: “The BEST Anime of Winter 2021 - Ones to Watch,” at about 18 minutes and 17 seconds | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOe5ANX6yhk&t=1570s&ab_channel=Mother%27sBasement).

I mean, what is it that makes the series likable? I really do not understand. The animation, while fine and even good/great with some things, is also not so great that it can’t compare to other series currently releasing. Nor does it outweigh the sheer creep-factor of the content depicted.

In fact, I would maybe say that the reason it's getting such high praise has more to do with frame rate than actual technical implementations. Pairing that with the discussion of great magic or world-building--I turn you to series like The Faraway Paladin, which is also releasing this season, or one of my older favorites, Log Horizon. Additionally, we don’t really get to see the magic that is being sported as “great” by so many. It’s not like we’re really learning spells, like Harry Potter. Nor are we really learning how it improves/advances like we do with By the Grace of the gods when we see Ryouma experiment with casting. An example from season (Fall 2021) would include The World's Finest Assassin Gets Reincarnated in Another World as an Aristocrat, where Lugh is shown developing the Spell Weaver skill. 

I mean, yes--the magic of Jobless Reincarnation looks pretty:

But so does Fate/Stay

And, thus far, the world-building pales heavily in comparison to series, like The Rising of the Shield Hero or, well, pretty much any isekai taking itself even slightly seriously. Moreover, it’s hard to even consider world-building when the story centers so much in the beginning on just the main character being a perverse and disgusting person and enacting on those perversions in an infant body/child’s body. 

That last part is what I really can’t get over. I mean, the story is just disgusting with a VERY much 40-something year old man using his VERY MUCH A CHILD body to sexually assault female children, steal women’s underwear that he sniffs and prays too, along with making the family’s maid incredibly uncomfortable/disturbed. (It certainly creeped me out.)

Even Konosuba, a series arguably made for some more mature audiences, is funnier. Konosuba clearly is making fun of the perverse rather than diving into it. Meanwhile, Jobless Reincarnation seems to take the actions seriously. We’re not, to my understanding and based on the context, meant to find the main character’s actions funny or even view them as a joke. He’s legitimately implying that this is okay or allowable because he’s in a child’s body and even, potentially, deserving of it since he suffered bullying in his past life (I literally feel like vomiting thinking about it). 

The idea that people are laughing at this like it’s funny or a comedy rather than recognizing the horror that is this anime’s intent to be a legitimate, sexually explicit content (it is a hentai, remember) is very concerning. 

Even if the main character, Rudeus Greyrat, is supposed to be an anti-hero (a character we aren’t supposed to like but still sympathize with), I really can’t sympathize. 

I’ve heard from some that you're supposed to be disgusted by this initial behavior, but then you get to see how he changes while growing into a better person. 

Except, Rudeus doesn't change throughout the series. He’s a raging pedophile pretty much all of Season 1! You’ve can’t even argue for leeway because he’s a “child” in a child’s body, because the anime makes it clear that he’s exactly the person he was before coming to this new world with the mindset of a nearly (if not actual) middle-aged man lusting after underage girls and adults left and right. Heck--he even admits to masterbating to the memory of his underage-childhood friend for years during his past life as a fully-grown adult (if that doesn’t scream derangement of some sort, I don’t know what would). 

His new-parents don’t seem concerned by this, in fact--some adults, particularly the men--encourage it. Worse still, when discussing this series with other viewers and expressing my outrage, I was shocked to find so many claiming that it’s just the beginning of the Rudeus’ character arc to becoming a better person. Almost everyone I know that is watching the series encouraged me to finish the first season despite my visceral reaction to the first episode.

So, I did. It was a struggle, but I watched all of Season 1.

I felt dirty and gross having consumed it. I even watched part of Season 2 and compared it with copies of the manga, and that has led me to this post. Author Rifujin na Magonote’s comments aside--what matters is the work itself and this anime shows no improvement of Rudeus' tendencies for the perverse thus far. Moreover, I think a season and a half is more than enough time to see some change in the character or the so called “growth” fans seem to claim for his character. The fact is, there isn’t any. The one night he doesn’t assault his cousin, by the way, over a ring doesn’t mean anything in the grand scheme of his continued behavior. It gets only slightly better when the necessity for food outweighs his wish to assault every girl or woman he sees--but only in the most myopic of senses.

Why do people like this? What makes this okay to fans? Because to me, it’s not. On MAL, Season 1 has an 8.36/10 rating provided by over 350,000 responses (350 thousand!). Season 2, so far, is marked higher with NO improvement seen in the main character. I really do not understand and am thoroughly disturbed by the avid supporters of this series. 

Season 2, Episode 17

And I say all of this after watching Episode 17, which I would argue actually is a well-written and well-directed addition to the story thus far. In fact, if the animation and story centered more on these emotional elements and actual plot of the story than the perverse elements like it did in Episode 17, I would be taking this show a lot more seriously and agree with its advocates... but it doesn’t.

Episode 17 was all of those things that people advocate it for, it had great animation, solid story, it was emotional and made sense. I loved when Paul friend (Rudeus’ father) tells him how he’s set Rudeus to an impossible standard and hasn’t considered that the boy is 11. It is a great story addition and helps pay off how bad of a father Paul has been in earlier episodes while showing the capacity to change. However, de-aging mentally has been established earlier as not being a thing for Rudeus, so I also feel a pull from the story as I think about how it’s really two adults in a fight. As well as how Paul’s standard for “why didn’t you think about your family more?” actually being a real issue with Rudeus’ character. 

Sure, everything that Geese said is true--even more so if we were actually looking from the perspective that Rudeus is an exceptional 11 year old with an 11 year olds capacity for such forethought. But, again... he’s not. So while this was a great addition to the story, it wasn’t actually fitting given the context. 

Which sucks, because it was a very good episode. Again, if it was all like that episode--no perverse looks at underage girls or scantily clad women, more focus on the story and figuring things out, it would be an amazing show. 

But, again... it doesn’t. So, it is not a great or amazing show. 

In conclusion, I hate the show. I am disgusted by it. I am very concerned by how many people approve of it, and I hope this series is banned from streaming platforms or--at least--given better restrictions, because gross. 

I firmly believe that it is shows like this, and the way some people in the community talk about it, and raise it up into the “main stream” of anime, that anime fans and fandom often get associated with such negative connotations here in the West. 

With that, I will now excuse myself to try to find a way to forget this series entirely and clean myself from the gross feeling I got reviewing it for this post

[mist-the-wannabe-linguist]

Animations

My first attempts at animation began at the end of March 2019 pretty much on impulse. It was a time when I had lots of ideas and mere still art did not feel like enough to bring them to life. I have always strongly felt the desire for flight, and animations (majorly dragons) felt like a way to get at least a little close to satisfying that.

My first ever animation attempt, 24th March 2019

After that it was a massive boom, within less than two months I improved massively, already able to do relatively smooth and fluid, although sketchy animations with more or less consistent anatomy. This is when I started thinking about going to an art university to learn how to do proper 2D animation and perhaps even work on movies in the future.

But some time during May, as quickly as I gained the interest in animation, I lost it completely. Not sure why, perhaps all the effort put in it did not feel rewarding enough, or I felt like I was not moving forward fast enough.

I simply stopped animating altogether.

Until a year later, once again in March I got a sudden burst of inspiration thanks to a roleplay with my friends' OCs. We had all these great characters and I wanted to see them move and come to life so much I simply sat down, grabbed a pencil, and drew, this time mostly traditionally instead of digitally.

One of my greatest pieces was an animation I thought up at 11pm, half-asleep and thinking "there is no way I could pull off that sort of camera movement when all I have ever done were still, mostly side-view animations where most of the movement was done by the character." But the next day I woke up and decided "hell, let's do this." And it worked. I still consider it one of my greatest achievements (even though the coloring is pure shit because pencils are not my friends)

Inspired by many Warrior Cats MAPs, artists like Nightrizer, Sagutoyas, AlexHarrier, I wanted to make something similar, come at least a little close to that level of quality and skill.

But the interest was quite short, I never had the patience to actually finish any of the longer pieces I had planned and did not feel like I have improved in any way, quite the opposite, in fact. This is also the reason I gave up the idea of studying animation on the academic level, since I knew I would not be able to keep up with the deadlines and did not want the stress to ruin my desire to make art.

Then after I finished high school and entered university (linguistics and translations) I found another, perhaps biggest inspiration. I saw the Amen and Birth To My Creation animatics by corinkeen and zoeves, and thanks to my friend @scarlet-being who pulled me even deep into the Frankenstein hellhole within the first three or four days of knowing her, I made a decision that I want to return to animations, only as a hobby but this time one that I would not abandon at the first sign of art block.

I realised animation does not need to be perfectly fluid, animatics can convey just as much movement and feeling as high-fps animations, sometimes perhaps more.

We began working on an AU that has been the main reason I managed to keep my sanity during lockdowns, later I joined the fandom on tumblr and my interest in the book (despite never having finished reading it) and in animation stayed alive for the entire six months since I first started making Frankenstein art. All the fan animations, art, analyses and headcanons fuel the desire to keep on animating, and even though I reach a low point many times, feeling like there is no point putting the effort in something that won't be seen by anyone and will remain forgotten a few weeks after I post it, I get another bout of inspiration thanks to a scene in our AU, or someone else's art, or just a comment under one of my older animations, and the fire is back again.

As of now I have plans for about five animatics, three of which are Frankenstein-related, and one big project I have been working on since December and while it is only halfway done and would use some reworking, I have high hopes that it will be finished soon, and that it will mark my place both in the Frankenstein fandom and as an animator in general, and that it will be a sufficient gift to all of you that have kept me inspired in these difficult times.

Keep on creating.

~Mist

[makeusfreefromthisfandom]

Anon asked: Heyyy! Can we have some HC on style 5 as fathers? Thank you

Yes! The boys as fathers have me so soft 🥺

Father Headcanons (Style 5)

I got carried away with these hcs... might have to make a separate post for each later on 😅 long post ahead!

Haru

Personally I imagine Haru with a daughter first

Like can you imagine how cute that would be? 🥺🥺the whole like father like daughter 🥺🥺

Haru doesn’t get this whole babies thing, in fact he’s panicking on the inside, but the moment he holds his child in his arms, it’s like every thought every worry has now become irrelevant

The only thing that matters is the child in his arms❤️

Smiles a lot more now because he is genuinely happy.

Even lets his laughs be heard more often just for his kid lol

When his child grows up a bit more, he definitely wants to teach them how to swim and how to ahem ~be one with the water~

He’s not a pushy father at all tho he won’t ever force his child to go down the swimming path and would rather have them get into something they are passionate about

Nevertheless, he still would like them to know how to swim atleast, it’s not a bad thing to learn

But um...he’s not the best of teachers...

Uncle Makoto here to save the day!

That being said, Haru always wants to be there for his child, be able to go to as much of their competitions/meets/games/etc. as he can even though he’s so busy with his own training schedules

He just wants to be there for them and he wants them to know that too<3

Oh um also...he’s bad at scolding...he’ll try to “scold” his little kid for doing something wrong like picking things off the ground and putting it in their mouth but his child just looks up at him like 😯

Also Haru changing diapers? Haha... “ahh (y/n)! How do I do this?”

He gets better at this tho over time :)

Watch his child not like Mackerel

He’s still confused over this whole father thing, but he knows that he really does want to love and be there for his child<3

Btw how cool would it be to have a dad being a world renowned swimmer? 😱

*haru excitingly watching as you feed your baby daughter (I see him w a daughter ok but it’s your choice) mackerel for the first time*

*baby makes a weird face and spits out mackerel*

“*Haru gasps dramatically* She doesn’t like mackerel.”

Baths with his kid. 🐬

JUST IMAGINE THAT I DONT EVEN NEED TO EXPLAIN IT

How precious 🥺

You sitting on the edge of the bathtub, silently watching Haru as he holds his baby in the bath with a small smile, eyes then slowly drifting up to lock in with yours, his smile a bit wider and everything he feels for you and his child, all shining in his eyes ❤️

There cannot be a more perfect, little, peaceful family <3

Makoto

An amazing father!

We’ve seen him with his little siblings Ren and Ran!

That doesn’t mean he won’t panick from time to time because it’s different when it’s your own child

He’s the type to do the whole baby talk and little cooes with his baby but turns bashful when he catches you quietly standing in the doorway watching 🤣

His cooking skills have improved a bit...

You already work so hard everyday for the baby and the house, he wants to lessen your burdens and give you a little break <3🥺

Family cuddles! With you and Makoto on either side and your child/children in the middle! How precious🥺

I see Makoto’s children being a lot more brave and daring than he is like watching “scary” (like Cartoon Network scary XD) movies and wanting going on adventures in places supposedly paranormal

“Dad stop being such a scaredy cat! I wanna go watch this movie already!”

“Ahh (y/n)!! Help me! 😰”

His kids are mischievous bro always do those puppy dog eyes to get him into their schemes

“AH NO (Y/N)! IT WAS THEIR IDEA I PROMISE!”

He also spoils his kids XD

Don’t think that means he doesn’t know when the boundaries are crossed and when he needs to get a bit strict

He may spoil his kids but spoiled kids are a big no no (there’s a difference)

The kids actually grow up to be sweet and respectful

Aww imagine Makoto teaching his own kids how to swim and sending them to an sc🥺

He’s just such a loving father and SO supportive!

His children love that they can come to him with any of their problems and know that he’s going to listen intently and understand, while also offering any advice he might think suitable <3

As if you alone didn’t make his heart well enough with so much love, his heart practically bursts with his children❤️

Ready to sacrifice everything he has for the happiness and well being of his family ❤️

Nagisa

Excitement is an UNDERSTATEMENT

As if this baby himself wasn’t cute enough, just IMAGINE HIS CHILDREN

omg omg omg cuteness overload

He’s jumping up and down when his baby is about to come, however he calms down when he actually gets a chance to hold them and he’s just in a soft, serene state, looking on at his little one with a small smile~

All his little toddler has to do is slightly tug on his shirt, and Nagisa is in a full gushing frenzy

He cries over how adorable they are

Nagisa baby YOU are adorable

He’s such a funny dad always makes his kids laugh!

Like when his child is a baby, he would come over making silly faces that half of the time either made baby laugh or baby cry 😣

Tickle Monster 😏

Finger puppets! I totally see him doing this as a father!

Nagisa won’t tease his kids a whole lot tho, knowing how frustrating it can get having experienced for a good amount of his life by his older sisters

He wants his kids to have fun ALL the time just like him 😁

He shows them his secret sweet stash when he believes it is time

So you’re going to have to be the one implementing the rules and regulations

“Come on, it’s time for bed let’s go, it’s past 11”

“Aww come on (y/n)-chan look at how happy they are! Just give us five more minutes🥺”

The challenging part for you is that you end up having to give in a lot more because now there’s more than 1 who’ve mastered the puppy dog eyes around the house

Another supportive dad! (They all are) he wants to be there for his kids’ firsts! And for all their games and competitions etc.

This is going to be such a fun little family with LOTS of love, support, chocolate, and fun! ❤️

Rei

No theory, no book, no calculations prepared him for the moment his child was placed in his arms

He’s immediately brought to tears and whispers a small “beautiful” 🥺

The type to document EVERY moment of his child

You end up having like 10 albums and tapes of just your kid(s)

ALL of your little ones firsts have all been recorded and documented to reminisce on later in the future🥺

Always nudging you and showing you the cute little things your baby is doing off in the corner🥺

He can be strict

Unlike Nagisa, oh no he is not spoiling his kid’s diet

Their kid is eating their entire rainbow with lots of fruits and vegetables, along with the right amount of protein and milk

However there are times where he chills out and actually bakes cookies and sweets for his children 🥺

And they are *chefs kiss*

However when Uncle Nagisa comes over...those kids know what’s up 😝😋

Wants to show them the beauty of swimming, specifically the butterfly stroke

You don’t have to worry about your kids getting low grades, because Rei will personally take care of that😌

He just wants his children work hard so they can become the best at whatever they choose to do in the future <3

Haha you wanna know what I’m imagining?

Him having a daughter that is an EXACT copy of him

And it will completely leave him speechless at moments XD

“Ahem...Daddy, the way that you pitch the ball is off by approximately 15 degrees according to the direction and pressure of the wind...not beautiful” *pushes glasses up*

Rei is just like 😨😱

Anyways you can forget about having excessive burden on your shoulders from parenting because this man is going to give it his all for you and his children❤️

Rin

The second his baby was delivered, he was already a crying mess, however when they are actually placed in his arms, it’s like all the tears have suddenly stopped, and it’s just a moment for Rin.

However he starts crying again immediately after

He loves his child so much! ❤️

They are a physical embodiment of his love with you! <3

He now understands the sacrifices his own father made for the sake of his family and now Rin is willing to to the same for his own

All his tsundereish tendencies vanish and he just becomes one big softy 😤

Don’t think that means that Rin doesn’t know how to be strict tho

Oh he is a strict dad but he only does is it for his child’s own good

He will shower them in just as much affection after the scolding <3

Like even after he gets a bit harsh on his child and sees their eyes, Rin immediately stops and goes into your shared room and starts sniffling

“H-hey (y-y/n)...w-was I too harsh on them?”

Yes he’s the type of dad to get onto you for brushing your teeth

He’s also that dad helping his kids with math

He has let his emotions show a lot more now.

Like when his baby started taking his first steps...Rin cried, camera in his hand shaking

When his child picked a flower and brought it to him...shark baby cried.

Or when one of his children brought home their essay about Rin being their biggest hero...Rin cried.

A very supportive family!

With you guys going to support him swimming at the world stage, and Rin going to all his children’s events and being their #1 fan <3

I can see Rin owning a “The World’s Best Dad” or “#1 Dad” mug and proudly drinking from it XD <33

He also gets very competitive with his kids! He gets very into the sports and games he plays with them

Teaching them tricks and tips along the way

And swimming? He’s got it in the bag, your child will get the hang of it under a week.

Some days Rin likes to lie with you on the bed, wrapping an arm around you to hold you close and pressing a a soft kiss to your temple, thanking you for being the love of his life and making him the world’s happiest man alive 🥺❤️

A/n: The boys would be such good fathers!They can all have my babies I love the parenting concept! I’m probably going to make separate hcs for them in the future 🥺

[super-famicom-star-inactive]

Friday Special #7

January 9th, 2021

So it has come to my attention that when people talk about RPG Maker the series, many aren’t aware of how far back the series goes.

Did you know that series dates back to almost thirty years?

That’s right, next year will be the 30th anniversary of RPG Maker!

So why don’t we have a history lesson into arguably one of the most important franchises in gaming history?

Alright, where does the story begin for this iconic series?

According to sources, there has been games similar to RPG Maker that were made by ASCII (the original company behind RPG Maker) and that were released as far back as 1988, with the following titles:

Mamirin (1988)

Dungeon Manjirou (1988)

RPG Construction Tool: Dante (1990)

Dante 2 (1992)

Chimes Quest (1992)

The very first official RPG Maker title came in the form of RPG Tsukūru Dante 98, released on December 17, 1992. This game, along with its 1996 sequel RPG Tsukūru Dante 98 II, was originally made for the NEC PC-9801 Japanese home computers at the time. It was originally made when ASCII pulled from other games (listed above) and combined them together to create a RPG-making development title with its own toolkit. The genre of RPG specifically was thanks to the rise of JRPGs in recent years like Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy to name a few. 

The next major release of RPG Maker was in the form of RPG Tsukūru: Super Dante in 1995, which marked the very first time that the series has landed onto a console. The console was the Nintendo Super Famicom and it was later broadcasted a year later using the Satellaview service. While it did exhibit some restrictions in terms of content due to system limitations, it was famous for providing hundreds of character, monster and scenery assets with color swap palettes to save on memory in the cartridge as well as designing the stats of characters and monsters pre-determined by the player. It was said that the game was popular with players but sources are limited about actual reviews. RPG Tsukūru 2 is the sequel and it was released in 1996 on the Super Famicom as well. 

Windows saw the release of the third installment with RPG Tsukūru 95, which was released in 1997 and was the first of many RPG Maker titles for Windows. Unlike its predecessors, it boasted higher resolution in sprites and tilesets as well as higher screen resolution. It also has the honor of being the first version to have an unauthorized English translation and release due to demand. Also with this version, the number of party members was boosted to 8 people with the first 4 acting as the main battle party. RPG Tsukūru 95 Value! was released not long after with the added bonus of having Windows XP support, which was new at the time and very valuable. 

So when did the West finally receive an official version version of RPG Maker?

On November 27, 1997, Enterbrain released the following title RPG Tsukūru 3 for the original Playstation and chose to release the software simply as RPG Maker in the West three years later on October 2, 2000 under Agetec. This was the first time the West would finally receive a version of RPG Maker and experience the magic of RPG development, but it was reported that a limited run of copies were released outside of Japan. It was also one of thirty games that utilized the now-rare Playstation Mouse (which is usually an arm and a leg to import). Players got to customize their own assets using the Anime Maker that was also built into the game and, like the original Super Famicom versions, utilized color-swap palettes to save on memory. Another cool feature that was a first for the series was saving your created game onto a memory card so that you could share your creation with your friends.

One of the most beloved and popular versions of RPG Maker is next on the list and it is RPG Tsukūru 2000 for Windows on April 5, 2000. Despite the popularity, it was Japan-exclusive and it featured a lower resolution for graphics and assets overall than its RPG Maker 95 predecessor. Despite this, it boasted more functionality with unlimited sprite sheets and tilesets.

The last in that trio was RPG Tsukūru 2003, first released only in Japan in 2003 before being released worldwide in 2015. Improvements to this version included the side-view battle system that was popular in Final Fantasy, and interchangeable resources. From this point, the development company Enterbrain would take over RPG Maker as it was part of the ASCII company. 

Starting with the released of RPG Tsukūru 5 on the Playstation 2 in 2005, Enterbrain was starting to look into developing the series for an international audience of players. They would beginning to craft titles that are now iconic in the RPG development community, with the first of these releases being RPG Tsukūru XP (RPG Maker XP as it was known world-wide) released on Windows in 2004. While many of the simplified features have been removed from this version, it was the first RPG Maker game to use Ruby, a type of programming language first seen in 1995, and it was the first title to distribute assets online amongst the community thanks to the rise of the Internet. It allowed greater control over sprite size other gaming aspects, which helped it become more versatile than previous titles. However, a drawback is the steep learning curve, which was intimidating to new players. It was released to Steam in 2015.

The next modern RPG Maker title was the release of RPG Tsukūru VX (RPG Maker VX as it was known world-wide) in Japan in 2007, world-wide in 2008. It has the one-up over XP for its more user-friendly layout and faster framerate of 60fps over XP’s 40 fps. The programming was completely done over to be more accessible in scripting and the battle systems were now similar to Dragon Quest with a front-view battle system and detailed text. Because of these aspects and other improved features, it became a popular choice for modern developers since release. However, one of the biggest drawbacks was the lack of support for multiple tilesets when mapping that frustrated players. It was released to Steam in 2016.

Right after that, RPG Tsukūru VX Ace (RPG Maker VX Ace as it was known world-wide) was a direct sequel to the version mentioned above. Described as an “overhauled version of RPG Maker VX”, it removed the multiple tileset issue that plagued players in the previous version and re-introduced battle backgrounds during battle scenes. Magic and skill systems were re-worked to have their own recovery and damage formulas in the programming, and a new set of music tracks were accompanied in the database files. It was released to Steam in 2012.

Having the distinction of being released by Degica for the first time world-wide, RPG Tsukūru MV (RPG Maker MV as known world-wide), underwent quite a few adjustments by introducing multiplatform support as well as side-view battles and high resolution features and assets. For the first time, JavaScript replaced Ruby as the default programming language. Players also saw the return of layered tilesets, which were missing from the previous installments. Not only was it released for Windows, but also for PS4 and Nintendo Switch (A XBox One version was planned but unfortunately scrapped), giving players new ways to share games. It was released to Steam in 2015.

The newest installment to the famous series is RPG Tsukūru MZ (RPG Maker MZ as known world-wide), and it was just released last year in August of 2020. Reviews for the game were mixed as players noted that the trailers leading up to release were very similar to RPG Maker MV. It did have some positively-received features such as autosave functionality and XP-style autolayer mechanics. It was released to Steam in 2020. 

So with the history side taken care of, what about some of the most iconic games ever made using the software?

Good question! Given the extensive list of successful games to come out of RPG Maker, that will be a separate Friday Special so I can cover them more in-depth. Maybe next week perhaps?

So there you have it, a comprehensive history of RPG Maker!

(Now, there were some older Japanese titles that weren't mentioned because of lack of sources, I do apologize. I also wanted to stick more to the major installments of the franchise itself.)

Thoughts From The Head

I was formally introduced to RPG Maker by some mutuals of mine on Discord a few years ago when I expressed interest in wanting to create scenes like a movie of sorts. My software of choice is RPG Maker VX Ace as it was suggested to me for being better at creating events than any other version. It's understandably intimidating at first, especially for newcomers, but there are hundreds of tutorials on Steam, Youtube and all over the internet.

I also have other copies of RPG Maker, including the PS1 version of RPG Maker and even RPG Tsukūru: Super Dante for my Super Famicom that I just received a few days ago! It's definitely wild how much the series has grown and improved upon over the years.

From what I have been recommended by friends who are long-time players of this series, either go for RPG Maker MV (if you're interested in mapping) or RPG Maker VX Ace (if you're interested in creating events). From what I have seen, those two are some of the more popular choices. In terms of platform, always go for Steam (and get them on sale when you can) because you will have better accessibility and it's more user-friendly than the console versions. The abundance of community-generated assets also help.

To end this post, here's some pics from RPG Tsukūru: Super Dante!

[hilltopsunset]

Parkour Janitors: Dustforce Review

For the past few years, I’ve been listening to a variety of video game music mixes on YouTube when focusing on work or other creative endeavors. Some time last year, I had my usual jams on when suddenly I heard a tune that I REALLY liked, but had no idea what it was from. When I glanced at the screen and saw the charming artwork of janitors posted up, lookin’ about ready to drop a hot new album, the first thought I had was, “…how the heck does this awesome music tie into these goofy janitor folk?”

That’s how I learned about the existence of Dustforce.

This happened right around the time I was also preparing to begin my streaming career, so I figured it was the perfect opportunity to jump into a new game. Right away I was drawn in by the clean visuals and the art style, the core mechanics of parkour-hopping off and up walls, the concept of cleaning rather than killing, and the melodious, ambient tunes gracing my eardrums. When I first conquered the tutorial levels, I felt well-equipped to handle whatever was ahead of me…and boy was I wrong.

In retrospect, I really feel like the tutorials ill-prepare players for the complex combo-driven controls needed to perform many of the game’s more nuanced, hidden mechanics, which are necessary when attempting to achieve an SS score for the more difficult levels.

Speaking of the SS score, I did appreciate the unique scoring system; each level contains a series of severe slaloms, pillars, tricky jumps, and loopty-loops players must navigate—as well as perilous pits, spikes, and attackers one must avoid—on their way to the finish line. There are two factors the game considers when calculating your rating at the end of a course, and neither has anything to do with how quickly you get through the level…technically. Instead, your score is based on two factors: 1. how much of the garbage you clean from the level, and 2. whether or not you were able to maintain your “combo” the entire time—combo is built by cleaning trash, and lost if you fall into a pit, touch spikes, take a hit, or dawdle too long between garbage cleanings. So while you do want to move efficiently through the level, and plan out your path to ensure you have enough time to get to the next heap of debris before the combo is lost, you could theoretically take 20 minutes or 2 minutes to finish a course and get an SS both times. There are 5 possible scores for both junk cleaned and combo maintained: D, C, B, A, or S, where D is a very poor performance and S is a perfect demonstration. Since there are two scores calculated at the end of each course, a perfect run is typically referred to simply as an SS.

One of the first aspects of Dustforce that struck me as surprising was that there is no story involved at all. The dramatic introduction shown when opening the game, pitting janitors against junkies, really had me under the impression that some tomfoolery was afoot and the bad guys were making a mess of things, and it was up to the Dustforce to stop them. This, however, did not appear to be the case—or if it was, it was never explained, described, or demonstrated in any way throughout the entirety of the game. In fact, not one of those “bad guy” characters appears a single time. There are occasionally “trash monsters” that you need to give a good bopping to in order to rid them of their leaf-coat or gunk-shell to pacify them, but the specific characters shown in the opening never make an appearance. Which kinda made me sad, to be honest. It would have been neat to see SOME sort of story, even if only told visually.

When it comes to the playable characters, though, you have four options: Dust Guy, Dust Girl, Dust Kid, and Dustworth. When I first started playing, I assumed the differences between the character were strictly aesthetic, because there is no indication anywhere that they are any different at all. This is deceit—they are VASTLY different in how they play. Without getting into the details, basically: Dust Guy and Dust Girl are similar (the “neutral” characters); Dust Kid has shorter jumps and has a shorter reach with her double-duster swipes, but can air-jump twice instead of just a single time; Dustworth jumps RIDICULOUSLY high and has the longest reach with his vacuum blast, but doesn’t move as quickly as the others. In the early parts of the game, I favored Dust Kid when I learned she could air-jump twice, and she was my comfort-character for most of the game. But when I started getting serious about SSing all the courses, I readjusted to the mop-wielding Dust Girl, because I liked her aesthetic more, and I liked the feel of her movement and developed a strong intuitive sense of it after a while.

The game’s progression works pretty well. When you first start the game, you start in a sort of hub world full of mostly locked doors, and to open them you must complete other levels to obtain the necessary keys: better score means more keys. There are 4 tiers demonstrated by the color of the lock: there’s open, Bronze, Silver, and then Gold, and each tier holds greater challenges than the previous one. The jumps in difficulty were usually tough but fair, with a few exceptions where some silver doors felt like gold ones. I could feel myself getting better at the game as I played, which was great. More often than I not, I felt like failures were my own fault rather than the game being unfair, and that I just needed to improve my skills rather than overcome a design flaw. After some time spent playing the more difficult courses and practicing the mechanics, it was super gratifying going back to older levels and easily SSing them.

I learned after my playthrough that when the game was first released, the open-tier doors didn’t exist—it started with the bronze tier levels, but players were having such a tough time getting into the game, the devs ultimately developed more beginner-friendly courses to help ease players into the game a bit better. I definitely agree with this move—even some of the open doors were tough for me when I was first getting started. But I do think some of this could have been remedied by better explaining how the game works in the tutorials. I forgot to mention that they do not explicitly tell you even how the grading system works; I learned what a combo was only because of stream viewers who knew better than I.

I definitely ran into my fair share of issues when it came to the mechanics of the game; fortunately for me, I streamed the entire playthrough, so I was almost never on my own. I was blessed with several appearances by veteran Dustforce players stopping by and providing their expertise, helping me better understand how the game works and how to better utilize the controller to make my characters do the things I wanted them to do.

One of my biggest pain points was ceiling-sliding/running. This is a mechanic where, if you get enough speed, you’re supposed to be able to run along the ceiling for an impressive distance. For the longest time, I had so much trouble with this. I think it was partially because, in Dustforce, the “up” key on the directional pad is technically used more like a button key than it is a direction key—what I mean by this is that the up button acts as more of an “initiation” key that causes your character to essentially enter a new mode of movement—either running up a wall, or running along a ceiling—that sort of magnetized you to the nearest wall or ceiling. So while using “up” to run up a wall was fairly intuitive for me, because pressing it causes the character to move the direction I was pressing, I was having tremendous trouble going from “attach to ceiling with up button” to “run along the ceiling with left or right button” and often found myself just sticking to the ceiling and not going anywhere. It was very frustrating, and while I knew it was possible to do, I had no idea where to even start correcting the way I was pressing the buttons.

The community, by the way, was incredibly friendly and welcoming. I got the sense that Dustforce players LOVE seeing new people play the game, because everyone who likes Dustforce really loves Dustforce, and wants others to enjoy it and share their excitement for it. Big shoutout to Skyhawk, HolyKau, BrotherMojo, hgtw, and anyone else who stopped by and provided guidance when I was hitting a wall (literally). I really do not believe I could have gotten through without the help.

Once I did start getting comfortable with the game, I started feeling sometimes like I was playing a 2D fighting game rather than a platformer: it really requires very precise and specific button combinations in order to perform a lot of the movements in the game, which made me think of my early days of Killer Instinct for the SNES, trying to input the commands needed for an Ultra Combo. If you know, you know.

The more I got into the game, the more I noticed little things that started bothering me immensely as I encountered them more and more; one such thing is spikes and hitboxes. There were countless times when my character was visibly nowhere near a spike, but the game registered as being hit. Then there were other times when I was visibly going through spikes, and the game was perfectly happy to let me pass as though my body should not have been torn asunder. It was inconsistent, which, in a game that already demands such delicacy and precision, is not great. It was, in fact, infuriating at times.

Beginner players would benefit from more thorough explanations of the mechanics present in the game, which could be better explained during the tutorial: tell us how the characters differ, explain a little more about how momentum works, give a more detailed account of ceiling-running, provide a description of how the grading system and combos work, and help players out a bit more with understanding how to gain speed from a slope! One thing that helped me the most was seeing what’s possible by watching other players; I found that once I knew what I could and should be doing, it was much easier to have the patience in figuring out how to do it. Heck, maybe even have demos during the game’s tutorial where you see a ghost character do the thing, and then you have to do it. Most of the time, even knowing how to get past a particular section in a course is not enough, because you still have to perform. Having to figure out certain mechanics are even possible just presents an unnecessary hurdle for players when the game is difficult enough, even when you have that knowledge.

But its shortcomings were nowhere near enough to give me an overall bad experience. I genuinely enjoyed my Dustforce playthrough. The art style, the music, the concept, and the execution were all masterfully done, and the community is wholesome and encouraging. It’s a challenging platformer with some brutal gauntlets that will test your gaming prowess and your patience, but only if you’re determined to SS each level. It’s entirely possible to just get through each course to see what the game has to offer, which I highly recommend doing if you have any appreciation for 2D platformers. That was my original plan—to just complete each level regardless of the score—but when I found out that the only way to access the final group of levels was to SS every course in the game…my plans changed. I did not SS the extra levels hidden behind the red doors, but I did complete them all, and I’m happy with that, even if they all have a D rating. I’m proud of SSing all the gold doors, and I even snagged myself a world record! I completed one course in under 1 second. No, that is not a joke.

I’ll end this review by saying: most of the music in this game slaps. Hard. That first song I heard set reasonable expectations for the rest of the OST. There were maybe 1 or 2 tracks I wasn’t super big on, but damn. If you don’t plan on playing the game any time soon, at least go listen to that music, because it’s great.

[kingdomofbretonxrpg]

Congratulations, Steph! We are delighted to welcome Taney Hana to beautify (and sleep with) the citizens of the Kingdom of Breton. Please complete our after acceptance checklist. We are looking forward to seeing you develop her! Please send in her blog within 48 hours.

Out of Character

Alias: Steph (or Natty if you already have a Steph)

Preferred Pronouns: She/Her

Age: 31

Timezone: EST (US)

Anything else? I’m a teacher so while I will likely be extremely active this month that will change Aug. - May. Though I anticipate I should still be able to meet activity requirements, if that changes I won’t ghost, I’ll communicate what’s going on.

Character

Name: Taney Hana - She does not use her last name, but if she needs one: Derrien (you can change that if you’d like)

Birthdate and Age: 17 April + 31 years old

Preferred Pronouns: She/Her

Faceclaim: Rooney Mara

House Affiliation: Anjou

Profession: Owner of a exclusive private tattoo parlor, Asmodeus, Artist + Tattooist

Claim: Unclaimed

Children: None

Designation: Dominant

Sexuality: Identifies as “sexual” but we can call it pansexual if we need a deeper label

What is their symbol?: Has a sword with roses tattooed on the back of her right arm, but she has a lot of tattoos, so she’ll usually also wear earrings, necklaces, and rings with swords. If she’s wearing any shield symbol it would still have swords paired with it.

Kinks: Everything.

Anti-kinks: Taney’s never tried anything she didn’t enjoy and is open to trying anything 3 times before giving up on it. However, I’m not willing to write any play with bodily fluids other than blood; pretending to be adult/parent-child/step-child, incest, stepcest, etc.; pretending anything involving being a minor or assaulted. If the mun writing opposite wants to post a canon that their character came over and they pretended they were in some professor-student ‘give me an A if I xyz,” then they have my permission to godmod.

Biography:

There comes a time in every person’s youth when they go from playing with toys and being carefree to learning about the real world and worrying about something or other. For Taney, that happened a bit earlier than it had for everyone else. Her father was less than discrete when it came to cheating on his claim. Those submissives weren’t all completely competent, either. When it came time to put him in line, the man was nowhere to be found. His claim was left home alone with Taney and her older sister, Whitney. The shame of it all seemed to be unrelenting, taking a major toll on the girls’ mother. As submissive after submissive from every city he ever took a ‘business trip’ to seemed to pop into their lives looking for Master Derrien - some of which had children, it was Whit who took on the responsibility of raising Taney. It was saying a lot. Taney had always been a handful and as she went into school it was of little surprise that she’d be in near-constant trouble those first few years. At first, she wouldn’t stand for anyone speaking ill of her father, then her mother, then her sister or herself. Eventually everyone got what she was putting down, but nevertheless, it forced her to grow up.

When she was fifteen, nine years later, her father turned up for an unannounced visit. With no words exchanged about her mother and the obvious arrival during that transition time between school and when she would get home from work, Taney would later look on that moment and think that she should have known things were going to go down hill. Taney had already changed a bit and become very independent as that was the only way to survive a friendless childhood where your family name was known all too well. She took to sketching, drawing on herself in class, rarely doing anything she was told. Bad behaviors only made worse when, in these secret visits, her father tried to convince her that she could go live with him in the City of Lights with a new mother that would love her very much. He went on about it and tried to explain arranged claims to her, it wasn’t the first time she’d thought about love and the dom/sub dynamic, but she had learned right from wrong. It also helped that Whitney didn’t seem to be buying into a word he said either. Pulling a knife and lighter, she kept on her person in case she ran away and needed it, Taney stabbed his hand and lit his sleeve on fire. The punishment for the attack was both literal and social. People either admired her or feared her and, with some unwilling therapy, she was lucky enough to face long term repercussions for the attack- mostly because it led to the delayed punishment of her father.

With money running low, Whit joined her mother and had taken up a job at Castlebrac while Taney bounced around from school to school. Simply put, it wasn’t enough to cover their father’s debts and mother’s habits. Once Taney was of age she made the decision, albeit one her mother and sister would deem to be ungrateful, and dropped out of school to complete a general education degree and get out of dodge. Taney had very little knowledge of the ‘real world’; she had practically no ambitions. Nevertheless, the desire to walk away from Breton and never look back seemed more appealing than anything else. So she waitressed, did an office admin gig, played guitar in a mediocre cover band for weddings, this and that, until she’d saved up a decent amount of money. Moving to California for a while she lived on the streets and sold her body for drugs and money. State by state and country to country, she said she’d try her luck in some place new and always did put in a decent effort- at least at first. Taney worked as a bartender, tattoo artist, mechanic, technician, and drug dealer as she made her way around the globe, a young woman consumed by wanderlust and living in hostels or cheap motels until the money ran out.

Taney arrived in New York at twenty-four and it would be the first place she managed to live a whole year. Something about putting down roots encouraged her to spend every bit of strength to stay sober and clean, smoking and drinking remaining her only vices. Noted as short tempered but sweet once you got to know her, Taney was the hostess at a bondage bar in the city called Paddles. Though her everyday look wasn’t as rough and tough as it used to be when she lived on the streets, she still had a very particular air about her- especially when she was at work, and sometimes when she’s not- particularly in the bedroom. Her ability to flirt (or taunt) people into curiosity led to two things, a career change back into sexwork and an unaddressed addiction to something more taboo. However, after an unsavory interaction with a famous client, the company offered an exorbitantly large settlement, giving her an opportunity she never thought she would have. The settlement meant more than an opportunity to travel or leave the job, it was her ticket home.

Feeling like the runaway gig was officially a bust, she tried to reach out to her family in Breton. Whit was the one that told her their mother was ‘gone’ and left it at that. The bitterness of being left behind never sat right with Whitney and the chasm between the sisters only grew when Taney offered her part of the settlement as a way for Whitney to find her own path. Whitney agreed to take what Taney was offering, claiming that it would help her settle some debts. Then, while Taney decided how she wanted to make her way back to Breton, she got a call from a member of House Anjou. Whitney was missing, debts certainly not paid and when she’d been told her mother was ‘gone’ it was a similar scenario. Taney settled into more traveling rather than going back. Maybe a part of her was looking for the family that abandoned her- or she’d abandoned. All the while she honed her craft as a tattooist, growing a clientele through social media and word of mouth. After half a decade of tying up the loose ends her family left behind, Taney bought a small shop with a two bedroom flare over it. Breton, despite all the bad memories she’d had there, was home.

Asmodeus didn’t open as soon as she’d bought the place. Taney had a lot of work to do fixing it up and used this as an excuse to ‘come back quietly’. For the most part she assumed people didn’t remember her, the little sister of the ruined family. Everyone except her had some sort of track record. That wait was spent coding her website, posting promos, and perfecting her watercolor technique and improving her skills in the other styles she had learned in her travels that clients may want. There were some circumstances in between that truly changed her life, a gaslighting non-committal relationship where she saw the person she thought she could open up to show their true colors, casting doubt on her trust in the concept of love and commitment once more. Taney truthfully knew she wasn’t the typical person to catch feelings for. She was promiscuous and happy about it, volatile and reckless, and eccentrically honest. There were just two people outside of her family that could claim to have ever known her beyond the surface and she’d wholly burnt those bridges upon her departure from their respective cities. In her stubbornness refusing to become shackled by societal norms and labels. Though she’s very obviously happier than she’s ever been, she still struggles with her health, including sex addiction, and trusting people- let alone letting anyone in. Many have tried, no one has succeeded or come out unscathed. Be careful what you wish for, if you’re curious to get to know her, she’s likely to pounce- as she’s equal parts sarcasm, quick wit, and horny as hell… a place which she’s inarguably the Queen.

[zak-animation]

Introduction to Showreel Project

Our final project assignment explores the idea of a showreel in the animation industry: looking at professional examples, and creating our own. For this, we will be creating an edited showreel to a soundtrack of our choice, showcasing our work created this year on the course. The assignment gives us the opportunity to finalize, present and reflect on all of the project work we have produced during these first two units - giving us the chance to go back and work into older projects that we are not happy with.

With this, we will gain an introduction to the post-production process and produce an edited showreel lasting between 75 - 90 seconds in duration, set to a soundtrack of our choice. Our first opportunity to develop a showreel, this will allow us to present our work in a professional manner whilst also demonstrating knowledge of the showreel form. The final piece will be presented as a showcase of our developing skills within a range of animation specialisms. As we have covered a range of animation techniques, we have produced work over a variety of specialisms and as such, this will present a generalist showreel.

Project Deliverables:

Showreel – A moving image sequence presenting a selection of your First Year projects from BA1a and BA1b, edited to a soundtrack. This can include Character Designs & Life Drawing examples. 75 – 90 seconds. Quick Time Movie. 


Research Portfolio Review and evaluation of professional industry standard showreels. Three successful examples and three unsuccessful examples. 


Reflective Journal a PDF extracted from your research portfolio containing weekly summaries of the Showreel project. 


Final critical evaluation with a suggested word count of 250 words.

We are reminded to select our strongest work and reflect our future interests in animation study. It’s more beneficial to have a shorter animation showreel with strong pieces rather than a long showreel with weak work added in. Additionally to animated work, we are able to include research and development pieces such as life drawing, concept art and any other sketching could also feature in our showreel.

With this project, it’s important that we choose a suitable soundtrack - that we choose music that reflects us as a personal brand and not simply music that we find cool. There has to be some excitement and interest in the soundtrack choice, but ultimately it should represent our own working atmosphere and fit the overall tone of our portfolio. This means that we need to consider any issues that may be associated with using copyrighted sound or images and to remember to credit the artist in the showreel itself. It is encouraged that we avoid using music with lyrics for a few reasons: namely, it could distract from the work and is much more likely to cause copyright issues than a purely instrumental track. Interestingly, we can also add spot sound effects where we deem appropriate to bring some of our silent works alive.

Naturally, we are expected to develop a research portfolio on our blogs into the use of showreels in the animation industry. For this, we will be reviewing a variety of professional industry standard animation showreels, analyzing the format and presentation of the work. I will be looking at six industry showreels, and exploring why some of them are effective and some not so much, noting down any reoccurring techniques or problems in each one as a way to develop my understanding of a successful showreel.

In the process of building a showreel, we will be reflecting on our personal learning experience and selecting animation work that reflects our specific areas of interest within our studies: developing an ability to collate and curate our own work for professional presentation.

Initial Response This seems like an interesting project to close our first year with, I think. The ability to curate our own work is something key to our development as industry professionals and developing a showreel is a great opportunity to review the work we’ve created so far, and present it in a considered, professional manner. Having looked at a few showreels already throughout these first two units, I have a few ideas on which reels to analyze and as such, have a good starting point for this project already.

The most important and exciting part of this assignment to me, though, is the opportunity to go back and work into older projects. Having been given an extended period of time to submit all of our current projects, I want to take this as a chance to return to previous assignments and work back into them. My initial character walk cycle was severely lacking, I feel, and I plan to take a week over the Easter break to give my Guess the Film task a new coat of paint: adding textures, and reworking some of the illustrations to present a more exciting animated sequence that is working to more of an industry standard. I feel this has the potential to be one of my strongest pieces, and want to develop it further whilst I have the chance.  

Having had the chance to create several showreels before this project, I have been able to gain some experience within this area and am quite comfortable working within an editing suite such as Premiere. I feel as if I will be able to develop an exciting and professional showreel, as I already have an understanding of appealing design and the basic principles of creating a successful showreel from past experiences.

Summary As a whole, this seems to be a fun project to end the year on and gives me the opportunity to go back and improve on my early work, pieces that I’m not exactly happy with and know I can develop on further. With the submission date being in May, I feel like I will be able to complete this assignment in the last few weeks before submission. As a result, I will be taking the following weeks as an opportunity to develop my own practical work within my various other projects in preparation for presentation in the final showreel.

It’s never too early to be considering the look and feel of the reel, however, and my next move for this assignment will be to begin exploring the potential soundtrack choices I could utilize for this project, and gather a series of professional showreels to analyze on this blog.

References:

REEL 2018. (2018). Yino Huan.  https://www.yinohuan.com/reel-2018

Showreel 2018. (2018). Ben Marriott.  https://vimeo.com/258567315

3D Character & Creature Modelling Reel. (2011). Justin Romeiro.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mc4I8AD5OUo&t=2s