#and 4 levels higher than i've gotten one since

[firstruleofmethclub]

Gimly's D&D 5E Player Characters - #7

Name: Astra Harrowe, the Wolf Spider

Race: Half-Moon Elf

Class: Seeker Warlock x. Whispers Bard

Background: Courtier

Ability Modifiers: +5 Charisma; -2 Strength

Campaign: The Lost Mines of Phandelver campaign I had originally played as Tree in began to spin off into a bigger thing with at least two whole extra campaign books thrown in, and Tree had kind of run her course, so I asked if I could bring in a character of my own creation, and thus, Astra.

Backstory: Astra was a Harper agent who had been installed in a small castle, posing as a courtier to learn its goings on and return information to the Harpers, and ensure that their values are being upheld there.

She was recently reassigned to Phandalin to quietly investigate rumours that the Lords Alliance have seized unwarranted control of the town, and that Order of the Gauntlet agents had also been dispatched there. Her orders were to discover if these other factions intend simply to provide aid the town of Phandalin, as had been suggested, and if so, to assist them as best she could. If however their motives are to use hostility to take Phandalin as their own territory, she is to report back to the Harpers immediately, and co-ordinate their downfall.

[danieyells]

care to spoil any interesting dialogue Haku has when you reach higher affinity levels? Would love to know!

Haku's so. . .normal, it's kinda cute? Lol. But yeah I'm pretty down for that! I wanted to share one of these things but held my tongue lolol but since you're asking here're some of the ones that were more interesting or otherwise appealing to me!

I've amended this post to be all of Haku's home screen lines. Enjoy!

Hello: (the first time the game is opened after that character is set as home screen NPC. Only happens once per day, unless the character is switched out and back.)

"Oh, finally here, huh? I'm not really ready for you yet though... Ha ha. Wait over there for me, would you?"

You've Got Mail: (whenever there's something in the inbox, usually Arena rewards)

"Oh, looks like you've got a letter. If you don't open it soon, I might sneak a peek."

Default: (requires no affinity, has no time constraints)

"How's the search for clues about your curse going? Don't put too much pressure on yourself. If you ever want to talk, I'm happy to listen."

"Most people in Hotarubi have something they put their heart and soul into. That doesn't really work for me though. I lose interest in things way too easily."

"What are you doing here? Don't tell me you've gotten yourself mixed up in something again."

this is a very funny one to have him say when i use the sinostra casino as my home screen bg

"Haha. Don't expect too much from me. Ghouls are just glorified street magicians, really. Let's keep it light, huh?"

'glorified street magicians' is a hell of a way to describe. . .a lot of the stigmas we've got going here lmao

"Boo! Ha ha, didn't think you'd get that scared. I was just getting rid of the shadow imp that was sticking to your back... I'm kidding! There was nothing there, I promise."

Affinity 1: (between 5am and 11am)

"...So, how about we take a walk? This dorm's seen better days, so it's tough work checking all the places that need repairs."

Affinity 2: (between 11am and 4pm)

"You've adjusted to life at Darkwick pretty well, haven't you? Not that anomalies and missions are something you'd want to get used to..."

Affinity 3: (between 4pm and 8pm)

"Today doesn't really work for me... I'm going to be getting back to the dorm pretty late, so can we do tomorrow instead?"

Affinity 4: (between 8pm and 5am)

"...Hate to be the one to tell you this, but there's something untoward lingering behind you. Don't look! Hah, I was just kidding. It was just a little dust, see?"

Affinity 5: (between 8pm and 5am)

"Twilight has been a lot quieter than usual today... I hope that's not a bad sign."

Affinity 6: (between 4pm and 8pm)

"Subaru's just too nice. Keeping all the eccentrics in Hotarubi in check's gotta be rough."

Affinity 7: (between 11am and 4pm)

"Everyone here comes from different backgrounds and has different gifts. There's no reason you should feel out of place."

'we're all unique, including the most ordinary among us.' good lesson!

Affinity 8: (between 4pm and 8pm)

"Looks we're going to make it through today without any disasters. At least I hope so."

Affinity 9: (between 8pm and 5am)

"What are you doing out here? You shouldn't walk around at night with your guard down. Don't come crying to me if you get possessed by a fox spirit, you hear?"

Affinity 10: (between 10pm and midnight)

"Your parents ever tell you ghosts would get you if you don't go to bed? For some reason Zenji's the only one who gets spooked when I say that..."

after the reveal that zenji is a ghost this is so funny actually I LOVE THAT ZENJI IS A GHOST WHO'S AFRAID OF GHOSTS AND THE DARK.

Affinity 11: (between 5am and 11am)

"All these geniuses and their lectures are giving me heartburn. Wouldn't mind hearing the woes of someone long-suffering instead every once in a while."

(this sounds cruel but from what i can tell in Japanese he says he'd rather hear stories about hard workers/people who struggled from the bottom than prodigies. Basically he's more interested in, y'know, ordinary folks than people who're really special.)

Affinity 12: (between 11am and 4pm)

"That video I took of Zenji today? I'm just going to do some quick editing and post it. I don't know why he doesn't just focus on content that's more his style..."

Affinity 13: (between 4pm and 8pm)

"I saw Tohma a little while ago. Been a while since we last had a real chat. Sounds like he's got his hands full, as always."

so i initially left this one out of this post because i didn't think much of it but. . .the way Haku regards Tohma is so much more casual than Tohma regards Haku in retrospect, it seems. To Haku, Tohma's just the usual hard worker. Someone he'd actually enjoy having a conversation with. But Tohma speaks to Haku almost as if with suspicion or disdain. . .then again he speaks kind of coldly to Jin too. Maybe that's just how he is with people he kind of knows or views as more on his level. Or it's something more sinister. Who knows.

Affinity 14: (between 5am and 11am)

"Mornin'. You've got a sleep mark on your face. Yeah, right there. Good to know you got a good night's rest."

Affinity 15: (between 5am and 11am)

"You haven't collected all the papers that were supposed to be submitted by today's deadline yet? Who are you waiting on? Got it. I'll go get them for you."

Affinity 16: (between 11am and 4pm)

"I don't mean to scare you, but... be careful with your right leg. Especially when you're in the main building."

Affinity 17: (between 10pm and midnight)

"Getting cold feet when you try to jump into the deep end is just proof you're a normal human being. We're the crazy ones."

Affinity 18: (between 8pm and 5am)

"Can't sleep? In that case, let's go for a little walk. There's actually something I want to talk to you about."

pretty high affinity to be having chats on night walks. . .i wonder what he wanted to talk about.

Affinity 19: (between 10pm and midnight)

"Just having someone you care about at your side is all you really need... Ha ha. That was a little out of character, huh? My bad."

Affinity 20: (between 5am and 11am)

"Oh, you're awake. I was just about to make some tea to wake myself up. Want some?"

Affinity 21: (between 11am and 4pm)

"It's not very often I get to kick back like this in the middle of the day. Maybe I'll take a nap."

Affinity 22: (between 4pm and 8pm)

"None of us wanted to become like this. Living an ordinary life, and dying an ordinary death— why go after more than that?"

He just wants to be normal. And he can't. It's kinda tragic lol

Affinity 23: (between 8pm and 5am)

"(Yawn) Oh, didn't see you there. Haha... Guess I've been letting my sleep debt build up. I'm going to bed."

Affinity 24: (between 10pm and midnight)

"Being cursed really sucks, huh? You can't help but ask yourself, "Why me?" all the time, even when you know it's a question with no answer."

Affinity 25(max): (no time constraints)

"I know I'm being selfish— but sometimes, I wish you'd just forget about me..."

WHY. . .ARE YOU THE SUS ONE AND YOU FEEL BAD THAT YOU'LL BETRAY THEM? DO YOU JUST FEEL LIKE YOU'RE TOO LUCKY HAVING HAD FALLEN FOR SOMEONE NORMAL WHEN YOU KNOW YOU'RE NOT NORMAL ANYMORE? DO YOU FEEL LIKE THE PC DESERVES SOMEONE NORMAL AND TO BE ABLE TO GO BACK TO A NORMAL LIFE BUT BEING WITH YOU GUARANTEES THEY WON'T? WHY DO YOU WANT THEM TO FORGET YOU. . .he's so interesting to me simply because of how much he tries to keep himself apart from his being a ghoul(and, y'know, seeing spirits and shit--) so he can try and just be any other guy. . .and he can't lol his surroundings, who and what he is, he can't go back to being normal! It's a charming way to have a boy next door sort of personality i think lol

Spring: (March-May) (between 5am and 11am)

"I've been noticing more birds in the garden lately. Is that a bush warbler? A white-eye, maybe? A lot going on during spring in Hotarubi."

Boy knows his birbs.

(between 11am and 4pm)

"Heading into another nice, warm afternoon. Maybe I should take a nap...? Oops, nearly forgot I promised Zenji I'd film him."

(between 4pm and 8pm)

"Must be nice being a ghost—no hayfever, and no hangovers. Spring really is the embodiment of human weakness."

How drunk did you get last night buddy. . . .

(between 8pm and 5am)

"My family home is pretty famous in our area for its cherry blossoms... When I was a kid, my friends and I used to go exploring through them at night."

Summer: (June-August) (between 5am and 11am)

"It's so humid... Days like this make me miss Frostheim..."

He's former Frostheim! Maybe that's why he and Tohma seem to have some history. There's also Jin's friend who left that Tohma helped to switch houses. . .but Haku was a second year then so would he have needed it?

(between 11am and 4pm)

"Today, I've got to go round and check the stalls for the festival Hotarubi is holding— wouldn't want any dangerous charlatans sneaking their way in."

(between 4pm and 8pm)

"Zenji's off roaming around somewhere again... People are more sensitive this time year, so I wish he'd just stay put..."

AGAIN, BEFORE WE LEARNED HE WAS A GHOST I READ THIS AND THOUGHT PEOPLE HE MEANT LIKE. . .SENSITIVE EMOTIONALLY TO NOISE AND ZENJI'S BIWA PLAYING. I DID NOT REALIZE THAT HE WAS WORRIED PEOPLE WOULD REALIZE ZENJI WAS THERE.

(between 8pm and 5am)

"You're not going to wear a yukata? Eh, I just thought it'd be cute to see. That's the kind of thing guys think about, don't know what else to tell you."

It reads like he's a little disappointed the girl he's into friends with isn't gonna wear something he thinks is cute lol

Autumn: (September-November) (between 5am and 11am)

"They say fall is the season of the arts, but I'm a really mediocre flute player. I'm about as uncultured as you can get."

funny thing for an ex-frostheimer to say.

(between 11am and 4pm)

"You can hear the biwa, right? He's been going for three hours now. People are going to start getting pissed off, so I'll go tell him to stop soon."

(between 4pm and 8pm)

"Nightfall can catch you unaware this time of year. It'll be dark soon, so let me know when you're planning to head home. I'll walk you back to the cathedral."

(between 8pm and 5am)

"It's a stunner of a night. Maybe I'll grab a drink and do a little moon gazing."

don't drink too much you're trying to quit smoking, the solution isn't to replace it with another addiction--

Winter: (December-February) (between 5am and 11am)

"You'll catch a cold dressed like that. It's already pretty chilly out there, you know... Here, take my coat."

(between 11am and 4pm)

"Winter rain really chills you to the bone. Sorry, walking through the garden must be rough for you this time of year. Come a little closer."

I'm a bit of a sucker for huddling together in the cold lol

(between 4pm and 8pm)

"It's cold again today. Now that I think of it, Subaru said he wanted to make hotpot with everyone. Guess I'll go grab some things and make it happen."

(between 8pm and 5am)

"Your hands hurt because of the cold? Let me see. Oh yeah, your fingertips are all red. Here, stick them in my pockets."

Is that your flute in your pocket or are you completely unaffected by the cold

His birthday: (July 26th)

"Wait, you got me a birthday present? You're so conscientious. Oh, I didn't mean it in a bad way. Thanks, I appreciate it."

Your birthday:

"Hey, come over here a sec. Here. It's nothing special, but I got you a something. Today's your birthday, right?"

why is this worded like he's asking you to come into a shady alley in secret to give you a birthday gift lmao

New Years: (January 1st)

"Happy New Year. I know it's a cliché, but I hope this year's a good one for you."

Valentine's Day: (February 14th)

"Whoa, chocolate? I didn't think you'd give them to me too. Guess I better think of something good to get you in return."

White Day: (March 14th)

"Here, for the chocolate you got me last month. I wasn't sure what you'd like, so I got the ones I remember you said were good."

April Fool's Day: (April 1st)

"A bunch of spirits have been following you around all day, are you okay? Psych, just kidding. Seriously, I was joking, I swear."

Halloween: (October 31st)

"Looks like you've had your fair share of tricks today. I'll narrow down your options and just make it a treat, then."

Christmas: (December 25th)

"You look like you're having fun. Do you have a present for me, Little Miss Santa? Haha, I'm just kidding. Here you go. Merry Christmas."

Idle: (about 20 seconds without interacting with the game) (below 13 affinity)

"...Hey, you alive? Not much point me just standing here waiting around. Guess I'll take off."

(13 affinity and above)

"I know I look like a slacker, but I do have stuff to do. Guess I'll nap till she gets back."

Absent: (logging in for the first time in 2 or more days?)

"Hey there, stranger. Everyone's missed you, you know. ...Even I was starting to get a little worried."

Those're the ones that're most interesting to me I think! 'u' there are some that aren't up there though, like some of the ones that show him being responsible and worrying about his teammates haha. Hope you don't mind my little commentary here and there!

A while later and I've amended this post to include all of the home screen voicelines, not just the ones that appealed to me most in that moment! Haku's interesting in how. . .normal he is. Aside from the seeing spirits and things anyway lmao. He's just a casual flirt who wants to escape the abnormality that his becoming a ghoul got him. I feel like his lines don't really reveal anything about him. . .but also 19 in particular feels. . .a little lonely? Maybe because of how he had to leave Frostheim, he doesn't really feel as connected to the Hotarubi ghouls yet, compared to how he was with Jin before? Or, if he is the spy, he feels like all of his relationships are fake. . .and man that 'I wish you'd just forget about me' line is sad but also SO SUSPICIOUS. WHO SAYS THAT IF THEY DON'T PLAN ON LEAVING YOU OR STABBING YOU IN THE BACK.

[friezaglasiencold]

Hello, my lord! I have a few questions for you today. 1. When you went to earth (mechanized and all) with your father, and the odd purple haired male appeared and turned into a super saiyan, your father was killed before he could transform. Do you think that your father could have defeated that super Saiyan if given the chance to unleash more power? Say, his assault/3rd form or his final form? 2. How much damage does it take until you cant transform? For example, can you still transform if you're in your 2nd form and you get a hole blasted in you (A small one to be specific), is transformation still possible? 3. In your 2nd form, the bald one cut off your tail, but when you transformed again, it grew back. Is your kind capable of regeneration to some odd degree? 4. Did your father ever have a significant other? 5. Wouldn't it be funny if the super Saiyan who cut you into pieces was vegeta's tween offspring? *Whistle* 6. Have you come across any weird time chambers that have a weird time anomaly, where time moves slower on the inside than it does on the outside? Why don't you train for 12 years In there to obtain a new powerful form to make sure your power is uncontested in the universe? 7. So if your 1st, 2nd, and 3rd forms are more suppressed states.. And your "final" form is your base state to some degree, does your race make transformations like 5th and golden, or are they natural to your race, like how the great ape is natural to the Saiyan's? Thank you for your time, my lord!

You're so inquisitive about my transformations... must be a changeling chaser. Classic. Still, I'll humor you out of kindness, despite your list being gluttonously long, since you're one of the only people I've known to remember that my lower forms have their own names and I'm tickled to see that sort of enthusiastic recall. Here you are:

No. My father's power level would have read as higher than mine as we approached Earth, but that was a mere bluff. Much as one can suppress their battle strength to make it appear smaller, one can make it appear larger, and he had a habit of bloating it artificially, like a bird fluffing its feathers. It was smothering, even long before I learned to sense others' ki.

The process requires a great deal of physical strain, and it's difficult to stop once I've gotten started. I could try to transform in such a state, but I'd probably lose a fair bit of blood in the process if the injury were anywhere vital; that said, if I could complete the transformation, the accelerated healing would regenerate some of the damage, so it'd be a tossup whether the ordeal would be worth the risk.

As mentioned above... smaller injuries are easy to heal during transformation, because my body is already undergoing so much rapid change. The end of my tail is designed to be able to drop on its own, so it's particularly simple to regrow; if it had been an arm or a leg, I might not have been so lucky.

No. Just a gaggle of favorite escorts.

No, it wouldn't. I'll try not to be concerned by how specific that scenario is.

Also bizarrely specific, and no, I haven't. Twelve years is such a long time, too... how about ten?

My Golden form is unique to me, as Cooler's hideous 'fifth' form is to him. It's an uncommon practice, but with enough training most people of Arcosian descent can engineer a new form for themselves, though not many have the power to pull it off.

Hope that satisfies your curiosities.

[call-me-copycat]

What do you think each rooftop squad was like in high school? This isn't Aizawa exclusively, it is him plus his friends.

Sorry if I'm reading this wrong, but are you asking what they all were like? If I'm wrong feel free to send another ask! (⁠；⁠^⁠ω⁠^⁠）

Shota:

Before meeting Shirakumo and Hizashi he appeared to be a bit of a loner

Definitely strikes me as someone who dealt with confidence issues, he never really looked too eager to be in class (considering how much work it is to get into the Hero course, naturally everyone there would be the most motivated individuals you could get, so he sticks out)

He probably got these issues from his quirk - I'm going to assume that having a quirk that can't do anything but take away other quirks (which children are extremely fond of their 'gifts' when getting them) wouldn't be the most... Popular

Not really shy per say, just quiet and antisocial

I saw that meeting Shirakumo and Hizashi was just what he needed, a welcoming and motivating environment so he could break out of his shell a bit

Sad to see him retreat back into it after Shirakumo's incident :⁠-⁠(

Hizashi:

Very excitable, the type to feel very strongly

As much of a goofball as he may be, many forget that he's in the hero course at one of the best schools in Japan - he's extremely smart!

We know that he knew Shirakumo before they both met Aizawa, so he probably matched Shirakumo's energy as well ⁠(⁠๑⁠¯⁠◡⁠¯⁠๑⁠)

He's a goodhearted kid, definitely very observant

I feel like hanging around Shirakumo so much lead to him putting his friends lives and feelings on a higher pedestal than his own - this is definitely seen after Shirakumo's death

He's the support friend, the friend that was always there for Aizawa to lean on

Many tend to push him to the sidelines, but I believe he's a much deeper character than we get to see ♪⁠～⁠(⁠´⁠ε⁠｀⁠ ⁠)

Shirakumo:

I have never seen such a "perfect" character other than Mirio and Deku

He likes sunshine and certainly acts like it (о´∀`о)

He's shown to be very caring and compassionate, so I'd say he's a high empathy person, also most likely very observant

Hearing that his grades weren't "anything to write home about" I like to think he's more of a hands-on type guy, preferring actual combat training than being in class

I don't think he even knows what shame feels like honestly - I've never seen him flustered or embarrassed, he's very open and extremely easy to read (most would probably know that I'm referring to that time he started changing clothes in front of his class)

I like to think he's drawn to challenges, hence why he probably set out to be friends with Shota. Shota stuck out like a sore thumb and avoided most social interaction, and Shirakumo, ever the one to want to help everyone and drawn to challenge, set his eyes on him

So naturally Hizashi must've gotten tangled in as well

He's also a very interesting character, ahh I wish we saw more of him! I really like Shirakumo!

Rooftop Trio Overall:

With Hizashi and his loud nature, Shirakumo and his habit to interact with everyone and everything, and with Shota sticking out with his antisocial demeanor, I wouldn't be surprised if these guys were the stars of the class

Even if that meant they were a bit infamous

I cannot see their classmates liking them that much, Hizashi's loud and blunt, Shirakumo's shameless in every sense, and Shota's off-putting and cold. They probably knew how they were seen as well (^^;) They wouldn't be hated per say, but rather a mild annoyance

I had a group like these guys in one of my classes that I took for the 4 years I was in highschool (so recently), a loud, good natured group essentially (there were 4, one of them a little quieter like Shota) so in a sense I got to grow with my own rooftop trio :⁠-⁠)

It was an extremely high level class too, which adds on even more since although this group joked and goofed, they were still very smart ^⁠_⁠^

Thanks for the ask! I hope you have a lovely day! (⁠ ⁠╹⁠▽⁠╹⁠ ⁠)

I love these guys so much (⁠╥⁠﹏⁠╥⁠)

[elflikesfrogs]

🐢turtle owners - advice?🐢

I'm getting a turtle in abt 36 hours and feel unprepared so if anyone has experience with turtle care, please give some advice !! I've done a lot of research but just have some questions I can't find answers to. Details under the cut bcuz I'm anxious and have a lot of questions 😭

non turtle owners, if u could rb or boost for greater reach that would b appreciated 🥺🥺

I'm getting a turtle this weekend. She's a 2 year old red eared slider. She was given to me by her previous owner who was no longer able to care for her, and as it was an urgent situation I've had about 4 days to learn absolutely everything that there is to know about turtle/RES care.

I don't know much of her current situation, but she's in a 60 gallon tank right now. The owner is giving me the tank and filter (though I don't know what kind of filter) and potentially some setup stuff, but I'm not really sure what. So, I'm starting at a baseline of zero (plus tank, turtle, and filter) and working from there.

So far I've gotten a water heater from Walmart, although reading the reviews after I got back home, I discovered it was actually really bad quality and basically kills any aquarium that it touches. So... I looked for more higher rated water heaters, and I'm ordering a Cobalt Equatics Neo-Glass 200w heater, and a plastic heater protector to prevent glass shattering. Will the turtle be okay for a few days without heated water? It's arriving Tuesday 20th, and the temperature where I live is around high 60sF-low 80sF right now (during the day). If not, are there solutions to not having a water heater for a short while? (Granted, if the prev owner didn't have a water heater in the first place, I think it's probably okay until I get one, but still!)

I know ideally, I should fill the tank up to the full capacity (60 gal) and have an over-tank basking dock. However, from the photos I've received (shown below) it looks like she's only been in about half tank water with a floating basking dock. I want to ensure she's able to swim around and get to the surface without any strain; how should I go about slowly increasing the water levels?

Substrate: Gravel is too small for her and I'm scared she'll eat them. River rocks, while cool and natural-looking, I've heard are difficult to clean and can be quite loud. So I've decided on either doing a bare bottom tank, or sand substrate. If it's bare bottom, I feel like she'd be bored — I don't quite have all the decorations yet, so it would be a pretty sparse and empty tank — though I know sand makes it more difficult to clean as well. Thoughts?

Decorations: RES's are known for breaking stuff and biting whatever they can get their mouth around. Knowing this, I haven't gotten any decorations yet. I would like to be able to give her decorations she can play with but not have the risk of her eating and swallowing fake plants or whatever. What decoration brands/types are recommended?

Feeding: since she's 2, and still a juvenile (I think), she's mainly been eating protein pellets and freeze dried bugs. I got some basic protein pellets and freeze dried mealworms at Walmart. I've seen conflicting ratios for pellets-veggies-fruit (some saying 50%/40%/10%, others saying 25/65/10, etc) What sort of a nutrition ratio should i be giving a 2 y/o female red eared slider? I do know that I should be giving her no more than the size of her head, and potentially putting her in a second tank for feeding if possible (and making sure to remove any excess food after 15 minutes). Also, for a 2 y/o, I think it's every-day feedings, but if I'm wrong please lmk

Finally here is just a list of all the other things I currently have for the tank, minus the tank and filter itself because I don't know what type they are:

2 lamps, with 13W Aqua Culture Compact Fluorescent bulb for reptiles (UVB), and Aqua Culture 60W incandescent basking bulb.

Digital water thermometer.

Aqua safe water conditioner (I have well water with no chemical filtration, so I think it's not necessary, but bought one anyway.)

Aquarium brush.

Shipping soon: Aquarium-safe sand, water heater & plastic cover.

What else do I need? Water aeration? pH strips? Something else I'm forgetting?

Apologies for the long post. I'm super anxious about getting a pet, and I want to make sure I'm providing her with the absolute best care possible. Obviously, as time goes on (and so do my paychecks) I will be able to upgrade her tank with more features. For now, I'm looking for the absolute basics - how to keep this turtle alive and happy while I learn more about turtle care and eventually help her to thrive.

[sojourner-between-worlds]

A Totally Unbiased* Review of Yugioh Decks I've Played

Welcome back to "Posts No One Asked For" with your host -- me! This may or may not be an attempt to get back into anything at all after a solid four weeks of grief beating me with a stick back into depression. *cough* Anyway...

*Disclaimer: I am not a pro in any sense of the word and I can openly admit some (if not all) of these decks could be better built -- especially since I've gotten better at it the longer I've played but finding the right cards decks later is a pain in Master Duel so I will probably never rebuild any of the older ones -- and that contributes. I don't play competitively so this is based entirely on what I, personally, thought of playing them. Also there is no such thing as an unbiased opinion anyway.

1.Red Dragon Archfiend: Okay, yes, the first deck I built was based on Jack's. I was brand new to playing so I wanted a deck I was at least sort of familiar with so I already knew a bit of what I was supposed to do, strategy-wise, so I could figure out the game itself. RDA and Stardust were in the same pack (I think? I went for both at any rate, but this was...years ago at this point) so I went that route and ended up with more RDA-oriented cards so that was the deck I built. I very quickly learned the appeal of a Power Deck strategy and why Jack loved it. Especially considering later support like the (currently banned) King Calamity evolution of RDA. Overall, super fun and easy to pick up combos. Rating lower than maybe it should be simply because I know I could build it better now (if I had the time and patience to dig up the right cards) but still plenty high because even poorly built it still functioned successfully. 8/10

2.Lightsworn+Chaos: Admittedly, I fell in love with this combo with a very old and cringe-y OC I made way back in the day. This was her deck, and I wanted to make it. Except that once I figured out the game, I realized the deck I had made for her originally was terrible, lol. Anyway, this one was far better (though still not great, considering). I've always loved Lightsworns and the risk that comes with milling your own deck. The problem here is, as with many older decks that main-deck high-level monsters, the chance of bricking your opening hand is decently high. In addition to main-decking high-level monsters, there are also two that can only be summoned when milled. So. Yeah. Great deck when you don't brick your opening hand, but there is a decent chance of it. Yet another deck that might have squeaked out a higher score if I took the time to rebuild it, but the cards are buried in my inventory and searching is difficult. 5/10

3.Fortune Ladies: Yeah, I swung right over to building Carly's deck. Can't remember exactly if this was the third deck I built or not, but it's some where in this area. I wanted to love it; I did. And, yes, this is -- again -- a deck that I could probably have built better and would now if I tried to rebuild it, however... It's just Not Good, from a playability stand point. When it works, it works great, but it rarely does. The "ATK being based on level" gimmick is neat in theory, but it results in a lot of low starting stats that make it difficult to keep monsters on the field long enough to benefit from it. You basically have to get lucky enough to cheat out Earth or Dark by alternate means because your lower-level gals aren't going to stick around long enough to use them as tributes (or to be able to deal damage themselves). Sorry, Carly; too unreliable. 2/10

4.Ice Barriers: Sounded fun -- that was the reasoning behind this deck. And it was! A lot of the effects are amazing, and its not a difficult deck to learn by any means. The only downer is that Trishula (9*) is Super Awkward to summon with the other monsters you have available. But then again... you have plenty of others to work with (including the 11* Trish retrain that is ironically easier to summon and that, if destroyed, special summons the original 9*), so it's not all bad by any means. I may not play this one much these days, but it was fun while it lasted. 7/10

5.Weather Painters: The art is so gorgeous on these. Unfortunately, I could never get a handle on them. I blame that a lot on how Master Duel proc's effects, in that it's not always clear what effect it's asking if you want to use. Considering how many effects proc at different times and in different circumstances... its a lot to keep track of, especially when the deck is entirely new to you. So, in trying to learn it, I was constantly using effects I did not want to use because I didn't know what effect the game was asking if I wanted to use. It might be a great, really fun deck, but I will probably never know it. 2/10

6.Time Thieves: The only Xyz deck I have ever and probably will ever build. I hated the Xyz tutorial so much that I swore I would never use them. I only built this deck because I liked the art. It was... better than I expected. Like with the Weather Painters, however, the game has a habit of prompting you to use effects without a way of checking what those effects are before you decide. There are fewer with this deck than with the WPs, however, so it was easier to keep track of as I started to learn the deck, so it was less of an issue this time around. Still, not one I revisit often, though it was interesting to experiment with briefly. 6/10

7.Aroma: Favorite deck to play, hands down. I was overjoyed when I got on a few days ago to find Master Duel had finally added the new support at the beginning of the month (it only took...like, nine months 🙄). I dunno, man, there's just something about having 14k LP and gaining and completely shutting down your opponent because of the combination of those two things. It's a blast. I love it. 10/10

8.Blackwings: Yet another deck I wanted to love but... dang it, there's too much support. I started playing with just one copy of the structure deck which... not great. I knew that from the start but I wanted to get a feel for what cards I might want to use. Didn't work, really. There are so many options I just... never finished building it. What I played, I enjoyed, and the combos are wild. But it was just Too Much to figure out for this girl, haha. 5/10.

9.Dragunity: I wanted a new deck to learn, and at this point I'm starting to run out of synchro-based archetypes that interest me and this one looked interesting enough so I went for it. I still have not really gotten into it, months down the line. I've tried it out a fair bit, but dang it, this is the first deck I've built with synchro-tuners and that has bitten me in the butt more times than it has worked for my benefit, lol. It's a different strategy than I'm used to and I need to keep playing this one to get better at it, but I just. haven't. haha. Given that I've barely begun to learn this one, the rating is probably a little off (one way or the other) from what I would give it if I'd gotten it down, but.... 6/10

[fraeuleintaka]

New German voice clips in the Investigations Collection

This is the 77th post in the Ace Attorney Investigations Collection Countdown: 4 days left until release!

Today's topic: all the new German voice clips in the Investigations Collection!

[MASSIVE spoilers for Investigations 1 & 2 under the cut]

A German translation for both Investigations games also means new voice clips for the characters in German. I already talked about Shi-Long's and Justine's (Verity's) German voice clips that have appeared in the trailers in previous countdown posts but hard-working people have also gotten a hold of the German voice clips for all the other characters (including the new ones in Investigations, of course, since that German translation is new as well). I've talked about the new English voice clips before and how they compare to the ones from the fan translation and this time I want to go into how they both compare to the German ones.

Miles Edgeworth:

Miles, too, gets a new German voice clips considering the crime scene deduction mechanic was first introduced in Investigations. I love the energy of it, it really sounds like a spontaneous outburst over having found something important. Very strong and also loud but I can totally see Miles occasionally forgetting his indoor voice in this situation. I like it more than the English version tbh, that one's not quite as strong as this one.

Sebastian Debeste (Eustace Winner):

Love this one too! I love how high his voice is and how conceited he sounds. It's the kind of pretentiousness the fan voice had and that I missed a little in his official English one. I think Sebastian's German voice is even a little bit higher than his fan voice. It's almost Payne-level, which would definitely be too shrill, at the beginning but then it goes down in this arrogant tilt that I just love. You also hear, similar to his fan voice, that he tries his best to sound convincing and commanding but fails utterly. It's great! So happy that I love the German voice clips of two of my favourite characters so much!

Blaise Debeste (Excelsius Winner):

Similar to his official English voice Blaise' just sounds deep and authoritative but not really scary like he should so I'm a little disappointed with this one. It's even a little bit choked on the "uch" which I don't like. It's not really bad or unfitting though so I don't hate it or anything, it's still fine, just not as good as it could be. His demon fan voice set such a high standard that both his official ones haven't been able to meet.

Gregory Edgeworth:

Almost the same goes for Gregory's German voice. It's somewhat deeper than his official English one so in that regard I prefer it but it's still higher than it should be. Otherwise, it's fine, my main issue is again with the "Einspruch!". Funnily enough, his "Heureka!" sounds so calm in comparison to Miles, barely excited at all 😄 Not that it doesn't fit Gregory who's almost always calm and composed, it's just such a stark contrast.

Raymond Shields (Eddie Fender):

Ray's is the first one I'm really eh on. It just sounds so generic with no personality. Not at all casual or joking or anything. It's not "bad" in the sense that it sounds bad but I don't think it suits him very well. At least it doesn't sound unnecessarily harsh or serious but still, I would've wanted a little bit more.

Calisto Yew:

Yew's German voice goes into the exact same direction as her English one and both fit her well. The harsh no-nonsense quality contrasts her constant laughing and hits exactly the tone of how she comes across when she's serious which she is most of the time when she objects. Good choice.

Jacques Portsman:

I honestly forgot that he even has a voice clip. Anyway, his German one sounds great! I love the kind of rallying quality it has as if he was talking to a large group of people and giving an epic speech about something (probably winning a medal). Maybe it sounds a bit too impressive for a first case villain but Idk, I like it, it fits him so well.

Horace Knightley (Bronco Springer):

Knightley's German voice has, again, more similarity with his fan voice than his official English one. The casual overconfidence is back and as I said in that comparison it really shows his personality well. It's not quite as pronounced as in the fan voice and overall his German one is a bit deeper/more serious so in that sense it's perfectly in the middle between his two English voices. Kinda neat.

Quercus Alba:

Alba just sounds like an old man in German which he is so I guess that fits 😄 His English voice clip is a lot more intimidating and scary and I miss that in his German one. He doesn't exactly sound weak or anything, I can easily imagine an old military man with this voice, but it's hard not to draw the direct comparison. I do like hearing his age come through though.

Simon Keyes (Simeon Saint):

I have a similar problem with Simon's voice that I have with Ray's, it sounds too generic. I like the voice itself they used, that's about the pitch of voice I imagine to hear from him. It definitely doesn't sound "bad" but you don't really hear anything of his personality come through and that's a little disappointing for such a strong antagonist with such a strong and unique presence.

[bebsibby]

Being on medical leave and receiving sick pay not from my job, but from a government program got me thinking a lot about UBI.

I'm obviously not doing much now, since I can't, and I AM reveling in just being able to sit and play around on the computer all day, but its day 3 after my surgery and I've already gotten bored. A LOT. Sometimes I can swap tasks and its fine, but that doesn't always work. I'm a relatively active person in my day to day, and I'm looking forward to my 1 week post-op to hopefully get cleared for a higher activity level. I'm looking forward to doing again and am stress free because I don't have to worry about money.

When it comes down to it, all of the times I've gotten overly stressed and had a breakdown was due to finances. I spend 11 hours a day, 4 days a week doing a job I no longer enjoy and get paid LESS than what it takes to cover all my bills. AND I get above minimum wage!

There are so many other things I want to do but do not have the time and the money for. I always come home exhausted with hardly any money to even try to engage in hobbies, new or old. If I heal fast enough, I'll be using whatever is left of my leave to finally enjoy being a person for once. Trying out new things, reconnecting with old hobbies, even just being free to go on a walk without it feeling like a waste of time. It could be possible for me and everyone else to do that for the rest of our lives, but we can't right now!

UBI could fix so much, and I really hope it comes into commonality in my lifetime. If you're reading this, learn as much as you can about UBI if you haven't already. Tell everyone you know about it. Most people, regardless of political lean, would actually very much enjoy and benefit from it, but are just too firmly in their ways to see it, or are too busy parroting the popular counterpoints (Humans are just lazy, no one does anything for free, etc) to listen. Make them listen, help them understand.

[foxgirlbeans]

A Ninja's Guide to Eorzea, Part 3: Level 50 dungeons

part 1 | part 2

As we maintain our meander midst the microcosm of much-maligned mystic masking, we must meet the meat of the main game- the level 50 dungeons. coming into this, I assumed that since this was the endgame for quite a while, sneaking through enemies wouldn't fly here. while that is true for some dungeons, others were pleasantly perceptive to our plight.

that being said there are a lot of these things to get through, so forgive me for the lightning round.

DNF -Castrum Meridianum, the Praetorium, and the Lost City of Amdapor

the first two I'm simply not doing because I'm not sitting through an hour of cutscenes to double-check my assumption. they're almost certainly Ds though, the former practically forces you to fight every pull separately, the latter's a glorified boss rush. Amdapor, on the other hand was annoying. while I'm certain it will get a higher rating later, right now I simply can't kill the first boss with my ninja. I've gotten it to 1% multiple times too, it's very frustrating! I'll come back to that one after another level.

F -Amdapor Keep

everything and its mother can see through Hide here, and they can do it with 360 degree vision- that means it's actually harder to sneak past certain enemies with Hide than without it!

D- -Pharos Sirius

it's no worse than any other Ds, but I'm giving it its own rating bc it feels like you should be able to sneak in certain areas if only random crap being thrown at you didn't get in the way. very annoying dungeon. at least you can sneak between the third and fourth bosses.

D -Brayflox's Longstop, Halatali (Hard), Tam-Tara Deepcroft (Hard), Stone Keep (Hard)

nothing special about any of these, you just can't sneak worth a darn in 'em.

C- -Haukke Manor

it's mostly unsneakable, but there are a few sections you can wiggle your way through. wiping the floor with Halicarnassus is very cathartic after all the trouble it gave me in my zodiac book runs though.

B -Hullbreaker Isle

despite almost every objective involving fighting random enemies, you can pretty easily sneak past everything you aren't picking a fight with. again, definitely more rogue than ninja, but fun nonetheless.

B -Copperbell Mines (Hard)

I just had to give this dungeon its own section because *chefs kiss* what a glowup from the original. the spriggans throwing fire at you can't be avoided, but surprisingly the giant ambush can be if you break through the rock fast enough. I'm sure I'm inflating the score here purely based on how rough the original dungeon was, but it just felt good to get through this time around.

It actually took so long to get this part out I've finished the zodiac daggers and started working on the Anima relic, so I'll cover the level 50 dungeons needed for that (and the start of the HW dungeons) in part 4!

[legion1227]

John Wick 4: A review.

asily the best action movie I've seen this year so far.

The John Wick movies have kept a surprising level of consistency over the years. The first film was an entertaining hour and forty-minute romp of Keanu Reeves masterfully executing a copious amount of men responsible for killing his wife and dog. It's a great stand-alone film that I did not expect to turn into a major franchise. What's equally stunning is that the second film is another solid entry for the film series. Then the third John Wick movie makes the argument for being the best of the series with heightened set pieces, and now we have four, which is an admirable send-off to the titular character, and another film for fans to argue whether or not it's the best of the four.

John Wick 4 might be the best of the bunch. The argument is there.

As the bounty continually increases against him, legendary hitman John Wick takes his fight against the rulers of the criminal underworld, the High Table, around the world. The stakes are resumed from the last film, where countless hitmen are tracking him down in hopes of claiming the bounty.

The fight scenes are just as captivating as ever, with John carefully executing and mowing down goon after goon. But other action scenes stick out even more than John's when the supporting cast gets their own wonderous scenes of slaughter. Shamier Anderson plays one of the trackers intent on collecting John's bounty. There are multiple instances where he could have possibly killed John and collected the bounty, and yet he doesn't, wanting the bounty to go higher and collect even more money. Accompanying him always is a German shepherd, and the two wreak havoc gleefully while killing others and making sure they don't kill John instead of him. Meanwhile, Donnie Yen portrays one of the coolest tropes usually seen in something like an anime: a blind hitman. Yen's physical and combative prowess has been seen before in the Ip Man movies. But his performance in John Wick 4 is on par, or arguably surpasses, the action choreography of Ip Man. Yen's late addition to the franchise desperately makes me wish he was around more in the other three films.

Besides the stellar action, the camera work remains decent, with one amazing bird's eye view during an action sequence. While the cast is a tour de force of engaging quirky characters. Scott Adkins as Killa makes for a really fun secondary villain in the middle portion of the film. He feels uplifted from an anime as well as an over-the-top baddie, and I love seeing him interact with John and fellow assassins. Bill Skarsgard is an engaging main foil to John and his interactions with Ian McShane's Winston are fun as well. The Death of Charon carries immense emotion to it, especially since the unfortunate passing of Lance Reddick earlier this year.

As the nearly three-hour movie comes to a close, we also bid farewell to a character we've gotten to know since his incarnation almost ten years ago. The send-off for John Wick feels appropriate after all the pain and suffering he's endured for four films, he deserves a good rest and to be reunited with his wife in the afterlife. It's a perfect send-off to a badass character. The one and only boogeyman.

There are talks of a John Wick 5 in development, and I literally don't know what you do for that. There are other characters the studios could absolutely focus on and develop from there, but the John Wick name should be ditched by that point. Unless the next movie follows John Wick in hell battling demons.

But if you haven't watched John Wick 4 already, do it. Matter of fact, dedicate a day to a John Wick marathon from 1 to 4. It's one of the few franchises right now that does not have a miss. Let's hope the show about the Continental is good though. Overall, it's an amazing action film, and easily cements itself in my top three films seen this year. Whether or not other movies will surpass it will have to be seen. 4.5/5. A hell of a ride from start to end.

[alexbkrieger13]

"I’ve definitely followed the team, and the sport, for longer than most of you. And I’m not the only one sceptical about bringing zero new talent on the attacking side. We’ve tried a midfield of Seger, Jakobsson and Asllani for at least the past 5 tournaments. They are past their prime. And sometimes you have to have faith in up and coming talent. Experience can only compensate so much for lack of match form. At this international level, it’s not enough to compensate for it when you bring too many players on that basis."

Well I've followed the team, the players and women's football for longer than maybe even this anon. We're talking 20 years, 4 different coaches and 2,5 generational shifts...

Seger, Jakobsson and Asllani starting on the midfield is very rare to see after Peter took over. Jakobsson has mostly been utilized as a forward. Asllani both as a midfielder and as a forward. Seger has been the only constant on the central midfield. Depending on if it's been a 3 or 4 players midfield, Seger has mostly shared it with Asllani, Angeldahl, Rubensson, Bennison, Björn and Schough. On rare occasions it's been Zigiotti and Jakobsson.

When Seger hasn't played the combinations on the central midfield starting or after substitutions, have mostly consisted of Rubensson, Björn, Angeldahl, Bennison and Asllani.

Match form or not match form, inexperienced players are more prone to do mistakes and struggle with the in game decision making when the higher pace of international football compared to club football forces them to make decisions faster. And you can't afford too many mistakes in a major championship against the strongest teams. Also, there's the mental aspect of coping with the pressure throughout a championship

There's a reason the term championship experience exists. Said term includes knowledge on rest and recovery between games and being stuck with the same people more or less around the clock for 1 month at the least, longer when a team reach the semi and then a potential final. You can't afford energy leakage as an individual player if you want to perform at your best. This time the term also includes time zone adjustment and not just for sleep. You as a player must know how your body reacts to it and in which ways your performance is affected. A majority of the squad have gotten that experience from Canada 2015 plus the Rio and Tokyo Olympics. Vinberg has experience from one long trip and coming off the bench in one game. Kafaji has one call up 2-3 years ago without a long trip, no caps.

Another issue with young players, is they're more easily muscled off the ball by 25+ year old players. You can see for example how Sandberg and Lundkvist have struggled a bit with that in the national team.

Was the same critique before World Cup 2019 when people demanded for the then 16-17 year old Bennison to be called up to "see and learn". You can't have too many players for "study purposes" in a championship squad. You need players who can come into the team and contribute on the spot. The players with call ups to their first senior championship in 2019 were Björn, Anvegård, Janogy and Zigiotti. Bennison was called up to the November camp when she earned her first cap against USA. She's been called up for every squad since and got playing minutes, even started games iirc.

For Tokyo Olympics Angeldahl and Blomqvist were the new names of the younger players. For Euro last summer the new names were Nildén and Rytting Kaneryd. And for this championship squad the new names are Enblom, Lundkvist and Sandberg.

New talents on the attacking side includes attacking midfielders and offensive wingbacks. It's not only forwards. Sandberg is an offensive wingback. The perception of that Peter doesn't bring in new talents and new blood isn't accurate. I'm sure Vinberg and Kafaji, who are knocking the loudest on the national team door, will be called up in a near future like the case was for Bennison after World Cup 2019 and like the case was for Janogy before same championship.

yea we have a few players coming every tournament to get that experience you don't want like 5 spots taking up because of that realistically we have two young players coming in with no tournament experience and I think that's the best way to go with it. Like obviously some people I think are very annoyed that some of their favorites were not on the squad and I think they're allowed to be annoyed by that but the squad that has been selected I think is the best out of the depth that we currently have available. and yea T-shirt is very willing to bring in new players like how many managers in international football do we know we'll start a player on their first cap against Germany and bring on another player for that other one who's only in her second Cup like there's no real international managers that would do that or like hanna B I'm pretty sure her first cap was against the US in the US like I wouldn't see the manager doing that

[water1oo]

.

there was this one student at my old job that i was always so impressed by. was classified as homeless, had lived in 4 different countries (refugee), knew 5 different languages, had straight A's, would wake up at 5 am to take the bus alone to get in school in time by 8 am, after she finished the after school program she would then go to night school to do English classes until 11 pm. english was her fifth language, and yet she was able to write at a higher grade level than the rest of her peers that were born in america --- she had the option to do her essays in spanish (her 4th language) but by the end of the school year she began writing them in english by her own initiative (and some gentle pushing bc i knew she just lacked the confidence) and when i caught her minor grammar/vocab mistakes she'd take note and never repeat the mistake again. oh and by the way, all of this and she was just an 8th grader.

anyway---extremely amazing student, we had a bond so she would share a lot with me which is why i know all of this. toward the end someone at the school had found out about this fancy private boarding school that they thought she'd be amazing for since her home life was very difficult and she just had so much potential. the school arranged all the transportation and assigned a staff to tag along so that they could do translations for her mom, it was a nonprofit middle school that never spared a dime on their students. when she came back she told me it was amazing. she was gushing about how cool the campus was and she couldn't get over how they even had a pool. can't say i'm surprised she was so starstruck by the place considering she was attending a school in skid row. and the biggest thing that pulled at my heart strings was when she said "miss, there are people from my land there. people from angola." that being her home country that she missed so much, she was so excited about potentially going to these school where she could connect with people with her shared culture (she would always gush so much about Angola).

i left that middle school before the school year ended and i never found out if she got in and was always left wondering, since the only way she could ever afford the 80k+ tuition was with a full-ride scholarship. and today i found out she did get in and she is currently attending that boarding school. finding this out just made my month man, that kid has gone through so much and she deserves this so much. i wish i could contact her to congratulate her. i finally get why teachers would always beg their students to stay in contact and to visit, because they want the updates---bro i wish i could keep up with every student i have ever interacted with to see how far they've gotten and if they've struggled to offer guidance and support.

idk why i'm sharing all this, i have no one who gets just how much this update means to me. i guess if you ever made a connection with a trusted adult when you were a kid, reach out. they care, man. they care so much and they wish they knew how you were doing. i'm studying to become a school counselor because i care so much about kids' futures and setting them up for success as best i can, i want all the updates and i know y'alls teacher feel the same way. reach out, i wish i could catch up with every single student i've ever interacted with.

[idledreams4]

Ranking my top... 10 Supernatural characters at 3 in the morning (cause this can't go wrong at all)

CHARLIE. Hands down it's my girl Charlie. She is my spirit animal. Honestly I'm just her irl but without the hacking skills (though I AM working on those!!!)

Dean. My baby has to take second. I'm sorry. Idk to who but I feel like I need to apologize for this placement.

Crowley. Have you met me? You should be surprised he isn't higher. I was kinda iffy about him at first. I was very wary when he first started working with the Winchesters, but by season 6 (I think it was 6? Maybe 7?) I was locked in. The little Crowstiel arc was the last nail in the coffin

Lucifer. Shut up I know I have a type. There was a point I'd put him above Crowley but my loyalty is with the new king apparently. (I'm as shocked as you are I assure you). BIG fan of Casifer by the way. Samcifer was one thing but Casifer? Ugh these fallen angels are more than welcome to ruin me

Hmm... Bobby. I've gotten really attached to him. Maybe I've been spending too much time in my made up fantasy worlds lately but he feels like an uncle to me.

The girl who wrote Supernatural The Musical. I love spn, I love musicals, and I LOVE subtext. Someone should make the musical a reality and I should play Dean. I'm happy to audition but is it reallllly necessary? Come on we allll know I could do it

I'm running out of characters I like uh oh... I guess Cas? Idk. I don't have a problem with him or anything, I love him. He's hilarious and I relate to him on sooooooooooo many levels (hi, fallen angel here) he's just not one of the characters I usually think of when I'm thinking about my favorites

Ruby. I kinda want to swap her and Cas cause I think I may like her just slightly more than him. She's hot, she's a demon, and she got Sam to start the apocalypse, what's not to love?

Oops I haven't said Sam yet. Well he isn't my favorite and I'm actually pissed at him, but he gets to be number 9.

That original crossroads demon. I forget her name but again: she's hot, and she's a demon. And even though she's been dead since before the apocalypse I cannot forget her.

And you know what: here are my 5 most hated characters too. I'm going in reverse order so my absolute least favorite is like a dramatic reveal.

5. Darkness. My only problem with her is that she's getting in the way of Destiel. Oh and she wasn't very appreciative of what Crowley had done for her, but I care more about the CW making her Dean's (unwanted) romantic interest rn.

4. Sam. Yeah he was on the favorites list, because I did like him, but he screwed up bad enough that he's here. Where do I start? He didn't look for Dean. He worked with Rowena. He ignored Dean SEVERAL times, usually resulting in some sort of apocalypse/end of the world scenario. HE GOT CHARLIE KILLED. He put Lucifer back in the cage. He tried to just give uo and die. Honestly I could keep going on but since it's almost taken me a full hour to write this already I'll stop here.

3. Metatron. He's an asshole. I don't know what else to say. I hate him and he has a REALLY punchable face

2. Chuck. Honestly I don't know why I hate him so much. I think it's just because I actually have beef with God. (Again: hi, fallen angel here. Gotta love them celestial daddy issues) Ever since I found out this fucker was God I've hated him for just abandoning all his creations and watching everything go down.

Rowena. God I hate that even THIS sounds like her, but I see wayyyyyy too much of myself in her and if I didn't hate her guts I'd love her. As we can tell by where I put Crowley, I'm not a fan of her for abandoning him, torturing him, manipulating him, stealing his throne, betraying him, etc. but I ESPECIALLY hate her for getting Charlie killed. I wish that I was the one who got to snap her neck instead of Lucifer. Fuck. This. Bitch. In. Particular.

[gleefullypolin]

Same, same. Preparedness lets me relax into the story further than I would be able to otherwise. Our poor husbands, trying their best. I do remember he saw a spoiler of something he knew would bother me (character death) in a show we were both invested in and he came to find me immediately to try and gently let me know even though I had already seen it. He knows me so well by now. 😄

The marketing part of my brain I use for work gets and respects the month long break. It's smarter than dumping it all at once but we're used to instant gratification with a lot of streaming shows now. Bad business model in a lot of ways and weekly is probably best for long term engagement but I suppose we'll have to grin and bear the month long break while internally acting like feral gremlins to maintain some sort of sanity.

I have a hard time trusting show writers as well. The last handful of years has been a test in terrible writing far more than good writing. Writing fic though, yes. I do love a good cliffhanger and making everyone go through it because I know I will solve it all and make everyone happy in the end (or most people happy, the oddest comments I've always managed to get are from the people who decided how my fic should go before I'm done with it and get mad when my version doesn't match their vision). Conflict avoidance and storytelling do not go well hand in hand, that's for sure.

I about died trying to explain a pager. Felt my bones age and my life slipping away, ha.

Yeah, I think 2-4 is going to be a ton of growth for him but also watching Penelope with another man is going to throw him for a loop. It's probably going to eat him up tbh. I would imagine it happens before the biggest turns of ep 4 so by then he'd have to know just how deep he's gotten himself. If he's realized this and, this is pure speculation since we know so little about this ep as a whole, sees her upset with Obi Wan and she runs off at any time, there's no doubt in my mind he'd give chase immediately.

And he's not dumb, I don't know if he's going to put the LW thing together but if he does or he finds out by any other means, I think him being that deep in his feelings is probably very important, the way he was so so so angry in the books but also so worried about her. If the Queen is trying to go for her head, the man is not going to handle it well I'd assume. He didn't let up on the Jack stuff when it came to her as just friends so I think this would be much, much higher stakes.

My poor attention span. It's going to be burnt out after this I can tell. I don't dislike Benedict so I'll watch that one. Or if it's Fran and I get invested into her story, I'll happily watch that one. Eloise is going to have do a bit of work to get me there for hers I admit but if they pull it off, I'm more than happy to give them my view. But this level of investment? No. There's no way.

I say take what you can get where you can get it! All positive mental health effects are good ones no matter where they take place, ha.

100% agree! You and I are on the same page! I’m always saying to him “I saw something, but I don’t want to tell you, unless you want to know, ok I know you don’t want to know, I won’t tell you, should I tell you, Ok I won’t” and then he’s like OMG just tell me. I did manage to keep the entire plot of Blacklist from him for 4 years until we stopped watching it and I finally just told him how it ended after reading the whole plot of the final 2 seasons LMAO! He wouldn’t know what to do without me.

Yeah, streaming has ruined us. Everything is at our fingertips that we have forgotten what it was like to wait until 7pm on Thursday to see what happened after Ross kissed Rachel. No one has to tune in anymore. We just sit down and get fed the whole thing. I will both hate and love that month of build up between the 2 parts. I have OCD so I keep a spreadsheet of all the shows I watch and how many episodes I have seen, how many are left to air and what day they will next air on. It helps me not to lose track of what all I’m waiting to come back. I will be counting down the days the moment I have to put June 13th on that line.

I must agree we do not always get good writing. And even then, you never know when a show is just going to go off the air in the middle of a storyline. So even good writing can simply just cease to exist. Cliffhangers can be a deadly thing in television these days. I fell in love with Scorpion and then they ended on a cliffhanger where they all hated each other at episodes end and then it got cancelled and now they will forever hate each other and I’m like….well that’s trash. At least with this show it will end the storyline where I need it to for this couple so that’s why I like this format.

I feel like he has to figure out the LW piece. But if she’s just running from the ball and he follows her, I can’t see how he figures it out. I need to be smarter to figure this out! But something has to tip him off besides her running off. We know he will follow her because girl, he doesn’t let her out of his sight before he’s 2 steps behind her and hallway up her skirt. The boy has concern down to a science for that girl. But if he thinks that Lord Kenobi did anything to her, I can imagine him finding her quickly. Though if it's the Queen’s bounty and he catches a look on her face, perhaps he puts two and two together and figures it out. I always thought at some point he would catch on to her words. He is the only one that pays attention to everything she says.

I am curious how this B storyline about needing an heir for the Featherington family is going to play out also. I saw that mama Portia is once again in trouble with paperwork and needing a male heir and with Jack gone now and Colin having played a hand in all of that if that comes into play in part 2. That will be a hole for me to dive into after Part 1 plays out. I am curious if after the carriage scene happens if we get the proposal and if she tells him NO! Because I know that they have both said that they do not get together easily, and it is a roller coaster of a ride to their romance, so I feel like episode 4 is too quickly for them to say Yes and then wed. So, I feel like this may take us up and down a few hills after this damn carriage ride. Oh, my word I’m going down that rabbit hole of my guessing games again! Mental Health be damned.

[zaptap]

so i played splatoon 1 for 57 hours when i came back to it in the last couple months. that puts it at 440, just under splatoon 2 (which is at 450)

really makes me realize how little i played splatoon 2, relative to how much content it had and how long it was the newest game.

after a year or so of splat1, basically ignoring every other wii u game i got after that to play splatoon more (3ds escaped this only by being portable) i went into splat2 resolving to not leave a trail of unfinished games behind me again

buuuut that just created a different issue. new game comes out, i'm like ok i'll get through this and go back to splatoon.... then another new game comes out before i can do that. and i still didn't even finish most of them. probably the bulk of my splat2 activity comes from the first 3 months before mario odyssey released, and the month or two after octo expansion, and the rest is just keeping up with the new content, splatfests, and hitting the salmon run checkpoints and dropping in for special rotations. i could've played more. i should've played more

i'm taking a different approach with splatoon 3. yeah, they're still making games i want to play that aren't splatoon. but i like splatoon more. so it should have priority. and i've discovered the secret to not feeling bogged down by a lot of unfinished games i've bought is to just... not buy a lot of games. in the past i'd buy stuff if i got a good deal or if i just wanted to make sure i got it when it was available (since i prefer physical). and spending money on that means i feel more obligated to play it and i feel bad if i don't fit it in

but, welllllll, when i got the splat3 oled i hacked my launch model switch and so now uh. i'm not worried about missing out on switch games. if i wanted them i could get them whenever. and it removes the whole "i paid for this i should get my money's worth" obligation. (and yeah i prefer physical but getting a good deal is a good tradeoff to go digital. especially if the deal is free). anyway i haven't actually done anything with my hacked switch beyond setting it up but the option certainly is there. i'd still end up buying games i intend to play online though (which is pretty much just splatoon and pokemon, the latter just for trading and home compatibility)

so yeah in the year and a half since splatoon 3 released literally the only other games i've gotten are pokemon violet (and its dlc) and totk. im not even done with either of them (though in violet all i have left to do is get the rest of the post-dlc legendaries). probably will buy the ttyd remake too. other than that it's just been splatoon 3

i kind of don't want to play it too much though. i burned myself out playing splatoon 1 a lot ahead of the last splatfest (which is why i pretty much didn't touch it again until this year), and it took until splatoon 2 for me to want to play again.

but the issue there was i decided i wanted to hit level 50 during the last splatfest, and i was far enough away that i'd need to get a ton of exp each day to make it (i think something over 200? you get 5 exp for winning and 2 for losing so if that was 200 exp exactly, it'd be over 3 hours a day at BEST. i tended to win about 2/3 to 3/4 of the time in splat1 those days so it was at least on the shorter side, but still, you can imagine the strain this put on the fun i was having playing the game).

this is also why i don't particularly care about leveling up in splatoon 3 (especially since other players can't see your level this time). i recently hit level 50 after over 800 hours, probably about double how long i took to get there in splatoon 2 (i'm in the low 50s in there, maybe 54 at most). if salmon run gave exp though i'd be way higher (it should) (when are they updating it to do that) (seriously if they can add wandercrust support to it they can add exp too)

i do think i really need a break from splatoon at one point. there's enough that i want to do that i'll probably continue after content updates stop, but i don't want to keep playing daily all the way until splatoon 4 (whenever that is). i need to at least turn it into a weekly routine after that maybe. forget the first victory of the day bonus (catalogs wouldn't have anything important at that point i assume? mystery boxes like the extra catalogs i'm thinking), maybe at least catch each salmon run rotation's superbonuses for the cash drops (that's not a once a week thing though. that's like 4 days a week i think. better than daily, but still)

i would totally be fine if the next splatoon game didn't come out for like a decade. there's enough in 3 to last that long. but of course if they're making a new console, they're going to put splatoon on it. it's only a matter of when. would we be looking at 3 years after splat3 content stops, like last time? longer? shorter? who knows. may depend on whether some of the devs will have to do an animal crossing game in between again

[thesiat]

Oooh, a glasses post! Let me add my own knowledge to this:

My Background/Context/Qualifications: I've been wearing glasses for all waking hours since I was 4, and probably needed them earlier but 4 was the earliest kids could get glasses at the time I was a kid. Everyone in my family wears glasses and my mom has since childhood.

- I cannot see faces at all without my glasses, and that combined with my autism in interesting ways that resulted in I recognise people I know by their voices more than their face, like a fully blind person would. So a fun character detail to keep in mind!

- When I'm overstimulated or things are too bright, taking my glasses off can make things seem less bright. This might be because things are out of focus.

- Glass lenses break easily.

- Wire frames are lighter than plastic or horn.

- The worse your character's vision is, the thicker and heaver the lenses. For characters in societies that only have glass lenses, this means the lenses will get smaller. Large lenses are a luxury given to use by plastics (and are still really fucking heavy for higher prescriptions!). When my mom was a kid in the 60s she had what she calls 'coke bottle bottom' lenses. This causes heavy distortion of the eyes, hence why caricatures of people with glasses tend to draw their eyes as disappearing (near-sighted is more common than far-sighted).

- Before anti-glare and anti-reflective coatings (I'm old enough to remember this time), glasses had all kinds of problems with glare and reflections and the like. Light is going to be a problem for glasses without these coatings, and there's a reason I don't like overhead lights--I'm used to them causing glare. Even now, they still can. Lenses are still lenses.

- On that note--glasses can cause sunburn on your cheekbones. I had permanent rosy cheeks as a kid bc of being a little kid who liked to play outside in a place with over 3000 sunshine hours a year. Little kids don't like wearing hats, and we couldn't afford sunglasses AND regular glasses every year. They are in the exact spot blush would be too, so they're hard to notice. Again, a detail that I never see and want to point out.

- I can in fact read and see things in detail without my glasses--it just has to be like 3-4 inches in front of my face, in good light. My rx is quite high, though not the highest of the folks I know. I need about -6.75 on my worst eye, which is quite nearsighted indeed, but I have friends who are moreso.

- On that note, if there's even a small difference in prescription between your eyes, taking your glasses OFF can be pretty fucking terrible. I get headaches VERY quickly just bc my eyes are giving two different levels of focus, and that's not accounting for one has astigmatism and one doesn't. The people above me are talking about headaches from wearing their specs, but I get them if I DON'T wear mine. And in fact headaches are one of the first symptoms optometrists have used, for a long time, to know that you need glasses.

- It's actually more common than you think for glasses-wearers to not notice how dirty their specs have gotten, and in fact there's a really good bit about this in Tamora Pierce's Circle of Magic series that made little kid me very happy because it was ACCURATE.

- Colourblindness is not the same thing as not being able to focus, which is not the same thing as nystagmus or strabismus (not being able to keep your eye still in various ways, whether the muscles of your eye are uniformly weak and tremble or one side is weak and your eye drifts), which is not the same as astigmatism (double vision or warped vision), which is not the same thing as visual hallucinations, which is not the same thing as vertigo or other inner ear problems (vertigo is an inner ear issue not an eye issue!). These are all separate things that can occur on top of each other in any combination.

- Special Note: Albinism is an eye condition. The apigmentation is a symptom of an eye condition. People (and animals) with albinism (do NOT call a person 'albino' if you are not someone who has albinism!) lack pigment in their eye, which relies on pigment to work. But additionally, albinism in humans seems to also affect the muscles that move the eye around, so people with albinism don't just have trouble focussing--they also have a constant 'overexposure' effect (because their sclera and iris aren't blocking out light), and can have various kinds of trouble with moving their eyes. Albinism is a disability, and a lot of if not most folks with it are legally blind, which means they are so blind that it cannot be corrected farther than 20/200 with glasses. That said, legally blind is not the same as totally blind.

- There's a lot of myths about 'reading in the dark will make you nearsighted' and that, but I'm pretty sure that's not true. I'm nearsighted not because I read in poor light, but because my mom and dad were both nearsighted. Eyestrain isn't the same thing as being permanently near- or far-sighted.

- As you get older, focussing between near and far things gets slower! Being able to see in low light also goes away slowly. I used to have really good darkvision and focus speed, but it definitely decayed after I turned thirty. Other people may have it decay slower than me, as I have some other bodily quirks that might be making my body age faster.

- Many folks who don't start out needing glasses become more far-sighted as they age!

- Needing glasses is an example of a disability that has become fairly normalised in our society, but it isn't totally normal yet--it's still rare to see characters with glasses, and most performers that need them are pressured to not use them on screen or stage because it's seen as detrimental to their versatility or attractiveness (bullshit!); my mom grew up with the phrase 'Men don't make passes at girls who wear glasses'.

- people who wear glasses need specially-designed masks--of any kind, even the kind that don't cover their glasses. One of my biggest frustrations growing up was not being able to wear fun masks. It is possible to design masks around glasses but have you ever seen any? Exactly. I also have to use fashion tape on my nose when I wear masks over my mouth and nose, otherwise my glasses fog up.

- Makeup is also kind of a bitch when you can't see well. I can't wear foundation or contour my face because I can't see what I'm doing from farther than three inches away. Wearing glasses also means wearing mascara is a delicate operation, and false eyelashes are right out. Glasses also make it harder for people to see your eye makeup in detail, though not impossible! I still wear makeup but I also pick out very wild and colourful glasses as a way of adding the same colour and shaping to my face.

- on that note, glasses are a way to express your character's style! They're an accessory! They come in so many shapes and colours and sizes. I've had every colour under the sun and most of the shapes too. Granted the fact we can do crazy shapes that aren't round is because of plastics, but even so there are still glasses chains and so forth.

- Your eyes appear smaller when wearing glasses for nearsightedness, and larger when wearing them for far-sightedness. This actually goes for the entire area of your face your glasses are covering, so there's a strange effect when seeing someone's face at an angle, that can make their face look very different with and without glasses. When I take my glasses off for example, people are shocked at how big my eyes are.

- Glasses aren't the only aid people used for vision correction! Monocles were used by many when only one eye needed a bit of correction, pince-nez were a type of glasses that pinched your nose to stay on, rather than having a big frame hooking over your ears, and a quizzing-glass was a small magnifying lens on a fancy chain that was a VERY popular accessory during the English Regency. Dandies would often hold it out and peer through it when they were making a point about how ugly someone's fashion was, or to make other social 'cuts' as they were called.

- You need a place to put your glasses when you sleep. Being scared of losing them is a real thing! My heart stops when I hear them clatter to the floor from my nightstand when I'm reaching for them, or if I can't find them immediately!

- People who need new glasses every year keep the old ones for emergencies.

- If you start off needing glasses as a kid, your vision will change rapidly from year to year, then settle out when you hit adulthood--that doesn't mean it stops getting worse entirely, though!

- Glasses are a prosthetic; they're a part of your body after a while, and while some people always feel they're alien and unwanted, I can't imagine my body without glasses. It's REALLY upsetting when people ask to see through them (thankfully that doesn't happen as much as it did when I was little) or grab them away from me--like those are my eyes, don't touch my eyes!!! That's part of my body! So it's likely some characters that rely on glasses will feel similarly to me, or will feel maybe not so similar. It really depends on when you got them and how much you need them.

- YOU ARE NOT MORE INTELLIGENT BECAUSE YOU NEED GLASSES. I'm so sick of glasses being a shorthand for high intelligence, this really harms people!! I have learning disabilities and wear glasses and people straight up did not believe I was struggling just because I wore glasses, because of this stereotype! Please remember that making your character with glasses supergenius intelligent is NOT empowering to us! It's a stereotype and it's harmful! Make them a himbo/bimbo instead! I seriously have never ever in my life seen a dumb or even regular intelligence character who wears glasses other than harry fucking potter. Do better!

Writing Characters with Glasses

Glasses are one of those components in writing that one just knows whether the writer has any experience with or not from the offset. So how do we write glasses-wearing characters or characters with impaired vision?

What is your character's eye strength?

Now, you don't have to know your character's exact diagnoses but you should know what sightedness your character has. Near-sighted means your character has trouble seeing things far way but can see things up close. Far-sightedness means a character can see things better in the distance than they can in before them.

Typically, one eye can be weaker or stronger than another, so a lense may be slightly thicker or slimmer than the other. Myself, my left eye is much weaker than my right.

Wearing Glasses

Typically when you wear glasses, you start to ignore the frames in your peripheral vision, however if you may notice it more if you haven't been wearing your glasses for a while.

Also when you change lenses, your sight is funny for a while. Things, like the fucking ground itself, seem a lot closer which can lead you to feel very disoriented. Its best to break glasses in gradually, in the words of Our Lady, Theresa Manion, "Do not make unnecessary journeys, do not take risks on treacherous roads..."

Glasses can get dirty and smudged very easily and do require cleaning. You may often see somebody wipe their glasses with their shirt tail but this isn't always effective, some fabrics just worsen the issue. Dry tissue paper is the best or a glass cloth. Frames also should be cleaned too.

Glasses tend to fog up when it rains, when you sweat or when you're somewhere steamy or drinking/eating something really hot. It can be a nuisance but it usually won't impair your vision that much.

Glasses can strain your eyes and start to chafe after a while. Long periods of wearing glasses can make your eyes start to ache (it always happens to me) and the best thing to do is just remove them and rest your eyes. The frames can also rub against the tops of your ears or the bridge of your nose.

People who need glasses tend not to remove them very often. If your vision is very bad, you won't be whipping your glasses off at every opportunity like Horatio Caine. If you only need reading glasses or need glasses for specific tasks you, wouldn't wear them 24/7 as it can further damage your eyes (I did this and now I can barely see 4ft ahead of me).

You can do tasks without your glasses but you do feel more cautious, especially if you have difficulty making out details. Glasses usually make you more comfortable in situations.

And as for the whole pushing up glasses when they slip (and they do slip but gradually), there's no right way or wrong way. Personally, I adjust by moving the entire frame between my thumb and forefinger so I don't smudge the lense. But pushing it up by the bar that crosses your nose is also effective.

When you're not wearing glasses

Not wearing glasses isn't delibiltating if your character's sight isn't majorly mad. As I mentioned before, they can still carry out tasks. But not wearing glasses can leave you a little unsure and sometimes disoriented.

Most people can still see without glasses, things just aren't as focused. For me, things get very fuzzy especially if they are far away but I can still make out the shape - for example, I can see how many fingers you're holding up but not your ring. I can do a lot of tasks without glasses.

When you're not wearing your glasses, you do tend to squint which can help you see a little better or tend to lift things to your eyes to see them better.

Characters wearing glasses

If your character loses their glasses in a fight, they won't be unable to fight back. They can likely still see some things.

Glasses hurt when knocked from your face, you can cut or bruise from a blow to the glasses. (it's happened to me which is why I have a massive scar on my forehead).

Your character will likely dislike going to the optician. Getting your eyes looked into by a stranger with a torch is irritating. Buying new glasses is a long drawn out hellish experience.

Breaking your glasses will upset your character, mainly because they're expensive. A character may opt to get the glasses fixed instead of replaced.

Your character will keep their glasses near at all times. Sleeping, they will be in reach. In the shower, they will be somewhere close by. Glasses may your more confident in your ability so they will always be near.

Also your character will likely not store their glasses in a pocket (they can break) or on their heads (your hair can smudge the lenses).

If your character has one of those early 2000s rom-com moments where their glasses are removed so the world can see their "true beauty", yeah that isn't a thing. Now that person can't fucking see.

Also, your character will likely hate anybody grabbing their glasses or wanting to try them on.