#anyway i will be drawing since its the least important thing i gotta do

[hades0823]

Stuff I plan on drawing:

-Shibusawa and Fyodor together

-Finish Dazai coloring

-Frank Kafka bsd OC

-4 different character sheets for my 4 main ocs

-Wanderer and Durin

The mind has ideas but the flesh is unwilling(my hand forgot how to draw properly fml)

[deepfivetraveller]

King Baldwin x Time!Traveler!reader

chapter 1

Chapter 2 here

Okay I’m a little new to writing romance so please take it easy on me. Btw I’ll try to keep y/n as neutral as possible but since this is set in the ancient era and religion is very important, y/n shall be hinted as being Hindu since that’s the only one that seems neutral in this situation.

“Alright that's all for the lesson. And since its complete I expect all of you to be thorough with ‘Life of King Baldwin iv’ during this weekend since there will be a test on this very topic next wednesday. Have a great weekend by the way.” The professor stands up and closes his laptop and all the other students start packing up.

“He had a pretty hard life didn’t he?” One of your friends chimes in. You look at her unsurprised. “You mean king Baldwins?”

“Duh! Poor man suffered an incurable disease almost his entire life! Imagine having skin infested in bacteria, euggh!” She recoils in disgust. “Imagine the cure to that disease being bacteria itself! Pretty sure Leprosy can be cured using multi antibiotic therapy.” Another friend joins in the conversation. You finished packing up your bag so you get up. “But no matter what, you gotta respect him. He never used his illness as an excuse to be a bad king.”

“That’s true….” Your first friend agrees. “He’s tough. When I catch a normal cold I give up all of my responsibilities since I’m sick. Wonder how hard it must have been for him.” All of you exit the classroom. A few minutes go by and topics have changed. A fun conversation lasted for a while before it was time to go, so you three parted ways.

As you entered your home your first thought was to take a cold shower after a long, hot and sweaty day. While eagerly hopping into the shower you get reminded of the conversation you had with your friends a while ago. What did king Baldwin even look like? There were no images in your textbook. Curiosity got the best of you, making you draw back the shower curtains to leave. You wrapped a towel and went towards the table where you kept your mobile, typed a quick ‘King Baldwin the 4th images’ and hit enter. Two images popped up. One being an actual painting from the 12th century while the other being an image reconstructed by scientists which looked…realistic to say the least.

His face in the second photo was majestic. His mouth and nose were almost non-existent, having only two triangular shaped holes instead of a nose. His skin was dry, withered and stretched while having the hue of a dry leaf during autumn. Even though he was severely disfigured his eyes were pure and bright, having a child like innocence towards them. King Baldwin was…Quite handsome.

Okay that’s enough now snap out of it! It’s probably just some AI prompt message image anyway. If anyone found out you found him handsome they’d call you crazy. Plus now is not the time to fangirl over a dead king, now's the time to study. In an attempt to distract yourself you pick up your books to do work. Hours painfully go by as you study but finally, finally it was bedtime. You could care less about eating dinner or even taking a shower, you plop yourself onto your bed and wrap the soft blanket around your body. Thoughts about King Baldwin strike your mind again. Seriously, what's wrong with you?! Why is this man plaguing your thoughts all day?

A sigh escaped your mouth from irritation. If only it was possible to console him for his losses or better yet, cure him entirely. The world would have been a better place if he had the lifespan of a normal man.

But there is no point thinking about this, time to go to bed now. As you try to go to sleep your body keeps doing the fake fall thing, annoying you to the core. And finally when your bodys heartbeat was steady and your breathing was quiet, your body did that fake fall thing again but this time it was actually a real fall.

Eyes widen as you try to grab onto the air to prevent your fall but of course, you fail. Adrenaline rushes through your veins for that split second before you finally make an impact on the cobblestone path?

Owch! That fall really hurt, especially at the back of your shoulders! You hope it’s not bruised there. But after that reality check, you look around only to find yourself in some village?

You can see a few small huts and buildings beyond the grassy field. Where are you? How are you here? Why are you here? Too confused and dazed from the fall, you try to look around for people for help. That is until a holographic screen with text pops up.

Congratulations Ms. Y/n. Your wish to cure King Baldwin has been approved by the ₦ł₥฿Ʉ₴฿₳Ʉ₦Ʉ₴. You are now at Jerusalem, Year: 1181.

“What?”

Yes it’s true Ms.Y/n, you really are in the 12th century.

Your blood is now boiling in anger. “Just because….Someone wishes pity over a dead king DOES NOT ACTUALLY MEAN THEY WANT TO CURE HIM!” You try to grab onto the screen to shake it vigorously but your hands go right thru.

Now now, let’s calm down and try to get over with this together I’m sure we’ll find a solution.

“Calm down…CALM DOWN?!?!?!? I’m in the middle of nowhere in Jerusalem during the 12th century and you want me to CALM DOWN???? I don’t even know French and not to mention I’M NOT CHRISTIAN!” You were screaming with your hand in the air. Pretty sure you woke someone up.

Y-Yes but that’s why I’m here. Don’t worry about communication, the language module for french had been uploaded into your brain while you fell here.

The screen flickers a little, maybe due to fear.

Uploaded knowledge? “But I’m a woman from the 21st century! I can’t live here! I’m wayy to accustomed to the privileges of my time!”

That’s one of my perks miss! By using currency of this time you may purchase products of your time thru me! The screen changes to an online store. For now you have access to basic necessities like food and clothes. As you complete missions you shall unlock other parts of the online market! The screens display brightness increases due to enthusiasm, convinced it has impressed you.

You however look at it in exasperated shock. “How is this even possible?” You say with dread in your voice. “Who sent me here?” You ask, no, demand.

Like I said You’ve been sent here by ₦ł₥฿Ʉ₴฿₳Ʉ₦Ʉ₴. I’m pretty sure you can’t read that since mortals don’t have the capacity to….

Mortals? Is this the play of some higher being? God even? Too many questions float through your head, making you visibly tired. You can feel the bottom of the skin beneath your eyes folding, an indicator you’re developing dark circles.

Ah. It looks like you’re tired. It’s night anyway. You should sleep.

“But where do I-”

“Excuse me madam.” You turn around to see a man standing behind you. “I’ve noticed you’ve been talking to yourself.”

So he can’t see the screen. From his ragged outfit he seems to be a commoner. He also genuinely seems worried so you guess it wouldn’t hurt to ask for help.

“Yes, sorry for that.” You say embarrassingly while you get up. “You see I’m from the family of wandering traders, here to sell spices from my land. I was talking to myself since I was quite irritated at how I didn’t have an inn for the night.” The explanation seems responsible enough I guess.

“But I don’t see any goods with you… And how did a young lady such as yourself travel alone? Where is your husband?”

Crap. He’s doubting you. You need to give him a reasonable explanation fast or he’ll call you a witch or something.

“Oh no sir you’re mistaken! My father is the one who has the spices, it’s his business after all. We had to split ways during travel due to inconveniences, I’m merely here to help him!” You put on your best smile to convince him.

“O-Oh I’m sorry madame! H-Here let me lead you, I know an Inn nearby.” Good. Looks like he believes you. But now it’s your turn.

“I’m sorry sir but how can I trust you?” You step back a little. “What if you take advantage of me? How shall I testify my innocence? The locals would definitely believe you over me.”

“No no please don’t! I’m a married man. My wife’s right there.” he points at the lady standing just outside the house, looking worried. You look at her and she nods her head in reassurance. “You seem like a noble from your land madame judging from your colorful dress, why don’t the both of us show you where the inn is?”

Hmm….Guess colorful clothing is rare here. And he really does seem like he wants to help.

“Very well then. Both of you show me they way.” The man eagerly tells his wife the incident and both of them show you around. The screen follows you, showing you a winking emoticon.

Congrats Ms. Y/n! You have officially begun your first mission!

[dragonroilz]

Hey there! I've come across your art ever since I got into Risk of Rain 2 (better late than never, I've been sleeping on this game for years, jesus), and I'm enamoured with it, to say the least. Is there any advice you could perhaps give for an aspiring artist?

you're getting an essay whether you like it or not.

tl;dr of it if you dont want to read

- learn how to take critique

- dont skip fundamentals

- tracing is okay*

- be mindful when drawing

- you wont see good results for a long time

ok firstly, glad you like my art! i try my best on pretty much everything i make so the compliment is greatly appreciated!!

secondly, you have NO clue how much i love yapping about how to draw. im not an expert on how-to-draw-ology but i like to think i know enough to help other people not swing in the dark when it comes to getting better.

learning how to take criticism is THE most important part. not getting butthurt or at least listening to peoples critiques when they mean well is critical to improvement because its specialized advice for you. you have no clue how many young and/or new artists have gotten mad at me for giving critique when they specifically asked me for it. if youre looking to improve you gotta bite that bullet. not all criticism is valid(dont listen to people who are just tryna make you upset), but good and valid criticism can come from anyone. dont unvalidate someone's critique just because theyre not an artist or "not as good" as you. try and get as much feedback as you can and move onto the next piece instead of fixing something to perfection. you will get obsessed in a very destructive way.

learning fundamentals is another step to getting better. that means actually learning perspective, hands, anatomy, and all of the other stuff people hate drawing. its like lifting weights. most people dont like it but if you want to get stronger you need to put in the time to do the painful stuff.

chris christodoulou(ror's composer) actually made a similar comment about the topic of improvement in his field that was along the lines of "if you want to write music, stop playing video games and read a book". he got a lot of shit for saying that but honestly its true.

you need to treat art as a discipline if you want to get better at it. draw as much as you can for as long as you can before it becomes a health hazard. when im not resting i tend to draw at least three hours a day, not counting the 3 to 6 hours additional hours a day i draw during college. obviously a beginner doesn't need to draw that much but drawing daily is a good start.

if you want resources on where to look for fundamentals, Sinixdesign and Ethan Becker were who I turned to for advice that is relevant to the industry. There's definitely others out there but I tend to do more self studying so i don't know the more recent stuff.

something that they'll bring up is that tracing isn't bad AS LONG AS YOU DONT POST IT AND CLAIM IT AS YOUR OWN. it's a good way to see how other people deal with stylization, but its absolutely not okay to post that stuff online. treat it like how traditional painters do master studies. its for your own education, not clout. and you shouldn't be drawing for clout anyway.

last but not least, draw what you love and you'll always love drawing. dont be afraid to hyperfixate and lose interest in things. it will help you continue your art journey. a lot of people in my art school have little to no motivation to draw outside of college because they have no interest in drawing outside of assigned work, which is not a great relationship to have with art if you want to pursue it in the long run. draw what you want to draw when the motivation hits you. if that motivation is risk of rain? draw it. if it's leg muscles then fuck yeah draw that too.

you can stick fundamental practice into your casual art by being mindful of what you are drawing. that can be done by asking questions about what's going on to further the progress of your art. its kind of hard to explain in text, but its basically just keeping in mind how your lines influence the piece.

in the beginning youre going to have ideas and none of them are going to translate to paper. its going to take years before anything will ever compare to whats in your brain and thats just the sucky part. ive been drawing seriously for about 5 or 6 years and theres still a ton of shit i do NOT wanna touch but i have to if i want to improve.

we're all sisyphus pushing that goddamn stupidass boulder and the only thing we can do is acknowledge how far we've come while still knowing that there's more work to be done. but thats kind of the shit that i live for.

[traewilson]

So yesterday I saw Inside Out 2 in the theaters. Gotta say, I left quite conflicted. The film itself is good, pretty darn good, in fact. But all my thoughts about it that aren't just "the animation is purty", or "it made me laugh once or twice", were largely negative? It is decidedly, I dare say objectively worse than the first in most respects. This film gives the established characters much less to do that aren't Joy, and the new emotions are wafer-thin that aren't Anxiety. It isn't nearly as funny or as emotionally impactful as the first. If you're expecting any plot beat to hit as hard as Bing-Bong from the first, curb your expectations.

The old characters who aren't Joy aren't given anything interesting to work with. The new (non-emotion) characters are mostly bland and undercooked. One of these characters just plain disappears from the movie completely, never to be seen again, and it's so ODD. It's a kind of narrative sloppiness you usually dont get from animated films from Disney specifically.

And then there's the new emotions, most of whom are wafer-thin and barely even characters. Anxiety being the main antagonist is given dimension and nuance almost rivaling Joy, but Ennui? A one-note joke character. It's funny because Ennui is a big word so Joy calls her "Ui-Ui" instead. Embarrassment has a bit of nuance being the one emotion from the new batch to be friendly towards the older emotions, specifically Sadness, but otherwise again his whole bit can be summarized as: Ha Ha, Big Guy Be Bashful, Please Laugh. There's no spin on the joke. It's just that ancient moth-bitten joke, again. But Envy is I think the worst of the bunch. The character does nothing throughout the film. All they do is cheer on Anxiety. They don't even really act envious which is really really odd? You'd think they could be a twist baddie - where like Envy wants to take the controls away from Anxiety and run the show herself. This is one time that tired Disney trope of the twist villain could've worked. But THEN we wouldn't have the seemingly mandatory now Realistic Panic Attack Scene, so, this character just Exists. A vestigial character that adds nothing, does nothing - it just Is. Criminal waste of a talent like Ayo Edebiri. Darn shame. Maybe in the third one you'll get to do something.

The film tries to follow in the footsteps of Turning Red, in regards of being a analysis of life as a child entering puberty, and it's a wet fart in the wind compared to what Turning Red did. It doesn't have the honesty, the heart, the integrity - it's toothless. It's too generic to be of any use to someone in the same position as Riley in the real world.

But this isn't why I'm writing this. No. There's a specific scene in the movie that just hasn't left my head since I saw the movie, and I have to get my thoughts written down and out there so I can stop thinking about this already.

Minor unimportant spoiler here. So in one scene, Anxiety is compelling a team representing the imagination, if I recall correctly? Anyway, she's compelling the imagination - represented like animators working on animation - to draw up as many scenarios as possible that affirm their paranoia. Joy and Gang enter, and stealthily start drawing up potentially positive outcomes, upsetting Anxiety. Joy gives a rousing speech about how they should draw the things they genuinely believe in, and not let Anxiety push them around, culminating in a chair being thrown at the Apple commercial Big Brother monitor Anxiety is speaking to them through. The mind cops show up, Anger immediately tries to pummel them (based,) and the gang is forced to run away.

To me, this is yet another in a long line of Disney not so subtly trying to control or manipulate discourse through their art / product. Now, an important disclaimer: Of course, all art is trying to say something to the audience - at least any art worth its salt does. But this isn't any one artist's messaging; this is the Walt Disney Corporation's messaging, to my thinking. The difference should be stark between the messaging of a lone human being and a monolithic megacorp's executive staff. Be aware: this is my read. If you don't see what I see, cool and fine. Just keep an open mind.

This sequence has no bearing on the rest of the story. It's a digression that only exists for the sake of the message contained within. It obviously is addressed partially to Disney animators. Disney is acknowledging they've been overworked before, and it gives them the false hope they have a voice within the company, that they can defy their boss and make a stand. They can draw what they want! They can say no! This is, of course, nonsense. Disney does not support this. If their workforce acted out like this, they would all be fired, and Disney wouldn't lose an ounce of sleep over it. I feel like it's a message to the audience as well - a virtue signal to give the dullard audiences the impression they're Good Guys when they most definitely are not that. And I feel it's sending another message to both animators and audience - the solution isn't actually changing anything. The bad leader is calmed down, put back in their place within the system, and the old leader restored. This kind of messaging is mind poison to a susceptible mind, young or old. You dont change anything. Only the leaders can fix the problem with leadership, and the solution is simply to get the Right Leaders in charge again, for everybody to reconcile their differences. I see Anxiety as the Republican Party in the eyes of the executives / writers and directors - mentally unstable, but well-meaning. A vital component to the functioning of the Body, but one that needs to be kept pacified or it will run out of control and cause damage; try to dominate the Body and cast out the people who know what they're doing. Anxiety is, to my thinking, conservatism in the eyes of the team / the executives. You could extrapolate extrapolate it out so that Anxiety is literally Donald Trump. Admittedly the evidence is slim. The domineering (orange) authoritarian who monopolizes the power around themselves. Envy is the mindless sycophant who blindly agrees to everything Anxiety says - the Marjorie Taylor Greenes, the Ted Cruzes, the Lindsay Grahams. Ennui holds the controls too, but does nothing with them beyond introducing sarcasm to Riley's mindscape. Ennui is the passive fool who sees everything going down and just Does Not Care enough to do anything to stop it. And Embarrasment, in the eyes of the team, is the Good One who is doing good behind the scenes, helping Sadness. The liberal image of the ideal Republican. This is, I admit, a major stretch, and it's ultimately just my read. But I don't think I'm completely off base here.

Uhh, so yeah. Not Pixar's best, and not really spectacularly bad in a way that's at least memorable like Cars 2 or Good Dinosaur. No, it's just another Pixar movie. And you know? I almost think that's worse than if it were a spectacular failure. Cars 2, Good Dinosaur, they make me really stop and think. They're fascinating. Inside Out 2 isn't interesting. It's emblematic of the continued downward spiral of Pixar into becoming an empty shell, fully filled by Disney.

But hey it played the Triple-Dent Gum jingle again and Anger hates cops so 8/10

[opheliajupiter99]

PLAY (OUAW horror fanfic)

*Hootsie was laying in the soft, cozy grass of the Feywild, beside a gently flickering campfire. Her uncles, papa, and newly acquired aunt were all asleep. Papa hadn't started calling her 'aunt' yet, but she felt like he would soon - after all, the little brownie had already been so kind to them*

*She wasn't asleep though. She probably should've by now, and before her papa drifted off to sleep, he had told her to at least -try- and go to bed. But she just couldn't pull herself away from her Flypad. She always couldn't, of course, but especially since they had entered the Feywild. Usually, papa at least made an attempt to get her to do other things, though the Flypad was always nearby, but since they'd arrived, he'd been especially eager to hand it to her - distracting her from things he didn't want her to see*

*So, even as the night grew so dark that the glow of her screen was the only light, and bugs gently buzzed around her heard, drawn by said light, she kept on watching. She watched images of a cheerful sea cucumber bounce about the screen, so full of joy, bright colors dancing across the pad*

*Then suddenly - it stopped. The Flypad didn't turn off; rather, the image upon it had frozen. She tilted her head and let out an ever so soft cooing hoot in confusion, before the image suddenly turned to incoherent static. She stared at it for a moment, thinking; she didn't want to wake up her family, especially knowing she wasn't supposed to be up this late. Maybe she should just try to get to sleep...*

*Before she could, she noticed a color out of the corner of her eye. She turned her head towards Uncle Kremy's sleeping bag, or more specifically, the cane that loyally rested beside him. The skull upon the top of said cane had begun to glow; bright enough for her to notice, but not bright enough to wake Uncle Kremy. She was even more confused now. She'd never seen his cane glowing without him -making- it glow; at least not the way it was glowing now*

"Hi!" *Said a cheerful voice from her Flypad, drawing her attention back to its screen, which was still engulfed in static. Much like the glow, it was loud enough for her to notice, but not loud enough to wake the others. At first, she assumed the voice was from the show she'd been watching; I mean, that's all it -could- be, right?*

"Hootsie. Ya name's Hootsie, yeah?" *Her wide eyes blinked. That couldn't be the show; not just because the voice had spoken her name, but because that sounded nothing like any of the characters she knew. She shifted a bit in her seat* "Aye now, don't be spooked, lil' one. I'm a friend of ya uncle's, the scaley one I mean, heh. I just wanted to play a bit, since ya seemed to be havin' some trouble snoozin' anyways."

*She pondered this explanation a moment. Did he mean like...the friends on the other side? That'd certainly explain why the cane glowed - and why he could speak through her Flypad. She was silent for a moment. The voice chuckled softly* "Oh yeah, ya can't talk. Just think ya words, like Uncle Frosty does, I'll hear em, don'tcha worry." *After another moment, she thought in her head 'What's your name?'*

"My name? Ah, that don't be important. Like I said, I just be a friend of ya uncle; one of lots and lots of friends. Now come along - if we're to be playin', we gotta be doin' it fast. Much like ya, I gotta make sure nobody knows I'm awake." *She softly chirped to herself. She would like to play, and Uncle Kremy's friends had always helped them before. But...something about this didn't feel quite right. 'I should really get to sleep, mister' she thought in her head*

*The thought was followed by a period of silence. So silent in fact that she couldn't even hear the crackle of the campfire, or the buzzing of fireflies up above - or even the sound of her family breathing. She blinked twice, and she quickly began to realize how deeply the darkness was encroaching. Had the campfire gone out? Where...where even was she right now?*

-

*In the morning, the found family awoke, one by one, completely unaware of the mysterious activity that had taken place the previous night, almost as if it hadn't happened at all. This was quickly proven untrue, however, as Gricko's panicked shriek filled the air, at the realization Hootsie was nowhere to be found, vanishing in the blink of an eye, much the same way she had back at the Witchlight Carnival, what felt like so long ago. And gently laid in front of her sleeping bag was her beloved Flypad, the screen cracked and the image upon it contorted with static. But amongst the static, a single word, in bold letters could be read*

PLAY

[acescorazon]

Hiiii not really a question, just wanted to say that I discovered your fics recently on Ao3 and they're all my absolute favourite since then, I'm always looking forward to receiving an email saying that you posted something!!! I just joined Tumblr today and I have no idea how it works ahah but I'm so glad I can follow you there now, because you truly are one of my fav fic writers. Your Buggy is always absolutely perfect and he did not help with my obsession over his character eheh. Anyway, thank you for your good work, and know that the way you write Buggy influences me a lot on how I perceive him and how he acts in my AU (not actually writing anything, just creating little world in my head eheh). Oh and also: it's thanks to you that I now ship Buggy with Mihawk and Crocodile! Since I've only seen the live action, I didn't really know enough about Mihawk and, obviously, nothing about Crocodile; but because of your fics I now ship them SO much. Thanks to you, Buggy has 3 boyfriends in my AU and he's very glad ahah. Anyway, it's a long message for nothing but I guess the most important thing here is: thank you, keep your amazing work <3

I'M ABOUT TO WRITE THE SHIT OUT OF THIS RESPONSE.

Hiiiiiiii bbyyy :((( Thank you for writing me something so nice! I really appreciate it!!! Nice comments and asks like these really make my day and i mean that!! Thank you!!! Tumblr is shit (derogatory) but it could be worse, it could be tw- Jk it's not that bad here and i think you'll like it :) Also ofc thank you for the follow :) Thank you for everything really! I could write an essay on Buggy alone but i won't...not today at least kljlsdjksdjlakjsdasdas. nobody asked but i'm obsessed with the idea of Buggy being a brat and or just a little shit in general which is why i often write him the way i do LMAO. He's a funny little guy, and i love him in the live action as much as i love him in the anime/manga but i think he could be a little more pathetic. i do remember seeing the trailer tho and being like "lol" but two seconds later being like..."Idk...WHY'S HE KINDA..." LMAOOOOO. i don't know if you write or draw but if you do, then you should cook something up. ((We support and encourage others in this household.)) also bestie. B E S T IE. Best friend. i ain't telling you how to live your life but if you have access to the Shounen Jump app wherever you live and you got 2.99 (some of us don't, no hate here.) and if you got some time, then i recommend you read a little story called one piece LMAOOOO. I ain't one of those people who will tell you it gets good in ch/ep 80938423984023984023948 lol. i've liked it since the beginning but thats ME. You ain't gotta read or watch all of that shit to know if something's good and if you like it lmao, or at least that's how i feel. anyways it seems like it takes 80 years to get through but that's really only bc of the pacing in the anime lol, it comes out weekly and ofc the animation studio wouldn't want to catch up with the actual manga sooooo they act a lil sily in terms of pacing LMAO. it's still that bitch in my opinion though, but that's my opinion and you can see that it has 1000+ episodes and be like ..."i aint watching all that shit." LMAO FAIR. IT'S GOOD THO. BOTH THE ANIME AND MANGA ARE GOOD!!! and they both have their pros and cons when it comes to consuming them. ANYWAYYYYYYS. yeah if you have like, time, 2.99, And the shounen jump app is available wherever you are (also u can go to like Viz's official website and your shounen jump subscription will carry through there too :) ) THEN I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THE PIECE!!! (btw you can read 100 chs A DAY of op or they have other mangas too bby YEEEEEE) or if you have time then i also recommend watching the anime its... it's that bitch, i don't know. If you do end up liking it then netflix can help you take a nice bite out of the series, there's also like funimation/crunchyroll... or... *whispers* there are other...ways...to watch the anime....*whispers* ...are you a cop? LMAOOOOOO.

It's really good though with a whole bunch of lovable characters that the live-action doesn't even begin to be able to get into. you didn't ask, you didn't ask, but me personally, my favorite arc is Alabasta, which is the place they should be going to next season in the live action!! it also introduces one of my favorite little villains: Crocodile!!! idk i love it and i love him LOLLLL which i shouldn't bc he's...he's not a good man but i'm 26 i'm allowed to like toxic anime men, i've earned that right. (also you can like things and criticize them/acknowledge their flaws.) ANYWAYS, ANYWAYS, I'M RAMBLING, but yeah, it's good eating, and i highly suggest you get into the actual series if you liked the live action because the series itself is more in depth. Plus, P L U S, there's more Mihawk, Crocodile, and Buggy content AND THATS A WIN TO ME. lajsldajskdajsdlasjd. it's fun and as an added bonus there's a sense of community and you can always come back here and scream your thoughts to me (and everyone else) if you like it. Like i'm honored by your compliments but nothing i write could ever compare to the actual series itself LOLLLLL.

ANYWAYS THANKS SO MUCH!!!! ILYYYYY!!! I HOPE YOU HAVE A GOOD DAY, A GOOD WEEK, A GOOD YEAR!!!!!!!!!! MUAH!!!!!

[kimikiui]

Why You Should Vote for Hakupo

Hello. Good evening, morning, afternoon, brunch, sleepytime whatever time it is for you right now. I am here to sell my little autism creature to you. This is going to be a fairly long post so, just sit tight.

The second round of polls will not be out for a couple of hours. I wanted to reblog the post with this, BUT- I have class at 3 when the polls are released. Plus, gotta get those non Hakupo believers before they vote for anyone else, amirite?

Also the stickers used between catagories are the official line stickers by Pikomaru ➜ https://store.line.me/stickershop/product/3951590/en

Reminder; It's only Shinji sweep until its Hakupo sweep.

No, I'm not putting a section breaker because even if you don't read it, I want you to see the sheer size of this... It's an essay at this point. Let's get started shall we?

What is a Hakupo?

Hakupo Tsukishiro is a energetic and powerful masculine voicebank for Utau (and amadeusy but we dont talk abt brunnnoooo). He was released all the way back in 2010 and has had many important milestones in his 13 years of distribution. Four compilation albums, 7 voicebanks, 2,500+ fanarts (that i all have), and uses by really awesome people *points to the crowd*. That's all of you guys out there. <3

Hakupo as a character is inspired by moe, thanks Clarice. Like most moe characters, he's a bit air headed and happy go lucky person. His positive attitude is sometimes brought into original songs he's featured in, which just makes me smile- girlbosses love a good pick me up song.

Also he has a stupid little coat and pants. This is all you need to know to vote for Hakupo, but I will continue forward incase you are still on the fence.

Cool Hakupo Facts

He almost has the same exact suggested range as Miku (C3 to E5)... His is actually larger... he goes higher (C3 to G5).

The "Do Re Mi FâåÁaæ↓" incident of Christmas 2020, contact me I will elaborate further.

There is a little bit of an evil twin thing going on. Yeah. This is a win.

His genderbend design Kohaku is revealed when you turn down the brightness of his official reference sheet (he pulled a scott cawthon guys).

He hates to be called cute and have his head patted... which is cute.

Despite looks- His description says he has curly hair come on guys- LITTLE FLUFF.

By looking at his official Twitter bot, there's a few extra things we can learn about him. He is very stupid, very impatient, has a horrible sleep schedule, bad at multitasking, and can't stand still (I can elaborate more on these if asked).

I wrote a 43 page Utau cartoon pilot script with Hakupo as the main character. Shameless plug.

I also wrote my college admissions essay about Hakupo. Thanks for getting me into college Bobo!

Sick Bobo Uses

Get boboed.

What does Bobo mean to me?

I found Hakupo 7 years ago now, sitting in the middle of an Utau melody. I told myself I would just turn off my tablet and listen to the music. Yeah that worked- guess who was next after the screen turned off. BOBO! I needed to see the little creature creating this melody. I turned on the screen, and was not disappointed. Fancy twink in a oversized tailcoat with weird pants. I remember rambling to my mom later about how cool he was, why he was so unique, and why this one specifically caught my attention.

He's been my special interest since then, everyone around me knows Hakupo wheather they like it or not. He's about 80% of everything I draw, 50% of what I talk about, and 100% of my little creature I snuggle up with every night.

Literally.

I have a Hakupo bodypillow. Can't sleep without him.

Anyways, he's helped me find a lot of my best friends *coughcoughmeatcoughrevcough*, never fails to make me happy, and helped everyone around me realize I'm extremely autistic. The least I can do is write an ungodly long propaganda post while drinking my coffee at 9 am.

Stan Bobo Oobieero.

Hakupo Memes for Propaganda

GO VOTE FOR HAKUPO ON @utaupoll AT 3 PM EST

Thanks, have a nice day.

[glassmarcus]

I Was Transported into the Pokémon World simply because God wanted to see what funny shit would happen and now I’m the savior of this Underdeveloped Island

*Played in January 2022, Written in Summer 2022.

Since its inception, Pokémon has been split into a dichotomy: The Battling and Collecting. You catch Pokémon to fight, you fight with Pokémon to catch them. Two sides of the same coin. That’s the basis of the franchise really. But to draw parallels to a coin is misleading, because they are in no way equal in surface area. The collecting aspect of Pokémon is and always has been somewhat dwarfed by the battling aspect.

I want to define these attributes before continuing. When I talk about battling I don’t just mean fighting gym leaders and trainers, I’m including the entire process of selective breeding and training Pokémon specifically so they are better at beating the stuffing out of other Pokémon. Here is where the standard RPG elements are present. You build your party, level up your party, and probably get attached to your party. When I refer to Collecting I don’t just mean catching Pokémon and producing more of them with your harlot of a ditto. Observing the Pokémon and learning about it’s behavior is also included in this. You aren’t just collecting Pokémon, but collecting knowledge of the world itself. That’s how I see things anyway.

Collecting has always taken a backseat to Battling because Collecting is, for the most part, a side mission. Gathering Pokémon is optional and only slightly encouraged. You can go through the entire game with only one dude + an HM Slave and be perfectly fine. You may miss out on a few items, but you will see the credits. Battling is only dependent on Collecting to a point and you can ignore it entirely after you’ve gotten your 6th Pokémon. The inverse isn’t true though. Collecting is almost always dependent on battling because that’s the only real way to engage with Pokémon in this franchise. You fight them to catch them. Sure there are exceptions. Breeding is a way to get a new Pokémon without fighting. There are also things outside of battling and collecting that allow interaction with Pokémon such as Pokémon AMIE or Pokémon contest. But these all end up feeling like detours because so much of the world just revolves around Pokémon tearing each other apart. All the progression blocks and benchmarks are defined by how good you are at commanding your animal buddies to throw hands...or paws...or rocks. This has led to the series being more of a monster battle simulator than a monster collectethon.

It’s funny how Pokémon was marketed as the ‘Gotta Catch Em All’ game, when really it’s never been about that. It was mainly the novelty of that being possible rather than the game design itself pushing people to do it. Catching them all is a goal that has lost its luster over time. The more Pokémon included, the more out of reach the concept seemed. The longer it went on, the less charming it felt. While there were many attempts to actually enforce this dichotomy or at the very least lessen the importance of battle, none were successful. But as unsuccessful as they were, they were not fruitless. Every experiment, every weird spin off, every failed idea all built towards something.

We first saw glimpses of this vision as early as the first Pokémon generation in Pokémon Red, Blue, and Yellow (and Green I guess) with the Safari Zone. The Safari Zone introduced this idea that you were hunting Pokémon in a somewhat old school fashion. You didn’t use your Pokémon to fight them and tire them out. It was just the player character luring and baiting Pokémon into a position where they can be caught easier. There’s a cool idea at play here, but the way it was executed made it not a cool game to play here. The Safari Zone is functionally the same as the rest of the adventure, only worse. You weren’t technically fighting the monsters, but you basically were, as it just uses a watered down version of the regular battle menu. The way you catch Pokémon is mechanically less interesting than the normal way; The way you find Pokémon is exactly the same as the normal way (only there’s a step limit for some reason). Because this franchise is so rooted in everything being progressed through violence, the attempt to deviate from that resulted in a lesser version of the standard turn based combat.

There was no safari zone in 2nd Generation Pokémon Games: Pokémon Gold, Silver and Crystal. Probably because it sucked so hard in Generation 1. There was however, a Bug Catching Contest. While this contest didn’t require you to use any unique mechanic for catching Pokémon, it did incentivize catching for reasons other than finding a strong recruit for your team. I always wished there was more stuff like this in Generation 2 because it was an outlet to test your catching ability in a way that wasn’t just completing the Pokédex. Battles always had gyms, but Catching had nothing. It could have had contest as an equivalent, but for the most part this idea was abandoned. The only contest you really see in the future are the Pokémon Contest in Generation 3’s Pokémon Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald and the subsequent Generation’s Pokémon Diamond, Pearl and Platinum. These deviate a bit from standard battles for sure, but they don’t encourage catching any more than the legacy battles it’s trying to serve as an alternative to. Not to say that physically catching is the only way to interact with your team during this era. Part of these Contest is grooming your Pokémon in a way which makes them thrive in certain categories. There’s nothing interesting about this process though and it only serves to increase yet another set of stats. Interactions divorced from battling would be done better in later games and was honestly done better in earlier games as well.

I will stand by the statement that Pokémon Snap (1999) was, for a long time, the most interesting lens into the Pokémon World. While you couldn’t catch them or treat them like pets, you could observe them in their natural habitats and see their regular demeanor. It was the first time Pokémon showed any signs of life. You could stand by and just watch them like a Disney Land safari ride, or you could lure and pester them to change their behaviors. Either way, they would exist and go about their day. Pokémon Snap implanted this idea that Pokémon exist outside of your view and it made the world feel so much bigger despite being what is essentially a condensed on rails shooter. It’s not a game about catching Pokémon, yet it still succeeds at what the Safari Zone failed at in gen 1.

On the other hand, 7 years later there would be the first Pokémon game that was expressly about catching them in Pokémon Rangers. I’ve never played this game, because the main method of gameplay interaction is ruining your DS Screen and I try to take care of my things. I’ve long assumed that the trilogy of Pokémon Rangers games aren’t what I was looking for in a “Pokémon game about catching Pokémon” and frankly I don’t care to confirm this assumption. Having catching monsters be hinged on some awful gimmick was grounds for immediate dismissal. It’s bad. And distracting. As limited as Pokémon Snap was, I never perceived the gameplay as some huge abstraction separating me from the Pokémon World. It’s Strange. In the 2 decade span between Pokémon Snap and it’s sequel, not a single game came close to them in generating an immersive Pokémon Experience.

The 3D games did more to make Pokémon truly exist in the world, removing the abstraction that was once there, but also making it look really embarrassing as a result. It was fine in Pokémon Snap. It was not fine in Pokémon Colosseum because the world felt barren as a result. It was not fine in the 6th Generation entries: Pokémon X, Y, Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire because battles took place in a seemingly alternate dimension and Pokémon instantly spawned out of ankle high grass. It was still not fine when they did that exact same thing in the 7th generation with Pokémon Sun and Moon. It was not fine in Pokémon Go because it’s explicitly not the Pokémon World and it makes no sense for them to just appear out of the ethereal plane. I haven’t touched Either 8th Generation game: Pokémon Sword or Pokémon Shield yet, but the Wild Area in that game looks hilarious to me with how aggressive the pop in seemed and how boring the environments looked. These ventures into making a Pokémon adventure in 3D haven’t worked out. All attempts to make a game that didn’t require Battling the end all be all action failed. But, we’ve gotten a bit closer every time, even when it wasn’t obvious.

Colosseum may have taken the adventure and capturing aspects of Pokémon out of the equation, but it still introduced Pokémon being in unnatural/special states which would be used in future games. Generation 6 didn’t do much to convert the series into a 3D adventure, but it did introduce 700 3D models and grant a way to interact with and pamper your Pokémon. Generation 7 abandoned the grid movement, brought believable geography to the table, and expanded upon the unnatural/special Pokémon idea that Colosseum created. Pokémon GO, for how little of an adventure it offers, proves that Catching and Battling can be fun and completely separate. And as lifeless as the Wild areas in Sword and Shield looked like at a glance, they still allow for freedom and open gameplay. This is also a heavy assumption though, as I skipped the hell out of that game. Game Freak has been the primary developer for Pokémon since the beginning and every blunder they made along the way they have learned from and used to build up the franchise. It may not have happened all at once, but we got there eventually. Pokémon Legends: Arceus is the logical destination that all of Game Freak’s baby steps have been marching towards this whole time.

On a structural level, Legends is a huge switch up for the franchise. The goal of the game is laid out in front of you from the start: “Seek Pokémon”. It’s the first thing you hear once you are Isekai’d into the past and everything you do in the rest of the story pretty much boils down to this. The game itself is built around this idea. You are given large open areas to explore that are actually inhabited by Pokémon. This feat is achieved by modifying 3 elements of the established Pokémon journey.

Change #1: Pokémon Species now all have unique behaviors.

This is an exaggeration of course, but in prior mainline games there wasn’t much room for Pokémon to really show their personality out in the wild. They pop out and attack you then either punk out or keep fighting. That was the extent of their behavior. Now that you are tasked with finding Pokémon instead of just running into them randomly, there are way more situations available for the Pokémon to show off their general behavior. It goes far beyond fight and flight this time. You can be minding your own business trying to collect materials on the side of the beach when all of a sudden you get ambushed by a Spheal. And what does the Spheal do? Just sorta rolls up to you and chills. That’s it. Spheals are simply balls of joy that want to give a goofy smile to anyone within proximity. It’s something that is easy to imagine given the design of the Pokémon, but it was never something that could be displayed until now.

I won’t pretend that every interaction is as memorable and unique as these ones, but I was shocked at how many times I came out of an encounter knowing way more about how the Pokémon operates rather that knowing how hard it is to catch. Mr Mimes are pretty docile, but will not make it easy to catch them in a very unique way. They will put up invisible walls to block your pokéballs and challenge you to figure out how to get past them. Paras are fucking assholes and will attempt to eliminate you on sight no matter what level you are. They are the little guy who talks shit, cannot back it up, yet refuses to admit they cannot back it up. Who can back up their shit are Toxicroaks who do not entertain your stealth antics. They will spot you from a distance you would never expect to be spotted from and will charge at you with the determination of a child chasing down an Ice Cream Truck. You truly get a sense for the general disposition of most Pokémon in this game. Whenever you see a new Pokémon, it’s not just a new design to add to your Pokédex, it’s a creature to be studied.

Change #2: Pokémon are always physically there.

Well not really, but the draw distance of where they pop into the environment is just enough to where it appears like they abide by the laws of object permanence. Gone are random encounters and it works way better. Obviously having the Pokémon be constantly on the map instead of an abstract battle zone will make the Pokémon feel like they exist in the same world as you. Sure, this can be messed up if they make the Pokémon too static so that they come across as objects instead, but I think Game Freak makes their idle behavior patterns just active enough to sell it. Removing wild Pokémon from the realm of battles and bringing them into the real world has been a long time coming. We saw a bit of this with rustling spots in debuting in Generation 5’s Pokémon Black and White where certain spots in the grass indicated a Pokemon being present. The Dex Nav in Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire allowed you to search for certain Pokémon even if you couldn’t see them really and implemented a slow walk to sneak up to them. The trials in Sun and Moon were a cool way to interact with wild Pokémon outside of random encounters and then we finally got there in Sword and Shield with specified areas. The wall has been shattered and now Pokémon are simply Pokémon. It comes off great, not just as a dork who wants to be pulled into a fictional world, but as person who hates stupid ass random encounters.

I’d like to recall a certain event from my youth. I was playing a Pokémon game on the Gameboy Advance, it was either Pokemon Sapphire or Pokemon Leaf Green, I don’t quite remember. I was in a cave and I had no idea where I was going and I didn’t have a Pokémon with flash. So I just wandered around, colliding with every wall in the area until I found my way out. And every goddamned 5 steps you know what I was greeted with? A fucking Zubat. I attacked and fled from more Zubats than my tiny mind could possibly comprehend. And after wading through the near unending sea of Zubats I found myself washed up upon the other side of the cave. Except it wasn’t the other side. It was the same exact place I entered! Does this story seem familiar to you? I do not doubt that it does. I would not be surprised if everyone who has played a decent amount of Pokémon has an anecdote like that in their back pocket. Sure if I had been prepared and had flash and some repels this wouldn’t be an issue. But I believe the punishment for not having and using the right items should be something a bit lighter than RNG Shit Bat Purgatory.

Eliminating random encounters removes annoying moments such as these and replaces them with actual substance. This is a complete vertical improvement. I do not miss repels. Not one bit. I struggle to think of any game which I would prefer random encounters over the enemies being on the map. It always seemed like the late SNES RPGs were legendary must play games at the top of the genre. Yet, years later I have still not beaten Final Fantasy 6. I could never really place why I couldn’t as that game is objectively incredible. I think I’ve finally uncovered the grounds for my lack of motivation though. Chrono Trigger doesn’t have dumb random encounters. Earthbound doesn’t have dumb random encounters. FF6 does. Also Active Time Battle systems aren’t used that well in Final Fantasy titles and really shouldn’t have lasted so many games. After 25 years Pokémon has surpassed Final Fantasy 6 and is now on a similar level of prestige as Chrono Trigger. Is this reasoning completely unhinged and probably incorrect? Yes. I’m not even sure I truly agree with it. But the fact that I’m only exaggerating at least 40% of this praise says a lot about how big of an improvement I feel the franchise has made in this game.

Change #3: Pokémon will knock your dick into the dirt and steal your shoes

This is, without a shadow of a doubt, the most important thing this game has added. It’s always been strange how Wild Pokémon Battles are pretty much identical to Trainer Battles. It’s framed as this dangerous task, yet both cases just seem like something you are doing for sport. Why are they not whooping your ass after you run out of Pokémon? Why are these Pokémon so polite to your defenseless soulless player character. This idea that wild Pokémon never harm the trainer is pusillanimous bull shit by design. I understand the rationale, but it’s still extremely limiting. We see Pokémon with these dangerous abilities, cosmic roles in the world, and incredible stature and reputation. Yet they have never felt like that for a second because you are never in any form of narrative danger from wild Pokémon. I fear trainers WAY MORE. Trainers take your money at least, wild Pokémon teleport you to the nearest free health care center. There is no risk in interacting with these things so the idea that they are actually dangerous comes across as a lie.

Legends removes this lie and makes it clear that Pokémon will thoroughly ruin your day. You may have been able to infer that your trainer gets injured, but that’s not the same as it actually happening. Getting hit in this game is a bad time. Getting hit in any game feels bad, but the way the screen fuzzes up and makes everything disorienting while you aren’t completely sure how much health you have left makes it crystal clear that you have fucked up. Conversely, not getting hit when they attack you feels great. Before now, all you could do is throw balls and give commands, now you are much more than that. You can get the hell out of the way. Dodge rolling through shock waves and weaving through projectiles not only makes you seem more competent than in other games, but also suggest you are fighting an actual threat. It also helps that there are stakes this time around. You can’t just repeatedly die with no consequence anymore. You will lose important items and have to rely other players taking part of the Strand System to get them back. There’s something more heart breaking about this than losing your money. Money is something you constantly get throughout the game, but items can be used in specific situations for specific uses and thus act more like property. I don’t want the things I own to get stolen. It’s as simple as that. This system assuredly put the fear of Arceus into me and had me tip toeing around Alpha Pokémon from a safe distance for a large portion of the game. Alpha Pokémon are the latest version of the corrupted Pokémon concept. Abnormally large, Extremely aggressive, with eyes that will pierce your Heart, Bladder, and Soul. Fear was never an emotion I’d expect to have while playing a Pokémon game, but it’s exactly how I felt. Rounding a corner and seeing an Alakazam 3 times stronger than anything in my party made me understand something. Pocket Monsters are now finally, for the first time ever, Monsters.

I’m serious, Pokemon are a threat. This isn’t an observation I’m having. The text of the game supports it. People are scared shitless of Pokemon, and they should be. They don’t have a century worth of experience telling these beast what to do. There’s no reason for them to listen to humans, Pokemon are smart enough and strong enough to take over whenever they want to. But they don’t. Most Pokemon just kinda want to hang out with humans and help them and the whole game is about the society realizing that. It’s not what I would call a good plot, and I can’t say it’s delivered extremely well. But it’s a nice change of status quo from what you’re used to and it’s consistent with the gameplay. It re-frames the Pokemon human connection that we’ve been taking for granted for decades now. And when Pokemon do start coexisting with humans as the game progresses, it’s genuinely wholesome.

I didn’t realize it before, but I’ve always wanted this on an unconscious level. I can only assume this desire was sprouted within me when I watched the first Pokémon Movie and saw Ash completely wipe out after getting Sandwich Slammed by Mew and Mewtwo. Or maybe it was all the Digimon media I consumed where Digimon posed an actual threat to the protagonist in a believable way. No matter what it was, it made it clear that there was a disconnect between the action and player avatar that I’d rather be removed. The Pokémon Mystery Dungeon games scratched that itch for a bit. Removing the trainer from the equation and just have you play as the Pokémon is extremely effective in making the action feel substantial. Legends has it’s Alcreamie and eats it too. You still get an avatar you can use to bond with strange creatures, but you aren’t removed from the action in the slightest.

With these three additions, Legends builds the perfect foundation for a fresh and engaging Pokémon journey.

Of course some stuff had to be added and sacrificed for it to all mesh together. Catching for one, is no longer as simple as throwing a ball. It’s not even as simple as aiming and throwing a ball. It essentially includes both methods of catching Pokémon we’ve seen so far in the franchise. You can go the traditional route and whittle a Pokémon’s health down through battle and catch it via menu. You can also aim the pokéballs and attempt to catch the Pokémon outright like in Pokémon Go. The latter ends up being one of the more interesting additions to the game.

You cannot just throw a pokéball at aggressive Pokémon. So unless you want to fight everything like this is a normal Pokémon game (which is completely valid), you have to create situations where Pokémon are susceptible to capture. You can use stealth to make a Pokémon who would be aggressive on sight vulnerable to a throw. That slow walk introduced in Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire is paying off dividends now and has become an invaluable movement option. You can Lure a Pokémon out with food and bring their guard down. You can throw rocks and other hard materials at aggro’d pokes to put them in a temporary stunned state. If you are a coward and don’t even want to interact with the beast face to face, you can just snipe the sons of bitches if you have good enough aim. All these approaches paired with a variety of pokéballs with their own ups and downs create a truly engrossing system writhe with opportunities to hunt, research, and interact.

Traditional Battling is what I’d call….worse, but in a way that’s inconsequential. Pokémon has lost a lot of it’s complexity in this installment. There’s no abilities, no hold items and Sweeping and Tanking archetypes are all that matter. But even though it’s not the same battle system we all know and love, it’s still a battle system that works better with this style of game than the old one ever could. Pokémon fighting has always been slow and inefficient. All the transitions, animations, and frequency of battles themselves just lead to a lot of your time being wasted. And even though there’s a lot going on under the hood, only the multiplayer and a few in-game encounters ever take full advantage of it. This game isn’t about battling and doesn’t even have a multiplayer option on the other hand. The old form of combat would have no benefit being in this game. This is why Legends emphasizes Speed above all else. Everything is snappy and immediate. Animations are quicker, the battles are mostly optional, Pokémon go down faster than ever before, and there are no battle transitions because every encounter takes place on the map. Even the statuses are changed to make battle faster, replacing stuff like Sleep, and Frozen (things which only acted to take away turns and slow down the game) with Drowsy and Frostbite. It’s less complicated, but it’s smoother which is something this game tries very hard to accomplish at all times. Arceus wants you to get back to the adventure as soon as possible and creates a system to accommodate this. Speed feels like a guiding principle of this game overall.

I cannot stress enough how important it is to make world traversal not terrible in games such as these. Sure people like wandering from place to place in open areas, but making it too slow can make the process tedious when treading old ground. I surmise that the devs were hyper aware of this when creating this game. When you enter your first open area and roam around for an hour or two, it’s pretty slow moving and it’s fine because you’re still learning the ropes. Everything is fresh and new, so there’s no need to get to point B from A as soon as possible. But once you get into the swing of things and the illusion of an infinitely expanding world is shattered, Legends waste no time making sure that you don’t waste yours.

Soon enough, Fast Travel Points become available and you get your first mount which controls way better than I ever thought it would. More over, the summoning and dismissal of the mount is near instant. You can travel to landmarks quicker, gain access to new areas, and if you want to go back on foot it’s just as simple as pressing a button. Mounts act as a Sonic Heroes-like party member switch, where different situations call for different characters. You continue to get these mounts throughout the game, and as you progress, your mobility reaches insane heights. As the areas get bigger and terrain gets more treacherous, you become equally equipped enough to deal with them. Every new mount is purely additive and doesn’t hinder gameplay in any way because the character switching is so buttery smooth that it starts to feel like you aren’t playing as X amount of characters, but 1 character with a large set of skills.

I would say Legends’ main strengths that set it apart are its snappiness and its fresh design philosophy. But even without those things it’s still a Pokémon game. That means it has the given Pokémon staples such as Delightful Music and Solid Character Designs, and Minimal Options, and underwhelming character creation, and inefficient use of Hardware Specs, and Grating Overly Long Dialogue….Oh No, it’s still a Pokémon game. If this had a few more months in the oven it could have been far more impressive given the right direction. Sure, there’s a lot of content and most of it is fun, but the polish isn’t there, not by a long shot. For all it has going for it, it still looks cheap. I’ve played the Xenoblade games, I know what the switch can do when utilized correctly. This ain't it. These Early 7th gen console textures for the environment ain't it. These long as hell load times when going between areas ain't it. This lack of voice acting paired with characters pretending to talk in serious cutscenes is not it. The game is embarrassing in a way that isn’t really acceptable. Not as embarrassing as it used to be, but still not up to par when you consider Pokémon is the biggest media franchise of all time.

These sort of come off as nit picks after the 20 paragraphs I spent praising the game, but overtime they did weigh down the experience.

Example: In the beginning of the game I wandered into a forest full of bug type Pokémon that I hadn’t seen in the game before. As I slowly creeped around the area trying not to scare off anything because I had no clue how common anything was, I surveyed my environment to make sure I wasn’t missing anything. At this moment Music starting playing. Music seems to play very infrequently in this game. That means you can miss some of the game’s great soundtrack. But that also makes it more impactful when you do hear it. The track that started playing was “The Heartwood” and it gave off a perfect fey-like vibe. I became completely engrossed with the serene majesty of the Pokémon World. And then it happened. The track which felt familiar, yet completely original shifted into an arrangement of Eterna Forest, My favorite piece of music from Generation 4. As I was taking in this truly spellbinding moment, I thought to look to the sky to see what time of day it was. And then I saw something unexpected. A Staraptor, a Pokémon that I didn’t think I’d be able to catch yet, appeared before me…..in the far distance...flying around in a perfect circle...at 3 frames a second. And yea, that sequence pretty much encapsulates my experience with this game. There’s a true 10/10 buried in this, but as you dig to find it, you can only see it for a moment before the dirt walls come falling back down. It’s eyes are just a bit too big for it’s stomach. It’s great, but the whole time you can’t help but think “This should be way cooler than it actually is”. Regardless, I was still impressed by the game in context and hope that more like this comes in the future. Pokémon has reached it’s first milestone destination, but there is still a long road ahead.

[theunconcernedembalmer]

*holds up nerf gun* mun how r u so talented gib secrets

The tl dr of all this is really just because I like to draw a lot XD I love to draw, so I wanted to get better at it, and I just kept going at it. I think that’s a pretty good summary of me being a self taught artist. 

More details under the cut because as usual I can’t shut up enough XD also posting this cos I haven’t had the energy to get to replies yet oops

1. Find a thing you really like and draw it for the next uhhhhh 3 years or so of your life. Rinse and repeat. (I hopped from OCs to Undertale and now to IDV over the span of like. idk a decade or so, so whatever that catches your fancy, really. You have to enjoy it, first and foremost XD)

2. Study basic theory, like very basic (as much as you’re willing to learn, or as much as it helps make your stuff look better). Anatomy, composition, colours, maybe even a bit of perspective, depends on what you want to focus on (eg. if you want to draw characters, focus on anatomy. Items and background? Composition and perspective will help greatly).

This is a step that I know most of us hate, because we're lazy like that, but after a while you can only get so far without knowing basic anatomy and the like. There are tons of tutorials floating around, especially on tumblr, so dig up those that you want to learn and spend some time on them. Look at the different tutorials on the same topic and have a look at the different ways of approaching them. Pick the one you like the most/ works the best, stick with it and have fun XD

Also I feel like this step helps whenever you’re feeling incredibly frustrated with your own art. It happens a lot, it happens to me, and usually what fixes that is really figuring out what can be improved. Feeling unsatisfied with your art means you’re ready to improve, but most of the time you don’t know how to, so doing a bit of studying might help, especially in areas you know you need help in.

Again, you don't have to do all of them, just the ones you're interested in/ currently struggling with. I’m just a little hobby artist, I prefer to do things at my own pace, and more importantly I have to like what I do.

I only had the chance to go to a couple of formal classes in university, but I knew that if I had taken these classes any earlier, I would have hated them, and I don't think I would have learnt as much as I have. That's mostly because I used to be lazy and didn't see the need for formal art theory, but now I know I should have a little bit if I want my art to be looking better, so now I’m interested in all the boring stuff. Especially since this is more out of interest than anything, I don't want to do anything to kill it.

3. Study other ppl's art, especially from artists you adore. This is the next best alternative to studying actual theory since it's less technical, but it's more experimental (cos what works for others doesn’t always work for you). Personally I learnt a lot from doing this on my own. Figure out what you like about you favourite artist's art (is it the way they draw a particular part of the body? Backgrounds? Colours, lineart?), and copy it. Like really just try to imitate it to the best of your ability, you will learn what works and what doesn't work for you when you slowly try it out. Steal it, it’s yours now. As long as you don't trace it and post it as your own, you should be fine. 

I should also mention that whenever you see art that you really like, it's easy to feel jealous and inferior. But I think instead of that, you should take the opportunity to learn from them to do something about your own skills. It's okay to feel like that, because everyone does at one point, but it's really whether you want to do anything about it that can help you, or at least that's what I believe XD

Eg. I found an artist that drew hands very very well, so I took some time to copy the way they drew hands for a bit and started incorporating that into my drawing (specifically the way they tend to angle fingers). Another example is that I saw an artist adding insane eyebags to their characters and I decided I wanted that too. So here we are with my signature eyebagsop XD

I haven't found the time to do a painting study yet, so my colours and paintings aren't as nice as I'd like them to be XD

4. Use references when you're unsure. Drawing is difficult, and no one will know if you've cheated to make things easy for yourself (unless it's a trace, which at that point it can hardly count as reference), so just go ahead and use it. I go to the mirror to check angles and positions sometimes, and I use my own hands as references a lot more than you think. (my tip for using hands as a reference: knowing where the thumb is helps a lot)

5. Fuck around and find out. There’s no one fixed rule for drawing, so if you so happen to make your own and you like it and it works, just go for it man. I have some techniques come about very accidentally, like that one time I found out one particular brand of ink wasn’t waterproof, so I ended up using it as watercolour instead. Others times it’s just finding the best way to do things in your style, like how I prevent myself from drawing on the wrong layer by bringing the opacity of my sketch layer down real low, so it’s obvious when I’m drawing on the wrong layer.

Fucking around also means trying new things when your art feels a bit boring XD change up some brushes (for me I gradually started to use thinner brushes for my art XD), try out some tools on your program, switch art styles. Or maybe try something else entirely, like making gifs/ animations, or even comics (winks). If you manage to find something you like, great! If not, at least you’ve tried it, and you know what you don’t like, which is actually just as important as knowing what you like to do uwu

6. Keep going. The art you're seeing now is the result of uhhhhhhhh more than a decades worth of drawing. Every single drawing is valuable exp that helps you level up. The shitty doodles during boring classes, the badly drawn other eye, even the hands hidden behind backs. I promise all these will help, even if it doesn't feel like it, so keep drawing. 

If you prefer to burn your old works because of how bad they are, I’m not gonna stop you because I totally understand the second hand embarrassment, but personally I’d like to keep them as a record of the progress you’ve made. It’s a very nice feeling seeing how far you’ve come.

There was a period of time I stopped drawing for like a year because I had close to 0 inspiration, but I don't regret that at all. Because I'm here now, enjoying myself as much as I used to, and I think it's worth it. So if there's a period you just can't draw, don't stress yourself too much over it, I’m sure you will eventually find the strength and passion to draw again sometime in the future.

And that’s all for now XD if you have any art questions on anything specific, I’ll try my best to help with it XD 

[kitkatpancakestack]

As requested: interior designer!Chris. The best part about 5x10, god bless.

Read this chapter and the rest of the series on ao3!

XX

Buck moving into the Diaz household isn’t monumental news, given he spends the majority of his time with them, anyway. Since the moment Eddie met him, Eddie’s apartment seemed to open up and reshape around him, like a living, breathing thing, automatically accommodating him into their space. He figures it will occur much like the way they got together, with little fanfare, in the dimly lit space of his kitchen, curled around each other against the fridge. They did their entire relationship ass backwards, anyway, so as far as milestones go, it isn’t as big for them as it would be for another couple.

At least, he thought.

But when he steps through his door after shift and receives an amused look from Carla on her way out, and then finds Christopher sitting on the couch wearing his Renovator in Training shirt, he knows he’s in for it.

“Dad,” his son says, offering a curt nod.

Eddie bites back a smile. “Christopher.”

“You might be wondering why I’ve called you here.”

“Um, well, I was assuming to check over your homework and make dinner?”

He rolls his eyes in a move that radiates Buck and pushes the white binder in front of him across the coffee table. “No, Dad. Buck is moving in.”

Eddie frowns, toeing off his boots and moving further into the living room. “Is that what this is about, buddy? Are you feeling weird about it?”

Another Buck-esque expression colors his features, tilting his eyebrows up. “No. Of course not. But our house isn’t ready.”

Eddie blames the double shift for his lack of ability to process the information. “Our—what?”

“The house, keep up. We need to get it ready for Buck. It still just looks like only we live here.”

“Because only we do, Chris.”

“That’s the problem!”

Eddie sighs, drawing his son against his side. “Christopher, Buck has called this place home for a long time, much longer than we’ve been together. He’ll re-work his space after he moves in.”

But Christopher’s face is resolute in its obstinacy. “No.” He pushes the binder closer to Eddie. “Dad, we need to go to Target.”

“I’m sorry?”

“I made a list.”

“You made a list?”

Christopher rips the paper out of the binder, and that is how they wind up at Target the next Saturday Eddie has off, just the two of them.

“Don’t get me wrong,” Buck says through the phone, “I’m absolutely thrilled I get to sleep in and not wait for you to spend three hours picking out a welcome mat, but it’s . . . weird.”

Eddie hums, leaning against the cart, as Christopher ambles up and down an aisle of kitchen equipment. “Well, he was pretty adamant about you not coming along.”

“Yikes. Should I be worried?”

“Only about the Design Czar currently living in our house now.”

Buck laughs, and the sound sends rivulets of warmth blossoming over Eddie’s skin. “Well, I’m dating the original Design Czar, so what you’re looking at is your progeny, Ed. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, and all that.”

Christopher beckons Eddie over. “Gotta go,” he sighs, squinting at the complicated appliance on the shelf. “Still coming over tonight?”

“With pizza in hand.”

“Thanks, Buck. I’ll see you later. Love you.”

“Love you too, Design Czar.”

Eddie hangs up with Buck cackling in the background. He shoves his phone in his pocket and nods toward the shelf. “Christopher, what exactly am I looking at here?”

“Coffee maker!”

“Why? We have one at home, buddy.”

The eye roll he receives from his son is dramatic and long-suffering.

“Hey,” Eddie mutters.“Careful, or your eyes will get stuck back there.”

“Buck always talks about this when we come here,” Christopher says, tapping his crutch on the floor insistently. “Also, he makes faces at your coffee machine behind your back.”

“What?”

“He says it’s antiquated.”

“What?”

“Anyway, Buck always says kitchens are important, and he spends a lot of time in our kitchen, so we need to make sure it’s perfect.” His glasses slide down his nose, revealing eyes that hold no room for negotiation. “Please put it in the cart, Dad.”

“Twist my arm,” Eddie mutters, but he grabs the machine from the top shelf and puts it in the cart. “Where to next, sir?”

They spend a generous chunk of their day scouting the aisles of Target. They hide all their newest treasures in Eddie’s closet, and Christopher tapes a sign to the door that says Buck, Keep out, and as if his son’s behavior isn’t mysterious enough, he retires to his room without comment after the pizza has been eaten.

“He’s just freaking me out a little,” Eddie says, hands curling into the sweatshirt at Buck’s hips where the other man is straddling his lap.

Buck smiles against the skin over Eddie’s neck. “It’s cute.”

“It’s not cute.”

“It is. You’re adorable.” His eyes slip closed at the feel of Buck’s nose tracing an invisible line up the slope of his neck, over the curve of his jaw. It’s a lot. It’s always a lot, with Buck, but he tries not to shy away from the overwhelm anymore. Sometimes he ends up with not enough oxygen in his lungs and his skin prickling, and it’s another mental block he can’t get over, but Buck is always there. Infinitely patient. Infinitely warm. Infinitely in love with him.

Eddie presses the crook of his finger under Buck’s chin to tilt his head up and licks into his mouth, just as he hears, “Dad, gross.”

Buck pulls away with a laugh, head on Eddie’s shoulder, angled to face Christopher. “You know, Chris, one day I’m going to catch you kissing your prom date on the front porch, and we’ll see who’s laughing then.”

“I’m not ever kissing anyone ever, Buck.”

“Yeah, Buck,” Eddie joins, pushing his boyfriend off his lap. “He’s never kissing anyone. Ever.”

Buck rolls his eyes but falls to the cushion beside Edde. He interlocks their fingers. “Ganged up on by the Diaz boys again. There must be something wrong with me if I’m willfully moving into what is clearly enemy territory.”

Eddie gives Buck’s shin a playful kick, and Christopher moves into the room, setting the white binder tucked under his arm on the table. “We’re nowhere near ready,” he says, no nonsense. “Buck, you can’t be here until next Saturday.”

Eddie and Buck share a quizzical look. “Chris,” Eddie starts, turning back to his son. “You don’t have to put so much pressure on yourself. Buck’s not going anywhere.”

“Yeah, buddy. I terminated my lease, anyway. Too late to back out, now.”

But Christopher stands strong, chin jutted forward. “You’re not allowed here for the rest of the week, Buck. You distract Dad when you’re here, and we have work to do.”

“Oh? Is that right?” He shifts toward Eddie, one eyebrow crooked to match the devilish grin on his face. “Do I distract you, Ed?”

Eddie groans, pushing off the couch. “See, now I’m being ganged up on.” He scrubs his hands over his face. “Alright, Chris. Buck, you’re banned until move-in day. Christopher, I am at your disposal until then.”

Buck hides a laugh in the collar of his sweatshirt at the bright grin on Christopher’s face.

The week turns out to be . . . well, he doesn’t want to call it the week from hell, because it’s his son ordering him around, his heart, the breath in his lungs, his entire world, but he also might be starting to realize just how insufferable he is to Buck and Christopher when he’s the one in Design Czar Mode.

Over the course of the week, between shifts and homework and other things, Eddie makes four different Target runs. Carla even takes a couple, when Eddie has to stay late for a shift and won’t be off before the store closes. They start with the living room, which will take the least amount of work, according to Christopher, and involves replacing the red swivel chair by the couch with a recliner, as well as an end table, so Buck has a place to read and nap.

“Buck can just nap in the bed,” Eddie had said, a pathetic attempt to dissuade his son from requesting an entirely new piece of furniture.

It backfired on him completely when Christopher replied with, “He doesn’t like napping in bed because he says it makes it harder to get up. Don’t you know this, Dad? I thought you were in love with him.”

He stopped questioning his son after that.

So, the beige recliner finds a spot by the couch, and the red swivel chair gets donated to the local Habitat for Humanity, and then Christopher sets his sights on the kitchen.

“The most important room,” he says, before opening his binder and showing Eddie his plans. It takes some tweaking, some negotiating, but eventually they land on something they both agree on. Eddie holds a small funeral for his trusty coffee maker before tossing the half-broken thing in the trash. The new coffee maker commands its spot on the counter. It’s different, but it also looks like the future, like slow mornings and rain pattering the window. Like Eddie waking up alone in bed, but the blankets are warm and rumpled and not stiff and untouched. Like Eddie padding into the kitchen to see Buck punching buttons on the machine, smiling sleepily at him over a cup of coffee.

The image puts a spring in his step the rest of the week.

When Saturday rolls around, both he and Chris are wearing their renovator shirts, standing in the finished kitchen. The lock clicks on the front door, and the familiar sounds of Buck fill their space. Christopher bolts through the kitchen to meet him. Eddie’s stomach flips, because he’ll hear it again and again. He’ll be able to hear the sound of Buck coming home to them again and again and again.

“Whoa! You got this for me?”

“Yeah! I picked it out! It’s great, right?”

Eddie hears the sound of Buck dropping into the chair, and wanders into the living room to investigate. He sees the larger man sunk into the newest piece of furniture, blond curls wild and rumpled from the shift, face creased with fatigue, but still smiling warmly at Christopher. “It’s great buddy,” he murmurs. “Thank you.”

“Come see the rest!”

Christopher takes Buck on a tour through his vision. Eddie follows behind, hands in his pockets, immensely proud of what his son has created. Buck chokes up over the coffee machine, and pretty much everything after that. At the conclusion of the tour, he kneels down and wraps Christopher in a tight hug.

“It’s amazing, buddy. Thank you. I love you so much. I’m so lucky to be able to live here with you guys.”

Christopher chuckles, burying his face in Buck’s hair. “Welcome home, Buck,” he says.

Eddie walks over and cards his fingers through Buck’s hair. Two misty blue eyes flicker up to meet him. A lifetime of possibilities pass between their gazes.

“I can’t believe you got rid of your coffee maker for me,” Buck says later that evening, when they’re standing hip-to-hip against the counter as Christopher queues up something to watch in the living room.

Eddie sighs, casting a mistrustful glance toward the machine on his counter that, supposedly, in all its bells and whistles, dispenses coffee. “Well, believe it.”

“You must really love me, huh?”

It’s a joke, but truth engrained in it is not, and he cups Buck’s face in his hand. “Yeah, I do,” he murmurs. “I’d do anything for you, Buck.”

Buck’s Adam's apple bobs as he swallows. “Right back at ya, Design Czar.”

The moment is quiet and full of promise between them, broken only by the opening beats of HGTV’s Design Star playing in the background.

“Oh, my God.” Eddie looks toward the living room. “What have I created?”

Buck pats his cheek and drags him out of the kitchen by his hand. “A monster, Ed. You created a monster.”

Sure enough, Christopher is on the couch with his binder balanced in his lap. He looks up when they enter, eyebrows pinched in a serious expression.

“Please have a seat,” he says, flipping a page. “There are some other changes I would like to discuss.”

[frosted-night]

Jack Frost Designs Review

Yes it’s finally his time. This is going to include his book designs including previous incarnations in said books. There are more movie concept designs than book so, let’s dig in shall we?

This was in fact the first ever Jack Joyce designed while he came up with The Guardians Of Childhood. He even comes with his own backstory! (Which was cut. Sorry Joyce posts walls of text so it’s a girthy read.)

So instead of a young mischievous trickster, we got a much more depressing story of Jack. (Jack by default is sad obviously) but this one... It kind of hits differently and almost reminds me of the story he crafted for Pitch. A dad who tried to defend his family but through tragic events was ripped from them and changed completely. Design wise, he’s a lot more tree than snow. There doesn’t exist a colored version of this so we’ll never know if he sported winter and dull dead leaf colors rather than grassy greens.This Jack has a weird presence to him, I can’t put my finger on it. Rating: 6/10 He’s really neat! Just a little too Autumn feeling rather than a blend of both Autumn and Winter.

Nightlight feels like the baby evolution if Jack was a pokemon and that's what I’m gonna stick with. Below is a more recent version of him colored.

In all honesty that one is easier on the eyes proportion wise because sometimes Joyce has ‘interesting’ anatomy choices but we aint going into that today. It’s interesting how his hair somehow looks shorter and longer than Jack’s at the same time. Could be because the longer strands float seamlessly but star boy hair physics what can ya do. It’s a little hard to tell what is his skin and what is his armor, so that is a casuality in making a character only have one or two colors in their color scheme. I love other artist’s depictions of Nightlight but the canon one feels a little weak color wise. Rating: 5/10 Sorry, get some better LEDs and then come back.

Here we have a book Jack but I can’t entirely recall if this was used in the books or not. I digress. This design looks like him still wearing very Nightlight-esque armor/clothing and slowly growing into his new persona as Jack Frost. The intricacies are hard to make out but we’ll work with it. This one is very interesting to me because he very much looks like an older teen close to young adult. His hair looks very fluffy too. Not many complaints about this one but not much praise either.

Rating: 6/10 Not great but doesn’t stand out that much.

Remember when I said Joyce had ‘interesting’ anatomy decisions? Jack looks like he has half a head here and it bothers me GREATLY. This is the adult Jack design he went with. Supposedly he likes the opera and he sure looks it. This! Exists!! Kind of wish it didn’t. The outfit is nice but it just doesn’t fit Jack as a whole. This just screams to me that it’s someone else with a similar-ish hairstyle.

Rating: 3/10 Guess he’d be the...Phantom Of The Opera. (I’ll go home and so should he.)

And finally the final Jack. This is the one that almost exactly resembles the Jack we got in the movies(Probably because it was made after the movie but w/e) but just add a cape on him. I can’t really tell if hes got a hoodie and a cape, or just a cloak+hood on top of a sweatshirt. It isn’t too important because my thoughts on this one are obvious. Rating: 10/10 Edna Mode would have a field day with you boy.

MOVIE DESIGN TIME

Joyce claims this is a design he drafted when Leonardo DiCaprio was considered to voice Jack and I can kind of see that with how his face is drawn here. This Jack looks a lot more like a warrior and less of that trickster look. I can’t say I’m a fan of the weird antenna his hood has but his sword is really cool looking.

Rating: 4/10 Nice bow and sword but it can’t save your fashion choices.

This looks like a lanky 11-13 year old who would put rocks or slugs in my shoes and relish in my disgust. He has the exact look of a snot nose kid and I’m unsure how to feel about it.

His various hairstyles drafted here sort of make him softer looking or just more of a snot nose, no in between. Maybe even an Anime Protagonist.

The top right one almost looks like Hiccup from How To Train Your Dragon if you squint. It’ll be a little hard to rate them all as one individual but why not.

Rating: 5/10 I don’t hate them but they aren’t my cup of tea.

AH- IS THAT A FUCKIN GREMLIN?

Oh wait no it isn’t he looks like a 10 year old. Whatever don’t feed him after midnight. The staff’s design of not being shaped like a G is an interesting tidbit but the whole design looks like he’s really young or like a troll etc. This Jack looks like he thinks girls have cooties uses outdated slang.

Rating: 4/10 This is me being generous.

It honestly looks like he hiked his pants up all the way to his chest. A late teen with horrid fashion choices once again. Not many other thoughts here.

Rating: 2/10 Get a sweater on or something.

This is one is very interesting looking to me. His clothes looked a lot more leather based and very human-like. The tatters, tears and frays all make him look like he was a victim of an accident that never changed his clothes. It makes me wonder if this Jack had the same death as the final movie Jack or something else entirely. Either way, this one looks like hes a mid to late teen which really adds to my intrigue.

This was another image that greatly resembled the design so I included it here. It almost looks like his skin is blue here which is pretty neat to me at least. He’s also got leaf motifs here, which from the first Jack design Joyce made, we can see a pattern here.

Rating: 8 /10 I was originally weirded out by his head but now its not so bad.

This Jack is definitely dressed more like a nature boy rather than him having human influenced fashion and it’s an appealing touch. The tiny leaf sprouting from his staff is also kind of cute since the designers seemed to want to put leafs somewhere on his designs. His hairstyle is also very cute but it reminds me of Sasuke Uchiha in a sense. (Not a setback for me at least)

Rating: 7/10 13 year old Jack is going thru a phase.

I thought this Jack didn’t show up again in story boards but I was wrong!

They look a little different from each other but just similar enough to pair together, so bare with me. The first one obviously has looser pants, slightly longer sleeves and got his leaf motif going. This second Jack is a VERY green. It gives the impression that this Jack made his clothes out of plants and natural materials. Again I’m not wholly sure if greens fit his color scheme but they sure went for it for a while. I can’t say I’m a fan of it because it heavily reminds me of Peter Pan.

However a very similar looking Jack could be found in this storyboard. It doesn’t look as green as the other storyboards made it out to be and looks more like dead grass. Which is a pretty nice touch.

Rating: 5/10 I don’t hate it but it just doesn’t vibe yknow.

Speaking of a vibe...hoo this certainly has one.  This Jack isn’t old but certainly doesn’t look very young, maybe in the 20-30 range, thats just me. He has facial features that remind me of Pitch but resembles the Jack Frost of Santa Clause 3

That being said, I wondered if him looking similar to Pitch was in the storyline of them being brothers.(Which was a scrapped thing, who knew.) He’s a bit more menacing in this design but certainly seems like he relishes in his work.

Rating: 4/10 I’d make it a lower score but I gotta give it props

NOW THIS JACK IS KINDA INTERESTING. This one looks like he’s 16 and going through a grunge phase. He’s gonna play Nirvana loudly and not turn it down even if you tell him too. His staff itself has mini icicles hanging off of it and leafs look stuck to his shirt. Did you glue or staple those on Jack? His hair also looks much longer than his other designs and I kind of dig it( Shut up I’m bias.) I’m not wholly sure why else this design has stuck with me but it just has something about it that I just love. I wish there was a full body drawing of it.

(He also kinda has the same hair as the Jack Frost in Runescape but I wont go on about that hoo hoo)

Rating: 9/10 *Bad Boy by Cascada plays in the distance*

This one definitely feels like middleschooler trying to be in a band. His sticks just resemble drumsticks to me what can I say. I’m a big fan of his shoes and his color scheme screams a hibernating tree in winter. His hair also looks like it’s covered in frost rather than it being wholly white, which is very neat!! He looks like he wants to fight but has slight hesitance. Overall a very balanced Jack.

Rating: 8/10 He’s ready for band practice

Not many thoughts here, I just found these tiny Jack designs cute. His hoodie being a jacket instead just adds to the charm of this one.

No talk to him he angy.

Rating: 6/10 fun sized boi

Now this Jack resembles the one earlier that dressed entirely in leather brown colors, however he clearly is different than that one. I’m gonna say it, he looks like a zombie or undead in this design and its pretty fucking gnarly. I don’t know whats going on with his hair but I’m gonna assume it’s just the wind making it look like that. He just has the vibe that he was once human but was turned into something else entirely. It isnt in uncanny territory but borders that. This version of Jack meeting Pitch and the others would have been *very* interesting. Rating: 7/10 Eat a twinkie Jack you’ll feel better.

The final design! I can’t complain much about this one. The way his staff subtly has a G shape and a hexagon(his signature shape) is a wonderful touch. Additionally, the way the frost is gathered mostly where his hand is such an intricate detail. His signature hoodie is iconic at this point so I can’t bad mouth that either.(I can’t anyway because there's no complaints from me here.) Although, I never understood the leather straps that his pants had or their functions. I couldn’t find any colonial outfits that resembled Jack’s pants so its a total mystery to me at least.

And I can’t go on about this design until I mention the snowflake pattern in his eyes

Pure beauty. It’s at a hue of blue that almost looks impossible to have, combined with the electric blue color of the snowflake in his eyes. The amount of detail in this movie amazes me to this day. Rating: One Great Blizzard <3/10

[nintendont2502]

Got tagged in this by @laivanfurroo !

Hot or cold shower - hot all the way. I refuse to step foot into a cold shower (in the middle of summer ill occasionally (very reluctantly) have a cold shower but it just doesn't feel the same. Can you really call it a shower if the walls aren't steaming up to draw on?)

Texting or calling - texting texting texting 100%. I *hate* talking out loud, and I'm also just. Incredibly bad at forming my thoughts into coherent words and then getting those words out semi-coherently so it's a lot easier to text. Plus when I'm texting I can do my. Fucked up punctuation,,, or Capitalise Important Words, or do this B3c 0-0 (and also I can add in extra random thoughts/tangents in text)

Earbuds or headphones - I got a pair of noise cancelling headphones for my birthday and I feel wrong not having them around my neck at all times. Earbuds just hurt my ears and usually fall out anyway (plus with headphones you can block out other sounds/people)

Paperback or hardcover - honestly I'm not sure if I have a preference? Most of my physical books are Paperback since they're cheaper, and they are a lot easier to carry around, but I love how important a hardcover feels. I'd say Paperback for regular books and hardcover for important books (but I read most of my books digitally anyway lmaoo)

Matte or gel - uh. Yes

Twelve hour or twenty four hour clock - another thing I don't really have an opinion on. Leaning towards twenty four hour just because the amount of times I've woken up at 2 am and panicked thinking it was 2 *pm*, and then panic even more because I can't figure out how to tell if it's am or pm on my phones clock is. Embarrassing, and twenty four hour time fixes that

Sci fi or horror - I love horror but only very specific *types* of horror (mainly psychological horror), but I love almost all Sci fi (even if it's mediocre. *especially* if it's mediocre)

Blue or green - hmm this is a tough one. I love so many shades of blue (mainly dark and desaturated blues) but GOD do I love dark/forest green. Gotta lean towards blue just because on average I'm more likely to like any given shade of blue, while I'm more picky with greens

Sunsets or sunrises - Sunsets all the way. Not just because if I'm seeing a sunrise I'm up *WAY* too early, but I also just love the feeling of sitting and watching the sunset, and then seeing the stars come out. (Plus where I live has ridiculously good aunsets I need to get some photos)

Tulips or orchids - I've literally never seen either of these before but after looking them up I *guess* Tulips? Kangaroo paws are still better though

Candlelight or moonlight - I love being outside at night with only the moonlight, it's so calming

Pen or pencil - 90 percent of the time my pencils are dulled down so I definitely prefer the constantly sharp tips of pens - also half the time I can't see my own writing in pencil but I always can in pen. Pens that smudge when you write can die by my blade though

Pandas or koalas - Pandas are overrated. I may be biased though

Gold or silver - gold is obnoxiously bright + hard to use right.

Sneakers or boots - i love my boots but also they destroy my feet every time I wear them. Sneakers are less cool but more comfortable + practical

Denim or leather jacket - Denim beloved. I hate the feel of leather jackets

Pink or purple - why he ourple

Chocolate or sour candy - sour gummy worms are literally the greatest things on earth

Drive in cinema or the theatre - drive in cinemas are cool but I love the experience of watching movies (especially horror movies) on a huge screen with a crowd of other people

Deodorant or perfume - this may be the Transgenderism(tm) speaking but I've never liked perfume. Give me the lynx xbox bodyspray any day

Pastel blue or earth tones - unless the pastel blue is desaturated/grey toned I just. Don't really like it on its own. Earth tones WITH pastel blue though

Lemonade or fruit juice - most fruit juice is way too sweet. At least lemonade isn't pretending to be helpful. (Depends on what you consider lemonade though. Lift/Solo? Fucking love em. Generic lemonade/Sprite? Eh.)

Past or future - god this one made me think for way too long. On one hand, at least you know what you're getting with the past? Like the future has greater potential for good things to happen, but also greater potential for terrible things to happen, and the concept of the unknown terrifies me. But on the other hand i don't want to just do the same thing for the rest of my life. At least the future is new, even if it's terrifying?

Tagging @iknaenmal @gillbuoy and @ominous-babe though if anyone else wants to do it feel free! (Also if I tagged you you dont have to do it!)

[thesoulspulse]

Regarding the Fright Knight (Part 1)

I know I’ve already written several things about the Fright Knight recently but I rewatched his intro episode and figured I’d share some thoughts on the episode itself and then later we’ll talk about his downfall as a character so to speak.

Now before y’all start yelling at me being all ‘le gasp’ just hear me out!

I absolutely love the Fright Knight, he’s literally one of my top favorite characters in the show up there with Danny himself, Dan, Danielle (aka Dani), and Vlad. I like Nocturne too but only for his voice and design, but moving on! That said, it’s just one of those situations where they set up a cool character but then he kinda dropped off the map and the series ended.

Anyways, lets get started!

1) That eel ghost at the start of the episode has the same energy redirection power that Vlad does that we only ever saw him use once, just an interesting fact. I made a gif of the eel to show that but didn’t make a gif of it shooting the actual rays back at Danny though.

2) Ugh, I was just talking the other day about how I really like Mr. Lancer’s character but I hate it when he is only there as a plot device but not in a good way. I mean, why is he on DANNY’S case when Dash’s clearly the one with the more aggressive body language here...? Sure Danny spilled paint on Dash’s jacket but it was clearly an accident and Dash is the one being hostile.

This is pure cartoon logic of “oh, he’s a jock and therefore important to the school so he doesn’t get punished, only our poor hero” when no, that’s not how things work in any school, or at least they shouldn’t. You pick someone up by the collar like this in front of a teacher you either get detention or suspended, NOT the freaking victim too.

Mr Lancer even says: “True. Still, I must at least *pretend* to be fair, and you two need a more creative outlet for your aggressions.” Seriously, what kind of teacher talks like that? I just get tired of this stupid and frankly annoying high-school trope because not all cartoon teachers are so dismissive...

3) I know its a kids show and Danny is prone to doing stupid things, but at least for me this was a bit much. Dash and Danny turned their assignment to avoid detention into a bet which is all fine and dandy, but what gets me is Dash’s side of the bet if Danny loses which is absolutely disgusting.

Tucker phrases it best: “I don’t know what’s scarier. The underwear, or the fact he carries them around in his coat!” And I agree, why would any sane person carry something like that?! Screw cartoon logic, that’s just sick and wrong on so many levels and frankly I think it’s the “scariest” part of this whole episode. I think they should have tried harder to come up with a better punishment for Danny if he lost the bet than eating someone’s undergarments. Ugh, I want to vomit just writing this...but moving on!

4) Finally we’re over most of the parts I don’t like about this episode so let’s move on to the parts I DO like such as it being canon that Danny is actually surprisingly good at drawing. I even used this later in my fanfic “Turning Point” as a character trait Dani adopted to try and be more her own person since its not really that much of a pass time to Danny...

Still, just look at how fast he drew this! Cartoon logic or not that’s pretty good, that is, if you don’t mind that the skeleton has no feet lolz.

5) This is probably one of my favorite things that happened in this episode - apart from just everything the Fright Knight does- where Sam shares the Chronicles of the Fright Knight written by an unknown author. I’m a sucker for a good ghost story or some folklore so when it turned out the book was totally accurate and there’s proof that someone human from ancient times has SEEN the Fright Knight and managed to escape the Ghost Zone to write this, I was instantly hooked.

6) I gotta give Danny props for at least trying to mimic the Fright Knight’s aesthetic for his haunted house room. And considering the poor kid doesn’t get an allowance to help him make fancier props, it’s not all that bad.

7) Ok, first of all I gotta ask. Why has no one ever talked about Danny possessing the puppet he made of the Fright Knight? We’ve seen him possess other people and overshadow his computer, but this right here really makes me really wish we got an episode where Danny’s soul got trapped in a doll or something. Also, the dramatic voice he started off with wasn’t half-bad. If he had kept talking like that and yes, I agree maybe had a scarier puppet for the centerpiece of his presentation, I think Danny had a pretty solid idea here with some potential.

8) As usual it bugs me sometimes when Danny’s parents are written to be so harsh on Danny. Especially his dad who gets instantly suspicious about Danny doing an “anti-detention” project the moment he hear’s Mr. Lancer mentioned. To be fair he’s not wrong, but it’s still sad that Jack automatically assumed that.

9) I mentioned this in another post: https://thesoulspulse.tumblr.com/post/663141889897365504/halloween-in-amity-park but I’ll get to this later because there’s something the Fright Knight says later in this episode that sparked my interest that relates to these ecto-storms Danny’s parents mention that appear every year around Halloween.

10) When Danny goes to check out Dash’s haunted house room the puppets are definitely much higher quality than Danny’s, but lets be honest, I am like 95% he bullied/paid off someone into making those animatronics for him. Dash is just NOT that smart, sorry. I can see him being pretty creative and making the first part of the room himself that’s true, but there comes a point where I just don’t believe Dash set up all of that. To give Dash some credit though, I do like his zombie jock costume.

Also, come on Mr. Lancer, the guy doesn’t even bother to hide the bullying theme in his room which isn’t even scary so why are you so impressed with it? This my friends is what I like to call “Story-written stupid” where a character acts a certain way that’s unnaturally out of character for them specifically for plot reasons and nothing else since it would make no sense for them to be this dumb or willfully blind to the obvious.

Lastly, Dash’s whole “20 minute presentation about the horrors of athletes foot” is just gross, it’s not scary at all. It’s not even a good kind of gross for Halloween so it just bugs me that Mr. Lancer is oh-so-impressed by it. Even Danny feels outmatched and I keep thinking, why? The theme is only partially good at first and honestly I don’t see how any of this has to do with Halloween.

11) One more thing, Dash has his underwear for the bet DISPLAYED in his haunted house room in a glass case that says “Reserved For Fenton” and I’m just...UGH, Mr. Lancer why didn’t you notice that?!

I’m going to stop here since the post is getting really long now and I ended up ranting more than I meant to so sorry about that, things have been a bit hectic at home. Still, I’m excited for Halloween despite all that and hope I’ll get to enjoy that a bit now that I’m at least mostly recovered from covid. And with that, I’ll see you in the next part of this deep-dive episode analysis!

Part 2: https://thesoulspulse.tumblr.com/post/666367942726959104/regarding-the-fright-knight-part-2

[ultralovedeluxe]

Yan! Josuke with prompts #19, #44, and #29

Hello everyone! This was requested by @mochimizuki121 , thank you for requesting! Feared that it came out ooc, that’s why it took so long. Not proud of this one, but I hope you enjoy it! 

‘Please don’t cry, show me that smile I love so much!’

‘Did you really think you could escape?’

‘Stop denying our love! Stop denying our future together!’

Warnings: 18 year old Josuke, female reader, yandere behaviors, assault, manipulation, break-up, angst (?), some Okuyasu x reader, ooc, light nsfw, non/dub con, blackmail

  A word to describe Higashikata Josuke would be, emotional. Yes, that’s the perfect way to describe him. He lets his feelings take over in situations, but most importantly, his feelings towards you were getting in the way of his friendship. But he won’t ever admit that

 Yes..emotional was a perfect word to describe Higashikata Josuke..

-

  Here he was again, listening to Okuyasu’s ramblings. Usually Josuke wouldn’t mind listening to his friend, after all it was a delight to hear his friend speak. If only his friend wasn’t talking about how cute you looked when you slept, or what noise you made when he would poke your cheek. It was painful to just keep smiling, seeing your best friend with the girl of his dreams together. Josuke wanted to be happy for his friend, but his jealously kept making it harder for him to just pretend everything’s fine. 

  He couldn’t understand how his friend could mange to get a catch like that. What did Okuyasu have that he didn’t? Wait, he can’t be thinking of something like that, he has to be happy for his friend..

 “You should’ve seen her Josuke! She looked so cute when she came over! She was wearing that necklace I bought her along with a cute skirt, ah she looked amazing! I’m so lucky to have her” Okuyasu said letting out a dreamy sigh, as he continued to walk back home. The poor bastard was too in love to even notice Josuke’s burning rage. Josuke tried not to grit his teeth to what he was hearing, but ended up doing it anyway. Josuke let out a low chuckle, “Wow Okuyasu..that’s sounds great..wish I could’ve seen it too...” he mumbled. “What did you say Josuke?-” Okuyasu asked, looking back towards his pompadour-haired friend who was falling behind. “Nothing” Josuke said a little bit more louder and more clear this time.

 A few more minutes into the walk, Okuyasu kept babbling about you, Josuke was really about to lose his cool; but he didn’t want to hurt his friend. After all he’s supposed to be happy for him. “So as I was saying, I’m thinking of getting her a necklace with those initials-”

“Okuyasu, have you ever imagined [first] with somebody else?” Josuke asked in the friendliest manner possible. Okuyasu looked at Josuke with confusion, “No, why do you ask that?” Josuke shrugged and threw his school bag over his shoulder, “Just curious man, you know [first] is a really cute gal, don’t you wonder how she’d look with somebody else?” Okuyasu shook his head, “No I never thought about it that way..But now that you mention it, she is kind of better than me right?” Okuyasu asked scratching the back of his head lightly. “I don’t know man, well I gotta get home, see ya tomorrow then Okuyasu”

 “Right see ya tomorrow..”

 Unfortunately for Okuyasu, Josuke knew what he was doing.

-

 Today seemed perfect for you. You had woken up extra early just to prepare lunch for Okuyasu. You weren’t an expert on preparing Italian cuisine, but a few tips from Tonio helped you get the hang of it a bit. Either way, Okuyasu is going to eat it since he never brings lunch from home. Feeling satisfied with what you prepared for your boyfriend, you decide it’s time to finally head to school. 

 You didn’t live far from the school, so it was easy to get there in time. You sat near one of the open benches and sat the lunch you prepared earlier this morning. Usually you’d would start working on your homework before class began, but thankfully you’d done it last night; so now all you had to do for the remainder of your free period was wait for Okuyasu. 

  Minutes passed by and you finally saw Okuyasu walk up to campus. The wait was finally over, you ran up to Okuyasu and hugged him tight. “Good morning Oku! How’s Mansaku-san? Oh! Here’s your lunch for today, I stopped by Tonio’s to prepare that Italian dish you liked so much, I know it’s not good as his but-” Okuyasu cut you off, “[first] could we talk real quick?” he asked walking over to sit by a bench nearby. Confused, you follow after him and sit down beside him, “Alright, what is it you want to talk about?”. Okuyasu bit his lip slightly, although it looked as if he was holding back tears, “[first]-chan, you are one of the most amazing people I’ve ever met, but I’m not sure I deserve you as my girlfriend” he said rubbing the back of his neck. You chuckled nervously, “Oku, what are you saying? You know I love you so much-” Cutting you off again, Okuyasu wiped a forming tear from his eye, “I know you love me, and I love you too..but I’m not sure about us. You deserve someone better, I’m sorry [first]-chan, but I want to break up..” and with that Okuyasu got up from the bench and walked away. Leaving you alone with the Italian cuisine in your hands and a broken heart. 

-

  You ate spaghetti that you had eagerly prepared earlier this morning just for your precious..exboyfriend with tears running down your cheeks. Not even after hours of sitting in class thinking about your ex, you still didn’t understand why he broke up with you. You wanted to understand why he did it, but you still couldn’t. Seriously? After all you’ve done for him. You thought your relationship with the male would last, but you guess not. You wiped the tears from your face, the sweater you wore was damp from how much you were wiping your tears. You just couldn’t stop crying, the break up really hurt. Thank god no one else knew of this place in school, you couldn’t even imagine what you’d do if someone saw you like this.

  “[first]-chan is that you!?” you heard a familiar voice call out to you. When you turned around to see who it was, you were met with the pompadour-haired male running down the hill to meet you. “Josuke? What are you doing here?” you asked before frantically wiping the tears from your face. Josuke sat down next to you, “I didn’t see you go through your usual road to lunch, so I went to go look for you..” he said before looking at you more seriously, “[first]-chan, were you crying?” he asked with a concerned tone in his voice. You sniffled “I wasn’t crying, its just allergies..”

 “Bullshit! You’re eyes are red and puffy! Did someone hurt you, tell me their name and I swear I’ll make them pay!” you shook your head and managed to calm Josuke down. “No Josuke it’s not like that, it’s just..Okuyasu broke up with me that’s all..” you couldn’t manage to finish the rest of your sentence before you broke down crying. Josuke gave you a warm embrace, “Shh, it’s okay, I’m here..”  He felt your tears go through his yellow shirt as you kept on sobbing. Josuke let you go and held your face up, “Let it all out [first]-chan” When he saw that you kept sniffling, he sighed and gave you a quick kiss on the forehead, “Please don’t cry [first]-chan, it hurts me so much to see you like this, ah cmon show me that smile I love so much!”. Once Josuke let go of your face, you rubbed your nose and smiled a bit before softly whispering a ‘thanks’. In truth, you still didn’t feel better, but you appreciate that Josuke is trying to at least make you feel something else other than misery.  It was the thought that counted right?

  Meanwhile, Josuke couldn’t be happier. Sure, it hurt to see you cry, but the important thing was is that you were single. And now that he comforted you in a time of crisis, he was sure now that it wouldn’t be long that you would start to feel the same way. 

-

You still felt awful after your breakup with Okuyasu, its been hard especially when hanging out with your friend group. You and Okuyasu still speak to one another, but it’s just not the same. Speaking of which, you’ve been talking to Josuke a lot more lately. Ever since he had helped you get somewhat over your relationship with Okuyasu, he has been glued to your hip. He walks you to class, and always accompanies you for lunch (or anywhere really). You have to admit though, it was annoying at first having Josuke follow you around like a lost puppy, but you soon got used to it. After all, all Josuke wanted to do was help you. You thought it was sweet that Josuke wanted to help you, but that still didn’t explain why he was acting..let’s say odd. 

 Holding you by your hand as you walked by the halls, never inviting the others to hang out during the weekends (and here you thought Okuyasu was his best friend). It was almost as if he always had time for you.

 Oh but that’s just a silly thought. Maybe you were the weird one for thinking that Josuke was acting strange. He’s just being a good friend, that’s all. 

 Josuke is just a really good friend.

-

 The sun was shining bright in Morioh-cho, everything seemed so lively today. Everything from tourists popping out every now and then, to the squeals of teenage boys raging about the latest chapter in Pink Dark Boy. Today seemed like the perfect day for Josuke to finally get something off his chest. He had planned everything out for today. He had invited you over to Tonio’s to hang out for the day, and you had agreed. He had bought you some flowers to give you by the end of the day, he had even asked Rohan to draw something you might like (which the mangaka had reluctantly agreed to). 

 Josuke was prepared, he was oh so sure you were going to say yes. Of course you’re going to be his girlfriend! Why wouldn’t you be? He had hanged out you for the last couple of months, he had given you the right amount of attention you’d ever need. Everything was going according to plan.

.

.

.

“No, I’m sorry Josuke, but it’s a no”

 Josuke couldn't’ believe the words that had just left your lips. No? After all he had done for you, your answer is no? This couldn’t be happening. 

 Josuke shook his head, and quickly rubbed his eyes with his sleeve (trying to hide the fact that he was about to shed a tear). “But why? Am I not enough for you? Is there someone else you like?-” the pompadour haired male asked, trying his best to not let his voice crack. You smiled and shook your head while caressing his cheek with your hand, “Josuke..in all honesty I only see you as a friend, nothing more” you let go of his cheek and sit down on a small gray bench that was near. “Josuke, you are really one of the best friends I could ever ask for, but I just don’t see myself dating you, and besides..” you took and deep breath “Despite all that happened, I’m still in love with Oku, and I don't know maybe I'm just not ready for a relationship at the moment, y'know? But we can still be friends right?" you said, blushing lightly at the thought of your ex boyfriend. You'd expect that Josuke would've taken the rejection lightly, after all you were kind enough to still remain friends with the male.

   Josuke however, did not take the news lightly as you thought he would. Almost immediately, Josuke had grabbed you by your hands and pulled you close to him.  "Why do you still love Okuyasu after he broke your heart!? Why don't you love me, I've done nothing but give you adoration!". You looked at your friend in extreme fear, you didn't know what to do in this situation. "Josuke let me go you're hurting me! If you don't stop I'll-" you stuttered your words out. Josuke was just looking at you with a menacing glare, "Or what? You'll call Okuyasu? Stop thinking about him already! Just date me please, I loved you for so long! Longer than he has" You shook your head, you were starting to get fed up with his behavior, did he not understand what 'no' meant? "I said no Josuke! I don't want to date you! And if you think I will after this you're fucking stupid-!"

    Before you knew it Josuke had slapped you, but due to his strength, the slap didn't feel like a slap at all. "I'm sorry [first]-chan but now you see what happens when you don't just agree with me. You need to stop denying our love! You know you love me, so please stop denying our future together!". You couldn’t believe the words that were coming from Josuke’s mouth. Were these obsessed, disgusting words truly coming from Josuke? Sweet, and caring Josuke. While you were lost in your thoughts, Josuke took this opportunity to grab you and hold you close to his chest. “I’m sorry for hurting you [first]-chan, but what you said really hurt me so I-” he stopped for a second and leaned his head closer to yours just to take a small sniff of your hair. You just smelled so good, he had to do it.  You smelled like the coconut shampoo you had bought recently. And your perfume was different this time too. He knew he could overpower you at any time, so he took his chance and caressed your breasts softly with his hands. Along with this, he rubbed against your backside and groaned into your ear. He imagined it was him thrusting inside you. He imagines how warm you must feel. Or how cute you’d look when you were on the verge of climax.

  Him grinding against you and touching you was the last straw, you knew you had to get away from him. You turned around and looked at Josuke with both disgust and fear, and then you ran. You didn't want to be in his presence any longer. Here you thought that Josuke was a good friend trying to help you in a time you needed the most. But he’s just some asshole who needed to learn when a woman says no is no. How upsetting, you only wished that the incident didn’t exist.

  But for Josuke, those few moments felt almost heavenly. Grinding against you felt so good, he wanted more, but you just had to get away didn’t you? He watched you run off to who knows where. He knew he’d get you eventually, he just had to be patient. But his patience wouldn’t last long.

-

 For at least three weeks you have completely avoided Josuke and your friend group. You ignored all their calls, because the farther you were from Josuke, the safer you felt. You wanted to forget that day you hung out with Josuke. You wished you just never went to that damn Italian restaurant. Maybe then he would never have confessed his ‘love’ for you (that is more obsession than love in your book). Maybe then none of this would have happend. But alas here we are. 

 The telephone rang and you overheard your mother speak with what sounded like Yukako. “[first], dear it’s for you! It’s your friend Yukako!” your mother shouted. You held the phone and answered. “[first]-chan where have you been? Are you okay? We’ve been worried. You didn’t come across a stand user have you?” Yukako asked concerned. You lied, “No, I haven’t, trust me even if I did I wouldn’t notice. I’m fine I’ve just been..stressed, that’s all..” you lied, you didn’t want anyone to know about your situation with Josuke. “Well that’s good. So I was wondering if you wanted to hang out with me and Koichi-kun today. We were thinking of going to the beach just for the weekend”. 

 At first you were hesitant, you didn’t want to see Josuke, but you did want to see your friends since you missed them. And if it was just Yukako, Koichi, and potentially Okuyasu, then you were down to go. You sighed and agreed. It wouldn’t hurt to see your friends once more, and to be honest you were excited.

-

 Yukako planned on picking you up and then walking to the beach, which you had agreed on. However, when she went to pick you up, she had brought some company. She brought Koichi (of course), Okuyasu, and to your horror, Josuke. Not once did Yukako mention that she was bringing Josuke along. Throughout the whole car ride you felt uncomfortable. You felt Josuke’s eyes watching your every move. It didn’t help that everyone else was having fun, while you were paranoid.

 Arriving at the beach, things got worse. Josuke was behind you at all times, and really if people weren’t around you would have yelled at him to leave you alone. Unfortunately you couldn’t do that. Not with Okuyasu and the rest of your friends here at least.

 You excused yourself to the bathroom just to get away from Josuke, and you could say that those three minutes you spent alone in the bathroom, were the best minutes you had in your life up until this point. You then heard the doorknob jiggle, so you walked over to it and unlocked it. “Yukako is that you? I’m almost done let me just-” you gasped at the sight, but before you could react, Josuke had covered your mouth and locked you both in the bathroom. 

 You whimpered and tried to scream but it was no use, Josuke was using Crazy Diamond to close your mouth. You heard Josuke chuckle, “You know its really cute when you think you can run away from your future boyfriend [first]-chan. Did you really think you could escape me?” he said. You felt as if he was mocking you. Things escalated from bad to worse as Josuke began to kiss your neck. Kisses went from heated bites on your neck, then sloppy, inexperienced kisses from Josuke. He had your breasts exposed, since he ripped your top immediately. You tried to remain emotionless throughout this whole session, but Josuke noticed, so he pinched your nipple to get a reaction. And a reaction he got as you released a muffled moan from your covered lips. “Please stop..” you whimpered.

 You heard Okuyasu shout from outside, “Hey [first]-chan! Are you good in there?”. You wanted to cry for help, but Josuke bent you over and slapped your ass, “Go ahead doll, tell him you’re okay..” he whispered. Crazy Diamond lowered it’s hand from your mouth to let you speak. Josuke raised your head up, “And remember, if you yell for help, I’ll open this door right now and show Okuyasu how much of a whore you look-”

 “I-i’m okay! Just a bit dizzy! I’ll be out soon!” you told him, you didn’t want Okuyasu to see you like this. “Okay! Just call me if you need anything” and with that you didn’t hear from the husky voiced male anymore, but you heard Josuke whisper in your ear,

  “That’s my good girl...”

[falcor-thee-luck-dragon]

Let Chaos Reign

Chapter 4- People Of Earth

Summary: On the run from the Avengers in your search for a way off Earth, you meet some mortal annoyances along the way until a certain blue eyed human is able to find you wandering in the forest. But can he convince you to come back to the Avenger’s base with him?

Warning: action, blood, fighting, Bucky doing his best, slight fluff

Masterlist - Chapter 3

So Bucky had been thinking.

If finding Y/N was only as easy as looking at her red dot on the tracker, then damn, he could just teleport to her no problem. Unfortunately the worlds technology hasn't yet reached Star Trek technological advancements, nor can he teleport. It's been a long hectic couple days trying to find her which is starting to drive Bucky up a wall, how is she so sneaky? He can literally see her location at all times but yet she's evaded him at all costs without even trying, she doesn't even know a tracker is attached to the inside of her jacket.

And the team, they haven't been much help at all. They've decided to listen to Fury's orders and stay clear of Bucky's mission when it comes to finding the escaped demigod and bringing her back to the Avenger's base. A lot of help they are. At least Steve checks in for updates when he's not getting pulled into a training session by any particular person of the hour. Maybe the tracker doesn't even work. Maybe?

No, it's Stark made. It has to work, this problem is simply Y/N.

Bucky pulls off to the side of the road near a little park in some rural town way outside of New York City where he knows Y/N went through not even twenty-three hours ago. He opens his door, slamming it shut in frustration before taking in a big breath of fresh air. The day is slightly overcast yet he doesn't appear to mind it at all, having the hot sun blaring down upon him never feels very pleasant. Then again, maybe he's just more familiar with colder temperatures.

A crow flies down across the vacant road from him, it ignores Bucky as it jumps onto the road in order to pick at some road kill of a dead flattened squirrel. Bucky reverts his gaze when his eyes soon land upon a bent wooden telephone line further up the road where it looks like a car ran right into it. Wanting to stretch his legs for a bit and feed into his curiosity, Bucky jogs across the street and over to the area of flattened grass and wood splinters.

He observes the wreckage. Its just as he saw from farther away, a splintered post with pieces of wood spread across the grass from the impact. A couple glass chunks shimmer in the few rays of sunlight peeking out from behind the clouds. There are tire marks imprinted into the mudded ground leading up to the post, he crouches down to get a better look at the source of impact.

A dog barks in the background, its legs getting closer and closer to Bucky until a wet slobbery nose finds its way onto Bucky's right arm. The face of a golden retriever greets him as a young man races to the spot looking very embarrassed.

"Trout! Get away from the man, be nice! Be nice! He might not want your kisses!" He shouts desperately, "Trout!"

Bucky pets the friendly dog while his owner runs to their spot before standing to greet him, "He's fine, don't worry about it."

The red faced man smiles shyly, "I'm so sorry. He gets so excited whenever there's a stranger around I just don't understand it."

Bucky shakes his head, "It's fine, really. I like dogs."

The dog sniffs around Bucky's boots before sniffing the skid marks, "Oh I'm Gio by the way, sorry about my boy Trout. I love him but he can be a lot."

"Hi." Mutters Bucky, "I'm James."

"Nice to meet you..oh..Trout drop that piece of wood you nucklehead it's sharp!" The dog stops before dropping the wood, it starts sniffing around the grounds again. Gio looks at Bucky, "It's too bad what happened here, just last night too. Thank God nobody died! It's just unfortunate."

"What happened?"

Gio nods towards the splintered pole, "Some nutcase ran out in front of the guy driving and then bam, he just swerved to miss 'em and ended up totaling his car and getting a bruised collar bone. He's my neighbor. Poor guy, never got a proper look at the idiot who did it either so there's no one to blame."

Bucky's brows furrow, "No one saw who ran in front of your friend?"

Gio stops a second to think harder on the matter, "Hmm...okay wait a second Nick did say this person moved like faster then a frickin' deer. They were here one second and gone the next, right into the woods."

"Where is Nick now? Is he okay?"

"Oh yeah he's fine, just chillin' in his hospital bed for another day until his headache goes away. Guess he also got a concussion or something, some shit luck I tell you."

"Thank you, I gotta go." Says Bucky quickly before turning on his heels and jogging across the street. Leaving a very confused Gio to go run after his dog again.

There's a hefty possibility that Y/N had absolutely nothing to do with anything surrounding that crash, however, Bucky has to know. He pulls into the Westonville Hospital before Winter Soldier sneaking his way inside and now here he stands on the other side of the door to Nick's room, 213. He knocks, a man answers and says to come in, Bucky does. Shutting the door right after.

The man lays upright in bed, sipping on a juice box as he quickly locks eyes with Bucky. "Hello." Says the twenty-something year old, "You a nurse?"

Bucky could have laughed, "No. Just here to ask you a couple questions."

"Listen man, the police already got my statement. I wasn't drunk...nor on anything at the time. I don't do that shit while driving, I wanna stay alive okay?"

"Right." Mutters Bucky, "I just want to know if you saw this person who caused you to wreck."

He eyes Bucky suspiciously, "Dude are you with the FBI or something? Cause the police think I just saw a deer but I'm telling you it wasn't a deer okay?"

"What was it then?"

The man looks from the door then back to Bucky, he makes a waving motion for him to walk closer, "Dude, this was some lady. She was so fast I never even saw her till she was almost road kill...then....and you're not gonna believe me....then I swear to God, she pushed my car." Whispers Nick before nodding, "Dude that's how I went into the pole, she pushed me and I lost control and BAM! Right into a pole. Asshole, my damn car is fucked."

"Do you know what she looked like?" Nick then proceeds to give an accurate description of you and all your beautiful chaotic-ness, who's apparently still not very fond of human transportation vehicles.  

Bucky then glances from Nick still rambling about you and what a dickhead you must be, to the window showing the woods and half a parking lot. He can't let you escape him again, you might end up killing someone next time and that absolutely cannot happen.

——

Stupid men! Stupid humans getting in your way! These people are irritating and bothersome, all you wanted was to search for the Ancient One in peace. All you want is to find her and get the fuck off this planet so you can confront your brother and...

"Miss are you okay?" A scratchy voice speaks to you from the car to your left, you turn your head to meet the face of a young woman looking at you with kind eyes, "You need a ride?"

"No."

She gives you a look, your appearance is admittedly more roughed up then you would like, but it's been a rough couple days since your last shower and you're technically on the run from Earth's Avengers. "You sure? I got room in here, and a nice place to stay with food and a shower too. Just tryna be nice to someone who looks like they could use a hand." You look like you could use a hand to the face.

Your brows furrow, she reeks of too much perfume and something else, "What kind of food?" You technically do need a ride and this may be your only chance to get one somewhere away from this place in the middle of nowhere. Also a place to stay for the night would be admittedly very nice considering you've been sleeping in trees and behind people's sheds.

Her eyes light up in surprise, "Anything you want. Just tell me and I got you."

"Good."

She unlocks the door, "Come on in. I'm Ava by the way. Nice to meet you, now I hope you don't mind but back at my place I got a couple roommates. But don't worry they come and go, they won't bother you I promise." You don't believe her, but hop in next to her anyways. She looks like she could use a better friend then whoever she stays with. You can smell at least one of them on her.

She gives you a strange faltering smile when you take notice of a nose piercing; she wears a jacket and jeans, although an odd tattoo showing off some line of numbers keeps itself on her right wrist hidden by some colorful bracelets. All in all she is an attractive woman. But her car is no better then her person, the scent is vulgar and repulsive but you're admittedly too hungry to care. Too much perfume.

The ride to her apartment complex takes about twenty minutes, in this time Ava has explained to you how her favorite food, chicken alfredo, is made. She also won't stop looking at the long mirror above your heads, it's like something keeps drawing her attention but there's nothing behind the car of any important significance. Maybe that's just a human thing?

Eventually she takes a couple turns that passes more street stores, houses, and apartments until she drives near a gas station and takes a left for an apartment building of reddish brick that looks like a shitty castle.

It's nestled within the town, with its rear to a small park, oddly enough she claims you can see the city from the roof. Getting out, you watch as she shuts her door before jogging to the back and pulling out a couple groceries. "Oh hey there, can you get the waters, there's like three packs here but we can come back for them later."

You quickly walk to the back of her trunk and lean down to pick up all three waters with ease, her eyes go big, "Oh wow..okay yeah, that'll work." She shuts the back, you begin following her across the parking lot. Stomach growling.

Her wary eyes fall onto you, "So uh, you lift?"

"No."

She nods, "Cool cool, uh you from around here?"

"No."

"Okay cool, I am, well not originally...I was actually from Arizona but then I ran away when I was thirteen because my home life was pretty shit and then I met my boyfriend Jed and he took me here and..." Her face shifts into a frown before it regains it's half smile once more, "Doesn't matter now I guess, it's not fantastic here...with him. But I got a place to stay and a roof over my head and he gets me anything I want really. So it's not so bad."

You can't help but feel somethings not right with her, and this bothers you deeply, "So uh, how's your lover? Jed."

She frowns, "Oh he's nice....I wouldn't say lover I guess....and he's kinda older then me but it's fine really. You might see him, he comes and goes yunno?"

She opens the glass doors for you to walk inside, the area smells of stale air and smoke, "How old?"

She purses her lips together, "Not that much older, I'm seventeen he's just a little above that. But it works for us, he's got me a nice place and he loves me so that's nice." Her smile falters, you can tell something isn't right here but can't quite place your finger on it.

Ava keeps silent for the rest of the trek upstairs until she leads you down a long hallway to a tall white door reading A8 on the front, a small glass porthole in the center. She gets her keys out, "Try not to touch anything, he doesn't like messes okay? Just uh, follow me okay, he might have a friend here."

"Alright then. Proceed." She gives a little nod before unlocking the door and opening it up to reveal a large apartment as clean as a button, with the exception of a few tall thin glass bottles empty of all liquid laying on the short glass table in the lounging area. A large screen is on showcasing something of little importance to you.

Ava sets the groceries on the kitchen counter before racing over to the short table, "Oh sorry about the mess, please just set the waters down by the trash can. Give me a moment." You look down to find a tall thin metal can, doesn't look like a trash can but you set the three cases of water down anyways.

Standing in the middle of her kitchen she hastily rushes in to drop the bottles in the trash can, "I'll put the stuff away, do you-do you want anything?"

"Whatever gives me enough strength to continue on my journey."

"Right. Yeah okay uh we got," She opens up the fridge, "we got some burritos from last night. And fruit....a lot of beer....you don't want that. Here, I'll heat this up for you okay." She shuts the fridge and takes the assumed burrito to another square object hanging from the wall. She pops open the door before placing the food inside and shutting it.

She turns it on. "What is that device?" You ask a sit makes a strange vacuum sound.

She raises a brow, "A microwave." Voice on the tinge of humor, the microwave beeps and she soon opens it back up. "Here ya go! It's a day old so don't worry, still fresh."

She hands it to you, you look down at the warm thing wrapped in a brown paper, "Appreciated."

Your meal is well received and admittedly pretty delicious, once finished do you walk over to the giant glass window to have a look outside, you can see the tops of many trees and farther away across the greenery lays a city just as Ava had spoken of.

Maybe the Ancient One resides somewhere in there, hidden, but within the ginormous labyrinth of steel, cement, and glass. Farther down the hallway a door swings open and the pattering of bare feet is heard walking down the tiled floors of shiny white. This place really is clean, like a small palace for the mortals.

The man stops at the end of the halls archway though you don't care to look at him, "Ava who's the bitch over there? I thought Jed wasn't buying anymore for a few weeks." Whispers the man to the kind woman, Ava, who stands frozen in the kitchen.

You immediately don't like him, but stay your ground to listen, she whispers back, "She's a friend. Needed somewhere to stay for a day or so."

He walks over to her, "He's gonna be pissed when he sees your new friend here. If she's not here to sell, get her the fuck out before your man comes home tonight."

"Tonight?"

"Yeah tonight. His trip to Vegas ended yesterday, he's on his way. Don't you know how time works?"

She shakes her head, "Guess I just forgot is all. I'll make sure she's gone."

He looks over to give you a proper once over, you can hear his heartbeat quicken, "Not too bad either. Nice ass, she looks good..real good, it's a damn shame she's not here to stay for the fun. I wouldn't mind a couple of rounds with her myself."

Your fists clench, you've had enough of this jabbering animal, "Oh really?" You turn around to watch as his eyes go wide when they take notice of the golden color of your irises, "What filth you spill off of that thing you call a mouth is repulsive and disgusting. Who are you may I ask?"

He quickly retains his swagger once again, he takes a step forward, "I'm Jed's right hand man, Antonio, I run this bitch when he's away and I don't like how you're talking to me."

"I'm not entirely fond of your existence. Leave us, I want to speak with Ava alone."

Antonio's face shows bewildered rejection, "Excuse me?"

You take a threatening step forward, "I don't believe my tongue slipped. You heard me correctly. Leave." He keeps still as a statue, mind still processing your words. Clearly no on had ever bothered to talk to him like this before.

He blinks and points a hand up for emphasis, "No whore tells me what I can and can't do in my own goddamn house!" He immediately rushes past Ava to grab something under the kitchen bar.

She gasps in surprise, "Tony no! Don't do this! Put it away she didn't mean it, she doesn't I swear! I swear!"

He walks back around to shove her into the couch, "Shut up." He throws up his arm to reveal a black hand held object that could be nothing else but a small gun, you stare at it in curiosity, expression interested and unfazed.

He doesn't like that, he tilts the gun at you angrily, "What's up now huh! You ain't telling me to do nothin' I run this fucker up in here! So you're gonna fuckin' listen to me you whore! I'll fu.." Antonio's body stiffens, his eyes go wide as saucers when he realizes he's not able to move, not able to speak.

Hands kept to your sides, you curl the fingers of your right hand to bloodbend this imbecile. Moving this hand to the right, Antonio's grasp is forced open and the gun clatters to the floor. "What are you doing!?" Shouts Ava fearfully.

"Teaching a dog a lesson."

Curling the fingers of your other hand, Antonio is forced to walk in staggered painful steps across the carpet at your will, Ava gasps in fright as she watches your little horror show. "Men don't treat their people like animals, you want to act like a beast. Then you'll be one."

His throat makes a dry crackly sound as he tries to scream when you move your hands to orchestrate a new action, Antonio is forced to his knees where he crawls like a dog across the clean carpet. A frightened man he becomes, his movements choppy and forced, body awkward and stiff as he moves on all fours. Proud of your work, you walk over to the man and crouch down to reach his level, "You see, the universe has created us all for a reason. Whether we are powerful or not, that control we have can be taken as it can be given."

He mumbles a reply that cannot be heard properly even by your hears.

"You know of your power?" He shakes his head as you smirk, "Your strength is built from fear and hatred. That is no way to find your place in the world, that is how tyrants lead."

Drool runs down the side of his mouth as his eyes look up to you pleadingly. "Stop it! You're hurting him!" Shouts Ava.

You give Antonio a pitiful look, "I know. And this creature deserves more then I'm willing him to do, but because you've gained my respect. I will release him." Standing, you flick your hands and Antonio is released from your trance. He coughs and sputters in a curled up heap on the floor like a beaten old dog.

"Pathetic." You mutter dryly as Ava breaths heavily from the couch.

"Wh-what are you?" She whispers, "Are you a witch?"

"No. But I am someone who is done with this place." You give her a respectful tilt of your head, "Ava, I thank you for your hospitality, but I must leave." She watches as you take one last look around the room before walking towards the closed door. Turning the handle you're prepared to exit when she screams. "Antonio no!"

Boom!

The bullet stops three inches from the back of your head, whipping around to face your assailant, he fires two more rounds as you halt the bullets in their tracks. He registers what's happening and quickly chooses to pull the trigger again. As a plethora of steel flies your way, you raise an open palm that causes them all to freeze in place.

The room goes deathly silent before Antonio takes a single step and you've sent all five bullets straight through his vulnerable flesh. Blood flies across the walls as he slumps to the ground while Ava gasps in terror, too afraid to make a sound.

You frown, gaze set on Ava, "I'm sorry I had to do this in front of you. He gave me no choice, but I think this loss will not be mourned over." Your golden eyes flicker back down at the bullet ridden body, "A quick death is more then he deserved. So long Ava, be brave."

The door opens.

"What the fuck happened here?!" Speaks a man most certainly in his late thirties as he sets something on the ground, "Who's this bitch?"

Ava's expression shifts to fear as you let out a tired sigh, eyes set to the man you know as Jed, "An old friend." ——

Crouched down by a river, you rub off flecks of blood that dissipate into the murky water like forgotten memories. You just wanted to eat and rest a while as you gathered your thoughts. But here you are, you've killed two humans and have damaged a couple busses in the process of it all. Not to mention that one car the other night...at least that man kept his life.

This realm is complicated and busy, there's not enough wilderness to hide in and there are certainly too many prying eyes that can catch you with their small square devices easier then you'd like. Thankfully Ava had not seen your rampage on the internet so she wasn't able to instantly recognize you. Then again you weren't wearing your armor.

However your eye color certainly doesn't aid you in finding a way into the city close by, that's still too far for your liking, people will undoubtedly stare. At this point you don't trust a single soul, and anyone close enough to see your face would most likely report you to the authorities in an instant.

Your goal has been thwarted one too many times and that shit does not fly with you one bit. Find the Ancient One, have her open a portal to your realm, and from there kick your brothers ass. It's all very simple, well at least it should be. Stupid Midgardians.

Hrrrrr Hrrrrrrrr! A loud horn blares from within the woods to your back right, twisting around and standing at attention, your fists emit flame when a huge lumbering mass of metal rolls through the trees practically making the ground shake.

It sounds like a tiny thunderstorm, you've never seen anything like it except for when you where in Norway but that vehicle was significantly smaller and less loud. "God this place is insufferable." You mutter, annoyed by the less then peaceful atmosphere of Midgard.

So far you've evaded the watchful eyes of the Avengers for the past three days and have gotten nowhere on your quest for vengeance. And now this thing just adds to your stirred up pot of frustration.

Taking a breath, you decide to wander through the trees until you've found the tracks where that metal vessel was drawing its power from, oddly enough the steel bars attached to plates of wood does not give off energy. Strange.

Figuring it must be the vehicle itself, you sway your mind from pondering the idea as your thoughts drift to that of home and the necklace hidden around your neck. This valued object was your dying mother's, a heirloom of your linage, and a damn powerful piece of jewelry.

But your brother and his wicked ideas, he wanted to use it for his grant thoughts of tyranny and power over the nine realms. A fool, no one could ever claim such a feat, no place needs rules like such from one being calling all the shots. It's madness.

It's insane.

Shaking your head, you keep following down the tracks as you listen to the sounds of cars in the far off distance. Birds chirp and flutter by while minding their business in the forest, although you could have sworn you heard a soft thud in the dirt behind you. A shuffle of stones maybe?

A deer perhaps? No, this is no deer; halting your trek to the city, you place your hands upon your hips before slowly turning around, "I'd expected as much. You are a clever man after all....Bucky."

The dark haired man greets you with a shy grin as he stands there off to the side of the tracks, dressed in casual attire like that when you saw him in Norway. He seems genuinely happy to see you, "I wish I could stay away." Replies Bucky in a playful tone, "But you've killed two human traffickers and I gotta make sure you don't hurt anyone else. Even if they deserve it."

You scoff, "I could end your life right now if I wanted to, kill all your friends next and then burn this world to ash and dust trying to get what I want. No matter the cowards I've killed."

He shrugs, "That sounds harsh. I'd rather you didn't actually, kinda like being alive." He's such a smartass in the best way, yet you hold back a smile to keep your noble aurora about you.

"Fair point I suppose. This Earth may be greatly flawed, but I have no qualms with the people here but that of my own business."

"Right. Your own business, finding the Ancient One and dealing with your brother and all that stuff." Nods Bucky, "Y/N, you know we could help you..."

"I don't need it! I'll find my way through this planet myself.  Alone!" You shout, causing the trees to creak and moan from a surplus of wind that blows Bucky's hair about. He knows what you're capable of, but he has to try and persuade you anyways.

He looks almost apprehensive to approach you, "Y/N please. I know we all got off on the wrong foot, probably by a lot. But my friends are good people, we want to help you find what you're looking for. I promise you that." Says Bucky with a pleading look, "No lies. I promise."

You give him a conflicted glare as you think of your options; he found you somehow, he legitimately wants to help, and you desperately need a way off this damn planet. Maybe they do know a way, maybe they'll actually be able to help you, maybe Bucky is truthful?

He goes to take a step forward when you throw a hand out, "Stop." He keeps still as you take a breath, "Bucky, you give me your word?"

"I do."

"Promise!"

Raising his hands up, he gives you a sincere look, "I promise Y/N."

Taking a long moment to think over his words, you finally nod, "Good." He watches as you walk across the tracks until you're within a couple feet of him, he swallows, unsure if you might have just lied and are about to set him on fire. Instead he's relieved when you gift him a tight lipped grin, "Fine then, let us leave this place."

"Awesome.....yeah, okay good...well I'm parked back that way. We can just walk on the tracks instead of through the woods. Easier that way." He takes a couple steps back the way you came, when you don't move does Bucky stop and reach a hand out for you to take, "I'm not going to hurt you Y/N, I promised I'd help you remember?"

"I haven't forgotten." You quickly answer him.

"Good because I intend to keep it." He smiles softly, beautiful stormy blues focused all on you with a gloved hand ready for you to take.

You shake your head before walking past him, "Fine but I'm not shaking your hand."

Bucky chuckles to himself as he watches you practically swagger down the side of the tracks away from him. Quickly does he break from his staring trance to jog over to your side. The two of you walk for a little ways in complete silence until you glance over at him when your curiosity gets the better of you. There's just one tiny question you still need answered, "Well, how'd you find me?"

Bucky holds back a grin, "Your pocket." He points down towards your jackets pocket. Giving him a look of confusion, you reach down and feel inside for whatever he's on about, suddenly your fingers touch something round and metal attached to the inside wall.

Taking a hold of this odd device, you tug it loose before bringing your hand into the open, "What the hell is this?" You ask.

Bucky reaches out to take the object from you, he holds it up, "This. Is a tracker."

"That thing? It's like a thick coin, how does it manage to do such a feat?"

"Technology, radio waves. It's not my design, but with it I was able to follow where you went. Granted you're more elusive with your traveling then I'd first realized, but it did it's job...and now I'm here."

"Yes, now you're here. Maybe you really are braver then I first thought, or just a plain fool. I could have stuck to my word and killed you." You snap your fingers, "Just like that."

He chuckles, "I had a feeling you wouldn't."

"Oh really? What made you assume I would be merciful?"

"When we met for the first time in Norway, and later at the base. You didn't hurt me, well I guess I should say you didn't try and squeeze the life out of me. Or set me on fire.."

"I set your jacket on fire." You point out as he smiles.

"You did. I liked that jacket too." Muses Bucky, "Still, you let me live both times. Even let my friends live too, Y/N, I don't think you're so bad at all."

You hum in thought, "Your words are kind and humbling. But I do not feel worthy of such claims." He has no idea who you are, what you've done. So much he doesn't know.

Bucky frowns, "Why not?"

"I have done nothing but add more chaos to this realm with my existence here, I have been betrayed and for that I was filled with rage taken out on innocent people living their lives. I want to be worthy of what you say I am, but I am not." His heart hurts at your valiantly honest words, if only he could understand completely.

"Believe me Y/N, you aren't nearly as bad as you think you are. There's been way worse people throughout history here before you ever showed up."

"I believe your words though my personal occurrence's chance to lessen these people compared to what I have done centuries ago. Do not misinterpret all of what I speak, I understand there are always beings harming others for their own sick pleasure, however I did not frighten for enjoyment. Quite the opposite."

He could just about give up his metal arm forever just to know what the hell you're talking about. What kind of life did you live before all of this? Bucky soon takes out a small square device with his one gloved hand, "I trust your word on that. And hopefully we're able to help you...I just gotta get us a ride out of here first." He turns on a black screen and slides his finger across to unlock, "I have where I parked pin pointed via another tracker."

"You don't recall where you've come from?"

"Yeah, I mean no..no, I do remember the direction I came in, it's just I was running so fast to find you I forget exactly where my car is. Don't worry this will only take a moment."

Holding back a grin at the way he muddles around on that screen of his, you divert your gaze elsewhere to look around at the trees and other various greenery spread about as usual on a planet such as this one. It's fascinating, almost like that of your home world in Vanaheim. How you miss that place. The vast mountains spread throughout the landscape, huge lumbering trees taller then the cellphone towers you've passed, and great skies of blue where dragons fly at will.

Suddenly a stick cracks in the trees to your right, you turn while Bucky pays little attention, a crow flies out and into the blue sky it goes. Easy now, just a bird, nothing more. The wind picks up for a second and you can almost catch the scent of sulfur when a ball of fire erupts from the trees ready to kill.

The spherical flame screams towards you and Bucky, who's by now dropped his phone onto the tracks, "Y/N watch out!" He shouts fearfully, hand gripping onto your shoulder as you keep a strong fearless stance to the approaching flame.

Throwing a hand out, you divert the ball into the gravel where it bursts like a small firework, rocks flying everywhere as you stand at the ready for whatever happens next. "Y/N! What the hell was that!" Shouts Bucky.

"A scout. I think one of my brother's loyalists found me."

"A scou..." Another ball of flame soars towards the two of you and then another right behind it as you maneuver your body to deflect each of them in quick succession when out of the scorched trees does a smirking woman reveal herself. Her smile is proud and wicked, taller then Bucky she stands and impeccably strong she appears.

She wears armor closely resembling your own, but instead of blues, silver, and white. Her armor is black and red, silver replaced with shimmering obsidian as she walks into the evening light. Her eyes flicker gold like your own, she tilts her head at you, "Princess Y/N of Vanaheim. An honor to meet you, truly." She bows with mockery, you immediately despise her.

"What dog is this who speaks to me?"

She grimaces, "Aüla, master of flame, Phoenix of Vanaheim, I am here to bring what stolen jewelry lays upon your neck. What belongs to King Leyondros." She points a sharp nailed finger to your neck, "That, is a house Lavpranthus family heirloom."

"You think I was born yesterday? That incompetent tyrant who dare claim himself as king does not deserve what treasure I possess. He is barely a brother to me now, and you, what business do you serve?"

She smirks, gifting Bucky with a wink as she wiggles her fingers with flame, "He's sent his best out to find your whereabouts since he's exiled you. I just happened to be lucky enough to land on Midgard where wouldn't you know it, here keeps the banished Princess herself. I couldn't be more fortunate." She opens up her palm like a needy child, "Now Y/N, the object I so desire."

"You will die trying."

She holds up a threatening fist of hot flame, "I will be bathed in riches! I will be loved! King Leyondros will welcome his champion with open arms as I present him with the necklace stolen by his traitor sister! With grand tidings of her annihilation!"

You share a dark look with Aüle as you step in front of Bucky, "I do not care to know what bargaining from the beasts of this realm you made to find me. And I certainly do not care for the false promises my brother has warped into your mind, you cannot take my life and you cannot have this necklace."

She calls flame into both hands, "Then I'll take it off your burnt corpse!" She thrusts her hands forward causing a burst of hot orange flames to shoot like dragon fire straight for yourself and Bucky.

Anticipating this action, you create a wall of your own fire that shatters her advances, you turn to the wide eyed brunette, "Bucky forgive me for not handling this sooner. I hadn't realized she was here."

"It's fine." Mumbles Bucky, chest rising and falling with heavy breaths as he stares fearfully at the angry woman spewing fire at you still.

Focused back on Aüla, she suddenly begins creating whips of flame that crack and slash at the air. She throws a whip towards Bucky but you're able to deflect it easily, in retaliation of her advances, you thrust a burst of dusty wind knocking her backwards.

She tumbles across the gravel like a discarded sack of potatoes, jumping gracefully down from the high point of the tracks, you land nearby this hellfire spawn who staggers to her feet. Rubbing the dust from out of her eyes, she coughs, "Foul play Princess, I should have guessed you'd cheap shot."

"You still believe you're leaving here with my necklace?"

Leaving her charcoal stained eyes be, she opens her palms to flame, "Well I certainly don't intend on perishing at your hand. I will get what I came for."

You throw a quizzical look, is she insane? Not wanting to ponder her mental stability, you use the gravel to crawl it up to her knees where it fuses and roots itself into the ground, she flails her arms trying to regain balance. Angered by this, Aüla clenches her fists, tightly hugging them to her chest as she concentrates.

A small orange glow emits from the center of her chest before she screams while opening her arms to the sky and with that her whole body erupts with flame like that of a Phoenix reborn. Tree branches and leaves alike are burnt and singed nearby while her anchor is melted.  Aüla levitates freely now, body a mass of hot flames as she stares furiously down at you with eyes of black charcoal.

"Behold the Phoenix! Now you will obey by law of the one true king!" Fire is thrown like thin arrows towards your face, again, easily deflected into the gravel below.

She chuckles darkly, thrusting a hand of intense flame that causes you to fall backwards across the ground. Pushing yourself up by the pads of your hands, she takes this vulnerable moment to race after Bucky with wings of fire.

Face contorted like a melted candle, her arms open wide as she prepares to embrace Bucky to the flames. Jumping up, you bend your arms, moving them in opposite directions on a linear path to conjure some type of protection. Aüla slams into an enchanted force field of dark blues that sends her flailing backwards like a bursting firework.

Regaining her balance, she levitates, scowling in disgust, "You? Would protect this mortal man?"

Your gaze falls onto Bucky, he's standing there, expression fearful and wide as he looks at you desperately. You take a step forward, "I will."

"But why? He is nothing compared to you, to us, he's simply an insect on a leaf."

"He is someone who has showed me more kindness in the last couple days then some of my own people have in the past hundred years!" You shout furiously before using your magic to paralyze her like you did with Wanda and Vision.

She struggles to move but all efforts are unfruitful, "Do not! Don't. You. Dare!" She screams as you take another fearless step towards her, raising your hands in a beautiful fluid motion, her obsidian irises flash with terror.

"Aüla, Phoenix of Vanaheim, I admire your efforts and valor. But I am not so merciful when my life as been threatened, as someone of these nine realms with some type of authority still. I, Y/N Lavpranthus of Vanaheim, condemn you to die." Your golden eyes flash with a noble flair of judgment while your hands sway like subtle waves on a beach.

"No. No. Nooo..." Her screams are eradicated when a burst of water consumes her entire vessel, she sizzles and smokes as you draw the river water away to reveal nothing but discarded broken armor. She never even noticed you were doing this.

As a plethora of water dissipates into steam from where she once stood, more liquid fills through the cracks in the gravel while you slowly wander over to the dark spot stained onto the center tracks. Kneeling down, you pick up an obsidian gauntlet cracked down the middle curve. "Who was that?" Asks Bucky from behind you.

"One of my brothers scouts. His best fire-bender.." You study the intricate markings that dance like vines around the metalwork, "..a phoenix in human form."

There is a long pause before he asks, "Why are you being hunted Y/N?"

You sigh, head bowed to the earth, "It's a long story."

Bucky frowns down at you, he's not sure what to do, but he knows you're deeply troubled by whatever events have led you to this point. A comforting hand rests upon your shoulder, "You don't have to tell me now. But I think we should go."

Dropping the broken gauntlet onto the dark stained wood, you stand, "Perhaps you're right. Who knows what else lurks in the shadows waiting to pounce. I'd rather not have you injured on my behalf."

Bucky shares a lopsided grin, "Appreciated. Now come on, I know the way home." Directs Bucky as the two of you begin walking down the tracks for wherever he speaks of.

Maybe these people aren't as bad as you'd first thought, unfortunately there are still evils that are desperate to find you. Until that time comes again.

-

Tagged:  @buckylokisimp​ @diegos-butt​ @minigranger​ @bibliophilewednesday​ @holyhumorliteraturelight​ @lilacs-lavender​  @a-girl-who-loves-disney​ @bizarrebibitch​ @starkssnarks​ @vikingqueen28​ @jmstz​ @thehornytitties​ @staygoldsquatchling02​ @cleverzonkwombatsludge​ @mischiefmanaged71​​ @noragracebrewer​   @atomicpersonacheesecake  @thescarlettvvitch @shawnartmendes​

[0poole]

I LOVE No Straight Roads

Honestly it’s hard to keep me away from a game with great visuals and even greater character design. I knew from the INSTANT I saw these characters that I was going to love it. I just finished it because it’s (unfortunately) pretty short, and even though I cheesed the final boss through it’s very lenient death mechanics (Instant respawn at the cost of a good rank) I actually appreciated that it wasn’t a pure cake walk. I’ve yet to rematch all of the bosses, but since I had genuine trouble with the later ones I’ll hold off on that.

But who cares about gameplay, am I right? I sure as hell don’t. I would’ve bought the game no matter what the hell it was. I wanted the characters (and the music, although I realized that second) and that was it. 

First of all, I love any world that is super fantastical but cheesy in its concept, ala a city powered by music, and battles between artists using music. Ideas like this only spawn from a mind that wants to create a fun atmosphere, if nothing else, and it was sure as hell fun. I genuinely love when someone goes so far into a crazy idea and doesn’t waste your time explaining it with real world logic. Wanna know how a city can be powered by music? Shut up and look at the cute virtual mermaid. Lord knows I did. Every once in a while, it does you good to just let the player/reader/viewer just revel in the idea without having to go out of your way to make things seem realistic. It’s not about “turning your brain off” or whatever, it’s picking your battles.

Also, I can seriously love a world with great background characters to it. Any game with the right situation to insert the random nobodies you find onto the streets into the art in the credits really played into the greatness of the world’s less important characters, and that’s always a good thing. It’s technically world building. But, since I always love to pick favorites, I’d have to say my favorite background character is easily Mia, the NSR infodesk assistant. It’s funny, because you can literally search “nsr characters” into Google and she’s the third image result. I love how jumpy she is when you first interact with her, since NSR probably spread the word about B2J suggesting they’re rock thugs who’d beat up anyone, so for all she knows she could die right then and there with a guitar lodged in her skull. She’s probably just some intern trying to pay for college. She don’t want trouble.

Also, I just realized that 90% of the characters in this game have the same body structure that I always love, that being having arms/legs that sort of fan out in width into relatively large hands/feet. It’s a kind of limb structure I fall into so much because it just really hits me right for some reason. I really can’t explain why.

Anyways, I gotta talk about the big boys individually:

Mayday and Zuke are an amazing duo. I’m always a sucker for a cute and crazy girl, but honestly Zuke hit so many of the right notes too. I will say it’s weird to pair the martian Zuke with the humanly-skinned Mayday, but honestly it doesn’t even matter because he looks so cool on his own. I love his weird blocky blue dreadlocks, and his weirdly shaped shirt which bares his chest in the weirdest way... And, oh my god, Mayday’s weird Spongebob background flower eyes? It’s little tidbits like that that really make me jealous. How could I have ever thought of that? It looks so perfect, and I don’t know why. And her little booty jig she does in her idle animation? Adorable. I played as her as much as was reasonable not only because I’m a filthy button masher with little strategy but also because she’s so damn cute. I can also appreciate how she has a tough-as-nails persona while still keeping a semi-girly attitude, like with her falling for 1010 and Sayu. Characters are so much better when they’re a perfect blend of characteristics, instead of being all one-note, like how Zuke is the quiet one but gets heated against DK West, and all. 

Honestly the voice acting for every character is great, but I love when Mayday’s VA’s accent shows through. It’s a perfect twang to accent (consider this the only acknowledgement of a pun in this post) her snarkiness. 

DJ Subatomic Supernova was going to be an easy favorite since he’s all space-themed. Also, I don’t know why I always end up liking the egotistic characters. Not in the sense that I like their egotistic-ness, but in the sense that I like everything else about them and they just so happen to also be egotistic. The same applied with Empoleon (maybe like my 2nd favorite Pokemon) and Rarity from MLP, probably among others. Either way, I’ll never not love space themes. Not to mention he’s got a funky disco theme, and I’m slowly starting to realize that I am in extreme love with techno-funk styles of music. The instant I heard his music he cemented his place into my playlists. 

As for design, I still have no idea what the fuck he is. Clearly AI is at human levels in this world, but if he’s a robot why does he still have hairy legs? But, if he’s a human, is that weird orb his head? Is it just some sort of puppet which he controls from inside his giant jacket? I know I dissed explaining things realistically but I actually want to know with this guy. Even the wiki doesn’t say. Either way, he’s clearly the logical extreme of “being at the center of your own universe.” Even his jacket depicts a solar system, with his hood being the sun. Didn’t see that until I tried to draw him. I really wish this guy wasn’t so tied to his DJ stand so I could reasonably draw him without it. I don’t want to draw his hairy ass legs. It is a great touch for his design though (although I prefer his beta look with pants and long boots, another design trait I tend to gravitate to) since DJs could reasonably not wear pants, since they’re always behind a table.

Sayu is my favorite. It’s so plainly obvious. It’s weird to say that sometimes, because some characters like Sayu are so clearly engineered to be as adorable as possible, to the point where they’re basically a parody of whatever they’re supposed to be emulating, but then they do that so well that they are still likable for what they’re trying to parody. Also, even though I’ve never looked into any vocaloid superstars myself, the fact that they exist and are loved in real life is absolutely perfect to be used as a character design in a world like this. It’s so weird conceptually, but we all know it’s normal and realistic. But yeah, she’s a giga-cutie whom I’ve already drawn and I’ve listened to her theme on loop on many different occasions. Favorite character, favorite track, favorite weapon of choice (What did I say about Empoleon?), which, and I wouldn’t have noticed this myself, looks like the USB symbol you see above USB ports on computers. How crazy perfect is that?

Even apart from my unbridled love for cute monster robot(?) girls, her boss fight is probably the 2nd greatest of them all, at least conceptually. She’s just a hologram, so you can’t touch her, but you CAN disconnect the artists which control her in order to defeat her. It’s the kind of concept for a boss fight that could only work for this type of character. I’m a sucker for the cute girl that provides her voice, but I love how the animator (video editor? the yellow one) actually attacks you with a mouse and lowers the brightness of the setting once he appears. Also, the mocap guy being the deeply-voiced type but still providing the adorable movements of her body. It’s such a great combo of characters, and their little extra art in the credits makes me like them even more. I just wish we could interact with them individually.

DK West was probably one of the most interesting characters visually, especially since I knew of every other NSR member long before the game came out, but I only just heard of him closer to the release. I wasn’t sure where he was placed, but I definitely assumed his gig was the weird shadow demon we saw in the trailers. When I finally saw him in game, I was shocked to hear him speak an entirely different language most of the time, which was really cool. Also, finding out he was tied to Zuke and wasn’t strictly an NSR artist really made him more interesting. You know, if his fucking shadow clone magic didn’t make him crazy cool enough. Even though I suck at his game and am not especially fond of his raps, the visual of him rapping with this giant monster behind him and dozens of weird shadow wingmen by his side hyping him up was probably one of the coolest in the entire game. The dark way they were hyping him up too gave such a bizarre atmosphere, especially since it parallels his seemingly chill and smiley demeanor. 

I definitely hope they’ll introduce new bosses as DLC in the future, and make them sort of in the same vein as DK West, where they aren’t the biggest artists ever, but they want to pick a fight with B2J. I’d kill for any extra content this game can provide.

Yinu is obviously special since she was the subject of the demo they put out for the game. Even though I knew all her bells and whistles, she and her mom still beat me a few times in the full game. Considering she’s semi-tied to story-ish spoilers I kinda want to go more into her in a separate section. It is worth considering playing the game first since it’s not hard (with the easy going deaths) and it’s short length.

1010 seriously grew on me as I learned more about them and interacted with them. I got their shtick when I first looked at them, but after seeing that animation of them touring the city on Youtube I was kinda falling for them. Then, I learned that they’re apparently repurposed navy war robots? I mean, maybe not them specifically, but it seems to heavily point in that direction, with the warship cars and “attention!”s and all. It took me a bit to get into their music too, but once I actually fought them and put their actions to the music I fell in love with it. I swear, Neon J’s weird dancing can has some of the smoothest moves in all of gaming. I don’t know whether they mocapped out those movements or got one of the greatest animators ever, but it looks so impossibly clean his part of the song gets me like 30x more hype than it would normally. 

Also, their little art piece of them looking at fan mail in the credits is probably one of the most adorable things ever. Even if they’re just Neon J’s puppets, that piece of art really makes it seem like they love every one of their fans. I’m not gonna lie, I might swoon a bit too if they picked me out and gave me some special attention.

Oh yeah, and the fact that Mayday was super sad in her showstopper against them was adorable and hilarious at the same time. The little tweaks they made to the showstopper for each fight were great.

Eve just has to be Lady Gaga, right? Like, an even crazier Lady Gaga. DJSS is Daft Punk (or any artist with a helmet persona, you know what I’m talking about), Sayu is Hatsune Miku, DK West is Kanye West, Yinu is a generic child protege, 1010 is a KPop boyband (just pick one) and Eve is Lady Gaga. That’s just how things are. But, again, this is the kind of boss fight that only this type of character could provide. It’s not just surreal imagery, it’s ARTISTIC surreal imagery. The fight is so mesmerizing in every way, especially by how it starts off so slow and calm and progresses to insanity, as well as the increased emotional investment in the fight making you feel so much more into it than just “That’s the boy band. Let’s fight.” Not only does it get you more invested, but it makes her artistic persona go deeper than just “she looks weird.” She is genuinely conflicted about her relationship with Zuke, and naturally that leads her to literally split him and Mayday apart. That mechanic specifically was the coolest, although I do wish they made it more obvious when you needed to switch over to a different side. I was getting pulverized by her fight too, since there were so many things to pay attention to. Her fight was definitely the best one. 

Tatiana and Spoilers:

Let’s be real with ourselves, the twist was so obvious. I do also think, though, that obvious twists aren’t bad if they’re just good reveals. At some point, a person just has experienced so many stories that “only pretty good” twists are easy to spot. It doesn’t mean that the twists are bad, it just means you yourself experienced.

I feel like her transition from rock to EDM was pretty understandable, even as a non-musician. She was so caught up in what she assumed was popular that it basically consumed her. It’s easy as an artist to want to forgo what you truly want to make in favor of what makes you popular, and clearly since her transition to EDM made her the CEO of the biggest company in the city (world?) that probably made her think she truly needed to change her outlook. Then, when she saw B2J try to bring it back, she sort of coined them as being as misguided as she was and knocked them down a peg. Plus, they were kinda being jerks about it.

It’s kinda like the Trolls sequel, where everyone pegs rock music fanatics as being too stuck up in their own heads to appreciate other types of music, which honestly seems more like the case than the alternative. When I first heard of the story of the game, I was seriously hoping they did put an asterisk on B2J’s ambitions because they were a bit sketchy from the start. 

That’s kinda where I want to talk about Yinu, because she was the true turning point in what they were doing. She’s literally 9 and yet she’s getting dragged into all this BS. When she said “I hate you all” at the end of her fight, and played a somber tune on her broken piano after the fight destroyed it, you kinda got a kick in the face to realize you’re kinda being an asshole to some of them. Sure, they fight back, but they wouldn’t fight in the first place if they didn’t have to. They are just people who play music under a joint name that B2J just so happened to get in hot water with. 

Then, of course, there’s Kliff, who also reeked of surprise villain, and who’s basically the embodiment of the bad side of B2J, where he just wanted to destroy for his own sake and not for the actual greater good. Once B2J realized their mistake, they backed off, but Kliff was so hard pressed to do what he planned on in the first place he wouldn’t stop. I kinda wish he got a bigger fight to his own since he’s clearly a big enough tech genius to divert a whole satellite into one specific building. Maybe the Elliecopter chase bit was his thing, but I do kind of wish he was there to fight against them too.

Even though Tatiana did kind of reform a bit quick, It’s still not too crazy to assume she could see that B2J was just misguided and the fact that they worked to revert their wrongdoings for her sake would make a pretty strong impressions. They clearly can hold their own, so it’s not like she wouldn’t want them to join NSR too. 

Oh yeah, and her boss fight was clock/time themed. If there’s a theme under space that I love, it’s clocks/time. 

And If I am to be respected by the internet, I must provide a negative opinion to balance out my positive one. I will say that the character model physics (like Mayday’s braids, DK West’s vest thing, Neon J’s fluffy neck thing, etc) got kinda funky at times. Especially DK West’s vest, which was completely messed up for every scene he was in... Also, even though the voices are mostly great, some lines felt a bit off. Just a bit. That good enough? Good.

But yeah anyway that’s another favorite game to add to the pile. Eventually I’m gonna have to compile a true list of my all-time favorite games/movies because I do kind of want to have a solid idea of what my all-time favorites are.