#aquila's comfort characters

[aquilacalvitium]

THEY'RE TRYING TO HURT ME ON PURPOSE

[aquilacalvitium]

MONTY NO-

Monty would be the feral uncle

[aquilacalvitium]

I ACTUALLY SHRIEKED OUT LOUD

LOOK HOW THEY'VE MASSACRED MY BOY

[aquilaofarkham]

i've been headcanoning trevor belmont as jewish for years and since it's hanukkah week, it's richter's turn now 💙 (just pretend that's challah and brisket in the second pic lol)

[aquilamage]

I haven’t been insane about Vi enough lately so time to pour out some random thoughts. free association thinking time:

been thinking about her “It's my savings. I wanna be rich, okay? So I can travel, eat well, buy cool stuff… So no one can say I can't do something!” And none of the following will really be insightful or revelatory because it’s just what she says here but. yeah! that’s vi! the main reason she’s so big on money is because she has to be to get what she wants out of life! it’s what lets her say no to people telling her what to do, and that’s important to her because she has no choice but to be independent and support herself. because no one else will. No one at the Hive had anything positive or supportive to say about her being an explorer until she went out and did it (to a ridiculously successful degree, too. I have to wonder if/how it might’ve differed if she was on a regular accomplishment level team. not the one leading them all to the mission to the Hive). she never had a choice not to be. I could also see that being a little part of why she starts out not really being a teamwork person. past experiences have taught her she can’t rely on anyone else for support. (does make me wonder about what if she’d met Chubee before leaving the Hive. obviously she still would’ve left, but how might even a bit of support have changed other things?)

I feel like we don’t talk about the fact that The Beemerang Is Also Knives enough

ok so at one point there was this post talking about people with money and how it affects their life like. if you can afford to get a nanny then you can only do the fun parts of childcare and when you stop feeling like taking care of the kid you can just hand them to someone else to take them away. and again likely not especially revelatory but I would guess that’s the kind of way queen bianca handled the bees as her daughters (she does care about them. absolutely. but not in the same hands-on attached way as we usually associate with parents) and thinking about how that kind of treatment would then apply to vi....hm

in universes where discussions of Gender and Pronouns etc happen I think she has moments where she gets frustrated with the everything of Being Referred To and Having Complicated Identity She Hasn’t Quite Figured Yet and is like. gender is cancelled how dare you refer to me. but especially anyone else calls me a girl ever i will be stabbing them

also I think a lot about what circumstances she finds out about gayness/Gender being things. and whether she’s thought about it in herself before and whether she’d been dismissed on it/told it wasn’t a thing etc. most circumstances she ends up angry about the finding out times because of (un)consicious internal conflict stuff

underground tavern stuff implies she was definitely doing quests and stuff for money with them precanon. would kill to know what specifically it was. but also the first talk with utter implies that she was doing stuff off that questboard as well which is even more intriguing. utter’s spy also implies you don’t have to be an explorer to do them but otherwise you would think you did I feel. so again very curious what was up there

[aquilacalvitium]

👏THANK YOU FOR SAYING IT👏

if gamefreak won’t tie these blatant plot threads together i guess i have to

[tsarisfanfiction]

Truth Comes Out of His Well (Chapter 5)

Fandom: Percy Jackson and the Olympians Rating: Teen Genre: Hurt/Comfort/Family Characters: Lee Fletcher, Kronos, Apollo, Apollo Cabin (and many more) As always, @stereden is responsible for the accompanying podfic! << Chapter 4 Listen to chapter 5 on AO3

It repeated.

Lee lost track of how many times Kronos came in, a group of demigods in tow, and tried to force him into playing his twisted version of two truths and a lie, ending with the finale of a cacophony of lies so intense that he was left a trembling, sobbing wreck.  It was usually the same demigods – some faces came and went, but Reuben, Aquila and Claudia were staples, and Lee suspected that they would continue to be first in line for anything that involved tormenting him for as long as Kronos allowed.

Given that Lee had, somehow, yet to break and answer Kronos – not that he knew how he was still holding out, when he was reaching the point that he was having to fight off panic the moment a group descended on him – he was pretty certain the titan would keep letting them.

They were the worst for feeding him; Lee dreaded seeing any of the trio walk in with food, because they all but forced him to eat it.  If it was Kronos, he tended to release Lee’s wrists and let him feed himself in peace, which had the added benefit of being able to cradle his aching, constantly in pain, wrists and murmur a hymn to relieve their suffering even a little.

It was a dichotomy of kindness against the torture he orchestrated the rest of the time.

If there was a regular schedule to any of the visits – food, torture, being shoved into a little bathroom adjoining the room to use the toilet and sometimes clean up some of the ever-building cave grime, too – then Lee couldn’t track it.  He hadn’t seen the sun since the battle, couldn’t even feel the faintest hint of his father’s warmth, and that left him utterly disorientated when it came to time.  He was under no illusions that Kronos wasn’t doing it on purpose – the titan of time would have intimate knowledge in how to ruin timekeeping, if he wasn’t just simply manipulating time to further disorient Lee.

When he wasn’t being tortured, either by Kronos or by the overzealous hatred Marcus’ friends threw at him, though, Lee somehow found himself being bored.  He couldn’t do anything, spending almost all his time firmly secured to the cave wall, and it felt like he was left to stew in his own company with no distractions for hours on end.  It felt ridiculous, to be suffering from boredom in his situation.

Could he even call it suffering when it was the alternative to personal attention from a titan determined to break him, and getting closer and closer with every session, if Lee was honest?  He didn’t know how he’d held on so long already; he had no idea how he was going to keep holding on, just the knowledge that he had to, no matter how impossible a task it was starting to feel like.

He hadn’t known it was possible to be simultaneously bored and scared.

The door stayed open the whole time.  Lee had seen it shift once, when a demigod had leaned against it, so he knew it could close, but Kronos had never bothered to shut him in.  Given that Lee was still no closer to finding his way out of the manacles than he had been when he’d first woken up, it was obvious why.

He still couldn’t see much of the corridor, though, and the foot traffic passing his room – he wanted to call it a cell but did it really count as one when the door never shut? – had increased, so it was difficult to tell when someone was coming in to see him rather than just walking past to whatever it was they did when they weren’t tormenting him.

Movement out of the corner of his eyes drew his attention to his newest visitor, striding in through the open doorway.  The torches hadn’t been changed in a while and were starting to burn low, enough to cast their face in shadow until they got close enough.

It was an Asian looking guy, similar in age to Lee at a guess, with an eyepatch covering his left eye.  His face was familiar, although Lee didn’t remember the eye patch and couldn’t place him.

“Hello, Lee,��� he said.  He wasn’t carrying any food, and while so far the physical torture had been mostly incidental – Lee’s wrists were taking the brunt of that – Lee was also relieved to note that the sword stayed in its sheath as the demigod sat cross-legged on the floor in front of him.

He was also confused, because normally demigods only came in without Kronos if it was feeding time.

“Remember me?” the other demigod continued.  “I was at camp, for a few summers.”

That explained the familiarity, and Lee wracked his brain.  It had to have been someone that had left a few years ago – the eyepatch was definitely a new addition, but he was pretty sure he’d recognise them regardless if it had been recent.  He studied the rest of his face, taking in the clear Asian heritage and racing through all the Asian kids at camp that had not come back one year.

“Ethan?” he asked, hesitantly, and the boy’s face twisted into some sort of a smile, although it wasn’t a happy one.

“That’s me,” he confirmed.  “The eyepatch throw you off?”

“It didn’t help,” Lee admitted, trying to remember what else he knew about Ethan.  He’d left camp before the war had even started, before Luke’s betrayal, even, another case of an unclaimed kid deciding they’d had enough of being unwanted even in the camp that was supposed to be a home to them and leaving.  Lee had always understood it, if only theoretically.  He’d not got far enough into the foster system to ever feel that way personally.

He could also begrudgingly understand why an unclaimed, resentful kid would join Kronos.  Chris had been another one, perhaps worse because everyone had known he was a Hermes kid – he had the same looks, the same skills – and he’d lived in his parent’s cabin and still was never claimed.  The final straw for him had clearly been when he’d been passed over for head counsellor in favour of the younger, less experienced Stolls purely because they’d been claimed and he hadn’t been.  Lee didn’t think he would’ve been able to say no to helping the other boy even if he hadn’t understood that, but it had certainly helped him throw himself whole-heartedly into trying to help Clarisse restore his sanity.

He’d always been able to see why someone that hadn’t been helped by a system would be drawn to the possibility of change.  That made sense, a case of grass looking greener on the other side even though Lee fully believed that Kronos would be no better for them than the current system.  It was the others he didn’t understand at all, Luke, Alana and the others who had been claimed and raised as a child of their particular godly parent.  How could they turn their backs and think joining Kronos was better?

“Was it treated properly?” he asked Ethan, eyes fixed on the patch.  Eye trauma was nasty, he’d seen it before, in nasty camp accidents.

Ethan shrugged.  “Nothing left to treat,” he said dismissively.  “My mother took it.”

“Your mother?” Lee asked, and his voice came out a little strangled.  He didn’t remember Ethan’s mortal parental situation – it had to have been good enough for him to only live at camp during the summer – but the way he said it, like his eye had just vanished, sounded a lot like…

“Yeah,” Ethan said, a little bitterly.  “She claimed me in the end.  Told me I would rebalance the world, and took my eye in exchange.  An eye for an eye and all that.”

“Nemesis?” Lee asked hoarsely.  It sounded like the sort of thing the goddess of vengeance would do or say – but to her own child?

Maybe he understood why Ethan was still on Kronos’ side.

“Nemesis,” Ethan confirmed.  “I don’t understand you, Lee.”

Lee blinked, confused at the sudden declaration.  “What don’t you understand?” he asked.

The son of Nemesis gestured at their surroundings.  “This,” he said.  “You could be comfortable.  You have something Kronos wants.  All you need to do is give it to him and you’d be out of here and at his right hand.  It’s a position many of us would kill for, but you’re refusing at every turn.  Are you that loyal to the gods?  Why?”

“Why shouldn’t I be?” Lee asked.  “I don’t understand how Kronos winning would be better than what we have at the moment.”

The laugh that Ethan let out was dark and humourless.  “Of course you don’t,” he said.  “Perfect child of Apollo, claimed the moment you enter camp and lavished with praise and love from everyone.  Why wouldn’t you want to keep things that way?”  His remaining eye sent a look st Lee that went right through him, serious and even a little pitying, underneath the dismissiveness.  “You’re living a pretty little lie, Lee.  At least my mother was upfront about it.”

“Upfront about what?” Lee asked, confused.  The resentment for Apollo kids also made some sort of sense – Lee knew they had the best relationship with their godly parent barring only, possibly, Dionysus’ kids, whose father actually lived in camp with them – but the thing about living a lie?  That didn’t.  Lee had been a camper for ten years, he could sense lies and he’d never sensed he was living a lie.

“The cost of being a demigod,” Ethan told him bluntly.  He gestured at his eye.  “There’s always a price to pay, Lee.  Look at yourself.  Apollo gave you a power – one that’s powerful, too, no wonder you always hid it – but what’s that done for you?  Chained up in a cave, regularly driven over the brink of panic because it’s so easily turned against you.”  He scoffed.  “Apollo hurts his children, punishes them for the things he gave them, but over and over again, you all fall for it until it’s too late.”

“Apollo doesn’t,” Lee snapped.

“Doesn’t he?” Ethan challenged.  “Did Luke ever tell you about Hal?”

The name was wholly unfamiliar.  “Who’s Hal?” he asked, cautiously.

Ethan shifted in place, looking for all the world like he was sitting back around the campfire at camp, ready to tell a story.  The faint flickering of the torchlight played with the shadows on his face, making them eat up the black eyepatch whole.  “Evidence of Apollo’s cruelty to his own children,” he said.  “Luke met him, once.  He’s told the story several times since this war began, because camp has always held your father up as the pinnacle of parental godhood.  We all know you Apollo kids think you have it good, that he’s a reason why the gods should be allowed to continue with their pathetic attempts at using and abusing mortals under the guise of parenting.  He’s not.”

A story.  Luke had come up with some sort of story to demonise Apollo.  It shouldn’t have felt like a betrayal – in the grand scheme of all the things his former friend had done, it logically ranked low – but somehow it did.

“Hal was a son of Apollo that could see the future,” Ethan continued.  “But he wasn’t allowed to act on it, no matter what he saw.  He saved a girl’s life, because what monster asks someone to stand aside and do nothing when someone is going to die?  Apollo cursed him for it, for using the same power that he had given him in the first place.  Hal lost his voice, was imprisoned in a house surrounded by monsters that killed anyone that came near and spoke his own thoughts out loud to him, and was left there to suffer until he died.  Luke and Thalia tried to save him and almost got killed in the process – and they failed, too.  Hal still died, thanks to the curse his own father put on him.”

His eye glittered in the torchlight.

“I know you know I’m telling the truth,” he said, and he was right – there hadn’t been a single hint of a lie.  “If he did that to one son with a powerful ability he gave, what will he do to you, Lee?”

Ethan wasn’t lying, but it didn’t work like that.  Ethan believed what Luke told him, but that didn’t mean Luke hadn’t lied to Ethan.  It was a lie wrapped up like a truth, the way retold stories could be, but Lee hadn’t let on that part of how his ability worked to Luke, so Kronos didn’t know, which meant Ethan and the other demigods didn’t know, either.

They just knew that if they said something true, Lee would know, and didn’t realise how personal truth could be.

Lee wasn’t about to give that clarifier away, though, even if it meant letting Ethan continue operating under such an awful view of his own father.  Apollo would never do that to them.  Lee had never even met an Apollo kid that had inherited any serious degree of prophecy, or even much beyond occasional dreams – and they all knew that the dreams came from Apollo, anyway.

“I’m not a prophet,” he said, instead.  “Or an oracle."

Ethan shot him a look that was part disgusted, part cloying pity.

“You’re blind, is what you are,” he replied.  “I might be down an eye but you’re the one that can’t see.”  He shook his head.  “Are you really going to keep torturing yourself for the gods?  They don’t care, Lee.  Apollo doesn’t even need to step in with you, you’re doing his job for him, sitting down here and not taking all the chances you’re being given to save yourself.  You could be free of all of this, Lee.”

“I’d be free if you got me out of these chains,” Lee muttered, before looking Ethan in the eye.  “I’m not giving in,” he told him.  “Kronos can keep trying and maybe he will break me, eventually, but I’m not giving in.  I won’t give in.  I can’t.”

“Why?” Ethan pushed, and he sounded almost a little despairing.  He hadn’t been a cruel boy, Lee remembered.  Quiet and a little sullen, fed up of being ignored by his godly parent, but not cruel.  He was trying to help Lee; Lee wasn’t blind enough to miss it, but the help he was offering wasn’t help at all.  Not for Lee.  “Why are you putting yourself through this, Lee?  The gods aren’t worth it, and I can’t believe you don’t know that, somewhere inside.  You’ve seen me, the other unclaimed kids at camp.  I never pegged you as someone cruel enough to think that what we’re going through is good, even if you’re too blind to see what your own father is doing.  Why?”

That was the easiest question Lee had been asked since he’d arrived.

“Because I have people to protect,” he said.  “This isn’t about me, Ethan.  It was never about me.”

“You can protect them better if you’re at Kronos’ side!” Ethan exclaimed.  “How is this protecting them?”

“Because Kronos doesn’t protect anyone,” Lee said firmly.  He could see Chris, babbling and insensate and flinching away from even the most gentle of healing touches.  “What you see in Apollo, I see in Kronos, Ethan.  I won’t join him.  Not willingly.  Not ever.”

Ethan sighed.  “You’re delusional, Lee,” he said, but he pulled himself to his feet again.  “He’ll break you, you know.  You should forget about other people and think about yourself.  No-one would blame you for protecting yourself.”

Lee gave him a small, tired, smile.  “I would.”

The torchlight had all but faded away, burning down to embers, and now that Ethan had stood up, his face was impossible to see.  He left without another word, leaving Lee alone as the torches sputtered and died out.

Chapter 6>>>

[aquilacalvitium]

I'm going to list every sign of autism in the submas twins that I can think of for no reason other than I want to

1. Facial expressions

Probably what they're most famous for, neither of them seem to be able to control their facial expressions in a "normal" way. Ingo is constantly frowning and Emmet is constantly smiling. They're both canonically capable of having other facial expressions, but they always default back to these.

2. How they speak

Ingo. Shouts.

Need I go on? He's so loud and doesn't seem to have a cap on how loud he can possibly be at any given time. He's very enthusiastic, very loud and his voice is far more expressive than his face is.

Meanwhile, Emmet's voice is quite monotone. He's not noticeably loud or quiet, but he doesn't seem to put much expression into his words. He likes to repeat phrases over and over (e.g. "I am Emmet") probably in an effort to pad out sentences to make it sound like he's got more to say. He prefers to talk less than Ingo and is very direct and to-the-point, so he probably repeats things multiple times so that trainers he's battling don't feel disappointed if he has very little to say about their performance. This could also be a form of vocal stim considering he repeats specific phrases.

3. Their aesthetic

Okay yeah I admit pokemon trainers sometimes have aesthetics they stick strongly to. I.e. bug catchers, dragon tamers etc. But I'm yet to see any other character as dedicated to an aesthetic that doesn't centre around pokemon types as these two.

They are fully ride-or-die with their train aesthetic, which could very well be a hint that trains are a special interest for them both. So much so that they made the world's first Battle Subway, when every single other region has a tower instead. Neurotypicals could never.

4. Social cues

Emmet is infamously bad at social cues. He's seen multiple times in the manga very clearly walking up to two trainers having a private conversation and asking them to continue as though he isn't actively leaning over their shoulders and listening. Ingo has had to physically drag him away from these situations several times.

He's also so straight forward that sometimes people have to remind him to not be rude. While Ingo seems to have a better handle on social cues and politeness, Emmet is constantly saying or doing things that may make other people a little uncomfortable. Never with any malicious intent, mind you. He also rarely caters to people's feelings and simply states facts. For example, here's his dialogue upon winning his battles:

"I am Emmet. I won against you. But I think I just got lucky. In a Double Battle, if you misread one thing, the rest will be totally different. You know. Please win 20 battles in a row, and fight with me!"

"I am Emmet. I won against you. But this is not the end. I am sure you will show up here again. I will wait for it and win against you again. Because I am a Subway Boss. I am Emmet."

He's not being outwardly rude in either of these instances, nor is he congratulating his opponent on their battling skills, unlike Ingo who always makes sure to state how impressed he is with his opponent even when he wins. He is simply stating facts and encouraging his opponent to try again.

[ramblings-of-lola]

Heyo! I've seen you post about working on a story, so I thought I'd ask, if you're comfortable sharing, what's it about?

Hi, thanks for asking!

It's a fantasy story with four main characters. Each one is from a different nation. Each nation is based on an element and the people have both human and animal forms. When a character is in their human form, they can control their element.

Earth Shifters have deer forms, Water have aquatic forms like merfolk (whale, stingray, shark, jellyfish, etc.), Wind are birds of prey, and Fire are dragons.

My four main characters are Silva (Earth Shifter), Natare (Water Shifter), Aquila (Wind Shifter) and Ignis (Fire Shifter). They come together as a found family. I'm still figuring out the plot as I go.

Silva's animal form is a fallow deer. Natare's is currently a stingray (I might change it), Aquila's is a harpy eagle, and Ignis is a dragon and eagle hybrid (his half sister is Aquila).

[aquilacalvitium]

AH THIS LOOKS SO GOOD I LOVE YOUR STYLE SO MUCH!!!

Got a new brush set, time for brainrot

[chaoticpkk]

What's a guy gotta do to get a gif of the bishop of Aquila getting absolutely obliterated from the end of Ladyhawke? That's my Comfort Character Death™

[wyvern-flames]

𝐂𝐥𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐑𝐨𝐬𝐟𝐢𝐞𝐥𝐝 - 𝑆ℎ𝑖𝑒𝑙𝑑 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐹𝑙𝑎𝑚𝑒, 𝑊𝑦𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑛

Semi-Selective, Spoiler Heavy but tagged, 25 y/o mun, Under Construction

♞ Important Notes below for Mobile! ♞

I. hello there! my name is kuroki! i am 25 years old and have been roleplaying around tumblr for quite a while. i have many blogs around and cannot seem to stop making more. hopefully, you can enjoy your stay here for as logn as it lasts!

II. i am semi-selective, oc, duplicates, canon and crossover friendly! i am also more than happy to receive interactions/asks/requests from personal blogs, as long as you respect the other roleplayer's privacy during interactions. chances are, if you follow me, i will be following you back (unless your rules are too complex for me to follow.)

III. though i do not know how to edit or make icons (and whenever i do, it is catastrophic,) i will be trying my best to make some for clive. if you find that the posts are iconless, i probably gave up trying. aside from that, i am only recently starting to rp/write smut, i usually try to avoid it unless i am suddenly comfortable to try it (or unless the other person doesn't mind me not being experienced writing it.) normally, i prefer to keep things sfw unless really needed so as to not embarrass myself. even so, you can be flirty or suggestive, that’s totally fine. if we somehow end up requiring nsfw down the road, we could discuss it and work it out. as you may have expected, this blog will have dark themes, that includes potential triggering content (will try to tag but may forget sometimes,) so please tread carefully.

IV. very important to note that my portrayal of clive rosfield might be slightly different from others, especially with the tone and usage of words as i follow (and play) the latin spanish dub of the game (it's so excellent, i could not ignore it) and have noticed a few changes on what the characters say (for example: slight location name changes, though those i will look up and follow the english translation to avoid confusion. other than that, some flavor text that i am sure i have already adopted.) i will understand if you refuse to interact because of it, just make sure to softblock or hardblock if i followed you and you do not wish to interact so i don't accidentally either re-follow you or try to interact with you.

V. feel free to send me a message or follow back if you want to roleplay or just ask anything if you’re curious about clive or my portrayal of him. i also accept anonymous questions, random memes, and random starters!

VI. my face-claim is Ritsu Namine and i can roleplay in both English and Latin Spanish. the icons used are made with poohsources's aquila psd and the screenshots were provided by capsource.

[void-kissed]

Echo's romantic selfships: A Celestial Rapport (Pavo/Ardea)

"let them act as they wish to, for we know the paths that are best for us"

==============================

romantic F/O: Pavo (Dragon Quest IX)

character tag: love: winged watcher (pavo)

selfship tag: selfship: a celestial rapport (pavo/ardea)

paired self-insert: Ardea

self-insert tag: self-insert: clawed heron (ardea)

selfship start date: 8th April 2021

comfort sharing romantically: fine with sharing!

==============================

Pavo is a Celestrian who dwells on the Protectorate with the power to open the Rapportal, allowing Celestrians from multiple different worlds to journey together. Ardea is another Celestrian who formerly resided in the Observatory before being stripped of many of her powers when she fell down to the Protectorate as the Observatory was attacked.

The two meet in the Quester's Rest inn in Stornway, shortly after Ardea lost her wings and halo, and are very surprised to see each other. Pavo decides to accompany Ardea on a quest across the Protectorate to try and find a way back to the Observatory, as well as to locate Pavo's brother Aquila. Pavo fights as a sage wielding a bow due to still retaining her Celestrian magic and powers, whereas Ardea acts as a martial artist wielding claws due to her fall from the Observatory causing her to lose her powers alongside her wings and halo.

The two eventually start to catch feelings for each other over the course of their journey. They are accompanied by a pair of adventurers who found Ardea after she fell - Avalon, a stalwart warrior who uses both knives and spears, and Iris, an energetic luminary who wields fans and magic.

[aquilacalvitium]

OP I LOVE YOU FOR THIS ANALYSIS

I think about Sun and Moon's original versions a LOT, and I don't get why people say they're not expressive!

Or perhaps, I do, and I just wanna ramble. Anyways! Big ol warning for lots of talking, some fursuit gifs and analyzation of body movement.

So, they have flat, immobile faceplates, right? Technically, yes!some argue that this makes them immediately inert and expressionless and opt to enhance their expressions. And this is a-okay! Do what you like!

But as someone who used to be a costumer, and wears a fursuit on occasion,

(Sorry, I love this gif so much)

BUT! When in a mascot costume, fursuit, or any other costume with a mask over one's face, the performer has to learn how to move in order to portray the emotions necessary for character engagement with the audience! Whether it's exaggerated head bobs, using your hands to talk, or making everything a bit of a spectacle, even the way you tilt your FACE can affect how you look.

Even MUPPETS do this with their limited range of expression. And we can easily draw those conclusions of how the boys were programmed to act in canon!

Take Sun's default animation in the daycare, just standing there.

It's very obvious here what he's trying to portray, and who his programmed audience is- little children! When costuming around little kids, you wanna use big gestures, and get on their level because you can seem HUGE AND SCARY to them! You wanna get down towards the ground, make big sweeping cartoon motions, and make sure all your movements are ROUNDED- not jabbing, sharp, or sudden- so that the kid isn't ever surprised, but rather delighted by your performance as a costumer. I'll show you an example by the amazing performer, Temba the Bat! (Made by Toxicoon, I believe.)

Big sweeping motions, slow without being too spooky, and generally friendly motions while swaying the head! Looks kinda similar right?

Another point is, though, these exaggerated motions don't really... turn off when feeling other things. Sun and Moon don't have a customer service mode, and that's WILD to me that their programming requires them to act like this all the time. Exhibit B: Sun's pain in the transformation scene.

He's making such exaggerated motions and movements to INDICATE he is in pain or holding something back. He's gripping his face like something is trying to come out of it, and even dramatically falls backwards to indicate a loss of control in his body. Whether the way the fall looks so cartoonist was intentionally programmed in, I couldn't tell you.

And then... there's Moon.

This is SO cartoon villain sequel, isn't it? The hands tapping delicately on the surface, the exaggerated head tilt, all of it is so wildly exaggerated in such a smooth way to let you know "Ah! I'm in danger! Great!"

And yet... he still is low to the ground. Still in that pose of going after someone SMALL. Performing for someone small. His evilness is almost completely exaggerated and, dare I say, fabricated by his programming. Of course, the virus probably had something to do with it but LIKE! Look at that range of motion!

Idk what the point of all this is, I just wanna say: it's totally understandable to make the boys super duper expressive in the artistic, flat 2d styles i see a lot!

But man I do hope someone draws them biblically accurate while expressing something else because that would be hilarious to see Sun throwing a temper tantrum by banging his fists on the ground and flailing while his face is just

:D

[lex1nat0r]

Grimdark Magazine #39

I’ve been subscribed to Grimdark Magazine for years but my actual reading has been spotty at best. As someone with Opinions on “grimdark” I want to fix that, and so I’ll try keeping up with the new issues by putting down my thoughts here. This is my third time doing this on tumblr.

To be clear: this is mainly kvetching about genre(/aesthetics?). And also: not weighing in on whether any given story should be included in a “grimdark” magazine. I’m just fucking about, really.

Just looking at the short stories themselves unless I come across a review for a book I’ve actually read or an interview with an author I already know.

Actually starting out with something to say about one of the essays this time: "Grimdark is a State of Mind" by Krysle Matar. I like this, this is good. Relevant paragraph:

"Grimdark as a genre holds space for the depths of human depravity, sure, but also for the stubborn assertation that none of us are beyond hope. It gathers to it the traumatized, the broken, desperate, the wretched masses. It is built on big questions, some of them ugly, but all of them important. If heroes can only be unfailingly good, where do we, the tragically imperfect, turn to be seen and understood?"

This gets it, I think.

"Dead Reckoning Part II" by Christian Cameron

GRIMDARKNESS RATING: Close encounter.

A spaceship is pursued by an alien ship.

If there's a Dead Reckoning Part I, I've not read it. This is too technical, I think, to work as grimdark. There's a tension in the story, but not the atmosphere of misery I want from grimdark. It's good space opera, I'd read a book of this, but no grimdark.

Then there's a small materials science lecture with the essay "The Quest for Transparent Aluminium: Materials Science in Science Fiction" by John Mauro. Wouldn't mind seeing more stuff like that.

"Waiting for the Witnesses" by Gautam Bhatia

GRIMDARKNESS RATING: Cooperating witness.

Five people arrive on an obsidian plane to await the arrival of the Witnesses.

Shoutout to this one off the bat for being one of the few published works I've seen to have a character with xe/xir pronouns. In terms of grimdarkness this is a tricky one. The world-at-large is explicitly doing pretty well - there's no doom on the horizon. But it does have a post-apocalyptic atmosphere and the sense that it's all somewhat fragile. Bastards it's got, at least. And given the required sacrifice of the hopeful but ambiguous ending, I think it lands comfortably over the line for me.

"The Skin of Aquila Cadens" by Chris Panatier

GRIMDARKNESS RATING: In bloom.

A woman attempts to terraform an exoplanet into a new home for humanity.

Grimdark. Earth is, at best, a shithole. The protagonist is many lightyears away anyway and has nothing to come back to given the time dilation. A very lonely short story - the woman is the only human character there. Under an alien sun, on a mission that may be Doomed from the start - a mission that has already made Bastards of everyone involved. Solidly in the black (grey? note to self: work on this color scale for grimdark).

"Observer" by Eric Malikyte

GRIMDARKNESS RATING: Witnessed.

A soldier and an AI drone doing counterterrorism.

Also solidly grimdark. The government sucks, several places have already been nuked, there's some kind of climate disaster. Solidly hits my criteria. Not much to say about this one, really.

GRIMDARK MAGAZINE #39 OVERALL GRIMDARKNESS RATING:

GRIM: YES

DARK: LIKE SPACE

[amber-main]

LONG rant about "meta vs waifu" (MEGA SALTY)

in genshin there's this conflict between people who "play for meta" and people who "play for waifu" (it probably goes without saying that i, tumblr username "amber-main" am of the latter ilk)

but i think what people don't get is the similarities between playing "for meta", and playing "for waifu but in a meta way"

to say that one plays purely for meta would imply they have at their disposal many, if not all of the available characters, and have chosen the route of exclusively investing into the characters that are, according to theorycrafters or popular opinion, "The Best"

this sort of person likely doesn't have a character they favour much more than others, since they cannot show favoritism toward a character who is not meta (to do so would be to play "for waifu" after all)

and i don't think this label applies to nearly as much of genshin's userbase as some may assume. it is much more likely that any player has a favourite character of some sort - either because of their design, their specific gameplay, their story, or other circumstances (such as a first 5* one pulled)

but these people can still use meta techniques while playing genshin - every time someone uses the general atk sands, elemental goblet, and crit circlet, one is using knowledge that has come from the theorycrafters to make characters perform to their maximum. the same goes for anybody who makes use of bennett and kazuha, knowing that these characters are really good at achieving the game's win conditions (doing a lot of damage really fast)

this is definitely a good way to play the game, especially if you want to easily and comfortably clear timed content and dps checks like the spiral abyss or combat events, but it doesn't really seem like the logical realization of the "but genshin is an easy game so just play whoever you want" that one hears from anybody trying to reassure one that meta isn't everything

because yes, for the most part, genshin is an easy game. except for certain things in the game such as spiral abyss, or (god forbid) if a player puts their sights on clearing more difficult content than the bare minimum (for instance the highest difficulty in events like hypostatic symphony)

then, all of a sudden, any player who just picks four characters they like and slaps them into a team will find themselves at an impassable wall of a dps check

if the thing people said was true, then why is it that most people aren't playing teams like xinyan-noelle-barbara-dori?

if someone really liked those characters, they might be a bit disheartened to find that just picking their favourite characters is not a very good way to play this game. to make a team like this successfully clear difficult content would require such immense investment into leveling characters, talents, grinding artifacts, and require wishing for constellations and expensive 5* weapons just to have it still perform worse than a half-hearted team that has bennett and xiangling in it

because, unfortunately to anybody who has set their sights on clearing difficult content with non-meta characters, there is such an immense gap between meta and non-meta that cannot be overcome with player skill (or even investment, in many cases). because most of the time when you see somebody getting 9 stars on abyss 12 with a "non-meta team" usually has some meta in there somewhere. be it a bennet-xiangling duo in a dehya hypercarry, or a kazuha/venti/zhongli hard carrying the team's damage by grouping enemies or providing an impenetrable shield, once you know a little bit about genshin's "meta" you quickly start to find it's the same few characters over and over and over again. bennett kazuha zhongli venti raiden shogun kuki shinobu fischl nahida mona ganyu xingqiu hu tao xiao ayaka rosaria shenhe kujou sara gorou faruzan elegy for the end mistsplitter aquila favonia thrilling tales of dragon slayers favonius warbow favonius sword favonius lance favonius codex sacrificial sword staff of homa crit rate crit damage vaporize hyperbloom melt electro charged aggravate spread viridescent venerer. you will hear the virtues and blessings of the strong characters, weapons, reactions, and artifacts in this game very many times. no matter where you go, they will follow you until you're so completely aware of the standard genshin meta lineup that you can list it off in your sleep, forward and backward, with the Appropriate Tier Letters attached

even if you want to play "for waifu", there is very little one can do to clear the huge dps checks in genshin without relying on what is meta. meta team compositions. best-in-slot weapons. best supports. off-field damage sub-dps.

and that is not to say that i hate the meta. i actually do think it's very natural for a game to have some sort of ranking for what is "more efficient" than another thing. what i don't think is very nice is the extra-wide mariana trench separating the "good" characters from the "bad" characters. i don't like that there is a game in which one character can sit uncontested as the "best general damage buffer" in a million teams with no close second while other characters get left to rot because they cannot bring enough damage or utility to a team to be an alternative to the former. there is a point where investment and strategy cannot overcome the things that the meta characters possess. a barbara cannot even dream of matching xingqiu in off-field hydro application. anybody using characters with strong knockback cannot even hope to match venti's grouping ability and aoe advantage. why would anyone ever want to use xinyan when her kit is so disjointed that building her is a massive headache and also even when you do build her she gets effortlessly overtaken by an itto with half the investment

so what happens to the people who don't like min-maxing everything but DO actually want to achieve a 36* abyss? or do want to see a character one-shot some easy enemies? what happens to the people who would rather use characters they like than those they don't? what happens to the people who want to use raiden shogun and ayaka in the same team together?

because yes, you can make a team that has raiden shogun and kamisato ayaka work. i'm sure some whale somewhere has done a 9* no-hit run of abyss 12 with just those two characters.

but that is in spite of the characters being in a team together, not because. the combination of cryo and electro in this team does nothing to help these characters do anything (and is, in fact, interfering with their ability to do damage)

there isn't really any balance in a game where one character alone can take most teams from being sub-par to easily doing over a million damage in under 90 seconds.

there isn't really balance in a game where one reaction can double the player's damage, and another actively hinders any effort to do damage at all

there isn't really balance in a game where a small number of the character roster occupies the majority of high-damaging teams. where player ability is all but unnecessary when all you have to do is put together the raiden national team and press E Q E Q E Q and mash left click for 7 seconds.

so what is the difference between the meta players and the waifu players?

well, for starters, not much of a difference. simply that the tools they choose to use are in such different categories that it's absurd to think they're playing the same game.

because to a meta player, why would you ever choose to use bad characters? if your goal is to achieve a win condition (i.e. a dps threshold), why would you not employ the best strategies available? why would anyone choose to prioritise personal attachment to a character over the ability to be good at the game? why would a person not dislike a character that is good? what reason would a person have to not want to use characters they dislike, especially if they're aware that those characters are Better Than What They're Currently Using?

and if one opts to not use the meta characters/builds/team compositions, they're obviously the ones who did this to themselves, choosing to use bad characters and then complaining that The Bad Characters Are Bad.

i mean, of course anybody complaining that their favourite character isn't as strong as they like is just Entitlement. meanwhile my favourite character who can steamroll 99.9% of this game's most difficult challenges without blinking an eye - nothing is wrong with that. why would you complain about a good thing? The Spiral Abyss Is Too Easy. they shouldn't add another bennett... that would just be broken.... i mean, imagine.... TWO bennetts, in the same team. ONE bennett is the perfect amount. this game has no balance issues whatsoever.

because nobody can be overpowered if everybody is strong.

because you can't have fun while also making the game easier.

because playing for waifu automatically disqualifies you from playing for meta.

because playing the characters you like in one team is antithetical to making a strong team. to making a team that is fun, easy to use, does lots of damage, and doesn't have any glaring issues. unless you happen to like the characters that are strong to begin with

because the game is EASY, there should be no incentive for the developers to balancing the game's character roster. they should only make it more difficult for the people who have the strongest teams or the resources to invest into every character

because balancing the game's difficulty to the highest-damaging team compositions and players with the best artifacts is a perfectly normal and reasonable way to make difficult challenges for the player base as a whole

because creating challenges that disproportionately favour certain characters over others is "encouraging players to use a variety of teams" and not simply punishing the players who cannot, or want not, to use those characters.

beacuse making character acquisition difficult and character building even more intensive to the point that the overwhelming majority cannot ever hope to have every character at their maximum potential means that people are incentivised to spend on the characters they like, and not on the ones that will provide the most damage gain for the least investment