#aside from minor hiccups basically

[diabolus1exmachina]

Isuzu I-Mark Turbo RS 

This is the Isuzu I-Mark Turbo RS, it’s a little-remembered hot hatch from the golden age of turbo that was designed by Italian great Giorgetto Giugiaro, it had suspension tuned by Lotus, and it was built by Isuzu in Japan.he Isuzu I-Mark Turbo RS was the top of the line model in the second generation Isuzu Gemini model family, a model family that had been initially designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro. After Giugiaro had finalized the styling it was sent to GM for approval, and this is where things began to go awry. GM made a few relatively minor changes to the design but no one at Isuzu or GM ran the changes by Giugiaro, when he learned what had happened he refused to have his name associated with the car and cut all ties with Isuzu. He wouldn’t publicly admit to having designed the car until a decade after it went out of production. As a result, some have called it “the forgotten Giugiaro.” This hiccup aside, the I-Mark Turbo RS was a remarkable performer by the standards of the time, most of the original Giugiaro styling remained, and Lotus had been hired to fine-tune the suspension. This all resulted in a car with excellent performance, sharp handling, popular styling, and good fuel economy to boot.The car shared the same basic steel unibody as the standard I-Mark, the suspension had been completely reworked by Lotus with new springs, thicker sway bars, and tuned shock absorbers. Period ads for the car claimed it could achieve .79g on a skid pad, just like a Porsche 944.In the inline-four cylinder engine has a displacement of 1.5 liters, it has double overhead cams, four valves per cylinder, and electronic fuel injection. In standard trim it produced 125 bhp at 7,800 rpm and it could do the 0-62 mph dash in 8.1 seconds – not a bad time for a hot hatch in the 1980s.

[butwhatifidothis]

Do you feel that Claude stays true to his Three Houses character in the Azure Gleam route?

Far more so, yes.

Not to say there isn't still hiccups: despite seeing for himself that foreign diplomacy is happening within Faerghus despite Rhea and the Central Church's presence, and despite seeing for himself Crestless individuals rise in the ranks of the Kingdom army despite Rhea and the Central Church being right there, Claude is still clearly under the belief that the Church and Rhea have to go (or more, that's the so-implied-it-might-as-well-have-been-explicitly-said implication he's given in AG). If he were completely in-line with how he was in 3H, he would have changed his opinion once he saw how evidently he was incorrect.

Hell, literally all he needed was Cyril's word in 3H for him to warm up to the idea of him and Rhea not needing to be enemies, so everything he'd see in AG once he sides with Dimitri and Rhea should've damn near made him a believer in comparison lmaooo. Him not having his curiosity - which is what this ultimately stems from - is a problem throughout all of Hopes, not just GW and SB, and its absence is pretty noticeable.

(or more, its deliberate removal is noticeable - it’d be one thing if there was genuinely nothing to stimulate the curiosity, but that’s not what happens here lol)

But other than that, yes, he's far more true to his character. He doesn't side with the one initiating violence, he doesn't sacrifice his allies (however much one sees Randolph as an "ally" outside of semantics - I don't, but clearly the game wanted me to think of him as one), there's no needless """""""sacrifices""""""" of completely innocent lives, he's willing to set aside his suspicions towards Rhea seeing how it's not her, but Edelgard who is causing the most harm to Fodlan and its people and its future currently, he doesn't do stupid shit that only helps Edelgard nor does he regurgitate her rhetoric (outside of minor Church Bad), he's not blindly believing a liar's words with no proof.

As you might've noticed, it's mostly him not doing a lot of things that makes him far more in character more than it is him actually doing things. GW and SB add in so much shit into Hopes!Claude's character that directly goes against 3H!Claude's character, so taking them out of the equation reveals just how, like, easy it would've been to make an acceptable version of Claude for Hopes. AG!Claude is by far and away the most tolerable version of Hopes!Claude, just because for the most part he... doesn't act like Hopes!Claude.

And also, now, mind, I don't think it's really an accomplishment on AG's part - cynical as I've become of Hopes' writing of Claude, the only likely reason he's so drastically different between AG and the rest of the game is because this is where he never has Edelgard as an actual enemy. He thinks she is, but narratively speaking Edelgard is not the one Claude or Dimitri are fighting for the second half of AG - it's Thales, who's made Edelgard little more than a megaphone to shout orders through. By the time Claude enters AG Edelgard is lobotomized, unlike in the other two routes where he's directly opposed to her and ever so coincidentally ends up basically becoming Edel-lite.

There's no need to make Edelgard look better since she's already been properly set up as a Poor Uwu Victim, so all the shit added to Hopes!Claude is no longer needed and are thus erased entirely. You'll notice how Claude is fuckin' no where near as violent and callous and manipulative on AG as he is on the other two routes, and how in fact he's one of the nicest dudes on fuckin' Earth as he

freely gives his best generals (two of which are Roundtable heirs) as well as multiple generic soldiers

freely gives supplies to the Kingdom

risks his own life with not just no prompting from someone else (unlike with Edelgard) but with his active insistence that he do so, during AG's Aillell

all without ever backstabbing Dimitri/Rhea (unlike Edelgard, in SB) or even asking for anything in return

Since there's no propping up Edelgard required for AG, Claude just goes back to being the "pure good guy" he was in 3H (and was described to be in 3H by his OG creator). Like, when I say that it's obvious obvious that Claude was written in Hopes primarily to service Edelgard, I mean it's, like, omega obvious obvious. He's not a piece of shit made to make Edelgard look better in comparison, he's just... Claude lmao

[nancypullen]

Gobble Gobble

Are you ready for Thanksgiving? Does your house smell fabulous or are you packing your stretchy pants to go to dinner elsewhere?  Are you skipping the whole mess and just enjoying an extra day off?  Whatever you may be doing on this third week of November, I hope it’s good for your soul.  Whether it’s a crowd around the table or a solitary walk through the autumn woods, take a moment to soak it up and be grateful. If you’re struggling on this holiday, maybe just be thankful that this too shall pass.   “The Pilgrims made seven times more graves than huts. No Americans have been more impoverished than these who, nevertheless, set aside a day of thanksgiving.”   -   H. U. Westermayer I’ve had a bit of a topsy-turvey year and I’m feeling deeply grateful for my family.  My hiccups have been minor compared to what so many others face but, holy cow, has my family shown me love and support.  I’m so humbled by the dear people in my life, my friends and family are absolutely beyond compare.  I have no idea how or why I’m so fortunate, so all I can offer is gratitude.  Mine is bottomless. I’m one lucky duck.

Today I’m preparing sort of a mini-feast.  The Edgewater gang traveled down to Tennessee to spend Thanksgiving with Jamie’s family ( they’ll be here for Christmas!).  Matt flew in from Minneapolis on Saturday and he’s been working a lot from here, Zoom meetings and tapping away day and night. He needs a break.  So since it’s just the three of us, I’m making Ina Garten’s herb-roasted turkey breast rather than a big ol’ bird. It’s a wonderful recipe, tried and true. I’ve also made a couple of family favorites, sweet potato casserole with that yummy pecan and brown sugar topping,  cheesy hash brown casserole, ranch crescent rolls, dressing, and a little apple pie (not gonna lie, the pie is from a bakery). That’s about half of what I’d usually make and it still seems excessive. Tomorrow should be easy though - the turkey breast won’t take long and with just a couple of dishes to pop in the oven it’ll be a breeze.   I’m really going to miss the bacon-wrapped green bean bundles, those are my favorite.  Also the cranberry-orange-walnut relish stuff - I’m not sure it has a name, but I love it.  I couldn’t care less about the casseroles.  Thankfully I still don’t have much of an appetite, so I’ll probably nibble on the turkey and crunch on some celery sticks.   For tonight’s dinner I’ve got teriyaki chicken in the crock pot.  It’s a super simple recipe, I don’t think it’s actually teriyaki - just an easy substitute.  Basically chop up some chicken breasts, throw them in the crock pot with honey, soy sauce, and garlic and wait four hours.  When there’s about 30 minutes left I’ll put some jasmine rice in the rice cooker and let it do its thing.  Add some broccoli and you’re done! Easy peasey.   Since I seem to be rambling about food, here’s some breaking news - we got a new front door!  The original door was kind of pretty, but seemed awfully flimsy.  We never liked it.  We’d shopped around a bit and picked one that we liked, and yesterday was our installation date.  I love it!

I really love that it’s got a keypad entry like our door in Tennessee.  One more thing checked off the long list of improvements we’re making to this place.  That staircase to the right is on the list too.  I’d love to tear up the old (awful) carpet and paint the stairs before installing a runner.  I’d love to sand and stain that wood to more closely match the floors.   Still, it’s a pretty door and I’m loving it.  It’s white right now, but I’ll paint the exterior side.  The color I’ve chosen is City Rain.  It’ll match the shutters.

I thought long and hard about picking a pale pink shade, but I went with a color that will look good in every season.  That shade of gray will look just as good with autumn’s orange and gold as it will with bright red at Christmas or pink blooms in the summer.   Gotta’ go with what works. Speaking of Christmas, I picked up the cutest bit of wall art this week.  How jolly is this guy?

He was on clearance at Kirkland’s and I had a coupon for an extra 20% off.  He came home with me for about $28. When the tree goes up and we deck the halls, he’ll hang above that entry table by the door.   Yep, I’m gettin’ my jingle on and Santa is my homeboy.  We go way back (North Pole High School, Class of ‘81!).

That small, blurry person in the candy cane striped scarf is moi - cheering my heart out for North Pole High School in North Pole, Alaska.  I had to dig to find a color photo (how sad is that?).  The lovely girl beside me is Tracey, still every bit as cute and now a long-distance Facebook friend. I couldn’t find a photo that clearly displayed the big “NP” on our sweaters, One year we just had “Patriots”  (our high school was built in 1976).

I’m sharing these semi-embarrassing photos to prove that my Christmas spirit runs deep.  We used to answer letters to Santa as part of our English grade.  Letters from all over the world made their way to Santa’s house in North Pole - yes, it’s really there.  I went to school with Santa’s daughter and her name was (no kidding) Merry Christmas Miller.  She eventually married and became Merry Key, I think.  Not quite the same impact.  Anyway, we’d answer letters for a grade.  There was a format that we had to follow, couldn’t make promises and that sort of thing.  But it sure kept the magic alive for a bunch of teenagers.  All of these decades later (oh my gosh, 41 years??) I get the same sense of excitement when I start seeing twinkling lights on houses and Christmas tree lots.  I am so ready for holiday music, cookies, and FUN!  I’ve got all of the grandgirl’s gifts and I can’t wait for her to open them!  Once an elf from North Pole, always an elf from North Pole. This post has ping-ponged from Thanksgiving food to a new door to high school memories and Christmas.  Perfectly normal, right?  I should probably quit while I’m ahead.  It’s nearly time to dish up that crock pot chicken anyway.  I’ll sign off with a big holiday hug, and send out my sincere wish that your hearts are light and your minds are at peace.  I’m grateful for so much this year, and some of the lovely people I’ve met through this blog are on that list.  Thanks for stopping by. Stay safe, stay well, stay thankful.

Nancy

[tonkirc]

Dungeon hunter alliance

Lack of character customisation optionsĭungeon Hunter: Alliance may feel a little light to begin with, but a few hours down the line, and you may find yourself engulfed in the deepest RPG the PlayStation Network has to offer.Clumsy loot system and other minor online faults.Plenty of content for the given price tag.The gallery of sound effects are just as impressive, with a moody soundtrack which fits nicely. The lack of initial character customisation is a little disappointing but the wealth of appearance options available later on more than make up for it. Another frequent issue is the online lobby itself rooms which are fully reserved will still appear on the list, and the transition between menus is sluggish.įor a dungeon crawler, Alliance hosts a splendid palette of diverse, vibrantly-coloured locations, from poisonous, infested sewers, to cloudy mountaintops and beyond. No matter what the item is, it will be randomly assigned to a specific player who is the only one allowed to pick it up, unless they decide to trade it (a negotiation hard to pull-off while in mid-game.) This results in characters picking items which they are clearly not compatible with (warriors with robes, rogues with great-axes, mages with chainmail,) leading to bouts of frustration. Although loot is dished out evenly to each character, the distribution method isn’t very intelligent. Players also have the ability to chat and trade items but the online component isn’t without its hitches. Though the gameplay remains unchanged, the added tactical element of working as a team really shines through, the three classes complimenting each-other soundly. No matter where you are in the game, other players can drop in and out with the press of a button, also made easy for online strangers via the game’s simple matchmaking system. The deepest RPG the PlayStation Network has to offerĪlliance’s most defining feature is its multiplayer component which hosts up to four characters both online and locally. Though it’s prone to a few hiccups here and there (accidentally tilting the controller will force you to switch your equipment, for instance) it’s a refreshing way to play the game, and if there is a Dualshock shortage in your home, it means more players can get involved. Unlike most motion-compatible games of a similar structure, Alliance only requires a single controller, without the need for an additional “Nav.” A cursor will appear on-screen to direct the character and will also be used to direct attacks and abilities. Like Modern Combat: Domination, Dungeon Hunter: Alliance is playable via both the Dualshock 3 and PlayStation Move. To spice the gameplay up somewhat, there are also special attacks with a sixty-second cool-down as well as a gear-switching mechanic, allowing the player to swap between one set of equipment to another in a split second. Aside from a basic attack, up to three abilities can be stored using the remaining face buttons, making the game easily accessible, yet diverse enough to prevent monotony from kicking in. Without any sort of combo system or block/dodge mechanic, combat never feels as engaging as it should be for a console RPG. The actual gameplay itself is Dungeon Hunter’s most divisive element.

[iturbide]

Based on your answers with Morgan shenanigans: Assuming an Askr where you have every possible character summoned at the moment, could you imagine the amount of headaches the summoner and the royal trio have to deal with all the time? A google search says there are 656 characters in game currently, and 486 unique (not counting alts/multiples of characters). That's a lot of people who may not like each other and oh the possible headaches. Even if the characters can't kill each other, they don't necessarily have to make life easy, right?

friend this occupies my brain a lot.  For a lot of my answers, I generally do operate under the assumption that Every Hero Is There, Including Alts (even ones I don’t personally have yet, like half the Edelgards -- I missed the Flame Emperor’s GHB, never tried for Legendary, and am purposefully skipping on Hegemon Husk).  According to Heroes’ internal Catalog of Heroes, this actually puts us at 659 total characters.  That’s insane to think about honestly.

Part of why I like to do this is because it lets people take the concepts they like to use in their own personal Askrs.  Even if I don’t have a character, someone else might, and assuming I can get enough background understanding of said character (through personal experience, like with Awakening and Three Houses characters; extensive Wiki dives, like with Fates folks; or lots of consultation with people more in the know, like for Jugdral) I find it really fun to throw possibilities out there for other people in case they want to adopt them.  But when you really think about it -- yeah, it is chaos.

The thing is, I don’t necessarily think that the Summoner or the royals have THAT many headaches -- most of the stress in the Order is on Anna, who’s just trying to balance the damn budget and secure necessary funds for feeding and upkeep.  Lots of routine tasks like patrols, laundry, kitchen and clean-up duties, etc. are probably assigned to keep friction to a minimum, and a lot of issues that do arise outside of them aren’t so grave that Alfonse or Sharena need to get involved.  Felix is a pain in the ass, yes, but he can be removed by Dimitri or Ingrid, rather than dragging Sharena into the mix.  It’s only with large-scale issues -- stuff like, say, Feral!Dimitri and the timeskip!Edelgards -- that higher-ups in the Order of Heroes need to come in, and mostly then because it’s a situation where both parties won’t back down and their followers can’t stop them (Claude might try, but he can’t hold a candle to Dimitri’s strength, and Edelgard’s form of ‘diplomacy’ usually amounts to pouring gas on a bonfire).  The Summoner, in particular, is effective at getting these kind of factions to disengage, but Alfonse and Sharena are equally capable of handling less entrenched foes.

When it comes to characters that really don’t make life easy -- particularly virulent Fallen Heroes like Hardin and Ashnard, or just general creeps like Valter and Iago -- a lot of them get a warning to behave “or else.”  Generally the “or else” involves getting surrounded by people who have beaten them before and not only could but would do it again, and gladly; that alone tends to ease some difficulties, especially considering how many more protagonists there are than antagonists, so there’s rarely a short supply of people able to deal with any given offender.  In more extreme cases, like those who refuse to follow the Summoner’s tactical advice because they refuse to cooperate with a team/believe themselves smarter or more capable/what have you, they might have to face consequences for that and fall painfully before being revived -- like letting a child make a mistake and learn from it (while these are in many cases grown adults, they can act like self-centered brats sometimes).

Ultimately, it’s a nice thing that the castle and grounds are as big as they are.  It probably allows people who really have problems with each other to avoid one another, because every time the leaders in the Order need to get involved it generally doesn’t end well.

[rainbuckets8]

Why you should watch RWBY

TL;DR:

Summary: RWBY is an epic fantasy with themes like found family, the struggle to remain hopeful, the younger generation growing up, villain redemption, and systemic evils.

Strengths: RWBY has unique and memorable characters. The show is smart. It has excellent cinematography and animation. It has representation. It tackles hard topics. It’s got incredible music and it’s free on RT’s website.

Weaknesses: RWBY has some early growing pains, specifically volume 2’s finale, as well as budget and polish. Later on, volume 4 is weaker than the rest. Volume 8's finale is extremely distressing for a lot of viewers (and we haven't seen the follow up to those events yet). The fandom can be bad at times.

Misinformation: The early volumes being bad, the racism plot line, and the animation (not the same as “budget and polish”) are not as bad as you may have heard from YouTube.

Suggested viewing order

Red Trailer, White Trailer, Black Trailer, Yellow Trailer

Volume 1

Volume 2

Volume 3

Volume 4 Character Short

Volume 4

Volume 5 Weiss Character Short, Volume 5 Blake Character Short, Volume 5 Yang Character Short

Volume 5

Volume 6 Adam Character Short

Volume 6

Volume 7

Volume 8

(I did my best to make this spoiler-free. When there are spoilers, they’re worded ambiguously enough that someone new to the show would never guess what’s going to happen just by reading this.)

What to expect

The world of Remnant is filled with monsters called the creatures of Grimm. Warriors called Huntsmen and Huntresses defend humanity. Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and Yang go to school to become the next generation of heroes. Together they make Team RWBY (pronounced, “Ruby”)! Joining them is team JNPR (“Juniper”), made up of Jaune, Nora, Pyrrha, and Ren. But evils even more dangerous than the Grimm are ready to make their move, and school quickly becomes an afterthought…

(I mention these next two topics specifically bc they can immediately turn someone away based on bad expectations.) There is a fantasy school setting, but RWBY is not a show about school. School topics are not a dominant idea: it seems to resemble a setting like Harry Potter, but the actual focus of the show rarely touches on things like classes or homework or tests, and we quickly move on. There is romance and it has a role in the plot, but RWBY is not a romance show. On the scale of romance in FMAB to She-Ra, RWBY falls somewhere in the middle.

What is RWBY about, then? RWBY is like an epic fantasy or high fantasy, despite first appearances. Perhaps not every genre convention is followed, but at its core, RWBY is about an epic struggle of good and evil.

RWBY contains themes such as found family, the struggle to remain hopeful, the younger generation growing up, villain redemption, and systemic evils.

Strengths of the show

The characters are unique and memorable. One of the cool things is that they all draw inspiration from a real life fairy tale, myth, or something else. They designs are all top notch. One character who died with extremely little screen time even got so much fandom love, they included the character in a mid-hiatus short later. The characters have unique weapons, too; in the world of Remnant, a weapon is an extension of ones’ soul, and they reflect the variety of their owners. They’re also just plain cool; Monty was famous for following the “Rule of Cool.” And their individual stories are all compelling and interesting.

The show is smart. As a fandom, we generally pick up on the narrative hints the creators are dropping. And our predictions usually come true, but not in a way that makes the show predictable and boring. We very rarely guess exactly what will happen, but we have some similar idea of it. It’s just excellent foreshadowing.

RWBY also likes to play with tropes, as an extension of this. Often it will challenge them, or subvert expectations. In other cases, RWBY uses tropes to avoid showing us what we already know will happen. This occurs in both characters and plot. For example…

SLIGHT SPOILERS FOR VOLUME ONE FOR THE REST OF THIS PARAGRAPH: Jaune’s entire character arc is about trying to be the anime protagonist, and learning that he doesn’t have to do things alone, and it’s ok to be a support main. The show sets up the narrative in a way that looks like, oh of course the direction it will go is him becoming the main character, but then it destroys toxic masculinity instead.

Our characters are smart, too. Plot-induced stupidity generally doesn’t happen. (A few big mistakes or errors in this regard aren’t actually the fault of the narrative, either, but animation and miscommunication and failure to execute. And those aren’t common.) It goes beyond just “not being dumb,” however. The villains’ plans are incredibly clever, and our heroes sometimes even guess at the usual “plot twists.”

The cinematography is just incredible. There are numerous freeze frames with extreme attention to detail that reveal character motivations or arcs or foreshadowing, there are many effective cuts and moving parts, there are soooo many parallels and callbacks, and visual cues such as lighting and color all are used appropriately to convey emotion and assist the narrative. It is one of the biggest overlooked strengths of the show, imo, simply because a lot of people in the fandom don’t notice these things as much for whatever reason, or else don’t give as much praise about them.

The animation is extremely good as well. Budget issues and technology issues aside (which means a lack of polish), the actual animation? The fight choreography, and all the other parts of animation that aren’t just “expensive CGI” are all wonderful. You can have very shiny, polished turds after all, and RWBY is like the opposite: not very polished, especially early on, but very well animated. All the trailers, volume 1 episode 8, the volume 1 finale, the volume 2 penultimate episode, and basically everything else hold up extremely well even today. If anything, the worst fight animation was in volumes 4 and 5 because of Maya growing pains, and those are an example of being more polished, but not necessarily better animated. Animation of faces has always been good, animation of characters has always felt lively. Aside from a few small actual hiccups (that one person running across rooftops for instance), it’s well done.

There are LGBTQ+ characters. The treatment of one of the recent trans characters, in volume 8, was nothing short of amazing. They worked with a VA who was trans. The moment of canon confirmation was important to the character for backstory, because of course that affects the character’s life, but not the only important thing about the character. The representation is not in-your-face or pandering. And there is a split of representation among the main cast and the minor characters, with promises of more to come (notably they’ve said they’re working on more mlm for future volumes, too).

RWBY is not afraid to tackle hard topics. It deals with things like mental illness, systematic racism, and cycles of abuse. It’s not because the show is trying to earn “gritty and dark” points, it’s because those are some of the topics that real people have to struggle with as well. And the show handles most or all of them very well, in a way that shows respect and an honest attempt to depict these things as best they can. (NOTE ABOUT VOLUME 8: THERE IS A VERY DIFFUCLT CONVERSATION CURRENTLY HAPPENING. I am on the side of, let’s wait and see what happens next because the story isn’t over, so we haven’t really seen the fall out. But I understand why this paragraph feels really difficult to agree with if you've seen the volume 8 finale. I trust the track record of the rest of the show, personally.)

As an example, the show has a theme that villains are rarely evil just because. A lot of villains choose to do bad things because they were hurt in some way. Some lived in poverty; some were hurt by racism; many of them are victims of abuse. But the show doesn’t make excuses for them. It’s possible to be both sympathetic and still choose evil over and over again (that’s called tragic). The ones who eventually do try to do good again are not always forgiven, either.

The music is amazing. I can probably count on my hands the number of times I’ve heard someone say otherwise, which is astonishing when you consider this fandom.

It’s also free on RT’s website. (A paid, “FIRST” subscription removes ads and lets you see new episodes one week early, but they all eventually release for free.)

Weaknesses of the show

Early volumes’ growing pains exist, much like most or all other shows. (Even some of the greatest were not immune to this, like ATLA.) In this case, however, it’s a little bit rougher. A large reason why is that this was kind of the first big thing from RT to ever come out. If you remember back almost a decade ago, their only other big thing at the time was RvB, which was machinima. They pretty much started from scratch with everything, from assets to VAs to animation to writing. Imagine if a random twitch streamer, like Ninja (idk who’s popular these days) said one day, “OK let me just direct something that’s intended to be the next great movie series of all time, like Star Wars, with a $4 bill and an iPhone camera.” Then went out and actually made something. Of course it would be rough…but then it turns out the movie is actually really good. And then you get to watch over the next several years as everything gets better and better until it’s honest-to-god comparable to the MCU. That’s kind of what happened with RWBY.

One specific growing pain was the volume 2 finale. Pretty much everything else up until that point, I love about the show. But the finale just fails to deliver on the build up of tension from other episodes. Some of it is because of later plot developments that we didn’t know at the time; some of it is because of just not great writing; some of it is because of just not great animation; and yes, some of it is budget. Regardless, it’s a low point for the show.

Speaking of, the budget for the early volumes is super small. The infamous volume one shadow people, the infamous person jumping across the rooftops in volume two, and just production quality isn’t high compared to a major release from some established studio. These are real weaknesses of the show that for some people, make it unwatchable, and if that’s you, that’s ok.

One last weakness of the show, the screen time per episode, especially early on, is NOT a full 20 minutes like you may expect of an anime (or anime-inspired-western-media, for those of you who will die on the “RWBY is not an anime” hill). This is a trend that has stuck with the show, a shorter run time per episode, for generally the entire lifetime. On one hand, it means it’s a little less daunting to catch up or rewatch than the number of episodes might imply. On the other, early on, some episodes have a little weird pacing. It also means the writing had to adjust for this, so while RWBY got really good at telling a story within a shorter amount of time, there’s also challenges with that too. Perhaps one of the notable ones is the pacing, with slower moments sometimes feeling like it takes up too much screen time, or not enough. Volume 4 was a particular struggle for the crew, both because they switched animation engines and also for the story.

Common complaints that I don’t agree with

I don’t agree that the early volumes were actually bad overall. Growing pains, yes, but not bad. I attribute that complaint to overly focusing on one character’s storyline, back when it wasn’t clear there was so much more to come and before people realized the show would challenge the tropes instead of falling into them. It’s pretty much just volume 1 when people say this anyway, most of them I’ve heard admit that volume 2 was a lot better (except the finale) and almost everyone loves volume 3. And looking back on it, I do think volume 1 holds up.

Tying into this, the racism plot line is another common complaint. I don’t think it’s actually executed quite that badly. I think it makes sense for there to be regional differences in the amount of racism we see, it just so happened that we only saw a very small and isolated environment, Beacon, for much of the early volumes. (Incidentally, that’s actually similar the environment I myself grew up in.) It’s not perfect, though. But there’s no doubt that the later volumes do a better job portraying this. Again, I attribute it mostly to people not knowing how long the show would run for at the time, so of course if that’s all we saw, it would’ve been bad. But it’s not. I have a lot of respect for Miles and Kerry for even attempting to handle the racism topic in the first place. And for the faults that DO exist in this plot line, I credit them for learning and growing past that too, and doing better in later volumes.

The animation is not bad. I’ve already touched on that earlier, but people confuse “budget and polish” with “animation.” Give me RWBY any day over Michael Bay’s Transformers: no matter how much polish those robots have, they’re still a confusing mess to try and follow. And the polish isn’t even an issue once we get past the growing pains of Maya and get a bigger budget, because wow does this show look good now.

Between these three complaints I hear about often, I think those are the biggest ones. And they’re all generally done in bad faith, based not on just those but on other more provocative statements people also make with them. That’s part of my issue with the fandom, specifically the vocal but small parts of the fandom, because they’re just repeating these things from early days that aren’t true. But YouTubers gotta get those rage and hate clicks somehow, right? Unfortunately it discredits the show a lot and influences other people’s opinions into not giving it a fair chance, because it’s become a narrative of “RWBY IS BAD” when they all won’t shut up about it. So yeah, fandom can be bad, join at your own discretion. (Of course, all fandoms have annoying parts, and my interactions with the fandom have been good overall, otherwise.)

Onto other complaints, some say the cast is bloated. I don’t agree, but I don’t think this one is in bad faith. I think we get the important characters as much screen time as we can, and the minor characters don’t actually detract from that; one of the differences between good minor characters and bad ones, is that bad ones take up too much time. RWBY has a ton of characters but many of the minor ones don’t actually take up too much time. So it appears bloated, but actually I don’t think it is.

Finally, a small word on the no-no topics. Adam, and Monty. Adam is like the champion of the Monty topic. Which essentially boils down to “Miles and Kerry are ruining Monty’s vision for the show.” Toxic fandom is truly awful and I have no respect for anyone who says anything like that. Shame on all of you. This isn’t really anything negative about the show, but the fandom, and tbf all fandoms have toxic parts. But toxic fandom can be a real and valid reason to not watch a show. Thankfully they seem fewer in number these days, but I think they’ve evolved into hiding behind other characters or topics, so you know. Beware. Again, it's not too hard to avoid them or block them, and my interactions otherwise with most fans have been good.

[going-fancognito]

Hello! If it's not a problem can i request Sidon with as/o from another world? (our universe and they ended up there for some reason) and how would he react? Bonus if they have their phone with them and they show him their favourite shows/animes like jojo's bizzare adventure or good omens👉🏻👈🏻

I feel you @dexpairs-blog. If I’m going to land in another world, I’d wanna land on a hot shark gentleman too (The abs just sweeten the deal ngl ;D) I may have gotten carried away with this, so I'm gonna do the anime/tv show reference part in a separate ask. Hope that’s ok.

You don’t have to worry about receiving suspicion

Sidon’s a trusting kind of guy. Sometimes almost to a fault

(Hey, at least it works out in your favour)

Plus, your ‘eye-pod’ helps back-up your story

Shark man is VERY excited

“With an ability to cross worlds, you must be considered very powerful amongst your people” Your hands are completely engulfed in his claws. “Perhaps with the help of a Hylian like yourself, we can finally calm Vah Rhuta.”

Hold on, What?

Anthropomorphic fish man aside, there was a lot to unpack from that last sentence alone.

(Wait, this count as meeting a hot merman?)

(No, focus Y/N. Address the problem at hand) 

Ok first off, see the tiny ears? That would be a no-go on the Hylian part

Second, You’re just an average everyday person. You honestly had no clue over how you got here

And finally, what the heck was a Vah Rhuta? That sounded like something you drank before waking up to a bad hangover

Sidon leads you through the rain to where the Divine Beast was. Drenched from head to toe, you find yourself facing.....Oh.

OH.

Yeah, not happening. Nope. Nu-uh. Not a chance.

Sorry, but you could barely doggy paddle

There was no way in hell you’d be able to take on a giant magical elephant 

Especially one that sneezed out endless watery jets of doom

Sidon’s a bit disappointed, but he understands. It’s a lot to ask from a stranger

However, he stills offers you a place to stay for the time being in Zoras domain. That way you could slowly adjust to your new surroundings

He even takes it upon himself to teach you how things work in Hyrule

At first, your appearance was met with some hostility among the Zora elders

However, one day they get confused when you tie your hair up, putting your human ears on full display

One explanation about your origins later, and the elders suddenly become much more friendly towards you

You receive tons of questions about your home: Did you guys have magic there? How many kingdoms ruled the land? (Politics was a pain in the ass to explain) What did you use as a power source, etc.,

You now wish you paid more attention back in high school

Luckily, your phone somehow managed to receive wi-fi from here

(You have no clue how TF that made sense, but you weren’t one to look a gift horse in the mouth)

There were some minor hiccups, you were able to explain a majority of how your world worked

Google was a godsend

 Unfortunately, it didn’t provide any helpful results when you searched up “How to fight a Divine Beast Elephant”

All you could find were images of something called an ‘Ancient Psychic Tandem War Elephant’

(...You’re pretty sure that wasn’t the same thing as a Divine Beast)

During your spare time, you helped entertain the Zora children while their parents worked. You did your best to remember the games you played as a kid. When you grew tired, you’d recall some of your favourite childhood stories (You decided to steer clear of the little mermaid though).

Sidon especially loved to join in on your storytelling sessions

It reminded him of when Mipha would recount her travels to him as a child

(Let’s please take a moment to absorb the feels)

(R.i.p. the lost laifu of best waifu,)

You also enjoyed your time with the Zora Prince

Sidon was Royalty, but he would never act like he was better then everyone else.  He always treated those around him with kindness

And true to his word, he took some time everyday to teach you about the different areas of Hyrule

As time went on, his lessons would drift off into idle chatter. Eventually there was nothing left to teach you

Even so, the two of you continued your daily meet-ups. It became a routine for you two. 

You found yourself looking forward to your daily time with the prince

Sometimes you’d both recount any recent events, other days you’d  discuss the most ridiculous things, just for the fun of it

”While it is tempting Y/N, I will not change the Zora anthem to ‘Baby Shark’.”  

“But you’ve got the authority to make it happen. Come on Sidon, do it for the kids. They’d love it.”

“The elders would have a fit! I’m afraid the world just isn’t ready my dear.”

(You loved it when he called you that)

Compared to you Sidon seemed to lead a much more interesting life

Yet he never failed to show excitement when you were nearby, even if you’d already met earlier the same day

He always showed enthusiasm over learning your opinion on things. His interest was never feigned, he genuinely loved to listen about what you had to say

It made you feel...special

Eventually, he asks permission to court you. “Although,” He rubs a hand  behind his neck.”I never did ask if your world shares this custom. Hopefully this isn’t out of line?“ 

(Omg I live for an adorable lovestruck Sidon)

His worries settle down a bit when you take his claw in your hand “Well back home, we call it ‘dating’ nowadays. But yes, I would love to go out with you. Or whatever the term for it is around here.”

That’s what you said anyway. Inside, your first thought was “Holy shit, if only the Ao3 readers could see me now. OMG I’m living the Tumblr dream”

Unaware of your internal nerd ranting, Sidon gives you one of his signature grins and spins you around in a bear (shark?) hug

He is a very happy fish boi

He’s already planning to teach you how to swim for you fist date

(Can’t date a Zora without learning some basic swimming after all)

[nightfury-2001]

I posted 1,579 times in 2021

162 posts created (10%)

1417 posts reblogged (90%)

For every post I created, I reblogged 8.7 posts.

I added 6,067 tags in 2021

#reblog - 1408 posts

#httyd - 1060 posts

#art - 956 posts

#httyd fanart - 622 posts

#night fury - 557 posts

#toothless - 504 posts

#hiccup - 334 posts

#httyd 3 - 241 posts

#light fury - 209 posts

#httyd oc - 176 posts

Longest Tag: 140 characters

#and how my view of the franchise and its characters are definitely affected quite a bit by my hot take on how the dragons are sapient beings

My Top Posts in 2021

#5

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134 notes • Posted 2021-01-31 22:22:31 GMT

#4

If the new Fury is really Toothless' descendant/meant to be a Night Light it would make much more sense and imo be more interesting in some ways if they were basically a Light Fury with a couple minor traits that hinted towards their ancestry.

Like,, while I'm not the biggest fan of the canon Light Fury design, it would have been fun to see a Light Fury/mostly LF Night Light form a bond with a human and would have helped make the new Fury and their rider feel more unique.

137 notes • Posted 2021-10-14 07:34:39 GMT

#3

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187 notes • Posted 2021-09-03 06:42:31 GMT

#2

ALRIGHT HERE IT IS THE POST YOU’VE BEEN WAITING FOR

So in one of the DVD bonus features for THW, there’s a brief clip where parts of an outline of a much earlier draft of the film are visible in the background. Someone on Twitter a year or so ago discovered this and pieced together what they were able to read, however the other day I and a couple of others were able to make out more of it (INCLUDING THE ENDING) thanks to higher quality pics!

Here’s what we managed to put together and some images for proof:

ACT II (?)

-ach(?). At ----------------- request, Valka drops him off -------------- and returns to Astrid and Toothless, hiding safely in the thick fog. All is quiet.

Flashback #5: Hiccup, (11), is ridiculed and ostracized by the village kids. He promises to make them regret it when he's chief. Stoick pulls him aside and tells him that a good chief makes the selfless choice, even when he knows it will hurt.

Hiccup breaks the silence, announcing that he's alone, and that he wants to negotiate peace(?). Eret tries to warn Hiccup that Drago is(?) after him, not Toothless. Drago appears, confirming that Toothless may be the alpha, but(?) he'll do anything for Hiccup. Drago lays -o(?) Hiccup's bad leg, forcing him to cry out in pain.

Back in the fog, Astrid struggles to stop Toothless from responding to Hiccup's cries. Despite her best efforts, Toothless crashes to the beach. Drago's men descend upon him and drag him to the caldera, where the Scrambler has the dragons subdued. In passing, Toothless communicates with the Bewilderbeast. It nods in understanding.

With Hiccup as Drago's hostage, Toothless commands the dragons to yield. Drago's plan has worked. The world's dragons are finally his, and with them, he will be unstoppable.

ACT III

But the surrender is only a distraction. Toothless calls upon the Bewilderbeast ------ over the exits, sealing the soldiers w(?)------ with the dragons. The trap is revers------ men can't escape. The Gang disable ------ Scrambler, allowing the dragons to ---- panicked army. Hiccup seizes the(?) ------ break free of Drago.

????????????????????

Flashback #6: Hiccup (15). Stoick beams, surrounded by Vikings and dragons, now living in harmony (end of D1). "Turns out all we needed was a little more of this." Hiccup smiles. "You just gestured to all of me."

---- what must be done. With(?) tears in his eyes, ---------- tail from Toothless' saddle and ----------------- to(?) lead the dragons to the Hidden World(I'm assuming.) ---------------------------------

Over vignettes of Toothless leading the dragons to the Hidden World (where he's greeted by Stormfly & a flock of other Night Furies), New Berk is built up, surpassing Old Berk's former glory. A statue of Toothless with his wings spread over Stoick is erected in the main plaza. Hiccup, the selfless chief, stands upon a cliff flanked by Astrid, Valka, and the others. "There were dragons when I was a boy..." The dragons have become legend, but the promise that they may one day return lives on.

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392 notes • Posted 2021-03-22 17:42:33 GMT

#1

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663 notes • Posted 2021-02-28 11:41:36 GMT

Get your Tumblr 2021 Year in Review →

[lotusthekat]

Equivalent Exchange

Fandom: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood

Rating: T

Relationships: Alphonse & Edward

Characters: Alphonse Elric, original minor characters, Edward Elric

Summary: Alphonse realizes he's no longer immortal in the most painful way.

*Slightly canon divergent as in that Ed keeps his automail

Word count: 1.649

AO3 / Fanfiction

A/N: I had this idea at literally 5 AM last night lmao. Basically I love Alphonse with my whole heart, and tbh I’m pretty sure he’d develop a huge guilt/hero complex after everything he went through.

I’m still new to this fandom, though, so I apologize if anyone is OOC. Hope you enjoy it!

(There might be some medical inaccuracies here though.)

TRIGGER WARNINGS - minor violence, major character injury, blood, near death experience, swearing and implied child abuse

Please do NOT ship the Elric brothers.

--

Alphonse can barely register anything at this point.

He’s running after the man pulling a little girl with him. Al’s legs move in spite of the unbearable, bleeding pain in his abdomen. The boy pushes past people who are barely interested in what’s happening.

Al screams after the man. The little girl is crying and trying to escape, but the man refuses to let her go. Al runs, but his body won’t resist for too long; he knows it, but he doesn’t stop.

His head is dizzy and heavy, and everything around him darkens. Al yells again, only it’s weakened. His legs don’t cooperate with him any longer and he almost trips, if not for the wall beside him. Al is panting, as sweat drops roll down his head. The man and the little girl are almost disappearing from his vision.

No, don’t stop! Go after them, you idiot!

His willpower isn’t enough to force his body to move. Al is soon on the ground, blood dripping on the pale sidewalk. People are whispering around him. They don’t approach.

All the boy hears, though, is the weight of his failure.

It’s what eventually makes him collapse.

--

The headache from the blazing light forces his eyes to open.

Then Al is, once again, in a hospital room. Except it’s a lot smaller, considering he’s not in the Central anymore. It might be the closest first aid post in his hometown, if he’s not mistaken.

The doctor speaks to him, explaining Al was stabbed, but that it’s not a huge cause of concern. He hasn’t lost too much blood, though it might hurt every now and then, so Al only needs to rest and not move a lot – specifically not run while with a stab wound, he lightly scolds.

Since Al is quite well-known from his time as an alchemist with Ed, the doctor doesn’t ask him who he is and tells him that they called his brother just now. Ed should be arriving soon.

Al nods again. He doesn’t say anything at all.

The doctor leaves him be, the room as quiet as the patient inside. Al’s hand reaches his bandaged stomach, lightly touching the cloth. Al doesn’t mind the pain from the wound. Not as much as the little girl’s horrified look is ingrained in his brain.

Al recalls what happened. He was doing groceries on his own – aside from wanting to take a walk in town, to breathe the air and feel the soft breeze. He would then go back home and have lunch with his brother and Granny Pinako, while Winry is back in Rush Valley. Al has been walking well as of late, so Ed wasn’t too insistent to come along.

It wasn’t supposed to go this wrong.

On the way, Al heard a little girl crying in an alley. She was so scared, and he tried to talk to her. Like that, the punch right to his face was really far from expected.

As it turned out, it was a middle-aged man that had assaulted him, and he grabbed the little girl’s arm with force. She was crying louder. He’s not sure now if he was her father, but it was still definitely infuriating.

Despite the pain, Al demanded he left her alone – and it only enraged the man more when he saw his face. Apparently, he’d once been under the military, and King Bradley’s fall disbanded many soldiers and officers. He also knew who Al was, so he despised him for “meddling in things that were none of his business”.

Al is no stranger to a fight, obviously. The problem is, he’s not a suit of armor anymore. That shouldn’t be a problem, of course, because he’s glad to be human again.

But being a human doesn’t absolve him of the hard and heartless punches he got, nor did it defend him from a stab right through his stomach. And worse, it was far from helpful to save the little girl.

And then Al was running after them, screaming, struggling to reach out to the small girl. He knew she was in danger, and he couldn’t let the man get away with her.

But Al is no longer immortal. He has no infinite stamina, and his body cannot take the same blows he did in the past. So, the stab wound was enough to knock him down. He couldn’t do anything to save her.

All he could do now, is to be stuck here hearing her cry from afar.

Al’s hands clutch the hospital clothes, inhaling and shutting his eyes fiercely.

…

Though, not going to lie, the loud running steps and a door opening wide do alarm him. But he’s quick to realize that his brother has arrived.

“Al!” Ed yells, rushing to his bed. “Al, are you okay?!”

“I’m fine, brother,” Al replies numbly. “It’s nothing to be concerned about. The doctor said I just need to rest for a while before I can go home.”

Ed exhales. “Holy shit, Al,” he curses under his breath, clutching one of his blond bangs with his hand. “Care to tell me what the hell happened?”

Al doesn’t face him. He doesn’t think he can.

“Al,” Ed insists, clearly impatient, “they told me you ran after the guy while you were losing blood. Do you have any idea how reckless that was?!”

“As if you can tell me off for being reckless,” Al mumbles.

Obviously, it annoys Ed even more. “This is different, Alphonse! You’re not immortal anymore! You’re not invincible and you could actually die with no going back!”

“You think I don’t know that?” Al raises his voice.

“Then WHY did you do it?!”

Al has had it. “Because I needed to save the little girl, Ed!”

Ed is thrown off by the sincere, frustrated statement. “Little girl?” He asks, not sounding as angry as before.

“The man, he”— Al swallows a lump —“he had this little girl with him… I found her in an alley, and she was terrified. I wanted to help her but then he hit me. And when he realized who I was, he punched me and stabbed me; and then he ran away with her.”

The girl’s face is in his memory, her eyes wide, hurt, scared. His arms shake.

“All I could think, was that I had to save her,” Al explains. “I-I had to, Ed. B-But I couldn’t protect her. I collapsed and he got away.”

His brother’s presence is no longer loud. Ed’s expression is sympathetic and sorrowful. Al lowers his head, shame weighing onto him.

Ed approaches him and puts both hands on Al’s shoulders. “Oh, Al… I’m so sorry.”

Al can’t help but flinch at the metal touching his skin. Ed’s automail is cold and hard against his fragile human body. Ed couldn’t quite get his body parts back, but it’s something he doesn’t mind.

Al refuses to look up still.

“Brother,” Al opens his mouth before realizing. “Please don’t take this the wrong way. I am more than grateful for getting my body back, and I would never reverse it. But…” The sniff that comes from him sounds child-like. “I know people are still out there to hurt others. To hurt us. But how can I protect them? H-How…” he hiccups, “h-how will I protect you, when I’m this useless?”

Ed’s hands still. “Alphonse…”

Al hides his face, unable to deal with this shame. He’s really useless to others. He can’t do anything, because he’ll definitely die, and people will get hurt because of him.

He knows everything is an exchange. Al might not be an alchemist anymore, but life is still based around it. In order to get his body back, Al gave up his immortality to grow up with his brother and his friends. He gave it up so he could be able to hug Ed again. So he could sleep and eat, and breathe. But when Al needs that strength again, he does not have it. He cannot save others. Like he couldn’t save a girl right in front of him.

What if people go after his family? What if they get to his brother? What will Al do?

Al’s endless guilt is quieted a little, however, once he’s pulled in a hug, his head lying against Ed’s chest. His older brother holds him tight around his shoulders, whilst he smooths Al’s short, blond hair.

“Al,” Ed speaks to him softly but firmly, “you’re the strongest person I know – with or without the armor. But you don’t need to risk your life to save us like you did before.”

“But she needed help, Ed,” Al sobs, “s-she needed…”

Ed sighs and hugs him closer. “I know. I’m sorry.”

They don’t let go for maybe an eternity. It takes a few more hours before Al is free to go. He can walk just fine, but he can’t run for his life again. In the meanwhile, Ed has his arm around the younger’s shoulders, watching everyone passing by like a hawk.

Al is far from feeling better. He doesn’t think he’ll recover from it, even if his brother might be right. At least Ed welcomes his grief, as they still think of past lives they lost in their journey.

The younger Elric remains silent. Ed doesn’t try to make him talk. He does get to reassure him with his presence and soft words.

“I’m going to take care of you now, okay?” Ed tells him. “You don’t need to fight anymore.”

Although Al is around the same height as Ed, he feels small as he hides his face in his older brother’s shoulder, like a child seeking for protection. His lip quivers and the tears fall silently. It might seem a little pathetic, but Al doesn’t pull his face away; and Ed squeezes him as well, kissing the top of his head.

[spartan-officer-brasidas]

It seems like a few of you agreed that Ubisoft mishandled the Gods in more than a few ways, and I’m still mad about it so I just want to go through and explain how they were so poorly represented. I will concede that there are more than a few ‘right’ ways to represent a God and it all comes down to your own interpretation of the Gods and their myths, but I think in general, Ubisoft really fell short. My personal interpretations come from my major in Classics and my worship of the Greek and Roman pantheons, so my opinions on this will reflect those interpretations but feel free to have and share your own!

Let’s start simple. Juno. Juno is a really interesting Goddess, both in religion and in the games. I, personally, don’t do anything special for Hera/Juno/Uni, but I know that she is an incredibly loving Goddess and is remarkably loyal to her husband and those she holds dearly. Now, I think Ubisoft did Juno okay, only because her loving and loyal nature can make her a fierce enemy, and I think Ubisoft showed that well. She, from my knowledge, is a main antagonist in the series, and given that “modern” Rome is a part in Ezio’s story, that makes sense. Juno was NOT a supporter of the foundation of Ancient Rome. She made several attempts to keep Aeneas from getting to Italy and she is openly not a fan of Aeneas, given his Trojan heritage and his role in Rome’s founding. Basically, her being an antagonist makes sense and I don’t think it really devalues her as a Goddess at all.

This is, unfortunately, where the praise ends. I’ll just go in order, so Persephone is next. Persephone is, perhaps, the biggest victim in this mess Ubisoft created. I would like to first clarify a few things regarding Persephone as a Goddess. How you choose to view her relationship with Hades doesn’t really matter to me—that’s something only you can decide, but there are a few aspects that are important to consider. First of all, beyond the initial kidnapping and drama with that, there’s not too much suggesting they had a rocky relationship. There were a few minor hiccups, but nothing major. And two, going on Ancient Greek standards, Hades did nothing wrong. Now, kidnapping is bad, we know this. Except, Hades didn’t really kidnap her, per se. He asked Zeus for her hand in marriage and Zeus agreed. Hades actually did the “right” thing, though in a twisted way that really isn’t acceptable in today’s standards. All that said and done...all I can say is what was Ubisoft thinking? I mean, Persephone is routinely a benefactor for heroes *who come to her* and she is mostly portrayed as incredibly benevolent. The fact that Ubisoft made her a borderline tyrant with a unreasonable desire for total order and control and made her relationship with Hades one of the worst depictions I’ve ever seen is upsetting. It’s tragic, really. I almost feel like I have to personally apologize to Her whenever I think about what they did to her.

I’ll keep Hermes and Hekate short and sweet because they got off a bit easier than Persephone did. All I have to say is both Gods are insultingly shallow in the dlc. Hermes is blinded by his love for Persephone, and while he definitely did pursue her in the myths, he didn’t dwell on the unrequited feelings—he is a powerful God of many things, he doesn’t need to dwell on it. And Hekate was given the short end of the stick between the two and she became the backstabbing friend. We honestly don’t learn much about her at all and she’s made to be extremely unlikable, which is not the aura given from the Goddes Herself. It’s a shame what happened to these two.

Now we will move to Hades. My biggest issue with Hades is actually the whole issue with continuity between Jupiter/Zeus/Tinia being the same but Pluto/Hades/Aita not being the same, but alas, Ubisoft totally butchered his character as well, so I can put aside my grievances about the continuity. Hades is portrayed as this chaotic antagonist who really only has his own benefit in mind which is...an extremely confusing interpretation. I mean, Hades is, IMO, the least chaotic God out there. And even more so, he isn’t a vicious leader like they make him out to be. Sure, he maintains order in the Underworld with an iron fist, but that’s just the issue. The Hades seen in Odyssey is...not that. He doesn’t maintain order at all, and yet he’s doing something with a very aggressive iron fist. He’s power hungry, angry, and violent, and all of that goes unchecked until Kassandra/Alexios rolls around to stop it for the time being. The Hades I worship isn’t like that at all, and I don’t think the Ancient Greeks viewed him that way either, though I can’t say for certain.

Charon is next and I don’t have too much to say about him. He’s just so forgettable in my opinion. Charon is the ferryman of the dead, so I suppose he’s not supposed to leave a lasting impression, but he takes on the role of maneuvering you through the Underworld—a job he, historically, doesn’t have. His job is to take you across the River Styx and then be done with you. It’s a relatively minor complaint really, but I would’ve liked to see his character fleshed out a bit more.

Down to the last three, and Poseidon is up. The issue I have with Poseidon is kind of a personal one. Poseidon, while not one of my primary deities, is one of those that I frequently turn to and worship more frequently, so naturally his rather bland portrayal was disappointing at best and insulting at worst. I personally don’t think he gets much character development at all, which is unfortunate because Poseidon, as a God and in the myths, is incredibly complex. He’s a great asset if he’s on your side, but he can also be a very formidable foe, and they seem to want to show those two sides but they really fall short on both. Now, this could be related to the fact that of the three dlcs, Atlantis truly felt the most rushed. You have hardly any time to really take in the story and the whole thing just seems like one big after thought, and Poseidon, unfortunately, took the hit with that. Also, he just passes judgement and in a way rule over Atlantis over to a mortal, which I get is important to the story, but why? That’s so not how things are done.

Now we have Aita. So for those of you who don’t know or haven’t figured it out by now, Aita is the Etruscan God of the Underworld. I’ve already explained my main issue with him, and how he and Hades should be the same, but honestly, that’s the least of the crimes committed against him. In my opinion, Ubisoft has completely striped Aita of his Godhood. All of the other shown deities have this natural feeling to them that Aita lacks. He seems so lackluster standing next to Juno and he’s reduced to this scientist role, which—don’t get me wrong—is neat and powerful and all, but this is the Etruscan god of the underworld! Why should he linger in the shadows of Juno when he could be an equal to her, all things considered! I know the Etruscan gods/pantheon are not as widely known, but that doesn’t make them less godly, and what they’ve done to him is upsetting to say the least. I would love to see some other Etruscan gods, like Tinia and Uni, and I would like for them to be treated with the respect they deserve. More people could know about this fascinating culture and religion! Is that too much to ask?

Finally, we get to Aletheia. Now, she is a bit different in that I don’t know of many myths surrounding the goddes of truth, and it’s totally possible that she may solely be a representation of truth more so than a character in the myths. Aletheia’s story was...anticlimactic. I honestly don’t think her story got resolved at all. Ubisoft left me feeling like there was more we needed to know about her, and they also implied that she isn’t exactly a good guy. I mostly just want more from her. I think if they play on Juno being related to her, they could really make a very good story, but as it is, Aletheia got put on the back burner, and that? That is unfortunate.

This is already a very long post, so I won’t continue, but I would like to mention that characters like Adonis, the Greek heroes, Elpis, and Atlas received similarly disappointing treatment from Ubisoft. Let me know if you want me to make a post about them! I encourage you guys to share your own thoughts on this! Different perspectives yield different reactions and I’d love to see y’alls, so feel free to share! I will remind you that these are living Gods. Part of why this was so upsetting is because I research these gods as part of my studies and because I actively worship many of Them. Seeing Them reduces to these characters was...not the greatest feeling in the world. It’s important to separate the characters from the myths and even the myths from the Gods themselves, but what Ubisoft did was make a character that loosely relates to the myths—not the Gods Themselves as well. Just as Zeus is so much more than his myths, Persephone is more than the character Ubisoft gave us, so think critically when absorbing content about religious figures. All Gods of all religions are deserving of respect, and Ubisoft did not do a great job with that. I can only hope they will do better for the Viking Gods.

[vespertine-legacy]

Ops/group Shenanigans!

Filled for the sort-of teaching team that Anh started for motu, bringing Kestrel along for a run of EC. Got a little frustrated that Anh kept forgetting that between my two sleeps tactical and the fact that Wulf was healing on a scoundrel, we could have slept a lot of enemies and snuck past several mobs (kept saying “well, we’ve only got one stealther,” and I could feel Wulf and I sharing that Look of staring into the camera like we were on The Office). But it went pretty well, and it seemed like the folks who were learning the op had fun.

Then helped out when Anh put out another call asking for a tank or dps for KP, saying that I was still learning tanking (and I know the basic gist of what the tank needs to do on most fights of most of the ops from healing them and needing to know where my tanks are so I can keep them alive) but if she didn’t mind walking me through it, I would tank for her. So I got to tank KP on Cershaa, and it went really well!

After KP, the group decided they wanted to run ToS as well, so Anh asked if I wanted to learn to tank that too. That also went pretty well. I got to show the group where all of the lore items are. I had a bit of a rough time with Sword Squadron, but after some minor screw-ups, I did okay. I apparently did a really good job with the Underlurker. The Revanite Commanders were a bit tough, because I’m still not very good at crowd control and swapping targets (and sometimes tab-targeting just straight-up doesn’t work). One of the mobs between the Commanders and Revan, I guess I did a pretty good job of getting all of them to pay attention to me, because there was a point when my health got pretty scary low, but I managed to use my dcds and survive it, and just as Anh said “I’m gonna taunt off of you,” we killed them all. The actual Revan fight wasn’t too bad.

In between ops shenanigans, I got to help Gaz with the boss at the end of Master Mode chapter 2 of KotFE, which was really fun! I’ve never even done any of the chapters on vet mode (too scared because I play very stupidly), so I was a little nervous, and it took us a little bit to get our strategy figured out (worked best for me to sleep one of the Hunters and taunt the other to pull him away from the sleeping one so that our companions didn’t immediately wake him back up, then kill the two hunters one at a time while Gaz kept the leader busy).

Then, I saw in one of the Discord chats that a group was looking for some extra bodies for Dread Fortress, and I’m always a slut for anything Dread Masters, so I volunteered to heal for that on Raz. The raid leader asked me to send them my toon’s name, and when I did, I heard in the voice chat, “oh good, a Chiss name,” followed by a long sigh. Oops. The group ended up still being short a dps, but a rando at the door asked to join, and then I guess got upset that it was DF and not DP and dropped group, so we just ran it 7-man. But it went fine, and was a really quick run. (Aside from the tank getting yeeted off the bridge into the lava at the start, but blood for the Bridge Bosses is good luck). Even the Brontes fight went really smoothly, with the first dps to finish their finger during the 6-finger phase hopping over to the one that was left out. The group over all just had really good dps and was really well-coordinated, so it was a nice run.

They decided that since it had gone smoothly and they still had raid time left, they wanted to go ahead and run Dread Palace too. That also went super smoothly, with a few tiny hiccups with placement of the simplifications during the fight where the floor falls away, and then the tank falling off the bridge after the Raptus fight (blood for the Bridge Boss, it’s good luck).

After that, it was time for Panty Raid, but there were only three of us signed up, so Frenzy, Vaylin, and I decided to just drag Tom along and do some MM flashpoints. We did Red Reaper, Hammer Station (complete with the bonus boss I hadn’t ever done before since no one’s ever wanted to kill 80 enemies to get the bonus before), Czerka Labs Meltdown, and Black Talon.

Another very busy swtor day for me and my idiots, but I got to hang out with a lot of friends, and I got to practice some new skills (and I’m kind of enjoying Vanguard tanking?).

[bangfantanfic]

- “Stop telling me your okay.”

It wasn’t that this was Jeongguks first relationship— he was 22 after all. But it was his first serious relationship. Having grown up and spent basically all his teen years as a trainee he didn’t get the typical adolescent experience, not that he was complaining. He’s traveled the world, met many, many beautiful women and had a fair share of experience and experimenting. But this relationship? It was the realest he’s had. Not to mention the only one to last longer than two weeks. His most recent relationship, still hidden away from the public eye, had been going strong for the last nine months. Well, he thought so. Over the last month the conversations had become dry, and almost awkward. No matter how hard he tried to keep things running it just went sour. He would send memes, knowing how much you loved them, but instead of getting memes sent back or any kind of reaction he got a thumbs up emoji or left on read.

At first he thought maybe you had already seen every meme he had sent, despite how unlikely it was. He tried asking about your day, how your classes were going, if you were happy and he got simple, blunt responses in return. You telling him, “I’m okay, I’m busy.” Or “Yeah good.” He was starting to think he had done something wrong. Had he said something to upset you? Did one of the members say something to offend you? Maybe a fan? Or maybe you just didn’t want to be with him anymore. Each though broke his heart, he didn’t want to hurt you, or bring any sort of hurt to you. He was pretty sure  he loved you. You were everything he had ever wanted, you made him happy but it was starting to seem like maybe you didn’t feel the same.

Jeongguk had just returned from the U.S, the tour being over and a short break finally being given for the group to rest and re-energize. Jeongguk, having not  seen you for three months— not even to videochat— didn’t wait. Once the plane landed and their bags were loaded into the vans he was off. He was driven straight to your apartment, jumping out the car and thanking the staff member for the lift. Taking two steps at a time he ran upstairs, cursing you for living so high up in a building without an elevator. Finally reaching your floor, he hunched over for a moment to catch his breath. He was fit, sure, but that was just an unnecessary amount of stairs.

Now standing in front of your door, his heart was beating erratically. It felt like he was about to ask you on a first date again. His heart was in his mouth and his stomach in his throat. What if you were mad at him? Told him to leave?

Oh god, maybe he should just go home?

Pushing his insecurities and anxieties aside, he raised a shaking fist to the wooden door and stiffly hit it, his lungs going still as he struggled to regulate his breathing. Just as he went to knock again, louder, the door flung open and a figure wedged them self in the crack, blocking whoever was at the door from peering into the messy little house.

“Jeongguk?” You croaked, squinting your strained eyes at the figure standing in the dim hall. “What-why are you here?” You spluttered, trying to close the door more.

Jeongguk felt his stomach tighten. You definitely weren’t happy to see him, which isn’t the usual reaction. His surprise visits usually had you crying happily as you hugged him so tight he thought his head would shoot off his shoulders. But this time you were hidden behind the door hiding yourself.

“We just got back, I thought maybe we could hang out...” He trailed off, rubbing the back of his neck. When you didn’t answer, only sighed, he pursed his lips and shifted his weight. “Have I done something wrong?” He asked, worry coating his words.

You couldn’t help the shocked look that overtook your features. He looked so scared, and it just made you feel worse. “What? No, of course you haven’t!” You sighed, wanting to do nothing more than pull him into your arms and hug away his worries. But you knew once he caught a glimpse of you’re current state it’d only increase his worries.

“No, you’re fine Guk. I’ve just been busy.” You tried to explain, knowing how pathetic of an excuse it was. His eyes narrowed as he caught sight of your hand, bony and clutching at the door ready to slam it shut if he made an attempt to get inside.

“Please talk to me, what’s going on?” He asked, sounding desperate.

“I’m okay. Everything is fine—“ You tried to lie, but he cut you off with a frustrated grunt. Soon his much stronger build was pushing open the front door causing you to stumble back. “Jeongguk!” You yelped, using the wall to steady yourself from falling. Ignoring you’re protests he shut the door and hit the light switch, both of you cringing at the brightness that suddenly filled the space. Once his eyes adjusted, which was much before yours did, he felt his heart sink. The house was a mess— not entirely unusual but this level of mess? Out of the ordinary. Sometimes you had little bits and pieces around, books or mugs, but this? This was a new level of mess.

After taking in the filthy small apartment his eyes finally fell on you. You’re hair was a mess, some tied up, most had fallen out of what might have once been a bun? He could see how oily it was from where he stood. You were tiny, you had definitely not been eating regularly. You’re skin had gone an off white/grey and the dark circles under your eyes looked like bruises. You looked so tired.

“Why-what happened to you-“ He cut himself off, shaking his head in disbelief. You didn’t look like you. It was like a zombie version had been put in your place.

“I’m okay-“

“Stop telling me you’re okay!” He yelled, frustration setting in. “Just—Just stop saying that.” He said shakily, letting out a sigh in an attempt to calm himself.

After a few minutes in silence, Jeongguk had finally calm himself. “You’re not okay.” He said softly, his shaky hand gesturing over you’re clearly sick body. Hearing someone else say it triggered something in you, because soon fat tears were rolling down your pale cheeks. You weren’t okay. You hadn’t been for sometime now.

It all started when Guk had left for tour. You’re classes had gotten more full on, more work piled on top of more work, then on top of that you had picked up extra shifts to cover the rent that had gone up— again! You were behind on bills, behind in University and behind in life. You felt like a failure. Nothing was going to plan, nothing was working the way it was suppose to. You threw yourself into your assignments and working late nights that you had forgotten to look after yourself. And now you stood, ugly crying and rubbing your sleeve under your nose because it was leaking almost as much as your eyes were, in front of you’re boyfriend who just wanted to come home and to surprise you.

You even managed to ruin this.

“Jeonggukkie I’m sorry!” You wailed, aggressively running your sleeve under your nose. You knew you disappointed him, it was clear in his expression. “I was just— I was just trying to get things under control!” You hiccuped. Jeongguk sighed, knowing now wasn’t the time for lecturing you— even though it was killing him to not— so instead he pulled you into his chest, his grip tightening as you tried to push away.

“We’ll fix this, I’ll help you fix everything.” He promised, his big hand rubbing smooth circles on your back.

After making you shower, cooking you dinner and cleaning up the apartment Jeongguk had you sitting between his legs, you’re head leaning back on his chest, his arms hugging around you’re waist as you both watched Coco. Jeongguk was softly singing to you as he traced small drawings and words onto you’re warm, soft skin of you’re stomach. You were basically asleep, occasionally stirring when his finger tips tickled you’re skin. Jeongguk felt guilty, he felt he should’ve tried harder to make sure you were okay instead of just dropping it. He made a promise to himself that he’d try harder, but he also made you promise to talk to him about any struggles or problems, minor or major, he wanted to hear them all.

Sighing he kissed the top of your head, one hand hugging your waist and the other gently tracing over your face, drawing swirls as he softly sang to you’re sleeping figure. “Know that I am with you, the only way that I can be, until you’re in my arms again... remember me.”

[foxgirlintestines]

I’m tired because i’ve been playing too much Pokemon here is a half asleep rant:

You know, I’ve been kind of no-lifing Sword recently and have noticed something. The game is good, the characters are interesting, the new pokemon have some good thought behind them and the addition of a mmo-lite aspect in the wilds is a step towards something pokemon fans have dreamed of for a long time. All that aside, the game feels rushed. We all know that gamefreak employees are being worked to the bone, we know producing these giant games on such a short span will have this effect. What I am saying is, there was a lot of good ideas put into these games and unfortunately there was not enough time to flesh it out. I honestly don’t mind the minor refresh on the pokedex. If you ever played either of the Colloseum games for the Game Cube you might have recognized that having a limited pool of pokemon makes for some more interesting runthroughs, and there are still two and a half times the amount of pokemon as there were in the first game. I think some of the inclusions were wierd to say the least though. A lot of gen 5 pokemon that were often ridiculed as well as many very forgetable pokemon. I might say its fair to argue about the choices they made of what to keep, but I don’t think sliming the pokedex is such a big crime. Sure, I am disapointed some of my favorites were not in the game, but I still found plenty of pokemon I like and still had a hard time figuring out which ones I wanted to put on my team. The story is where it really felt that they just were crunched and had to cut back. The story was not that good, and the game felt really short in comparison to the normal experience. You would hop from one gym to another with almost nothing inbetween as if there was something planned to be in these spaces and then they just couldn’t put it in the final product. Many things happen off camera, especially towards the end of the game. I think there was supposed to be some more plot there and it once again was cut and so they just put the filler of “Leon did something, don’t worry about it.” Many of the characters feel like their personality was starting to conflict at points as if there were arcs where they develop but they were just simply skipped. The motivation of the antagonists is not really fleshed out that well and so I couldn’t really relate or disagree with them, I was just confused. The post-game little substory felt like it was tacked on and it probably was meant to be something more ambitios as a way to revisit the region, but it just ended up being very reppetitive and obnoxious quest line to trudge through to claim your cover legendary. There were of course a few little hiccups in the coding as well, but overall its minor. Who cares if the animations of the others stop when you are climbing stairs or the view distance on a Pokemon game of all things? The only time I ever felt the sound was an issue was at the end of the main story when the cover legendaries kept being loud over and over again. Lets talk some of the good things though. They made a ton of QoL improvements to the game. The portable pc might feel a little strange but it made things easier in a good way. There isn’t really a difficulty attached to pc access, just inconvienience. The removal of HMs was continued which means more pokemon to have fun with instead of dragging around HM slaves. The daycare is now the nursery which does not level up your pokemon, just breeds and also allows you to teach egg moves to the pokemon in them so you don’t have to entirely remake a pokemon to get a move you want. They added a ton of stuff to help level up and train pokemon. Mints to change natures so you can enjoy your pokemon instead of being disppointed that one of the little stat modifiers was off. The EV overhaul is a lot bigger than you think. Not only are the vitamins able to be used to max, but the cap on each stat has been changed from 255 to 252, and though that seems like a random bunch of numbers it means you can’t overcap on a stat and waste some of your evs because evs only increase stats by multiples of 4. Legendaries have 3 guaranteed perfect ivs, Max Raid rewards are pokemon with 3-5 guaranteed perfect ivs, and ditto is one of them to help with breeding. It takes a lot of the drudging through breeding chains if you want to max out a pokemon’s potential, and it means you do not need to soft reset as much anymore. These things don’t matter too much to the normal player, but for competitive players (or people who are batshit ocd like me and are frustrated to no end when the numbers are not perfect) its a huge help. Many aspects of the game feel cleaner. The only thing I really did not enjoy was the constant Exp share, but at the same time it helped me to level up and evolve pokemon to fill th epokedex without using them. I’m not sure thats a good or bad thing as it removes the need to experiment and play with more pokemon but it does help to just fill up your dex. So, basically, it felt like this was a really grand project full of great ideas and they just ran out of steam. If this game wasn’t pushed to be released in 2019 this may have been possibly one of the best pokemon gamee they’ve ever made and one of the things to remember from 2020. It wasn’t though, which is why you should blame Nintendo’s higher ups for robbing us of the best version of the game that could have been made, not the devs at Game Freak who are probably just as disappointed that they couldn’t make the game how they wanted it and instead have their creativity stifled by deadlines and holiday marketing schemes.

[jsteneil]

“Hey,” Kevin says as soon as Neil picks up, “are you home this weekend?”

Neil glances at the calendar tacked to the kitchen wall. The two cases are colored gray but empty.

“Sure,” he says. “Why?”

There’s shuffling on the other side of the phone. Kevin sounds distracted, his inability to concentrate on two things at once evident. “We were driving to Thea’s parents’,” he says, “but her father’s in the hospital.”

The coffeemaker beeps when it’s done, and Neil pours himself a mug. He’ll need it, if he wants to follow Kevin’s complicated conclusions.

“Okay?”

“Give me the phone,” he hears from farther off. “You’re confusing.”

“You’re driving,” Kevin points out. Neil guesses it’s not directed at him. He sits at the bar, reclining against the window, and lets the afternoon sun warm his shoulders.

“Then put me on speaker. I swear to god, Kev—”

The last part is definitely more audible. Thea’s brisk tone fills Neil’s ear over the low rumbling of an engine. “We have this charity event this evening and tomorrow. The plan was to drop Amalia at my parents’ on the way, but Dad got into a minor car accident.”

A lifetime with the Foxes has taught Neil how to react in such situations. Dutifully, he asks: “Is he alright?”

“Nothing major,” Thea brushes off. She’s an ex-Raven: anything short from losing the use of her limbs is probably a scratch for her. “But they’ll be stuck in the hospital all day, and Mom will be too nervous to take care of Amalia this evening.”

Neil sips his coffee, humming an answer. He eyes the clock. He probably has time to go to the store and clean the apartment before they arrive.

“We’ll come back Sunday evening,” Thea’s saying in his ear. “Can we drop her off at yours?”

“Sure.”

Neil likes Amalia maybe even better than Matt and Dan’s daughters. She’s quiet and stubborn, and because Thea and Kevin were both obsessed with building their career first, she’s the youngest of all the Foxes’ children.

At this point, Neil knows how to take care of a two-year old for a short amount of time. Kevin at least thinks so, because he’s so cautious with his daughter that it’s sometimes ridiculous. From what Neil’s seen, children that age aren’t fundamentally all that different from Andrew’s tired days: quiet, the television on as background chatter, and ice cream will keep them happy for a night.

“Thank you,” Kevin says. “We’ll be here in two hours.”

“I’ll warn Andrew,” Neil says.

“Please tell him to finish all the ice cream before we arrive.”

“Not a chance. I need a bargaining chip.”

“That’s not how you raise children—”

“See you,” Neil cuts, and he hangs up before Kevin can finish his spiel. For someone who was raised underground by an emotionally abusive family, Kevin can be very uptight about his approach of education. Maybe it’s because of it. Neil doesn’t have a big frame of reference either, but at least he knows what not to do.

Andrew wanders into the kitchen as soon as Neil hangs up, which means he definitely heard Kevin’s name and chose to step out of the conversation. Neil watches him putter around the kitchen, putting aside the leftovers from lunch and neatly side-stepping every attempt of King’s to tie his body into knots between Andrew’s legs, then he announces: “We’re having Amalia for the weekend.”

“You can take her to the park,” is Andrew’s response, but he doesn’t express further dismay. He might be used to it. Neil smiles in his mug in silent victory.

Kevin and Thea arrive just before five, Kevin carrying Amalia in his arms and Thea a large bag.

“Here,” she tells him. “You’ll need it.”

Neil doubts it, but Thea also loves saying ominous shit with a smirk, so he nods and accepts the bag. On top of it are folded small toddler-sized clothes. Neil blinks at it, momentarily thrown. How stupid that clothes should be so small and toy-like. Maybe he’s spent too much time with the Boyd-Wilds children and their dolls.

“Wait till you see the shoes,” Kevin mutters as he passes him in the hallway.

“Want to stay for a cup of coffee?” Neil asks as they spill in the living room, where Andrew raises his head from his phone then refuses to acknowledge the company. Thea rolls her eyes at him.  

“No, we should go,” Kevin says. “We still have to drive all the way back.”

“We can be here by tomorrow morning,” Thea says. “Before noon?”

Kevin’s been sober for the past twelve years, which is why Neil knows they’ll be here when they say they will, even after a long night of schmoozing. He glances at Andrew, who doesn’t react. “Fine by me,” he shrugs.

Kevin’s phone rings and he takes Amalia with him in the hallway to answer it while Thea takes over the instructions. Some things are basic, others are more surprising. Apparently, Amalia likes being read a story before bed, which Neil vaguely attributes to Kevin’s influence on her being so precocious. It’s too much for him to remember, but Thea assuages his fears when she tells him she wrote him a list.

“Then why are you telling me?” he asks.

“Because it makes me feel better about leaving my only daughter with people who I know are not used to babysitting.”

Fair enough. Neil has sometimes watched the other Foxes’ children, but he’s not an expert at it by far. Andrew’s marginally more natural at it than he is, but he also cares a lot less.

“It’ll be fine,” Neil promises her.

“Sure I shouldn’t be the one telling you that?”

Neil refuses to rise to the bait.

Kevin comes back after having hung up with his publicist, slowly shaking Thea and himself into going. Not minding their words, Amalia squirms in his arms when she sees the cats. He puts her down gently with a reminder not to scare the animals, and she stomps toward Sir, who gets up and leaves just before Amalia can reach her.

“Kitty!” she calls, starting after her. Andrew intercepts her when she speeds past the couch, one hand splayed on her little chest.

“Cats don’t like it when children chase after them,” he says. “Don’t do it.”

“No,” she says, stomping her foot. “I wanna pet.”

“You can if the cat wants it too.”

“Amalia, remember what I said?” Kevin crouches next to her. “Let them come to you.”

“Yes.”

She sits on the floor, turned toward King, who gazes at her from the back of the couch, blind to her parents’ hurriedly putting their coats back on. She hasn’t made any progress with either of the cats by the time Thea comes back for her.

“We have to go now, sweetie,” she says. “You’ll stay with Neil and Andrew for the night, alright?”

Amalia whips around. “Why?”

“Because we have a meeting to attend.” Kevin holds out his hand until she catches his fingers. Her hand is so small she can only grip two of them. “Boring stuff, like when Karen visits, yes? You’ll have much more fun with your uncles.”

Neil meets Andrew’s eyes over the huddled family. Andrew’s still steadfastly pretending to ignore they have guests, but Neil knows it has to surprise him almost has much it does Neil to see Kevin so patient. He spares a fleeting thought of dread for Amalia’s teenage years.

Finally, Kevin and Thea rise, say one last good bye—with a kiss for Amalia, though Neil neatly sidestep when Thea unthinkingly leans down toward him as well.

The door’s barely closed on them before Amalia starts to cry.

“Andrew,” Neil hisses through his teeth, when picking her up and bouncing her a few times does nothing.

Andrew pads to them. “Stop crying,” he says. “They’re coming back.”

Amalia hides her face in Neil’s shoulder, immediately spreading tears and snot on the fabric. Andrew shrugs, looking at Neil as if to say, “it’s your problem now,” and leaves.

“Thanks,” Neil mutters. “Very useful.” To the crying child in his arms, he says: “You want ice cream?”

The hiccups stop. Amalia looks up at him, sniffling, and asks: “Chocolate?”

“Sure.”

Andrew is already digging out the ice cream container from the freezer; he prepares a second bowl when Neil asks him to, with a much smaller scoop.

“Here.” He drops the bowl on the table, in front of Amalia who’s sitting on Neil’s lap because they have no highchair for her. Do two-years old still need highchairs?

“You can eat,” Neil encourages when Amalia just stares at the bowl. He almost thinks about feeding her himself, to avoid the kind of war scene he walked in on when Matt and Dan’s children were babies. Chocolate doesn’t wash easily, especially considering Andrew’s wearing his favorite sweater.

“Cold,” Amalia complains, squirming in Neil’s lap. “Warm please?”

“It’s ice cream,” Neil tells her. “It’s supposed to be cold.”

But Amalia just repeats: “Warm please?” in a smaller voice, until Andrew takes the bowl into the microwave. He lets it in only for a handful of seconds; when he sets it back on the table most of the ice cream has thawed into a melted mess.

Amalia seems happy. She tucks in easily, slurping the chocolate soup noisily.

“You okay?” Neil asks Andrew as they both watch her with incredulous eyes.

“Not a word,” Andrew replies, taking his own ice cream into the living room.

Amalia swings her little legs when she eats. Neil learns to tuck his in so she doesn’t kick him in the shins, and he’s relieved when he sets her down after she finishes her ice cream. Luckily King pads into the room just then, and Amalia is further distracted from her parents’ absence.

“Kitty,” she says. King looks up from his grooming, but doesn’t leave. “Kitty come here.”

She plops herself down in the middle of the room, uncaring of Neil who has to almost step over her to put her bowl and spoon in the sink. By the time he turns back around, King has approached close enough for Amalia to pat his head a bit forcefully.

“Careful,” Neil says. “Be gentle. He has very delicate bones.”

Amalia’s next stroke is gentler than the first, causing King to come closer, bowing his back until her hand is gliding from head to tail. She is gentle when she gets the hang of it, serious and intent in a way that reminds Neil of her parents. Her face breaks into a grin when King rubs his head against her, purring loudly with each pat.

They eat dinner much earlier than they’re used to, because at seven Amalia tugs on Neil’s pant leg and tells him seriously asks him when’s dinner.

“Soon,” Neil says, trying to remember if Thea said or wrote anything about dinner time. “We still need to prepare the food, though. Do you want to help?”

Amalia says, “No thank you.” She turns back to the television, where they’ve managed to find a program for children. She might be too young for it anyway, but at least she doesn’t complain while playing with her construction cubes.

“Alright then,” Neil mutters.

Andrew trails his fingers down Neil’s spine when he walks behind him, pressing just enough at the small of his back to make him turn around. “I’ll take care of it,” he says. “You don’t know what children eat.”

“Whereas you have the same diet as them,” agrees Neil.

Andrew shrugs. He crouches next to Amalia, diverting her attention from her cubes. “Do you like pasta?” he asks her.

“Yes,” she says gleefully. “And ham. And cheese.”

She gestures toward him, shuffling closer until he holds out his hands. She reaches for his fingers like she did with Kevin, shaking them up and down like a toddler version of a handshake. Andrew lets her, stony-faced but relaxed enough that Neil knows he’s not feeling anything other than surprise.

Neil smiles. He takes his phone out of pocket, makes sure to catch Andrew’s eye, and snaps a picture. Then he retreats into the kitchen to start boiling water.

By the time Andrew makes it into the kitchen with Amalia stuck to his side like a mussel to a rock, the pasta is almost done and Neil has saved the picture to his drafts.

“Can I send it to them?” he asks Andrew, who comes closer to the stove to look. Neil catches Amalia’s hand when she reaches for the boiling pot. “It’s too hot,” he warns her. “You’ll burn yourself.”

Andrew glances at the picture and taps on the send button without a word. He puts his load on a chair, where she barely comes above the table level, and disappears back into the living room.

The evening after that is quiet. Amalia eats what she’s given, although none of them tries to make her eat anything more adventurous than an apple cut in very small pieces for dessert, and she miraculously goes to bed when told to.

Neil forgets the bedtime story, so he sneaks back to the living room, crossing his fingers that Kevin and Thea thought to include a book in the bag they’ve packed. He lets out a relieved sigh when Andrew unearths a picture book from the bottom of the bag.

“She wanted me to do the voices,” he complains to Andrew later. “Who cares if the donkey sounds the same as the elephant? It’s not that big of a deal.”

“She’s two,” Andrew said, lifting his legs to make room for Neil on the couch. “Everything is a big deal.”

Neil groans, falling sideways until his face is more or less in Andrew’s lap, chest pressed uncomfortably to his shins.

“Remind me never to have children,” he jokes. Andrew looks at him over the rim of his glasses.

“Somehow I think we’ll manage to avoid that.”

Sir jumps on the couch with them, so they rearrange themselves until Neil’s lying on Andrew and offering the plane of his back to the cat. It’s comfortable, to feel Andrew’s stomach rise and fall with every breath and the vibrations of Sir’s deep purr down his back. He can almost understand why Amalia clings to every adult she meets like she does. It’s barely past nine, but Neil falls asleep more easily than he’s done in a long time.

[waveridden]

FIC: it’s a side effect of love, my dear

Tender sets down the letter and stretches out a hand to Fourteen. They give her a dubious look, but she just wiggles her fingers. “Mark me, superstar.” (TenFour soulmate AU, 1.6k)

AUcember || read on Ao3

#

There’s always a learning curve with the new bodies. Fourteen is used to this by now. Some bodies will be fine unless you bend over a certain way; some will be lighter or heavier or move differently. It’s part of their training to learn how to move in a body.

Worthy of Grace is easy to move inside of, almost disconcertingly so. They’re designed to glide across stages, to look almost inhuman as they move, and so Fourteen never feels completely solid as Worthy of Grace.

The other thing - and it’s a strange, minor, new thing - is that Worthy of Grace’s body can get soulmate marks.

Fourteen’s not sure if their other bodies could, or if they just never met someone they could be soulmates with. But they’re constantly meeting fans who leave brushes of color along their arms and shoulders. People talk about the meaning that they found in the things that Worthy of Grace sings, and then Fourteen will see speckles of pink and chartreuse and grey on patches of skin that were previously blank, or used to be different colors. They look like a collage.

“Well, that’s what happens when you’re, like, a celebrity, right?” Tender tosses one of the fan letters aside without looking to see where it lands. “Everyone thinks they know you. Everyone thinks you’re their soulmate.”

“Wouldn’t that mean that I mark them?” Fourteen asks. They’ve taken to wearing opera gloves, ones that reach almost up to their shoulders, and they normally pair them with shawls. It’s strange seeing their body change colors, and they’d rather avoid it if they can.

Tender shrugs. “I mean, who can say how the soulmate thing really works? People say it’s an Earth thing, it’s a divine thing, it’s a culture we came into contact with, whatever, but it seems like it works differently for different people.”

“They must have some understanding of how it works if they gave it to this body.”

“What if they can’t control it?”

Fourteen arches an eyebrow at Tender, who completely misses the gesture because she’s busy digging through fanmail for Worthy of Grace. “You think they wouldn’t carefully consider every facet of this body?”

“Oh, they would.” Tender glances up to smirk at them. “But I don’t think they were ready for you to end up inside this body. You’re bringing complications.”

“You know me,” Fourteen deadpans. “Here to cause complications.”

Tender gives them a grin, all sharpness and warmth. “Do you leave soulmarks now?”

“I haven’t seen.”

“Hm.” Tender sets down the letter and stretches out a hand to Fourteen. They give her a dubious look, but she just wiggles her fingers. “Mark me, superstar.”

“What if I don’t leave a mark because we’re not soulmates?”

Tender wrinkles her nose. “Why do you have to think about these things so much? Come on.”

Fourteen tentatively takes her hand in theirs. She feels warm, through the thin fabric of their gloves. They suppose they could take their gloves off, but, well, where’s the fun in that?

Slowly, they lift Tender’s hand to their mouth, giving her plenty of time to pull away. She doesn’t move, and Fourteen can’t help themself as they brush a kiss over the back of her knuckles. They keep their eyes on Tender the whole time so that they can see the slow, wicked grin spreading across her face.

Fourteen lowers their joined hands, and Tender lifts hers to inspect it in the light. “I didn’t realize you were such a flirt,” she purrs, so low that Fourteen feels a thrill run through them. “And I can see the mark.”

They frown. “Really?”

Tender tilts her hand, moving it back and forth just so, and the light catches on something. It’s faint, but there’s a definite gold shimmer on the back of her fingers. “You’ve got a nice color.”

“Huh,” Fourteen says. They haven’t had a color since… well, presumably since before Castlerose, and they’re not even completely certain if they had one before Castlerose. They’ve never met an agent that left marks before. Maybe it’s a recruiting thing.

Tender turns, and Fourteen can tell she’s about to say something just as sultry and flirtatious, but as soon as she sees their face, her eyes widen, and she claps her hand over her mouth. “Oh my god,” she says through her fingers. “Oh, no, Fourteen-”

“What?” Fourteen says in alarm. “Tender, what-”

She flicks a hand, and a mirror pops up in front of their face. Fourteen leans in, trying to make sense. Their face looks completely normal, except for their lips, which have a bright, electric purple smear across them.

“Oh no, ” Fourteen groans, and Tender collapses into giggles. “Oh, this is - Prism on the makeup team is going to gut me, this cannot be happening.”

“I think it’s a great look,” Tender gasps out, still laughing the whole time. “It’s very- very-” she curls up, but one of her hands lands on Fourteen’s leg, and suddenly Fourteen is laughing too. The whole thing, they think, is completely ridiculous. Their first ever soulmark from someone they know and it’s on their mouth? Of course it’s on their mouth.

They double over laughing, leaning onto Tender’s back for support. Tender presses her face into the fabric of Fourteen’s jumpsuit. They can feel her laugh more than hear it, muffled but still bright as anything.

“People are going to have so many questions,” Fourteen hiccups, and Tender laughs even harder.

  #

  They don’t get to look in a mirror right away, but they’re disappointed to see that The Body Politic doesn’t have the same purple smudge across their lips. They wonder if Tender is still going to have the gold on her hand, or if it’s going to be different now.

By the time they get to the By-and-By, they’ve almost forgotten to be worried about it. It’s blessedly easy to get in touch with Tender and set up a meeting point. This body isn’t as athletic as the last couple Fourteen has had, so it’s exhausting trying to rush there, but they need to see that Tender is safe. Especially now that they know about Sui Juris.

Tender hears their footsteps as they approach, and she whirls around, a hurricane of purple and constant motion. “Fourteen,” she says immediately, and Fourteen feels a wave of relief, of fondness for this remarkable woman who knows them on sight.

“Are you alright?” they ask, trying to be brisk but they just sound frantic, even to their own ears. “Tender-”

“I’m fine,” Tender says impatiently, She lifts her hands as Fourteen gets closer, and to their relief, they can see a glimmer of gold on the back of her fingers. The mark is still there. “You’re so much smaller now.”

“Worthy of Grace was remarkably tall.”

“But still.”

Fourteen smiles, and then realizes that Tender’s hands are hovering near them, not quite touching. “Tender?”

“This is an important decision,” Tender says, frustrated. “I know it’s basically the least important thing in the world right now, but-”

“As long as it’s not the mouth again, I think it’ll be fine,” Fourteen says. Tender laughs, short and sharp, and then settles her hand on the nape of Fourteen’s neck, fingers sliding through their hair. Fourteen lifts their hand instinctively, and their fingers close around her wrist. “Tender-”

“I know intellectually that you’re fine, every time,” Tender says. Her voice is low with some kind of emotion that Fourteen doesn’t dare unpack. “I know that. But that doesn’t mean I like when it happens.”

“I know,” Fourteen murmurs. They squeeze her wrist, and her fingers relax against the back of her neck. “I’m here.”

“I can see that.”

“We have things to do-”

“Those things waited for you to get here, they can wait another minute.” She smiles, bright and cheeky as ever. “Besides, I hear that around these parts, waiting for things is kind of a big deal. They can deal with a little bit of anticipation.”

Fourteen nods, and Tender lets out a breath. They’re not sure how long they stay like that, but they’re certain that it’s not long enough.

But at last, they say, “We really should go.”

“Yeah,” Tender says on an exhale, and pulls her hand back. “Huh. You got me again.”

“What?” Fourteen stares at the back of Tender’s wrist. The mark on her opposite hand was vague, more of a suggestion of gold than anything; now, on this wrist, there’s a line of bright, shining gold. “How does that work?”

Tender shrugs. “How does any of this work?”

“How do you not want to know?”

“I’m more than happy just seeing that it works.” She lifts her other hand and waggles her fingers, a gesture that she’d done a couple of times whenever she wanted to tease Fourteen about their own soulmark.

It feels different now, like it’s not quite a joke anymore. It only reminds Fourteen of the weight of Tender’s hand on the back of their neck, of her caution in touching them. It makes them feel something warm and content, curled deep in their stomach, something that they don’t have time right now to analyze.

But they’d like to. They’d like to know what this means.

  #

  When they get back to the World Without End, they spend an embarrassingly long time trying to figure out a way to see the back of their neck in the mirror. It ends up involving a handheld mirror, and them sitting on the counter bent over at an awkward angle. But they can see the shape of Tender’s palm across their neck, abstract and blotchy but still there. It’s a reminder of that feeling, that warm, heavy feeling.

They take to wearing their hair up. Just because.

[godslush]

Absolutely bizarre dream-salad tonight.

[[MORE]]

Started off with a not!Discord invitation to a wedding held in another state going awry and being sent to a lot of people it wasn't intended to be, and turning into a massive voice-chat cluster.

Somehow that gave way into being thrown into a dystopian future to trying and fight off aliens. But we arrived too early so we went to a theater and the attraction was "the oldest man in the universe" and it was a play put on by like 9 clones of young Arnold Schwarzenegger. I don't know, don't ask.

During the performance, though, someone had tipped off "authorities" that we were from the past using time travel tech, and they tried to hunt us down, so we used hologram tech to disguise as kids and tried to detour through a weird, far-too-complicated high school (laid out like an absurdly convoluted college campus, a recurring location in my dreams). Dream "art style" suddenly changed to a Psychonauts/claymation style.

To make things weirder, one of our team members (whose father was a scientist who died when he was young, who created our time travel tech) ran into his father teaching a class, because apparently in this alternate future, said father watched his son die and got completely unhinged; still intelligent enough to invent amazing things and teach classes, but extremely zany-mad-scientist-who-thinks-he's-a-wizard (Dumbledore, specifically). They didn't meet initially due to disguises; but later said son got into an accident with our whole alien hunting business and died, and his dad, seeing his son dead a second time, whipped out this crazy "alchemy" procedure and brought him back to life because after losing him once he dedicated his life to researching resurrection so it wouldn't happen again. There was a minor hiccup in the procedure but it mostly worked (it just brought him back temporarily looking like Harry Potter and with some skin discoloration that his dad insisted would go away eventually). All complete bizarreness aside, it was actually a rather heartwarming reunion.

On an aside, the bootleg (if you know, you know) was in the dream for quite a bit of it. Initially he was just acting in another theatrical event with a group that was taking advantage of his incredible strength but also strange alien malleability/regeneration to put on a rather violent-looking but otherwise safe Colosseum-battle style production. He tagged along after with a hologram disguise to appear human (but he could still split his arms into mouths, which looked very uncannily disgusting before the dream shifted style). He was basically out to fight the same invaders we were, and we figured we could use the help. The scientist in the later part of the dream caught him and was gonna vivisect him because That's What You Do With Aliens, and the bootleg just eyerolled like "ugh, not this shit again."

When the aliens finally did invade we had to split up to fend them off, but the raiding parties were split unevenly and our defense team had split evenly in anticipation. One side finished their fight early but the two locations were so far apart we had to use remote drones to attempt to help the other team because there was no way we'd make the trip in time.

Woke up as the drones arrived.