#bitches be like: here let me introduce one of the most interesting characters

[katyspersonal]

I've been tossing characters around and ended up with accidental love square (sort of) between some characters like-

So there are Maria x Adeline and Yurie x Rom implications, but I've been thinking. Rom and Adeline could be really cute too, as they are both pretty much wasted for humanity because of the Great Ones - Rom gets "blessed" by Kos and Adeline craves this blessing (as a rare patient in Research Hall not afraid of the Sea horrors but desperate for them). I think the two could have an interesting conflict where one desires what another resents that becomes too personal, or, alternatively, they could be both far too deep into pursuit for Insight and find strange understanding in one another! Because everyone tells them to hold back... but not themselves.

And then I also have Rom and Maria who do share a lot in common with my interpretation of Rom! Both girls are the best students of a weird old man (in the chair xD) that committed Some Shit and put them on the downfall path - Willem and Gehrman respectively. Both women are emotional, young and naive and end up committing Some Shit as well and regret it too late, and also can't find piece even after death, existing in astral form to protect the secrets that need to be unveiled to stop the vicious cycle. But I think the two do have similarities; and at the same time, Rom seems like Maria's 'type' of a woman (she is similar to Adeline too), but without the awkwardness of being seen as superior, because Rom is bad with subordination.

But also, imagine if Maria struggles with how carried away Adeline gets with the whole Eldrich Truth pursuit and Insight and all alike, to the point of forgetting herself, but she is not even sure how to help, so she asks Yurie for advice since Rom has similar obsessions. Like, she asks Yurie to explain and show her what she does to help to ground Rom back to humanity, and that leads to hugs, very pleasant things being said and Maria seeing Yurie as a bit more 'competent' in such intricate things.. That leads to Maria growing respectful for Yurie but also... maybe wishing that she could have gotten some of that care and intimacy to herself too? Meanwhile Yurie, likewise, would be pleasantly impressed how much Maria cares for her friend and wants to do her best for others. So, basically, the two are attracted to each other's caring, devoted nature.

But also? I like to think that before Research Hall evolved into Choir's base, the whole squad was there, and that includes Micolash. Who, of course, would value Adeline more than any other patient, and possibly expect a lot from her, much to Maria's chagrin. But you know who else I can see disliking Micolash and not trusting him a single second? Right, Yurie! So what if she was one of the doctors in Research Hall like him, but also could not help it but tried to separate Micolash and Adeline as often as she can, acting as her doctor instead? As result, she'd get to know Adeline and what driven her to seek this fate better, and maybe grow to care about her a lot. (Heck, maybe observing how the person loses worth of humanity under Insight upon Adeline's example could be one of the reasons for Yurie to 'fall out' of the Choir's mentality and rejoin Willem who suggested pursuing evolution without forgetting what the worth of humanity is?) My point is, she could have grown protective of Adeline before the "bigger evil" (Micolash) and it could have grown into something bigger?

Basically what I am saying is that I accidentally found a cute ship potential between any combination of these four characters? It can be Cool Girl x Cute Girl (Mariadeline, Yurom, Romaria or Yurine), or Cool Girl x Cool Girl (Mariyurie), or Cute Girl x Cute Girl (Romadeline). It is also really fun because every single combination is doomed by the narrative- I mean it's Bloodborne, what else to expect lol

[checkoutmybookshelf]

The Quartet That Started It All

As followers of this blog will note, this is not actually the quartet that started it all for me, but it DID launch author Tamora Pierce's career in the 1980s, and Alanna remains absolutely beloved among Pierce's heroines. Let's talk the Song of the Lioness Quartet.

In a classic case of "if I can't do this as a girl, then I'll do this as a boy and I have a handy twin brother to go full Twelfth Night with," Alanna of Trebond begins The First Adventure by dressing as a boy to train as a page in Tortall's royal court. This book introduces all our main characters and establishes Alan the page amongst his peers and Alanna as she finds herself and her place in chivalry.

One of the other amazing things about Alanna's story overall is that she begins it absolutely terrified of her own magical gift. Her arc includes learning to work with her magic rather than to fear it, and that's a twist on magic users that I really appreciated. We often get overly confident magic users--indeed, we'll get TWO of them later in the series--but it's rare that we get magic users who are fully aware of their powers and are still absolutely terrified of them. So of course, the story and the world and Pierce herself keep throwing Alanna into situations where she has no choice but to develop and use her gift. It's so, so good. This first book covers Alanna's page years, and we move into her squire years in book two.

In the Hand of the Goddess really expands on Alanna's key relationship with Prince Jon on Conte, Duke Roger of Conte, and Geroge Cooper. Alanna moves into a wider world of adult politics and stakes in this book. From being able to defeat an older, stronger, and more experienced opponent in a duel to developing her healing skills when a wound puts her out of commission during a war, Alanna cements her skills, connections, and position in society. This culminates with unmasking Roger as an attempting regicide and the accidental reveal of her gender.

This book is really, really good, and extends Alanna's childhood fear of magic to her fear of Roger specifically in a really natural, logical way. I could say more about the details, but these two books have an episodic vibe to them, so I won't spend too much time exploring every single key plot event.

The Woman Who Rides Like a Man sees Alanna spending her first year as a knight in the desert, with a Bazhir tribe. She becomes their shaman by way of self-defense; she murders their first shaman when he tries to murder her for "being unnatural." Then it falls to Alanna to train three magic users for the tribe, and this is where we see more nuance into how different magic users relate to their powers, from sheer hubris to fear to "this is just part of me, let's do this." It's a phenomenal experience for Alanna, and she learns as much from her students as they do

Book three also sees Jonathan bitching to hell and back about having to be king, which is not a great look, and it's one Alanna calls him on. He spends most of the book alternating between pitching a hissy fit, begging Alanna to marry him, and training to take over as Voice of the Tribes. The interesting thing here is that Alanna refuses to marry Jon. He is trying to fit Alanna into his own fairy tale, and she very much goes "That isn't our relationship, I can't do that. We aren't meant to be like that, and that's ok." If I could inject that lesson into humanity's collective head, I would. It's well done and it's great.

Lioness Rampant picks up on Alanna's travels after she leaves the Bazhir, and eventually sees her return to Corus with a magical artifact to help secure Jonathan's position as king.

There's also the teeny tiny complication that Alanna's twin brother, Thom, has resurrected Duke Roger. Absolute chaos ensues, and Roger almost manages to take out the entire court during Jonathan's coronation. Nobody should have to kill an evil sorceror twice, but Alanna did.

If you want to dive into Tamora Pierce's Tortall Universe, starting with Alanna is absolutely a good choice. These books hold a very soft spot in my heart, and they're never not engaging.

[demontonic]

Hayden Christensen - The first time - 2

let’s pretend that i didnt already start writing this for a separate story before i decided to just add it in for a part 2 please and thank you! Here’s part 1 if you haven’t read it and my masterlist for more!

word count: 1998

You had landed a part in Star Wars after years of auditioning for any possible role. You had struck mainstream fame after a horror movie you did for Rob Zombie. They had introduced an interesting character, they wanted to give Darth Vader a devotee, of course after Padme he never loved again but they wanted to show how exactly he dealt with it immediately after her passing. The audition was a scene in which said devotee breaks after pining for his approval the entire series.

“I have given you everything I am, I betrayed everything I ever knew, and I have done everything you ever asked! Just once I want you to see me, all I do, all I am is for you… Anakin.” Your voice sounded empty, defeated, broken and angry. Unrequited love in the worst case scenario possible, falling in love with a widowed sith lord. The story outside all the theatrics however was quite the opposite.

“Chosen one, how’s your morning old man?” You taunted in a merry voice, the taller blond man just shook his head. A smirk resting on his lips as he scoffed at the weak attempt of a joke.

“You aren’t too far behind me lady,” he dropped his bag onto the blue mat next to yours. Soon Hayden towered over you awaiting the inevitable comeback, something you’d grown accustomed to during training.

“Twelve years is enough for me to give you shit big papi,” you shoved his torso once you felt your neck stiffening at the uncomfortable angle it required to look at him.

“Well I thought you two weren’t supposed to get along,” Dave Filoni, you swear you could spend hours thanking this man for his work in the Star Wars universe, afterall he did create your character.

“Dave!”

“Hayden!”

They briefly shook hands, clearly having a deep respect and adoration for each other as long time coworkers and friends. Behind Dave however was this redhead, she was older than you but still younger than Hayden. She was the trainer's assistant who very much liked to try and correct Hayden, despite him having more experience than most of us. It wouldn’t have struck a chord with you, it shouldn’t have, but when she placed her hands around his arms to adjust his ‘lightsaber’ it angered you deeply. Luckily for you she seemed to be in quite the chipper mood, “Fan- fucking -tastic,” you thought while watching her drool over him.

“-And then we’ll get started on your final battle, sound good?” Dave looked between you and Hayden, a nod coming from you both before he walked away; being replaced by the main trainer, Harry.

“Morning, Milord, lover girl, Jess.” His voice was relaxed as always, he was a gentle man despite the skills he had taught us. He could cheer you up and stop you from being discouraged one moment and then completely body slam you the next. You were forever grateful he was the trainer, because if it was that snotty bitch Jessica, you’d never catch a break. He liked to refer to us using names related to our characters to ‘get us in the headspace’ you just thought it was cute.

“Morning puff, how was the commute this morning?” You teased since he always complained about traffic, but today he gave you a knowing look. Puff was the nickname you gave him, his hair was insanely fluffy and long it also was a very light blonde.

“Well I’ll have you know it was better today, I hope that’s how your choreography goes as well since we’re gonna start breaking down your final battle today.” He grabbed a pole before swiftly turning to us, a test he’d do every now and then to see if we could spring into action. Of course, being the teacher’s pet I’d met his ‘blade’ first.

“Ah my lover girl, always quick on her feet,” his praise made you smile while he stood down, returning to his previous spot.

“She still needs to keep her legs braced properly, her stance is weak,” Jessica spat while she walked over to Harry, twirling her pole in hand cockily. To be fair she’d won many matches against you, but as of recently you had the winning streak.

“Now Jess-”

“Wanna give it a go, see how weak my stance really is?” You proposed, walking out to the middle of the mat, leaving Hayden to stand lonesome in the corner. He loved your drive, your constant need to prove yourself against that wretched woman. Not many people fancied her, it wasn’t hard to understand why, Hayden was not one of those people.

“Any day, any time, you know I’m always ready,” she quickly met you in the middle, poised for action, awaiting your first strike.

“Are you?” You had been working on this rendition of Hayden’s move, it was your personal touch to the character. It was the famous ‘Obi-Ani’ however when the saber went behind your back the blade would be downturned. From there it would switch hands, strike once it was brought forth, then switched back to your right hand. That was exactly how you started, she hadn’t been able to combat it and in the fictional universe her hand would be severed. In the real world, you hit her wrist very hard, you hoped to see the bruise later on.

“Impressive! I didn’t know you had finally polished that move, I think it will do well in the choreo.” Harry quickly declared before getting in between you two. Hayden also approached you, his hand turned your shoulder to face him.

“What even was that?” He sounded impressed, almost childlike especially with the smile that accompanied the question.

“I took your move, and I made it my own master,” you said cockily with a shit eating smile. Harry’s praise made you smile, but Hayden’s interest made you jump for joy.

*.·:·.✧ ✦ ✧.·:·.*

It had been a few hours now, you had gone through 4 out of 10 parts of the battle and you were starting to get frustrated. The lightsaber part had never been an issue, but the footwork on your part was intense. It had to be because by now Anakin was Darth Vader his mobility was nothing like the prequels. To keep Hayden stiff they had pads on his arms and knees to limit the movement. On top of that there was a lot of dialogue throughout the beginning, so you kept circling each other, anticipating each other's next moves.

“Again, let's slow it back dow-“

“No. Let’s do it again, I just need to keep doing this until I get it.” It wasn’t a backflip or some mind blowing parkour, however the transition from running, to sliding, up to your knees; and then trying not to fall back while Hayden pushed down on you with his saber wasn’t easy.

“Do you want me to ease up?” God sometimes you just wanted to hit him with the pole when he tried to water it down for you. He came from a good place but amidst your frustration, and Jessica’s relentless corrections you were losing control.

“No, just start again at 3”

“Okay, on your line”

And with a heavy sigh you repeated the last line of your spiel. “Just once I want you to see me, all I do, all I am is for you… Anakin.” Your voice was harsh, it was unmissable so as Hayden began his attack, you deflected with more force than normal. Your jaw was clenched and your fists tight. Your eyes were set on Hayden, it was like you were doing the scene for the actual take, hell it was like you were actually living this scenario.

“Anakin is no more, I killed hi-“

“Liar!”

You stepped forward going back into the confrontation, your sabers clashing louder than before. Grunts leaving your throat as you push your tired body to perfection, until you catch sight of Jessica. Her glare stuck on you as if you killed her favorite person, it just made you fume. The next part is when you cut off Vader’s left hand and while normally you let Hayden put his hand down, you hit the back of his hand. Finally it had clicked that you weren’t okay, something was bothering you and he had a pretty good idea why. However he remained silent and followed through with the scene.

“All this time, did you think I might fall in love with you? Your pride consumes you, padawan.”

“And your grief consumes you.” You said through clenched teeth, this was where you had to jump off a blue block they’d set up. As you jumped down, you rolled onto your knees before running at Hayden, and to avoid his saber you slid beneath it. Once you turned to face him, you hurriedly got onto one knee finally making it on time before your sabers clashed. He pushed down on you and you could feel your shoe slip against the slick fabric of the mats. You were fed up with this plastic always fucking this part up so you pushed back with all your upper body strength.

Not your best moment.

Hayden fell back as you stood up and this finally calmed you down from your mood. You breathed heavily while you walked over to help him back up, twirling your saber mindlessly. You looked down at the blonde, holding your hand out wordlessly in embarrassment.

“Sorry, I just-“

“Let’s take a break, and talk about this.” Hayden interjected before hurriedly ushering you to the parking lot. There was nothing to say, it was childish of you to act out, it was embarrassing, you couldn't begin to process the emotions pooling in your stomach. He unlocked his car and opened the door for you without hesitation, he was scarily calm as you got in the passenger seat. It didn’t take long for him to get into the driver’s seat, long strides equaled less steps. Once he was seated the silence continued for a moment, you wouldn’t dare meet his gaze.

“Jessica is a hard person to be around, I’m sure you’ve had a few instances like that in the workplace. Y/N you are giving her what she wants when you get angry, people like that thrive off your misery.” Hayden Christensen, he had to be God’s favorite, he was so nice and understanding. A gentle giant trying to reason with a short psycho, perfect.

“It disappoints you as much as it does me-“

“I’m not disappointed in you, if anything I’m proud… surprised even.”

“Surprised?”

“Yeah, Harry assumed you would’ve chewed her head off by now. You saved me 20 bucks”

“So what I’m hearing is you think I could win in a fight.” The mood was lighter now, you both sported bright smiles while the banter continued.

“I wouldn’t have put money on you if I didn’t think you would,” he was being sincere and you knew by the way he spoke so effortlessly.

“Might not be for much longer, it’s like she gets worse everyday- that or my tolerance is getting shorter.” This time your tone sounded defeated, sure you’ve dealt with more stressful things in life, but it seemed as though you had no more patience left. Hayden quickly took note of this and used the leverage of you being a Star Wars nerd to cheer you up.

“Have faith love, everything will soon be set right… I’ve been told she’ll be transferred to a different project anyway. Someplace far far away from us,” His voice dwindled to a hushed volume, it was soothing.

“That would bring peace to the entire city.” He laughed at your brutal joke before changing the subject.

“So do you think we can go in there and try to play nice?” The question lingered for a moment before you reluctantly answered him.

“I don’t make promises.”

“But?”

“But… I will try.”

“Atta girl.”

@oogachakaooga

@lonelywitchv2

@papas-peepee

[miyamiwu]

Since the games haven’t started yet, and we haven’t seen much prolonged motion, I can’t judge yet on whether the animation has indeed improved. But if there’s one improvement I like this season 2 is that there is a greater sense of depth in the scenes: Characters actually look like they exist in a 3D space alongside other characters and are moving around in that space and affecting those around them.

One of my biggest complaints in the later parts of season 1 was how, when a certain character only has to speak a few words, they are often shown to be simply standing in isolation against a plain/static background. Most of season 1 was obsessed with replicating manga frames as-is, without understanding that what would look good in a static manga won’t always translate well in a moving medium.

But so far, in S2, I’ve seen a lot of creativity and initiative in camera angles and body movements that it’s honestly a breath of fresh air!

Take these scenes of the top 7 intro, for example:

Rin:

Instead of showing Rin and Isagi in separate frames and be done with it, like what the manga did, they added a part where they are both in one frame: Isagi watches Rin as he passes by him. How this is framed is also good in conveying depth. Rin is closer towards us, the audience, while Isagi is further behind.

Shidou:

I made a different post about this before, but here ya go again

Shidou actually interacts with Rin directly! And he doesn’t just say those words to his face, but he also moves around him.

Karasu:

8Bit could’ve just given us a simple bottom-top camera panning in one angle when introducing Karasu, but instead they had him first do a little arm stretching while his body faces away from us before letting him turn around to face the audience

Otoya:

Otoya didn’t do much in either the manga or the anime, but I love the change of lighting here in the anime. It’s another testament that these characters are moving in a 3D space. Otoya moves away from the darkness and closer to Ego’s screen, putting himself in the light.

Yukimiya: Got nothing much to say about him here coz he didn’t really do much

But is that Kurona in the background???

Another thing I love about S2 so far is how 8Bit is no longer afraid to show us prominent characters in the background.

And of course, we can’t forget this extreme angle of Isagi in the anime that happened right after:

Moving on...

Nagi:

Reo watching Nagi pass by was such a delicious touch, but putting Kurona right beside him as well? That’s interesting. They were in the Second Selection together, but we haven’t really seen them interact in the manga. Nice to see 8Bit already laying down the seeds for one of Isagi’s best bitches.

Bachira:

Okay, not gonna lie, Bachira’s introduction disappointed me the most 😔

It’s not bad, per se… It’s just… the s1 formula. A quick bottom-top camera pan, before cutting into the next frame.

But overall, I still think S2 did a good job on the character intros. I just hope they treat Bachira better in the next episodes 🙏

[zk4rlett-h34rt]

Hey yall long time no chattt~

I was sitting here drinking wine being all sad thinking ohhh I wish I could post about the recent Belphegor event. And then I was like why not??

So here we are the most anticipated of Belphegor. 😌 Court is in session and we will now discuss.

To start off I 100% have a bias towards Belphegor as a sin in general I played obm and enjoyed Belphie there we can discuss the whole thing he to the MC later . I read a bit of paradise lost a while back and it’s my fav sin just in general so of course we are pro belphegor in this court 😌.

Belphegor is sooo pretty like when I tell you like he is giving me hey emo boy by Ayesha erotica like yes purrr

And every single thing he said I just relate to. like we just get each other like no one else would. From one tired bitch to another yesss.

Another thing is the scary face I mean yes he freaked me out but 😏😏 ya know . Like AHHHH! But aooowwww 😏😏

And the fit that he wears…yeah… I told you it was giving loser boyfriend vibes 😭🤣 you know the my little pony photo that’s been going around

yeah that’s me and him if I’m having a good day and I put some effort into how I look

Let’s talk about Beleth bc wooo

Okay yes I was sleeping on him pun intended ?. When the characters were first introduced I knew I was going to like Belphegor but Beleth I couldn’t get a read on ….but after the event.Need him. Bibically, Carnally, Ferociously, forbiddenly need him. A man who just takes care of shi- SAY LESS we all need him. Plus he’s a giant cat how could say nooo I love kitties🩷

Don’t fight me but Agares and the other one, his attendant 🤷🏽‍♀️ I couldn’t really get into based on first impressions.

Belphies final form scary … but hot sorry

And lastly the iconic yet simultaneously awful country talk that they do.

Extra:

I always find it interesting when it comes to native Japanese or Korean speakers when they start to speak in dialects and then when it’s translated into English it comes off quite country/southern.

[inactiveanimeblog]

THIS ISNT A FINISHED STORY !! I JUST NEED OPINIONS.

hey y’all, it’s been a MINUTEEEEE since i’ve written anything omg. please read this and let me know if you think i should continue to write this story. it’ll be like two maybe three parts? idk just lmk what you think :)

there is nothing too crazy in this so far (no smut or anything yet. so i guess trigger warning swears?)

bully shikamaru who is so viciously mean to you :(

he makes fun of your glasses and outfit choices. you look homeless.. why are you wearing sweatpants to school? baggy clothes that make you look.. poor?

you’re disgusting in every way, him and his friends are sick of seeing you to the point where even bullying you becomes old.

you’re an absolute nobody.

and that changes come third year of high school.

you never tried with looking good in school because.. what’s the point? it’s a place to come and learn, to prepare for the big world.

but then you think about how you’re sick of being treated the way you do. being talked about behind your back. being beat up for the sole fact of your looks.

so when you decide to shop for new clothes, try new skin care and makeup, a new hairstyle, you see the difference in yourself. the confident oozing from your eyes. your posture straightening out.

you look good.. better than the popular girls that hang around shikamaru and his friends.

first day of school arrives and it’s finally time to make some friends, enjoy high school like every other normal kid teenager.

when you walk in people are staring and whispering.

“is that a new girl?”

“who is that?”

“dude she’s so hot!”

the chattering amongst everyone doesn’t go unnoticed. it’s overwhelming with how much positive attention you’re getting considering how much negative attention you used to get.

and then you walk past shikamaru and the rest of his shitty group of friends.

they all turn around and stare at you. it’s like you’re in a movie and this is your big corny slow motion scene. you walk forward without sparing them a glance. flipping your hair over your shoulder and turning the music in your headphones up.

from the corner of your eye you can see naruto and kiba gawking at you, the popular girls glaring at you, and shikamaru eyeing you with the same bored expression on his face he always has.

you smile to yourself as you walk into class, taking a seat at the back corner and glancing out the window. first day of your third year of high school and so far it’s already been a success.

the home room teacher comes in introduces himself, opting his students to say their name and an interesting fact about themselves. when it’s your turn you stand and place a piece of hair behind your ear. “hi i’m y/n y/l/n.. and uh an interesting fact about myself is i enjoy reading manga.” you bow and sit down. everyone’s eyes still on you as they yet again whisper amongst themselves.

“that’s y/n??”

“she looks so different.”

“what happened to her over summer break?”

lunch period comes around before you know it and you’re debating on leaving school to get lunch or hiding somewhere.

but it’s a new school year right? you should try new things and stop hiding from everyone.

walking out of the school entrance you spot shikamaru and his friends sitting in the parking lot, talking amongst themselves about who knows what.

you only hope they don’t notice you as you scurry by and try to leave.

to your dismay they do see you and sai calls you over. “hey you! get over here.”

fuck. here we go again.

you walk over with your head held high. “is there something that you need?”

“what? you think you’re all high and mighty now because you got ‘prettier?’” the most popular girl in school speaks. ino. you hate this bitch. “you don’t even look that good. all you did was take your glasses off and put on sluttier clothes.”

“are you done yet? lunch period’s only an hour and i gotta get something to eat.” you pass a glance at each of them, who are completely dumbfounded by your change of character.

once no one says anything you make your way out of the parking lot, walking to a near cafe up the road.

(btw this isn’t the end of the first chapter this is only half lol)

[volivolition]

If able, could we get an update on any of your writings? I loved hearing about them (Not forcing, ofc!)

YOU SURE CAN ANON!! again, as with all of these asks, thank you so much for being interested in my work??? i LOVE talking about my silly fics <333

here's a rough timeline of all my fics btw!! i thought it'd be fun to visualize hkgj i'll be talking a little about all the ones i haven't yet talked about!!

Preface, here's all my fic wips as explained before!! and all my writing can be found in my #inland drabbles tag! ask 1, ask 2!

Message to All Bitches: Please Survive - This funny title has been the name for a while, but I think if I had to choose a serious one, it'd be "Should the Stars Go Out" :3 This is my most ambitious project of all my skill wips, I think, due to the medium i intend on telling it in (it is. technically not a fic?? hkjg) this is also my most secretive project hkgj <33 word count(?) is 2908!!

Meet the Parts that Make You - Kim meeting the Skills fic, though it's mostly been abandoned by now hkgj well, not abandoned, i still really love the concept? but I need to get a bunch of these other fics done first (Let's Make It a Home for worldbuilding, Swept Up for character studies) so I can get everything correct, before introducing it all to Kim hkgjg <33 Nevertheless, word count is 5459!

The Sunrise Momentum - Mostly abandoned, but i still froth at the fuckin mouth thinking about it RAUGHHH. HOLY VOWS. waking up, getting out of bed with depression, that part of you that wants you to live, caring about you so so so fucking much. this hypothetical fic hits very close to home <3 i promise i will keep you alive, as long as you're there to wake up every morning. willpower and devotion. volition is kind of everything to me did you know that? hkgjg current word count: 331 <3

Who Are You, If Not... - Esprit De Corps centered fic! i wrote a lot about it in this ask, but basically: hey, if Harry leaves the RCM, what the fuck happens to Esprit? i have some personal feelings about leaving a community that only used you for what you could give them. to keep going back, trying to check on them time and time again, even when they hurt you. it's cathartic to put it in the perspective of this fic, i think :] also i just think the psyche group is fun for discussions hgkjg esprit, my darling community skill!! current word count: 1497

When Two Skills Love Each Other Very Much - again, funny silly title hgkjg but i think its serious name would be, like, Summer Solace or something? brightest day of the year, sunrise parabellum. hypothetical child of volition and echem, she's hope, y'know? small and trying to grow. something to carefully tend to, to keep alive, and in turn she will keep you alive. this fuckin. symbolism raguguhh i love you baby solace you are MY ANGELLLLLLLLL!!!!!! <333

I THINK THIS FIC IS SO SWEET I LOVE THE SKILLS TRYING TO RAISE A KID HGKJG im so.. it's like how Let's Make It Home redux, the skills are kinda dysfunctional, but they've grown and they're getting better too and they're trying to work together towards a common goal, and together they can do it. i think they've gotten a lot better about working together!! and they all care for this kid a lot <333

Here's a snippet because oh my god i am fond of them (not in AO3 ready format though hkjg)

ELECTROCHEMISTRY presses a tentacle to his cheek to prop up the grin on his face - Hey, man, we've never raised a kid before. Give us *some* credit, at least. VOLITION holds Solace to his chest. She sleeps peacefully, starbright face pressed to his armor at his heart - I am. I think -- despite all the mishaps -- we've been covering all our bases surprisingly well. We wouldn't have been able to do this when we woke up in Martinaise, is all I'm saying here. VOLITION looks up and exchanges a fond glance with Electrochemistry - We've... all grown a lot, haven't we?

^ like hey. if you uh. compare that last volition line to the last volition line in the snippet i shared for unstoppable force? where now volition cannot only meet echem's eye, but LET HIMSELF FEEL AFFECTION FOR HIM?? oh my GOD the parallels, the character growth, i WILL PERISH.

i still do think this fic would be better as a comic hkgjg it feels like a good story to cap it off, and if i ever get the rest of these fics done, i'd want to end on it if i could hkjgg <33 LOOK AT THEIR CHARACTER ARCS. LOOK AT THEM FINDING JOY. GIVING THEM A HAPPY ENDING HKJG

that's about it, i think!! thank you for reading!! (and holy fuckin shit if you've read all of these i will. die for you now. i really appreciate anyone who takes the time to read my rambles, i love you hgkjg <33)

[morganandtheemorgana]

Mancini’s Sexist (here’s why)

I’m not bashing him but critiquing his work as I do think while terrible, we also need to acknowledge the misogyny within the series even if it’s horror but it’s becoming very obvious within the franchise and series that Mancini as a writer sucks at writing women in the story as any women that have been introduced had potential to be interesting only to be given the short end of the stick, the low bar or just failed by the writers. Seriously every woman I watched in the franchise and series had something to be interesting to be squandered with best examples:

- Karen was placed into an asylum for most of the franchise and is brought up or mention with her having reduced as just a voice than physical character.

- Kyle is reduced as a stock character who lacks depth or anything alongside with Andy.

- Nica went from an independent badass who can take on Chucky to a character that’s been torture, blamed for the murders, gaslight, sexually degraded to the point her SA is never brought up again as much or be taken seriously by Don or the show as they don’t want “depth”. She’s also sidelined and S3 is painful to watch knowing they’re gonna fumble her getting actual justice. She’s pretty much the whipping child of the franchise and I’m surprised that the fandom sees her as a “useless” character who’s meant to serve as a plushie prize or just for the trio.

- Caroline got retconned into being a psychopath was obviously autisitc but Don purposely threw it out or forgot just for shock value. Another sign of ableism outside of Nica.

- Lexy is constantly sexualized as it goes and made into eye candy but given personality to avoid the obviousness and the fact that she’s a minor

- Bree, Kim, Nadine and Fairchild are killed to be almost bordering on to being meant to serve in a way as a character motivation

- Women of color are brutally killed the most as shown with Bree, Kim, and Clare (Cult) and you look at its more a little graphic

- Is it me or are are the women in the story more villainized into one dimensional characters while the males as shown with Junior and Father Bryce are more nuanced and sympathetic. I mean I like darker female villains but at the same time it needs to be better writing than shitty writing

- Any w/w relationships or women confirmed to be sapphic are fetishized or villainized without any healthy relationship at all as shown with Barb and Jill and co.

- Let’s not forget JT in Seed was made into a full on baby factory and was brought back to make Nica’s situation look “ less harsh” with Nica being “lucky” when not really we both women suffer equally from wrath of Tiffany. Quick side note but I do think disturbingly if the board didn’t let Don chopped Nica’s limbs off, he would have gotten away with a having Nica be given the Seed!JT treatment as a baby factory in reference to Hide and Seek/Cord which is something I don’t want to think about knowing Nica’s mother was pregnant while hostage.

- Controversially I think Tiffany suffers from this as well, hear me out she went from badass complex villain who can be dark but interesting into a dumbass one dimensional bitch who’s pretty much nothing but the fetish who’s a one trick pony to the writers if that makes sense with all the layers that made her a complex villain being gone.

- Charlotte while reasonable is just demonized by the writers to make look less sympathetic when her husband while flawed also gave her a hard time and even cheated on her.

List goes on alongside the men suffering from which I can see that with non other than Andy and Devon but I’m not equipped on giving more expansion to it but what I’m trying to say it’s starting to become more obvious that women are getting more of the low bar with them being reduced into getting brutalized a lot in the series for just shock value or for “edge”

[veliseraptor]

yin yu meta?

Yin Yu was a character who only sort of registered to me on initial read while I was busy losing my mind about...a lot of things, in particular everything about Black Water Arc but also just TGCF as a whole. and then OH NO HERE COMES YIN YU WITH THE STEEL CHAIR out of nowhere, and now that whole side-plot is solidly my second favorite subplot in TGCF.

(nothing beats out Black Water Arc, that one is just a little too perfectly tailored to my interests.)

but like...Yin Yu and his position in the narrative is fascinating to me because he's like. he's a gifted kid with all the pitfalls that already has (that come with being told over and over that you're destined for great things and, for a while, living up to it) but he has the misfortune to end up with the extra-extra gifted kid at his heels, and it happens because of Yin Yu's own attempts toward decency and his desire to be a Good Person (because he takes Yizhen in and acts as his protector and defender when he's a kid).

I think what gets me most about Yin Yu, though, is the specific way in which he snaps. we're introduced to Yin Yu sideways, in the play that Xie Lian cuts off, as a scheming, two-faced trickster, but when the actual story comes out later it's very clear that Yin Yu's banishment isn't a result of him making any kind of considered decision. it's the result of someone who has been keeping a very tight lid on himself for a long time, who prides himself on his restraint and polite manner, abruptly hitting the end of his rope and just fucking losing it.

and losing everything because of it.

and then! the fact that his choice is to go and...literally disappear. he hides his face behind a mask, he makes himself unnoticeable, nameless, anonymous. after spending the front half of his life trying so, so hard to be exceptional (and ultimately falling short), he just swings right to the other end of the spectrum.

THE OTHER THING I LOVE ABOUT YIN YU THOUGH is the fact that he's angry at Quan Yizhen! and he knows it's "unfair" and that it makes him a ~bad person~ (tildes because I disagree with a lot of Yin Yu's self assessment), but he still resents him and doesn't want anything to do with him, even as he also still cares about him enough to not want him dead; that when it comes down to it he won't let Quan Yizhen die. I just appreciate it when characters get to be, like, angry and resentful and it not be an indictment of them as a person. as a petty bitch myself it's nice to see.

anyway not sure this is remotely coherent but. yin yu. what a guy. chewing on him like a juicy bone

[volfoss]

Actually sorry I need to bitch and moan about this. I've been reading the san.dman (do not ever do this to yourself it's a hell unimaginable by anyone) and like... I really think it's interesting how much ga/iman is praised as super progressive on Tumblr for THIS specifically when it has so so much bad in it. About 10 issues in I started a game with how many women were in the issue who survived/were raped/nearly raped and it was insane how little women did not fit into these categories. One black woman lived and the rest were all burned alive. And he then later gave an excuse that it was bc of how Dream imprisoned Nada (16 year old African queen who fell in love with him. Its a very big mess and really sucks) in Hell so of course it influenced the entire world and so every black woman but ONE (who was introduced in the second to last issue) died and died violently. Not even to get into how it plays into the really violent misogyny that he had during the short story he wrote around the end of San.dman (when he was in his mid 30s) that was literally just one graphic rape scene to a minor after another (his snow white retelling is pretty infamous bc of how bad it is just by the summary but let me tell you that it is FAR worse to read). Like there's so so much that I think people do not discuss with his writing and it honestly just is very baffling that people hype him up given well. Everything that happens in San.dman. like the endless alone has a lot of... Well let's say interesting issues. Every single woman dream comes across wants to fuck him (to the point that at his funeral, it's 90% the women he was with/wanted to be with him and then a little from his siblings????), despairs entire character is literally just that she's depressed and coincidentally the most prominent fat character (and also naked all the time. Which they did seem to fix in the show but it's baffling how it's like her, one serial killer who nearly raped a woman before dream stops him, a guy that dies and I guess Abel if you squint for the fat rep) and then desire oh my god. I wish desire was written well instead of here's our nonbinary/gender fluid/genderless rep (cool in theory!!!) and then the fact that it (in the original series, she uses he she and it pronouns) raped a woman is dropped on your head and he is not at all regretful about it and ends up like.. taunting the victims granddaughter??? And delirium my god if there was ever a representation for born sexy yesterday and also being weird as fuck about mental illness it would be her. She's barely clothed most of the time, referred to as very very young most of the time and her mental illness (vague) is just kind of used as a joke a lot of the time? Like it's a funny joke that she doesn't remember stuff or that she's overstimulated or that she's using the wrong words or talking like a child. It's really weird because all of these characters have potential but they aren't really ever treated that way. Me when I get him for every single woman treated horribly!!!!!

[choices-binglebonkus]

Every 2022 Choices Release – Rated on a scale of 1-10

Several people have said that 2022 has been the best year for Choices since 2018. And…as sad as that is, it’s pretty true. Like 2020, 2022’s releases had high highs and low lows. As I’ve said once before, the good books were awesome and the bad ones were really, really, REALLY bad. This post is going to be covering every 2022 book release and rating them on a scale of 1-10 because I haven’t done that on this blog and felt like spicing things up. It’s the new year, bitches!

 Quick disclaimer: to qualify for this list, a book must have been initially released to wide audiences (non-VIPs) in 2022, because we don’t do that VIP shit here. So, for example, Wake the Dead was released on December 29, 2021, so it doesn’t qualify for this list even though it ended in 2022. With that out of the way, let’s dive right in.

Ms. Match: January 28, 2022 – April 29, 2022

Ms. Match’s story itself was not terrible, but the general skeleton of the plot is super overdone. I am sick to death of the plots centered around rising to the top of the competition and blowing everyone else away, and that’s pretty much exactly what Ms. Match does. The idea behind it is cute, though: we join a matchmaking company and compete in matchmaking contests and challenges to determine who the next CEO will be. My biggest complaint is that the love interest is…not great. The Rival Matchmaker is far from the worst love interest, but my god, they’re so cocky, full of themselves, and overall annoying as hell, not to mention totally uninteresting. Quite frankly? The cutest couple in the book, as unexpected as it was for me, was Veronica and our character’s dad. 4/10, not a terrible book, but it was a chore to play through at times.

Surrender book 1: February 11, 2022 – June 10, 2022

There are a lot of bad books in Choices, but Surrender is definitely one of the worst. We play as a vulnerable divorce-seeking woman whose spouse has cheated on her, which got her into BDSM. As soon as I saw that that was going to be the plot, it was all over. It was not a great look for the BDSM community, which is already stigmatized enough as is. But it gets worse. Our love interest is Reagan Thorne, our billionaire lawyer who’s also into BDSM and agrees to dom for the MC and teach her about BDSM even though she’s a client, which already introduces an imbalance of power. Barring the shitty plot, terrible love interest, and horrible misrepresentations of BDSM, the dialogue is all sorts of fucked in the book. Reagan utters some of the cringiest lines in the entire app and calls us such embarrassingly bad nicknames like…ugh, little lamb. 1/10, horrible book, horrible story, horrible love interest, horrible everything. Some of the outfits were cute. That’s it.

Crimes of Passion book 1: April 6, 2022 – July 20, 2022

Crimes of Passion is one of the best books we’ve seen in a while. Sort of like Most Wanted, it has us teaming up with a love interest (in this case, Trystan Thorne) to investigate and stop a string of murders tied to a serial killer. Unlike Most Wanted, however, the murders in this book are much, MUCH grislier and more visceral, and are tied to a cult as we come to find out. The plot was very gripping and every clue we uncovered was exhilarating. I cared about pretty much all of our friends/coworkers: Mafalda, Ruby, Luke, and Trystan. I wasn’t totally sold on Trystan as a love interest, though, and I’m still not. 9/10, really good story, crazy fucking shit, love it. One point off for Trystan because I’m not really into the whole cocky/flirty and stubborn partner pairing, and I think we should’ve been able to romance Ruby and Luke.

Untameable book 1: April 15, 2022 – August 5, 2022

We return from college to help out on the family ranch which has been barely kept afloat by our controlling misogynist of a brother. We spend the whole book sneaking around with Kit Jackson, our bland-ass cowboy/cowgirl love interest because we don’t want to upset our brother. The ranch is on the brink of failure and we also have to deal with that too, but we’ve already had this same plot a whole bunch in other books, so it’s not super noteworthy. That’s it, that’s the book. 1.5/10, no interesting characters, plot is uninspired, dialogue is SUPER cringey, and goddamn it, stop reusing cowboy shit, PB! You’re never going to make it happen!

The Princess Swap: May 13, 2022 - September 2, 2022

The premise of this story is that our character studies abroad for a semester in the kingdom of Monterre, where she accidentally stumbles upon another girl, the princess, who looks just like her. Spoiler alert: they’re twin sisters and don’t know it until much later in the book. The two switch places The Prince and the Pauper style: the princess takes on the role of college student and sorority girl while our character takes on the role of princess. Both grapple with challenges unique to each other’s lives and navigate them as best they can. Yes, the story was cheesy as hell, but you know what? It was a really pleasant read. I liked Devin all right, but only as a friend for the princess, and I didn’t care for Clarke at all. Otherwise, The Princess Swap was a lighthearted, feel-good book. 6.5/10, by no means is this book amazing, but I’m a sucker for princess stories, and like I said, the book was pretty light and enjoyable.

The Cursed Heart book 1: June 8, 2022 – September 14, 2022

Let me preface this by saying that I did not like Kieran at all. They were ugly, creepy, and possessive, and yes, I’m aware they eventually change for the better, but they really left a bad taste in my mouth. The plot was centered around us being claimed by Kieran and eventually trying to find their missing heart pieces to cure them of their beastly form and general hollowness. That being said, I love the rest of the book. The outfits, backgrounds, character designs, and music are all gorgeous. No joke, The Cursed Heart, in my opinion, is the most aesthetically beautiful book in the app. Not to mention, we meet Leaf, who is absolutely precious. 5.5/10, the rating would be MUCH higher, but Kieran really takes away from the book since the plot is centered entirely around them.

The Nanny Affair book 3: June 24, 2022 – November 4, 2022

The only good things about this book were Carter, the twins, and the fact that this was the last book in this wretched series. We deal with Sam’s former wife coming back from the dead and contend with forced, trashy interpersonal conflict with her while we plan our wedding. Sam and the MC’s relationship continues to be toxic as hell, unpleasant to watch, and impossible to root for. Even worse, Jenny and Aditya start their own affair because Sam and the MC have enabled them, and unsurprisingly, we’re forced to continue enabling them. I can’t even do the horrid quality of this book justice so I’m not even going to try. 0/10, yes I know it’s a 1-10 rating list but fuck it, this book is just that bad. As I said, the only redeeming qualities of the book are Carter and the twins, but not even they can get this book any points. Speaking from experience, falling into a hole is more fulfilling than engaging with this content. This book and series as a whole are so transcendently bad that if they were an actual real-life book, it would be a Worstseller, and I’m so happy this two-year-long nightmare is finally over.

Immortal Desires book 1: July 6, 2022 – October 12, 2022

Immortal Desires is kind of a weird one for me. On one hand, the beginning to early middle is so slow and such a huge chore to play through, but on the other hand, the rest of the book plus Gabe and Cas are so awesome. The premise of a vampire serial killer and cult is honestly kinda metal as fuck, but Gabe and Cas are where the book REALLY shines. They’re each other’s perfect foils and I love interacting with them and seeing them interact with each other. Plus, my parrot loves M!Gabe. And, full disclosure, Gabe and Cas were the only love interests I actively wanted to pursue since Tom Sato from It Lives Beneath. 8.5/10, the story’s pacing was kind of fucked but Gabe and Cas are priceless.

Slow Burn: August 19, 2022 – November 25, 2022

Not much to say about this one. Generic and repetitive contest/competition plot, bland MC, uncompelling Big Bad. I didn’t care about Julian/Julia, and Everett/Yvette had absolutely ZERO chill and always got on my nerves. 3/10, super boring and uninspired, Chef Flynt Stop Losing Your Fucking Temper Challenge 2022.

Murder at Homecoming: September 14, 2022 – December 21, 2022

This one really got my attention when it was announced: our character investigates a murder at homecoming, but I bet you couldn’t guess that from the title. Our character is sort of a busybody and they’re absolutely not perfect in any way, but I truly do think they’re the best MC we’ve gotten in a very, very, VERY long time. Also, they’re named after Valentine from The Two Gentlemen of Verona, and I am a shameless sucker for Shakespeare. I also like all the love interests, and I love the non-binary rep we got. The love story between Gabbie Navarro and Joanna Morgan was incredibly tragic and really made me stop and think for a while. But unfortunately, as is the case with most modern Choices books, the ending was very…lackluster, to say the least. 8/10, I love a good murder mystery and the high school setting actually made it considerably more interesting. The ending was a letdown, though.

Laws of Attraction book 2: September 30, 2022 – present

I was originally very worried about this book, because the cliffhanger at the end of book one made it seem like it was going to be an us vs. Martin book. In a way, it is, but Pixelberry really threw us a curveball when we, Aislinn, and Gabe left McGraw-Byrne and formed our own firm. We spend the book uncovering a conservatorship conspiracy which runs all the way up to the mayoral candidate of New York City. I’ve always loved the MC, and they only get better in this book. My only complaint is Joaquin. As someone who has repeatedly hooked up with him in diamond scenes, he is creepy as hell to people who aren’t interested in him. Otherwise, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the book so far, and though it still has one chapter to go, my rating isn’t going to change unless they REALLY fuck it up somehow. 9/10, likable cast of characters, interesting plot and mystery, badass MC, Sorcha fucking Flannery.

The Phantom Agent: October 19, 2022 – present

Not much to say about this one either. The Phantom Agent is basically an amalgamation of Most Wanted and Crimes of Passion. Agent Gray is an incredibly dull love interest and I can’t stand their dynamic with the MC because it’s that super boring cocky/flirty and stubborn partner pairing again. I also can’t stand the MC either because they’re so goddamn annoying. I find myself very bored and unimpressed as I progress through the book and at this point, nothing can save it for me. 3/10, everything is boring. That is all.

Surrender book 2: December 28, 2022 – present

I hate that we have to have TWO Surrender books on this list, but this one unfortunately barely meets the date cutoff. Solely based on the two chapters I’ve read so far, this book is shaping up to be just as awful as the first. 1.5/10, all the same reasons as the first book, but that extra half a point is because I think this book has the potential to improve on the original material. Because let’s be honest here, I don’t really think they could make the book worse.

[mdhwrites]

What Honkai Star Rail Gets Right That Most Turn Based RPGs Get Wrong.

Its enemies.

That might sound basic but I genuinely mean it. This is a lot more complicated than it sounds though so let's first start on the player side of things. One would think that the player characters are the most important element of a turn based RPG like this feeling satisfying and so the lack of options with your cast is a problem. After all, you only get a basic attack, a skill attack and an ultimate attack. That's not a lot of options.

Here's the thing... How many ACTUAL extra options do you have in 90% of other turn based RPGs? Take Persona for an example. Amongst ALL of its abilities, your main options are: Attack. Buff. Debuff. Heal. Big version of any of these. That's not actually a lot of options. This is further compounded by party composition. Your damage dealers end up not having half of this list. Your healer technically can have the whole list but they'll only meaningfully be doing the heal option here or a basic attack... Just like a sustainer in Star Rail literally only can do.

But unlike Persona, 99% of the enemies DON'T SHARE YOUR MOVESET. Persona, and Pokemon (outside of competitive) are severely kneecapped by the fact that the basic nature of your options are also literally all your enemies can do. Dragon Quest even suffers from this but they will give some unique skills to their enemies at least. Persona bosses will also tell the rules to go fuck themselves and introduce quirks but if your bosses are the only ones with quirks, which is the case for most turn based RPGs, that means like 7-12 enemies in the entire game where the fight asks you to think at all beyond "Yeet big number."

So what does Star Rail do about this? I'm not going to say literally every enemy has interesting mechanics. There are literally enemies that go down so easy as to be essentially pointless besides as a small annoyance if you let them live. However, that's not even universally true for those basic enemies.

The best example of the design of Star Rail enemies and encounter design to me goes to the Mara-Struck Cloud Knights and their commanders. The first one is a basic bitch enemy. It has one attack that deals a little damage and inflicts a stackable DoT onto the target. However, it has a quirk no one else so far has: It has a revive. You knock it down once and it gets back up at half health. Suddenly, teams with only one DPS struggle to get rid of them before getting hit. Characters who can remove buffs can clear it without triggering the revive. A DoT character might be able to kill it with their attacks and then their DoT finishes it off after the revive. A couple wrinkles caused just by giving it one quirk.

The Commander takes this quirk one step further though. He will summon two of them during his first round of actions. He will lose health doing this but gain lifesteal on his attacks. So long as any enemy on the field has a revive, the commander keeps his lifesteal and next turn he's going to get back what he lost and much more due to how his specific lifesteal works. You HAVE to pop the revive on the two soldiers or else you're losing ground against the mini-boss you're fighting against. Teams that are only single target find themselves with little time to fix this problem. Teams focusing on DoTs have to face the fact that these soldiers come in too slow to go before the elite's next turn so they can't pop the revives just with their DoTs. So when in an area where you might face this enemy, the game asks "What is your plan?"

And if your response is "Nuke it from orbit because my team is that strong," good job for playing the game so long as to achieve that level of power. The autobattle button is your reward for that investment. It's not a bad thing to be able to overpower the system if you grind things out, not in my opinion at least.

This sort of strategizing though is part of the best turn based RPGs out there. FF X has one of the best turn based systems in all of Final Fantasy mostly because they genuinely every character a role to go against certain enemies. This mostly applies to small enemies but it does mean that even a basic random encounter is more engaging than "Yeet big number" like can happen for other RPGs. Darkest Dungeon gets most of its tension out of the fact that enemy party composition is as complex, if not more, than your own and if you don't know how to deal with each threat, ANY fight can go south really fast. But only because the enemies themselves are interesting.

And as just a small bonus to Star Rail's genre specifically: I think the Gacha ENHANCES these elements, at least early on. Because you need an actual answer, not just numbers, to a lot of fights, who you get early on can vastly change your experience and how you interact with the game. A limited tool set means you need to get creative with how you answer questions the games asks you. This is also why the Trailblazer starting with a DPS and a Sustainer version is brilliant because technically support is optional, damage and health is not so after the second planet, EVERY team will have access to at least the bare minimum they need (and that's without getting into all the free characters you get early in the game like Asta for support or Natasha for AoE healing).

I REALLY want RPG makers to look at Star Rail and take from it. I don't care if they wholesale steal from it. The genre NEEDS to understand that Star Rail isn't good for a gacha game. It is FANTASTIC, even amongst full priced options within the same genre. That should wake some people up and it's easily part of why Star Rail is as dominant as it is despite not being unique like Genshin was. There are SO MANY gacha RPGs just like Star Rail after all.

Pretty much none of them understand the turn based genre and how to make it good like Star Rail does, because Star Rail gets it right unlike so many others.

======+++++======

Btw, for as critical as I got about them, it's not like I'm trying to say Persona and Pokemon are bad. They can be WAY WORSE. They deserve the praise they get but I wanted to highlight what I think they're getting wrong and how it helps explain why Star Rail has gained as much devotion as it has, especially from me who is anti-gacha 99% of the time and thinks Star Rail's storytelling can be kind of shaky at times. Its gameplay is a major part of what has kept me for over a year and I wanted to explore why, especially while I struggle to finish games like Persona or Pokemon.

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead. If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

A Twitter you can follow too

And a Kofi if you like what I do and want to help out with the fact that disability doesn’t pay much.

[amandapen]

2012!TMNT (and my gripes with it)

My first ever long brainrot blog post and it's about the things i dont like in my childhood show

Also, disclaimer : I'm sorry for my bad english, it's not my first language, my vocab isn't as wide as most people and this is also just my ramblings so it might stop making sense at some point

HERE IT GOES

APRIL/DONNIE/CASEY LOVE TRIANGLE (and the romance in general)

Everybody said this already but I haven't shared my thoughts so you get to listen

The romance in the show is not gross and disgusting at worst and not plot relevant at best. Personally, I have no problem with any pairings between any of the turtles and the humans characters, I don't care if the show wants to push a romance between any mutant with any humans at all. Anyone calling this beastiality or zoophilia is incorrect to me, as most of the mutant characters (aside from Karai when she first mutated) have their own mind and can choose for themselves. They are not irrational or mindless beings and 90% of the time is even smarter and more intelligent emotionally than the few human characters that we have.

The only problem with the romance in this show would be the context, and the circumstances of the characters involved in said romance.

For example, let's look at the case of Donnie/April, which is the first time the concept of romance is introduced in the show.

In the first 10 minutes of the first episode, we see the turtles comes up to the surface, and literally right after we see them marvel at the wonderful place that is the the NYC, April comes out and Donnie is immediately in love, exclaiming she is the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. (for the show's credit it was a kids show made in 2012, love at first sight was a very common trope)

Seconds after that, April and her dad get attacked by the Kraang, and Donnie jumps in to save her, the show is setting it up for this to be a thing in the future, making it clear it's not just a one-off thing or a throwaway line for jokes.

In season 2, Casey comes in, and cause he and April is the staple couple of the franchise since 2003, they have to have their moment too. In 2012, Casey is the

And we go through the rest of the show of Donnie, Casey and April in this will they, won't they scenarios also consisting of Donnie and Casey fighting over her at every second they are in the same frame.

What is the problem here?

Well, as other people have said it, this love triangle plotline ruins the characters of everyone involved.

Donnie's crush on April was cute at some point, but it stopped after he started going all stalker-ish, following April and knowing her schedule, going out of his way to plan things to get her to go out with him, getting possessive over her despite her showing she's not comfortable with his advances.

Casey is portrayed as a perverted asshole, whose whole thing is just makes fanservice jokes about April's body or just be horny for her. And when he's not, he's just the tough bad boy who contrasts Donnie, the awkward nerd.

April's character suffers the most from this situation, as from the very first second she is introduced in the show, she is introduced as Donnie's love interest. Her whole character was fixed from that moment forward as just the love interest, and nothing else. And her being thrown around between Donnie and Casey didn't make it better. What was her personality? Her hobbies? Likes and dislikes? All seems invisible as most of her scenes compromises of her being with Donnie, or her being with Casey or both.

Most of the fandom even sees her as a bitch for 'leading on the two guys that liked her', as if she asked for that situation to happen in the first place.

The romance itself isn't good, it just makes everyone look bad. Which is sad, cause outside of the love triangle, these three are great characters on their own (not the best, Donnie is definitely the weakest of the turtles in terms of characterization)

Their implied relationships off-screen sounds so much better, Donnie and April were theorized to be best friends as she seems the most comfortable with him, Casey occasionally helps Donnie with mechanic stuff (shown in one scene in season 3).

The way this plotline is handled isn't good either, it pretty much just dissolves away without any conclusion. No talks between the characters about the situation, no April standing up for herself and telling the two of them she doesn't want to hurt their friendship and she cares for them just the same as she cares from everyone in their group.

What we get was just one episode where Donnie realizes he may have made April uncomfortable all this time, (only took him 2 seasons and a half, look at that, character growth everybody). He apologizes to April and get ready to move on from her and I thought this show is actually gonna be good about it.

And April kissed him, of course.

Fuck you, Nicklodean. Of course, why would I thought a kids show is gonna handle a topic like this maturely, why would I expect such caliber writing from a show that have proved before this that they could write emotionally intelligence moments??

For the other romance subplot, they're whatever.

Leo and Karai was controversial because of the whole, they're siblings so it's incest thing, but they dropped it almost immediately after Leo finds out Karai is Splinter's bio daughter. Their 'romance' started as attraction of something new, and ended like that too.

Mikey and Renet was pretty boring, it was just, well Mikey hasn't had a crush yet and we have another single female character, so why not? They're not bad, but doesn't really add anything to Mikey or anyone since Renet is not from their timeline.

There's also Mikey and Shinigami, but I don't remember that going anywhere. It was just another comic moments instead of adding anything to Mikey's or Shini's character.

Splinter/Tang Shen/Shredder whole fiasco serves only as context as to why everything is the way it is, but nothing really deep as the show didn't really go down that path, we get some few flashbacks scenes, and we get to see what truly happened when the turtles went back in time, but nothing truly game-changing other than the revelation that it was the turtles who saved Splinter back then.

This show has only one good romance and it is...

RAMONA

LOOK AT THEM!!!

They are perfect, probably the healthiest one in the show, and the cutest one consisting of the two (imo) most mature characters in the show.

This is supposed to be a list but this is way too long already, I'll have to talk about the rest in another post.

[charlizard91]

Welcome to our blog!

Okay so this may be confusing to explain, but i'll try my best. My friend Austin has this strange computer that can... connect to the future internet? Ok well to you guys it's not the future. For reference, i am from the year 2006, and yet whenever Austin over here accesses the internet, it's 2023??? Wowzas! Anyway, neither of us are really certain on how this works, but he always uses weird future internet slang that i don't quite get, so he let me create this blog to learn more about the future LOL? But at the same time, i don't think its our future? Cuz if so, then where's my future 31 year old self XD

Oh yeah, and Austin told me i should say my pronouns, which is something i never really thought about. I'm a guy, and you can just call me a he i guess? Sorry i'm still learning about this stuff, my best friend Reverie is transgender, so i'm glad i have her to rely on XD

Anyway, enough rambling from me, i'm gonna let everyone else introduce themselves! Feel free to ask us any questions about anything, this is going to be such a funky future experience LOL!

hey, i'm reverie, known online as elegyEstranger (though all the social networking websites i use are from 2006 lmao). not sure what to really put here, but here are some of my interests: computer programming, making music, video games (nothing anyone would recognize this day), and whatever stuff my friends drag me into.

Yo! I'm Jessica Hendrickson, but everyone just calls me Jess. My parents are pretty strict about letting me be on the interwebs, but Austin let's me borrow his computer in class. Everyone says I'm the big sister of the group, which is only really accurate if you exclude the many new friends we've made recently, haha. You never would've guessed this based on my outfit, but I like to knit, paint, and write, mostly because there's nothing really modern to do in my house. Man, I sure do envy you future dudes.

[OOC: sorry the jessica and austin drawings are a bit messy, i just really wanted to post this before goin to bed xD. expect better drawings and more characters in a few days]

HAHAEHEHEHAEHEHAEHA WHATS UP CHUCKLEFUCKS its me. austin. call me CRAZY or CRINGE but i AM the ceo of funny. the most infamous escapee from the [REDACTED]. AND IT IS MY HOLY MISSION TO BLESS THESE fuckers WITH THE i wear a mask with a smileforhoursatatime!!!!!!!!! THIS IS modern internet humor BiTCH!!! take yo sensative ass back to 2006. laughing emoji laughing emoji laughing em

Okay this is Charlie again... Austin is having another one of his laughing fits. Honestly, him being able to access the internet 17 years into the future is the least strange thing about him. Anyway, we're all super looking forward to your questions, and i hope to finally leave the realm of being a newbie when it comes to internet memez XD

[kinocomix]

untitled project devlog #5: Murder mystery and the art of 50 cent plushies from the sunday market 

A common thread among people who watch shows like NCIS or similar formulaic police shows -where the protagonist is a stoic wall of muscle surrounded by their coworkers who end up being more friends than coworkers- is to predict what’s happening. You frequently hear people go “I knew it was [blank] all along!” Which makes sense, that’s part of the appeal of these shows and how they’re written. You’re MEANT to be hooked in by the incomplete information, that’s the crux of ARGs like the mandela catalogue and marble hornets, lonelygirl15 before Austin Mcconel took over (his words not mine)

sidenote, Sarah from the mandela catalogue is an alternate I’M CALLING IT NOW, this bitch is sus as fuck.

Back to my point, mystery in fiction is a promise made by the author, that promise being that once it’s cemented itself in the logic of the world it inhabits (think how in the mandela catalogue the first few installments were introducing you to the idea of the demons that try to copy people) it’ll slowly unravel itself to the point where its cards are eventually there on the table, and it’s up to you to go back and see how you could have read them better. a good mystery makes the act of solving it equally as fascinating as the solution -that’s why agatha christie tends to be timeless whereas the appeal of shows like NCIS is eventually delegated to the character arcs and set pieces.

In the documentary free solo, Alex Honnold is on a mission to climb El Capitan, in Yosemite National Park with no safety equipment. The actual bit in the documentary where he does the climbing is around 5 to 10 minutes of the 100 minute long runtime of the film. the argument could be made that they could just upload the 5 minute montage of the climb to youtube, and for the extra vicarious thrillseekers low key on the autism spectrum like me, the unedited 3.5 hour long footage of him raw dogging the mountain. But that’s not what documentaries are the same way detective movies aren’t 20 minute podcasts of someone dryly reciting a police file. Documentaries aim to use the language and vocabulary of cinema to discuss everyday ideas. that’s why free solo spends 80 minutes teaching you about climbing as an art, showing you Alex the human, his friends, the shortcomings of other free soloists who died climbing and THEN shows you the 5 minute montage… because at that point the stakes are so high -appropriately so- that the shots of the camera man not being able to look in his viewfinder out of fear of filming someone’s death become intensely real. Alex becomes more than just the visualized idea of the climber, he’s THE climber Alex. The madman who wants to see something done. The friend, the human. It's about narrative delivery, the balance between tension and release. 

This is interesting to consider because the information here is essentially the same, but one feels much more interesting. This same idea is why some science communicators like Hank Green and Bill Nye do a much better job at making you interested in science than most articles on google scholar, it’s the same information but more approachable and digestible. what i”m getting at here is that most things can be very interesting if you put this twist on them, even removed from the context of media: you’re not just talking to your racist boomer uncle, you’re privy to a front row seat into what makes someone grow up to be a racist shithead, which is significantly more interesting. When you shift your thinking into wanting to understand what’s behind the information, life becomes as thrilling and mysterious as a murder novel.

Now let’s apply this paradigm to something like this plushie I bought for 50 cents from the sunday market, and as you’ll see it’s going to raise a very interesting question regarding naturalistic storytelling. 

I did not take a picture of it when I found it but it was very dirty, I had to wash it twice, and you can see how damaged it was, there were tears on the front as well and half the stitches connecting the head to the body were gone.

Here it is after it was fully sewed back up, I opted to highlight the patches because I think it shows the history behind the plush, and because I’ve been watching a lot of Baumgartner restoration videos lately and Julian would take away my fabric privileges if I covered up more than is needed.

also yes, it’s being propped up with an empty jar of tahini, it is delicious and I will not be taking feedback at this time. I want to direct your attention at this Logo here:

now if you search for “Herz’l plush” you get a bunch of disconcerting anatomically correct heart plushies that are sure to stab me in my sleep that are wildly unrelated to the brand. Unsurprising, it’s german for “my heart”

a bit of extra digging and you might come across this german reseller website with some plushies with the same tag, but nothing useful to our search is mentioned…

https://www.kleinanzeigen.de/s-anzeige/spiralplueschtier-schlange-herz-l-pluesch-kuscheltier/1850047318-23-4712

so… that’s a bust. What about the other side of the tag?

okay… not too sure of what to make of that. But that’s what search engines are for, let’s try “seneca”:

Oh it’s… a Stoic philosopher. Okay what about “seneca Hamburg?” 

https://www.ebay.de/itm/125112346754

more ebay listings. great. okay fine, let’s ask the internet for help

I see. surely someone knows SOMETHING.

ok wow this thing is… old.

of course! The german trademark register. I feel dumb. let’s see what’s in there:

oh god oh jesus what is all this why is there a giant block of text is THAT-

okay so they made the plushie but why is it so FUCKING obscure? At this point I remembered I have a German lawyer friend. Everyone needs to have a German lawyer friend.

okay! now we know what to actually search for.

https://www.northdata.com/Terrex+Handels-AG,+Oststeinbek/Amtsgericht+L%C3%BCbeck+HRB+1610+RE

liquidation? so… they never renewed the trademark cause there was no more company. seems like they weren’t doing too well either. looks like at some point they did a merger with another company. Then not too soon later liquidated it… thanks to my dear lawyer friend here, I can tell you this:

“Every company is owned by a larger company, which is the shell company of a different company. At the end, you figure out all companies are owned by like 3-5 companies”

To recap, here’s what we learned about the tag on our plushie:

The plushie is exactly 30 years old as of 2023. This is not to mention that I learned about how companies buy each other like stocks, how there’s something called forensic accounting because of that, that the “China export” thing is just a myth*, and more…

*https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/P-6-2007-5938-ASW_EN.html?redirect

so this is where we ended up:

It’s possible I may have gotten carried away. Setting that aside for a moment, this is what I mean when I say mysteries are good because they make you learn and explore. Sometimes, connections and breakthroughs are made because of things like a plushie that you would have otherwise completely ignored. 

What this has to do with naturalistic storytelling is how it highlights the fact that life is messy. Despite the fact that I hyper fixated on this plush for hours, there’s a lot I still don’t know about it. I have a general overview of the situation for sure, I know it was made in Germany in 1993, and stuff about the company that made it but that’s about it. Good mysteries stay puzzling even after you solve them because LIFE is mysterious. The balance here is how much do you show the reader, and how much do you leave unanswered? The way I’ve personally found that deals with this has to do with format and layered storytelling.

There's one thing that comics do that will always be superior to other media and that is layered storytelling. Not to be confused with how films have a plots and b plots, or how books can choose to switch the focus of the scene onto something different: layered storytelling is when multiple pieces of information are being conveyed at once.

a very straight forward example oh what i mean is how in this section in my comic “Almost home” when Graham is having a conversation with a mysterious person who randomly shows up to see them:

In addition to the conversation being had, there’s this cypher in the background that you would have found the key to prior in the comic. The existence of a parallel piece of information that you can switch your attention to if you so desire is what makes this parallel storytelling. The reason I don’t think this could work in film is because in a comic, you dictate the speed at which the media is occurring. If you stop reading a speech bubble, that doesn’t mean the story is paused, it just means you’re focusing on the moment the panel is trying to show you; and different people do this differently.

In this panel, you’re free to choose whether or not the ciphered text is being narrated or not because focusing on it is optional and doesn't take away from your ability to understand what’s happening immediately in front of you. You’re free to read all of my comics without engaging with a single thing I put in the background and it will still provide a satisfying and emotional experience. Games also do this when done right, an excellent example is “Night in the woods” and how you’re free to ignore most of the town, or sidequests for example. 

Another example is an unreleased project of mine still in early development called “the ice cream men”. The story follows two aliens who get stuck on earth and set about trying to make ice cream, shenanigans and existentialism ensue. In the book there’s an entire second narrative told in the form of writings on walls and random journal entries that they find that they just can’t read because… they’re aliens. To them this is just a big abandoned planet with a single cat on it, but to the reader with the ability to see everything… HOO BOY.

This is something I love incorporating into fiction. I think it gives things more depth if done right, and can act like the mystery of a detective novel or an ARG. Obviously this doesn't always work, sometimes the beauty of a story is its simplicity, or by how in your face it is about being analyzed. Not every idea needs or can even handle the additional weight of parallel storytelling.  And that’s where dogs come in.

but I can’t talk about that now, we’ll have to leave it until next week.

Devlog updates on tuesdays.

[ipromiseimawriter]

WIP TITLE GAME

RULES: post the names of all the files in your WIP folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. Let people send you an ask with the title that most intrigues them, and then post a little snippet or tell them something about it! and then tag as many people as you have WIPs.

Tagged by @zahnie - thank you omg!!

From most recently worked on to least (roughly): (I tend to be pretty literal with these for the most part, if they don't already have a title)

destiel fix it fic - draft 2: is what it says on the tin. I will get to chipping at the end of this godforsaken series, so hELP ME. I do have a fancy lil summary though (this could get edited later but y'know!!):

“What are you doing? Dean, no–!” “You asked me to stop you. So I’m stopping you.” ( As promised, the Empty came for Castiel when his soul called. When it sang a happiness so profound that nothing else could possibly contain it. But Dean wasn’t ready to let go – and if you were to ask him, he’d swear he had failed Cas one too many times. So when the time came, he sank right down with him. )  Chuck could’ve called it, really. But there’s no biblical preparation for their journey through the Empty. It’s all up to them, now, while Sam and Jack (and friends) race to undo Chuck’s damage to the world. Alternating POV. 15x18 CODA/Fix-It Fic for end of 15x18/15x19 & beyond [15x20 who is she lmao]

destiel theatre bitches AU: an incredibly self-indulgent AU where Dean and Castiel are professors for a theatre department at a (made-up) small liberal arts school somewhere in Kansas. Cas is a new arrival to the department who's making waves (and suggesting some batshit shows for production), Dean's the gruff and well-loved scene shop head/tech professor who doesn't like his toes getting stepped on (jk yes he does), and they're gonna be soooo normal about it (me when i lie). nearly everyone and their mom is in this AU. we have fun here

Welcome to Purgatory: an original work (longform)! a story inspired by my time interacting with SPN/with other horror-fantasy adjacent medias, some characters I've had for 1000 years, and just - fucking around and finding out. I def tried to NaNoWriMo it before, to no such luck, so I just chip at it on my own time. I've got a running tag for it if you're ever interested! (old summary)

Jules Herrick went missing without a trace in the early nineties, and his hunting partner, Simon Villanova, never saw him again. We jump ahead about twenty-five years and realize why he should’ve stayed missing. Victor and Amelia are two childhood friends separated by time and responsibility, reuniting for what should be a normal road trip under less fortunate circumstances - the death of a mutual friend. However, the trip is quickly derailed by a strange pursuer that sends them on the run, and into action.  The people who catch up with them to help are not what they expect. The lives their families have led were kept from the two for safety. But between a rogue demon, its lost hellhound, and a secret organization hunting down the missing man and his cohorts, one question must be asked: What does Jules Herrick want with the end of the world, as they know it?

go catch a sunset (stanford-era dean/the outsiders bullshit): a Stanford-era Dean fic (which has 2 chapters up!) that I sort of use as my lil swimming pool for figuring ideas out? Mostly just speculation and big character thoughts on that very vulnerable time. I'm v much looking forward to introducing both Bobby and Cassie soon, getting some Winchester drama, and picking at those good backstory characters.

mama barracuda (WIP title - eldritch horror type shit): an original work (short story). "There's a monster in the woods, just off the beaten path from Hope's home. She isn't the first to be trapped into position of Keeper for the Barracuda of the Backwoods, but she is the first - in a very long time - to truly understand her. They call her Mama." So essentially - monster collects teeth for her own rotting mouth. Sisyphean effort on the Keeper's part. Symbiotic parasite/mother-daughter type shit. LOTS TO UNPACK.

honorable mention: a bunch of plays and other lil bits that would take me too long to describe <333

tagging: @subtlefires, @disabled-dean , @butchabouttown, @luckshiptoshore , and anyone who wants to play! (this includes all my friends who may see this and go "hey i have wips". give it to me. i want to see it)