#but also he has an AI so technically yes

[martinsorbit]

Would Sun Fnaf doing ur homework count as submitting AI generated art

oh, the technicalities of it all.

[lunarriviera]

yet another shen yi meta [uts2 spoilers]

hi hey hello everyone i continue to be tormented with obsessive thinkings about s2 Shen Yi so i must holler about them/him some more, feel free to stop reading if you have not watched through approximately episode 11 which is where i still am. it's taking me longer to watch because i keep pausing to rewind/screenshot and/or weep in anguish about Him and What He Is Going Through. and how NO ONE IS PAYING ATTENTION. or insufficient attention. cf. Ryan Gosling in the Papyrus sketch screaming WELL IT WASN'T!! ENOUGH!!

[more. much more. behind the cut]

let's start here, with shen yi's artwork. in this scene he competed with AI to paint a chosen image and, surprising exactly no one, he won, partly because he's brilliant but tbh mostly because AI art is garbage and always adds dolphins, rainbows, and hands with six fingers.

but here's the thing: is no one going to question this? does anyone think to themselves "ah yes, shen yi is absolutely the BEST person in the world to make a painting in 30 minutes that depicts, quote, a lonely man on a beach." so here is this miserably hunched, despairing figure, surrounded by murky howling early-picasso blue, LOOKING IN FACT QUITE A LOT LIKE SHEN YI HIMSELF—even dressed like him (in the snowy white and dainty pastels he seems to favor this season)—and not a single person thinks: huh, wonder if this guy's okay?

in fact s2 seems to be repeated evidence of the fact that shen yi is Very Much Not Okay, and yet no one is really paying attention. he supports everyone else emotionally and they all seem to assume he either a) has no emotional blowback to deal with, or b) can deal with it himself unaided somehow. (through painting, maybe? but have you seen what he's painting lately? e.g. monstrous abusive parent figures, in some kind of breathless fugue state during which he can psychically hear lines from someone else's traumatic childhood?) he goes to li han's house to help her, which is so like him, and he says:

oh! you might think. well, maybe he will self-disclose a little? tell li han about some of his own personal difficulties that he's had to overcome, just to bond with her, get her to open up? HAHAHA ARE YOU NEW HERE, of course he doesn't, he just listens to her while she sobs out her tragic backstory, gives her a tissue, relates her struggles to a vaguely terrifying metaphor of his own device about a sealed room filling up ineluctably with floodwater, then smiles and takes her out for pizza. (totally unrelated but wow the product placement is heavy-handed this season. xiaomi! pizza hut!)

since we're talking about the li han case, consider this moment, too, when he interprets someone's house-person-tree drawing. does no one ever think, "for someone who talks constantly about love and connection, how interesting that shen yi has no family, refuses to date in very pointed and deliberate way, and lives alone with a cat."

shen yi knows all about love! never shuts up about love! constantly dispensing bromides about what real love should be like! and wakes every day ALONE from horrific guilty nightmares ft. creepy small girl in blood-red dress, pls will no one help this man pls he's drowning.

couple more bits and then i swear to god i'll shut up i'm starting to feel really stupid. but first consider this little story, in three parts:

"an image of despair" um okay well…technically it's just a dead body, albeit after a fairly grisly stabbing, but sure go off i guess

2. du cheng: wow even for you that was unusually poetic and weird

3. also du cheng: back to investigating the murder i guess [wanders away]

this kind of thing happens again. and again. either no one notices assorted horrified/devastated expressions on shen yi's face (in the way of classic extradiegetic reaction shots, where the camera sees them—we see them—but none of the characters onscreen do) or, when du cheng does notice, he's immediately distracted by his actual job, and/or the fact that he doesn't really know how to help his partner, because lbr he has all the emotional intelligence of a pony.

one more mini-story in three parts, and then i really will put a sock in it:

shen yi: why, what did i do. why are you looking at me like that

2. du cheng: bc you just lied your whole entire face off with alarming unsettling proficiency, since when are you that good at being dishonest

3. shen yi: hehe

in an earlier episode we also saw shen yi shouting at a suspect in the interrogation room, so convincingly that afterwards du cheng admits, you scared me. lol! says shen yi in carefree manner, i learned that from you! haha! agrees everyone, and they go about their business.

but ghastly things keep happening to and near him. at least once per episode, shen yi makes a face like this, because people are jumping off cliffs in front of him or abruptly smashing things with hammers or just lashing out with all kinds of antisocial behaviors in his vicinity:

to be fair, he has other expressions. for instance he also repeatedly employs his patented creepy ruthless smile, of the "i am going to fuck you up" variety, an expression reserved especially for criminals:

as well, i'm also leaving out all the ridiculously adorable/domestic scenes with him and du cheng, in which they share candy, roast each other about assorted nonsense, briefly co-parent a child, and, you know. are just generally disgustingly married. but that's a different meta.

also, admittedly du cheng does SAY things. he says, "are you still having trouble sleeping," he says "do i not care about you?" and "don't push yourself so hard" and "if you run into troubles, don't try to take them on alone." (i am sparing you all these screenshots since this is a meta about shen yi but trust me i have carefully accumulated every single shred of evidence in which du cheng is protective.) but, as frequently as du cheng expresses concern, he also just keeps clapping shen yi on the shoulder in a brotastic way and then strolling out. which i fear is just not going to be adequate. ("i don’t think this is literally papyrus. maybe that was the starting point but they clearly modified it?" "well whatever they did, IT WASN'T!! ENOUGH!!")

i leave you with two final images of shen yi, seen here continuing to be very much Not Okay, and to quote the bernie meme, i am ONCE AGAIN ASKING YOU, drama, is anyone going to care enough about this man to stop him going over the edge of the cliff with Evil Art Critic Eugenicist Moriarty Weasel Man? because he will, he will do it. because he's lonely and he's misunderstood and he's—

[cane comes out and drags me offstage]

[chevelleneech]

The whole AYS show seems like Jimin is trying to make things go back to how they were in the past with Jungkook (i.e., in 2020/21), and Jungkook is just going along with it for the sake of it and trying to enjoy it. Now, either they are holding back in these episodes or something, but there, I cannot see even the slightest bit of affection, which can be classified as romantic or maybe romantic in any sense. They just seem like 2 bros (not in a homophobic way, but in a bestfriends for a decade goofing around way) hanging out. He is enjoying it for sure, Jungkook I mean, but he is definitely not the one putting a lot of thought, or some actual good conversation during trips, its like going through motions because someone invited you. Its mostly jimin trying to make the atmosphere feel good.

Also, another unpopular opinion is that they, in Sapporo episodes, just feel sadder? anxious? or, um, discontent (most probably because of the military), but it probably would have been better if they went to Sapporo without cameras again.

I disagree. Your opinion is yours, but I think they appear to be having fun, and ignoring how much Jungkook is laughing and literally saying out his own mouth that he’s happy, makes no sense.

Is it possible Jimin is trying to rekindle something? Yes? But we don’t know that. They haven’t talked about anything of the sort, so I don’t see the point in letting that color your view of the show. I’ve said it before and will say it again, it’s fine to have your theories and such, but you can’t slap them on what we’re being shown and decide that’s what it is.

Yes, I think they’re dating so my opinions on how they act are biased in that regard, but I am also able to watch the show as it is. Dating or not, Jimin and Jungkook both have been happy in each episode we’ve seen them spending time together in. The very first one is the only one where, imo, we saw hesitancy or nerves more like, but they also gave an explanation for why. They hadn’t seen each other, JK was working, and Jimin planned it yet wasn’t sure it was a good idea.

That latter bit alone insinuates to me that they had something deeper prior to hiatus, and were nervous about being together again in a serious one on one type of trip, but by the end of Connecticut they seemed fine. Constantly pulling on the “JK seems to be going along for the ride” thing is again, very Tkkr minded. Jimin planned it and JK said yes, so yes, technically he went along with it. However, Jungkook said himself by the end, he wanted to keep doing it. Jungkook said himself, he wanted to go back to Tokyo/Japan in general with Jimin, because they had such a good time the first time (GCFT).

I get it, you guys want a reason to explain away emotions of theirs you don’t understand, but what’s the point? They are telling us they’re happy. They’re telling us they’re having fun. They’re telling us the memories they’re making together will be what they think back on once enlisted. You’re digging for reasons to claim they’re not being truthful, and that’s why a different version of the show is forming in your head.

I’d also like to state a strong opinion here, that plenty of people hate to see discussed: Jungkook’s personality has always been “disinterested”, and it is likely because he’s neurodiverse. Solos of other members, and JM and Jikook antis alike have been saying the same thing over and over for years about how he acts rude, drifts off, is selfish, overly competitive, etc., as a reason for why they think he dislikes Jimin, dislikes this or that member, is actually in love with Tae, and so on.

Jungkook has even said these things about his personality, and it’s been co-signed by the other members. So while it’s possible he’s never been checked for anything, the truth is whether he knows or not, the parts of his personality you all keep harping on as proof of him “going through the motions,” are common amongst people with autism and ADHD. It’s why fans with them have said for years he reminds them of themselves or people they know. It’s why I say it.

I’m not diagnosing him, but he does share traits, and it isn’t new. Jungkook has always had moments of appearing standoffish and unbothered, yet when he talks about things he did during those same moments, he recounts them with positive words and smiles. Not only that, but every person who has ever had anything to say about JK, has used positive words to discuss him. They say he’s quiet and shy, then proceed to talk about how kind and present he is, meaning when JK is doing things he considers work, he dials in. He puts in effort to always be present and in the moment. Which he and the others had also already told us he does. Jungkook has to put in effort and be very interested in something to get it done. When he’s not working, he has trouble focusing on things that don’t hold his attention fully.

So it is impossible to decide he’s not having a good time with Jimin, just because the same personality he’s has over all these years, remains his personality. You guys just keep ignoring the fact that he has told us it takes effort for him to focus on things. It’s either that or you guys choose to use it against one specific person, which is Jimin.

You like to believe his lack of overt excitement and interest is because he doesn’t want to be with Jimin, when he is telling us that isn’t true. Jeju showed us a lot as well, of how completely blind almost, the members are to JK’s personality, and various other travel shows of theirs have told us the same. They don’t blink twice at his ticks and stims, they don’t really scold him for his dry and blunt reactions and responses, and they laugh off his competitiveness.

Jungkook, and I say this kindly, appears to be a lot to handle. He has a very polar opposite type of personality. When he’s dialed in, it’s difficult to get him to take breaks, to stop criticizing himself. When he’s playing games, he gets really into them and is loud and has a desire to be the winner. When he’s in a quieter mood, he seems to not speak at all and zones out, and wants to be left alone. That is a lot to adjust to, because from all we’ve seen, it doesn’t seem to happen once in a blue moon. It’s a day to day thing, if not hour to hour.

I even recall a time back in 2020 I believe, where it was talked about Jungkook was overstimulated by something during a rehearsal, to the point where he couldn’t participate in their dress rehearsal. He had to keep on the same clothes he’d been wearing and sweating in all day. I don’t remember which stage it was, or else I’d be more specific, but yeah.

Point is, I think the members know who he is, and I think JK has shown us who he is plenty. The members have also shown us who they are, and it seems they all have taken time to learn how to best support each other and their needs, whatever they may be. And speaking specifically of AYS, I simply do not think Jimin would bother rekindling old times if he knew Jungkook truly wasn’t wanting to do it. He’s known him for too long to push his boundaries that way, knowing it would be easily seen in camera how disinterested he’d be. Nor do I think JK would have planned Sapporo if he didn’t really want to do it.

Again, even if we ignore him possibly being neurodivergent, his personality remains what it is, and the members know him. So why force him into something, knowing he’d have to accommodate or makeup for JK’s lack of interest? It doesn’t make sense to me.

Now, I know I got a tad off topic and long winded, but I feel like what was said was necessary. Jungkook isn’t acting any different to how we know him to act, and he is repeatedly voicing his joy as he spends time with Jimin. Ignoring the literal words coming out of his mouth in favor of deciding he is feeling something else, and then taking that something else as reality… that’s on you.

[hamliet]

Oshi no Ko's Angel of Light: Kamiki Hikaru

So, I wrote a review of Oshi no Ko previously, just not on this blog. I talked there about the meaning of Hoshino Ai as a name (it's literally hoshi no eye, Ai spelled in katakana to reinforce that it's a loanword, meaning starry eye, and of course, eye/ai is a homonym for love) and how Oshi no Ko uses wordplay and puns to introduce its themes.

Naturally, I wanted to talk about the other parent, whose name is just as significant.

Kamiki Hikaru is literally "god of light/shining god." Well, okay, sort of. It's technically "kami of light," and kami doesn't translate super well into English. It's often referred to as a god in Shintoism, but it's not quite the western perception of a god. Spirit is another popular translation.

Of course, this references the supernatural themes of the story, as well as Hikaru's role. See, "angel of light" is what the Christian Bible calls Lucifer, the Christian devil. Pretty fitting for Hikaru's role in the story as the main villain.

But wait! There's more! Lucifer itself, as a name, refers to the planet Venus, known as the morning star. Which, of course, is the "star" we see in the story associated with Ai.

(Yes, the story is very much using distinctly Christian allusions alongside Shinto ones.)

Hikaru, like Lucifer, is known to, well, want everything for himself. That doesn't mean he wants all the worship of the world like Lucifer literally did according to mythology. No, instead it's far more insidious but no less disturbing: he sees himself as entitled to dictate how the world runs. He decides whose life is worth living, and makes others pay for mistakes of people they don't even know. He's playing God, in other words--exactly what Lucifer did to fall from heaven in Christian mythology (it's not actually super biblical hence why I'm using "mythology").

Lucifer is also called "Satan" obviously, which literally means "accuser" in Hebrew. That's kind of the perfect summary for what Hikaru sees himself as: he's visiting his hatred of an abuser he has every right to hate on everyone and everything that remotely reminds him of her.

The thing is, as said above, Hikaru does have the right to hate Airi, just like Aqua has the right to hate him. But following the path of revenge is Not The Way.

So, is Hikaru Satan?

No. He's a person.

The Path To Hikaru

Hikaru is not all that different from the other characters we know and love--Ai, Ruby, Kana, Akane, and especially Aqua. Fitting since they're all idols of sorts (yes, Akasaka is constantly using religious references to add social commentary to the idea of an "idol" as a false god/object of worship). They're also all actors.

Hikaru is what Aqua risks becoming. No, seriously. Hikaru was traumatized as a child via rape that led to the creation of a life.

As a result he's pretty anti-life as a whole, and especially anti-woman. He's constantly seeking revenge on women, hence his murder-happy spree. The problem is that he's not seeing these women as individuals: he sees everyone and everything as a representation of Airi, the person who assaulted him.

Also, society as a whole's attitude towards male victims of sexual assault, especially male victims of attractive women, means that Hikaru would not be seen as a victim. One of OnK's major themes is how messed up society is and how it dehumanizes people via fitting them into roles, and this is a perfect example of the harm that can come from it. Hikaru would be seen as a boy, and all boys clearly want sex. A famous actress slept with him? Lucky him! Even though this never came out publicly, Hikaru absolutely knew this was the case and it certainly plays a role in his grudge against the world.

Even though Airi is dead (probably as a result of him provoking her husband by revealing that he wasn't the father), he still isn't satisfied. No, Airi is still everywhere. Killing the perpetrator, making them pay, did not erase his trauma.

If Aqua kills Hikaru, his trauma will likewise not be erased. Not his trauma as Gorou, not his trauma as Aqua. Hikaru's death will fix absolutely nothing in his life besides stopping more murders, but there are ways to do that that, y'know, don't involve killing. If Aqua kills Hikaru, he will lose the best part of Gorou (valuing life) and the best part of Aqua (the future Ai wanted for him, a future with Kana and Ruby).

Aqua, You are Your Father

Aqua, you are your father. It's almost like the entire series has been trying to give you this message and you keep ignoring it. (By the way, because I know I'm going to get asks about this, I am NOT saying Aqua and Hikaru are moral equivalents. Not at all. I'm just saying that Aqua is walking a path that will end with him being just like Hikaru if he doesn't get shoved off said path.)

From being the violent stalker who attacks someone who has never felt loved in his first acting job after Ai's death to scenes like this:

The story is asking Aqua to take a good long look at himself, and he's trying desperately to avoid doing this. Why? Because he's also playing God, same as his father, same as Satan in Christianity. He thinks he is responsible for everything; a natural, childish attitude that people grow out of as they age.

Of course, Aqua is not nearly as toxic in this as Hikaru--he's not attacking innocent people--but the root of this is still a belief that he somehow controls what happens, when he doesn't. He doesn't at all.

Aqua, too, is just a person.

But Aqua struggles to understand what it means to be a person, to be Hoshino Aquamarine.

He struggles to see other people as people, too. This ranges from sabotaging Ruby's auditions to how he treats Akane to his protecting Kana without considering what she wants. It's been brought up multiple times in the story so far:

Aqua also fundamentally does not see Ai as a human being, either. Unlike Ruby, who calls Ai "Mama," Aqua only ever calls her "Ai," her persona. Aqua and Ai are foils to Kana and her own mother, in that Kana's mom lived through Kana only to abandon her, and Aqua is living through his mom... but ignoring what she would actually want.

(Ruby isn't flawless or perfectly healthy, and the story certainly doesn't frame them as good twin bad twin, but Ruby's overall worldview is absolutely more in line with what the story wants to endorse.) That's why we have lines like this, where Ruby reveals that she has a healthier view of their mother than Aqua does. She knows Ai was flawed.

This is extra notable because he has 0 problems calling Hikaru his father. It's almost like Aqua is drowning in self-hatred, in feeling unloved, in the idea that he brings bad luck just by existing.

He'll call out Ruby for her negative traits, but Aqua thinks he deserves them. Aqua dehumanizes himself, the same way he dehumanizes Ai, and he has to see both his mother and himself people before he can step off this path.

Essentially, what he tells Ruby here is exactly what he needs to realize, but he has not done so.

The root of Aqua's God complex is that he cannot move past his trauma. It's actually psychologically realistic that a child who experienced such an event would be stuck in a childish mindset wherein they feel guilt for not being able to save their mother.

But it's not just Ai that Aqua couldn't save. It's Sarina, too. She is the one who introduced him to Ai, after all. He didn't move on from her death in his past life, either, which can probably be traced back to his own tragic birth circumstances--the idea that he only brings death, because his mother died giving birth to him. Gorou even states that he became a doctor to help people like his mother, but the point is also that he wanted to bring life, not death.

Except, he isn't God. Neither Gorou nor Aqua are. He can't save Sarina, and that isn't his fault. But Sarina ends up okay as Ruby, not through his own intervention. Aqua couldn't save Ai, but that's not his fault.

The point I'm making here is that Aqua needs to heal the hurting child within him. The story has also brought up the theme of children suffering at the hands of the entertainment industry numerous times:

His path towards healing would involve taking a long look not just at the hurting child in himself, but the hurting child in Hikaru, too. Which is not the same as excusing. After all, we already saw what happened with Aqua thought his dad was dead: despite the supposed justice and his proclamations about being free, he was still every inch the trapped, terrified, traumatized child afraid to live. Killing Hikaru won't be any different.

Becoming Human

So, is there hope for Aqua?

Yeah. A ton of it.

Despite the tragedy of Ai's story, every other arc has ended optimistically. The story's optimism, also, is fundamentally rooted in humanity. Every character, even the ones who seem like exploitative jerks like the producers who edited Akane to look bad and the self-centered mangakas, end up having their thoughts and motives explored, and we see where they are coming from. Not only that, but they have the best of intentions.

Frankly, this is true to life as well. Precious few people see themselves as the villain. Almost everyone thinks they're doing the right thing. It's very human.

The end of the reality dating show arc is kind of what I expect in the end here. There, all contestants came together and pooled their unique individual talents to exonerate Akane. I would expect Ruby, Miyako, Kana, and Akane (who herself has finally realized that she can step into her own personhood instead of trying to be Ai/whatever Aqua needs and vowed to stop him) to come together to save Aqua from himself.

Aqua is incredibly loved, and he doesn't seem to understand this. Love is what enabled Ai to die smiling. A lack of love, feeling undeserving of love, is what torments Sarina/Ruby, Aqua, Kana, and more. The bastardization of love is what torments Hikaru.

Love allows someone to be themselves, truly, to individuate. This is what Aqua needs to learn:

He also doesn't need to earn the love of those around him, nor the love of Ai. She loved him just because he was her son, and all she wanted was for him to be happy and to live.

Imo, it's pretty unlikely Akasaka plans to end the series with Aqua becoming Hikaru 2.0. My guess is that Hikaru will be stopped because of Aqua, and he'll even likely die, but not at Aqua's hand. I suspect Akane, Ruby, and especially Kana (the one person Aqua has consistently placed above Ai) will help save Aqua from himself.

[creehd]

Losing my mind over EXO! They're 'undercover' technically in the bot fighting ring, right? Do they work with a human to keep their cover? (Also what pronouns for EXO?)

Also, what that tongue do? (I phrased it silly but that's a really cool tongue for a robot, why was he built with it, does it have a purpose in world or was it just fun design?)

AAHH thank you for askin!! I could definitely cook up some more for em if you guys have questions!

But yes! All pronouns! I tend to call him He though, he quite literally does not care about gender. And! He is technically undercover, he's an intelligent AI , and that, is banned in botfighting <3

However EXO is an uptight piece of work who thinks he's superior to people, so he pretends to have a partner, when in reality- its just him in a trenchcoat. He's playing both sides but he cares very little for the.. performance aspects of a fight. Where JAK is charismatic and loved by fans outside the ring, EXO is NOT. Very little is known about him other than he has PHENOMENAL fight stats.

As for his tongue.

EXO is an assassin model, so, naturally, his makers made him with the means of disposal as well.

RANDOM DISCLAIMERRR

This is NOT for vore fetish reasons just thought it was a cool in world design <3

His stomach (looks like a lava lamp yeah?) Is actually filled with a highly corrosive acid that can dissolve a cadaver in minutes. He has teeth made to break down and tear prey as well. He has an artificial esophagus that's elongated to fit larger (or human sized) bodies into his chassis.

However ! Since EXO is a discontinued model, and he has totally renounced his model title, he does not consume things often, that's why alot of people are unaware he has a mouth! But also its a fun design :] since he doesn't eat he just looks like a big lava lamp

And yes I know about the vore implications I do not care he was originally made to kill and consume corpses and now he never/rarely eats so he gets a PASS.

Questions or suggestions? Ask box is open!!

[chrispywhispy]

First Kiss

I felt like writing for some reason and decided to write about one of my oldest ships, NoiCle from DMMD. Yes, a DRAMAtical Murder fanfic in 2024. There’s not much involved in here except for some kissing. Anyway, I just wanted to share these two 💚💛

Electronics has always been Noiz’s forte.

Whether it was hacking, fixing AI, or participating in Rhyme, he could do just about anything as long as it involved technology. It wasn’t a surprise when he saw a discarded and half damaged android while passing by a dingy alley. He’s fixed robotic pets before, but most definitely not a full scale model of what looked like a human, with half of its face torn off to reveal mechanical innards. Noiz was eager to explore new territory, and maybe even stave off some boredom, so he took the damaged robot and began working on it for the next few months. 

His hard work of staying up every night to monitor and run diagnostics was rewarded by a chipper voice as the android introduced himself by the name of “Clear,” now fully functional and repaired of missing skin and wires. The robot was a lot more expressive than he ever could, which made him equally amazed and jealous of his bubbly personality. Seriously, the guy was so lifelike, you’d never think he was all gears inside from all the programming behind the scenes. 

And speaking of personality, Noiz wasn’t sure if following him around his messy apartment was also part of it, but he didn’t seem to care either way. Clear just liked to observe him playing games on the hologram or fixing something on screen. He would also ask multiple questions a day, almost akin to a toddler with a mind of his own. Well, he did fix him. It’d be natural for the robot to be curious about anything and everything from someone who fixed him. 

Noiz also taught Clear the wonders of food, (not that he needed to eat but whatever,) things he enjoyed, testing out his features and whatnot. He had to admit, he was slowly falling more and more interested in Clear. He would deliberately insist on cooking for him instead of ordering take out pizza, and would even drag him outside for some fresh air. The industrial district wasn’t really as fresh from where he lived, but walking beside Clear’s unusual cheerfulness made the atmosphere ten times more enjoyable than being alone like he always was.

Today Noiz felt particularly lazy and stayed inside, laying back on his worn couch to click the TV’s channels on with a swipe of his thumb on the remote. Clear joined him soon after, just a comfortable distance of half a meter. Not that he was calculating. He just felt the shift of the couch move from Clear’s weight, who was inching closer by the second. 

“Noiz-san?”

Noiz mumbled a short hum of acknowledgment to let Clear know that he was listening, anticipating whatever he wanted to ask this time. He admired that Clear was respectful with his ‘-san’ but it was technically unnecessary given that he was younger than most mechanics out there.

“Why do you have piercings on your face?” 

“I just think they’re cool.” Not exactly a lie. He once saw a piercing shop and returned every few weeks or so to get more wherever part of his body could reach.

“Do they hurt?” 

Well that was a new one. The blond turned to face Clear’s ever so curious gaze, finding nothing but pink shiny eyes full of wonder. It’s not like they ever hurt on the day he got them. He couldn’t even feel an ounce of pain no matter how many injuries he got. 

“Not really. Why?“

“It just sort of looks like it does since it goes through your skin and all.” Clear points to one of them, his head tilted slightly to the side.

Eh, it wasn’t the most gruesome one. Probably even tamer. Worst case scenario would be a knife to the skull. That’d be a great piercing for sure. 

“Y’get used to it after a while. It makes for a nice permanent accessory so you don’t have to remove and put it on all the time.”

This time the android tilted his head back to its original position and put a hand on his chin in a classic thinking pose. What could he be thinking about anyway? Staring at his piercings so much… Actually, on second thought;

“If you’re so curious about them how about I show you what they can do?” 

Clear breaks his pose, only to be followed by wide beaming eyes. It was almost sparkling. He was sparkling. “Really? Please show me, Noiz-san!” 

Noiz sighed and stifled a smile of his own. He’s already got him hooked on, might as well play along right? To start, he points at the ring piercings on  one of his brows.

“You see, these make me look more expressive. I don’t express as much emotion as you so I got them.” He received a fascinated nod by Clear, to which the other replied; “That’s true. It makes up for the rest of your eyebrows. They’re very short.” 

He raised said pierced brow. “Hey, just because it’s short doesn’t mean they make up for it, idiot.” 

So what if his brows were short? They’ve always grown that way. He felt weirdly offended and pinched Clear’s cheek out of impulse. 

“O-Ow…!” Noiz allowed himself to grin this time as Clear scrunched his face up with a pout. “What was that for!” 

“Making fun of my brows.” He didn’t mean it in the slightest, but he enjoyed Clear’s reactions. Their banters always came as naturally as the wind. 

“Now these,” The blond pointed to the studs horizontally across his nose bridge. “They help me sneeze.” He glanced down Clear’s hand, prying one off his lap to replace his own. “Go on, try and pinch them.” 

As hesitant as he was just after being pinched playfully, Clear placed his index and thumb on the cold metal and waited. Noiz faked himself a sneeze as soon as Clear’s fingers touched the studs, eliciting a small gasp from the android. “See?“ He pointed to the last piercings on his face just below his lips. “Finally, these help me speak when I’m kicking ass. Cool, isn’t it?”

Today was probably the most he’s ever spoke in his life playing for a simple prank. Of course, whatever he said was total bullshit, but the way Clear attentively listened and observed with such focus, taking in every fact like some newfound discovery, made it hard to break the truth to him. 

“Wow… that’s amazing, Noiz-san!”

The android cheerily clapped his hands with a bright smile, almost as blinding as the sun. “Do you have more?” Clear’s lashes fluttered with eagerness, face inches away from his. 

Oh he does alright. 

“Well… I have this one right here.” 

Noiz stuck his tongue out to show the piercing embedded there, drawing out a look of astonishment and a hint of pink of the android’s face. That gave him an idea. 

“Wanna test it out? You did help me sneeze.” 

That seemed to make Clear blink, eyes glued to his tongue as he drew out a slow, “What will it… do?” 

“You’ll see.” At this point the distance between them was almost nonexistent, and If he was going to hell for this, Noiz will make sure it’ll be heaven for him and Clear. So Noiz leans in for their first kiss. It wasn’t any different than a human’s, and Clear’s adorable squeak to intimacy pleased something in him he never thought he had. 

The blond also takes the opportunity to study Clear’s features up close. He’s worked on him for months but the robot never failed to mesmerize him with how human he looked. His hair, albeit synthetic, was silky smooth to the touch. His porcelain skin soft and pale with two moles adorning his chin. His pastel pink eyes crowned with long snow white lashes carefully laced with precision. This unit was a work of art. His cheeks were now flushed the same color as his eyes at the contact of Noiz’s warmth. He was even able to react to sensations and temperature. 

Noiz began to test the waters by running his pierced tongue against Clear’s soft lips. The android made a sound of surprise and tentatively parted his lips to let Noiz enter, tasting and feeling the piercings he was oh so curious about. Truth be told, the only sensation he could feel was his tongue, and he hadn’t expected Clear to taste oddly sweet. Did he eat candy or was he just naturally tasty? Either way, Noiz wasted no time exploring what Clear had to offer, enjoying this manmade masterpiece letting out soft hums and pants. 

He pulled the android closer by the cheek, while the other hand snaked around his waist. They would’ve gone hours making out if it weren’t for the need to breathe. Noiz had to pull away much to Clear’s dismay.

“How’s that?” 

Clear almost wanted to go for a second round but decided to lick his lips instead, missing the taste of Noiz already. The cold metallic dud on his sensors made the experience strangely addicting.

“It was… good.” Good enough for him to bashfully turn away, making the blond snicker. “You have the nerve to look away from our first kiss.”

“E-Eh?!” 

Clear’s blush had already darkened into a nice shade of tomato red since they locked lips, now impossibly redder than ever. Noiz found it fun to tease this little white rabbit. 

“This really is my first kiss with Noiz-san… hazukashii~!” The android now fully covered his face with his hands, ears bright red complimenting his silver hair. 

“You just noticed that now?” Noiz found himself smiling at the flustered mess that was Clear, bringing his hands down despite Clear’s shy protests. 

“Let’s make that a second kiss then.”

Clear’s complaints soon died out once Noiz took his lips for another session, melting in his embrace. Although Noiz had other plans to spicen up whatever they had going on, he didn’t want to rush Clear into something he wouldn’t want. Like the ones on his… you know what. And so they shared kisses throughout the day onwards, teasing Clear and Clear teasing him back. 

It was a good time, and not once has Noiz regretted fixing Clear since the day he found him.

[fountainpenguin]

Your fic "Shut Up and Fish" got me thinking... are you implying that Grian's snail is a spark?

"Shut Up and Fish"

"That's hard," Grian concedes, not looking up. The pink snail's watching, its tail patting the dirt. Grian cradles the turquoise snail's limp eyestalk in his hand. Snails are tricky creatures… They don't signal their injuries with the crook of their tails like dogs do, and they're not immune to fall damage like cats. Gingerly, easily, he brings the snail's neck to his chest and gives it a little hug. He makes a little noise. This world is beautiful if you know where to look. "Please," begs the voice in the wrinkles of his damp and dripping clothes. "You'd be a better dad to Tim. You'd be a better husband- I want what YOU have… That's MY life. Give me back my body!" Grian ignores this, peppering sloppy kisses on the snail's sweet head. It nudges into him, cuddly and sloppy and alive. Beautiful, sparked son of a thing. He'll tell Grumbot sometime, but Grumbot might not love to know he's got a snail for a younger brother now. And he laughs again, because it's stupid. It's just… It's really stupid. But he nuzzles the snail and the snail nuzzles back, and the voice in his head wails and scratches at him in the strain of Gem's boat anchor against the pebbles and sand.

In the Pixels Imperfect canon, a creature or build that is portrayed as having sentience beyond that of its basic mob AI (if applicable) needs an AI spark. Grumbot and Jrumbot are perfect examples of "portrayed as sentient" vs. "offhand joke about the build being a child, but not followed through with." Jrumbot is a non-sentient build and Grumbot is a sentient one.

Grian's snail is played as sentient - Grian even makes a huge deal about Scar "not playing the game right and making the snails do things they wouldn't do" - so in the Pixels canon, the snail is a sparked build.

Sparks don't have to be perceived as offspring- they simply embody whatever the intended roleplay was. Grumbot initially referred to Grian and Mumbo as Creator 1 and Creator 2 in Hermitcraft canon, then swapped to addressing them as dads after a certain point (to their surprise), which underscores the idea that in-universe, he is sentient and making his own decisions.

That said, Grian considers the snail his biological son, yes. His baby boy who does crime.

I have some news about Box from Double Life, wheeze...... BigB made it VERY clear in canon that Box is sentient enough to "say its first word," and Ren jumped up and down all giddy exclaiming that he was "such a proud papa," confirming that he sees it as his child.

When they're in couple's therapy, BigB explains that he "knew Ren would like it if Box had a hand so it could reach out and give him a hug." Also, special spotlight on BigB bragging about how "Box is going to need to find a soulmate" because that's so funny. I like how after BigB goes red, he invites Martyn to Box, he says "We look forward to seeing you. That's 'we' as in me and Box."

Shout-out to Martyn and Cleo getting "We will take care of Box in your absence" signed and agreed by Ren and BigB "by law and by will." Sorry you two are horribly broken up, but congrats on ur giant son. They will not nurture it, but they will definitely look at it and go "... Huh."

Guess who has one thumb, canonically wears a monocle and walks around looking like it's been "punched in the face," is technically in the Clocker family tree via Martyn, rocks he/it pronouns, and is heir apparent to Dogwarts in the Neighborhood Watch AU.

[0perfectimperfections0]

Yo, I know I might be one of many people who ask this but I was wondering. Will get any lore expansion on the Everett family in the book you’re working on? I’m asking because the family has me really intrigued, especially Greyson. I know he’s one heck of a jerk, to say the least, but he’s a rather interesting jerk and I want to know more about him. I especially want to know how on earth he became that way despite his father, Henry, being quite a decent person, at least upon first impressions. I don’t expect any spoilers, though. I know you might want to save that for later. I just confirmation on when we can expect to see more of the Everett’s. Hope to hear from you soon! Keep up the great work!

You're actually the first person to ask about the Everett family. Which isn't surprising to me since I didn't make them a main focus point for the first book. The second book, "Blind Stitch", will give them more screen time like chapter 5 does, but most of the lore for Greyson Everett will be revealed through my Shell-Shock series.

It's just a matter of trying to figure out how to incorporate said lore into the Stitch series, because I really want to.

Greyson Everett is different as far as antagonists go, and I intentionally made it that way. He doesn't necessarily have trauma, he hasn't been abused, he wasn't set to unrealistic expectations, none of that.

Greyson's grandpa used to work at the World Trade Center (twin towers) and died when 9/11 took place. Yes, 9/11 will have an impact on the Stitch series and Shell-Shock, so if any of you are uneasy about that bit, consider this your warning. There won't be flashbacks or anything like that, just a general explanation of why Greyson initiated Henry's idea to start a doll company and why Louis exists.

The reason I don't have Greyson as a victim of trauma or anything like that is because of the way I have him treat Lou. Greyson is obviously abusive to him both physically and psychologically. And the message I'm getting through with that is that generational abuse and trauma have to start somewhere.

Greyson simply has strong political and world views, shaped by his family upbringing and 9/11, that drive him to simply believe that the way he treats Lou is the only proper way.

Not everyone that is abusive needs a tragic backstory, because it has to start somewhere. Some people are just cruel and don't deserve the "I was abused" card, and that's the hidden message I'm writing within the series.

As such, Greyson won't have a redemption arc or anything of that nature.

For background (I don't know how much you noticed in chapter 5 of Blind Stitch) but they live in Georgia. I can't remember the specific city, but the Everett's and the factory are located there.

I also did research on the actual UglyDolls line and that's how I built the rest of my fictional world around the factory. It originally was established February 14th of 2001, just months prior to 9/11.

In my story, Henry is the one that founded the company itself and was making it for the purpose of creating and producing dolls. He made sketches of potential doll designs, and Greyson helped him with most of the work.

Technical stuff aside, the first dolls weren't actually conscientious (alive). The first actual prototype couldn't walk or talk or any of that.

It wasn't until after 9/11 (spoilers so I won't go into detail) that Greyson started a secret operation that Henry didn't know about to create the microchips that would bring the prototypes alive. And this in turn would mean the regular dolls would be sentient as well.

I swear it makes sense once you know the full plan 😂 right now it probably sounds chaotic, and it kinda is. But I've got some sound plot based on my research of programming, AI, and all that stuff.

There are fictional elements to these stories, obviously, but a lot of the specific information I use is actual sound research.

Yes, I spent like 2 hours researching the step-by-step process of how to make a microchip 😂 which is why in my short story "Reunited" is really long. All that information he tells the dolls about their microfibers, microchips taking 4 months to make, all that stuff, that was research.

And the light colours are also accurate, but not specifically for when something is learned. Microchips are made out of silicon, which can be multiple colours, but whichever colour it starts out as affects what colour it ends up being after being exposed to light or thermal annealing.

I still have to do more research on it, but the reason why Lou's eyes are blue ties in with his microchip and the colours that are reflected when the microchip is exposed to light.

https://opg.optica.org/oe/fulltext.cfm?uri=oe-22-25-31545&id=306286

The above link is for those of you that want to read through an example of one of the many articles I use to attain this information, but don't feel pressured to 😂

Anyway, I'll stop rambling. I have to go to class anyway.

[beautifulsnake2162020]

We have it all (Hualian adopted daughter fanfic) Chapter 2

Disclaimer: This is a work of fanfiction. I only do this for fun.

Premise: Not long after comforting a bullied girl named Meng Ai, Hua Cheng and Xie Lian find themselves adopting her and together they form a family they didn't know they had needed for awhile.

Story/Genre tags: Slice of life-ish (mainly), Family focused, Hua Cheng's houses finally become homes, there may be an overarching story but that's not the focus, Hualian being parents, Fengqing being uncles, Lang Qianqiu falling in love with someone who was raised by the Xianle squad, technically post-canon (though I haven't read the books so if there are some ooc moments please forgive me).

AO3 Link

Chapter 1

Follower tags: @anonimgato1507

Chapter 2

"My name is Meng Ai, I'm 6 years old and just like my baba I could see and talk to ghosts." She says as she finishes her first cup of water. The rain has become stronger now and Hua Cheng decided to carry her while Xie Lian held the crimson umbrella so that all three of them would fit under it as they made their way back to Puqi Shrine. Now stable enough to withstand a storm but still quite modest and humble compared to other temples. The public area of worship was separated from the living quarters where the three of them were in now.

"And where do you live Meng Ai? My name is Xie Lian." He says as he gives her a bowl of broth prepared previously by one of Hua Cheng's servants. While Hua Cheng may not mind consuming Xie Lian's cooking no matter how awful it was, his worshippers and any visitors to the shrine were a different story.

"You honestly think that your worshippers will endure this kind of suffering?" Mu Qing asks him frankly one day as he and Feng Xin were visiting one time. They in their guises as Fu Yao and Nan Feng and Hua Cheng in his San Lang appearance. While their identities were no secret among the four of them, for the sake of mortals they kept their disguises whenever they dwelled in the mortal realm.

"It's still sustenance."

"For your husband maybe, but his tastes have always been questionable."

"Hmph, you're saying that as if your tastes are any better."

"Now now you two." Xie Lian says as he settles himself beside Hua Cheng and across from Nan Feng. If someone were to listen to their voices alone they would easily tell that it didn't have the same level of malice in their earlier days. Though they were still arguing. Hua Cheng had a smug expression and Fu Yao relaxed in his seat and leaned towards Nan Feng.

"You know he does have a point Dianxie." Nan Feng added as he joined the conversation.

"If your followers could get something more palatable then they would be encouraged to come here more often."

And ever since then broth previously prepared by someone else was made to be consumed for any hungry visitors to the shrine. Meng Ai had just finished her first bowl of it and politely asked for more.

"I actually don't know the name of our village. Mama and Baba just tell me to first look for Puqi village, pass the ghostly forest, walk straight the main road on the rice field area until you see the entrance of the village."

"By any chance." Hua Cheng starts as he relaxes in his seat across her.

"Is this village the one surrounded by a forest?"

"Yes."

"Oh that would be Hu village." Xie Lian says as he sits beside Hua Cheng and pours more water in Meng Ai's cup.

"It used to be a place where tigers were plentiful."

"What happened Xie Lian?"

"The ones who first built the village drove them out."

"Oh no."

"It was a long time ago Meng Ai."

"But it's still so awful, is that why our village is so isolated?"

"One among many Xiao-Ai, is it alright if I call you that?"

"Oh yes, but I'm confused what to call you. Xie Lian your husband calls you San Lang. But I overheard the other ghosts say that your name is Hua Cheng." Hua Cheng chuckles lightheartedly.

"I'm not close with those ghosts. But you may also call me San Lang." She raises one of her eyebrows at him.

"But I'm not married to you." Now Xie Lian couldn't help but laugh with Hua Cheng.

"San Lang is the name I give to those I want to be close with." He couldn't help but feel lighter as her smile grew.

BANG

"AH!" She runs to the space between them to hide from the thunder. She finds herself being lifted ontu Xie Lian's lap since he was seated further away from the window.

"Does the thunder frighten you?"

"No - but I hate sudden surprises."

BANG

She hides her face beneath Xie Lian's robes and he cradles her head to calm her down.

"It's why I ran to the forest with many ghosts. Some of them have followed me to the rice fields when I was delivering one of my mama's works to a farmer's wife. And then when I turn around to go home, they all scared me suddenly with scary masks."

"What does your mother do?" Xie Lian asks as he adjusts her so that they were more comfortable and he was facing Hua Cheng.

"She's a seamstress and puts the embroidery on clothes. She just began teaching me after I pricked myself with a needle when I was trying to copy her."

"Oh? Do you want to be like her?" Hua Cheng asks curiously.

"No, I'm not sure I would enjoy being a priestess. It's clothes that I enjoy more."

"A priestess you say."

"Yes San Lang, she recieves visions every now and again."

A brief flash of lightning appeared by the window. But now having become comfortable with them she now faces Hua Cheng while still sitting on Xie Lian's lap.

Bang

She doesn't wince or hide anymore now that she was given a warning that a thunder might follow.

"Is that so? Which God does she serve Xiao-Ai?"

"Xiwangmu."

"Ah, how interesting." Hua Cheng says in a relaxed tone while sharing a glance at Xie Lian who gives him a subtle nod.

"Does she tell you her visions?"

"No, she always says that it's a burden only she and the other priests or priestesses have to bear. I think this is also why sometimes some of her embroidery are more interesting than other seamstresses."

"Why is that Xiao-Ai?" Xie Lian asks as he gives her another cup of water with the hand that wasn't supporting her.

"Mama says that she cannot directly say her visions when she's not serving as the oracle. But mama couldn't help but warn those who would be affected by some of them. So she embroiders more interesting patterns hoping that someone in the family could decipher it."

"Does it work?"

"No Xie Lian, I think that's why mama cries a lot more nowadays. Because nobody could read her warnings no matter how much she tries to warn them." It's something else little one, Xie Lian thought as continues cradling Meng Ai who has leaned into his arms as another bout of thunder and lightning make their appearance outside. He doesn't need to look at Hua Cheng to know that they are both thinking of the same thing.

This was the test.

Xiwangmu says to not overthink it and to just be themselves and they would pass the test with ease.

I hope she's right. Xie Lian thinks as he feels the storm's wind easing up. It won't be long before the storm would be over, even though it is late at night.

"Xiao-Ai" Hua Cheng begins, tone still gentle but a little bit more persuasive than earlier. "You've mentioned earlier that your father could also see ghosts. What does he do for a living?"

"Oh baba is a magician."

"A magician?"

"Well, I like to call him that. I actually don't really know what his title is. But I always see him mixing and making potions and studying dirt. Sometimes it changes the color of the water and sometimes if I've been really good he'll make a potion that makes so many sparks and show it to me. People go to him and ask him to make fireworks, paint, ink, and other things. Mama says that it's because of baba teaching something to the farmers that the fields are now consistently fertile."

"And what does he do when it comes to ghosts?"

"He just talks to them, he explained that sometimes people are doing things that ghosts don't like but because ghosts can't talk to them so they need to be more disruptive to try to make people stop." She then gives Hua Cheng a smile.

"But I think he'll like you because you took care of me San Lang."

"Oh? And how did you know I was a ghost?" He says now teasing.

"You don't have a heart beat. And there's some sort of clinginess to keep yourself the way you are. Whereas with Xie Lian there's a lack of clinginess but there is a heartbeat. So Xie Lian must be another type of spirit." There was silence after her revelation.

"I'm sorry San Lang, my baba could explain it better than I could. But that's how it makes sense to me."

"Don't be Xiao-Ai." He says as he opens his arms and she goes into them. The storm is weaker now and is on it's way out. Now in his arms Xie Lian makes preparations to return her to her parents. He doesn't want to return her empty handed and since he is the God of this shrine, he takes some of the fresher and better food offerings he received and begins packing them for Meng Ai's family.

"If you don't practice explaining it, then how will you be better at it hmm?"

"Oh you have...a...point." She let's out a yawn. It was obviously well past her bedtime and she's struggling to stay awake.

"Shh sleep now, little one."

"But ... mama and ... baba." Hua Cheng gently shifts his position to make it more comfortable for Meng Ai to sleep in his arms.

"You'll be with them soon."

The next time Meng Ai woke up she was back in her bed with her parents hugging her. A part of her thought that they would scold her for not returning home before the storm but instead they were just grateful that she is back. Along with her return were gifts of fresh fruit which she recalled were some of the offerings in the Puqi shrine that San Lang and Xie Lian brought her to as shelter from the storm.

Later when she was alone she found a little tied parcel attached to her belt. Opening it she found a beautiful necklace with a silver butterfly pendant on it.

She couldn't help but shed tears of joy.

_____________________________________________________________

"See, I told you that you would like her." Hua Cheng couldn't help but raise his eyebrow at the sudden visitor waiting for them on the shrine's entrance when they returned.

"What are you up to Xiwangmu? Are you really going to remove that girl from her family just to give us a wedding gift? You need not bother - I already knew Gods could do despicable things."

"San Lang, let's listen to her. Maybe she has an explanation for all of this."

"I do, but I'm not the best person to explain it. Ask her parents why and you will find out why if you choose to accept her and raise her as your own, you will be doing all of us a favor." She vanishes before either of them could say a word.

"She's really insistent isn't she?"

"Insistent that she deprive one of her oracles from being with her daughter that is."

"Hmm...she says that the best people to ask are her parents. Let's invite them over to have a chat."

"We'll need to keep her distracted while we talk to her parents. Her mother cannot talk directly to anyone involved in her visions. She must have had a vision involving her early on which is why she doesn't want to share any of her visions with her."

"You have a point San Lang. But who would be able to keep her distracted? Oh." He has a pleased expression while Hua Cheng couldn't help but laugh at the hilarity that would ensue.

____________________________________________________________

"Couldn't you have called someone else to babysit her?" Mu Qing in his Fu Yao appearance complained as he and Feng Xin in his Nan Feng appearance arrived at Puqi shrine.

"Shi Qingxuan is ill and there is no way I'm letting Ming Guang anywhere near her."

"She's just a kid San Lang, I don't think Pei Ming would do anything to her."

"He has a point Dianxie, who knows what that womanizer would do." Feng Xin says as the four of them settle down in the living quarters of the shrine.

"Couldn't you have Yin yu do this instead?"

"Is your fear of women that debilitating?" Hua Cheng asks provokingly as Feng Xin's face becomes red.

"I'm not scared of little girls!"

"Good, then you two will have to do. Besides, Yin yu is currently on an assignment that he shouldn't be disturbed from. Unless of course it is an emergency."

"Fine. What do we do?"

"Stick with either Puqi village or a nearby area. And don't let her out of your sight and make sure she's always protected." Xie Lian says in a calm yet authoritative tone.

"What is important is that she shouldn't be anywhere within hearing shot of us. Her mother is an oracle and a priestess of Xiwangmu any information about a vision involving her might change certain things should she learn about them."

"Alright. Any other-"

"SAN LANG! XIE LIAN!" The little girl in question yells in urgent panic as she enters the shrine's grounds. All four rush out to meet her.

"Xiao-Ai what is it?" Xie Lian asks hoping to calm her down.

"Mama says baba is going to be killed today and she told me to run to you to help him!"

"Where is he?"

"He won't tell me where, he just says he's going on a trip to get moon cakes for my birthday gift. But I overheard him say something about getting the perfect vessel from porcelain."

Jingdezhen

Xie Lian telepathically says to all four present.

"You did well Xiao-Ai, San Lang and I will go there to help your father. Will you stay here with our friends Fu Yao and Nan Feng to watch over the temple?" She nods, the worry for her father's life is weighing on her.

"They will make sure you are safe."

"Okay, Xie Lian - if my baba dies, could you still bring him back to mama and I? He asked us to bring his remains to the capital of Fu Dao."

"Of course little one, we will bring your father back." Hua Cheng says reassuringly.

And with that they made their way to the porcelain capital.

AN: Thank you for reading.

Meng = Dream, Ai = Love (I don't know what the total meaning of that is in mandarin but I love the meanings of these names that I found in Chinese name websites)

Up next - Fengqing's first experience as uncles hahaha.

[lesbian-honey-lemon]

top ten smartest characters in BH6, my ranking:

1- Hiro Hamada. Of course he’s at the top, lol. Not only did he outsmart Obake, he also came up with everyone’s hero gear, coded Baymax’s other chips besides Tadashi’s, made a working energy amplifier (that didn’t immediately explode) in like two days with only Krei’s failed prototype to go off of, and HE IS IN SFIT AT 14. Of course he’s the smartest. Also he’s made other robots completely on his own like the microbots and Mini-Mac. He also comes up with most of the battle plans for BH6, and helped cure Liv Amara alongside Karmi.

2- Obake/ Bob Aken. First off, he was also in SFIT as a teen. My headcanon was that he started attending at 16, and Karmi’s like a week younger than him (so she’s technically still the 2nd youngest person to ever go to SFIT). Also!! He was the FIRST to make an energy amplifier, with absolutely nothing to go off of. His was the first, and honestly I wouldn’t be surprised if Krei’s amplifier was based off of Obake’s amplifier. Yes the amplifier exploded immediately but he was still the first. And of course, as an adult, he made a shit ton of advanced tech. He made Trina, the most advanced AI in the whole BH6-verse (even better than Baymax because she’s basically indistinguishable from a human and can make her own decisions outside of her original purpose), he made an underwater base, a bunch of other robots, and was able to follow Shimamoto’s clues to rebuild the star machine. Also he managed to play Hiro and the rest of BH6 like a damn violin and would have succeeded if it wasn’t for Globby.

3- Honey Lemon. Honey Lemon is a goddamn genius and I will die on this hill. Her chem-purse has the INDIVIDUAL ELEMENTS. So in battle, she has to legitimately think up and type in a chemical formula to make the compound to use. So she’s gotta have some MAJOR chemistry skill, an excellent memory, and wicked fast reaction time. She also found a way to cure Globby. Also let’s not forget that time she made a literal amnesia serum in like two minutes for Hiro to give to Karmi when she thought that Karmi was onto them. Also, she did uncover Lenore Shimamoto’s secret life as a scientist alongside Wasabi, and Lenore hid that shit really well.

4- Tadashi. Honestly, Tadashi and Honey Lemon are almost tied for third, but Honey Lemon’s a little smarter. He probably got into SFIT early too, cause he couldn’t have been that old. He was probably in at like 17 and died at 20. Also, he made Baymax, one of the most advanced AIs to ever exist, plus the actual robot is rlly advanced too. So just for building Baymax, he can have this spot, because of how advanced Baymax is. Although running into a burning building was kind of a dumb move.

5- Karmi. Karmi’s actually pretty gifted and you all are unnecessarily hating on this poor girl. She’s 16 and at SFIT, and while my headcanon is that she only got in a week younger than the third youngest student, she’s still the second youngest to ever go to SFIT. She also was able to observe BH6 close enough to write moves that could actually work with their gear, which allowed them to escape Momakase and save Karmi herself. Also, she’s made some epic tech. She made the patches to subdue Oreo Knox, which Di Amara later used for her own evil work. She also did that project with the electric currents in the roses, which probably has some pretty interesting uses. She also got chosen to be Di’s intern, and although she got manipulated big time, I can’t say I blame her or say she’s any less smart for literally being mutated and tortured by a woman she thought was her friend and mentor. Also, Hiro would have never gotten the nanobots to work and cure Liv Amara without Karmi’s help and insight. She also made that glove in Season 3 to beat Hardlight. In short, Karmi is way smarter than the fandom gives her credit for.

6- Gogo. Gogo’s actually quite smart and she’s come up with some interesting things. Her maglev tech is really advanced and gives her an extra edge in battle. She also was the first to catch onto the fact that Karmi had a point with her fanfic and was the first to start using Karmi’s ideas to drive up the wall to chase Momakase. She also came up with that train thing we saw her with the model of in CtC pt 1, which I assume is her midterm project. The world can always use more high-speed rail so she’s quite smart in my book for that. She also of course worked with Hiro to make that awesome bike she chased Mr Sparkles with in S2. Plus she’s in SFIT, which is a really challenging environment on its own so she’d have to be really smart to get in.

7- Wasabi. Wasabi and Gogo are like, exactly tied for 6th. They’re both on the same level of smart, but I like Gogo more so she gets 6ths (no hate to Wasabi fans, I like him too). Wasabi, of course, has his plasma blades, which are literally second to nothing but graphene. He can cut through nearly anything with his tech. He also worked with Hiro to build that space junk disposal device in S1, and helped Honey Lemon uncover the very well-guarded secrets of Lenore Shimamoto’s life as a scientist.

8- Wendy Wower. Wendy, although a minor character, has shown herself to be pretty damn smart. She wrote the thesis that Trevor Trengrove stole, which was the basis for Tadashi’s work. Without Wendy’s thesis, Tadashi would have never made Baymax. So, though she never gained the recognition she deserved for her intelligence, she’s still hella smart. Plus, she did manage to make a name for herself as a beloved educator and inspiration for kids to get into science, and that’s kind of hard to do if you’re not already really smart when it comes to science.

9- Lenore Shimamoto. Lenore Shimamoto is really smart, although her invention failed. She built the star machine, which caused the Great Catastrophe. But, she intended it to be an infinite energy device. So, like a very early interpretation of the energy amplifier. She also built a secret lab and hid all evidence of the star machine so well that it took over a hundred years to find. And honestly, if the only person who could crack your secret was literally the second smartest person in the whole show (Obake), you hid that secret pretty well. She also built and ran a whole art institute, it takes smarts to run such a big university.

10- Professor Granville. Honestly I was stuck on who to put here, but I think she deserves this spot. She’s an accomplished professor, knowledgeable about her subjects, and was obviously smart enough to mentor Hiro, Karmi, and Obake. If she wasn’t smart, they wouldn’t have latched onto her as much as they did. She also fixed Baymax that one time in S2 and went to rescue their asses all on her own, built the robot spider SFIT security system, and has some pretty good deduction skills in order to find out where Momakase was going to steal from next.

You can also put Professor Callaghan here at 10th for similar reasons, being an accomplished professor, writing many papers on robotics and inspiring Hiro’s microbots, and coming up with the plan to kill Krei. But, his plan got foiled by Hiro, and Hiro was an inexperienced superhero at this time, so it’s not like with Obake where Hiro was a seasoned superhero who had a fair shot at stopping his plans. Hiro and Obake were evenly matched. So if Inexperienced Hiro could beat Callaghan, that means Callaghan’s not quite as smart.

[thankskenpenders]

In the wake of Frontiers I've been thinking a lot about Sage, so here are some spoilery thoughts on her and the possibilities for further stories with her

One of the most interesting things to think about with Sage is where she could go next. And I hope that she does have somewhere to go next and that she doesn't become yet another one-off character who's off limits for the comics and future games. You can't just introduce a character like "Eggman's AI daughter who he actually genuinely likes" and then just memory hole her like she was just created to be a story hook for one game and nothing else. My main worry is just that they would consider her appearing elsewhere a spoiler for the five minutes you spend thinking she died at the end of the game, which I really really hope doesn't mean it'll be 5+ years before we see her again

Really, though, she creates some interesting conundrums if placed outside of the context of Frontiers, and I really wanna see how they tackle this

The thing is, Sage is a sympathetic character. She's nice, once you get to know her. She's level-headed and avoids unnecessary conflict. She encourages Eggman to work with Sonic when she sees it as the best option, and she's kinda friends with Sonic by the end? But... she's also still Eggman's new second-in-command. And they have an adorable father/daughter dynamic, sure, but this still makes her Sonic's enemy in the long run. This isn't a critique - in fact, just the opposite! I think it leaves the door open for a lot of interesting possibilities. They didn't really have to address this much in Frontiers since Eggman isn't the villain of that game, but should Sage come back as a recurring member of Eggman's team, I'm fascinated to think how they square these conflicting sides of her

Do they make her more villainous, supporting Eggman's attempts to conquer the world, playing up the Sage who gleefully reported on her wins against Sonic? Does she try to reign Eggman in more? Hell, how will Sonic feel about her once the truce with Eggman is over? Does Sonic try to get Sage to leave the Eggman Empire? Or do they make her a friendly rival of Sonic's, one who works against him due to her allegiance but still respects his capabilities with no actual animosity between them? I could see this working well with how nonchalant Sonic often is about having to fight Eggman, and "villain who the protagonist just has fun fighting against without really hating them" is a pretty shounen thing to do, but it's not the only route

Should she appear in the comics, the other elephant in the room is Belle. On a BumbleKast a couple months ago, Ian acknowledged the parallels and said that Sage and Belle just happened to be conceived around the same time - and that he felt sorry for potentially undercutting Evan there. But he also said that the possibilities for interactions between them in the comics were fascinating, and BOY do I wanna see that happen now. Belle was created by Eggman when he was Mr. Tinker, and therefore resents him now that he's back to his normal self. She struggles with whether or not he's even the same man now, and how being created by Eggman reflects on her. Sage, though? Sage just loves Eggman, period. She loves him as her father, and she seems to love working with him. The possibilities for the two as foils of each other are endless. Does Belle wish Sage would come over to the Restoration? Does she envy Sage for being loved by Eggman? Is Sage cool with the fact that Eggman technically has another daughter out there who just isn't part of the Eggfam? Does she view Belle as a traitor? There's so much you could do there

And also yes I want to see her interact with Metal Sonic like in all the fanart. Sage is good! We need more Sage!!

[miguelswifey04]

𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐥𝐞𝐝 𝐝𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐲 | 𝐦𝐢𝐠𝐮𝐞𝐥 𝐱 𝐟𝐞𝐦!𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫 (chapter 2: locked in)

summary: he’s got an eye on you.

word count: 1,044K (not read proof)

earth 928: nueva york 298

in the control room, a tall muscular brooding man, looks over all the scanners keeping an eye close to all the events occurring in the multiverse simultaneously. he groans and pinches the bridge of his nose as he's bothered by the fact that this responsibility of being the leader of an elite force of spider people can be stressful at times. he's like the god of the multiverse only thing is he gets to keep everything in check and make sure canon events aren't being disrupted but carried out.

he aggressively clicks and flicks the scanners as a certain young woman catches his eye. his facial muscles relax as he's intrigued by this young woman. something strange takes over his chest. something he hasn't felt in such a long time. he doesn't understand why his heart flutters as he lays his eyes on you. he understands what you've gone through and he wishes he can help you but how? he knows your name, and even your abilities.

"interesante," he paused, "a spider person with telekinetic abilities..." he muttered to himself as he continued to do more research about you. deep down he wanted to get to know you more but he felt it was weird because he was "spying" on you, but technically that is his job right? he has to keep a close eye on everyone. not just you, convincing himself. he watched as you went out late at night from your dorm to fight crime and help out those who need it. it touched him when you were always helping the less fortunate, because he always did the same on his free time.

he clicked and pinched the screen of the scanner to get a closer look of you.

again.

he's been doing this for quite some time. yet you don't know a thing. you're not even aware of there being an actual universe where someone is keeping an eye close to you. you know there's a thing called the multiverse but do you actually believe it?

"jess!" he exclaimed as he breathed sharply through his nostrils. he motioned jessica drew to look at the scanners of you.

"yes miguel? what do you want?" she said sassily as she caressed her pregnant belly. she looked intently towards the scanners showing some short clips of you on campus, indicating you were a college student and fighting crime, indicating you were also a spider-woman just like her.

"don't tell me you want to recruit her?,"she laughed knowing exactly what miguel called her for. she waited for his response but he simply nodded as he was focused on viewing other spider people and keeping a close eye to make sure there isn't a canon event being disrupted.

he breathed out and side glanced towards jess who was waiting for him to vocalize his response. "yes. i think she will be a good facet to our elite force," he said with his slightly accented english, "she has telekinetic abilities too." jess hummed in response and pondered in thought because she would be the one to take a new spider-woman under her wing. jessica isn't aware of why miguel truly wants a new recruit. he hardly ever let anyone join without jessica's nagging. he's used to it but he trusts jessica's judgement after all she's his right-hand woman.

"okay." jess agreed as she continued to look in miguel's direction, studying his movements and facial expressions then glanced towards the scanner the said:

'y/n l/n earth 1218, year 2023'

"okay great. we will go visit her universe soon..." miguel slightly grinned but it wasn't actually very noticeable. jess nodded but a thought came into mind.

"miguel..how are you going to do that? you're gonna scare her." she laughed as she walked off back to whatever she needed to be.

"i'll figure that out, jess." he huffed as he put his hips on his waist. with that jess exited.

lyla, his personal AI assistant appeared on his left shoulder. "miguellll, you're so silly you know!! never in a million years would i have thought you'd liked someone ." she giggled as she spawned out of the blue.

"like? wait what? no, no way. you know i can't afford to care about someone like that again." miguel said in his monotonous voice as he brushed lyla off his shoulders.

"come on, pal. you can't deny what you're feeling. you can't avoid your feelings forever~" lyla said as she singed out her words continuing to tease him going in front in him and floating around.

"you're such a drag." miguel thought to himself he and couldn't help but admit he may have had possible feelings for her but he hasn't come to terms with it. how could he possibly fallen for you? was it because he related to you? or was it your hidden spirit that alluded him? something about you has him in a trance. maybe, it was a way for him to experience something new after losing his precious daughter, gabriella.

he sighed as he longed for his own daughter as he continued to torment himself watching clips of him and his daughter over and over again. he loved the feeling of sadness yet he hated that he could not move on from that very feeling that left him feeling shattered. losing gabriella that day was losing a part of his humanity. he faulted himself every day after that tragic incident but there wasn't anything he could do.

"te extraño mucho, nena." he said to himself as he clasped his hands onto the desk being entrapped by his own agony and despair. he misses his daughter so much and he would do anything in the entire multiverse to bring briella back if he ever had the chance to.

regardless of thinking about his daughter 24/7 in his mind, you also became part of his thoughts. whether he realized it or not sooner or later he must come to terms with it but for now his duty is to send spider people on missions to fix any little mishaps and to figure out someway to encounter you to convince you to join his 'little' club of people alike.

…

a/n: this is just the beginning 🫡

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Billboard

* * * *

NPR reports on Trump's 162 lies during last Thursday’s press conference.

The journalists in attendance at Trump's staged press-event last Thursday failed to challenge him when he spouted lie after lie. Some organizations did “fact checks” of the most egregious lies. But only one news organization has published a comprehensive analysis of every lie Trump told during the 90-minute press conference. See NPR, 162 lies and distortions in a news conference. NPR fact-checks former President Trump.

The report by NPR is exhaustive. It required a substantial amount of work and attention to detail. NPR and the reporters who researched the article deserve to be commended for their work. The article begins by noting that Trump told two lies per minute during the press conference!

A team of NPR reporters and editors reviewed the transcript of his news conference and found at least 162 misstatements, exaggerations and outright lies in 64 minutes. That’s more than two a minute. It’s a stunning number for anyone – and even more problematic for a person running to lead the free world. Politicians spin. They fib. They misspeak. They make honest mistakes like the rest of us. And, yes, they even sometimes exaggerate their biographies. The expectation, though, is that they will treat the truth as something important and correct any errors. But what former President Trump did this past Thursday went well beyond the bounds of what most politicians would do.

The byline on the article is Domenico Montanaro, but the text says it was written by a team of reporters and editors. I urge readers to provide feedback to NPR on its editorial decision to invest the time and resources to catalog Trump's lies. We must not allow Trump to exhaust us through the sheer volume of his lies. NPR didn’t let that happen for last Thursday’s staged press event. Kudos to NPR!

An article by Tom Nichols in The Atlantic also deserves attention. See The Truth About Trump’s Press Conference. (This article is accessible to all.) Nichols reviews the headlines in the NYTimes, WaPo, CNN and other media outlets, all of which focused on the impact of the news conference on the horse-race aspect of the election.

Nichols writes,

All of these headlines are technically true, but they miss the point: The Republican nominee, the man who could return to office and regain the sole authority to use American nuclear weapons, is a serial liar and can’t tell the difference between reality and fantasy. Donald Trump is not well. He is not stable. There’s something deeply wrong with him. Any of those would have been important—and accurate—headlines.

Sunday presented another opportunity for major media to redeem themselves and finally—finally—acknowledge that Trump is not well. Will they do so in their Monday editions? We can always hope. Read on!

Trump descends further into conspiracy, delusion, and deceit over the weekend.

Last week, Kamala Harris and Tim Walz visited Michigan in Air Force 2. They disembarked the plane and walked into a hangar that held an overflow crowd that spilled onto the tarmac. Estimates put the crowd size at about 12,000.

On Saturday, MAGA internet trolls began analyzing the “reflections” on the body and engines of Air Force 2 and could not see reflected images of the crowd. The trolls could not see the reflected images because they were examining curved surfaces that reflected light and images from directly beneath the plane—where no one was standing. The trolls should have spent more time in high school science classes than playing multi-player fantasy games online. But I digress.

The trolls immediately concluded that the images of the crowds were generated by AI autofill in Photoshop. That claim was immediately and unequivocally rebutted when video from major media outlets panned the crowd and Air Force 2 in a single shot, proving the crowds were real—not AI-generated images. That should have been the end of the story, right?

Wrong! On Sunday, Trump posted a rant on Truth Social in which he claimed that Harris and Walz were resorting to AI to make it appear that their crowd sizes were larger than Trump's. With apologies, I am going to reprint Trump's rant in full. Read as much as you can, and then meet me on the other side:

Has anyone noticed that Kamala CHEATED at the airport? There was nobody at the plane, and she "A.l'd" it, and showed a massive "crowd" of so-called followers, BUT THEY DIDN'T EXIST! She was turned in by a maintenance worker at the airport when he noticed the fake crowd picture, but there was nobody there, later confirmed by the reflection of the mirror-like finish on the Vice Presidential Plane. She's a CHEATER. She had NOBODY waiting, and the "crowd" looked like 10,000 people! Same thing is happening with her fake "crowds" at her speeches. This is the way the Democrats win Elections, by CHEATING - And they're even worse at the Ballot Box. She should be disqualified because the creation of a fake image is ELECTION INTERFERENCE. Anyone who does that will cheat at ANYTHING!

One of two things is true: Trump believes that the images are faked (despite video by major new organizations) or he does not.

If Trump has fallen into delusion and conspiracy, that fact deserves front page treatment from every news outlet in America.

If Trump knows the images of the crowd are true, then he is setting up a claim that Democrats can only win the 2024 election by cheating, and that fact deserves front page treatment from every news outlet in America.

As I said, we shall see if the Monday editions of major news outlets say (a) Trump is descending into delusion, or (b) Trump is setting up an attack on integrity of presidential election for the second time!

[Robert B. Hubbell Newsletter]

[littencloud9]

jun'ichirou & steinbeck + you have one week to steal a tractor

kunikida & ranpo + PLEASE GOD I JUST WANT A BLACK COFFEE

nathaniel & kajii + alexa… initiate self-destruction…

poe & gin + it wasn't very nice... but i did it anyway

hope some of these spark some inspiration <333

corey your prompts are the funniest things ever ily

jun’ichirou & steinbeck + you have one week to steal a tractor

“And so,” Lucy sighs. “you have one week to steal a tractor. Any questions?”

Jun’ichirou glances at the people beside him. He’s had the unfortunate opportunity to sit right in between the two organisations, the Agency and the Guild. Technically, only the teenagers from both sides are here, so it’s slightly less intimidating, but still.

Except for the guy next to him who is taking bites out of a raw, unpeeled potato.

Steinbeck catches his eye and smiles, offering up the half-eaten potato. “Want a bite?”

“…No thanks.”

“Shame. You know, we don’t have to steal a tractor. I’ve got tons back home.”

Jun’ichirou blinks. “Isn’t your home, like, half the globe away?”

“Yeah. I could get Herman to fly us there really fast though.” Steinbeck decides he doesn’t want his potato anymore and sets it down on the table. “Want to come with?”

Jun’ichirou would actually much prefer to steal. But Steinbeck is beaming, punching him in the shoulder. “Awesome, man! I’d love some company. Louisa won’t come cause she’s scared of my sister.”

“Oh,” Jun’ichirou says, for he does not know what else he can say. “Um. Okay.”

“Yeah!”

—

kunikida & ranpo + PLEASE GOD I JUST WANT A BLACK COFFEE

“PLEASE GOD I JUST WANT A BLACK COFFEE.”

Kunikida slams his head on the table. He wonders if that gave him a concussion. He hopes it did.

“AND I WANT A MILKSHAKE!”

He flinches at the booming voice from behind him. Ranpo has their hands cupped around their mouth as they yell, and when Kunikida looks at them, they grin.

“LET’S GO GET OUR DRINKS!”

“WHY ARE YOU YELLING?!” Kunikida wails. He knows he yelled first. But still.

“I DON’T KNOW!”

Ranpo leaps off their chair, heading towards him. They grab Kunikida’s arm and drag him out the office, humming to themself.

“Wait,” Kunikida blurts, stumbling down the stairs. “I wasn’t that serious. I still have work to do—”

“I wonder how many espresso shots will kill you,” Ranpo says, ignoring him. “Let’s go find out.”

“…Yeah, okay.”

—

nathaniel & kajii + alexa… initiate self-destruction…

Nathaniel has no clue how he ended up here.

This is all Mark’s damn fault. If they didn’t insist on dragging him to a bar, specifically a gay bar (how horrendous), then he wouldn’t be stuck in this position, entertaining a drunk lunatic who also happens to be a mafia bomber.

Kajii fawns over his phone, speaking to Alexa through it and gasping whenever the AI replies. Nathaniel does not want to be here.

“You know, it’d be cool if I could attach something like this to my bombs!”

“Really,” Nathaniel deadpans.

“Yes! It would be a final, powerful command. Like… Alexa, initiate self-destruction! And bam!”

Maybe if Kajii bombs this entire place up, Nathaniel would finally know peace. He nods in agreement. “You should definitely try that.”

“Ay, really? Man, I don’t know who you are, but you’re awesome!”

“I told you my name three times already,” Nathaniel grumbles. “Though I’m not exactly sure why,” he adds under his breath.

Kajii either ignores him or doesn’t hear him, for he cackles, slapping his back.

—

poe & gin + it wasn’t very nice… but I did it anyway

“It wasn’t very nice… but I did it anyway,” Poe admits.

Gin laughs under their breath. It’s hard to picture Chuuya stuck in a book, losing his cool and coming out completely disheveled, but Poe doesn’t seem like he’s lying.

“That’s okay. You have a cool ability.”

Poe’s fingers, which were running through Karl’s fur, stop and twitch. “R-really?”

They nod. Though they’ve gotten used to being surrounded by powerful ability users, they still find themself awed over the more unique ones.

Gin doesn’t need an ability to protect themself, but there’s no denying that ability users like Ryuunosuke are on a different level. It’s nice to meet someone so, well—

Humble, maybe?

Gin wonders if they could get out of the book on their own. They voice this question out to Poe, whose eyes widen.

“I’m not sure I want to let you try that…”

They huff. Whatever. They definitely could.

[irradiatedsnakes]

I've ran out of current vods from my favourite streamer, do you have any recommendations for fun rtvs vods to watch? I've really been meaning to check some out

oh yes absolutely!!

i don't watch every rtvs member stream, so if anybody wants to chime in with vods from other folks, please feel free! i pretty much just watch wayne, holly, and scorpy's streams, so:

from wayneradiotv:

looking through wayne's catalogue i'm running into the problem that most of my favorites (like the among us, jackbox, & 420 streams) are best enjoyed when you're already pretty familiar with the crew, so maybe save those for later if you end up enjoying rtvs' stuff. all of the proximity chat among us videos are fantastic (and i like watching the same one from multiple peoples perspectives, holly's in particular are great). RTVS congress, a stream by baaulp, is also great and worth watching once familiar with the crew

i think my best wayne (well, on wayne's channel, all of these feature multiple members of the crew) recommendation though is gonna be I.M. MEEN, which is a completely normal playthrough of a regular copy of 90's kids' edutainment game i.m. meen, which has nothing wrong with it. for some of the other "rtvs brand of weirdness" sort of streams, check out waynekenstein's lab (fun with ai generated faces) and chex quest hd (just.. watch this one)

wayne does a lot of "grand tour" streams (technically the im meen one is one of these but), where he goes through older/weirder/obscurer games. fin fin on teo the magic planet is a FANTASTIC one (fin fin needs no introduction, but in case he does, odd 90's virtual pet with a great theme song), plus the echs bachs catalogue (a bizarre collection of pretty awful games made by one dude called Echs Bachs), and club penguin rewritten (it's club penguin, bro).

if you like seeing a game played over many hours and multiple streams, i'd check out chulip, lisa: the painful, minecraft 24 hour charity stream, and moon rpg: remix. lisa and moon remain unfortunately unfinished, but the streams are still absolutely worth checking out.

from hollowtones:

most of my favorite holly vods are biiiig long streams of a playthrough of a whole game. her stuff tends to be pretty chill and i find them nice and relaxing. sometimes there's friends joining her, sometimes it's just her. of these, i really like bugsnax (adore these ones. idk how to succinctly explain bugsnaz. is bugs, is snax, are you a jokester?), hypnospace outlaw (PLEASE watch these ones especially if you havent played/watched hypnospace before), and moonglow bay (really sweet fishing game).

holly also does a number of wikipedia streams, where she (and friends) read and discuss wikipedia articles about food for upwards of 6 hours a piece. it's really good. it's really good. i like the soup one.

another favorite holly stream is GO-FISH DELUXE FOR SUPER PLAYERS, where holly and a friend play a custom game of go fish for 7 and a half hours. i love this one.

and i would be remiss to leave out, of course, the pigmas in july peppa pig stream. which is where holly, joined by her sister if i remember correctly it's been a minute since i watched, plays the peppa pig video game for nintendo switch. this one is very worth watching to the very end.

from socpens:

my #1 recommendation from scorpy's catalogue is going to be every single one of the VHS VIEWINGZ streams. scorpy obtains and plays a bunch of vhs tapes on stream with friends, it's always always always a good time. my favorite of all of them is probably this one, which among other things, includes a tape about learning to be a clown. make sure to watch to the end for a t-bone tickler! this one, featuring Escalator Safety and VOLTON THE ELECTRITY DEMON is also great. i'm having a hard time choosing just a few, they're all really good, so i'm just gonna link the eye palming one and be done with it.

for gameplay with scorpy, i really like a way out with wayne (unintentionally hilarious 2 player narrative game about escaping from jail), any of the david cage game vods but here's detroit become human, and not for broadcast (a FMV game about running a tv station- censoring stuff, monitoring broadcasts, that sort of thing. has a very interesting narrative)

and a couple other things

ok so these aren't like, the typical stream vods, while they are technically livestreamed stuff they're not quite in the same category. but they're all really fucking good.

of course, half life VR but the ai is self aware. there's full stream vods available for these, but if you haven't watched before i highly recommend watching the edited versions on wayne's main channel linked above. in case you haven't heard of hlvrai before, basic concept is that it's an in-character playthrough (wayne roleplaying as gordon freeman) of half life 1 in VR with a cast of self-aware ai NPCs (played by other members of the rtvs crew) accompanying him through the game. no prior knowledge of half life necessary. just fantastic.

next up, GAMECLAM. a yearly e3-style gaming conference about the best video games console that doesn't exist. here's the first one, there's currently 3 in total. there's also a commentary video on scorpy's vod channel. PLEASE experience the gameclam. PLEASE experience the gameclam

lastly, half life: alyx but the gnome is TOO AWARE. wayne does a gnome run challenge of HL:A with a mod that gives the gnome a biiiit more personality. (due to some references, best watched after hlvrai, but they're not part of the same series/continuity). not all the way finished at the moment- the finale's been streamed (and you can find a 3rd party upload of the finale stream on youtube (thank you youtube user sawsily for everything you do)) but the edited version of the finale should be coming out pretty soon.

[dewffin]

Finally, some good fucking journalism

SO

All this morning was me realizing that what i wanted to do for the journal was technically an inventory system... and then i spent the whole day making the journal, while trying to integrate what you write there with the dialogue system.

The thing is that for months i have been collecting every single free asset that I find in the Epic Store, and turns out i had found this plugin that is amazing! But because i never used it before what could have taken maybe minutes took hours :)

BUt now, it works! The player character can walk up to some colliders and gets the prompt to write about that, so that is not like you don't notice what you write. Then it gets written in the journal, with an index of all the tea, and then individual pages for every entry.

In the dialogue system then as before, if the player character has the variable Russingon Canon (yep, that's the name) you get additional options of dialogue with Fëanor, and now he reacts to what you say!

Also I began to make concept art of this first level in Formenos, as all what is now in the scene is temporary and prove of my past hoarding plugins and assets.

Soon I'll have an update with all the fëanorians, as i have some of them made, and i cannot wait to use them as an AI crowd to make this not feel as empty as it is.

The one that is almost ready is a little Celebrimbor! why him? Because it was just copying Fëanor's model and doing some changes.

And yes, he has almost same hairstyle as Fëanor... let's say that Curufin would style his hair like this

Also i love how accurate the file name ended up being as i didn't change it before editing.

Also, i don't know if I'm gonna go for a more elaborate version of this for Maglor, because it crashes a bit with the style i gave the others, but on the other hand... it's a poet shirt- A POET SHIRT!

i think i need some sleep

Version 0.2.0

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