#but for now it's a decent placeholder

[kiealer]

I've been thinking about Solar Storm as I've been watching JJBA and HxH, and I finally have outside references to compare it to in order to give a better explanation:

Solar Storm is like a 70%/30% mix of Hamon and Killua's Godspeed form. Which is to say, yes, Solar Storm is just basically a giant JoJo's reference before I even knew what it was. (and now it's entirely intentional--)

Overdrive is more often than not used for defense since it covers her entire body, and any touch will evoke a sharp and massive electric shock to the one who touches her. She cannot use ki attacks in this form, it will drain her instantly, or potentially even kill her with how much energy she's outputting. Shock (I think I called it) is the lesser form, centralized to specific parts of her body (more often her arms or hands than not), which is more for offense because it's more focused and meant to be used for accurate strikes. It takes less energy but more concentration. Yes, ki attacks can be used, though it still takes a chunk out of her. I'd say her ki attacks are electric-based, and maybe she can even absorb ki in this state to keep for herself or to use as a counterattack, but I'll think more about that.

[navree]

game of thrones seasons: 1/8.

the first season of the fantasy drama television series game of thrones premiered on hbo on april 17, 2011, in the u.s. and concluded on june 19, 2011. it consists of ten episodes, each of approximately 55 minutes. the season is based on a game of thrones, the first novel in the a song of ice and fire series by george r. r. martin.

[baeshijima]

whenever i see people get a good deepwood piece, i cry a river inside

[stonedopossums]

i have a sideblog that i keep around literally just because im attached to the url. it was my original url on this blog. thinking of deleting it tho

[apex-flare]

Varker | 22 | they/them | punk nb

Mains: Mirage, Caustic, Crypto

[vaadazen-codes]

How To Get Started Making Visual Novels

Wanna make a visual novel? Or maybe you've seen games like Our Life, Blooming Panic, Doki Doki Literature Club, etc. and wanna make something like that? Good news, here's a very basic beginners guide on how to get started in renpy and what you need to know going in! Before you start, I highly recommend looking at my last post about writing a script for renpy just to make it easier on you!

LONG POST AHEAD

Obviously, our first step is downloading it from their website

thankfully, its right on the home page of their site. Follow basica program installation steps and run the program. I highly recommend pinning it to your task bar to make it easier to access.

From there, you're met with the renpy app, it's a little daunting at first but let's talk about what all these buttons are for.

Projects

This part is simple, it just lists the current projects in the chosen directory. You probably won't have any in there of your own. You should still see Tutorial and The Question!

Both of those default projects are super helpful in their own ways, i highly recommend testing out the tutorial and playing around with it just to get comfortable with some of the basics.

Create New Project

The first step to actually making your game into a game!

You'll be met with a prompt letting you know that the project is being made in English and that you can change it. You can click Continue.

From here, you'll be asked to input a project name! Put in your games title, or even a placeholder title since this Information can be changed later! (this is also the title the folder will be in your file browser, be sure to name it something you won't overlook)

Now we get to choose our resolution!

If you have no idea what to choose, go for 1920x1080! This is the standard size for most computer monitors and laptops, but it will still display with moderately decent quality on 4k monitors too!

You can choose 3840x2160 as well. This is 2x the measurements of the default, with the same ration. These dimensions are considered 4k. Keep in mind, your image files will be bigger and can cause the game to have a larger size to download.

Now we get to choose our color scheme!

Renpy has some simple default options with the 'light mode' colors being the bottom two rows, and the 'dark mode' colors being the toop two rows.

You can pick anything here, but I like to choose something that matches my projects vibes/colors better. Mostly because depending on how in depth you go with the ui, it minimizes the amount of changes I need to make later.

Click continue and give it a minute. Note: If it says "not responding" wait a moment without clicking anything. It can sometimes freeze briefly during the process.

Now we should be back at our home screen, with our new project showing. Let's talk about allll that stuff on the right now.

Open Directory

This just opens that particular folder in your local file explorer!

game - is all the game files, so your folders for images, audio, saves, and your game files like your script, screens, and more.

base - this is the folder that the game folder is inside of. You can also find the errors and log txt files in here.

images - takes you to your main images folder. This is where you wanna put all of your NON gui images, like your sprites, backgrounds, and CGs. You can create folders inside of this and still call them in the script later. EX: a folder for backgrounds , a folder for sprites for character a, a seperate folder for spirtes for character b, etc.

audio - Takes you to the default audio folder. This is empty, but you can put all your music and sound effects here!

gui - brings up the folder containing all of the default renpy gui. It's a good place to start/ reference for sizes if you want to hand draw your UI pieces like your text box!

Edit File

Simple enough, this is just where you can open your code files in whatever text/code editor you have installed.

Script.rpy - where all of your story and characters live. This is the file you'll spend most of your time in at first

Options.rpy - Contains mostly simple information, like project name and version. There aren't a ton of things in here you need to look at. There is also some lines of code that help 'archive' certain files by file type so that they can't be seen by players digging in code however. Fun if you want to hide some images in there for later or if you just dont want someone seeing how messy your files are. We've all been there

Gui.rpy - where all of the easy customization happens. Here you can change font colors, hover colors, fonts, font sizes, and then the alignment and placement of all of your text! Like your dialogue and names, the height of text buttons, etc. It more or less sets the defaults for a lot of these unless you choose to change them later.

Screens.rpy - undeniably my favorite, this is where all of the UI is laid out for the different screens in your game, like the main menu, game menu, quick menu, choice menu, etc. You can add custom screens too if you want, but I always make my own seperate file for these.

Open Project - this just opens all of those files at once in the code editor. Super handy if you make extra files like I do for certain things.

Actions

last but not least, our actions.

Navigate Script - This feature is underrated in my honest opinion, it's super handy for help debugging! In renpy you can comment with # before a line. However, if you do #TODO and type something after it, it saves it as a note! You can view these TODO's here as well as easily navigate to when certain screens are called, where different labels are (super great if your game is long, and more. It saves some scrolling.

Check Script (Lint) - also super duper handy for debugging some basic things. It also tells you your word count! But its handy for letting you know about some errors that might throw up. I like using it to look for sprites I may or may not have mispelled, because they show up in there too.

Change/Update GUI - Nifty, though once you start customizing GUI on your own, it isn't as useful. You can reset the project at any point and regenerate the image files here. This updates all those defaults we talked about earlier.

Delete Persistent - this just helps you delete any persistent data between play throughs on your end. I like to use it when making a lot of changes while testing the game, so that I can reboot the game fresh.

Force Recompile - Full disclosure, as many games as I've made and as long as I've been using Renpy, i have never used this feature. I searched to see what it does and this is the general consesus: Normally renpy tries to be smart about compiling code (creating .rpyc files) and only compiles .rpy files with changes. This is to speed up the process since compiling takes time. Sometimes you can make changes that renpy don't pick up on and therefore won't recompile. In these cases you can run force recompile to force it. Another solution (if you know what file is affected) is to delete that specific. rpyc file.

The rest of your options on this right hand side are how you make executable builds for your game that people can download to extract and play later!

Sorry gang! that was a whole lot of text obviously the last button "Launch Project" launches an uncompiled version of the project for you to play and test as you go! Hang in tight because my next post is about how to utilize github for renpy, so you can collaborate easier!

[fairyhaos]

How To Fucking Write: a guide by fairyhaos

[masterlist]

this post details:

STARTING A STORY

PACING A STORY

hi gays and gals and welcome to "how to fucking write", a post (series) where i talk about how i brainstorm for writing, plan for writing, write the writing, and everything in between. nothing too serious here lmao, but i'm definitely planning on making at least a couple posts on this bc a) it's fun and b) i wanna help! so if you find this useful then pls lmk by reblogging + drop an ask if there are any specific things u want me to give my two cents on ^^

okok and now without further ado,,, let's look at the topics i'll talk about in today's post!

#1 - HOW TO START A STORY.

.. bullet point one : have an idea

the first big thing is that you need an idea. doesn't matter if you're a pantser and don't plan out your writing before you start. that's totally fine! but before you begin, you need at least an idea: maybe it's a vibe, a character personality, a specific journey you want the characters to go on. maybe it's a piece of dialogue. maybe it's the ending- the point you want to end up at after however many thousand words.

whatever it is, it's best to have some inspiration, some idea of what you wanna do. no point in writing if you don't know what you're writing, you know?

(of course, that brings up the issue of Having An Idea in the first place, but finding inspiration to write is a whole other can of worms we can open in another post.)

.. bullet point two : practice

okay, so now you have an idea. how do you put that idea to paper? how should you actually start your story?

it’s all to do with practice.

it’s the most annoying piece of advice in the world, but it helps so much. you just have to write lots and lots and lots, to find the way that works for you. whether you wanna start your stories with pretty scene descriptions, with dialogue, with dramatic one-liners. finding your voice, your style, what’s most comfortable for you, is really really important. and takes practice.

an example, though: for me, i prefer either a line of dialogue, or one-liners that a) help immediately establish a character’s personality or can b) introduce an interesting setting.

[chan + swingset] — one-liner example

[hoshi + silly] — dialogue example 

but of course, everyone’s style is different. so i’d recommend playing around! find a list of one-word prompts and just write a few that inspire you, writing the beginnings. it’s important, also, that you’re having fun, because if you’re already struggling with starting to write, it’ll be even harder if you’re doing it while feeling stressed.

.. bullet point three (mostly just for longer fics)

maybe you don’t find a style, in the end. maybe you’re comfortable with all of them, which is totally fine! but then you look at your writing, and you think, “oh… this isn’t as good as i thought.” 

and it makes you want to give up. what do you do, then? how do you carry on with your start?

just put words to paper. it doesn’t matter if the words are terrible, if you’re making up shit and using placeholders for description words or whatever. just carry on, get to a place you’re happy with, like the end of a scene, or maybe a dialogue exchange you really like.

because now, guess what? you’ve successfully created a first draft.

making first drafts is actually so important. seriously. first drafts allow you to fuck up, allow you to write terribly. they help you fumble and trip your way to the finish line (or at least a rest point) so that you can go back and do better.

even if your first draft is terrible, it’s helped you make your way to a point you’re happy with. now you have a vague idea of what you want, even if the description or characterisation or something is way off. because now, you can edit it, or even scrap it and use only a few words from that draft in your next one. or maybe, if you look back at it, maybe it’s even decent enough for you to use. 

whatever it is, when you first start writing that story, think of it as ‘The Worst Draft’. because it probably won’t be as good as you want it, and it’s okay. just write, with no fears of it being bad, because that’s literally fine. it’s not set in stone. the backspace button exists. after your first draft is made, make another. and another, and another, because i promise, after that first draft, it only gets better from there.

#2 - PACING A STORY.

.. bullet point one : adding things

pacing is always really tricky. however, i do think that slowing a story down is easier than speeding it up, so here we go,,,,

finding out the exact way to slow down a story really depends on what type of story you're writing, but there are a few all-round things you can do which can help pretty much any setting.

if it's a scene with loads of dialogue, and things feel like they're jumping to the end topic too quickly, add descriptions. your readers are blind, writers, and they depend on you to be able to see what's going on. are your characters having a conversation on the street? take a break to describe what they see. are they in a coffee shop? maybe someone comes in with a huge noise, or their coffee arrives at their table. are they hanging in midair with nothing around them? well, describe the actions of the character they're talking to, then.

example: (from my seoksoo fic bc it's the only long fic i'm working on rn)

by adding character descriptions, movement, thoughts, instantly everything seems to have slowed down. it thickens time, allowing you to move at a more leisurely pace.

if it's a scene full of action, you can do the exact same thing. maybe there's a high-tension moment and something significant happens. slow down time there, describe something small in great detail. talk about the thoughts they're having.

and even if it's just an ordinary scene, describing is important. the setting, the characters' actions, their thoughts. it's okay to write too much. then you can delete things which make things feel like they're moving too slowly.

.. bullet point two : delete

not gonna lie, finding out how to speed up the pacing of the story can often be really specifically tailored to the setting of the story.

with stories that have loads of action (spy, apocalypse, etc) i'd recommend adjusting sentence length. you'll want short, punchy sentences, without loads of commas and clauses, but you'll also want to experiment with having those short sentences gradually get longer. it helps with tension and suspense.

it has to be short. running fast. something to elevate fear. quick, but also desperate, before they then spill over each other, picking up pace, all of the thoughts blurring together and going faster, and faster, and faster, and then-

then the penny drops.

people use the metaphor of music a lot, and it really does work that way. it needs to ascend to its climax: gently, cautiously, before sprinting upwards and only describing things like the barest emotions (the fear they feel, the panic, anger, anything) before everything reaches its peak and comes crashing down in a flurry of action descriptions.

but of course, the easiest way to speed up something is to delete. delete swathes of setting description. delete unnecessary dialogue. delete an entire scene and rewrite with only the things you remember (which can help make sure you only have the essentials in your scene, btw. very helpful).

it might take a bit of adjusting, rewriting, moving things around, but ultimately, quickening the pace of the story depends on the way in which you write things. be concise, be dramatic, and don't dawdle.

... and that's it ! if anyone has anything else they want advice on (how to structure, how to write dialogue, how to plan etc) then just shoot me an ask, because i'd love to help however i can :)

tagging: @selenicives who asked for this in the first place hehe ^^

[angel-calypso]

Mistaken part two

Okay i'm sorry for taking so long!! I tried my best to quickly write something but I'd rather put something decent out rather than a quick ending. I did my best i hope everyone likes it as much as the first part.

Erik lehnsherr x mutant!reader part two !! just a little angsty. mention of depression. Reader is just a little sad

For the next couple weeks, you reverted to keeping to yourself. Only coming out of your room to eat or tend to the garden. You had fallen into a small depression. You sincerely believed that you were simply a placeholder for Raven. That no one truly liked your company, but just missed hers. You couldn't have been more wrong. Every day, when you would creep out of your room, Erik would watch from a distance. He missed you deeply and couldn't understand what had happened. Every time he tried to talk to you, you would apologize and say you had to go somewhere. On the days where you didn't come out of your room at all, he would tend to the garden for you. Raking the leaves, trimming bushes around the property. He and Charles would always have a glass ready for you during their nightly routine.

Charles knew what had happened. But he wanted to let things unfurl for a while longer before he intervened. He hopes that Erik would finally tell you of his feelings. You two would just play around the fact, it almost made Charles annoyed sometimes. He loves you both and wants you and him to be happy but you both can be incredibly naive. Charles would check up on you during the day, knocking and cracking the door open. You felt like you were in a hospital with Charles performing checks on you. Charles would bring you food sometimes, with Erik waiting in the hallway. You never say the intense worrying Erik was doing for you. The pacing and the sleepless nights. His appetite almost gone as well.

“Y/n.” You were outside, just breathing in the air, growing flowers around your bare feet. They were sad, nothing compared to what you used to grow. They almost shriveled up when he said your name. That didn't go unnoticed to him

“Oh! I'm sorry Erik, I got to go, I can't talk, i'll catch up with you another time. sorry” You say your rehearsed and reused apology. He's heard it over and over. Every time stinging more than the last. You slipped your shoes back on. He didn't even say anything, he held himself back, he wanted to rip the metal from the fence and wrap a cage around you. He cursed himself for thinking that. He just wants you to look at him. Say something other than that damn same sentence. He watched you leave then looked at the darkened dead flowers where you stood. He wanted to scream at you, ask what he did wrong to deserve this treatment. Why you avoid him at every turn, he thought you had felt the same towards him.

That night you went to the kitchen to make some tea. You knew they were sitting in the office, you could hear them talking. You tried to imagine yourself there, you knew you would be happy with your best friend and the man you were deeply in love with. The laughing, the drinks, even the chess. Everything you missed just in another room. The kettle whistling brought you out of your mind, you went to take it off the stove, when it slowly lifted itself. You kept your back to him, knowing Erik was standing behind you. You thanked him and finished making tea. You grabbed the tray full of the milk sugar and tea. You finally turned to see Erik, for the first time actually looking at him. His eyes were pleading with you to say something else. His brows furrowed. You realized you couldn't move, frozen, you missed him so much. Just as quickly as you were frozen, you snapped out of it. Erik was standing in the doorframe. Blocking your way out, you walked up to him. You were the closest you two have been for a month now. You looked up to him and excused yourself. Hoping you could get out of there before the tears came.

“No.” He was looking at you, watching your every move. He needed to know why. He felt the metal in the tray, used it to move the tray out of your hands onto the counter.

“Erik. i'm tired, i need to go, i'm”

“No.” He cut you off before you could apologize. He was done with it. But it only made you mad. How could he sit here and torment you? Why couldn't he just leave you alone?

“No what, Erik? Just let me go to my room. I don't want to see you right now.” You avoided his gaze and tried pushing him out of the way. Erik stood his ground. He wasn't going to let you get away tonight. He needed answers.

“Please just talk to me, tell me what i did, why you won't even look at me anymore. What? what is it please I can't keep doing this.” He begged you desperately. His hands had found their way on your shoulders, holding you in place. You were shocked, you didn't expect him to care this much about you. You kind of just stared at him for a little bit. Trying to understand what's going on. You were embarrassed. You didn't want to tell him your feelings, why you locked yourself away.

“I'm sorry Erik.” Suddenly he wrapped his arms around you. You stood there for a while with your arms at your sides. You returned the hug, but with that came your tears. First slowly prickling your eyes then streams. “Erik. I just don't want to see you and her all over each other okay? I can't do it, it just hurts. I walked in that night on you two in the office when she came home. My whole heart sank. I can't do it, i'm so sorry. it's not your fault at all Erik. You didn't do anything wrong. I'm just selfish.” Once you started talking you couldn't stop crying, you told him everything, how you thought he felt the same. How you had fallen in love with him. everything. He had grown stiff and you had felt it, it made you cry even more. You had made a mistake telling him, you just knew it. He slowly let go of you, he chuckled to himself which only made you hurt more. He was laughing at your pain? Is it all a joke?

“Oh, mein armes mädchen, I don't know why you didn't just talk to me or Charles about this. I feel so foolish, I didn't even think about Raven inadvertently causing all this.” It almost seemed like he was talking to himself. He took your face in his hands sweetly. “There is nothing going on between me and Raven. She is like a sister to me. She's a bit touchy, but if you stuck around us, you would realize she's like that with everyone. I thought you knew her and Hank were together, Meine Liebe?” You were confused, how could you have missed that detail? Your face was growing hot with embarrassment again. You apologized for the tears. He wiped them away softly. You two stood there for what seemed like forever. Your bodies were close, you could feel the warmth radiating off his body. He closed the distance between you. His lips meeting yours felt like the most right thing ever to happen to you. You returned the kiss, deepening it. His hands moved to your hips, pulling you closer. After a few minutes, he pulled back. He looked into your eyes, you swore there was a tear in his.

“I love you, Y/n. I truly love you.”

translations:

Mein armes mädchen - My poor girl

Meine liebe - My love

taglist; @mostlymarvelgirl @mirrorball-6

[deusvervemakesgames]

Project RBH Devlog 0066

Last week I managed to get a lot done, especially during that Wednesday livestream. My full count of upgrades is now at 30, with 10 drones and 20 different bullet upgrades. Not enough for anything resembling a full game but decent for a demo.

I was also able to fix that bug with the Spike enemy. It was simply attacking multiple times at once because the code didn’t check to see if it was already attacking before running the attack code. An easy fix. It’s the same thing pretty much all the things in the game that shoot do—player, drones, enemies—so I should’ve realized that was the issue sooner.

I also added a new HUD element finally, the one that tells you how many times you can dash. The sprite is still placeholder but hey so are the drones. Besides I think I need to touch up the HUD anyway.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to figure out how to fix the math on the twin blaster drone. Even with multiple suggestions both on-and-offline, nothing I tried helped me get the behavior that I wanted from it. I was beginning to think that when I posted a demo later today, the drone would simply not work correctly.

Until this very morning, when I awoke with a sudden flash of inspiration.

The player sprite changes to face the direction the player is aiming. This simple code is based around diving the aim direction by the number of degrees you want to check for (since I’m only looking in four directions, that would be 90) and then using modulo to take the remainder to find which of the four directions the player is looking. However. There is nothing stopping me from using the same code but set to eight directions, and then using a switch statement to adjust where the bullets are spawned from.

It's not perfect but it works!

So, at some point later today, I’ll have a new build posted to Patreon, available for patrons of certain tiers. In one week it will be publicly available, as usual. Which means that my goal for this week is to make another YouTube video about it.

Until next Devlog!

-DeusVerve

DevLogs like these are brought to you by Patron(s) like Haelerin!

Support me on Patreon to get Early Access to builds!

[autumnleopard]

Unusual Judgement

So, I finished this somewhat silly "little" fic a while ago but was nervous about posting it anywhere (still am tbh). The title is not set, actually, it's just the most decent one I could think of instead of the placeholder I had previously. Well, anyway, hope you enjoy it.

Fandom: Peaky Blinders

Pairing: Tommy x Alfie

Word count: 2195

Summary: In which Alfie comes to Tommy's mansion but has to face judgement by someone very important to Tommy first before getting to the fun activities. Needless to say he thinks it's ridiculous but still he will humour Tommy.

Warnings: None, I think... It's just silly and soft.

AO3

“This is utterly ridiculous,” Alfie complained as Tommy practically dragged him towards the stables of his country estate.

Alfie had only arrived at Arrow House perhaps ten minutes ago, with a clear plan in mind of what to do with his time here, but apparently Tommy had an entirely different idea of how they should spend their already limited time together. At least for the time being, which was still an unfortunate development. Alright, perhaps Alfie was exaggerating a little bit but still, he could think of lots of things they could be doing instead.

They didn’t get to see each other as much as they wanted, and especially not in Tommy’s own home. It was—usually anyway—clandestine meetings in not too fancy hotels; hotels where they knew nobody would rat on them, or even bat an eye at two men (that very well may be walking a tad too close to each other) going up to the same room to spend the night. There was the rare occasion of them meeting at Alfie’s own house in Camden Town but he had fairly nosy neighbours, and another man staying with him overnight would probably cause rumours to spread like a fucking wildfire. Which in and of itself Alfie didn’t give much of a fuck about but if those rumours would reach the ears of his or Tommy’s enemies, they would be in a whole lot of trouble, as a thing like this was perfect leverage against either of them. And it would be far easier for those fuckers to have them arrested by the coppers for fucking sodomy than to try and take Alfie and Tommy out themselves. They would need proof of course, and Tommy and him were fairly good liars (or bullshitters, whatever), but it would still be a bad situation for them and it was doubtful they’d be able to ever shake the rumours after it, so they didn’t want to take any risks; at least not more than already anyway.

Either way, the invitation to stay at Tommy’s mansion over the weekend had come as quite the surprise for Alfie but also he liked the slight change in their routine and the chance to spend more than a mere few hours or a night with Tommy. He still was a bit worried about it though, about the possibility of Tommy’s family catching them mostly. But his housekeeper Frances was nice and also apparently knew what was going on here actually, judging by the knowing smile she had given Alfie upon his arrival. She hadn’t commented on anything and Tommy seemed to trust her a lot, so Alfie was quite sure she would keep their little secret safe.

And seriously, Alfie was looking forward to this weekend, but the start of it was certainly quite odd. He should be used to Tommy’s sometimes unpredictable behaviour by now, though usually that meant rage and anger and not… this. He’d even go so far to call it eccentric, at least in this very circumstance.

“They’re a good judge of character,” Tommy said, like it made any sense to anyone but himself. He didn’t look back at Alfie as he said that but, thanks to the privacy of his own property, still held Alfie’s hand. Which Alfie did not mind at all, to be honest, he just wished Tommy wouldn’t drag so much.

Alfie rolled his eyes, trying to keep up with Tommy’s rather crisp pace. He was undoubtedly excited, which was an interesting thing to witness. “You already know my fucking character.”

Tommy shrugged and just kept on dragging Alfie towards the horses that were grazing out on the pasture.

“Tommy, treacle,” Alfie tried, letting out an exasperated sigh. “Are you actually telling me that you put more weight on a bloody horse’s opinion of someone than on your own?”

“They’re good judges of character,” Tommy repeated matter-of-factly, not making any more sense this time around.

“Alright,” Alfie sighed. “I’ll humour you. So, hypothetically, if the horse doesn’t approve of me, what will happen? Will you just break this off? Send me on my merry fucking way and return to business as usual?”

“No, of course not,” Tommy answered, finally stopping his infuriating dragging. He looked at Alfie with those bright blue eyes that he knew very well drove Alfie crazy. “You’ll just have to… spend more time with them, charm them.” He grinned. “You know, how you’d do with the parents of someone you love.”

Alfie pinched the bridge of his nose, shaking his head. “You are fucking ridiculous, mate.”

“And yet you love me, Alfie.”

“Do I?” Alfie couldn’t believe this man. Mad, just mad. Which, coming from him, said a fucking lot. “I might have to rethink that.”

Tommy let go of his hand, crossing his arms over his chest. He quirked an eyebrow, tilting his head ever so slightly to the side, and just looked at Alfie. Just looked at him with those bright blue eyes. A piercing look, quite intense. It was the kind of look Tommy used when negotiating with someone, be it a potential business partner or an enemy. Alfie liked that look, and the way others caved under it, which unfortunately included him in this instance.

He sighed. “Alright, I do. But you are still fucking ridiculous, Tommy.”

Tommy just smirked triumphant. Alfie shook his head; and people called him a madman.

“Let’s just get this over with,” Alfie decided. “I have better things to do, like getting those clothes off you and fuck you senseless.”

Tommy chuckled and shook his head. “Patience is a virtue, darling,” he said softly as he took Alfie’s hand again, giving it a gentle squeeze just because he could.

Alfie rolled his eyes and let Tommy lead him onto the pasture. He liked the feel of Tommy’s hand in his, to be completely honest. Mostly because they didn’t get to do that very often.

Ever since this thing between them started (they had only very recently started to call it an actual relationship), Alfie had made the surprising discovery that Tommy liked touching, a lot. He always needed to touch Alfie in some way. It wasn’t possible at all in public, and also not when they were alone but there was the possibility of someone walking in on them, like when they were in either of their offices. Alfie got the impression that it bothered Tommy to not be able to touch him, even in the simplest, smallest way imaginable. They usually opted for being just a little too close to each other but it obviously wasn’t the same. So when they finally got some time alone, Tommy could absolutely not keep his hands off Alfie.

Actually, Alfie would even go so far to say that Tommy could get quite needy, in private anyways. Always needing to touch and be close, somehow having forgotten the concept of personal space; not that Alfie minded, alright. He actually quite liked it because it was such a drastically different side of the usually so cold and ruthless Tommy Shelby—a side that perhaps not even his own family got to see often, if at all. He could be so sweet and soft and was actually very much able to relax. He just hardly got the chance to, Alfie supposed, which made it all the more surprising that he found it so easy to relax when he was alone with Alfie.

He also liked to cuddle, liked it a lot, but would never fucking admit it, not even at gunpoint. You could probably torture him and he’d sooner admit to being queer than to being a cuddler.

“I still think you’re being ridiculous, just so we’re clear,” Alfie pointed out, watching the horses warily.

He wasn’t scared of horses, mind you. He just wasn’t particularly a fan of them, perhaps it was their size or those fucking hooves that could potentially crack a man’s skull. He also just simply could not fathom what Tommy saw in them. He did like to see that certain glow in Tommy’s eyes when he was talking about them though. That look of pure childlike delight. Or the look of unrestrained excitement Tommy had right now due to the prospect of introducing Alfie to his horses. It was sweet, he supposed, and it softened Tommy’s ragged edges, almost making him look a bit younger, less weary of life and its endless troubles.

Tommy just nodded in response to Alfie’s comment and stopped walking. He whistled and while all of the horses lifted their heads (their heads were too big as well, Alfie thought, everything about horses was kind of weird), only one of them walked towards where Tommy and Alfie were standing near the fence. It was, in all fairness and Alfie’s uneducated opinion, a quite beautiful looking horse with a sleek black coat and mane that blew softly in the fresh spring breeze.

It still looked quite a bit intimidating though.

The horse approached Tommy first, nudging him softly and earning a pat on the neck and a soft smile. Tommy petted its head tenderly and whispered something to it, while throwing a sideways glance at Alfie, who really tried not to grow uncomfortable or even anxious in this very unusual situation.

Being judged by a horse was certainly something else and only Thomas fucking Shelby would come up with it. Honestly, why he loved this cunt was beyond Alfie sometimes.

The horse slowly strode towards Alfie, fixing him with its dark eyes. Alfie stayed still, just waiting for whatever was about to happen. The horse came to a halt right in front of him.

“Hello… horse,” Alfie said, unsure of how to act exactly.

The horse circled around Alfie, seemingly taking all of him in with a certain degree of scrutiny. Alfie had no idea horses could even look so scrutinising. He’d bet, if it could, it would raise an eyebrow at him. It made him feel somewhat uneasy. When it finally stopped its assessment, it stood in front of Alfie and sniffed him curiously, eventually huffing right into Alfie’s face and nickering. It nudged him and nipped at his coat’s pockets. Alfie looked towards Tommy with an eyebrow raised in question and cluelessness. Since this had been his idea, Tommy should give him some pointers on how to proceed at least. But the other man simply grinned and looked very pleased.

“He likes you,” he explained. “He is demanding treats.”

“Well, I don’t have any, obviously.”

Tommy took Alfie’s hand and put some treats in it. “Go on. Flat palm.”

Alfie sighed and held his hand out to the horse just like Tommy said. The horse sniffed at it, accepting the peace offering, as Alfie would describe it, and happily munched away.

Tommy looked indeed very pleased and happy next to Alfie, smiling softly at him—oh, there was the reason why he loved him, now he remembered. It was a very good look on him though, so the ridiculousness with the horse had at least been worth it in the end.

“Are we done with this then?” Alfie asked, dropping his hand once the horse had eaten all the treats.

Tommy nodded smiling, wrapping his arms around Alfie's neck. “Still think I’m ridiculous?”

“Yes,” Alfie answered but smiled. “But I also love you, you fucking bastard.”

Tommy chuckled, shaking his head. Alfie grinned at him, then closed the small distance between them, capturing Tommy's soft lips in a tender but almost hungry kiss, which caused a low, pleased hum to escape Tommy.

This was exceptionally nice and special, Alfie thought as Tommy leaned further into the kiss, deepening it. He let his hands wander down Tommy's back, feeling the tiny shudder of anticipation that went through the other man's body at that simple gesture. He settled a hand on the small of Tommy's back, pulling him closer against him. He probably wasn't much different than Tommy, if he genuinely thought about it. Couldn't keep his hands off him, right, always needed to touch and feel the man's body against his.

In his defence, it was a very, very nice feeling.

The thing that made Alfie smile even more though, was that there was no tension in Tommy's body anywhere right now. He was just happy and relaxed, leaning into Alfie's embrace and savouring their kiss, almost getting lost in it even.

It was such a rare thing that they could be so open with their affection for each other, so they cherished any moment when they got to do it. Doing it so out in the open would be impossible under any other circumstance but this being Tommy's private property, they were thankfully sheltered and could for once just be themselves without fear of consequences and judgement.

Eventually it was Tommy who broke the kiss first, giving Alfie a soft, pleased smile. Without a word, he intertwined their fingers and took Alfie back to the house and up to his bedroom. Now this was more what Alfie had in mind when he had come here and so he was looking forward to it immensely.

[annabwritersdreamsideblog]

Characters from my untitled original (Ties That Bind...?=> TEMPORARY BOOK TITLE=> IT MAY CHANGE)

(to be updated, revised and more)

[Historical fiction novel set sometime in the Middle-ages/Renaissance. In order to have more creative freedom, I've decided to create fictional kingdoms but, since I have thought of no names yet, I'll use the names of the places they're inspired by when describing the characters. For now, at least. It will be updated when I've come up with decent names]

Families => Main characters

Rúadhán & Cecilia. They live on Celtic-like island (think of a remote Greek Island but settled by Celts) with their four children Órla, Mairéad, Elena and Giuliano. Cecilia was an "Italian" noblewoman of the House of Venier—that's probably a placeholder name, but I really like it and the Venier family were an actual Venetian noble family—who gave up everything she had (or was disowned, I still have to decide on that) to marry Rúadhán (he is a merchant and traveled a lot, that's how they met).

Fancasts:

Rúadhán=> Engin Öztürk

Cecilia=> Selma Ergeç

Órla=> Şeyma Burcu Gül

Elena "Enna"=> Synnøve Karlsen (maybe I'll keep the name Elenna and it will be a misspelled version of the name)

Mairéad=> Isolda Dychauk (most likely especially if younger than Enna)/Miriam Leone/Charlotte Hope/ Natalie Dormer (as Margeary)/Junia Rees/Amelia Gething/ Marta Gastini (if dark-haired like her sister)/young Hatice?/Burcu Özberk

Giuliano=> Ruairi O'Connor

Royal Family (the country is supposed to be akin to the Ottoman Empire with hints of Tudor England. Predominantly Ottoman but major changes are made on a few things—I'll try to research as much as I can)

I don't have a name for the king and queen (might as well end up being emperor/empress) yet, I only know he married three times and two of his wives executed.

Children from his first marriage (from left to right): Princess Elizabeth, Princess Alexandra, Princess Mary and Princess Catherine.

Fancasts:

Emperor=> Anthony Head

Empress Sophia Alexandra (Safiye)=> Hülya Avşar

1 miscarried son

1 stillborn son

Princess Margaret=> Jodie Comer/Rebecca Ferguson?

Princess Elizabeth=> Gaia Weiss

Princess Alexandra=> Gözde Türker

Princess Mary=> Holliday Grainger

Princess Catherine=> Suki Waterhouse

King's second wife

Queen #2=> Aslıhan Gürbüz

Aneurin Barnard? ( He looks like Aslihan so it might fit)

-

Lady Catherine, the King's illegitimate daughter, her mother is unknown.

Fancast=> Astrid Berges-Frisbey

House of Contarini (family crest=> eagle)

I don't know about titles. Italian nobility (they're Italian) used 'Messer' and 'Madonna' so I guess I might keep them. They're nobles, so why not.

Messer Piero and Madonna Maddalena and their children Lorenzo Elio, Laura and Lucrezia.

Lorenzo (nicknames Enzo or Elio) serves as Ambassador and ends up marrying Elena (Enna)

They'll have eleven children

Fancasts:

Piero=> James D'Arcy

Maddalena=> Tülin Özen

Lorenzo=> Daniel Sharman

Laura=> Gonca Sariyildiz

Lucrezia=> Merve Boluğur

Matilda Lutz as Lisa=> Leonardo/Lorenzo's sister.

(HE HAS THREE YOUNGER SISTERS AND LISA IS THE ONE HE'S CLOSEST WITH- SHE MIGHT BE HIS TWIN OR THEY MIGHT TEN/ELEVEN MONTHS APART)

*they also are of "Greek" origin and they're devoted to "Greek" gods. The family is devoted to Aeolus, god of the wind=> insert backstory*

That's also where "Nanourisma" comes into play.

Cecilia (the girls' mother) was also of Greek origin. Enna knows "Nanourisma" as well

Main couple (to add more)

Also, these two up above are basically a more historical version of Elenwë from my LOTR/Silmarillion fic "The Lady of Ithilien". Their chapters will be a RETELLING of said fic in a different context.

These are the main characters, this post will be updated periodically as I come up with new ones!

[ichorblossoms]

🫵 Get uno reversed. Tell me about Honeybee!! What's up with Grimm and Yarrow!!

HAIIIIII !!!! OKAY SO i did write about the general premise of honeybee and it's three parts before here. that's the basic "what the fuck are you talking about mintt" intro that i have locked and loaded now for if people ever ask me what the fuck it is i'm being so mentally ill about

AS a story itself, i envision honeybee as an illustrated novel of sorts, told in a semi-linear way. because i apparently cannot be a normal person who wants to tell stories in normal ways. the illustrations and whatnot will need to be decently worked out once i get a solid first draft of the story written, but i currently want to do something like this with the pages where instead of traditional illustrations it's something more akin to comic panels

(caveat that this is a mockup with first-draft unedited writing (with <placeholders>) and quick doodles. this is as not-final as it gets dshgklfdhlgh)

colors not final and this is definitely NOT the art style i'll be using for honeybee, i just needed to convey my ideas dhklghdflkg also i do want to get really fun and funky with the layouts but this was with csp and not like. indesign so it'll be a whole Process come time to actaully tell the final version of honeybee hdklghfdlg

basically i want to have the best of both worlds where i can get into grimm and yarrow's heads when i need to (it's written in third-person limited in both of their povs depending on the chapter/scene), while also showing things as they happen bc i feel like there are crucial moments in the story that hit harder when you see the characters reacting rather than what's going through their heads in the moment? this also is fully bc i'm a visual artist before a writer, but the nature of reading comics means people generally will consume the story faster, so i want to disrupt that a bit

like i said, i'm still on the first draft of the story, so i have a general arc of where i want things to go and land, but i'm still figuring out a LOT of the in-between details. the out-of-date thought-vomit outline is at almost 11k words, while the actual first draft is at 43.5k, which is…..mmmmmaybe about 1/3 of the way done…..? idk, there's a lot of stuff i want to say and do with the story that i haven't yet, so i truly don't know how long the full draft will be. i also think i'm gonna end up trimming a lot of what i currently have written and i also have scenes that have completely changed but. gotta get a draft down first

AS for grimm and yarrow well. god where do i start. they kind of have a different dynamic in each part of the story. p1 is about two strangers—one who gives without thinking and another who has received so little kindness—getting to know one another and learning about how the world is both kinder and crueler than they expect. p2 is about two people who knew one another but are sort of strangers again trying to open themselves up to trusting one another despite a number of personal issue on both ends, and how the process of doing that fucking hurts both parties, but, in the case of these two at least, results in both of them being the happiest they've been in a long, long time. p3 is about two people who are madly in love with one another trying to wreak havoc on the people responsible for getting in the way of that. they drive me bonkers fuckin yonkers for different reasons on their own AND together. yeehaw

briefly back to what i mentioned earlier abt the story being told semi-linearly: p3 is the "present day" of the story, so despite me calling it "part three", honeybee as a work opens with the beginning of p3. from there the story flips between the past (parts 1 and 2), as it is told chronologically, and the present. this is bc i want to make it abundantly clear from the get go that the two of them are so in love with one another and this is a story about both how they got there and what the fuck they're doing now

i could go on about a lot of things here for a lot of time bc i've been hyperfixating on trying to build/tell this story for almost a year and a half now, but i'm gonna call it with the post now bc if i don't, it will dissolve into even more rambling (but you are welcome to ask follow-up questions. no pressure though hfkghldf)

[shyfoxsky]

Gif Credits: DailyShirbert on Tumblr, PopularCultureSource on Tumblr

It's that time of year again for me to question foxes! If you know me from Instagram, you'll know this is pretty normal, and if I'm new to you, then welcome, my name is FoxSky, and I started out as a therian believing myself to be a red fox, which is where my name came from.

This isn't anything unusual, me considering foxes again. These guys are about as integral to my identity and journey as a therian as my actual theriotype. I started out as one, and no matter what, I keep coming back to them. Some part of me even wants to consider them as a theriotype on the side, call myself a polytherian. It's just how my identity has always been, dancing with these little ones throughout the eight and a half years I've been awakened.

Though, one weird thing I've noticed is that as my identity has become more complex and I've understood it and my self-image more and seen myself more in detail, considering my body type and the black accents along my face, ears, back, and tail, I've been looking a bit more at cross foxes than red foxes. These are the same animal, cross foxes are just a partially melanistic color morph of a standard red fox (not a cross between a red and silver fox (simply a fully melanistic red fox) as I was told multiple times when I was a teenager in the community and being a pet or fur farm fox was all the rage so all the foxes could be unique from each other on Instagram with cool coat colors), but it's still an interesting development. I think that as my personal identity has changed, not just my animality, but also my personal fashion style and music taste and aesthetic, I've begun to unintentionally incorporate my place in the emo subculture into how I see myself as an animal. My red hair has always been something that's carried over, as I simply see myself as a ginger creature, both in a human and nonhuman sense, but now I'm starting to see the addition of my black attire doing the same and becoming fur accenting alongside the red. Where I used to roleplay warrior cats as a straight ginger cat, now I lean far more into calico and tortoiseshell. It just feels more right to me.

I don't know if I am a fox or not. A lot of people in my personal life, especially my mate, associate me with them and see me as one more than as a wolf. I don't know if I'm hesitant to call them a theriotype because I don't want to believe I am the same creature I am now that I was nearly a decade ago or if they genuinely just aren't me, but as of late, I don't think it really matters. It's nice to have a set theriotype that I can use as a placeholder for my human face here online for all of you to see me as, but in my day to day, it isn't that serious. Wolves and foxes are very different, but also very similar. They're both carnivore-leaning omnivores that live in the same areas and habitats and are both extremely skittish and wary, the main differences being their body sizes and prey sizes, sociality, and certain things like denning habits, but that doesn't detract from the similarities. Some days I don't feel fox at all, and some days I feel almost entirely fox. I think the main difference comes in that I rarely if ever don't feel like a wolf, but I do go decently long periods without even thinking about foxes. I don't know if that's a normal thing for polytherians or not, but I have bigger things to do than worry about all that, like finishing my degree, getting my first job, and moving in with and getting married to my mate. So, for now, I'm content with a Venn diagram where wolves overlap my "Me" circle pretty much entirely and foxes overlap those two about halfway.

If anybody's wondering what exactly spurred all this by the way, it's because my mate bought me the lego 3-in-1 fox set to build together for a date night and it made me feel some way that I needed to jot down.

[koeiasequoia]

To talk a bit more on Audra, have some boss fight idea stuff, brought about by one of our partners talking about a grab idea they'd had for em X3

Arena is open air, pawsibly raining, definitely with a pool of water on the ground. Despite this, Audra does not take increased lightning damage, while the opponent does. One of the surrogate corpses of Godwyn is in the background. Audra is kneeling before said corpse praying/promising to it. Praying that Godwyn brings about the Age of the Duskborn, and promising to do whatever it takes to bring him back, even should that mean becoming Elden Lord.

As Death Knight Commander Audra, a lot of the attacks are various lightning spells that already exist, as well as attacking with their weapon of choice, a light greatsword. The thing about their lightning is, while they DO have a couple new death lightning spells, ALL of their spells create a (temporary) cloud of death mist where they hit, so the fight is as much about avoiding/mitigating the clouds, as it is fighting Audra. Like the other two death knights, Audra can also use Blinkbolt, where they turn into a bolt of lightning and charge forward, however, they can move in any direction they want, not just forwards, and it's also how they dodge

At about half health Audra calls down a lightning bolt, spawning a charged Fia's Mist on top of them, and wreathing their weapon and body in death lightning, so now you have to worry about their attacks, as well as just being near them building up deathblight while you take even more damage thanks to the lightning and water, as well as the general speed of the attacks, and fight as a whole, increasing

And for phase 2. You deplete Audra's healthbar and they fall, yet like all of Those Who Live in Death, they rise again to face you, with a voiceline from their wife, Florissax playing that says "May you become a dragon whole, my good Lord." this time having transformed into a Lichdragon. And THAT we're taking from a specific line of dialogue that she has. If you make her fall asleep and talk to her after the whole Bayle thing, the last lime of dialogue she has is

"... On second thought, I believe you do owe me something for the transgression. On a mere whim, you've stripped me of my one and only Lord. As such, I require another - you. One day, may you become a dragon whole, a Lord of your own making. Lead me, and I will follow. My good Lord."

Before she joins you as a summon ash (it's all chill because she ends up finding love through you and canonically we're saying that she and Audra are married)

After the battle, Audra's armor can be acquired from Enia in Roundtable Hold. The entire set boosts Dragon Cult Incantations(by more than the normal DK set), and the helmet makes all DCIs spawn death clouds, and the chestpiece has a bigger boost than the other pieces.

Their weapon Audra's Blade (placeholder name) can be looted from a secret room in their boss arena(its a grave for them and Florissax). The blade comes with their unique Blinkbolt ability, it can be used in any direction, and can be chainchast twice (maybe three times) before you either have to perform the follow up attack, or have to wait a second to start the chain again

Their remembrance, the Remembrance of the Death Commander, allows you to acquire one of two unique spells

Audra's Deathbolt, which is the buff they use in the second half of phase 1. It works like a combination of Electrify Armament and Electrocharge, except it's the black and yellow lightning of Death, it spawns a death cloud on use, has actually decent damage unlike Electrocharge. So now your weapon gets a lightning buff while also getting death buildup. And the lightning pulses deal lightning damage and death buildup

Or

Ancient Death Spears, an upgrade over Knight's Lightning Spears, it's the powerful red lightning of the ancient dragons, but it has the black lightning of Death intwined in it, making it deal Death buildup, as well as creating death clouds even without the helmet equipped. An Incantation made by Audra and Florissax, from their love for eachother. The only real person Audra does love.

[frogblast-the-ventcore]

Good day, it's me again!

Got some questions for your Astralverse universe.

I tried scouring your blog for astralverse-tagged posts but didn't find sufficient answers so I figured I should present these questions.

It's mentioned in the doc that FTL travel is commonplace but FTL comms is only in experimental stage, by the looks of it. Which is weird in my mind because I thought it should be easier to solve FTL comms first. What's the in-universe lore/explanation for this?

Still on the topic of FTL technology, who's the primary user? Everyone in the Confed, just the founders, a handful of trusted races? And who was the first to kickstart the development for FTL? Is it before or after the Confed was formed?

How is currency handled between races? Is there a unified currency that everyone uses (a la present day European Union with EUR), or is currency exchange/conversion still required?

The flag for The Plex appears to be a flat grey rectangle. I thought it was a bug on my end but it's also displayed like that on desktop. Is that actually what their flag looks like? Or just a placeholder for now maybe?

This one isn't really a question but the Lamian Assembly is described as "society of semi-humanoid serpents" which I glossed over at first, but then clicked with something that I know of: the Lamia people in Elder Scrolls, who also resemble humanoid serpents. I don't know if that's where you took the name from or simply a mere coincidence, but I felt I wanted to bring that up.

Heya! Always happy to answer questions!

1. The specific method of FTL travel in the setting requires some manner of actual mass to work - sending information which has no mass was long thought impractically difficult. The Va'ruun's creators could do it, and consulting with the few of them that are left is how the experimental systems have come to be.

But until recently the method of "FTL" communication was just loading up a communication nano-satellite with messages, having it be carried by an FTL capable vessel into orbit of a given planet, and released, whereupon it transmits it messages to the surface. Not quite instantaneous communication, but decent enough. And importantly, it's fairly cost effective.

2. Everyone in the Confederation has FTL technology. FTL travel (like a lot of the more advanced technology in the setting, was originally a product of the same race that also created the Va'ruun.

The Va'ruun, after inheriting the creators' empire, and being a generous people, gave FTL to any species they befriended - which, when you are the Va'ruun, is extremely easy - any civilization is very likely to respond positively to them for any number of reasons.

3. There is indeed a common currency - the Confederation Unified Exchange note - the CUEnote. It exists both as physical currency (largely for governments, banking, and the like) and digital currency (for most average civilians). They are backed by the Confederation Central Reverse Bank, and derive value from both the largest reverse of physical precious metals in the known galaxy, and a significant reverse of physical member state currency.

Physical CUEnote designs are flat, plasticised sheets roughly 150 x 60 mm in size (roughly equivalent to a modern day US dollar). They exist in 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 200, 500, 1000, 2000, 5000, and 10000 note varieties - though only notes up to 500 are in widespread circulation.

Regardless, individual member state currencies still exist, and are fully legal tender - conversion rates are calculated by the CCRB and change on a yearly basis. Currencies used by sub-states of member states are also accepted, especially when a member state is not an entirely unified government (to quote a famous Confederation economist: "The oft-cited 'most member states have 4.5 currencies' factoid is actually statistical error. Most member states have a single currency. The Terran Alliance, who lives in the Sol system and has over 180 currencies on one planet, is an outlier and should not have been counted. Please stop counting them, they're giving me nightmares.")

4. That is, in fact, their official flag! The Plex government insists, and has always maintained, that there is a "very beautiful design" adorning it.

Most people are convinced this is the Plex playing a species wide joke.

5. I took the name from more mythological sources there, but so did Elder Scrolls, so convergent evolution.

Ironically enough, the Lamia would actually be better described as "nagas", at least in a modern (furry) sense of the term.

They are, after all, essentially just the Vipers from XCOM:

[goo-dripley-art]

an old fakemon line as a warmup, inspos and other thingamahoozits under the cut

first off, names are mostly placeholders i am ass at those LMAO, anyways-

BAMBERRI

"Widely considered to be the weakest Pokemon in their ecosystem, they're highly susceptible to injury; the slightest bump will have them swell up like a balloon."

Loosely based off the cheri berry, stress balls, and the 'cranial eruption' trope, they're wimpy lil dudes! i picture em as like, a magikarp-adjacent mon, low chance for an encounter when harvesting berries. would prob have wimp out as an ability.

BLOKAMATO

"Blokamato actively seek out strong Pokemon to train with, countering their attacks with frightening speed. When in a tough battle, they'll root themselves into the ground to avoid being knocked around too hard."

Tomato mixed with a punching bag + boxing trainers with their like, lil padded hand covers you punch. Defensive powerhouse; i imagine they'd learn a decent bit of counter moves or smth...

?????

"Before ????? was recorded in the Pokedex, there was an urban legend of a hiker who encountered a lone ????? late at night, believing it to be an offshoot of Machamp."

A dumbbell-pepper wrestler! ...I can't think of a good name at the moment so they get the question marks for now. they have a unique way of evolving: they gotta land the fainting blow on 5 fighting types on their own, or smth. dunno! still workshopping it