#but then I really really wanted to include the 89 theme

[completely-legit]

@closertotheheartofthesunrise this was languishing in my fix later folder but you're welcome to it in its cursed state

(guide to download since I don't have a proper host)

also sorry for the multiple pings its 2 am and tumblr is refusing to let this post upload correctly

[huihuiheart]

In Bed Series - EXO - DO

Navigation

EXO Masterlist

Series Masterlist

Requested: No

Warnings: NSFW, BDSM Themes, Scenario includes dom kyungsoo, spitting, degrading names (slut), implied oral

Results:

100% - Sadist

98% - Dominant:

92% - Degrader

89% - Owner

88% - Master

77% - Rigger

73% - Primal (Hunter)

68% - Brat Tamer

51% - Daddy

44% - Switch

40% - Experimentalist

37% - Submissive

37% - Voyeur

30% - Primal (Prey)

29% - Exhibitionisht

27% - Masochist

17% - Non-monogamist

16% - Vanilla

16% - Degradee

14% - Brat

6% - Rope Bunny

1% - Slave

0% - Ageplayer

0% - Little

0% - Pet

Description Below:

Sadist:

This man thrives off power, and a crying, whimpering, marked-up mess beneath him fuels him in a way that nothing else can, so it's only natural he's a sadist. He also loves the longevity of it, how it seems to linger. Not just in appearance, but in feeling. He loves how you bite your lip and your eyes gloss at the feeling of sitting on your sore ass, remembering why that is.

Dominant/ Degrader:

Once again, it is about power. He doesn't always have to be in control, but he usually is. It's just natural for him. Degrader is a little lower because he won't push quite as far with this. He never pushes you past your limits of course, but this usually eases up a little first. He'll start slipping to softer speech before anything else.

Owner/Master:

Not necessarily about the names (I see more of a sir thing being it for him), but the vibes and mindset. Being fully in control/charge of someone. Enjoys having a mindless little slutty slave who just lets themselves be used.

Rigger:

He loves it he really, really does. It's just not higher for two reasons. He's not going to be about it if it's always because you're acting up. He also just loves a chance to appreciate you as pliant, obedient, or both for him without the ropes, as pretty as they are on you.

Primal (Hunter):

Loves a good chase! Loves to corner someone! He likes having the power before you even make it to the bedroom. Also feels like it sets the mood. Not always for it though as it allows for a little cat and mouse which is fun, but where's his good slut then?

Brat Tamer:

It's so natural for him, so how can he not love it too? Plus, it's such a perfect excuse to let his inner sadist and degrader out. 3 for 3 though he likes a well-behaved one at times, so better not act out constantly. Besides, he's not merciful with his lessons, so you better not act up again right away.

Daddy:

I know people are going to argue that this should be higher, but hear me out. Yes, he would be a great daddy. Yes, he would enjoy the hell out of it. In general, however, this is softer than his typical taste/mood.

Switch:

While he does tend to just naturally fall into a dom side he is slightly more submissive/switchy than he would let on. If his percentage didn't give that away. I'll let y'all interpret that one.

Experimentalist:

It's not that he's not freaky! Once again, no need to argue. I just feel like his experience has led him to where it's not as big a deal. He's dabbled in a lot and has a good grasp on what he likes. However, he knows taste can change some based on who you're doing it with so he'll still be down sometimes.

Submissive/ Voyeur:

These typically go together for him (though on occasion he might watch you while domming too). When he does get into a mood where he'll sub he loves when you make him watch you, and while he's not the most vocal his groans and constant shifting will let you know that he's not as unfazed and he wants you to think that he is.

Primal (Prey):

Might be a little bit more back and forth, but only at the start. It's actually not him being a brat persay, it's him still giving in to this, despite knowing he'll enjoy it.

Exhibitionist:

Not impossible, but not super frequent. I actually feel like this wouldn't so much be a jealousy thing for him (though occasionally he does want them to hear your screams for him). I feel like every so often he just gets an itch to show off his good slut whether inviting people to watch or going to a BDSM club or something.

Masochist:

He's one where there's only one type of pain that he's really into. The type that you inflict without realizing due to how blissed out you are. Claw marks down his chest. Hickies and bites.  Those types of things. On an especially rare occasion, he might be into a little pain while subbing, but typically this is not his go-to.

Non-Monogamist:

This man is absolutely committed. So the only reason this has anything is because of the little bit of exhibition and also the few times he played with multiple partners outside of being in a relationship.

Vanilla:

I feel like he wouldn't hide his sexual appetite from you or anything, but I feel like he might be afraid to have you actually experience it at first. So likely some vanilla while you get used to having this element in the relationship and are learning each other's bodies. Then easing you into what he's really like in the bedroom.

Degradee /Brat/ Rope Bunny/ Slave:

He's not really into these. I think he's down on occasion perhaps depending on who he's with. That being said he definitely tested them out. He is not the type to do something to someone that he didn't experience first to see what exactly he would be doing.

Ageplayer / Little / Pet:

Yeah, this isn't going to happen. It's just not.

Scenario:

The dim lights dance across the sheen on Kyungsoo's bare chest. You had gotten him worked up unintentionally and now you were going to have to resolve the response it elicited from him. His eyes drink up your form before smirking, walking over to cup your jaw as he looks down at you.

"Open that mouth for me slut." When he says something in that tone it's not a request and you're not one to argue. Doing as he asks to let him spit into your mouth, "Swallow."

He watches intently as you do exactly what he tells you before his hand leaves your face to work on undoing his pants, "Good. That's exactly what you're going to do for me again. Only this time with something even better."

[somethingusefulfromflorida]

Last summer I applied for a job as a library specialist in a small town outside Gainesville. As part of the application I had to go to the librsry in-person and take what was essentially a high school English test, "match these titles to their authors," "what was the main theme of XYZ," etc., really dry and pointless, but the final few questions were relevant to the library position and I absolutely aced them. "What should you do if someone comes in with a dog?" "How would you help a parent find a book for their child if they don't remember the title?" "How would you respond to teenagers playing loud music?" I answered professionally and thoughtfully, and they asked me to come back for an interview. I was told to prepare a children's book storytime presentation with props, so I made a backdrop and little popsicle stick puppets for Tacky the Penguin, my favorite picture book from elementary school.

I had a lot of fun crafting everything and practicing my read-through with funny voices.

I colored in the final map, I just forgot to take a picture of it

Goodly, Lovely, Angel, Neatly, Perfect, and Tacky

"We're going on a penguin hunt, we'll mark em with a switch, then we'll sell em for a dollar and get rich, rich, rich!"

I absolutely bombed the interview. I was a nervous wreck, I kept stumbling over my words, I drew multiple complete blanks during their questions, and a lot of my answers trailed off into "well, yeah, you know what I mean..." Dumpster fire. 57 dead, 193 injured. I spent the next month dreading every single email I got because I was waiting to read the inevitable "unfortunately."

It was so much worse than that.

After enough time had passed I assumed they were simply going to ghost me, so I forgot about it and moved on, and then out of the blue they emailed me back with a form letter that began "dear sir or ma'am," which hurt a lot because I personally spoke to the hiring lady three times and all her other emails (including the form ones) had the courtesy to start with my name in all caps. They took the time to fill in the blank before, but not this time. Didn't even say "unfortunately," they were really blunt, "you were not chosen to move forward with the hiring process." Damn.

Well, I just moved back up to Gainesville and I saw that they county is still hiring for that same position at a different library that's closer to my apartment. I sent out a Hail Mary application thinking they'd reject me sight unseen, but they must have liked my cover letter because they want me to come back and take the test again. I don't remember every single question, but if it's anything like last year's I'll want to brush up on my English literature. I have to go in on Tuesday morning, so I have all weekend to study.

If I pass, they'll interview me again, and this time I hope they don't make me do another puppet show. My dad keeps making fun of me for it, like I just decided to bring puppets into it for no reason when they very specifically asked me to. It was one of the requirements. The word "puppets" was on the rubrick, but my dad acts like I'm mentally disabled, "dese are mah fwiends, dey gib me mowal suppowt, pwease n fank you!" Does he think I just choose to make puppets and bring them to job interviews for shits and giggles? Does he think I'm divorced from reality? Or is he just a heartless asshole who likes being cruel?

My old job paid me $15/hour for 31½ hours per week, $472.50 before taxes, around $420 take-home (88-89%). This library job offers $16.10 for a full 40 hours, $644.00 before taxes, around $570 net if they take out the same percentage. If I round down to 85% instead, I'd take home just shy of $550 per week, which is 131% of what I used to make. My rent is $600 per month, and my I qualify for $0 monthly payments on my student loans under the SAVE Plan, so I'd be flush with cash for once in my life and I'd have a job that doesn't make me want to kill myself!

This would be absolutely perfect! I really hope it works out this time. I know the gist of what they're going to ask me, so I'll be better prepared when it comes time to interview. Wish me luck.

[twinsimming]

I posted 105 times in 2022

That's 44 more posts than 2021!

93 posts created (89%)

12 posts reblogged (11%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@twinsimming

@simbouquet

@jamiegirlposts

@bioniczombie

I tagged 105 of my posts in 2022

#twin is talking - 65 posts

#asks - 59 posts

#sims 3 - 42 posts

#ts3 - 39 posts

#download - 38 posts

#my cc - 36 posts

#4t3 - 35 posts

#4 to 3 conversion - 35 posts

#ts3cc - 35 posts

#s3cc - 35 posts

Longest Tag: 37 characters

#i’ve been waiting for a mod like this

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

Yoga Mod by Twinsimming & Alunn 🧘🏾‍♀️

This mod brings the yoga activity from The Sims 4: Spa Day to The Sims 3. Originally created by Alunn, I recently took over to add additional features and bring it to release!

This is a script mod that can be placed in your Packages folder. It was built and tested on 1.69 but should work fine on 1.67.

Overview

New Object: Yoga Mat

4 New Interactions

49 Converted Animations

10 Yoga Poses

Objects

Entertainment -> Sporting Goods

The Perfect Yoga Mat: two channels | §130 |

Zen Again Yoga Mat: two channels | §125 |

| All TS4 presets included and base game compatible |

The yoga mat is draggable in Live Mode and can be placed in a sim’s personal or family inventory.

Yoga Mat

Using any of the yoga mat interactions will build the Athletic skill (except for Children), though some more slowly than others. As your sim’s skill increases, they will learn new yoga poses and improve on their execution of previous ones.

A sim’s Athletic skill also determines how long they can use the mat before becoming Fatigued* (anywhere from 4-7 hours):

Skill Level 1-3 (Poor/Novice): 4 hours

Skill Level 4-6 (Normal): 5 hours

Skill Level 7-9 (Skilled): 6 hours

Skill Level 10 (Expert): 7 hours

*Children will always get Fatigued after 3 hours.

Your sim won’t gain muscle, lose weight, or become more fit from using the mat, but they will fulfill any generic workout related wishes. And sims won’t lose Hygiene as fast as they would using other athletic equipment.

Sims aged Teen and up will switch into their athletic outfit, take off their shoes before using the mat, and put them back on when finished. Children will switch into their athletic outfit, but leave their shoes on.

Pregnant sims can use the mat in any trimester!

Interactions

Practice Yoga (Child and Up): Raises Athletic skill, gives sims the Tranquil moodlet after 2 hours, small boost to Fun need

See the full post

644 notes - Posted November 5, 2022

#4

Contemporary Teen Bedroom Set 🛏

Hi everyone, I’ve finished my first set of conversions from The Sims 4: High School Years! I’m breaking the objects up into sets since EA did a really good job this time around making complete sets of bedroom furniture. The first one up is contemporary themed and includes a bed, desk, dresser, end table, shelving unit, rug, and a few other décor items. 

Most of the objects included have overlays on some areas while others remain CAStable. I did this to provide as much flexibility as possible for customization, so there are several CAStable presets available for each object. The top photo is fully decorated and the bottom photo shows just the objects that come in the set.

I don’t want to make this post too terribly long, so if you’re curious about where an object in the top preview photo came from please don’t hesitate to ask!

Comfort

Slightly Sneaky Storage Double Bed Frame: one channel | §50 |

Slightly Sneaky Storage Double Bed Pillows: three channels | §400 |

Slightly Sneaky Storage Double Mattress: four channels | §300 |

Décor

Artistic Assembly: non-CAStable | §65 |

Hobby Holders: non-CAStable | §100 |

Rug Hongry: one channel | §65 |

Study Stacks Expanded: non-CAStable | §65 |

Storage

Drawers for my Drawers: three channels | §410 |

Surfaces

For Star Shelving: three channels | §140 |

Simple Yet Stylish Wooden Desk: three channels | §450 |

Steadfast Side Table: three channels | §140 |

| All TS4 presets included and base game compatible |

Credit: meshes by EA, mesh by aikea-guinea, The Sims 4, Sims4Studio, TSRW, Blender, Milkshape, Photoshop, and Gimp.

Download (SFS, package) | Mirror (MEGA, package)

Experiencing issues with my conversions? Inbox me. Enjoy! 💙

651 notes - Posted September 13, 2022

#3

See the full post

679 notes - Posted April 13, 2022

#2

INSOMNIA by Charly Pancakes Conversions 💤

Charly Pancakes is one of my favorite custom content creators for The Sims 4, so naturally I had to have their stuff in The Sims 3 as well! I’ve converted all six items from their INSOMNIA set to share with you today. This set contains a wardrobe, a bed frame, a mattress, a small potted plant, a rug, and a functional candle.

The floor plant is from kandiraver-sims here, the suitcase end table is from Around The Sims 3 here, the wall art is from julietsimsccblog here, the mirror and hand sculpture are previous conversions of mine here and here, and the flooring is from pixelfrogslegs here.

Comfort

Double Bed Frame [by Charly Pancakes]: one channel | §370 |

Organic Cotton Bedding [by Charly Pancakes]: four channels | §260 |

Décor

Insomnia Small Plant [by Charly Pancakes]: one channels | §60 |

Insomnia Rug [by Charly Pancakes]: two channels | §170 |

Lighting

Birdskull Candle [by Charly Pancakes]: one channel | §80 |

Storage

Insomnia Wardrobe [by Charly Pancakes]: two channels | §580 |

| All TS4 presets included and base game compatible |

Credit: meshes by @charlypancakes​, The Sims 4, Sims4Studio, TSRW, Blender, Milkshape, Photoshop, and Gimp.

Download (SFS, package) | Mirror (MEGA, package)

Experiencing issues with my conversions? Inbox me. Enjoy! 💙

792 notes - Posted June 7, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

Country Cottage Kitchen Set 🥚

Happy new year everyone! 🥳 I haven’t converted a kitchen set since 2020, which means it’s past time for another one! @hideoutpeach sent me an ask a while back about converting items from the Sims 4: Country Kitchen Kit, so I converted everything with the exception of the sink and cabinets. I also converted my favorite fridge from the Sims 4: Cottage Living!

I also just hit 1,000 followers on this blog! I’m so glad so many of you like my conversions, it means a lot to me!! 💙💙💙

Appliances

ReFridgeAdeezer - by Re FrostyFridge Corporation: three channels | $500 |

Pancakes at Dawn Stove: three channels | $600 |

Country Charm Fridge: two channels | $1750 |

Décor

Handy-Dandy Flower Caddy: two channels | $35 |

Granny's Cozy Casserole Dish: one channel | $83 |

Nicki Knack's Anything 'n Everything Jar: non-CAStable | $45 |

Heritage Bread Box: three channels | $75 |

Heritage Flour Tin: two channels | $63 |

Bountiful Bucket: non-CAStable | $57 |

Surfaces

Country Charm Shelf: one channel | $165 |

| All TS4 presets included and base game compatible |

Credit: meshes by EA, The Sims 4, Sims4Studio, TSRW, Blender, Milkshape, Photoshop, and Gimp.

Download (SFS, package) | Mirror (MEGA, package)

Experiencing issues with my conversions? Inbox me. Enjoy! 💙

1,179 notes - Posted January 19, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[kaiowut99]

Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters GX Episodes 91 and 92 Subbed (Finalized)

(Previously: Episodes 89 and 90 Subbed [Finalized])

(Check out my Subbed!GX Stream Masterpost!)

TURN-91: The Grim Reaper’s One-Turn Kill

Rumors have spread of a duelist taking part in GeneX who defeats his opponents in one turn.  This turns out to be Tachibana, who gained his drawing power through a pact with a Grim Reaper card.  Judai ends up dueling Tachibana, who’s sold his soul to the Grim Reaper, and with the start of their duel, Tachibana draws his “One-Hit Knockout! Slash Draw” Magic Card and comes at Judai with his One-Turn Kill. Can Judai possibly...

TURN-92: The Triangle Duel

As word goes around that rank-and-file Instructor Chronos and Vice-Principal Napoleon are being “fired,” Principal Samejima shouts “Get out of here!” at them.  They were both disheartened, but they happen to catch Chairman Pegasus of Industrial Illusions, Inc., on his way to visit Principal Samejima, and they ask for employment with I2.  Pegasus says he will approve their employment if they somehow defeat him in a duel, and so starts a Triangle Duel between Pegasus, Chronos, and Napoleon.  Can Chronos and Napoleon hope to...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

*Pegasus voice* I give you finalized!91 and 92! deeeesu

Slight delay in finalizing these aside, these episodes aren’t too bad; some continuity with the Duel Academia’s North Campus in Tachibana and his struggle to make the decks he cares about work, making him turn to a Grim Reaper spirit promising to improve his drawing ability--at the cost of his soul. Works well enough for a one-shot episode in GX, nice seeing another One-Turn Kill strategy after Ojin’s in 84, plus the animation looks really good throughout, along with “Impossible Victory” being used as Tachibana switches arms with his Disk to reject the Grim Reaper’s influence.  92′s fun with Pegasus making another cameo--this time, actually dueling--and the premise being that Chronos and Napoleon thought Samejima fired them when he was just frustrated was up GX’s humor alley--though it is interesting Toon Kingdom didn’t come out in the card game until long after GX (I liked the shot of it as we see Toon Red Archery Girl, Toon Summoned Daemon, and the other Toons he used in DM as a nice homage).  Pegasus’ll still have some time in S2 and S3, related to the plot Samejima thought about early in the episode, so he’ll be back.  Kind of a shame they didn’t make a GX remix for his Toon World theme from DM though, lol; points to the dub for using theirs.  (Tachibana’s voice in the dub was also really good.)

Edit-wise, both episodes had a fair amount of fixes I applied, mostly on the card error and quality-of-watching end (including some interesting split-screen issues), but there were 2-3 bigger ones I was able to make work; due to Tumblr’s dumb link limit in posts yeeting them out of the tags used for them and limiting their reach, and since I still wanted a visual element to it, I’ve made a separate post with my usual fix/edit breakdown for the interested!

Anywho, enjoy! These make for a little breather as we get into Judai vs White Asuka next time and some changes to Saiou’s SOLA plans.  Been looking forward to revisiting the next stretch of eps for a while as Season 2 closes on some of its best episodes; should be fun.

[trashquisitor-shirozora]

I posted 2,647 times in 2022

That's 574 more posts than 2021!

165 posts created (6%)

2,482 posts reblogged (94%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@mari-wrongway

@mykingdomforasong

@thatgeeklover

@wondersmith-and-sons

@ace-din-djarin

I tagged 1,461 of my posts in 2022

Only 45% of my posts had no tags

#art - 192 posts

#our flag means death - 113 posts

#shirozora awkwardly responds to asks - 113 posts

#ofmd - 109 posts

#star wars - 106 posts

#dinluke - 93 posts

#the mandalorian - 58 posts

#shirozora draws - 43 posts

#skydalorian - 40 posts

#what are cats - 39 posts

Longest Tag: 138 characters

#if only i could get off my ass to finish my 2010 deancas big bang fic where dean and cas only kissed once and it was maybe around the 180k

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

So.

Due to Adventures in Adulting like "we need to remodel these bathrooms so we don't die of black mold", I'm resurrecting my "sell some of my arts as limited prints" plot and investigating local printing services (and crying over costs/the cringe of strangers looking at my art). I'll probably go the "gauge interest and make an Etsy for preorders" route after I get some proofs printed to test everything.

89 notes - Posted June 24, 2022

#4

hey there! hope i'm not catching you at a bad time. i was wondering about your latest post on your concerns with the dinluke fandom. i'm really sorry about that. i'm not as active on socmed as i used to be so i might have missed on how the fandom is slowly, urm, going up into flames(?) but if you don't mind, what are your major concerns that's making you question your association? i love your dinluke stuff sm and i'd hate to lose someone like you :(

Hi there!

For a long while now, a certain "genre" of dinluke content has been dominating the Tumblr and AO3 tags and - more importantly - the general impression of the ship itself, which is dark!dinluke. Unfortunately, dark!dinluke is usually not about "dark" themes but about a racist, fetishizing, gendered relationship/dynamic between Din and Luke where Din is hypersexualized, aggressive, and possessive and Luke is a virginal effeminate twink with tradwife traits. You'll note that Din is the darker-skinned character and Luke is lily white in this particular dynamic (Bobadin has a similar problem where the darker-skinned Boba is the aggressive/possessive one while the lighter-skinned Din is the delicate flower). That's an extreme generalization of the general trend of assigning incredibly uncomfortable characteristics to characters who don't have them.

Fandom tends to vibe by the "live and let live" philosophy, and that's okay IF everyone follows general "guidelines" for fandoming, like proper tagging so that people who don't want to see that content for ANY REASON don't have to see it. A lot of these content creators have been terrible at tagging (or don't tag at all) using inappropriate or targetted tags that only make sense to people who are already in the know. If you had never seen Arrested Development before and don't know the context of the tag "dead dove do not eat" how do you know it's supposed to warn you for dark content? How do you know "cinnamon role Luke Skywalker" isn't always about a sweet soft Luke or that "protective Din Djarin" is actually about an aggressively possessive Din? Gotcha phrases like "don't like, don't read" can't work if people don't know what they're supposed to be blacklisting before they click the ship tag. So, you have posts that no one can block until it's too late dominating the ship tags, which makes for an incredibly uncomfortable experience.

But it's not just the tagging fiasco, it's also the idea that dark!dinluke creators were allowed to exist and dominate fandom conversations in the first place. It's why I said we should've been louder and meaner sooner. There is no point in living by the "live and let live" fandom philosophy if your idea of inclusivity includes allowing people to create harmful toxic tropes and trends unbothered and unscathed. This is really part of the larger conversation around POCs in fandom spaces; we have to contend with a lot of shit that makes us uncomfortable and a lot of times we are in spaces dominated by white/white-adjacent fans who don't want anyone harshing their good time or making them look bad.

I have not forgotten the utter shitshow around finnpoe (and Finn/John Boyega in general) where the concerns of Black and Latine fans were ignored in favor of protecting white feelings. I follow people on Tumblr and Twitter who discuss racism in fandom and are also harassed constantly by fans who don't want to hear the truth. It's not comfortable and you must always be aware of when it's time to speak up and when to amplify other voices, but if you want your fandom spaces to be inclusive and more safe, you have to be willing to listen and put yourself out there. I didn't because I get anxious about interacting in larger communal spaces but I always wondered if I could've helped if I did speak up about the troubling tropes and trends that dinluke fandom was heading towards. I'm just one person but it still has to mean something even if the larger fandom still chooses to ignore you.

Someone added their own thoughts to my post about fandom ignoring Latine fans expressing their concerns about Din and Pedro's other characters and I remember seeing those conversations in the old dinluke server. I tell myself I was at work at the time and that's why I didn't comment when people started nitpicking or just generally ignored the criticisms, but I wish I could've done more. So instead, here I am posting to the tumblr tag.

I'm not leaving the dinluke fandom anytime soon. I have a story to tell that I want to see to its conclusion. The day after making that post, I was doodling some thoughts about Luke (mainly his clothes, but also I should be writing instead of doodling????? get your act together, shiro). I'm in a good space where I'm still comfortable enough and I won't be chased off by the people I share space with, but it hurts knowing that they're there and they contributed a lot to the current state of dinluke. I've been in enough fandoms that crashed and burned over this sort of shit so I know when it's time to pack up my bags and leave but hopefully I'll get all my stories out before that day comes.

111 notes - Posted May 21, 2022

#3

The "I Can 'Pin' Posts on Tumblr Now? Since When?" Intro/Masterpost

Greetings and welcome to the "Who The Fuck Am I?" post written by yours truly, whoever the fuck I am. Now that I'm back on my Fandom bullshit again in at least 2 blogs, I thought I'd re-introduce myself.

I am 2nd gen Korean-American on the Best West Coast. I ID as she/they/shiro, and ace/demi. I'm in the millennial bracket (aka, I am a Legal Adult) so be mindful when interacting with me. I do what I can to be antiracist and am always learning to be better.

I am some iteration of "shirozora" on: LiveJournal, Dreamwidth, AO3, Tumblr, Twitter, Instagram, Discord. My first Fandom 2.0 was political/pundit RPF and my first fandom fallout was Racefail '09, so you could say I've Seen Some Shit. Been 5+ years since I last engaged in actual Fandom, yet here the fuck I am.

Fandoms I have written/drawn for (FFN years do not count, I purged that account): political/pundit RPF, Supernatural, Tron: Legacy, MCU, Star Trek (AOS), Dragon Age, Mass Effect, Final Fantasy XIV, Star Wars/The Mandalorian

A Short List Of Things I Wrote in No Particular Order:

Lost Symphony (T): SPN; Dean/Cassie, Sam/Jessica, pre-Dean/Castiel; for the Racebending Revenge challenge - "Mary Ahn Winchester died on the ceiling of the nursery on November 2, 1983."

We Are Pilots (T+): Tron: Legacy; Sam/Tron; for the Tron Kink Meme - "Six months and Sam still can't shake off his father's ghost, so Quorra suggests returning to the Grid to find the answers he needs to move on."

Wishing Well (T): Captain America: The First Avenger; Steve/Howard, Steve/Peggy, unfulfilled Howard/Peggy/Steve; for the Cap Kink Meme - "And you just wanna feel like a coin that's been tossed / In a wishing well, a wishing well."

A Thousand Eyes Staring Back (T+): Mass Effect 2; Kaiden/m!Shep - "His problems start at Horizon, aka that time Kaidan Alenko was having a really bad day and his former CO was supposed to be dead."

Waking Ghosts (T+): Dragon Age; Dorian Pavus/Male Trevelyan Inquisitor; the Mummy (1999) AU nobody asked for - "Dorian Pavus, formerly of Qarinus, is an archivist at the Magisterium research outpost in Hightown."

Seasons Change (T): Black Panther/MCU; M'Baku/T'Challa - "A fisherman finds a dying king in his nets and Hanuman offers M'Baku an opportunity to repay T'Challa for sparing his life at Warrior Falls."

born in a thunderstorm (T+): Star Trek: AOS, Captain Marvel, Thor: Ragnarok, Guardians of the Galaxy; Kirk/McCoy; the worst AU I ever wrote - "Kevin Riley insists that James Kirk didn't die on Tarsus IV. Nobody believes him."

Dangerous Dreams series (T) - The Storm; The Suns; Between Planets: Star Wars/The Mandalorian; Din/Luke; the reason why I'm writing this post - "To want something for yourself, that is a dangerous dream."

I cross-post and occasionally write about writing at @shirozora-writes. But I bet a bunch of y'all stumbled into my little sandbox through @shirozora-draws, so let's talk about that!

I suffered from artist's block for almost 4 years. That ended when I became utterly fixated on "So Grogu has two dads now - oh no." I fucking ragequit Star Wars after the fucking world lied to me about The Last Jedi* and now I'm doing the most insane and involved fanworks because of Star Wars. The fuck???

To end this unapologetically long-ass Intro Post, here are my 3 favorite recent doodles:

The original post is here. First time animating with Clip Studio Paint and I had a two-day meltdown over it.

See the full post

141 notes - Posted February 1, 2022

#2

Where the hell do you get off assuming a man's race in order to propagate your "racism" agenda? Do you even know what it means to be white Latino?

No. You don't. You're Korean American.

So, have you ever considered that maybe, by making assumptions and incorrectly representing Pedro Pascal's race, you're the racist asshole?

I'm guessing not because that would require an ounce of humility and self reflection.

Grow the fuck up and shut up about issues you don't understand.

My dear sweet summer child, where exactly have I assumed anything? Is Pedro white Latine or no? I’ve only referred to him as others, including Pedro himself, has called him. 

Do I have to be a white Latine to talk about these things? Am I only allowed to talk about Korean American issues? Must I keep my mouth shut if I see racist depictions of characters who aren’t Korean American? Is it okay to talk about East Asian Americans or does it have to be only Korean American?

Latine fans have been calling out dinluke fandom’s racist depictions of Din Djarin for months. What exactly am I assuming here? 

Listen, I am happy to take a backseat and amplify other voices that do know more than I do. What I’m not going to do is pretend this is not my problem because I’m Korean American. Racial politics in America are hell on earth and solidarity is how you push back.

155 notes - Posted May 22, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

it is my strongly held belief that we could’ve slowed the hemorrhaging of people from the dinluke sandbox if we’d gotten louder and meaner at the grosser and more toxic corners much sooner.  the “live and let live” philosophy (don’t like, don’t read; ymmv; ykinmk) doesn’t work if it allows racist tropes, harmful fetishism, gendered stereotypes, and other toxic trends to flourish and define the sandbox. the inability to exercise basic courtesy and tact especially in more public and easily accessible fandom spaces has done so much seemingly irreversible damage to a ship I love, and it really does make me question my continued association with it. 

199 notes - Posted May 20, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[mickmeasley]

i made this song as a commission for the soundtrack of a newgrounds animation which i never actually watched because to be honest it was kind of dogshit and i mainly just enjoyed making the song

guy was really mad when i asked for the timestamp where my song was featured because i didn't actually want to watch the whole thing and he passive-agressively told me "ill tell you where to find it: WATCH THE ANIMATION :)"

i still haven't watched it lmao

i also lost the project file so if i ever want to make it again i'll have to transcribe this audio file and that includes the complex chord progression/structure FUCK

would make a good joker theme (more along the lines of batman 89/btas joker obv)

[crest-of-gautier]

2 hour session of pq today!!! went from 38% -> 89% done with the third floor of the 2nd labryinth! (i just need to open the door that was locked...)

today was a short session but i really enjoyed it! (some screenshots of transcriptions of my related favorite events under the cut)

i think the highlight of what i saw today was aigis :) the way she responds to things is very humorous to me. she doesn't always realize how her words come across but thats ok i still love her regardless. i just think the way that aigis has a continual work in progress of her understanding of the world is nice :3

there was also a thing about a love potion and rei goes:

Rei: Wait, they don't exist!? But it comes up in so many stories!

and i am!! once again!! reiterating my tags from my previous pq posting.

like all of the stuff i said here still stands... i think her line about the love potion just cements to me that rei is.. so very young. she's like a twelve year old to me. maybe younger. i don't know how old she is and i don't want to know until the game tells me what's bonking with zen and rei's identity...

i think in a previous pq post i had... some kind of spitballing about zen and rei with respect to the mechanics of persona q and subpersonas... it was mostly me wondering if their skillsets alluded to anything, but... lately i've been thinking about how rei takes up the bottom part of the 3ds screen in the same manner a subpersona does... and i'm like... trying to look at that and think about what that implies.

so you have me asking questions to myself, including, but not limited to: would this make rei a persona? how is she in that state? what caused that to happen? and if so where/how did she acquire abilities that are reminiscent of a subpersona? is it tied to whatever zen is?

there's definitely a part of me that leans into zen specifically being an entity of sorts, in the same vein of ryoji and marie- idk something about his skillset just makes me lean into this idea of him being a fragment of a powerful deity. god knows who what that deity's name is. but anyway. maybe if we operate under the assumption that zen is in an amnesiac state of an deity/entity whatever, this could mean that rei having abilities like a subpersona is because of him??

i dont fucking know man!! i'm spitballing based on what the game has offered and similar threads/themes i've seen from the persona games i've played/watched. groans. i'm fucking insane and it's going to take me forever to get answers because i'm a small little worm who's inching through this game and probably won't finish it until next year.

anyway. good game session. zen and rei make me crazy with conjecture (i would like to say that i can reach the boss of the group date cafe soon bc i want to see what zen and rei have to say about it post-boss fight so that i can spitball even more nonsense. but it'll probably take at least two sessions...? these floors sometimes take awhile). and i really enjoy how certain characters are highlighted through this game's interactions (aigis for today specifically). i love persona :D

[jeongyunhoed]

I posted 4,790 times in 2022

127 posts created (3%)

4,663 posts reblogged (97%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@jeongyunho99

@nuestthings

@cruellajoong

@songmingki

I tagged 2,804 of my posts in 2022

Only 41% of my posts had no tags

#yuyu bear - 344 posts

#swerve to woo - 341 posts

#loml - 312 posts

#immaculate being - 297 posts

#swerve to hwa - 247 posts

#swerve to san - 212 posts

#swerve to joong - 199 posts

#teddy bear jelly vocal - 139 posts

#icymi - 90 posts

#big loml energy - 89 posts

Longest Tag: 124 characters

#my entire takeaway from this is that margaret's boss qualities just outweigh her longing to be the housewife she wants to be

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

The second part of the 100-Day trilogy, following the events of The 100-Day Relationship. Choi Juhyun and Park Seonghwa are now engaged, but are faced with the decisions as to how they both want their wedding to be, along with other important choices a couple makes after the wedding. Resurfacing exes included.

I Do

Group: ATEEZ Member: Seonghwa Pairing: Seonghwa / OC Genre: Mostly fluff, mostly cheesy romantic stuff, sliiiiiiiiight angst

Things to Note: Art Curator Hwa! A lot of crazy rich stuff, we’ll again be feeling poor in this one. Tag list is open so let me know if you would like to be updated.  

Warnings: For this chapter? suggestive themes, just slight dramarama. exes galore!

Note: Happy new year! I’ve been feeling so under the weather these past few weeks that I couldn’t get around to posting for a while. I’m still feeling a tad shitty so please accept this chapter as a late Christmas present too!

Tag list: @treasure-hwa , @hwachu

Masterlist

Chapter 4

The helpers entered the room later to bring in coffee from large silver coffee pots, pouring some on most of their cups as Sangmin preferred to drink cola. Throughout the meal, Seonghwa wasn’t sure just yet if her parents were really giving them their blessing. They seemed to be interested, and even if they had their moments that he found funny, he thought it was best to stay alert in case they’d want to ask him a few things. 

Of course, Seonghwa understood why they would be cautious. They had a reason to be compared to his own family. Still, he was prepared to follow his mother’s advice and make clear that his intentions for marrying Juhyun were honorable and genuine. He was determined to earn their blessing and respect. 

Juhyun could tell he was still nervous, eyeing him from time to time while they talked about a business trip her father went on, and how he managed to go sight-seeing in between lunches and dinners with clients and other people like himself. “Oh, uh, coincidentally, Seonghwa’s grandmother knows grandfather,” she suddenly said, making everyone at the table turn their attention to her. 

“Really?” Jongmin looked intrigued, pleasantly surprised at the revelation. 

They nodded. “Yeah, when she came over when we visited, she asked me who I was and when she realized who I was, that’s when she said she knew grandfather from middle school. Apparently, him and grandma were the campus couple for some time in Jinju when they were there,” Juhyun explained, eyeing Seonghwa again. 

“Really? Did she really?” Jongmin turned to Seonghwa. 

“Y-yes, Mr. Choi,” He nodded, a little flustered at the revelation. 

“Hold on, she’s from Jinju? You’re from Jinju too?” Jongmin asked, and he nodded again. “Well! How about that? Our daughter’s also marrying a Jinju guy,” He suddenly switched to satoori, Sangmin, Jihyun, and Dajeong all having understood, all of them pleasantly surprised. 

Seonghwa chuckled, somehow feeling relieved. Juhyun was beaming in her seat. “J-Juhyun told me the senior housekeeper taught her a bit of satoori.” 

“She taught all of us. Dajeong learned a little from her too when we just got married years ago,” Jongmin looked amused. “It wasn’t that we needed to learn it, she felt less homesick whenever she could speak in that way, and we wanted to make sure she still felt at home. Eunhyung is like family to us.” 

The revelation made Seonghwa glance at Juhyun, feeling a lot more endeared. Juhyun’s parents seemed to notice it as well. “So, where’s the wedding going to be? You know you can have it at your grandfather’s house, or even here, right?” Dajeong turned to her daughter. 

Juhyun shrugged. “I’m still thinking about that, and no, I don’t plan on having my wedding here or in grandpa’s house, no matter which country,” She said. 

“Alright, alright, it can get quite lonely here though,” Dajeong said. “Only Sangmin uses the theater now, and you and Jihyun only come here on weekends or holidays. We don’t even have company parties here either.” 

“I know what you’re trying to say and no, I still don’t want to have a wedding here or anywhere related to any of us,” Juhyun shook her head. She glanced at her father. “Please.” 

“Alright, alright, if you say so,” Jongmin nodded. “But for the record, so we’re all clear, I’m happy for this engagement of yours. One of my children, finally walking down the aisle…” He drifted off, looking pleased. “Seonghwa, I hope you know what you’re getting into, becoming a part of our family.” 

Seonghwa nodded. “I’ve been aware since the moment we attended our first event together,” He replied. 

“Good, that’s settled then,” Jongmin held up his cup of coffee. “A little late, but now is as good a time as ever for this lunch we’ve had. To our dearest Juhyun, who is getting married soon, and to her fiance, Seonghwa. Cheers!” 

“Cheers!” They raised their cups before taking a sip. Jihyun seemed more excited at the idea than Juhyun was. Seonghwa felt relieved, his shoulders relaxing at the fact that Juhyun’s parents were approving of him. 

“Let us know about the updates in planning every step of the way so we can prepare accordingly, hmm, Juhyun?” Dajeong turned to her daughter. “Who’s catering the wedding?” 

“Wooyoung.” 

“Who’s preparing the cake?” 

See the full post

15 notes - Posted January 1, 2022

#4

8 Stories, 8 Movies from the Golden Age (1930s to 1960s).

It’s the golden age and 8 men are the most sought-after actors in Hollywood. Ateez, but make them Old Hollywood, basically. Lights, camera, action!

Member: San

Genre: Screwball romantic comedy, sliiiight angst

Warnings: Snappy couples, slight brawl, pretend lovers’ quarrel, basically just running away

Things to note: Set in the 1930s, journalist!San, strangers to lovers (kind of), road trip!, Almost like the whole “there was only one bed!”

Will have OCs

As with the rest of the stories in the AU, there will be other idols mentioned, most likely NCT but may have some of my other faves (EXO, etc.)

A/N: After putting this on hold for soooooo long and as I’m coping with severe lack of drive (kind of), I thought I’d restart this again. 

Masterlist

Runaway society girl Han Miryo goes on a cross-country road trip to get to her aviator fiance from Namhae to Seoul, only to fall in love with the reporter, Choi San, who helped her run away. 

It Happened One Night

tag list: @minervaaaaaaaa , @closer-stars

Part 1

Choi San leaned against the glass panes of the telephone booth he was in. He was at a bus terminal in Namhae, having finished a week’s worth of writing his next feature article, perhaps one of his biggest yet. San waited for the operator to connect him to his office all the way in Seoul, noticing the lines of people at the ticket booth in one part of the terminal, crowds of people looking to get a seat at the food court in another part. 

San was a reporter, working for the Seoul Daily Globe, a special correspondent that always traveled the country to get a good story, compared to his colleagues that worked on their advice columns, astrology pieces, recommendations on which songs to listen to, which clubs to go to, and which movies to watch. He was always on the road, and it was often quite a rewarding one. 

“Hello? Is this the Seoul Daily Globe?” San stood up straight once he heard someone pick up. 

“Yes sir,” said the secretary. 

“This is Choi San, I want to talk to Song Mingi now,” San leaned back against the door of the booth. 

“Who?” 

“Song Mingi, the managing editor,” San repeated, shaking his head. He had a bone to pick with Mingi. “Fire me, my ass. I’ll show him, that giraffe-” 

“Hello?” Came the deep voice of the editor himself, making San straighten up again. 

“Hello?! Mingi?!” San said indignantly. “What’s this about me being fired?!” 

“Well, you got my wire, didn’t you?” Mingi replied. 

“Yeah but-” 

“Well it goes. You’re done here, Choi San,” Mingi said with finality. 

“But-but what for?!” San couldn’t believe what he was hearing. 

“You know what for. Go home and sleep it off. You’re done here, Choi San,” Mingi replied. 

San pounded his fist on the telephone. “You listen here, you hunk of metal, I’m the best news correspondent you’ve got for your filthy scandal sheet.” 

Mingi scoffed. “Don’t make me laugh. What were you doing last night?” 

See the full post

18 notes - Posted July 2, 2022

#3

Fic Recs Round 10!

Because it’s been quite a while and I have noticed the lack of people reblogging great content (or I just don’t follow a lot of writers anymore), it is long past overdue to make another fic recs post. I really love these works and I’ve reread quite a number of them whenever I’m just not in the mood to do anything or whenever I can’t be arsed to write in general. 

As with my previous rec posts, I will indicate which ones have the spicy content (be warned: most of the fics I will include in this list are). 

If you like the works, please give the author some love and REBLOG. It’s how our work gets around this site that unlike Instagram or Twitter, can only get exposure through reblogs. 

* - has smut / implied smut / basically very spicy

ATEEZ

ATEEZ what they love about you - @calmdownluv

*Acquainted (San) - @serendipityunho 12:59 (Yunho)

*Make Up (Mingi) - @nateezfics *Slippery (Yeosang) *A-Z Headcanon (Hongjoong) *Rainy Morning (Mingi) *Bubble Bath (Seonghwa) *Live Game (San) *Sweet Metallic (Jongho) *Hush (Wooyoung) *Into the Night (San) *Warm (Yeosang) *Honey & Blood (Hongjoong) *Deepest Desire (Yunho)

ATEEZ when their s/o buys them flowers - @molangmoy

6:53 p.m. (Wooyoung) (suggestive) - @treasure-hwa What’s a soulmate? (Seonghwa) Don’t Let Me Go (Mingi)

This really ridiculously cute story in a diner (Yeosang) - @hereisleo Moonlight Confession (San) Hell Correspondence (Wooyoung, San)

Chat Noir (San) (suggestive) -  @gummygowon

Time of Our Lives (Wooyoung) - @moonchildsaurora The City of Lights (San) This incredibly amazing mob boss piece (Seonghwa)

14:32 (Seonghwa) - @petitemingi 11:23 (Wooyoung)

*Choi San as Your Boyfriend - @star-1117

*Explicit (San) - @b4nnned

*In the Same Class as ATEEZ - @essenteez

1:54 (Wooyoung) - @sadienita

ATEEZ when he takes care of you while you’re in the hospital - @blu-joons ATEEZ when he misses you while on tour 

Selfish (Yunho) - @yeochikin 2:11 (Yeosang)

ATEEZ as romantic tropes - @mingishoe

3:46 p.m. (Hongjoong) (Suggestive) - @kireiwoo

Grocery Shopping with Wooyoung - @tbhchoi

Arcade (Yunho) - @barsformars

NCT

*Crazy in Love (Jaehyun) - @jeonronwoo

18 notes - Posted May 28, 2022

#2

The second part of the 100-Day trilogy, following the events of The 100-Day Relationship. Choi Juhyun and Park Seonghwa are now engaged, but are faced with the decisions as to how they both want their wedding to be, along with other important choices a couple makes after the wedding. Resurfacing exes included.

I Do

Group: ATEEZ Member: Seonghwa Pairing: Seonghwa / OC Genre: Mostly fluff, mostly cheesy romantic stuff, sliiiiiiiiight angst

Things to Note: Art Curator Hwa! A lot of crazy rich stuff, we’ll again be feeling poor in this one. Tag list is open so let me know if you would like to be updated.  

Warnings: For this chapter? suggestive themes, a little brawl-ish, but it’s the bachelor/bachelorette parties!

Note: I am back and all better from my health issues - a few grueling days at the hospital (for something else entirely although I also tested positive for COVID but with very mild symptoms) and I got back the other day. I’m trying to get my mindset back to normal / go back into a normal routine kind of. 

Anyway, I hope you all love this chapter? It’s the bachelor/bachelorette parties... part 1. haha. From how things are going, we might go beyond 10 chapters. 

Tag list: @treasure-hwa ,@hwachu , @atz-diary

Masterlist

Chapter 6

“Bachelor party time, bachelor party,, ba-che-lor par-tay, bachelor party night, Saturday night!” Hongjoong cheered that night as they all assembled at Seonghwa’s museum. Kibum, Jongho, Wooyoung, Dongwoo, Jiho, Yunho, Yeosang, Seonghwa’s brother, and San were standing next to Seonghwa’s office, as he was preparing to close up for the night. 

“Hwa! Come on! We’re gonna be late!” Seonghwa’s brother called out. 

“Alright, alright, is the bar you’re taking us to reservation only?” Seonghwa closed his office door behind him, only to be met with cheers from all the males. He greeted San especially, who came from his Olympic training. 

“No, but we’re losing valuable party time,” Hongjoong checked his watch. “No bachelor party would be complete without our own limousine, and it’s outside right now” He grinned, making them cheer. 

“Are we going to be drinking on the way there too?” Seonghwa looked intrigued as they went out of the building, seeing a limousine parked in front. 

“No, but we could if you want, this limousine is stocked with champagne, but the drinks at Essence are where it’s at,” Hongjoong opened a bottle while San passed champagne flutes around. 

“What kind of drinks do they serve there anyway?” Wooyoung poured some into his glass, passing the bottle to Dongwoo. 

“You’ll see! I can’t tell you right now, it’ll spoil the fun,” Hongjoong was getting excited as the chauffeur began to drive them away. 

“In that case, allow me to be the first one to propose a toast?” Kibum raised his glass, making them do the same. “To Seonghwa, may he and Juhyun find eternal happiness together. Cheers!” 

“Cheers!” and they clinked their glasses before taking sips. 

“Tonight is a night where we, as responsible men, as responsible husbands and boyfriends, can drink to our hearts content!” Hongjoong cheered, pouring himself another round of champagne. The rest of them followed suit. 

They arrived at what was a large building later on, that had a long line of people waiting to get in. Seonghwa could feel a little buzz from the champagne they all kept drinking on the way as they easily made their way into the establishment. 

The club was large, the largest Seonghwa had seen or could compare to as they walked past the regulars, drinking cocktails from what looked like beakers filled with liquid that emitted a lot of smoke, perhaps from the dry ice. There were dancers suspended in the ceiling and some were performing on a big white platform in view of all the chairs that sat more than three people. Hongjoong looked especially proud of having brought them there, with one of the waiters showing them to an almost private booth area. They could hear some of the guests whisper amongst themselves, clearly because of the fact that most, if not all of them, were known public figures. 

“So this is Essence?” Yeosang turned to Hongjoong as they sat down, taking in the surroundings. 

“Yeah! Esquire says this place is the next big thing,” Hongjoong grinned, sitting back and calling over one of the waiters. “Order as much as you can, guys, tonight is a night we’re celebrating!” 

They cheered as San gestured for the waiter to come over and they ordered themselves their drinks. The waiter soon returned with a big bowl of what looked like tiny circles in different colors with several dimsum spoons and set it down on the table in front of them. “What’s that?” Kibum raised a brow. 

“The cocktail sampler. The blue dots are blue lagoon, the pink dots are cosmopolitan, the red dots are bloody mary, the yellow dots are whiskey sour, the orange dots are mint julep. Enjoy,” The waiter explained before walking off. 

They stared at the bowl. “This…is the cocktail sampler,” Seonghwa’s brother said. “When you said they experiment with alcohol, I see it.” 

“I told you guys it was wild,” Jiho wrinkled his nose at the bowl.

“Let’s dig in!” Hongjoong suddenly sat up, passing around the spoons, each of them digging into each part of the bowl. 

See the full post

19 notes - Posted January 29, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

Past-Present-FutureBlack DahliaRED: Rogue, Extremely Dangerous

The fourth and final installment to the superpowers AU. San’s past comes catching up to him as he is targeted by an old colleague turned foe. With everyone else caught in the crossfire, San is forced to reveal what happened to him in the years before going on the search for his sister.

group: ATEEZ member: San pairing: yunho/oc, san/oc (in flashbacks) t/w: violence, use of weapons, possible gore, blood, character death (but not major), gambling/card counting, alcohol consumption, some cussing, (most likely) inaccurate depictions of what goes on at card games and casinos, implied smut, innuendos.

things to note: Inspired by the movies “21″ and “RED: Retired, Extremely Dangerous,” more Neos are characters in this one -- actually the big bad is one of the Neos lmao.  

Another A/N: Tag list is open, and welcome to another superpowers-fueled story. 

Listen to: Jumper - Cravity, Rocky - ATEEZ, Face ID - Epik High, Bangarang - Skrillex, Trauma - SF9, Blockbuster - Enhypen feat. Yeonjun

tag list: 

Masterlist: 

Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 - Final

26 notes - Posted February 9, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[bratshaws]

goodness gracious 92. brb x oc

a/n: I really love them I DO (feedback is welcome!!)

check out the fic's playlist made by the sweet @wiipes !!

pairing: plus size!oc x rooster

warnings: FLUFF, kinda suggestive but nothing bad,

chapters:

1/2/3/4/5/6/7/8/9/10/11/12/13/14/15/16/17/18/19/20/21/22/23/24/25/26/27/28/29/30/31/32/33/34/35/36/37/38/39/40/41/42/43/44

45/46/47/48/49/50/51/52/53/54/55/56/57/58/59/60/61/62/63/64

65/66/67/68/69/70/71/72/73/74/75/76/77/78/79/80/81/82/83/84

85/86/87/88/89/90/91

(pls let me know if you want to be added to the taglist!!)

taglist: @mirandastuckinthe80s @roosterschanelslut @wiipes @lcahwriter @shrimping-for-all @gretagerwigsmuse @frenchtoastix

@lizzie-rdj @fanboyluvr @atarmychick007 @comebacktoearthpls

@peachiicherries @mak-32 @lizziespidiepridie @roosterswifey @ollyoxenfrees @piceous21 @sqrlgrl22 @hofficoffi @lexhalstead3 @lorilane33 @legendarydreamersharkparty @luckyladycreator2

@emilybradshaw @j-6o @louisahale @leobabbyyy @kulicny @winter-run @ktjmac @graciereads @bigpoppajes

-

“I forgot how big this pool was.” was his comment while looking down at the clear blue chlorine mixed water, watching his reflection ripple as the wind touched its surface. They were both quite sweaty from taking Jolene on a walk, the weather was getting warmer and warmer every day, the huge heat blanket made the need to be almost naked almost insane, “I’m going to grab my swim shorts and I’m jumping in.”

“Okay, I’ll get my swimsuit too.” she was to follow him, but he stopped at the door, “What?”

Bradley’s eyes dropped on the length of her body, the corner of his mouth lifting, “Can I choose? I know you got several, you sent me the pictures.” beautiful pictures he couldn’t forget no matter what. 

Beatrice’s cheeks turned a soft red, her lips parting so she could reply, “Well, if you want…”

“Better yet, surprise me.” he says with his lips nearing hers, kissing the soft flesh with a smile, “I loved all of them, so you can choose any that you want.” and after that he leaned back, winking at her and walking inside first. Beatrice took in a shaky inhale, biting her lower lip as she smiled, waiting a few minutes before following his steps, giving Jolene a look once she got in - the pittie was lying on the cool kitchen tiles, completely spent from running around so much.

As Beatrice made her way up the stairs, Rooster was on his way down, wearing peach colored swim shorts, no pattern, she didn’t know why but she thought he’d have a full arsenal of Hawaiian themed things including swim shorts. But he looked really good. His jorts were already very nice, but this showed more of his muscular thighs for her hungry eyes to see, “Hi,” he says, stopping on the step above her to lean his weight on the railing, “Thoughts?”

“I like it.” she replies with a smile, walking around him to change herself, “I’ll be down in a few okay?” Bradley just follows her with his eyes, then nods his head letting her know he’d be in the pool already - after using the outdoor shower - walking down the rest of the steps until she couldn’t hear him anymore inside the house. 

But she did hear the sound of the outdoor shower opening and then the splash that followed once he jumped in the pool. Beatrice didn’t want to look outside the window and check him out, she wanted to change as quickly as she could and join him. She rummaged through her drawers until she found the very first bikini she bought - well he did - with the white background and the palm leaves on the top and bottom.

And she did have other options but she honestly really liked this one a lot more. So she hurriedly changed to it, pulling her hair up in a bun before rushing back downstairs - Jolene was still on the kitchen but this time closer to the fridge, still asleep -, smiling as soon as she walked out and saw Rooster floating on his back with his eyes closed, “Do you want one of the floats?” 

“Nah,I’m fine.” he replies with his eyes closed, “This is really fucking good, you know?”

It really was because she couldn’t stop looking at him and how his skin glistened with water, making him glow even more, “I can imagine,I’ll just take a quick shower and join you.”

“Please do.” he chuckles, opening one of his eyes and swimming closer to the outdoor shower area so he could peek at her. And the second he noticed the bikini, he immediately turned around to swim over to the edge, folding his arms on it to watch her with his gaze roaming everywhere, “That’s the bikini I gave you.” Beatrice looks at him from the shower,shutting the water off and wiping her face with a smile, “Fuck it looks really good.”

It did and he was a bit glad that the trees they had in their garden were tall enough to hide some of their backyard from their neighbors, because he wasn’t sure if he’d be okay with them watching Beatrice, “Yeah?” she asks sweetly, sitting on the edge of the pool right next to him, giggling when he immediately swam closer, propping his chin on her knee.

“Fuck yeah, are you kidding?” he says as if it was a dumb question, his hands rubbing up her hips until they reached her waist, thumbs brushing her ribcage, “You look beautiful.And the water is great, so why don’t you come in?” He is holding her waist with enough force to lift her up before she could stop him.

Beatrice squeaks out a laugh, holding onto his neck until he drops her on the water. It takes a minute for her to adjust herself, then once she does she sighs in relief, “Oh this is really good.” she whispers, only her head staying out of the water, blinking her eyes open and noticing he was nowhere to be found, “Roos?”

She looks around, furrows her brows, did he get out and she didn’t see? Beatrice swam to the edge to check if the glass doors were open but something tugged her foot under water and pulled her, earning a surprised shriek from the brunette who tried to get free only for the pilot’s head to pop out from under the water laughing at her, “Bradley!” she swats his wet shoulder in retaliation but she’s laughing , laughing even more when he wraps his arms around her waist to bring her closer and kiss her on the lips.

Beatrice is still smiling against his mouth, brushing the dark wet hair off his face,cupping his jaw with her hands, “You are terrible.”

He chuckles in her mouth, “I’m awful.” he says quietly, “Awfully in love with you.” and he was extremely so. He had no qualms in saying it out loud just because it made her blush so much, made her smile turn bashful and made her eyes shine with pure adoration towards him. The fact that she was his fiancé - and vice versa - and if everything goes right they’d get married soon was more than amazing to him.

They still hadn’t talked more about it, he decided to give it a few days before bringing it up with her, “You know before I got in,” she whispers on his lips, “I took a picture of the ring and posted online, I think I’m honestly a bit nervous about checking the reactions.”

“Why?”

“Because my family is loud, Roos.” she laughs quietly, pulling her head back to have a better look at him, “And that means my whole family will know and they’ll probably want to ask me things and I really don’t want to deal with that now. I just want to enjoy it, you know?”

She knew that her mother surely told pretty much all her maternal aunts and uncles, that her family in Italy was already aware that she was engaged and that, of course, her father’s siblings know as well. Including the Bitch Trio’s mother. There was…somewhat of a proud feeling upon thinking that her bitter and annoying cousins would know that she was going to get married and while inviting her aunt was the good thing to do, she didn’t know if she wanted that sort of energy for her wedding.

But then again, considering how she acted with them during their aunt’s wedding she wasn’t even sure if they’d show up fearing another verbal ass whooping. Or if they told their mom, since her aunt and father still spoke regularly. Either way, it was something to think about later.

Especially since Bradley’s lips were on her neck and his hands were on her ass, squeezing each cheek, “You look really good.” was his murmur on her throat, teeth and tongue on her skin, mustache tickling the irritated area but not enough to hurt and make her beg him to stop. Beatrice smiles, putting one of her hands behind his nape to keep him there, giggling like a madwoman when he swims the two forward, pinning her back to the pool’s wall.

But this change in position gave a view of their neighbor’s house, more specifically a window on their second floor that managed to peek through the large trees in their backyard. No one was there, thankfully, but someone could be…of course they were on their side, but it was…weird to imagine someone peeping on them. “Brad,” she tries to say, but he has his teeth on the curve of her jaw, his lips making a trail of wet kisses all the way up her ear, one of his hands trailing up to slide under the bikini top, “B-Brad, we– the neighbors–”

That makes him stop, then turn his head to where he could see the space where the neighbor’s window was visible but no one was there. He huffed in annoyance, looking around for a while until he just swam them to the opposite side where he was sure no one could see them “There,” he says, “Back to business.”

With his mouth once again on her neck, Beatrice giggled, “What are you planning, Brad?”

“That we enjoy this pool to the best of our abilities, gorgeous.”

Beatrice smiles more,trying to keep her moaning and sighing to a minimum, until of course something else happened. From inside she could hear her phone ringing, she changed the settings during the weekend before Rooster came home so she could always check the camera app on the door. She frowns a bit, keeping his head on her neck but tilting her head to the door to check if she wasn’t imagining things.

The repetitive ringing proved that in fact it was real.

“Ah, damn it, Brad.” her fiancé peeked one eye open to look at her, mouth latched on her throat, “My phone is ringing, I have to check.”

“Now??” he sounded so upset, pulling back from her neck with a frown similar to hers. Beatrice shrugged, smiling apologetically and assuring him she’d be back soon, “You better.” he coos, kissing her lips twice before she got out of the pool. At least he had a great view of her body before she covered it up with a pool to dry off, wrapping it around herself as she made her way inside.

Jolene’s head snapped up when she heard Beatrice walking in, somehow the pittie was completely oblivious to the loud ringing coming from the living room, only waking up when her owner’s rapid footsteps could be heard on the floorboards.

“Oh gosh,I’m coming!” She warns the phone - that completely has no other response but to keep ringing - after all it is a phone - until she picks it up. Beatrice furrows her brows “Video call from Marina– what–?” she swipes to answer the call, her sister’s face appearing zoomed in “Mar-”

“YOU ARE ENGAGED??”

Ah.

Beatrice sighed in relief, tucking some hair that slid out of her bun behind her ear - coincidentally it was with the very hand that had the engagement ring on - making her sister gasp, point her index finger accusingly to her and then repeat that yes, she was indeed engaged, “I’m going to make this a group call, hold on.”

“Group call- Mari, no!”

But it was too late, because suddenly five more icons popped up and she could feel her poor phone overheating. It was surprising to see Guillermo there, considering he rarely used to have video calls, “Show us!” Sabrina’s voice said, her sister’s spectacled face appearing on the corner with Aaron behind her, chewing what appeared to be eating a slice of watermelon. Beatrice’s green eyes moved to each little square with their faces, licked her lips then held up her hand.

Sabrina,Marina, Michael and Leo vibrated, but Guillermo was silent. In fact her oldest brother was way too quiet, disappearing from the screen only to return with his glasses, his eyebrows furrowing then relaxing, “...you are…engaged.”

“Yeah, duh,” Michael comments, “I’ll be an uncle again! Hell yeah!”

“Jesus, my baby isn’t even born yet and you want to be an uncle again, Mike?”

“Shut up Leo.”

“Gui you look very pale.” Her brother said nothing, but she could hear his wife’s voice in the background before the phone was handed to her - Deborah’s confused face appeared, until she found out who was on the other end.

“Bea!Hi, oh my God I saw your Instagram post!Congratulations on the engagement!”

“T-Thank is um, is Gui okay?”

Her sister in law looked to the side, then back at her “Oh,he’s fine, he is drinking some water I think he’s still taking it in.”

“He’s going to survive.” Michael adds, his own smile widening “Ooohh, when’s the wedding sis? We gotta prepare!”

“Yeah, remember me and Gui live far away from you.” Sabrina adds, “Hold on let me call the boys-”

‘There’s no need to–” but her sister was already calling the three boys down, with Marina doing the same with Gabriel. The only reason Leo couldn’t was because Bianca was at school and Cyn was still working - she wasn’t on maternity leave yet after all - and Guillermo was probably too stunned to speak.

Now Beatrice stood awkwardly, with a large fluffy towel around her shoulders and her bikini cold on her skin, watching her siblings and their children compliment her. It was fine, she could understand why they were doing it…but, Rooster was outside, waiting for her and all she wanted was to go back and enjoy time with him.

Not to mention she had to think about the wedding date and the venue and all that and she didn’t want to get stressed or anxious about this right now. But hearing all her family members talking about it wasn’t helping, yet again she was asked about when the wedding would happen and she had no idea who suggested she had to act on it soon. “I think I can think of a good time on my own, guys. We are the ones getting married.”

That shut them all up, Leonardo however was biting his lip trying to hold a laugh - which was how she knew it wasn’t him who said anything about it. Beatrice sighed, “I’m going to talk to you guys later, I need to…work on some other stuff so, bye, I love you all.” she finished the call after all said goodbye - and apologized - tossing the phone down on the coffee table and then rubbing her hands over her face.

It takes a few minutes for her to come back, Rooster was sitting on the edge of the pool this time, instead of inside, with his sunglasses on and turning his head to look at her, “Hey, pretty girl.” he smiles, holding out his hand for her to take so she could sit down next to him, “Who was it?”

“The Loud Crowd.” she muttered, “They started a group call and God it was…something. They congratulated me for the engagement though and I think Guillermo is probably going to need a few more days to process that.” she explained “Then they started asking about the date and I just couldn’t really deal with that right now and…yeah…”

Bradley hums, hugging her to his side and kissing the top of her head, “Is that all that’s bothering you?”

“...I don’t know, I mean, partially yeah.” Beatrice bites her lower lip, “It’s like…yeah, they see me as an adult now but they still want to control some stuff? We are the one deciding everything, time,place, everything. I just…ugh…” she drops her face to his neck, hiding her expression from him and enjoying the warmth she found there, “I love them,Roos. But they can be exhausting.”

Bradley chuckles, “I know, pretty girl.I know. They can be a bit over the place.”

“That’s an understatement.”

He then sighs, letting the soft breeze touch both of their bodies before speaking again, “I know how to distract you.” he says, tilting his head in her direction with a smirk, “But it’d be weird doing it in our pool, especially so early in the morning.” he pushes himself off the edge,getting back into the water and swimming up to her legs, repeating the pose from before with his chin on her knees, “I promise I’ll be nice.”

Beatrice’s worried façade melted into a smile, a soft giggle breaking from her throat as she removed the towel and followed the same movement he did to get inside. Once she’s in front of him and his arms are back around her waist, he pressed their foreheads together while lowering his sunglasses to be bridge of his nose to meet her eyes, “While you were gone,I was thinking,” she hums in question, “That we should take this week off to calm down, relax, and not worry about it…then next week we can worry about the wedding itself, especially what we want to do and such.”

Beatrice blinked up at him, then looked to the side in thought, only returning when she had an answer, “I’m okay with that.” she smiles, “I am excited, I really am but I think I might just…not think about it for a while?”

“Yeah, me too.” he makes a face,”I just want us to have a clear head before coming up with a decision. And, amazingly,” he drops his lips to her ear, “I hear pool sex is really good–”

“Bradley!” she swats his shoulder, “We can’t do this in the pool!”

“Are you sure? I think it’d be fun,” Beatrice just purses her lips and narrows her eyes, “Oh, fine, swimming only then. We can do the other part, much, much later.”

-

Indeed swimming was all they did, which was really fun but now both of them were too tired to do anything else, with Bradley sprawled on the couch and using Beatrice’s thighs as his pillow as her hand brushed through his sandy brown hair. Jolene joined them in the living room, Drag Race UK playing in the background with Bradley’s eyes never leaving the tv.

Beatrice’s phone was by her side, but she changed the settings to vibrate instead of ring this time, knowing that sooner or later she’d be bombarded by her relatives and she didn’t want to deal with that.

He was right saying they should wait a bit, at least one week before dealing with everything wedding related. It’d be a lot of work and they needed to have a perfect mindset for it.

Hence why they were both watching Drag Race after having lunch, “I like Tia Kofi, she seems fun.” Bradley commented,crossing his arms over his chest “I can do a horrible British accent,” he turned his head up at her, smiling, “Wanna hear it?”

She just laughs, “Do it.”

“Oi mate, this water right, bit stupid innit?” 

He was right, it was horrible. Because his own accent mixed in with the other and it made the words sound so much heavier than normal. Beatrice had to cover her mouth to control her laughter, but she couldn’t stop herself, throwing her head back, “It’s awful.” she says between laughs. “It’s really bad.”

“Can you believe my ancestors were British? And Irish? Crazy shit.” he comments. Beatrice never questioned much about his family, especially since, well, he shared what he wanted to. But this was news to her and once she questioned him about it he just shrugged, “I mean, my mom’s side is British and my dad’s Irish, but that’s all I know.”

“My maternal great-great grandfather was Spanish.” she says, earning a confused look from him, “He moved to Italy because he fell in love with my great-great grandma. Guillermo’s name comes from him…I think I also have Greek in my family tree too,I am not sure. My dad said we do.” she turned her eyes down at him, smiling at his stare, “I am still mainly Italian, Brad, but having Spanish and Greek in my blood also explains the loudness..”

Rooster huffs out a laugh, still looking at her, “Can I ask you something?”

‘Sure!”

“What are Italian weddings like?”

“Well,I can’t say all weddings but I can say some Sicilian wedding traditions if that helps,” he nods, his attention on her now, “Well, let’s see uhh…the wedding dress can’t be in the same house as the bride, I know that because when both Bri and Mari got married my mom kept the dress at the house while my sisters stayed at a hotel. There’s also the throwing of wheat along with rice…and I think this one is more of my family tradition but there’s always a shot of grappa given to the bride and groom before the first dance.”

Bradley takes that information in, then tilts his head in understanding, “Your aunt didn’t drink when she got married, did she?”

“My aunt owns a winery, Brad. She let that pass.”

Rooster waited for a bit, turning his body around to face her fully, “Do you want to do any of that? I know we didn’t want to talk about it yet, but I’m curious.”

“We don’t need to do all of it,” she shrugs, “I mean the grappa thing,that might be something we can’t let pass but everything else isn’t a ‘rule’, you know?” she smiles sweetly, kissing his forehead, “As long I have you I don’t really care about anything else.”

And she could die, because Bradley Nicholas Bradshaw, the man she loved, her future husband who always made her blush…blushed himself. Her eyes widened, “Wait!” the sound of her voice woke Jolene up, the pittie looking around confusedly, “You are blushing!”

“What?”

“Your cheeks are darker than normal!I made you blush!!” she sounded like she just won the derby, clapping her hands together, “Yes!It happened! I’ve been wanting to do that for so long, you have no idea.”

“Making…me blush?”

“Yes!”

He stares at her, indeed his cheeks feel warm, and laughs. “Fuck, I love you.” he murmurs, kissing her lips, “You are too cute for your own good.” he leans over her, eventually making her fall on the couch with a laugh breaking from her lips, “I think I’m going to marry you–” her phone starts buzzing and he sighs heavily on her mouth, “Can you ignore it?”

“If It's someone I hate, yes.” she chuckles, leaning to grab the phone and check what it was, furrowing her eyebrows, going back to her sitting position, “...it’s a message.” she murmured, “From…my aunt.”

“Your aunt? Your aunt Martha?” she nods “What does she want?”

“...to meet with us.”

[the-archlich]

Dynasty Warriors: Who Is Fa Zheng?

In March of 2018 I wrote a very long article about Fa Zheng. I was going to write articles like that for everyone in DW9 but soon realized it was entirely unsustainable. This article was 6,000 words long with over 100 citations and footnotes. In other words, hopelessly long-winded. It does, however, let me know precisely what I was thinking at that time, which makes this much shorter article easier to write.

I didn’t really expect Fa Zheng to ever be added to Dynasty Warriors. The franchise has generally preferred to credit his achievements to others (particularly Pang Tong and Zhuge Liang) and the dark stuff in his personal life taints the image they try to project of the saintly Liu Bei and his Benevolent Buddies. Nevertheless, they included him in DW8:XL so he was grandfathered into DW9.

In Koei’s various strategy games (ROT3K and Dynasty Tactics) he usually enjoys extremely high intelligence and is skilled in whatever ability impacts domestic policy. He tends to struggle in other areas, but that’s to be expected of the “strategist” type characters. He was added to Total War with the Fates Divided DLC, where he gets a unique appearance and ability. It’s a lot of respect to put on him.

Of course, by their nature, none of those titles give the sort of personalized narrative that he has in DW9, so that’s what I have the most to talk about.

Through his story in DW9 Fa Zheng is depicted (accurately, in my opinion) as a cunning but thoroughly villainous man. He is quick to betray Liu Zhang and help arrange Liu Bei’s attack on Shu. During the campaign he mocks Liu Zhang for not surrendering sooner. Fa Zheng’s lack of moral fiber is a recurring theme, one that causes conflict with other officials. At the end of his story, though, the narrative has Zhuge Liang agree that Fa Zheng’s lack of morals is useful, which is not a position I expected the game to take with those characters. That gets it a few points from me.

Fa Zheng comes off as one of the most genuinely intelligent characters in the game. Throughout his brief story he correctly predicts many future problems, particularly in Jing province. Though these concerns are ignored by Zhuge Liang and his other colleagues, he is ultimately proven correct. I’ll give them credit, intelligent and immoral are certainly the two words I’d use to describe Fa Zheng, and those characteristics really come through.

On the negative side, Fa Zheng has kind of a one-note obsession with revenge, retribution, etc. that gets kind of grating but at least he has other things going on in addition to that (compared to his various colleagues shouting “Justice!” “Benevolence!” or, in Huang Zhong’s case, “AARP!”)

The main narrative issue I have with his story is that they give him the stated goal of “saving Yi province.” This feels like a slapdash attempt to paint a nice gloss over actions that are otherwise just self-centered ambition. It doesn’t really make a whole lot of sense (he isn’t even from there!) but I guess they wanted a little complexity to an otherwise pretty simple character.

One final note about him in fiction: in Kessen II he is a loyal officer of Liu Zhang who only joins Liu Bei after his lord’s death. I’m confident that you wouldn’t even know who that character was supposed to be if they changed the name.

With all of that opinion given, then: who actually is Fa Zheng? Where did he come from and what was his deal? Let’s look at a brief rundown of his life.

Fa Zheng was from Youfufeng, near Chang’an, and his family was highly respected.[1] His grandfather Fa Zhen was noted as being an excellent judge of talent as well as a very accomplished scholar. He constantly refused court appointments and spent his whole life as a private scholar, dying in 188 at the age of 89.[2] Fa Zheng’s father Fa Yan pursued an official career and eventually served as an assistant to one of the Excellencies and to the Minister of Justice.[3] Not a spectacular career, but a respectable one that put Fa Zheng on the fringes of the upper crust.

Around 196, Fa Zheng and his friend Meng Da fled from Youfufeng to escape a local famine and the general destruction of the region. Together, they traveled to Yi province (which covered the geographical regions of Ba, Shu, and Nanzhong), where they took up service with the local governor Liu Zhang. For the next several years. Fa Zheng served as the head of a county in Guanghan. He was later transferred to Chengdu to serve as a military adviser of petty rank. Fa Zheng was always dissatisfied with these appointments. In addition to his low rank, other refugees from his home region spread word that he was an immoral man, and as a result Liu Zhang never put much trust in him. Despite his ambitions, Fa Zheng never rose high in Liu Zhang’s administration.[4]

In 208, Cao Cao received the surrender of Liu Zong/Cong, governor of Jing.[5] Concerned by Cao Cao’s growing strength, Liu Zhang sent an envoy named Yin Pu to meet with him. Cao Cao granted Liu Zhang and his brother titles as generals, effectively confirming their control over Yi province. Liu Zhang next sent his steward Zhang Su to Cao Cao with 300 soldiers as a tribute. Cao Cao rewarded this display by naming Zhang Su as executor of Guanghan canton.[6] Liu Zhang then sent Zhang Su’s younger brother Zhang Song with a third embassy.[7]

Fa Zheng’s biography describes Zhang Song as the steward of Yi, the same position his elder brother held.[8] Presumably, Zhang Song was promoted to this position after his brother received Guanghan. Zhang Su was noted for being handsome, while Zhang Song was short and unattractive. However, Zhang Song was the more intelligent of the brothers.[9]

When Zhang Song arrived, Cao Cao had settled Jing and was focused on pursuing Liu Bei and defeating Sun Quan. He largely ignored Zhang Song, much to the envoy’s chagrin.[10] Zhang Song did befriend one of Cao Cao’s secretaries, the scholar Yang Xiu. He showed Zhang Song Cao Cao’s commentary on Sunzi’s writings, and Zhang Song could recite it all after reading it only once.[11] This has been the source of various fictional anecdotes about Zhang Song’s intelligence. When Zhang Song returned to Yi, after witnessing Cao Cao’s defeat at Wulin, he did so with a firm hatred of Cao Cao and urged Liu Zhang to break off relations with him.[12]

Zhang Song was one of the few friends Fa Zheng made. In addition to Zhang Song’s enmity towards Cao Cao, he and Fa Zheng both detested Liu Zhang. On Zhang Song’s advice, Liu Zhang decided to sever ties with Cao Cao and ally with Liu Bei instead. Fa Zheng reluctantly served as his ambassador.[13] He and Meng Da were also ordered to bring a small body of soldiers to bolster Liu Bei’s forces as a token of goodwill.[14] Fa Zheng’s visit went well, and he was impressed by Liu Bei. He and Zhang Song conspired to replace Liu Zhang with Liu Bei at the first opportunity.[15]

For the details on how all of that shook out, you can read my article on Liu Bei's conquest of Yi province. Fa Zheng played a crucial role in orchestrating the campaign and it would be fair to regard him as the mastermind, along with Pang Tong.

Upon taking Yi, Liu Bei named Fa Zheng as executor of Shu canton, the capital of that province, as well as a general. In addition to governing Shu itself, he also served as Liu Bei’s chief military adviser. However, Fa Zheng proceeded to abuse his authority. While he rewarded anyone who had once shown him kindness, he also used his power to take revenge against anyone who he felt had slighted him. He even went so far as to murder several people, executing them without any authority or due process. Some asked Zhuge Liang to intercede and stop him, but Zhuge Liang refused due to Fa Zheng’s contributions to Liu Bei’s success.[16]

Let’s be honest, Fa Zheng has a pretty negative reputation and it’s easy to see why. His betrayal of  Liu Zhang has met with mixed opinions over the years (what’s a little light treason between friends?) but it’s hard to get around the whole “killing people for personal vengeance” thing. Still, there was more to him than that, so there are a couple of other things to look at from his time in government.

One personnel issue that came up for Liu Bei was the subject of a man named Xu Jing. He was Fa Zheng’s predecessor as executor of Shu and was a highly respected scholar. However, he planned to desert Chengdu while it was under siege and because of this Liu Bei held him in low regard. (Pot, meet kettle.) Fa Zheng told Liu Bei that although Xu Jing was a man of empty reputation, he nevertheless had a great reputation. Since Liu Bei couldn’t go door-to-door explaining why he didn’t make use of Xu Jing, it would be better to employ him lest the people of Yi think Liu Bei did not value men of talent. Liu Bei followed his advice and treated Xu Jing well.[17] He was subsequently made Liu Bei’s adjutant.[18] His nephew Chen Zhi eventually became one of Shu’s leading officials.[19]

During this time, Fa Zheng also helped compose a new legal code for Shu, along with Zhuge Liang, Liu Ba, Li Yan, and Yi Ji.[20] The fifth-century commentator Pei Songzhi recounts a discussion between Zhuge Liang and Fa Zheng regarding law. Fa Zheng argued for greater leniency and thought that since Liu Bei was new to the province, it was wisest for him to adopt the local customs and expectations before introducing new laws. Zhuge Liang believed it was best to begin with strict, even harsh rule so that any future leniency would have a greater impact.[21] Chen Shou, author of the Sanguo Zhi and a native of Shu, regarded these laws, and Zhuge Liang’s policies in particular, as strict but fair.[22] Of course, I can’t let the opportunity pass to note that while advocating for strict laws and harsh punishments, Zhuge Liang was content to let Fa Zheng commit outright murder. But laws never apply to those who make them.

After spending a couple years establishing LIu Bei’s government in Yi, Fa Zheng started advocating for war again in 217. Liu Bei accepted his arguments and launched his campaign for Hanzhong at the end of the year. You can read abut it here. Once again, Fa Zheng can be accurately described as the primary architect of the campaign. Although Liu Bei’s army suffered many setbacks throughout 217 and 218, the tide turned at the start of 219 and Liu Bei was ultimately able to claim the region.

In autumn of 219, Liu Bei named himself King of Hanzhong. Leaving Wei Yan to guard the territory, he subsequently returned to Chengdu.[23] Fa Zheng was named Director of the Secretariat and General Who Protects the Army. However, Fa Zheng did not enjoy these honors for long. He passed away the next year, at the age of 44. He was posthumously awarded a marquisate, and Liu Bei personally wept for him.[24] In subsequent years, Zhuge Liang would continue to praise Fa Zheng’s abilities. When Liu Bei was defeated in Yidu in 222, Zhuge Liang lamented, “If Fa Xiaozhi were still here, then he would have been able to hold back our ruler, and have him not go east, but even if we had gone east, then it certainly would not have been this much of a disaster.”[25]

Holding the two of them up side-by-side, the DW9 Fa Zheng does have a lot of overlap with the real deal. 

As always, most fictitious depictions of Fa Zheng can be traced back to SGYY and it’s various inspirations. He first appears in chapter 60, which tells a somewhat distorted but still recognizable version of Zhang Song’s embassy to Cao Cao and Fa Zheng’s mission to Liu Bei.[26] For the next several chapters, he and Pang Tong employ various plans to capture Yi province, an endeavor in which they are ultimately successful. In the novel, Pang Tong generally takes the senior role.[27]

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the novel glosses over Fa Zheng’s misdeeds while in government. It describes him repaying favors and avenging past slights, though it doesn’t say he had people killed. It also says that he subsequently changed his ways and made amends.[28] That’s the sort of distortion I really hate in this book.  Fa Zheng was a murderer. There is no evidence that he ever regretted it or reformed. But since he’s associated with the heroes of the story his crimes get painted over  and watered down.

Fa Zheng next appears when Liu Bei is making plans to capture Hanzhong. Zhuge LIang sends him to supervise Huang Zhong and together they defeat Xiahou Yuan, earning a huge victory.[29] His subsequent appearances are brief. He is rewarded for his role in taking Hanzhong[30] and convinces LIu Bei to marry Wu Yi’s sister.[31] Strangely, Fa Zheng dies off-screen. Although his passing is later mentioned by Zhuge Liang[32] it doesn’t come up until after the fact.

I’ve already complained about the Yanyi glossing over Fa Zheng’s crimes inventing a redemption arc for him so I don’t need to repeat myself here. Aside from that, his appearance in the novel is actually reasonably accurate. The liberties the novel takes with him are rather small and easy to understand in the context of the story.

Endnotes

1. SGZ 37.2 2. Sānfǔ Juélù Zhù 三辅决录注; SGZ 37.2 3. PSZ; SGZ 37.2 4. SGZ 37.2 5. SGZ 1 6. SGZ 31.2 7. SGZ 31.2 8. SGZ 37.2 9. Yìbù Qíjiù Zhuàn 益部耆旧传; SGZ 31.2 10. SGZ 31.2 11. Yìbù Qíjiù Zhuàn 益部耆旧传; SGZ 31.2 12. SGZ 31.2 13. SGZ 37.2 14. SGZ 31.2 15. SGZ 37.2 16. SGZ 37.2 17. SGZ 37.2 18. SGZ 38.1 19. SGZ 39.5 20. SGZ 38.5 21. PSZ; SGZ 35 22. SGZ 35 23. SGZ 32 24. SGZ 37.2 25. SGZ 37.2 26. SGYY 60 27. SGYY 61–64 28. SGYY 65 29. SGYY 70–71 30. SGYY 73 31. SGYY 77 32. SGYY 81

[ssamja-trash]

80, 34, 30, 14, 1, 2, 89 for the SuJu ask game 💙

sorry that all these answers are so long lmao i just get excited talking about them and i have a lot to say.

1. When did you become an ELF?

i liked them casually before, but i officially started calling myself an elf on october 4th 2019 (i know because i made a text post announcing it lmao)

2. What era made you an ELF?

i guess black suit era because black suit and one more chance were the first two songs i heard that i actually liked by them

14. A member you’d be friends with?

it's hard to say.. it really depends on which member would even wanna be friends with me. i do think i'd have fun being friends with kyuhyun and inevitably have a crush on him that he would never find out about

30. Favorite album?

the renaissance is almost perfect. if they had just left tell me baby out of it... because i don't like christmas songs and it didn't fit the vibe of the album imo (house party doesn't necessarily fit it either but i can forgive it). sorry sorry is really good too

34. Favorite b-sides?

ticky tocky and burn the floor are tied at number one. i wanna make a gifset of my top ten b-sides like i've done for stray kids and bts, but i want them to have some kind of theme (like for example the bts ones look like a music player). so if anyone has any ideas, let me know haha

80. What albums, photocards, or merch do you own?

i only have kyuhyun's version of the renaissance album and all the stuff that came with it, including a lot of fine ass posters of him 🤤

89. If you ever met SuJu, what would you do or say?

realistically, i would be too nervous to say or do any of this stuff but if i could gather the courage, i would let them know that i and a lot of fans just want them to be happy and date and marry whoever they want. and i'd tell them that a lot of us love all the members, and wish for them to reunite at some point. and then i'd ask to take pictures and hug them lol

[dwellordream]

Women and literature: letters, prayers and poems

“Women participated in personal relationships with churchmen. For example, Eva Crispin (d. 1099), who retired to the abbey of Le Bec, treated the brother of Gilbert Crispin as her spiritual son. A relationship such as this probably involved spiritual guidance and counselling as well as practical advice and support. Margaret, Queen of Scotland, adopted Lanfranc as her ‘spiritual father’ c. 1070–89, 7 and Lanfranc wrote to her to express his joy at accepting the role. Queen Margaret had requested Lanfranc to send her some monks; in his letter he states that he was sending three, who were, in effect, on loan. 

The monks, he states, are ‘really indispensable’ in his church, and this statement, no doubt, served to flatter the queen, since he had sent her men of ability. Further, if she was willing, he wanted them returned at a later date. They were clearly to give her practical support and advice concerning her establishment of Holy Trinity, Dunfermline. Thus a spiritual relationship could take a very practical form. The patronage of the church was intrinsic to aristocratic culture, and royal women were often involved in patronage of not only the fabric of the buildings through grants of land and emoluments but also interior furnishings, books and relics.

For example, Countess Judith of Flanders presented a fine crucifix to Durham and sacred relics and objects of art to the abbey of Weingarten, including a relic of the holy blood that she had inherited from her father. Queen Matilda, the wife of the Conqueror, gave a richly decorated chasuble to the monks of Saint-Évroul, and Adeline, the wife of Roger of Beaumont, gave them an ‘alb richly ornamented with orphrey’. Queen Matilda, the wife of Henry I, established an Augustinian house of canons, patronised other religious institutions and made personal gifts of bronze candlesticks to Hildebart of Lavardin and Cluny. She provided Chartres with two bells and Westminster Abbey with liturgical garments.

Queen Matilda received a letter and prayer composed for her by Bishop Herbert Losinga of Norwich in 1118. The prayer to St John is a lyrical plea for healing and health, for the saint to act as an intercessor for the forgiveness of sins and for Matilda to be given to the protection of the Virgin Mary. Given that Matilda died in May 1118, it is possible that the prayer was composed for her in the context of illness. The choice for the direction of this prayer is interesting, since St John was a virgin, and this is stressed within the prayer. The virgin John was a suitable intercessor with the supreme Virgin – the Virgin Mary. 

Herbert, when composing the prayer, would have carefully selected appropriate imagery befitting a queen. The fruit of Queen Matilda’s artistic and literary connections, the letters and literature which survive, served to ‘create an aura of legitimacy and prestige’ in her position as queen. Spiritual counsel could be an important part of the relationship between leading churchmen and important political women such as the queen, or powerful countesses. The relationship between important noblewomen and clerics thus stimulated the production of letters and spiritual texts. 

A critical re-evaluation of these texts could begin to trace the developing discourse of twelfth-century female spirituality in the particular context of prescriptive spirituality for the recipient in her public role as queen. The cultivation of a spiritual relationship could yield political dividends and it could thus be used to influence political events of significance. Thus spiritual relationships were an expression of aristocratic social cohesiveness and a route whereby women could exert power. 

An impressive illustration of these themes is provided by Adela of Blois, the daughter of William the Conqueror, and Matilda, who married Stephen count of Blois (d. 1102). Adela was a keen patron of the arts. As Elisabeth van Houts pointed out, she was a patron of the poet Godfrey of Rheims, who, in 1080–5, wrote to Adela praising her as a regia virgo, a royal virgin. Godfrey wrote that it was God’s will that William had been successful at Hastings, since Adela was then born the daughter of a king instead of a duke.

Hugh of Fleury dedicated his Historia Ecclesiastica to her. He praised her for her literacy, generosity and intelligence. Adela had also received the Flowers of Psalms and seven prayers selected by Anselm at her request. He also sent some prayers that he had composed for her. These were a decisive break with previous traditions in personal prayer, and marked a significant step in the development of the Anselmian revolution in the composition of texts for personal devotion. He also included advice on how to meditate.

The relationship between Adela and Anselm was of both a political and a spiritual, personal nature. Eadmer reveals that it was Adela who played a pivotal role in resolving a dispute between her brother Henry and Anselm in 1105 at the height of the conflict between them. Eadmer informs us that she sent to Anselm to tell him that she was ill and he  diverted to minister to her. She was appalled to hear that her brother was about to be excommunicated and arranged a meeting between Anselm and Henry at which they resolved their differences for good.

Her illness was probably a pretext to divert Anselm to her court, where she could influence him. Adela was a peacemaker in the dispute between her brother and the exiled archbishop of Canterbury, and arguably she acted to care for her brother’s soul in a familial context. However, the resolution of the dispute is also of political significance, and here Adela’s actions assume a wider context, since she used her informal influence, which was strengthened through a spiritual relationship, to resolve a political dispute. 

There is a further dimension to the fact that Anselm diverted to see Adela on hearing that she was ill. Evidently his role as a spiritual adviser involved an obligation for the care of her soul to attend her in the case of serious illness to prepare Adela for death. This network of spiritual guidance and social intercourse was normal and part of the culture of aristocratic and noble women – indeed, the women of the Conqueror’s family were particularly prominent as patrons.

Adela attracted the attention of important clergy who were keen to foster relations with her. For example, Baudri abbot of Bourgueil (1079–1130) wrote a poem of 1,367 lines for Adela which describes the furnishings and rich decorations of her hall and bedchamber. It used to be thought that the rich visual imagery and the detail in his descriptions were suggestive of a personal relationship between Adela and Baudri, and that he might have visited her palace.

However, Shirley Ann Brown and Michael Herren have cast doubt on this assumption in their comparison of the Bayeux Tapestry itself with the descriptions of the tapestry which Baudri purports to have seen hanging in Adela’s chamber, which historians have assumed was the Bayeux Tapestry. Whether or not Baudri visited Adela, the poem is significant, since it illustrates what an important abbot thought was a suitably flattering description to offer an important woman, as well as providing clues about the material culture of an aristocratic secular woman. 

It also illustrates the range of cultural influences in northern France, and significantly Baudri emphasised the role of Adela in the design and creation of tapestries. Firstly, he described a role which women of Adela’s status undertook, that is, to oversee and direct the women who made cloth and designed tapestry, and, secondly, he flattered her artistic skills. Baudri’s relationship with Adela was not unique: he wrote poetry and obituaries for other women, although none of such length and detail as those to Adela. 

He wrote to Adela’s sister, Cecilia, a nun at Holy Trinity, Caen, as well as to a certain Agnes, a Lady Emma and Beatrice. He also wrote to Constance, his spiritual daughter, who had received her education at the convent of Le Ronceray in Angers, and who replied to his poetry. He composed poetry for Muriel, who was likewise at Le Ronceray and from whom he received poetry in return. Anselm was therefore not alone in the way that he fostered relationships with powerful women. 

Eadmer reveals that on one journey Anselm was delayed and entertained by Countess Ida of Boulogne, when he ‘conferred’ with her. According to Sally Vaughn, Ida was his ‘closest and most intimate confidante, student, spiritual daughter and political ally’, with whom he corresponded until his death. Powerful women were worth cultivating: Matilda countess of Tuscany provided him with an escort whilst he was passing through her lands on his way from Rome in 1104. 

Anselm afterwards sent her a complete copy of his Prayers and Meditations which was made and illustrated for her at Canterbury: a step which again confirmed the shift from private meditation to public consumption of his devotional literature. Wilmart argues that the letters and prayers date from c. 1104, and that Anselm praised Matilda for her prudence; he informed her that her people had taken him on a short safe route, and he praised her for her religious patronage and urged her to take the veil when the moment of death arrived. 

This is good evidence of the importance of the involvement of a secular noble woman in cross-cultural exchanges, and shows Matilda’s importance in her cultural, religious and political activities. It is also worthy of note that Anselm urged her to take the veil only at the moment of death, not before. Other churchmen dispensed spiritual advice to women throughout the twelfth century, for example through the medium of hagiography. 

The study of Vitae has been an area of increased scholarly interest, and the meaning of saints and saints’ cults has likewise received considerable attention, as has women’s mysticism and spirituality. Despite the hagiographic convention and the Christian didactic purpose of saints’ lives, they are valuable sources which can be used to study aspects of noblewomen and power in twelfth-century society, although such a project has its own methodological difficulties. 

Indeed, Jocelyn Wogan-Browne discussed three female-authored twelfth-century Vitae and showed the specific problems inherent in recovering women’s experience from hagiographic sources. The twelfth-century Vita of Christina of Markyate has been studied for its value as a source for twelfth-century female religious. Thomas Head, however, analysed the Life in terms of the socio-cultural contexts of twelfth-century developing notions of marriage. He stressed the power of Christina to seize control over her own life to become ‘a primary actor in the drama of her own salvation’. 

Her difficult adolescence where she was in fear of marriage is a topos typical in Vitae of female saints. Yet the female life cycle can be seen as paramount in defining Christina’s options, since Christina became secure in her vocation only once her childbearing years were over. Other Vitae confirm that social and spiritual relationships were important forms of male–female interaction and collaboration. 

The Life of St Hugh of Lincoln by Adam of Eynsham was written as part of the campaign for Hugh’s canonisation. It depicts a courtly political bishop attending to the spiritual needs of his flock, including, for example, ‘devout matrons’ and the bereaved Queen Berengaria following the death of Richard I, and adjudicating in cases of adultery. More interestingly, women’s voices can be detected as witnesses to his sanctity. 

A significant number of those who testified to miracle cures were women; of twenty-nine individuals who are listed as having been cured of some affliction by miracles eighteen were women. In this respect this 2:1 pattern of imbalance in women : men miracle cures is a phenomenon that applies to other twelfth-century saints. Women’s testimony and role as sources of information on the saint are therefore one way in which they could influence the shape and content of the text. 

Georges Whalen has shown that in Goscelin’s Life of Edith statements of women’s theological equality in Christ were employed where women were the majority of witnesses to allay fears about the validity of female witnesses. No such statements were required for male witnesses. Women were prominent as witnesses, and thus in the creation of social memory, in John of Ford’s Life of Wulfric of Haslebury, a parish priest turned anchorite in rural Somerset who died in 1154. These witnesses included women from the nobility, five local anchoresses and village women.

The Life also depicts social interaction between the anchorite and women, as well as spiritual advice and relationships. The dispensation of spiritual advice could be achieved through social/spiritual interaction, and also through letters. Peter of Blois wrote to the archdeacon of Picardy that his niece Alice should not be forced to become a nun, but in a later letter to her he congratulated her on her choice of vocation.

In the mid-twelfth century Amice countess of Leicester received a letter from Gilbert Foliot. Writing c. 1163–68, he apologises for being unable to visit her, owing to his duties and obligations, and states that he ought to have written to her before. Gilbert Foliot was also in correspondence with her husband Earl Robert (II) of Leicester (d. 1168) in the same period, which suggests that the extant letters were sent together but were intended for each individual separately. These socially exclusive circles of friendship, cultivated through spiritual relationships, reinforced aristocratic and noble social and political cohesion. Noblewomen, as part of the landed élite, actively participated in such relationships.”

- Susan M. Johns, “Patronage and Power.” in Noblewomen, Aristocracy and Power in the Twelfth-Century Anglo-Norman Realm

[salmonshirtsforeverprod]

Metroid Dread Review: Power, Identity, and Perseverance (Spoilers): I finished Metroid Dread recently and really stuck out to me so I wanted to talk about it. I finished the game with 89% and given how difficult it is I’ll gladly accept that. I must say, I think this is the best game I've played in awhile and it’s the best 2D Metroid since the Super Nintendo. Dread is a grand, expansive Metroidvania that smartly and subtly shuffles you around the world while still affording you plenty of freedom to explore. The trend in Metroid games over the last twenty years or so has been to make the critical path pretty easy to discern, with the rewards for exploration coming in the form of missile packs, energy tanks, and so on. Dread compares favorably to Metroid Fusion, which just locks the doors at points to force you along to the next story beat. Dread, on the other hand, does this is by just making the planet ZDR, where the game takes place, feel truly alive. Conditions on the planet change either through mechanical or natural processes, creating temporary points of no return and making ZDR feel real as opposed to just an abstract bunch of corridors like say Guacamelee. I picked up on the game’s way of nudging you along pretty quickly, and began actively choosing whether or not I wanted to follow the hint. There are a few cases where you don’t really get a choice, but by and large Dread does a good job of letting you run around and create a good mental map of Planet ZDR in your mind. Samus spends much of the game being pursued by deadly robots called EMMI Units, and they’re a great touch. They pull in the ideas of stealth and fear in a way that feels more organic and less cordoned off than in Fusion and Zero Mission. They really fit in with the game's overall purpose of upending the sense of progression you're used to in a Metroid game. It's a very pointed choice that you don't get items in the order you might expect, and you're quickly humbled by the EMMI and the shifting landscape. All this really cements the difference between how Yoshio Sakamoto sees Metroid and how Kensuke Tanabe sees it. Tanabe with Metroid Prime gives us some of the greatest power fantasies in the history of the medium, Sakamoto sees Metroid as a desperate struggle to survive. You aren't looking for these items to gain power and turn Samus into a nearly indestructible tank, you're doing it to try and keep the playing field as even as you can. All these mechanics, including the counter and Aeion abilities, fit together into a seamless whole. These new ideas were mostly introduced in Samus Returns on Nintendo 3DS. They felt strange there, as they sat at odds with the structure and themes of Metroid II, of which Samus Returns is a remake. Everything fits together here, though, in a game where you're the hunted rather than the hunter. Nailing a counter on a boss especially feels like a momentary and sometimes necessary shift in momentum. Dread really doubles down on the desperation, and it’s part of how the game masterfully pays off the central themes running through the Metroid games: power, identity, and perseverance. These themes are present in the series from the very beginning. In Metroid for the Nintendo Entertainment System, the titular aliens, the Metroids, are a MacGuffin, a means by which to explore the theme of power through the villainous Space Pirates. Perseverance is explored through the game's high difficulty, and identity through the studious absence of information on Samus, leading up to the reveal she's a woman. This is further explored in Metroid II: The Return of Samus for Nintendo Game Boy, and it's where specifically the theme of identity crisis begins to creep in. Samus is sent to the Metroid home planet, SR-388, because the Space Pirates continue to seek power through the Metroid’s ability to absorb and generate energy. Samus’ task is to exterminate the entire species. This morally ambiguous act, going beyond collateral damage caused by the Pirate’s presence on Zebes in the first game, shifts the depiction of Samus. It causes us to rethink how we see her and how she sees herself, culminating in her decision to save the baby Metroid at the end of Metroid II. The events at the end of Super Metroid for the Super Nintendo, where the baby Metroid sacrifices itself to save Samus, kicks her identity crisis into high gear. This idea is poorly explored in Metroid: Other M on Wii but more successfully explored in Fusion and Dread. Samus' identity was heretofore solid. She's an independent bounty hunter who often works for a government she believes in against a criminal syndicate she has intimate motive for opposing. She's a product of two worlds, a human taken in by the alien Chozo and infused with their DNA. This existence as an alien human hybrid of course also ties into the theme of identity. In Metroid Fusion for Game Boy Advance she returns to SR-388 and is attacked by a strange parasitic life-form. The only way to save her life is to inject her with Metroid DNA. The DNA of an organism she has worked so hard against, nearly exterminated in fact. The parasite is known as X, an amorphous alien parasite that infects, replaces, mimics, and mutates other life-forms, and serves as a means to dive wholly into the theme of identity. Samus had to be placed in a different suit after her attack, again changing the way we see her and how she sees herself. The X parasite even invades her old Chozo suit, turning her familiar form into something terrifying. Samus is part Metroid now, and on the run from an efficient hunter in Chozo power armor. As she explores the lab she was brought to she learns the Federation, or at least a powerful element within it, is no better than the Space Pirates. They’re using everything she discovered on planet Zebes in horrifying biological weapons experiments. This upends the easy morality she'd previously believed in. This leads us to Dread, which is all about the potential for the complete degeneration of identity. A game about how something may look familiar but be fundamentally changed for the worse, on a personal, cultural, and planetary level. Where Fusion deconstructs the putatively noble Federation, Dread deconstructs the mysterious and vaunted Chozo. They’re most hallowed in Samus' memories. For instance, you can find cute drawings she made of them as a child in Metroid Zero Mission. The Chozo are revealed to have as much potential for being hungry for power as anyone else, maneuvering to use the Metroids and Samus as tools to create an authoritarian Chozo regime. The descent of the remaining Chozo into authoritarianism is intertwined with Samus' fear of the loss of her own humanity owing to the Metroid DNA inside her, and a planetary crisis as the X parasites spread across the land, replacing most of the remaining Chozo and the natural fauna with dangerously out of control facsimiles of what used to be. ZDR as a planet is reduced to ruin. This is applicable to our own planet, where everything still looks the same but everything feels unreal and sinking into ruin.

Samus' personal struggle in meeting the Chozo again, seeing their inquisitive and scientific nature yoked to militarism, being made powerless and desperate (which affects the player's view of Samus as well) and undergoing startling physical changes is sold beautifully and (almost) without a word by the game's excellent animation. Dread features the best iteration of Samus I've ever seen. Ironically, as Samus questions herself she's never looked or felt more human to control. In Dread we get a true sense for Samus' physicality. Her intense training, conditioning, and control is palpable. Her quick and assured decision-making is remarkable. She communicates a lot about how she sees herself and others through simple glances and gestures made all the more powerful for their subtlety. The game's setting, planet ZDR, adds onto our understanding of the Chozo as seen on Zebes and Tallon IV in Metroid Prime. Their reliance on geothermal energy and their pursuit of scientific research returns, only now it brings destruction rather than harmony as the Chozo purposefully doom the entire planet. We learn a few interesting things we’d almost certainly already intuited: we learn the Chozo developed the Mother Brain and we learn there are multiple tribes within the Chozo. ZDR is probably in the middle of the pack of Metroid locations in terms of storytelling interest, but towards the top for its size and the elegance of its interconnected nature. Again, it's fascinating to contrast Metroid Prime, which is very much a power fantasy, with the pure desperation of Dread. I quite like both methods but this does reveal one shortcoming with Dread. Bosses deal so much damage it almost serves as a disincentive for the player to get some of the last few tricky energy tanks. It's quite common for a single hit to drain three whole energy tanks, so what good is one more? If you take damage too fast you might as well start over. On a second play-through it will definitely get easier and you’ll be pulling off some crazy moves. Another flaw is the game's over-reliance on shinesparking to get some of the final items. It robs ZDR of some of its wonder because anytime you see something puzzling you already know what it is: another convoluted shinespark section. These few flaws aside I really loved the game. It's well worth the wait and I'm excited to see Metroid push further into the unknown.

Anyway, my very special number score, I guess, is 4/4. Metroid Dread for Nintendo Switch: 4/4 everybody.

[shihalyfie]

I’m a diehard 02 fan who does not want a reboot and never wanted a reboot, and here’s why

This is one of my few editorial-esque pieces, but this is something some friends and I have been discussing for a while, and given what’s going on right now, I feel like this needs to be said at some point.

Sometimes I feel like there’s a really massive gap between what 02 fans want (especially diehard ones) and what people think 02 fans want. I'm not saying that media should only be catering to hardcore fans, and if more casual fans of 02 or people who simply just happen to have a stake in the full franchise have their own opinions on what they wanted to see out of 02-related media, that’s perfectly fine, and they have a right to have those expectations. What I’m mainly writing this about is sentiments that talk about how Toei is apparently doing 02 a disservice or sweeping it under the bus by not rebooting it (which basically comes with an implication that giving it respect would mandate it being rebooted just because Adventure was), or talking about how doing a reboot would please 02 fans just by giving their favorite characters more rep. (Although, I suppose the simultaneous reveal of an actual 02-related movie kind of killed any grounds for claiming that the lack of a 02 reboot meant sidelining 02. You can’t really claim that they’re sidelining 02 when they’re making a whole movie, after all...)

Of course, I don’t claim to speak for every single 02 fan out there (so if you’re a 02 fan who doesn’t agree with anything I’m about to say, I apologize and hope I don’t sound presumptuous), and I highly doubt I represent the mainstream, but I felt I should input my perspective as a 02 fan who’s friends with a handful of other 02 fans, who have discussed this extensively and all have the same feelings on the topic, and why it’s kind of frustrating to keep hearing this kind of thing from people who assume that all fans of something should want to see more things that resemble them by default without any more nuance to it.

It won’t actually improve much that’s worth it

I’m going to be blunt about it: I think more people who supposedly want this 02 reboot are people who hate or dislike 02 than people who actually are fans of the series, because they’re doing this under the sentiment that “this was a bad series, so a redo would improve it.” You can especially tell because a lot of people acting like a reboot is in 02′s best interest are the same people being scathingly critical of the current Adventure: reboot right now, so you can see that this kind of mentality comes from people who clearly understand that a reboot won’t necessarily be something everyone likes all that much, and thus believe 02 is so unsalvageably bad that you couldn’t possibly make it worse. So you can probably understand why I’m not exactly patient with this kind of take.

If we are to be charitable, though -- if this sentiment comes out of a genuine feeling that 02 had missed potential that could be addressed by the reboot -- I want to ask everyone if they really believe that this theoretical reboot would be a net improvement, especially one that’s worth all the time and effort involved, and even more especially given the writing style that the current Adventure: reboot is employing. You don’t have to claim it’s a perfect series or anything to understand the sentiment that it held up enough by itself to not necessitate a whole anime series being made to do another take on it.

Something I would like to remind people who love to claim that 02 is such a despised series is that it made around 89% of Adventure’s revenue at the time it aired, and despite those who despise 02 being very vocal on the Internet, the actual mainstream tends to be very positive about it, especially in terms of anything to do with Ken (whom most reasonable people will agree had a character arc that deserves acclaim). So in other words, if you want to do a reboot, most likely you would want to do it without offending the base that likes the series already, right? (Especially since, you know, recent events have proven that upsetting the real-life 02 fanbase is actually a pretty inadvisable idea...)

Here’s the thing: Once you filter out most of the “scapegoat” reasons people tend to criticize 02, the one that’s generally the most agreed upon is how disorganized the plot gets in the second half. So this so-called ideal situation reboot would supposedly iron out all of the messy plot writing and make use of the “wasted potential” the series had -- but 02 was way more than just a narrative storyline with characters walking around in it, and when it comes to the reasons people were so drawn to it, they’re tied to the series themes about regrets and making up for the past, and about the unreasonable pressures that society places on children. That, and also the most important one, the central theme of human relationships, and the charismatic and well-developed (yes, really) characters. The so-called “messier” second half of 02 was full of payoff for a lot of what was set up in the first half in regards to its themes, and a lot of its subplots or character flairs are packed in really small nuances that are easy to miss on the first watch.

What this means is that 02 is a series that works off of a lot of delicate balances. Adventure could be “rebooted” because everything was very clear-cut and straightforward, which meant that you could change almost everything about the plot and still relatively adhere to the primary points of “kids gain self-awareness through a journey in another world”. (Like, I really hate to break it to those who put Adventure on a pedestal, but this is mainly possible because Adventure doesn’t really have much of a plot besides “defeat enemy” followed by “defeat bigger enemy”...) In the case of 02, everything regarding the story is, for better or for worse, much more deeply tied to the plot, the narrative behind the Kaiser and the traces of psychological horror laced into everything, and the second-half evolution mechanic, Jogress, has a lot to do with the developments related to the human relationships narrative. Moreover, a lot of the reasons that people call it “bad” for are deeply tied to the exact same reasons a lot of people like it -- that its takes on certain topics were heavily nuanced and unconventional, meaning it could cover ground that most media wouldn’t go anywhere near -- and so the series loses too much of its identity if those aspects are removed, even if it ostensibly seems like “streamlining” it.

So if you mess with one thing, a lot of it falls apart -- and in fact, considering the writing style that the Adventure: reboot is using right now, it’s hard to imagine that applying it to 02 would make it any better. Actually, it seems like it wouldn’t address any of the grievances anyone has with it to any substantial degree, and it’d be more likely to axe all of the stuff that were integral to 02′s identity, like the social commentary, or the heavy focus on human relationships, or the unusual sort of character nuance it employed, and...basically, we go back to the same question: is this actually worth it?

02 itself was about not having this kind of sentiment

The main reason most 02 fans get upset about the 02 characters not being included in Adventure canon-related things that should rightfully include them is that, quite simply, they’re part of the canon! In fact, most 02 fans like Adventure too, so they like the way 02 built on Adventure’s worldbuilding, and moreover they’re attached to the web of relationships between the Adventure and 02 groups -- 02′s additions to Adventure’s worldbuilding and the nature of what it established around the neighborhoods of Odaiba and Tamachi were not only added on but also deeply entangled with what was established before, so you can’t just act like none of it exists!

So this also means that once we’re talking about a completely different universe, absolutely none of this applies and there’s no expectations to adhere to any of this. The 02 quartet doesn’t exist in this universe? Cool.

Funny thing about 02: one of the biggest themes the story revolved around was “not getting caught up in the past, and moving forward with what you have instead,” so it’s probably pretty understandable that a lot of people who like 02 would be the type who wouldn’t be fond of rehashing stuff too much (and even more so it involves 02 itself), especially since being okay with 02 as a sequel likely means being okay with change in general. To make something really new out of it, you might as well...actually make something new out of it, or cover some truly new territory, instead of bothering with this whole reboot business, you know?

One thing you might notice about a lot of 02 fans is that they’re not actually all that fond of the idea of canon putting the group through more massive suffering or emotional ordeals after 02 compared to most. I mean, I think it’s pretty normal to enjoy your favorite characters going through emotional trouble, but the aversion to it often tends to be much stronger than usual, regardless of what country’s fanbase we’re talking, and even the official staff for Kizuna seems to have somewhat recognized that the 02 group is most in its element when in the context of fun and silliness. All things considered, this probably isn’t particularly surprising when you take into account the fact that “just being able to hang out with each other as casual friends at all” was considered such a blessing, and such a difficult goal to reach, that there’s a natural aversion to seeing them go through more emotional suffering again. The new trailer for the upcoming movie seems to have Daisuke in a relatively good mood (and even then, “please don’t make it too emotionally vicious for them” is a pretty common plea).

So if you want to talk about rehashing all of their old problems, seeing it all over again is just not very fun. It’s like holding Ken’s sins over his head again, even if it’s in a different universe; it just doesn’t feel right when the series itself endorsed the best possible outcome for these kids to be “to live happily and at peace with themselves, no matter what happened beforehand”. They worked so hard to get out of it, so to decide we have to do this entire rodeo again for the sake of doing it again, instead of trying something new is...well, it’s not that appealing of an idea, I have to say.

The real-life impact would be intolerable

It’s no secret that the 02 hatedom is a bit uncomfortably vocal about it, but what tends to be really frustrating about it is how many of them love to dunk on the series based on misremembering it. It’s fair that, if you don’t like a series, you probably wouldn’t want to watch it again, but as someone who’s spent a lot of years unpacking all the little details in the series and noticing that it’s much deeper than it initially seems on the surface, it’s honestly annoying to see “criticism” of the series that’s actually just dunking on it based on details that are genuinely factually incorrect (it’d be one thing if it were a question of subjectivity, but no, so many of the insults 02 often gets are based on things that legitimately did not happen in the series).

In the end, I admit that 02′s penchant for ridiculous subtlety probably worked against it a bit too much, and I’ve already covered its impact on how the series gets misread a lot. Thing is, this kind of subtlety was a thing in Adventure too, and it all leads to the unfortunate effect that a lot of people tend to forget what actually happened in Adventure if they haven’t seen it for more than a few years. With the current reboot right now, you’ll see people saying that certain characters are the same as they were in the original series, even though in most respects they’re actually the opposite -- because a lot of said people only remember them by the surface characteristics that seem to be similar.

So when you look at 02, and consider the fact that even official media -- including the official American English dub and V-Tamer -- has been a bit too prone to not handling Daisuke’s character tastefully and reducing him to traits that make him easy to dislike, you might realize that handling these characters improperly runs an extremely high risk of actually turning them into the flat, unlikeable characters that people tend to accuse them of being -- imagine Daisuke where his entire character is about fixating over Hikari and being impulsive, or Miyako being nothing but self-centered and selfish, or Iori being genuinely stoic and missing the nuances of constantly holding his emotions back. And making it worse is that this would basically solidify these negative perceptions of the characters even further -- because people, especially those inclined to hate the series, would take it as further evidence that the characters have always been like this, reflect it back on the original, and everything would really just become a miserable experience. (Those who are particularly inclined to be malicious against 02 would probably even claim a reboot to be “better than the original” no matter whatever it is, because of the belief that 02 is so incredibly terrible that literally anything would be better than it.)

It’s not my business to dictate other people’s opinions, but it’s already been a frustrating twenty years of dealing with this kind of thing, so of course I’m not going to be enthusiastic about the idea of putting up with more of it...

[mechanicalinertia]

STMPD Recommends Bubblegum Crisis Fanfiction - Resources: The Licensed Bubblegum Crisis RPG Books

No. Not my own RPG. That's... in a state of transition. I broke a bunch of stuff in it and will probably need to get back to it someday to fix it. Not high on my priority list.

And no, not the Shadowrun Second Edition Partial Conversion drafted up by Neo No Armor Against Fate's Shawn Hagen. Apparently Shawn maintains that his RPG conversion is better, said he was able to dissect the combat easily on Usenet back in the day. And he might very well be right in terms of mechanics, except, oh, wait, probably not, because it's Shadowrun, amirite folks?

Thank you, thank you, thank you. I'll be here all week.

No, I don't claim to make any defenses for the BGC RPG as an RPG book, and I'll explain what I mean in a bit. I will, however, argue that these sterling little books, published in the two years before R. Talsorian went dormant for nearly two decades (cyberpunk 3.0 notwithstanding), are hands-down the best 'guides' to Crisis 2032 you could ever want. If you're writing fiction in 2032, and maybe you're pressed for ideas, I say give these three books, each shorter than the last, a read...

Which you can do electronically, for free, right here.

This is going to take awhile, isn't it? Well, yeah, we're talking a few hundred pages of small-font text and some really good settei (concept art) serving as the pictures, some of which saw no reproduction outside Japan at all. So, like the multi-part epic rant I've had brewing in my drafts folder for the past half a year, let's break it down into sections. We'll start with

DON'T ACTUALLY PLAY BUBBLEGUM CRISIS: MEGATOKYO 2033 THE ROLEPLAYING GAME: ARU PEE GEE NO DENSETSU

For context, and this is kind of an interesting story: R.Talsorian Games, the primary publisher behind the OGBGCRPG (OG for short) made its fame on two big product lines.

First there was wargame / RPG hybrid Mekton, pioneered by Mike Pondsmith back in the eighties as a mecha fighting game, in the halycon days when most anime watchers got fansubbed tapes from conventions or were watching rebranded Voltronesques on Saturday mornings. Anime fandom as we know it, or even knew it in the nineties, just did not exist, and here's Pondsmith drawing up a whole fucking wargame to do it. The most recent edition circa the nineties was Mekton Zeta, which also had the mecha-building sourcebook Mekton Zeta Plus.

The other was Cyberpunk 2013, released in 1988, which was essentially a street level adaptation of Mekton's mechanics (called 'Interlock' 'cause all the systems could, e-hem, interlock), that got a cool sourcebook or two (including one inspired by cyberpunk classic Hardwired that was written by the novel's author) before getting a second edition in like '89 or '90. That's Cyberpunk 2020 - that's what put R.TAL on the map, that's what I wrote a shitty fanfic crossing with BGC about (It wasn't hard to do), that's what became Cyberpunk 2077, and that's also what became Cyberpunk RED once R.Tal got money from CDPR to make a new edition.

With me so far? I bet you're thinking, Kyle, "gosh and golly gee wilikers so they put their anime system together with their cyberpunk system, because all those parts interlocked just like you said, and they made Bubblegum Crisis!"

And oh, my sweet summer child, how your eyes are shut.

Yeah... So, the OG is actually run on a system called Fuzion, which blends R.Tal's loose network of systems with that of the HERO System, which is... one of those really complicated universal systems that they say can build anything and everything, was designed with a variety of advantages and disadvantages for characters to use to represent their character, and isn't GURPS. No, it was made more for a superhero RPG, I guess?

Anyway, somehow the two companies met, decided to make a joint universal system for all their work going forward, and called it Fuzion. Many other licensed games used it for awhile, people made universal themed supplements for it, but it's not in wide use anymore as far as I know.

Why? Let me see if I can explain by way of picture.

Champions used 3d6. Interlock used a d10. The devs argued and argued and argued over which type the game should be balanced around, then gave the fuck up. Does that fill you with confidence, readers?

So there's this sort of... highly elaborate mishing and mashing of various elements of two very different systems such that neither comes out the better for wear. Here's R.Talsorian's Lifepath, a character-backstory generator where you roll dice to build a character (setting-agnostic, because they were trying to sell a universal system); then here's Champions's Perks and Complications, bought using those same precious campaign points you're using to buy civilian gear (but aren't your players playing as Knight Sabers? Who needs real shit to be marked when you're building hardsuits with separate points entirely?), and complications must be activated x amount of times a session even if it diverts from the fun of playing the game. And so on and so forth. Shit, even crossing Cyberpunk with Mekton doesn't always work, since blocks of damage from Mekton (Kills) scale unsteadily with the more dice-driven combat of CP. Worse still is that the mecha system and the hacking system are off in MZ+ and CP2020 respectively, so if you want to custom-build hardsuits beyond the small pool of tools you're given on the last fucking page of the book, or you want your Nene equivalent to do something useful, nyah-nyah, go buy more books.

And then I'm sure Shawn Hagen has plenty of reasons why the combat doesn't work, but we're not paying attention to him. Whatever. Let's talk about what does work, which is a mix of worldbuilding lore, stuff the R.Tal writers seemed to just sort of come up with, and a great gallery across all three books of Fucking Cool Mecha (especially BGC EX).

LORE IS SERIOUS BUSINESS FOLKS

I mean that earnestly. It's hard to get right, especially when said lore reflects upon the tone of the actual content, the plot, the franchise, whatever. But when telling stories with a licensed game, some degree of lore is, to my mind at least, incredibly mandatory. Maybe not so much for games where the story ought to be made up as one goes along (see RPG's like The Sprawl), but in the case of BGCrisis, an anime which at the time had a pretty loyal fanbase chomping at the bit for answers for their questions about the wider universe the Sabers operated in, R.TAL had to do a mix of cribbing from untranslated material, the B-Club special and all that, and making their own shit up without looking like they'd cribbed from their own work (CP2020) overmuch. The result is very uneven, but charmingly so. I almost want to say it feels more grounded than CP2020 or Shadowrun, but is that just because it's comparatively light on the ground? Perhaps. The mandatory universe timeline is one page, and focuses more on putting years to events that were already canon instead of adding extraneous stuff in.

Likewise with what the politics look like worldwide. We get a few paragraphs about how the U.S. is recovering (not collapsed as in CP2020), Japan is doing pretty good for itself as GENOM's puppet-state, Russia successfully integrated into the EU even if Eastern Europe didn't (See? Wacky shit like that can only be called charming), and China's one big North Korea (which I think is a holdover from the CP2020 Pacific Rim Sourcebook, where Deng was assassinated by Maoist radicals.) We get another dry bit about the idea of a zaibatsu lifted straight from CP2020's Corpbook 1, where Arasaka is discussed... newspapers are now faxed (look it was in BGC OVA 1 what do you want me to tell you)... on and on it goes.

I suppose I like the lore independent of the actual characters because of a few clever predictions. One is using all the cybernetics-gone-bad in AD Police Files to explain why nobody has them in the 2032 OVA, a link I sense wasn't really made concrete until this RPG. It's one of the most interesting interpretations of the source material and of cyberpunk tropes I've seen, you know, where all the splicing and dicing of the body turns out to be a fad and a failure, leaving those who bought into the trend left with butchered and failing bodies - in light of the crypto crash that seems to be dragging the stock market down back into recession / stagflation, that seems pretty classic capitalism.

The other is tied to Before And After, covering the impact of the cheap and now even more ubiquitous Boomers of Crash:

I mean, what can I say? I like predictions of the future that actually consider the effects of hyper-futuristic technology in that sort of way.

That's what a lot of the RPG's lore is at its best, basically working overtime to paper in the gaps left ignored by the series' creators. So we get a nuanced look into how ADAMA is different than similarly-sentient Boomers from the ADPF OVA; we get the Largo = Mason + Boomer Messiah explanation theory that the internet came up with just a year or two prior to the RPG's publishing; we get conspiracy theory proposals about whether or not GENOM undermined the cybernetics market to replace the enhanced with Boomers; we get to see the ADP go from hotshot riot suppression force able to slaughter undesirables en masse to actively disdained by GENOM; a weird consideration of how recognizing Boomer rights could still serve GENOM's agenda... on and on and on. It's such a mishmash of ideas, beautiful because of it.

Obviously no sane RPG player would ever give a rat's ass about any of this, but again, this was a product also marketed towards fans who just wanted a good worldbuilding book. I'm not saying you should take every part of the RPG's world into your own fanfiction, but you can take a great deal of it in and things will hold up.

POWER CREEP? YEAH, I'VE GOT THE POWER, CREEP!

The actual sourcebook sections of the sourcebooks are a) the characters, and b) the mecha. That's it, that's all. Civilian gear is almost an afterthought shoved into the front of the book like it didn't need to be there, cybernetics don't show up until Before and After. For although there is a section in the corebook proposing non-Saber campaigns players can run, they're essentially permutations of the already-existing types from CP2020: Corporates, mercenaries, medias, etc. And why, I ask you, would you run anything else but your own fanmade Saber team in your home city, overgrown and under threat? Shit, RTAL even went out of their way to put a few pages in EX, the last book in the series, highlighting player campaigns with online presences (Geocities, email addresses, etc.) and describing them in brief. Oh, to be a fly on the wall for the play sessions of the guys who did Mega-Gotham...

Anyway, back on topic. Both character pages and mecha pages get a great deal of settei transposed onto these pages, concept art ripped straight from Artmic's design docs and provided, again, more as a nerd resource than anything super useful. This especially comes into play in BGC: EX, where all the concept art and mecha are instead from everything that wasn't animated. Rejected concepts for hardsuits with wheels for feet; Boomer sketches only found in old hobby magazines; scribbles one of the Crash! mecha designers tried to get in that were apparently labeled 'problematic' (I guess he was a toy designer before all this?). I unironically love all this shit, even the beam cannons mounted on a hardsuit right where the boobplates are. Shit, my Discord profile pic is a non-Boomer mecha supposedly used by the JSDF, a 'Battlemover' whose origin I have no idea about, but which looks cool as hell. That's the kind of weirdo fan I am.

My point is that if you need to spice up your fiction, throwing 'new Boomer X' at the Sabers is one thing, giving the Sabers some power-up parts you dreamed up is another, but using the designs Artmic came up with before you did is more galaxy-brained than either. Shit, I should know, it was what Craig Reed did for the fanfics that I continued off of back in the day. And it's the same with these extraneous lore details that some rando RTAL staffer dreamed up a quarter-century ago, because they beg to have an entire fanfic made about any one of them. What happened to Jeena, folks? Inquiring minds want to know.

Anyway, that's it. That's all. Read through these and be a better fan because of it.