#edit: i finished the game the second and third time. just not the first

[thetangibleghost]

I think the first hospital I went to accidentally gave me morphine? Like thats silly cause shits expensive but i was so fucking high. Like before I was eratic/manic/falshbacks but like. after she injected the saline I was like "I'm pretty sure I can transfer my life force to other people in this room and also Sal is fucking me crazy style through a portal in my mind so i guess I'll just lay here and twitch.

I 'woke up' in a hospital gown and that made me think of Sal, and i guess I was disoriented/freaked out enough that the alter that I developed in like... High school. showed up.

[wiishopwednesday]

longing for something you can never return to

[ID: a collection of images relating to nostalgia. the first image is a genius screenshot of the lyrics to car seat headrest's "famous prophets (stars)." the screenshot reads "We gotta go back/We gotta go back/We gotta go back/We gotta go back." the second image is the "we got the torture labyrinth tomorrow" meme template, edited to instead say "We got missing what we can never return to tomorrow/What?/We got the beginning of the rest of our lives tomorrow/Ohhhh/Okay." the third image is a discord screenshot, with the user's username and icon cropped out so that only the text is visible, and reads "Duuudeee you missed out on those 7 days where god created earth you are fucked LOL." the fourth image is a screenshot of a piece of text, which reads in bolder font "You can never leave home." underneath it, in normal text, it reads "You take it with you no matter where you go. Home is between your teeth, under your fingernails, in the hair follicles, in your smile, in the ride of your hips, in the passage of your breasts." the fifth image is a screenshot of a post made by tumblr user ryebreadgf, which reads "YOU CAN NEVER GO BACK! YOU CAN NEVER GO BACK! YOU CAN BITE AND SCRATCH AND BEG BUT YOU CAN NEVER GO BACK!" the sixth image is a screenshot of a piece of text that reads, "YOU KILL YOURSELF AND IMMEDIATELY WAKE UP AS A CHILD ON YOUR PARENTS BED. YOU'VE BEEN ASLEEP FOR HALF AN HOUR. THE SUN IS SHINING." the seventh image is a picture of two uneven dark yellow boxed next to each other on a off-white background. the first box reads, in handwriting, "I'm terrified of change." the second box reads, "I'm terrified of staying this way forever." the eighth image is a screenshot of a post made by tumblr user dakotajohnsongf, which reads "women be looking at pictures of their childhood selves and trying to find a way back to them." the ninth image is a screenshot of a post made by tumblr user bestofgentleearth, containing a screenshot from a forum of some kind. a line of text reads "(16 hours ago) butterfly said:" underneath, an indented section of text reads "today, the world looked beautiful again. i'm starting to remember what kept me alive last summer." the tenth image is another tumblr post by user cursedsuggestion, which reads "the friend you miss comes home for good. you never see another mirror. it's summer forever and that terrible thought you keep having finally disappears." the eleventh image is a screenshot of a reddit post, with the original poster's username and icon cropped out so only the text is visible. it reads "I'm not sure how to word this, but I constantly go through this deep sense of loss. I feel like I terribly miss something I love from the bottom of my heart, but I don't know what it is, exactly. Nothing in life satisfies me, nothing makes me content, but l wouldn't say I'm depressed either. There's just this endless search for something, and at times I feel I can catch a glimpse of it - different sceneries pop into my head at times, like of a particular beach at night, and I'm moved to tears. Or I remember a dream and all the feelings that were stirring while I saw that dream, and feel entirely connected to them." the twelfth image is a screenshot of a tumblr post, but the original poster is cropped out so only the text is visible, which reads "wait i wasn't ready. i never finished that game of tag. i still need to learn how to do a cartwheel. my friends and i never finished making that bridge over the creek. i want to go back. can you carry me to bed one last time? and maybe i'll wake up tomorrow in my childhood room with my pink walls and we'll laugh over this dream at breakfast." the thirteenth image is another tumblr screenshot of a post by user heavensghost, which reads "uhhh yh sure u can go back but no one will be waiting for you there."

the fourteenth image is a screenshot of a reddit comment, with the user's information cropped out so that only the text is visible, which reads "HIRAETH (heer-eye-th) 'A deep homesickness; an intense form of longing or nostalgia for a place long gone, or even an unaccountable homesickness for a place you have never visited. A pull on the heart that conveys a distinct feeling of missing something irretrievably lost.'" the fifteenth image is a collection of 3 rows of black boxes, with 3 boxes in each row. the first box has a white, vague form of a human. the second box pictures the human form stretching its arms and legs out. from the third box onward, the human figure starts to dissipate into white dots until it has completely disappeared and only dots remain. the sixteenth image is a tumblr post by user n1ntendos, which reads "I AM HAUNTED BY A PAST I CANNOT GO BACK TO !!!!!!! anyways." the seventeenth image is a screenshot of text that reads "I cling to everything - CDs that skip, rings that turn my fingers green, the dead ends of my hair, old love notes that turn my stomach over and over. And I'm not proud but there are still boxes under my bed. And I'm not proud but my closet is still running out of space. And nostalgia is a fucking waste of time but my heart is full with it. Tell me I won't hold this forever. Tell me there will be a day where I let gloriously go." the eighteenth image is an image of larger text that reads "It's a summer day, and I want to be wanted more than anything else in the world." the nineteenth image is a photograph of a large white dog standing in a dark, flowing river surrounded by a dark forest and green trees. the dog is facing away from the viewer with its mouth open. the dog appears to be glowing, likely due to a lens flare of some kind. the entire picture feels very melancholy and nostalgic. the twentieth image is larger text that reads "Nostalgia is the aching realization that you can't go back again. The longing, no matter how intense, can never be met." the twenty-first image is a screenshot of an instagram dm, with the user's username and icon cropped out so that only the text is visible, and it reads "well the time passes anyway so I have to." the twenty-second image is a screenshot of the spotify lyrics for gerard way's song "action cat." the lyrics read "Hey/Do you miss me?/'Cause I miss you/Do you miss me?/'Cause I miss you/Do you miss me?/'Cause I miss you/Do you miss me?/'Cause I miss you too." the twenty-third image is a screenshot of text that reads "YOUR CHILDHOOD DOG IS ALIVE. YOUR DEAD BEST FRIEND WANTS TO GET COFFEE. YOU HAVE BEEN KIND AND GOOD. THERE IS NOTHING CHASING YOU. YOU CAN SLEEP. WHAT DO YOU DO?" the twenty-fourth image is a continuation of the lyrics from car seat headrest's "famous prophets (stars)" that were pictured in the first image. these lyrics read "We've gotta go back/We've gotta go back/We've gotta go back/(Don't spend too much time on it)." end ID.]

[doyoulikethissong-poll]

Ricky Martin - María (Pablo Flores remix) 1995

"María" is a song recorded by Puerto Rican singer Ricky Martin for his third studio album, A Medio Vivir (1995), and was released as the second single from the album on November 21, 1995. Musically, "María" is a Spanish-language flamenco, dance, and salsa song, featuring elements of mariachi, samba, cumbia, Latin, African, Caribbean, and Latin pop. On the remix, Puerto Rican DJ Pablo Flores upped the tempo and the sex appeal of the song, turning the slow-burn flamenco laced track into an up-tempo samba tune in a house bassline. The remix version became more popular than the original one. "María" became Martin's breakthrough song and his first international hit. It topped the charts in 20 countries, and has sold over five million physical copies worldwide. As a result, the song was featured in the 1999 edition of The Guinness Book of Records as the biggest Latin hit. It was also the Song of the Summer in Spain in 1996 and was the second best-selling single in the world that year.

In Australia, "María" spent six weeks at number one. It topped the country's year-end chart in 1998, and was certified platinum. The song topped the Ultratop Wallonia chart of Belgium for 10 consecutive weeks and was certified double platinum. It spent nine weeks at number one in France and was certified diamond. It went number one in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Hungary, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Puerto Rico, and Venezuela. In the US, "María" peaked at number six on Billboard's Hot Latin Tracks chart, giving Martin his fifth top 10 hit. The song also reached numbers two and eight on the US Latin Pop Songs and Tropical/Salsa charts, respectively. The first accompanying music videos for the original song and Pablo Flores remix were filmed in La Boca, a barrio of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Following "(Un, Dos, Tres) María"'s success in France, a re-made version of the video for the Pablo Flores remix was filmed in Paris and aired in 1998.

Although Martin was satisfied with the track and he describes it as a song that he is "extremely proud of", the first time he played it for a record label executive, the man said: "Are you crazy? You have ruined your career! I can't believe you are showing me this. You're finished — this is going to be your last album." In an interview with Rolling Stone, he told the magazine that "everybody got scared. They said, 'What are you doing? This is the end of your career. […] You do ballads, and now you're doing Latin sounds. The album is not going to work.'"

In 2018, Cadena Dial hailed the song as the most famous song of the last 24 years. In the same year, Rolling Stone ranked "María (Pablo Flores Remix)" as the 27th Greatest Latin Pop Song of All Time. Also, according to ABC, "María" was voted the favorite song of the summer of all time in Spain, based on a study in 2011. Amazon Music ranked the track as the 31st best-ever Latin hit. It was recognized as one of the best-performing songs of the year at the 1997 BMI Latin Awards. "María" was the main theme of the Brazilian telenovela Salsa e Merengue (1996–1997). The song is available on the main setlist for the dance video game Just Dance 2014. "María (Pablo Flores Spanglish Radio Edit)" was featured in the American animated comedy film Despicable Me 3 (2017).

"María" received a total of 71,8% yes votes! Previous Ricky Martin polls: #132 "La Bomba".

[mikimakiboo]

I had a concept idea a while ago for a video game that takes place in the multiverse, so you would meet different aus and, of course, different sanses through the game

Just like in Undertale there would be a pacifist a neutral and a genocide route, except to finish the genocide it's hard af

I honestly didn't think much about it, I only got the encounter with the bad sanses (Killer, Dust and Horror, Cross isn't part of the group here) in the genocide run lol but anyway, you meet them through the game individually and then meet them again all together in the end, you don't meet Nightmare until the very end, after the group encounter

To make a genocide route you obviously have to kill the bad sanses, as they are part of the game, but here's where it becomes tricky:

• you have to kill at least one individually to unlock the group fight at the end, if you spare the three they won't fight you at the end, turning your genocide route to a neutral route and you have to start again to make a new genocide

• if you kill one, the other two will avenge him in the final fight, same if you kill two, the last one will avenge them, so expect the fight to be incredibly hard

• however, if you kill anyone but Killer first, he'll reset your game himself, so you have to kill Killer first, but he's the last one you meet, so you would have to spare the first two and either come back later to kill them or wait for the group fight

• you can kill the three individually, just make sure to kill Killer first or he'll reset your game

• you cannot spare them in the group fight, if you killed one, you'll have to kill the other two, even in neutral, they won't let you spare them and won't end the fight so it's the only way out

• Nightmare will only show up after the group fight once you killed the three, and it'll be his turn to avenge them and fight you, however, Nightmare being immortal and not letting you spare him, you will be trapped in an endless fight that'll force you to reset your game

At that point you might think the genocide is impossible as you won't be able to go past Nightmare's fight, but there is a way to kill him ! It's just hard to figure

• you have to complete at least three pacifist routes and meet Dream each time to complete his quests, on the fourth pacifist route he'll recognize you as someone with a good heart and will give you one of his arrows

• you can now reset, the arrow will stay in your inventory, however it takes three arrows to defeat Nightmare, but Dream won't give you another one if he sees you already have one in your inventory, so you have to put it in a box, complete a new pacifist to get the second arrow, put it in the box with the first one, and complete yet another pacifist to have the third arrow, then you can take the first two back

• you can now start a new genocide while making sure to kill Killer first out of the three and NOT use the arrows

• Nightmare will show up at the end for the final fight, and that is when you'll use Dream's arrows to kill him and complete the genocide

Congratulations ! You completed a genocide route !

I have absolutely zero ideas for the rest of the game so if anyone wanna make their own quests and include their own characters then go on, but please do tag me because I would wanna see :D

EDIT:

You will only be able to fight Dream after you've killed Nightmare, however, he is pissed that you killed his twin using his own arrows that he gave you because he trusted you, due to that he won't spare you and his fight will be very hard, you have no choice but to kill him

[pootimedes]

dude i had a dream that we got another portal game where wheatley comes crashing back down to earth and somehow both him and chell end up in another dysfunctional science facility run by an angry robot, who went mad after a lack of proper maintenance and now runs the facility almost as bad as wheatley ran aperture, that they have to escape. chell fends up finding a very damaged wheatley, barely alive in a room full full of the facility's reject cores. chell uploads wheatley's consciousness to the body of an unprogrammed core, and they set off. during the whole thing, wheatley keeps trying to make it very clear that he's sorry for what happened, and does everything in his power to help chell out.

in the boss fight with the big guy, we see that he has he has somewhat of a humanoid frame, connected to the ceiling by the back with a bunch of wires and circuitry, and is red with rust, from living isolated from the rest of the facility, simply because the task of tending to him was too dangerous of a job for anyone, and the very few staff still alive in the facility had no idea how to shut him down.

his attacks were mostly melee in the first to second wave, utilizing a giant claw hand at chell, which would either try to crush chell by slamming it down from above her, swinging it at her from the side, or try to grab her by the head to crush her.

he would only use one ranged attack in the first to second wave, which were homing missiles that you had to throw back at him. think undertale mad dummy but 3d (you don't get a portal gun so there are some different mechanics, not really "portal" is it then?)

the third and final wave would add electric shock type attacks, big guy weaponizing his own decaying body in a pitiful attempt to take chell down. also lazers. lots of lazers.

chell would do the usual 'throwing the bosses projectiles back at them', while wheatley messes with big guy's controls while he's out to try and weaken him, accidentally making him stronger after the second time big guy gets knocked out.

if you manage to survive the last wave and take him out, big guy explodes, and an ominous 60 second timer comes on the intercom, along the lines of "central core discone-(garbled)-truct initiated in 60.. 59.. 58.." giving you just enough time to grab wheatley before the timer ends, which gives you an option between two endings.

if you chose to use the time to grab wheatley before making a break for it, the counter will end only a few seconds after you make it to him, and you get a sick ass parkour sequence with the facility crumbling and burning behind you as you make a break for the emergency escape pods. once you make it to the end, you get a cutscene of wheatley and chell riding the escape pod to the surface, having a bit of a heart to heart moment with wheatley, him thanking chell for not being mad with him, even if chell doesn't talk. well, you get the option to, by pressing space, (getting you an achievement called "it can talk!?")a little callback to the beginning of portal 2. you reach the surface, getting you the "forgiveness" achievent, and the game ends. congratulations on your marrige, chell

if you choose to leave without him, you can hear him worriedly saying things along the lines of "what are you doing? where are going?" before realizing you're leaving him behind and starts panicking. as the door to the escape pod closes, you get an achievement called "coward's way out" as you hear a distant "don't leave me, DON'T LEAVE ME!" further guilting you for being a greedy achievement hunter, you monster. In the escape pod, you get a whole minute of of uninterrupted silence before arriving at the surface, earning you the "you know what you are? selfish." achievement, before ending the game.

there would also be a shadow achievement where you do absolutely nothing and wait for the self destruct counter to finish, killing the both of you.

ok, most of this wasn't in the dream, i just started getting ideas

(edit: i just had the idea that chell was in a similar kind of situation to ratman, where she was an employee at this facility, working in robotics when uh oh spaghettios all her coworkers are dead and she's stuck in hiding from the giant robot running the facility)

[tangledbea]

How do you think the events of the movie would have gone if Lance and Eugene were still partners, and Lance took the place of the Stabbington Brothers?

Oh my god, this is such a good question! It immediately set my mind awhirl with possibilities! It couldn't have come at a better time, because I just finished editing the next chapter of BtK last night, and my head's in the Eugene and Lance feels!

Okay, so, first, would this mean that Eugene would double-cross Lance and take the satchel/crown for himself? Or would he be a good friend and help Lance out of that dead end?

In the first scenario, I see it falling back to "No Time Like the Past" rules, where if you fall behind, you get left behind. Lance would understand this, at least on the surface. But the stakes would be much higher, since theft of the crown was a much bigger deal. Also, if Eugene and Lance were still partners, the bounty on Lance's head would match Eugene's. I don't think Lance would give himself up to the guards without a fight, but I don't think he'd want revenge on Eugene, either. This may lead to a second act reunion, at the campsite, rather than Gothel joining forces with him. I can see Lance showing back up as a third wheel after Rapunzel and Eugene's talk about his past and why she stays in the tower, etc. In other words, they just opened up to each other, got vulnerable with each other, she showed him her magic hair, then here comes Lance, putting a jovial divider between them.

Oh! Oh! Okay, so what if Gothel doesn't recruit Lance, but she does tell him about the girl with the magic hair, and then sends him to the campsite with his own assumptions about what's going on? So now Lance thinks this is a ploy to keep Rapunzel chill until it's time to take/use the hair or whatever else. He thinks Flynn is still working a ruse and doesn't realize he's falling for Rapunzel and becoming more and more Eugene as time goes on. He might feel put out if he thought Flynn was trying to keep the big prize for himself, especially after also taking the crown. And if Eugene starts to explain the situation, Lance would think it's the long game to get the satchel back, and Eugene wouldn't yet have the strength of character to admit that he was falling and was starting to reconsider being a thief.

So now we've got Lance third wheeling it and Eugene trying not to show how much he likes Rapunzel while they're in the kingdom. (Bonus: that's twice the wanted thieves in the party now, while Punz is just trying to have a good time on her birthday!) We get to just before "I See the Light", and wouldn't you know it, the only boat left would be cramped if all three of them took it out! Lance, can you please stay here or take another boat or something? Again, Lance suspects that Flynn intends to make off with the crown without him for a second time, because they made no plans to meet up after this whole charade is over, and he's getting really irritated. Instead of enjoying the lights, he makes his way to the far bank, signals Eugene with the lantern, etc. Now when Eugene goes over there, he and Lance argue about the next step in the game. Think Miguel and Tulio towards the climax of Road to El Dorado. Eugene is just like, "Fine! Take the crown! I don't even want it anymore!" And Lance is like, "You mean you don't want to be partners anymore. You think I'm blind? You think I can't tell what's going on with you and the girl Eugene?" I don't think they'd get into an actual fistfight over this, but here comes Gothel with the steel chair a tree branch and knocks them both out, trusses them up and sends them back to the kingdom in a dinghy, then goes back to Rapunzel and shows her how, in the end, Flynn chose his life of crime over her.

In prison, Eugene and Lance are able to have a real heart-to-heart, clearing the air between them. Lance is able to see that Eugene was never out to betray him, and that he just wants a new life, a clean slate, with Rapunzel. He talks about the old lady who told him about her hair, and Eugene puts two and two together. Now it's Eugene and Lance who get broken out of prison by the Pub Thugs, but Lance stays with the Thugs to hold off the guards, urging Eugene to go save Rapunzel. Climax of the movie is the same as it is in canon.

For the second scenario, this means that Lance would be third wheeling it from the very start! They'd both find and climb the tower, Rapunzel would knock them both out and hide them both and interrogate them both. Lance and Flynn would be on the same page at the start, just trying to get the satchel/crown back from the girl, who is being a royal pain in the tuchus about this whole thing. But the thing is, with a second friendly presence who's also influencing Eugene the whole time, there's a lot less wiggle room for romance. I think there'd have to be some notable changes in order to keep New Dream on track in this version. It's hard to brew romance unless you can get the intended couple alone. I guess I'm saying it would need to be more like El Dorado in this version, where the (previously) Eugene perspective is now turned into a buddy flick, and that would need to be harmonious with Rapunzel's POV. Good for her that she makes two friends, but the impact of that means that she and Eugene are less likely to find time to fall.

Ooh, perhaps Lance doesn't get stuck in the cave with them, though? Yeah! Rapunzel and Eugene get stuck in the cave, Lance does not, they all get separated. Now Rapunzel and Eugene can have their opening up to each other stuff, Gothel can still set the suggestion to Lance that Eugene's trying to get Rapunzel's magical hair for herself, and we can pick up from the campsite scene in the first scenario! Yeah! But now, Lance is aware of the chemistry between Eugene and Rapunzel, and he's a bit more... reserved in the kingdom. Now he's playing the long game, waiting for the opportune moment to confront Flynn about Rapunzel and the crown and the hair and all that stuff. They fight after "I See the Light," continue on as in first scenario!

And this, my friends, has been a stream-of-consciousness brainstorming session by Bex!

[intuitive-revelations]

Retrospective notes and what to keep an eye on after The Legend of Ruby Sunday

I started writing this while watching through a second time. While my thoughts were still a bit random and out of order, I've edited them into something that makes a bit more sense to read through.

Susan:

A little bit weird at first that Ruby asks why the Doctor doesn't recognise his own granddaughter, given that she doesn't know about regeneration yet and Susan Twist is clearly not mixed race. After thinking for a second, I realised she probably just immediately reconciled this as an adoption scenario, especially with her own family and history.

I've posted seperately about my feelings on the retcon of Susan's origins, but I am still surprised we're going this direction. I also find the wording a little bit questionable, as the Doctor makes it sound like he hasn't had children before, when he 100% did.

A Susan misdirect being linked to the word TARDIS is excellent though, given that she claimed to have come up with the word. (People freak out about what this means for her origins, but I don't see why it can't just be that she's responsible for the English acronym translation convention, which then passed on to all of human history thanks to the Doctor's travels.)

We didn't get Susan this time round, but such a massive red herring implies that RTD is planning to build up to such a thing for real, right? I assume we'll also be talking more about her next episode / in Tales of the TARDIS.

I also mentioned this in my live notes, but I quite like the Doctor's justification for not going back to Susan. It makes sense on its own, but takes on a whole new meaning in light of what happens in Big Finish (even if you do need to slightly nudge the meaning to make sense, and admittedly it still clashes with her participation in the Time War).

The Time Window and Misdirections:

Slightly put off at 'time window' being used as terminology for UNIT's tech when that's been used for actual time portals in-universe before.

Liked all the mentions of chronons though. Need to combine that and "N-dimensional time" into an actual pseudoscientific theory of time physics in Doctor Who with artron energy etc.

The Time Window is also totally how we get the Memory TARDIS, right? I'm guessing that's why the Doctor sent Ruby there, so she can escape into it (though I don't know what that will look like given Tales of the TARDIS surely won't be essential viewing). I wonder if that means the Doctor we'll see in that won't be the real one?

Super sneaky making the time window the 'secret from the Third Doctor era' that is revealed that was teased. Not a lie, but really teases something different to what we got.

Actually, in general kinda mixed feelings about the sheer level of misdirection is this story. You've got the above, all the focus on Susan, maybe the 'Beast', literally playing the Saxon theme (The Master Vainglorious). Seemingly also the thing about where people were stood on Christmas Eve… though I am going to check to see if there's something about the TARDIS / Sutekh. That being said, I'm guessing we're coming back to this, as the pointing isn't really explained yet.

RTD also said the script opened "INT. COFFEE BAR, USA - DAY, 1947" but we clearly never got such a scene. :/

On the other hand, all the playing around and subversion with anagrams was a lot of fun. Very much riffing off of DW tropes. Very funny also that UNIT would immediately pick up on the S Triad thing, given their and the Doctor's history with the Master's own aliases.

Sutekh and the Pantheon

Super intrigued by everything regarding the Pantheon in this episode. So we've got members:

Sutekh: God of Death. The Oldest One / The One Who Waits, the Mother and Father and Other of them all. The Toymaker: God of Games. The Trickster: God of Traps. Maestro: God of Music Reprobate: God of Spite. The Mara: God of Beasts. The Three-Fold Deity of Malice, Mischief, and Misery. Gods of Skin, Shame, Secrets Incensor: Gold of Disaster Incensor's Children - Doubt and Dread. Harbinger(s)

I'm probably too EU-brained, but it feels crazy putting entities like the Toymaker and the Trickster below Sutekh? They're both Eternal/Guardian level, while Sutekh is just an Osiran, powerful but ultimately ephermal. How is he 'the oldest' and the 'mother/father/other' of them all? I guess age could be partially put down to Sutekh's fate in Pyramids of Mars, but actually originating before them doesn't really make sense. I guess he could be an incarnation of a much older being, a bit like the Doctor could be?

However, I also doubt Harbinger is entirely reliable. She's clearly hyping up Sutekh's dominion, so him being the 'god of gods' may not mean much in terms of their origin.

Speaking of which... a lot of allusions to the Devil here, as I mentioned above. Chidozie finds himself in 'hell' and Carla literally calls the shape in the Time Window "the Beast". The security camera is also 66m away (funnily enough, around 73 yards). Add in Gabriel Woolf also playing the Beast in series 2, and you really do have to wonder if there's a connection. If Sutekh and the other Gods really do see him as the same entity as the Beast, then maybe he really could be the oldest of them all.

Side note: "Mother, Father and Other of them all" is great. Connecting the word 'Other' to parentage is also interesting, given we've been talking about Susan...

Going back to the Pantheon - I am now 100% convinced, after theorising before, that we've been meeting members of the Pantheon of Discord.

While there are family connections between some of them, I doubt they really are all related. They're way too distinct for that. But as a loose coalition of malicious god-like beings across the multiverse, it works. Weirdly, it is also reminiscent of some plotlines from the Tenth Doctor Titan Comics. It also feels like the direct opposite of the 'Accord' from the Leftbridge-Stewart series, which was seemingly another coalition of more benevolent deities, including the Azure Guardian. I wonder if they oppose each other?

Some of the namedrops are super interesting too. As I mentioned in my live blog, the Three-Fold deity must be connected to the Six-Fold God, even if just an imitation. Some of the names (eg. Doubt and Dread), being directly named for concepts and emotions, also brings to mind the Menti Celesti.

I also strongly suspect we're going to meet the Trickster again. RTD even foreshadowed as much when he illustrated Now We Are Six Hundred.

Big question is... when did Sutekh become connected to the TARDIS? The latest it could have happened is Wild Blue Yonder, and that would be the simplest explanation... but dialogue implies he's been attached and waiting for longer.

Again, mentioned this in my live notes, but the connection of Sutekh hiding in the "Howling Void" and appearing on UNIT scanners with contradictory information like the Dalek Void ship is an excellent connection. Especially, again, with the possible Hell connection:

RAJESH: And what's the Void? DOCTOR: The space between dimensions. There's all sorts of realities around us, different dimensions, billions of parallel universes all stacked up against each other. The Void is the space in between, containing absolutely nothing. Imagine that. Nothing. No light, no dark, no up, no down, no life, no time. Without end. My people called it the Void. The Eternals call it the Howling. But some people call it Hell.

Does this imply he attached himself to the TARDIS while it traveled through the Void? If so... when was that? Again Wild Blue Yonder is a good candidate, as the TARDIS literally reaches the edge of the universe (at least in some sort of spacetime geometry), but this could technically harken back as far as Journey's End, when the TARDIS last visited Pete's World.

A bit of me is intrigued by the description of Sutekh "whispering, delighting and seducing" the TARDIS, but nothing else indicates the TARDIS was willingly carrying him. Again another sign that Harbinger's speech may not reliable.

Remaining Mysteries

No offence to the people who were all in on the theory, of course, but I'm pretty sure the 'TV' theory is nothing. Especially after this episode. I feel like people latched onto the promo shot for this episode which looked like a TV set and confirmation bias took on from there. That being said, I am ready to eat my words if it somehow comes back to that next week!

(TBF, the TV theory obviously does have some relevance to DW in general, what with the Weeping Angels, Doctor Who exisiting in-universe, fourth wall breaks etc. I just don't think it ever had anything to do with this story.)

So Mrs Flood is confirmed to be something alien or supernatural, after the ambiguity with the Christmas 4th wall break. Simplest answer is that she's also serving Sutekh / the Pantheon, but IDK... she seems different.

Still need to know what's up with Ruby's mum too. Annoyingly, the episode makes it kinda ambiguous if she was pointing at the past Doctor (as per the flashback earlier this series) or at the present one. If the prior, I assume she was actually pointing at the TARDIS / Sutekh?

That damn "worlds with orange skies" line. It's probably nothing, right? But why did we focus on it, complete with musical sting. RTD knows that's significant. Hell, it's specifically significant to Susan, with her talking about Gallifrey in The Sensorites, and Ten recalling it in Gridlock.

Also, unless the soundtrack was lying to us, which it doesn't usually (though I guess isn't unprecendented, with the Weeping Angel theme being used in Day of the Doctor when Osgood realises the statues are disguised Zygons), maybe a Master reveal coming up some point in the future? How though, I have no idea.

[spocks-husband]

✨Axel's Ultimate Batman Video Game Play Guide and Reviews

You guys seemed to enjoy the previous version of this I did with all the Batman Animated shows, and now that I'm done with all the Batman games I thought I'd post my thoughts on those too! I decided to do this one in just like. Regular text format. Bc I didn't feel like editing all these into images like I did for the last one. So uhhh lemme know which format you prefer lol.

Anyways, please enjoy my comprehensive thoughts and feelings on (almost) every modern Batman game, five months in the making because I have no life. Enjoy!

🦇

Batman: Arkham Asylum (2009)

My Personal Rating: 7/10

My Total Hours Played: 17.1 

Steam Rating: Overwhelmingly Positive (96%)

Description: The first game in the Batman Arkham Series. Based off the iconic Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth comic from 1989 (aka the only good thing Grant Morrison has ever produced in his entire feeble life). The inmates at Arkham Asylum have begun a violent riot, and as Batman goes through the hospital to stop them, he uncovers a sinister conspiracy involving his greatest enemies.

Play If You're Looking For: An intro to the Arkham Series, a very different interpretation of Arkham Asylum compared to other versions of Batman, and some really dark aesthetics. Also, this isn't explicitly canon, but according to this series’ timeline, this game takes place in the space between Jason's death and Tim’s arrival, so if you're interested in a very dark, brooding, traumatized Bruce, playing this game with that information changes it a lot. 

Things I Liked:

Genuinely really scary

Incredible atmosphere 

Both Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamil are featured in their iconic roles

Really well written

Birthed a bunch of really iconic Batman memes (go to the r/Arkham subreddit, it's so funny unfortunately) (OFFICER BALLS.)

This was actually my introduction to Oracle and I love her more than anything in these games

Things I Didn't Like:

The graphics aren't fantastic but to be fair it was 2009 so

THE FUCKING BANE BOSS FIGHT. GOD. FUCK YOU BANE. THAT SHIT TOOK ME SO LONG.

The Killer Croc boss fight wasn't super difficult but it was so scary that I cried the first time I played it so. Keep that in mind.

Batman: Arkham City (2011)

My Personal Rating: 9/10

My Total Hours Played: 27.5

Steam Rating: Overwhelmingly Positive (95%)

Description: The second game in the Batman Arkham Series. After the riot at Arkham Asylum, Sharpton ascends to the mayor's office and cuts off about 6.4 acres of Gotham as ‘Arkham City’; a walled off portion of the city where crime runs rampant and mostly untethered. 

Play If You're Looking For: Agonizing Brutalia angst, a fight with pretty much every Batman villain who's ever existed (except for Scarecrow but that's for AK), a tiny sprinkle of Brucie Wayne right at the beginning, and an INCREDIBLE story that is generally agreed to be the best in the series. 

Things I Liked:

TONS of collectibles

Taliaaaaa my angelllll <<3

The side missions are really great

If you get the DLC, there's a special game section focused around Harley where you play as Tim’s Robin and it's super fun

The story is just. My god. It's so good. It's SO good. 

The map is massive and there's so much to do, I was still playing weeks after I finished the story

Things I Didn't Like:

As much as I loved the collectibles there's like over 400 of them in the game and I couldn't get all of them and it still pisses me off 

You have to play as Selina a few times in order to progress and she's like super weak compared to Bruce (not in a misogynistic way on my part I mean like she genuinely dies after like two good hits) and her dialogue annoys tf out of me. Sorry I'm a hater. 

Batman: Arkham Origins (2013)

My Personal Rating: 9/10

My Total Hours Played: 27.2

Steam Rating: Very Positive (89%)

Description: The third game in the Batman Arkham Series– but this one is a prequel! I actually played this one after Arkham Knight but. Shhh. Anyways, this game is based loosely off the world presented in the Batman: Year One comics, and follows a younger Bruce in his early days as Batman, including the origins (lol) to many of his greatest enemies as they try to hunt him down, with their efforts spearheaded by a certain someone behind the scenes. Also it's Christmas!

Play If You're Looking For: Little baby angsty Bruce being a problem child, a game where you get to punch cops, and tiny tiny tiny baby Babs being adorable (she's like twelve and she's so cute).

Things I Liked:

I don't usually care about the soundtracks for video games but. FUCK the music is good. It's all based on Christmas/Nutcracker music and it's really really cool

This game genuinely helped me get over a lot of really deeply ingrained trauma surrounding Christmas /gen

Fun little Mad Hatter side mission!

Batman and Riddler argue like teenage boys (because they are)

Alfred and Bruce's relationship has some genuinely really beautiful characterization in this and their arch is really enjoyable 

Things I Didn't Like:

FUCKING. BANE. HE HAS LIKE THREE SEPARATE BOSS FIGHTS AND THEY'RE ALL SO HARD AND SCARY AND AND AND AHHHH 

The graphics are a little iffy but to be fair my view was skewed bc I played this right after finishing Arkham Knight

Batman: Arkham Knight (2015)

My Personal Rating: 8.5/10

My Total Hours Played: 47.9

Steam Rating: Very Positive (91%)

Description: The fourth and (kind of) final installment of the Batman Arkham Series (not counting Arkham Shadow because idgaf). Scarecrow is back, and threatening Gotham with a new fear toxin compound, resulting in a mass evacuation… but something else is going on here too, and Batman has a new enemy who may be his most dangerous yet. 

Play If You're Looking For: agony, pain, suffering, nightmares, tears, emotional exhaustion, etc. 

Things I Liked:

Really well written story (it's just really traumatizing)

Some of the most beautiful graphics in any video game like. Ever.

The DLC suits are SO COOL, you can play as Flashpoint Batman….

Really really great fighting mechanics that make combat actually really enjoyable even though that's not really what I'm here for

Amazing side missions; there's basically a side mission for every mechanic in the game, so whatever your favorite part is there's a little section where that's pretty much all you do

Things I Didn't Like:

This game took me WEEKS to get through because the story is so painful it was genuinely not fun half the time 

The ending isn't very satisfying (to me)

You know the concept of the “all is lost moment” in story telling? Yeah, this game’s “all is lost moment” is like 80% of the game. Everything is lost like. Most of the time. 

Oh we're just not gonna talk about Talia. After all that shit in Arkham City. Okay. Cool. 

Selina is so annoying in this game, there's this whole side mission that's basically just her and it's really irritating

FUCK YOU EDWARD NYGMA THAT DRIVING COURSE WAS BULLSHIT AND I COULDN'T GET THROUGH IT NO MATTER HOW HARD I FUCKING TRIED

I actually just kinda hate driving games generally and there's a LOT of driving in this game but you get used to it eventually and it becomes easier

Gotham Knights (2022)

My Personal Rating: 10/10

My Total Hours Played: 46.9

Steam Rating: Mixed (68%)

Description: Batman is dead, leaving Dick, Jason, Barbara, Tim, and Alfred to pick up the pieces and finish what he started. 

Play If You're Looking For: Batfam content, a perfect mix of “holy shit I haven't cried this hard in years” and “this is the funniest thing anyone has ever produced ever, goofy dialogue and one liners, and casual queer rep.

Things I Liked:

The map is HUGE and genuinely feels so unbelievably alive in a way that I don't think any other Batman game even comes close to in its depiction of Gotham– like I could write ESSAYS about how well this game captures the experience of living in a big city like Gotham (let me know if you want me to make a post about that actually lol)

Collectibles that are actually reasonable and fun

Super fun side missions

Absolutely gorgeous graphics 

The characters can emote and all the Batkids have their own dance moves :( and Jason dances like he's 70 years old it's really cute :(

Even after completing everything in the entire story it's STILL fun to go patrolling because it keeps generating new crimes– premeditated or otherwise– for you to fight and it's really fun

The Batkids have a pride flag in their house ☹️ and Dick has a bi flag mug ☹️

Things I Didn't Like:

Literally everyone hates this game for NO FUCKING REASON it's genuinely fantastic you guys are just losers

Talia is unfortunately characterized kinda shitty and it makes me sad bc her design is incredible but she does some OOC stuff :(

You can customize your suit but not as extensively as I would've liked 

This game gets kinda hard to play at points because it's really hard to see your screen through all the tears (cough cough the last boss fight cough cough)

Batman: The Telltale Series (2016)

My Personal Rating: 5.7/10

My Total Hours Played: 9.1

Steam Rating: Very Positive (86%)

Description: A 5 episode point-and-click adventure following Bruce Wayne as he faces some of his biggest challenges, both as Bruce and as Batman. 

Play If You're Looking For: Minimal combat and story-centered gameplay.

Things I Liked:

I love love love the character designs in this game, this is actually one of my favorite versions of Bruce possibly ever

You get a lot of opportunities to make Bruce and Selina kiss in this game and I said no every single time and it was very gratifying for me 

Alfred and Bruce have an incredibly sweet father-son relationship (if you play your cards right, anyway) and it makes me really emotional because Bruce literally loses EVERYTHING over the course of this game and Alfred is there at his side the whole time

The ending was really satisfying overall and actually made me enjoy the game a lot more

Things I Didn't Like:

Chapters 2-4 are INCREDIBLY stressful, especially for me because A) there's an involuntary psych ward commitment and B) there are a lot of themes around the Wayne's developing a bad reputation and being hated, which are massively triggering for me personally and because I don't have the spoons to play through the whole thing at once I had to sit in that stress for a while before it concluded in-game

Batman: The Enemy Within (2017)

My Personal Rating: 4/10

My Total Hours Played: 10.2

Steam Rating: Very Positive (91%)

Description: The sequel to “Batman: The Telltale Series”. John Doe is let out of Arkham and seeks to take you up on that favor you promised him.

Play If You're Looking For: BatJokes, Angst, and a lot of “Is Batman Good For Gotham?” Stuff.

Things I Liked:

The opening chapter with Mori was kinda fun

I think Amanda Waller was written pretty well overall

Things I Didn't Like:

Fucking any of it lowkey 😭

Same as the other Telltale game tbh

For me, it was emotionally exhausting and really upsetting, but that's just kinda because I HATEEEE the “impossible choice” trope in any almost any media, I just never enjoy it, and there's a LOT of it in here

The ending made me wanna kms because there's literally no good option here what the fuck

Like I get that's the whole point but. Okay what if I kms what then. 

[glowingbadger]

D, O and P for Daddy Welt? 🥺

I saved this one for last as a treat (for me)~~ Thank you again to everyone who sent in requests for the Alphabet prompts- this was super fun! Now to finish off strong with one fine specimen of a dilf.

Edit like a week after posting this- I was literally sitting around playing a completely different game when I just stopped and thought "I think I called the fucking Astral Express the 'Star Rail' in a smut post several days ago" and immediately came back to fix it. Real "confused parent trying to connect with their gamer child" energy right there. This is what happens when I write too much too fast without double checking myself lmao

Alphabet prompts - Welt Yang (HSR)

D (dirty secret), O (oral), P (pace)

NSFW 18+

Dirty secret: If you're anything like me, this won't take long to come out, since you're likely to call him this sooner rather than later- but Welt is incredibly weak for you calling him "daddy." He tries not to let on so easily. It's so typical, after all, practically a cliche (hell, I feel cliche bringing it up- but things become cliched for a reason you know). He's well aware of the role of responsibility and maturity he's taken on among the Express' crew, not to mention the difference in age between you. But damn if it doesn't feel incredible to hear you mewing out a needy little "Ohh, Daddy, please~!" while he's buried between your thighs. Perhaps it's because that very role of "responsible chaperone" makes him so reticent about pursuing passions and desires that he finds it so invigorating that you want him, at least in part, because of his more mature nature, and not in spite of it.

Oral: Welt thoroughly enjoys oral, both giving and receiving (in general he's just a big foreplay guy, never one to rush- but more on that below). When receiving, he'll lovingly stroke your hair and groan, slowly swaying his hips into your rhythm while telling you how good you are for him. He doesn't always cum from it, but he just adores the sensation of your lovely mouth around his cock, especially if you look up at him with his length deep in your throat. He'll never push you past your limits, of course, and quite enjoys just luxuriating in the different sensations of your lips and tongue. When giving, he's extremely giving. Welt wants to take care of you, to satisfy you fully until you're a spent, trembling mess- so he revels in your thighs shaking or squeezing in around him and your nails dragging through his hair.

Pace: Welt always prefers to take his time when he can, and may even struggle to cum quickly if rushed. He's not entirely incapable of a quickie, it's just so much more gratifying to savor you. With everything he's seen and experienced in his life, Welt isn't the kind of man who could possibly take his time with you for granted. Every stage of intimacy, from kisses that deepen and hands that wander, to undressing you piece-by-piece, to earning that first (or second or third) beautiful climax from you with his mouth or hands, to making love to you hard and steady and deep while you cling to him and moan his name- it's all absolutely divine. Even if you're looking for a more intense and forceful kind of fuck- he'll give it to you, and he'll give it to you for a good, long while until you're both spent.

[hsvh-hp]

2024 Wrapped!

I've seen these posts floating around the site, and they look so fun!

2024 was a big year for me, for fandom. I made so many new incredible friends on here and Discord, got more involved in events, and participated in a few fests. I also finished the longfic I'd started in September 2023, which I honestly still can't believe is finally going live in less than 48 hours.

My best estimate of how many words I wrote this year (I cut a long in editing, so this number will actually be higher) is somewhere around 370,000.

This post got extremely long, so I've put the majority of it under the cut. I don't write very often (on Tumblr, anyway) about my process, or consistently promote my work. So, hopefully y'all can forgive me for indulging this one time at the end of the year.

In order that I wrote them:

🎉 Spiral Dynamics (Draco/Harry; 21.1k words)

This one was for the Fellytone game on the Drarry Discord server! Based on this stunning art by @appleslightning, there's basically some Friends to Lovers hijinks with Draco and Harry, as Draco's probation officer retires 7 years into Draco's 10 year term, and Harry volunteers to take the spot 'as a favour' without having consulted Draco first. Drama Draco's dramatics ensue. The fic also inspired this by @maesterchill, and I am grinning and kicking my feet all over again looking at it. THESE TWO, I love them, your honour.

✨ The 'Two for the Triwizard' Trilogy (Draco/Harry; 3 fics totalling 9.3k words)

A Triwizard Tournament AU, but make it Drarry. This small series was also born on the Drarry Discord in a fun game of 'haha what if'.

In Fraternizing With the Enemy, Harry sees that Draco has come to the Yule Ball with a boy from Durmstrang (Volkov? Vikhrov?) and totally only chases his date off because said date is from a rival school. Harry and Draco end up dancing and chatting, and Harry ends his night feeling like a complete goner ensnared by Draco.

The Fourth Hostage skips to the Second Task, where Draco has replaced Ron as Harry's hostage at the bottom of the lake. Under weight afterward of Harry trying to figure out What's Going On between himself and Draco, Draco takes some initiative of his own to remind/inform Harry that he couldn't have been chosen as a hostage for the Task if he didn't agree to it. They get together. 🥹

Little Hangleton and Beyond is another skip. I wanted a happy ending not just for Draco and Harry, but Sirius and the Malfoys as well. I'll expand on this later when I reflect on my favourite themes and character propaganda, but the premise for this one is Lucius Malfoy changes the course of the graveyard scene following the Third Task. Draco's been writing home about his new boyfriend, and Lucius just...can't let anything happen to Harry, lol. So, Voldemort is immediately cast back into Undeath, Wormtail is so shocked that he's easily apprehended, Sirius' name is cleared, Harry goes to live with him, blah blah, Happily Ever After.

🎉 Full Indulgence (Tonks/Fleur/Bill; 14.7k words)

This was written for @hptransfest! The prompt was basically exploring Tonks' Metamorphmagus abilities during sex, and I'd had an idea rattling around for some Tonks/Fleur that I was very excited to finally have a chance to write. The premise was that in Half-Blood Prince, Tonks wasn't coming to the Burrow in the summer to get sympathy from Molly about her feelings for Remus. She was there to ogle Fleur, and then it turns out Fleur wants her, and Bill's cool with it, and Bill gets involved, etc. It was a great excuse to write 15k of very indulgent smut.

The thing I was most proud about in this fic was that (despite me using she/her pronouns in the paragraph above) I wrote 15k of 3rd person POV smut and didn't use one single personal pronoun for Tonks. It was a challenge, but so fun and validating for a character who identified as having no gender at all.

✨ Something About Malfoy (Draco/Harry; 3.2k words)

This fic spawned as a short and sweet AU from Draco Malfoy and the Descent of the Feathered Serpent (TL;DR, the longfic I'm just about to start posting, which is Order of the Phoenix from Draco's POV).

Some backstory: when I was rereading Spinners of Fate to start preparing for the sequel fic, I was hit with the realization about Draco that, my god, this kid is such an egg waiting to crack lmao. Folks who follow the Canon in Draconis Major series will see the Trans Draco Malfoy tag on 5th year's fic. I've read multiple metas here on tumblr about how Draco (among others) are 'fem-coded' in HP, and so it makes sense to me that Draco be some shade of genderqueer along with being gay lol. He's a mean girl, and a Mean Girl™. But also still a boy.

He ended up bigender in my head, keeping his name and pronouns while just sometimes Switching Things Up externally as he pleases. This ended up a big deal in Feathered Serpent, since Umbridge takes cue from Dumbledore's insistence that BCJ snuck into Hogwarts using Polyjuice Potion that magically changing a person's appearance ought to be banned (but of course, as it truly goes with her, the control is the real point).

ANYWAY, in this fic, I pretended for 3200 words that Voldemort never came back, therefore Umbridge never taught at Hogwarts, therefore Draco could come out as trans/bigender/genderqueer exactly when he felt like it, which coincided with the Gryffindor-Slytherin Quidditch match. Poor Harry, he was not prepared for that.

🎉 Twilight Eternal (Draco/Harry; 23.9k words)

This was written for @hd-tarot, and was another fic that I had an idea rattling around for, looking for an excuse to write lol. Those who've been following me for a long time and have the sharpest of memories might remember this post from a year ago. There was an ask game regarding names of WIPs, and @omgkatsudonplease asked me about this one. I finally got to write it!!!

It's also very interesting to me to reread that ask and see how differently the fic wound up. I hadn't conceived yet that Hermione was involved, or that she and Draco were Unspeakables. I also thought it would be a Getting Together fic with Draco and Harry, but ended up with them already established in a relationship. I'm very happy with it, even if it (comparatively) didn't get much love.

🎉 WARNING: May Contain Pollen (Draco/Harry; 2.9k words)

Honestly, this is basically a crackfic lol. It started as a joke: what if there was sex pollen, but either Draco or Harry turns out to be allergic to it? And uh, yeah! That's the plot!

🚧 Beyond the Scuttling Void (Harry & Sirius, eventual Draco/Harry; 54.6k words and ongoing)

A crossover fic, using the Veil in the Department of Mysteries as means for Sirius, Harry, and Draco to isekai into another world! Surely this has never been done before! (heavy /s lmao)

2024 has been a year of getting back to fandom roots for me. One of the things I wanted to unlearn was the 'I must complete my fics before I begin posting them' mentality. This fic, since the crossover material (Skyrim) is an open world RPG, basically translates to Harry, Draco, and Sirius being able to do whatever they want. Well, Sirius ended up the prophesied Hero from the game lol. But since Harry follows Sirius through the Veil after a ten year long timejump (canon-based space/time shenanigans in Elder Scrolls/Skryim lore) the Main Quest™ is already dealt with, and Sirius is just a happily-married hero with a house he built himself, tons of friends, and two sons who he took in as orphans. Harry has to reckon a lot with feeling like a bag of dicks for asking Sirius to help him get home once they're reunited.

It's been really fun writing this fic as Harry learns how to navigate a world where magic is different, and which is basically medieval Scandinavia with dragons, elves, vampires, a pantheon of trickster gods, and spiders the size of horses lol. The lore runs deep, and Harry keenly investigates it for means to reverse his having been dumped here through the Veil. As far as I've posted, Draco hasn't shown up yet. Harry doesn't even know he's there, and likewise: Draco has no idea Harry and Sirius are there. I know where Draco is, and look forward to the three of them rolling up together like the pointing Spiderman meme. What I can say about Draco at the current point of posting is that at least now....he is safe, haha. He had to grow up very quickly all of a sudden to have made that happen for himself. He's Seen Some Shit.

So what were the most common themes in my work this year?

Established Draco/Harry. As seen in: Little Hangleton and Beyond, Twilight Eternal, and WARNING: May Contain Pollen.

I feel that for me, shifting from more Getting Together fics to Established Draco/Harry fics is a natural progression as I write more Drarry fics. Mutual pining, Draco and Harry pursuing each other, and proving themselves to each other are fun, but so is skipping all of that and letting them focus on whatever's threatening their happiness in the fic lol. Or, like Little Hangleton and Beyond, just letting them have their happiness while the rest of the plot ties up.

2. Sirius & Harry, and Harry living with Sirius. As seen in: Little Hangleton and Beyond, Something About Malfoy, and Beyond the Scuttling Void.

I really, really wish that Sirius and Harry had gotten the godfather-godson happy ending they deserved in canon. This is one of the greatest tragedies of the Harry Potter series to me (does that mean I would've trusted JKR to write it any other way? Ummm no lol). So, where possible, I set them up in a post-Goblet of Fire AU to have a happy future to look forward to.

As for Beyond the Scuttling Void, let's just say it's my post-Order of the Phoenix coping mechanism. Sirius isn't dead! He's just gone to be a hero and kill the big bad dragon. He's married and everything! He's fine, guys. Don't worry about it.

3. Lucius being a good dad for Draco. As seen in: Spiral Dynamics, the Two for the Triwizard trilogy, Something About Malfoy, and Twilight Eternal.

OKAY, this is my self-confessed delusion, my fight against the tide, and my drowned out truth lol. I love Lucius Malfoy. I hate when he's abusive to Draco, and I've just gotten numb to the prospect of him being killed off, in Azkaban, or...whatever...in post-war Drarry fic. I love when Lucius remains a hurdle to Harry because Draco, uh, kind of really loves and admires his dad.

There was a tumblr post about power fantasies that really spoke to me. Essentially, for some people killing/beating up the bad guy is the power fantasy. For some, love changing them. For some, the bad guy getting to run wild to their full potential. For me, Lucius is #2. I love writing him as a good dad, or at least trying his best through the war years, and having to reckon/own up with his failures in the end if he wants to restore full trust from Draco. I love when he learns something about Draco and will rewrite his entire worldview to suit his beloved only child (Draco & Narcissa based morality, rather than pureblood supremacy morality - although these certainly overlap a lot of the time). And, honestly? I think I love it (and him) so much because he's so underappreciated in Drarry fandom and fic. I have to feed myself on this one, guys.

So...this was 2024 for me! And I didn't even wax lyrically about the 291,000 word behemoth that is Descent of the Feathered Serpent lol. It was a very busy year for me, and fandom (especially all the new friends/acquaintances I made) helped me through some trying RL stuff. If you've read this far, THANK YOU FOR MAKING 2024 GOOD AND FUN!! I will maybe see you in a few days when I start regularly posting again. ❤️

[awardenandacrow]

Hello! This blog is by Tabitha “Purrmage” Cummings. I’m a traditional mixed media fantasy character artists based in Connecticut, USA. This blog is for me to post my art, screenshots/recordings, and fanfic snippets (and maybe eventually an actual full length fanfic? 👀👀) relating to my first Dragon Age: The Veilguard playthrough with my Grey Warden Rook, Naimeryn “Naimy” Thorne, with whom I’m completely obsessed. She’s romancing Lucanis Dellamorte! This blog WILL feature spoilers for Dragon Age: The Veilguard, if you haven’t played it/if you make different decisions. I’m mostly making this because I started posting snippets to Threads, but Threads doesn’t actually organize it’s… threads… very well and people were having trouble reading. I hope this will alleviate that issue!

PLEASE NOTE: I write down fanfic snippets as they come to me, and so they aren’t in chronological order as far as the game is concerned. Additionally, I have not actually finished my first playthrough of Veilguard yet, so there may be edits later to account for things I’m misremembering/things that don’t actually make sense with the actual game, etc etc. this is not an AU, this basically is just my headcanon for how the game went for my Rook, filling in blanks, embellishing scenes to fit her character more, etc.

SPOILER ALERT. If you are not as far into the game as I am/have made different decisions and don’t know what happens if you make the opposite choice, there may be spoilers for you within what I’ve written, drawn, or screenshotted/recorded. Please read at your own discretion.

CONTENT AND/OR TRIGGER WARNINGS: I will try to put any relevant CW/TW information at the introduction of each snippet [I do an introduction to each scene in brackets like this for my own reference, and hopefully it will help readers as well]. I’m not an erotica writer, so if I mark something “mature” it’s likely steamy but not spicy (if I try my hand at spice, I’ll be sure to indicate that, but generally it’s just gonna be steamy. I think that fits the innocence of the relationship between my Rook and Lucanis, anyway, personally). In general, you will likely see mostly a strong language tag, though there is one snippet that very, VERY vaguely hints at SA (it’s intended to be implied, but nothing explicit is said). I hope this will help everyone read and enjoy comfortably!

ADDITIONAL NOTE: Taash’s story arch in the game included them coming out as non-binary. However, before they come out to Rook, they use she/her pronouns. I write in third person, from my Rook, Naimeryn’s, point of view, so the reader only knows what Naimeryn knows, and so, just as in the game, before Taash comes out, she/her pronouns will be used, and then they/them pronouns will be used once Naimeryn is aware that Taash is non-binary. I will also include this disclaimer before any snippets in which Taash is referred to by she/her pronouns.

ABOUT NAIMERYN

NAIMERYN’S RELATIONSHIPS

NAIMERYN FUN FACTS

SCREENSHOTS

FANFIC SNIPPET MASTER POST

LINK TO FANFIC AS PUBLISHED ON AO3

[perfectlysanexd]

So, what have I been up to...? Since I was in Tumblr's spam-bot prison for more than 5 months, I thought I would create a little ICYMI post. (That's "In-Case-You-Missed-It" for the old folks like myself that have to look up all these new acronyms.) Basically, I'm gonna highlight/link to some of the posts I made this year, and you can check them out if you like. :) I didn't want to necessarily do a bunch of reblogs of my own content and clog up the system or something...

I finished posting up my 100's of edited screenshots from Advent Children Complete! You can view the archive of 53 different posts, separated by character, here. It also includes a fun side post about the Mysterious Case of Sephiroth's Missing Straps. :3

I confess, I haven't made too many wallpapers this year. But it's September now, and I have a thought rolling around in my head. We'll see. The archive of wallpapers is here.

Speaking of, so many cool wallpapers came out for Ever Crisis, and I've posted them all! Find them here, at the bottom of this archive post. I swear I'll eventually beat TFS season 1, but...they sure made it difficult for people who don't purchase their packs.

Did you know that Tumblr is feeding your posts(including reblogs) to theird party AI? Well, they are, and you can set it to be prevented in your settings. I talked about it here.

Rebirth coming out was the biggest thing this year, and I made my first manipulation for it back in March! You can see the post here, as well as a simple tutorial for it using GIMP(GNU Image Manipulation Program, free at gimp.org) here.

I also made a second manipulation for Rebirth! If you want to see the additional dialogue that goes with it, that's here.

When I played the demo for Rebirth, I noticed that they had changed Sephiroth's eyes, and it reminded me of something...

Did you know that in Advent Children, Sephiroth's gloves are not as tight as in Remake and you can see his wrists? 😏Check it out! What? Of course this is important!

I took a look at Sephiroth and all his forms over the years. Then I did the same for Cloud.

My AO3 sefikura work In Death was finished on April 26th, and came with a special manipulation. That was also the first story where I was accused of writing non-con, when it obviously wasn't, so that was fun. If you need to hydrate, you can go drink that tea in the comments of, I think, chapter 16 and after. Several people have asked about a sequel, and I do have eventual plans. Hang in there.

I made my first(of many) Rebirth memes, which also came with a blank template.

A peek under Sephiroth's jacket, courtesy of Rebirth. 😏Yes, this is important, obviously.

Another Rebirth meme, featuring Sephiroth being badass.

I put my design for Lucrecia's locket onto my edited EC Sephiroth artwork! This one actually got a lot of notes thanks to reblogging. 💕I also put the locket on Sephiroth's EC in-game model.

I wrote a long one-shot as a thank you for 400+ followers! It's based on my most popular sefikura manipulation of all time—a very indulgent work, and my first time writing for Rebirth. Thanks, guys!

Another meme, haha...oops, and another one. Damn, another one? AND a Sephiroth/Cloud arms-crossed companion meme set?

I did another Rebirth manipulation, this time of the famous sefikura hug scene. I added a second part to it here. AND a third part to it here! This set has quickly become one of my favorites. I also gave it some Japanese dialogue+translation here.

I did a little PSA because I've seen a lot of awfully suspicious digital paintings lately...

I made an account on Twitter/X, just in case they never fixed my blog, so if you're over there, follow me @ perfectlysane77 and say hi. :)

The FF7 crew have super hearing, confirmed??

Do you play Ever Crisis and want to join a sefikura guild? Check here. All skill levels are welcome, and you don't have to talk to anyone if you don't want to.

My first ever edited Rebirth video: "Fill your hollow heart...with me-ow."

And now I've been released from Tumblr spam-bot prison, so I'm sure you've seen even more silly memes from me. So what now? I hope to release the rewrite of Stranger Inside very soon, maybe by the end of the month if possible? The sequel will follow, for real this time. At that point, we'll be back to voting, so you guys will be able to choose what comes after that. I'm really focused on writing now, which is probably why I'm mostly making memes and silly things. Still, if it makes you laugh, I'm happy. 🥰

If you read this to the end, you're amazing.💕

[livwritesstuff]

this is an edited repost of something I wrote last year for the 10-year anniversary of the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School (now 11 years today). to say the least, it’s a difficult day for a lot of people, including me. i wrote this all in one go just as a positive outlet for the things this day evokes and i went back and forth on if i would post it, but i know i’m not the only one who has been affected by these events. if you’re someone who finds this day to be a hard one, this one is for you.

tw: references to gun violence and school shootings

It’s late morning in December 2012 and Steve is watching the news. He isn’t really paying attention to the current segment about opiate use, too busy being completely annihilated in Words with Friends by his eleven-year-old, who just played the word ‘jinxes’ for 23 points, the bastard.

He’s mid-way through sending Moe a text (“get off your ipod you’re in class”) when the channel’s Breaking News intro interrupts the interview that he’d been ignoring. He looks up to see that the headline has changed.

Steve sees shooting, and then elementary school and feels his heart jump into his throat the way it does any time he hears sirens when his daughters or his husband aren’t home – not because he really believes it’s for them, but because it could be. There’s always a chance it could be.

And he’s got two kids in elementary school right now.

He makes himself read the headline in full – it clarifies that the school is in Connecticut, nowhere near him and his house and his children’s schools in the Massachusetts suburbs, but it does little to remedy the panic that has his heart going a mile a minute.

Steve sits for a while, eyes glued to the TV as the anchor slowly ad-libs, clearly waiting for any new scrap of information.

On the first commercial break, Steve checks his phone. He’s got one text – from Moe telling him to play another word in their game. He responds back with the message he’d written before he’d become fixated on the news.

On the second one, he texts Eddie, tells him he loves him and asks if he’s heard what’s going on (he knows he probably won’t get a response for a while – Eddie is notoriously bad at checking his phone and that’s when he’s not in a meeting he’s been looking forward to for weeks, as is the case today).

By the third, they’ve learned the school is on lock-down, but not much more.

Everything he hears after that is nothing short of harrowing, and leaves Steve feeling sick to his stomach.

Eddie finally texts him a couple hours later, after the news anchor has been switched out for another, to say his meeting ran late (an actual director had reached out to him saying she was interested in adapting one of Ed’s books into a movie – today was the day they got to talk in person) and he hadn’t known any of this was going on, but he’s on his way to pick up Hazel from her AM kindergarten session.

Steve’s day continues. He makes lunch, he finishes some laundry, he responds to emails, always with one eye on the news. His shock at what was occurring mere hours south of his home, subsides, slowly replaced with a dull horror because he’s seen a lot of things in his forty-six years of life, but nothing like this. One by one, his three girls return home from school and he hugs each of them like he always does, but today it’s a little tighter.

It’s a Friday, and Friday night is movie night in the Harrington house. It’s Robbie’s night to choose (she picks Spy Kids, like she does every time she gets to pick the movie since it came out last year). Before they start, Steve and Eddie tell their kids what happened. They do their best to find an explanation that is sufficient for ever-precocious Moe, but not too much for Hazel, their sweet kindergartner who only just turned six. Once the movie starts, they all pile under the same blanket, and where there’s usually fidgeting and arguing and occasionally having to pause the movie altogether to wipe tears and wait on a time-out because someone weaponized a foot or an elbow after they weren’t given the big bowl of popcorn fast enough, tonight there is quiet and stillness.

The next day, the girls are back to their normal, bickering selves, but Steve still can’t shake the aching feeling in his chest every time he thinks about what happened the day before. He starts to get that itch in his brain, the same itch he'd felt after he ran out of the Byers’s house in 1983, after he turned back and saw those Christmas lights flickering, the itch where he’s gearing up for a fight.

As the months go on, Steve finds himself reading into gun control laws, finds himself with multiple non-profits fighting for them bookmarked on his computer, finds himself following politics for the first time in his life as he watches bill after bill get shut down by both sides of the debate.

Honestly, Steve isn’t sure why he cares so deeply about this – and not just what happened in Connecticut, but the issue of guns and gun safety in general. It’s not like he hasn’t fired a gun before. It’s not like he’s never seen their value (he still remembers that drive to the War Zone so many years ago). It’s not like he hasn’t ever felt safer with someone nearby wielding one, even if that someone was Nancy Wheeler.

Maybe he’s a little too familiar with children being the casualties in a war they didn’t choose to start, didn’t choose to fight in, and if that had made him angry at nineteen, he’s irate now, now that he has a six-year-old like the students in that classroom in Connecticut, now that he has an eleven-year-old like El when she escaped that lab in Hawkins.

It wouldn’t be the first time Steve threw himself into a battle that had nothing to do with him, that he knew very little about, because he knows what happens when children get caught in the crossfire of a battle that has nothing to do with them, and he wouldn’t be able to live with himself if he sat idly by and watched it happen again.

[auroblaze]

Here we go!

[GENERAL RULES AND TERMS OF SERVICE]

I START WITH 6 COMMISSION SLOTS. First come first serve, by the time they are full I’ll open them again only once I’m finished with them all.

If you want a slot and you know what to ask me to do please send me an email at aurodrawsforyou@gmail.com subject titled "Auro commission". In the email, include your selected commission type and any other details about your commission. Visual reference must be included, and if it’s a comic you want, please include your storyboard.

🚨🚨 EDIT of the 5/10/2023: SECOND SESSION IS OFFICIALLY PAUSED. I’ll be working on the 6 slots commissions that made it before the technical difficulties with Paypal (mentioned in the last reblog). If something changes I’ll be reopening the remaining 4 slots!💪🎨 If not, I’ll be seeing you at the next session directly :’>

✨Please read all the details that are written down below under Read More before sending any email. If something is not clear do ask about it! ✨

This list can be updated at any time if situations and/or experiences demand so.

IMPORTANT:

Currently I don’t work under deadlines, and I don’t do rush jobs. I guarantee that clients will be kept updated on progress of their respective commissions. Please keep that in mind before asking for a commission and I thank you so much for your patience.

If the goods are meant to be showcased in videos or other projects of the kind (permission must be discussed beforehand), please give proper credit and link to my pages (instagram, deviantart or just one of them) in the description.

The goods will be distributed digitally only. Printing is only allowed for personal use and you cannot resell the commission under any circumstances or claim to be the original author of the artpiece.

Unless it has been agreed otherwise, I’m able to choose to display the commissioned art on my galleries and portfolio to promote my work.

I do not allow my art to be used for NFTs, training AIs or crypto transactions.

Things I can draw… Characters from shows/anime, video games and manga/comics I’m familiar with (examples: Sonic The Hedgehog, Homestuck, Pokémon, NiGHTS, Skullgirls, Splatoon, Hades (by Supergiant games), The Legend of Zelda, YuGiOh!, Promare, Undertale/Deltarune, The Owl House, Trigun, Dr. Stone); characters from a series I’m not familiar with if given proper references; crossovers, fantasy, scifi, animals, fanfic illustrations, OCs (if given proper references), and possibly more. Feel free to ask! Things I will not draw… Gore, vore, rape, abuse, offensive themes (racism, transphobia, homophobia, etc.), RPF (real person fanfiction) or shipping real people, I reserve the right to refuse any request.

Upcharges

My limit of characters to draw in one picture/comic is 1, you will be charged for every additional character in the drawing. For an illustration, the price will be multiplied by the number of total characters. The backgrounds will remain one charge. For a comic, every additional complex character is $30 for a pencil page, $40 for an inked page, and $50 for a coloured page.

If your character has a complex design (Examples: detailed armor, complex clothing or jewelry, additional features…) a charge of $15 will apply.

Excessive changes will be charged. On your third and every subsequent major modification request, you will be charged $20.

My limit for short comics is 1 page. If you want more, it will be multiplied by the number of pages and type of commission (ex. a 2 page pencil comic is $100 x 2 = $200).

HOW TO PAY: You will receive an invoice from my Paypal email once the commission has been agreed upon. I will not start working on the commission until the invoice is paid. No refunds. Payment in euros is preferable, if possible. Otherwise USD is always accepted.

[ILLUSTRATION PRICING]

PENCIL SKETCHES:

Head: $10

Half body: $15

Full body: $30

            -> With Abstract Background: +$30

            -> With Detailed Background: +$50

INK (or DIGITAL LINEART):

Head: $20

Half body: $25

Full body: $50

FULL BODY FLAT COLOURED (with pencils, markers, or digital): $75 (+$15 for shading)

With Abstract Background: +$35

With Detailed Background: +$100

FULL BODY COLOURED WITH WATERCOLOURS: $100

With Abstract Background (watercolours): +$80

With Detailed Background (watercolours): +$150

NSFW*:

Half Body Pencils: $40

Full Body Pencils: $80

Half Body Pencils + Inks: $45

Full Body Pencils + Inks: $95

Half Body Coloured (only digital) : $65

Full Body Coloured (with pencils, markers, or digital) : $110

          ->With Shading: +$15

          ->With Abstract Background: +$125

          ->With Detailed Background: +$155

*YOU MUST BE 18+ FOR THIS TIER. As it is a new and delicate subject for me, we’ll discuss beforehand what kind of scenarios I will be comfortable enough to draw.

[COMIC PRICING]

The client has to show me the storyboard or script of the scene that I’m meant to follow in the desired commission.

SHORT COMICS:

1 Page Comic, Pencils: $100

1 Page Comic, Pencils And Ink: $180

1 Page Comic, Inks + Colours (with pencils, markers, or digital): $270

NSFW COMIC PAGE**:

1 Page Comic, Pencils: $300

1 Page Comic, Inks: $350

1 Page Comic, Inks + Colours (with pencils, markers, or digital): $400

**As it is a new and delicate subject for me, we’ll discuss beforehand what kind of scenarios I will be comfortable enough to draw.

[safaiagem]

Crime is a Logical Extension - Series Masterpost

There have really only been two or three times in the last decade or so that I have written something other than a canon AU. I tend to tweak something in an established universe and then kind of hang out there. It's comfortable for me and one of the reasons there are eleven series listed on my AO3 account. One of the big ones is the Ten Years Gone series, which is a Teen Wolf Supernatural Hunter/Demon AU; the second is a one-shot Avengers Inception AU, I Don't Sleep (I Dream), and the third one was a Daniel Craig era James Bond AU where Bond and Q are criminals and Eve is 007 trying to hunt them down. The funny thing is almost all of them were inspired, at least on some level, by either graphic or gif edits on Tumblr, so thank you, Tumblr people.

The first fic is Smooth Criminal, which was a working title that just never went away and was written in 2013. For a long time, nearly a decade, it was a one-shot, but for NaNoWriMo 2021, I decided to return to the universe and wrote The Saddest Thing About Betrayal. I have labeled this series as finished, but as you can see, I never intended it to be a series in the first place, so here we are. It's only two fics long, with one rated M and the other E. They vary in length, with Smooth Criminal coming in at ~28k and The Saddest Thing About Betrayal is ~70k for a total of 97,676 words.

Crime is a logical extension of the sort of behavior that is often considered perfectly respectable in legitimate business. - ROBERT RICE

Smooth Criminal AO3 and Livejournal Rating: M Words: 27,858 Summary: Criminals AU: James Bond was one of the best assassins in the criminal underworld until he's tasked with killing the elusive hacker Q. When Bond's employer reveals that he intends to kill them, Bond and Q decide to team up. Years later, they are still working together. Now, they are being hunted down by MI6 and their new Agent 007, Eve Moneypenny.

Cover By chosenfire28 on Livejournal for the 2013 00Q Big Bang. If you're on Tumblr, tell me; we used to chat!

The Saddest Thing About Betrayal AO3 and Livejournal Rating: E Words: 69,818 Summary: It's been five years since criminals Q and James Bond escaped MI6 and Agent 007, Eve Moneypenny, and they have been hard at work. Now, the two of them are focused on breaking down drug cartels, terrorist cells, and trafficking rings and robbing them blind, then leading Moneypenny to round up the stragglers. Moneypenny continues to focus on trying to bring in the notorious criminal duo. However, something comes along that disrupts the careful game of cat and mouse the three of them are playing and is going to change all three of their lives forever.

[quaddmgd]

GIRLS AND THEIR [SURVIVAL] HORRORS

Over the last year and a half survival horror has become one of the most interesting genres to me (no reason at all :>). Now that I just finished the original Resident Evil 2, the brainrot is very much active. I figured it would be interesting to see how my Cyberpunk OCs would look as survival horror protagonists.

Before even trying I realized that it would be very hard to make survival horror outfits out of vanilla clothing. Still, I wanted to try it on console, so I went a step further and decided to make cover art for the games my OCs would star in. That way I could ease up a bit on outfit side and dress them just appropriately for their respective types of horror, and put most of my efforts into setting the atmosphere through shots and editing, rather than scrolling through hundreds of clothing items.

Evie - Tapeworm

"Stuck with a damaged relic inside her head, Evie is dying as her consciousness is being slowly overwritten with an engram of a dead rockerboy. Now she's a ticking time bomb, desperately trying to find the cure, while fighting gradually increasing seizures and Johnny himself."

Evie was the first OC I had the concept ready for. Since she's my V and shares many personality traits/experiences with the player character, I went for what happened to be the easiest route for me - taking V's condition and relic malfunctions, and turning them into a source of horror.

Ever since my initial playthrough, V's condition and the effect it has on their mental state were (and still are) some of the most interesting aspects of the story. While never being the focus, a lot about it is certainly hinted through V's actions and dialogue choices and I couldn't help but add my own made-up lore to that.

Bearing all that in mind, I had the concept for her cover art ready almost instantly and while I ended up enhancing the vision a bit, it's still mostly how I initially envisioned it - the close up of Evie wearing Johnny's tank top, her face shattered into a few fragments, each one showing a different glitchy facial expression.

Thalia - Hard Reboot

"Thalia's last venture into cyberspace did not end well. She wakes up in an abandoned facility, suffering from cyber-seizures and visions of her long lost soulmate - Crystal. Amidst isolation and hopelessness, ghosts of the past end up being her only comfort, when it turns out that the facility was never truly abandoned."

Thalia caused me little to none issue as well. I instantly knew she'll be wearing a damaged netrunning suit, showing off its details and damage by having her back turned to the camera. Even as a concept it felt very Dead Space-esque and Dead Space was my main inspiration for the atmosphere and the feeling of loneliness.

It fits her very well too. Sully lost her nomad family after choosing to sacrifice herself to save them. Assumed deceased, she wouldn't stand a chance to survive if she wasn't found half-dead by the third party that decided to take her in. In a way she died that day and got a second chance, this time as a powerful netrunner designated to take down a big corporation.

Despite the support and not being really alone, she couldn't help but feel isolation and longing for her old family. She knew she has to find Crystal, not only as an actual requirement to complete her assignment, but especially for herself.

Putting her seemingly alone in a big industrial complex after the netdive gone wrong and giving her a glitchy ghost of Crystal as the only entity to talk to turned out to be a great way to touch on what she was feeling during their time of separation - illness, isolation and hopelessness.

Crystal - Crystal Palace

"What was supposed to be an easy gig turned into a nightmare as Crystal got trapped in Megabuilding H4. With the way of entry sealed off and her cyberdeck damaged, her only option is to dive deep into a compound full of hostiles, learn the truth behind the building-wide quarantine and, most importantly, survive."

Reading about Evie and Thalia, you probably got the idea that I love psychological horror. That's very true and it's partially the reason why Crystal caused me so many issues. She went through her own personal hell too, but it's a bit similar to Thalia's, and anything I came up with would end up being a rehash of Thalia's.

I decided to take a different approach. How about making her look like a stylish ps1/ps2 survival horror protagonist and putting her in a less of a personal situation - just drop the psychological horror aspect altogether. How about trapping her in a desolate building full of psychos, Condemned-style? What's a better place to do that than the abandoned building V was supposed to take Hanako to for Takemura? Well, Megabuilding H4, because there's no way I'm working with vanilla lighting inside or outside of the former! (at least not today)

She's a merc, so it felt natural for an unsuccessful gig to be the reason she got trapped in the building. Add a conspiracy and countless numbers of rooms to search through and it's beginning to feel like a PS2 Resident Evil clone!

Since settling on the less personal and more classic survival horror experience I couldn't get that one Parasite Eve render out of my head. I knew I had to replicate the vibe. Parasite Eve is a weird one though - it's as much of a JRPG as it is a survival horror - it's experimental and even its sequel didn't replicate its gameplay, choosing a safer, Resident Evil-clone approach instead. I went for that exact mix of 90s atmospheric video game renders and experimental japanese games to set the right mood for the cover.

Luckily the pic I shot already kinda looked like a PS1 render, so aside from the color temperature I didn't have to change anything. The lighting on concrete and overall vibe remind me of Final Fantasy VII's one specific promo render (even the character placement looks kinda similar) and its pre-rendered environments (specifically the industrial ones). I'm very proud of the logo, using a Wipeout/JSRF-style Y2K-futuristic font with a japanese caption above that reads "Futuristic Survival Horror Action" reminiscing of Metal Gear's "Tactical Espionage Action" slogan, and it's placing, leaving as much attention as it can to the background.

Conclusion

While initially I intended to focus on the PS1/PS2 survival horror vibe, after considering my limitations I had to divert from that a bit. Still, I had so much fun coming up with cover ideas for my girls and thinking about what places would their respective stories take them. Kinda makes me wish these games actually existed. And looking back on it, it seems ironic that the part I struggled with the most (Crystal), turned out to most accurately capture my original vision.

I'm really glad I was able to get it done using only the console photo mode and GIMP. Sure, it's not without its limitations, but it's still one of the more flexible photo modes I used and with a bit of tinkering with sliders, lighting and pose exploitation, and you can go a long way, arguably even on the last-gen consoles, since they didn't bother to add new photo mode and character editor features since the last old-gen update.

That being said, two years in it's much harder coming up with something that's remotely interesting and isn't just a rehash of pose + angle combo I probably already used at some point. At the same time I do most of my exploration on console, sitting comfortably on my couch, so modded photo mode poses are out of equation for the most part.

Now projects like this is what makes me wanna boot up Cyberpunk 2077 again, spend an entire evening on shooting pictures and continue thinking about it for the next week - it's what rekindles my love for it and virtual photography in general. What I mean is that I'm starving for inspiration and I can't wait to come up another cool idea (or get inspired by someone else) to play around with photo mode, post something cool and maybe even talk a bit more about my inspirations, and the things I like in general.

You are about to use your last SHARD. Do you want to proceed with saving your data?