#ghost adopts yet another random bug

[buglife]

Ghost and Tiso? Maybe about how they became friends?

Depictions of injuries and some sad stuff ahead, but this the longest request to date! Apologies my eyes are bad lol.

Tiso didn’t know what to think when he first laid eyes on the little knight, sitting alone on the sole bench in Dirtmouth. They were one of the strangest beings he had ever saw, with their big white helmet-like head, their weird little nubby body, and the fact they had a nail. How could something this tiny hold a nail? It had to be someone’s lost grub, he was sure of it. There was no way this little squib wasn’t about to be ambushed by some angry parent, furious that they were carrying an actual nail. He waited a moment and looked around, but nobody came.

He supposed someone would come sooner or later, he had a mission after all. He had wandered the wastes since he came of age with just himself and his shield searching for some sort of purpose in life. Sure, he had over time, became a rather competent warrior, but he failed to find challenges that would actually test his mettle. Then, he heard tales of a lost Kingdom where many bugs have gone and never returned. Said Kingdom was rumored to have an arena where one could compete for glory. Tiso had already bested many arenas and moved on, ever searching. If there wasn’t an arena than he could at least look around and recount what he saw.

Maybe here, he’ll find himself, and find a measure of happiness.

His shield felt heavy as he sighed and looked at the well. The Elderbug, kind as could be, had warned him of the dangers below. Bugs sometimes lost their minds, trapped in a dreaming world where they couldn’t remember anything but a bright, burning light. Bugs died from the claws of the infected, most no more than empty husks driven by a malevolent will. The thought horrified Tiso, he had never heard of such a thing. The dead walking? Still, the old bug was serious as he let his old gaze drift around the nearly empty town.

Tiso was inclined to believe him.

So there he was, ready to take the plunge down below and took one last look at the grub sitting on the bench. He happened to catch their eyes, and the little grub straitened up a little. He was surprised to see them leap off and stride toward him quickly, waving their arms.

“What do you want, Squib.” Tiso had no mood to deal with any little kids.

He watched them move their hands out from under their cloak, their tiny paws and equally tiny claws making a flurry of movements. They then stared at him expectantly.

“Uhhh...the fuck was that?” He had no clue what the little grub was doing with their hands. They deflated a little and then brightened, reaching into themselves with a hand and suddenly, they had a little book and a pen.

“...what...did you, did you just reach inside yourself!?” Tiso boggled, the hell was this? What the hell was this kid?

He watched in stunned silence as the little being ignored him to start scribbling quickly, turning over the book once done to display their writing.

“Hello, please be careful down there. It’s dangerous.”

“Ppfft. Nothing dangerous for the likes of me.” Tiso couldn’t help but grin. Aw, how precious, they were worried about him. “I’m a seasoned warrior, I faced a lot and I am sure I can handle myself.”

The being frowned, at least, Tiso thought they did. They tilted their mask in a way to convey some measure of unhappiness and then started writing again. They turned over the book with a flourish once done, the ink smeared a bit in their haste to write it.

“I am also a warrior and there are things down there that can kill you without hesitation. I’ve seen corpses of better armed and armored warriors scattered below. All thought the same that you did. Please be careful.”

Of course Tiso ignored most of the writing to focus on the first part. “Oh, a warrior you say, you know how to use that nail you have there?”

They nodded, shoulders tense as they again, pointed to the part about the dead bodies. Then tapped it.

“Obviously they weren’t as good as me then.”, he huffed. “Say, if you do fancy yourself a warrior, I hear there’s a place for us, an arena of sorts. Maybe we’ll meet up there, and you can show me what you know.” He held up his shield, the metal glinting in the lights of the lumafly lanterns. “That is, if your parents let you, Squib.”

The grub sighed with their whole body, and wrote back to reply.

“I am not a kid. I’m probably older than you.”

Tiso couldn’t help but bark out a laugh. “Okay, okay, whatever you say. You got a name, little Squib?”

The being rubbed their face for a moment and wrote back. “My name is Ghost. You?”

“Heh, you’re speaking to Tiso! Remember that name, it’ll probably be famous.” He preened a little, slightly disappointing to find that the little Ghost was just staring at him. Once again they presented their scribbles.

“Or I’ll remember it to put on your grave marker.”

Bummer, kid. Tiso at first thought the squib was mocking him. He opened his mouth to call them a little shit, but he took a second look at them. They looked tired and weary. They looked like someone used to hearing bad news. Inside, he felt a little guilty at this. Clearly this thing...Ghost...was genuinely worried about his safety and he went and spit it back in their faces. It seems that foot-in-mouth disease is a reoccurring issue with him.

He sighed. “Look, I know you don’t believe me, but I promise that I know what I’m doing. If things are too bad, I know when to cut my losses and run, alright?”

Ghost brightened up at that and nodded. Tiso snickered to lighten the mood, reaching down to pat them between the horns (something they radiated a scowl at, but said nothing about).

“No worries, if anything, I do wanna see what you can do sometime!”

And with that, Tiso jumped down the well.

---

Well, Tiso should have listened to the little Ghost. Because he had to fight every inch of the way to reach this one stag station. He had learned the name of this wretched section, ‘the Forgotten Crossroads’, and he wished it could be forgotten. He had barely landed on the stonework below when an infected bug lunged out of the darkness, hissing. He had swiftly decapitated it, getting some orange gunk all over his shield. He had wanted to clean it off then and there, but the buzzing sound of vengeflies made him rethink his plan. The feral Tiktiks and Crawlids didn’t give him much trouble, except the time he stepped on one by accident and their spikes hurt like hell. The vengeflies were bastards like usual, screeching as they tried to dive bomb him.

And oh, the aspids. The fucking aspids. How he hated them. He felt so much satisfaction every-time he threw his shield and popped their horrible little glowing abdomens. The only problem was the orange that splashed out burned any exposed bit of chitin he had. Never before, had he been glad to own his armor. He would be extremely happy if he drove those little bastards to extinction. The husks though, were very horrible. Not in a fighting way, in there they were stupid in that they only knew how to run straight at him. He could take their heads off at a distance, shield returning to him with a flash of soul. In the end, he pitied them. They were once bugs, like him, but something had changed, and they became infected. He had been happy to find a hot spring that he could scrub himself and his equipment clean. He didn’t know if he even could be infected, but he decided to err on the side of caution. The orange...goo...he couldn’t call it proper hemolymph, didn’t seem to cause him trouble for now. But still, better safe than sorry. He made camp there for the night, but not only because he didn’t want to get out of the water.

He had braved the crossroads again the next day, ducking under aspids and slaughtering husks until he found the relative safety of the stag station. He sighed and sat on the bench, leaning backwards to rest a spell.

Then came the sound of rumbling. He was instantly alert, shield at the ready and his eyes trained to the tunnel. He expected many things to come out of that tunnel, but he didn’t expect to see little Ghost so soon. The stag they are riding slid to a stop, bending down to let the little warrior off. The stag spoke to him, Tiso didn’t catch what exactly, and watched the warrior wave goodbye as the stag took off down the tunnel again.

They turned and saw him and seemed just as surprised. They bounced a bit in delight and rushed over, waving.

“Hello to you too, little warrior. See? I’m perfectly fine.” Tiso gestured to himself with a grin. “Though I will admit, those aspids suck.”

Ghost nodded rapidly in agreement, going as far as to draw their nail and stomp a little. Tiso laughed.

“No worry, If you’re going up I have thinned their numbers a bit. Seems like having a big gross abdomen makes it easy for someone to cut you down. It’s the perfect target! You can’t miss!”

Again Ghost nodded in agreement. Remembering that he couldn’t understand those weird hand sign things, they took out their journal and pen once more. It was once of those fancy ones that held the ink on the insides but still needed refilling from time to time. They hopped up on the bench to join him, there was plenty of room after all.

“So,” Tiso began, “What have you been up to?”

“I’m trying to figure out a way past the fungal wastes.” They wrote. Tiso could easily look over their shoulder so they didn’t have to keep turning their book around.

“Fungal wastes?”

Ghost chirped, which absolutely did not make Tiso jump a little. They were just, so quiet. They were obviously mute but he didn’t expect them to make sounds. Tiso hid his reaction and watched as they fucking reached inside themselves again and pulled out a map. They opened it up, showing an incomplete map, each section in a different colored ink. Tiso whistled, impressed.

“You did that all on your own?”

They shook their head and wrote out. “Cornifer sells basic maps. I find all the hidden stuff.” They gestured to the various lines on the paper. Some of the ink was newer than others, which meant they back tracked and found new places. They even did little doodles of interesting things they saw. The sheer amount of drawn spikes and thorns make him question just how much fun he’s going to have traversing some of this kingdom.

“That’s still hella impressive for such a little grub.” He teased. He was arrogant, but he could recognize talent. “Maybe if being a warrior doesn’t work out, you could be a map maker in the future.”

Ghost just held their map for a moment, seemingly lost in thought. It looked like they wanted to write something, but passed it up to put on a more cheerful demeanor. “It’s nice you think I’m that good.” They wrote.

“Heh, I can recognize talent. By the way, since you’ve been all over the place, have you figured out where this arena is?”

“I hear that it’s called the ‘Colosseum of Fool’s. It’s somewhere near the City of Tears, I think.” They make sure Tiso read what they wrote before drawing a line with a claw from the stag station where they sit to somewhere east. They had a place marked ‘Crystal Peak’ and ‘Resting Grounds’, so it was probably near those places.

“Thanks, Squib. You probably saved me a lot of walking.”

Ghost innocently pointed to the stag station’s bell.

Tiso shook his head. “Oh no no no, true warriors don’t convenience themselves like that! True warriors make it to where they go on their own efforts alone.”

He was so full of shit and he could tell that Ghost knew. He honestly didn’t’ want to be in any dark, tight spaces. He couldn’t help thinking of the colony he grew up in. How dark and how crowded it was. You couldn’t find a moments peace to yourself and cave ins could happen at any time. How close the walls were to each other. How you never knew when the ground would rumble and stones would start to fall. No sir, he won’t take the stag way.

Ghost gave them the ‘whatever you say’ look before they rolled their map back up and tucked it away again.

“Where the fuck are you putting all that?” Tiso exclaimed as Ghost also put away their book and pen. They only shrugged in response and then gleefully bounced away with a wave goodbye. He heard the patter of little feet, and then the shriek of a vengefly, only to hear the sharp slice of a nail and the silence after.

Hrm...perhaps this was a warrior after all?

Tiso leaned back, determined to rest a little more before continuing his journey. With how big this place is, he wasn’t sure he’d see the little warrior again, and something about that statement saddened him.

---

Tiso had no idea there’d be an entire lake this big in Hallownest. Sure, water in caves was common, it’s how the caves were made after all, but this was something else. He sat on the sand, a campfire crackling softly as a tiktik roasted on a stick. All around him were fossils of shells, creatures long since gone and lost to time. One made for a nice seat and he wondered a bit to whom it may have belonged to. Some water snail, maybe. The water was clean and clear enough that he could take a dip to rinse off the grim of travel and found it most refreshing.

It had taken him a couple days to make his way here. Some paths were blocked off, either to cave ins or rusted closed, so he had to improvise. Moving through the Resting Grounds was eerie. It was full of graves, yeah, but once you fight empty husks for a while, tombstones start loosing their spookiness. There he had run into another stag station and swiftly turned back around. He took another pathway he didn’t try and ended up here, at this lake.

He thought of all the empty houses along the way. He poked inside to take a look here and there and only took things that he needed. The dead weren’t going to use them, he was sure no spirit would begrudge him for taking a few spices or a blanket. It did make for useful places to rest, as he could just shut the doors and windows to keep out husks. But still, he couldn’t help but feel like a trespasser in this dead kingdom.

He mused on this as he poked at the roasting tiktik. It’ll be done soon and then he can eat and continue his journey. A warrior needs their energy after all.

He poked up his antenna as he heard a distant noise over the crackling of the fire. He turned and looked over the lake, watching a white dot in the distance grow steadily closer. Water kicked up around bent air currents as the figure flew just above the surface. When close enough, he spotted the horns.

Oh, it was them. Small world, huh?

Little Ghost seemed to spot him as well. As soon as they reached the beach, they cut off whatever power they were using to run straight at him. They were all waves and ‘smiles’, tilting their head up to look at him in obvious glee.

“Hello, Squib!” Tiso grinned, he wouldn’t admit it but he was glad to see the little bug. “Still in one piece I see?”

They nodded and gestured to himself.

“Yeah, told you I’d be fine!” He took a moment to poke at the tiktik again and caught a flash of light on metal. Little Ghost had drawn their nail and was holding it out for Tiso to see. Oh, it seems like they got a new one, or they fixed up their old one. The other was dull, and this one had a soft pale light to it. Nothing fancy so far, but he could tell it was sharper.

“Nice.” He was impressed. “But I’m a shield guy. I don’t know much about nails other than that you shouldn’t get stabbed by them.”

The little bug ‘laughed’, huffing air in amusement as the reached over and pointed at his shield. They looked at it, and then back at him, titling their head.

“Sure, you can look, but be careful, because it can do this.” He attached his shield to his arm and squeezed his hand just so. There was a click, and the sides of the shield unfolded into blades, a perfect circle of pain. Ghost vibrated in response, the dark eyes within their mask shining brightly in the light of the fire. Tiso grinned and flexed again, withdrawing the blades to make a normal shield again. “And that, is how I deal with aspids. It can also come back when I throw it.”

He wasn’t sure why he was telling this to Ghost. Weren’t they going to fight sooner or later? If so it would be best to hold his cards close to his chest and keep his surprises as surprises. But there was just...something about this bug that made him want to talk about the things he knows. They were paying rapt attention, eyes scanning all the details made in the shield. Bugs that only wielded shields were not very common, he had found, so maybe they just never seen something like the one he has before. Maybe he wanted to be the one to cause the air of wonder and awe in someone else.

Maybe he just wanted a bit of attention that didn’t result in getting bruises.

Ghost touched the shield gently with a paw, feeling the metal a little before they withdrew, satisfied. They nodded their approval and sat down, looking up at him expectantly.

“Oh? What’s this? Do you want tales of how I used this shield?” A giddy happy feeling welled up in his chest as Ghost nodded rapidly. They moved their hands, signing a word he didn’t’ know how to understand. He could figure it either meant ‘thank you’ or ‘please’, either way they were polite. They shuffled and got comfortable and watched Tiso as he began to talk.

Tiso talked for so long that he forgot all about his tiktik.

–

Tiso sat on the bench, the roar of the crowd above him shaking loose the dust on the ceiling. It fell around him in motes of light reflected from the fires in the pit. There were other warriors there too, waiting their turn to engage in the carnage above. So this was the Colosseum of Fools. A crowded arena where a corpse sat as the seat of honor, empty gaze watching as the combatants did their damndest to kill each other. Geo was rapidly exchanged between hands as fighters either won, yielded, or died. Most died, but so it was in the way of the arena. He had taken time to watch to get a scope of what he was dealing with and concluded that the bugs in this kingdom were fucking insane. He was not used to this style of games, but he supposed he’d have to learn. He met the little fool chained up and dangling from the ceiling. He paid his fee and waited for his turn in the pit. There was a shriek above, and something big slamming into the ground. He imagined that he could expect to fight more beasts than warriors.

What he was not expecting, was little Ghost to jump down into the pit.

“Hey, you made it!” Tiso couldn’t help but exclaim as Ghost ran over to climb on the bench as well. “This is the place for us, I can feel it. There’s finally a challenge for me here.”

Ghost nodded, and in a flash held their journal and pen. “Are you doing the trials?”

He snorted, “Of course I am, and you?”

“Not yet, just exploring.”

“Hey what, are you afraid of being paired against me?” Tiso tugged his hood a little, smoothing down his antenna to try and stifle the intense smell of infected hemolymph. For a moment, he felt a flash of relief at Ghost’s prior statement. He didn’t quite believe that this bug was an adult, but they seemed to be a good sort. Did they really need to do this, taint their soul with battle just for the glory of it? For a bug like Tiso, he was okay with it. He was okay with it ever since he found himself alone with only a shield to protect him and bad memories to keep him company. He had to get tough, but did this little being who asked him for stories really need to get tough?

They shook their head as their shoulders shook with mirth. “No, I have things I have to do. I’ll fight you later and I’ll make you the one scared.” Their shoulders kept shaking, so Tiso assumed this was all said in jest.

“Bold words from a little shit.” Tiso was interested in seeing just what they can do, but later in a spar. Away from a place like this. This wasn’t a place for them.

They nearly rolled over, chirping in laughter and getting strange looks from the other waiting combatants.

Tiso rounded on them. “Mind your fucking business.” He snarled, and the combatants averted their gaze to go back to polishing their weapons. Good.

Ghost took a few deep breaths to calm themselves down. “You don’t have to be mean.”

“Sometimes you gottah be mean.” Tiso countered. “If they tried to throw you out or something, I would have cut off any limb that touched you.”

Woah, where did that thought come from?

Ghost looked at Tiso for a moment, really looking at him. Tiso felt like those eyes could see into his very soul and he suppressed a shudder. Ghost looked back to their book and wrote again.

“Why?”

Tiso gulped, time to bullshit and fast. “Well, because we were practically destined to battle each other. Hell, we keep running into each other in this dead fucking kingdom. What are the odds of that? What are the odds of both of us, meeting multiple times, and then meeting up here? It’s destiny!”

They tilted their head.

“If we are going to have a proper spar, none of us can get hurt before then. We have to be at 100%, right? So I won’t let anyone lay a claw on you until then.” There, nailed it.

They nodded and tapped their pen against the bottom of their mask in thought. They took a while to write, in which Tiso glanced around to make sure the other combatants weren’t about to get bored and try to pick a fight. Finally, they tapped his arm and showed him what they wrote.

“I understand. That means you have to promise to be okay until then.” They gestured above as more dust shook loose and rained down in a shower of gray. The crowd roared again, along with the sounds of something big screaming.  

“Sure, I can do that. If I break my promise I’ll give you five thousand geo.” This was a prop bet for sure. He didn’t have that kinda money yet, he’d have to earn it in the arena. But he was confident in his abilities, he would be fine and he’d be able to take off time to have a proper spar with his little companion friend buddy fellow warrior.

They nodded and held out their hand, which he took and shook. Gods, they had such little paws. “Good doing business with ya, Squib.”

They did their odd version of ‘smiling’ again. “I got to go, gonna try and go up more.”

“Good luck with that.” Tiso watched them put away their book, and with a hop, skip, and a jump, vanished up the pit. He had time now, to sit and sort out his feelings. He had that weird ‘big brother’ urge, and it wasn’t because they were so small. Nah, this person listened to him and liked him. He figured he can try and do the same.

---

Tiso was in a world of hurt, agony seeped into the broken crack in his chest. Hemolymph kept flooding his lungs and dripping out the corners of his mandibles. There was a fog around him in his mind, his barely open eyes blurry and seeing only smudges of green and blue. Flecks of white occasionally crossed his eyes before vanishing again. He had long since given up on trying to move, each pull of muscle only made the hemolymph flow faster. He struggled to recall what was happening as the pain moved in and out, like it was happening to someone else.

Breathe in. Breath out. Breathe in. Breath out.

The only thing he can do was just lay there and breathe wetly. Each breath he had to mentally will and it took up all other functions for now. He had no mental power to spare on anything else, so when a bigger fleck of white took up his vision and didn’t leave, he had no clue what to make of it. What the hell? He took a breath, momentary forgetting too when he pondered the white. A cough tore into his chest and he could feel the broken edges of chitin rubbing together. Something was touching him. Something was trying to get his attention, but he couldn’t spare the thought.

Breathe in. Breath out. Breathe in. Breath out.

The white vanished suddenly and Tiso found himself unable to bring himself to care or wonder about it. He had to keep breathing. Something deep and hot within himself had refused to give up. He had something to do that was very important and he couldn’t miss it. He wouldn’t. The weight of his shield was his only current comfort. Just as suddenly, the white appeared again, with a flash of red and gray. He peered at the smudges as distant sounds tickled his antenna. Was he underwater? Why couldn’t he understand them? A flash of pain and suddenly his world twisted. Colors spun around and around and it made it hard to concentrate on breathing. More sounds. More pain.

Breathe in. Breath out.

Breathe in. Brea-

It seemed like only a second and he was consumed in fire. A burning ache spread over himself as he saw only darkness. The darkness and a shriek as round orange pustules throbbed and vibrated. The sickening sound of hot fluids spilling and the nasty pop as pustules burst in a shower of gore. He was there. He had his shield, as a giant thing of teeth and screams jumped into the arena. He could barely raise his shield and then there was so much pain.

Trapped. Trapped like the fallen tunnels as the air got stale and lungs burned. Instead of the cries of the dying there was the roar of a crowd.

Take my breath, his sister had said. A little tiny thing with a tiny heart. A stone had hit her. The cave was too crowded and there wasn’t enough air. She was dying. Tiso couldn’t move the stone or she’d die faster.

Take my breath, she said. Then she breathed no more.

She always wanted to be a warrior.

She wanted to help people.

She never got to grow up.

You wasted her breath, the mawlurk shrieked as it fell toward him. You wasted it. You wasted it to die like a Fool!

Then was falling and falling and falling and falling an-

He felt cool hand in his, so tiny and small. They held on tight and Tiso stopped falling.

---

Tiso cracked his eyes open, still blurry and still in pain. He felt odd. The pain was there, but a large portion seemed locked away, just barely felt on the surface. He felt a hand in his, and with a colossal effort he managed to tilt his head to the side.

He was in some hut, on a bed, and holding his hand was the little Ghost. They must have felt the movement, because their head snapped around and looked on his eyes. A rapid flash of emotions, anger, grief, relief, joy, and others he didn’t have the ability to process, cycled through their very being. His hand was gripped with both paws now and a dribble of black welled up in their eyes to drip down their mask. Tiso wanted to say something, but it was taking a bit to remember how to do so. A large shadow fell over him, and he instinctively turned his head up to look.

Standing over him was an enormous beetle with a nail the size of Tiso himself. They looked down disappointingly at him.

“You must be Tiso, eh?”

He could only nod in response.

“You have to be the luckiest bastard in this whole dead kingdom.” The beetle moved over to a table, clinking glasses together and pouring some liquid. “You landed in just the right spot for Ghost to find you and close enough for me to come get you.”

He returned and handed a glass of water to Tiso, waiting for him to grip it before letting go. “I am Nailmaster Oro and you are here because my pupil insisted. You are going to be bed ridden for a while. Be glad I am more patient than my brothers, because after a whole week of putting you back together, I’m going to be glad when you leave.”

Tiso gratefully took the water and sucked it down, letting the liquid cool his dry throat. Once hydrated, he looked down to the ocean of bandages covering his front and one of his arms. His shield lay tilted against the bed, in arms reach. A whole week was gone, just like that. Oro must have felt the questions in his mind, because be continued to talk.

“You nearly got crushed to death, you goddamn idiot.” Oro tutted, looking over the bandages with the bedside manor of a primal aspid. “The Colosseum of Fools is just that, a collection of fools looking to die for no good reason.”

Tiso opened his mandibles to retort but only managed a wheeze. His lungs felt particularly awful and Ghost patted their hand in sympathy. Ghost let go just long enough to run over to Oro, tugging on his cloak. Once Oro bent down, Ghost gently embraced as much as he could, which wasn’t a lot. He saw Oro sigh with the tiniest glimpse of affection, before roughly patting them on the head. He glanced back to Tiso, and scowled when he realized that the ant saw the whole thing. Ghost stepped back to return to Tiso, taking his hand again.

“You’ll be okay after a bit of healing and time in the hot springs.” Oro went to squat by the fire, stirring something that smelled wonderful in a pot. “But I hope you found what was so damn important up in the coliseum.

Yes, Tiso thought to himself, I did find something. He looked at Ghost in a new light, and smiled as best as he could. They couldn’t replace her, but maybe, he could learn to not be a colossal fuck up. Maybe in that way, he can be okay with himself.

Ghost patted Tiso again for a bit and then reached in their ‘whatever’ space to pull out a pre-written piece of paper. Seeing what was written on it made Tiso almost want to take back everything he had just thought.

“You owe me 5000 geo.”

[cereusblue]

How many Hollow Knight OCs do you have by now? Probably want to know more about them!

Oh sweet jesus. So here we go. That's a question. By the way, my Hollow Knight blog is @hallowcactus

Mayflies:

Hex and Vox (The twins, very soft. Hex is baby and Vox is salty)

Mox and Lin (Parents to the twins. Deceased in every AU.)

Lex (Lovely maroon lady who can kick some serious ass. Actually boxes in Modern AU. Climbed her way into society’s elite in GNM out of SPITE. Mel is her husband.)

Mel (Meek architect man. Scrawny as hell. Loves his wife. Do what is morally best.. always.)

Elder Yuu (Head of the Mayfly tribe. Salty old crone. Hates outsiders. but she’s a decent person somewhere under those wrinkles.)

Dragonflies:

Daze (Asshole extraordinaire and my most active character. Honestly, a spicy boi who just has a habit of making others swoon.)

Maylin (Daze's mother; absolute sweetheart but hell hath no fury like May. Powerful shaman, has direct ties to the goddess Nanu. Is the Queen of the Serpentfire dragonflies.)

Daz (Daze's father; soft spoken man with a hellish temper. Big man. Heavily armor plated, has two sets of antennas. One on his brows and another on his snooter.)

Niles (cousin to Daze. Plays guitar. Is like the awkward little sibling. He’s like a bard with no real charisma. Emulates what Daze was like as a teenager because he thought Daze was cool; Daze cringes at that but loves Niles anyway because he’s baby.)

Daze's aunt and uncle to be named

Tika (random golden colored guard who I love)

Marie (White dragonfly who runs the temple dungeon in GNM)

Damselflies:

Ysmay (the massive scary bitch. Daze is actually terrified of her. For good reason. She doesn’t use weapons because she doesn’t need it.)

Mantises:

Vernon (Devil's flower mantis and the new Lord of the Garden mantis tribe)

Armen (Ghost mantis Angy old fart who somehow got a redemption arc and it's @inkbarista fault)

Neferis (original Traitor Lord)

Zeus (Another large mantis who took over for the Traitor Lord)

Greta (med student/midwife/anxious)

Nana (Elder mantis woman. Everyone’s grandma. Midwife. Medical professional for the tribe, makes herbal remedies, teas, and is an excellent cook. Beware, she will squish your cheeks. She’s Vinny’s favorite lol)

Naloo (one bad ass bitch)

Rolan (Sweet awkward boy)

Lotus (a petra who Vinny;s character impromptu adopted)

Almond (Just another baby with a need for mischief. Adopted with Lotus)

A dragon mantis I have no idea what to do with yet but I will figure it out.

Soul Santum:

Shanen (soul master)

Moths:

Minerva (Big buff atlas moth Bimbo that's like everyone's favorite character lol)

Olivia (Council lady who helps run the moth tribe in GNM)

Ivan (Actual dickwad. One of them infuriating folks but doesn't do anything bad enough to get into real trouble but sometimes you wish he would just to put him behind bars.)

Minerva's parents that I have not named yet. Very conservative, stuck in their ways, hoity toity rich folks with unbelievably high expectations.

Spiders:

Sirenne (Siren Orchid crab spider)

Heart, Spade, Clover, and Diamond (Take a wild guess what these little bastards do? Peacock jumping spiders. Cause trouble for Hornet and run a casino.)

Rex (A jumping spider with anxiety in Modern AU and a failed assassin jackass in GNM)

Centipedes:

Chu'mana (centipede centaur massive lady, is Angy will bite. Pride is a personality. I have trouble drawing her lol. Adopted from Inkbarista)

Vessels:

Vala (b... Big- carries a massive cleaver like the one Death Sword uses in Zelda Twilight Princess. Adopted from Inkbarista.)

Mora (Blueberry baby.)

Chimeras:

Mara (Mix between Hallow, Trill, and Hex. Is their sweet little girl who grows up with Wisp. @inkbarista

Lotan (Silk/Daze's kid in Modern Au and GNM. ANGY. Will bite. Bites everything. Kin has lost 7 pairs of glasses to this little monster. He's deceivingly adorable.)

Misc:

Nanu (Axolotl jesus. Massive goddess to the Serpentfire tribe of dragonflies, gave them and the damselflies their draconic traits. Eight eyes. Cryptic as hell because lets be real, she’s a goddess and that just how it be sometimes. Literally gifts her teeth to the tribe and worthy visitors to use as climbing tools and weapons.)

Void parasite

Fluke but it's a glow worm

Phantom/Phaalgun (pronounced Full-gahn. He's a Megastick. Massive stick bug. Eerily cryptic. Very scary. Works in dealing death.)

Egon (Colossal beetle who's a bitch, runs a crime ring in the City of Tears in GNM)

Mala (Grounds keeper for the Greenpath memorial in GNM)

A random ass butterfly I have no real information about other than knowing she’s anxiety incarnate and exists

Pia (Pleotomus firefly. French?? Done with everyone's shit.)

Val/Valentine. (Velvet Ant boy. Flamboyant to the fucking max, ain't afraid to shank a bitch.)

I THINK I GOT EVERYONE. I THINK. According to @abhainn-leth That’s 49 (updated!) 54 characters and I’m inclined to believe them because I do not feel like counting. If I missed any, I will be sure to add them later. I have artwork for like, a quarter of these characters lol. But if you wanna ask about specific ones, I’ll be happy to oblige with pictures if I have them and some more information lol.

[clevercatchphrase]

2020 Year Review~

2020. Pretty unique year, don’t you think? It’s the first year since 2002 to have only two different digits in it. After 2022, this won’t happen again until 2111. Yep. Absolutely nothing more interesting than that.

Anyway! It’s time I reflect on my 2020, look back on my yearly goals and rant about things that happened to me this year. I made a post like this last year, where I went over my 2019 goals and talked about what I accomplished and what I didn’t, and it’s only fitting I do the same again this year. Read more under the cut for a random stream of consciousness ramble!

So, first things first, let’s look at my 2019 goals;

Finish paying off that last student loan

Put more stuff on my redbubble

Illustrate my own fan fics

Sew at least one stuffed animal

Make an enamel pin

Read one new book a month

Write one page a day/Complete at least one new fan fic

Learn Python or C# for the game I want to make

Finish fully scripting Ghost Switch

Boost my patreon

 Paying Off My Last Student Loan: Going down the list, I am proud to say that I FINALLY paid off all my student loans! (and not a moment too soon. The last payment I made was literally days before the first quarantine rolled out). It took me roughly 4 years on my part-time paycheck to pay off all my loans, and once I finished, I had no money to my name (literally; I had less than 1k as emergency money in case of car troubles or health issues). Heck, I’m STILL living at home as a save up for a place of my own. Finally paying off all my student loans DID activate my secret 2020 new year’s resolution, which was to adopt a cat! I did this too, literally a week later! She is the best thing that’s happened to me this entire year and I love her so much and she is the snuggliest cuddle bug I’ve ever met. I’m so happy she’s in my life now~

Put More Stuff On My Redbubble: ah ha ha ha… I thought I did this, but then I went and checked, and it turns out-! I did not. I made art I intended to go on my redbubble, but haven’t put there yet. They are all drawings of some OCs from a game I want to make, but because I haven’t progressed on making the game this year, I never got around to putting more stuff related to it on my redbubble. At the time of writing, there are 7 days left in December, so I guess I could go and put it up on my redbubble right now, but without context on where the characters are from, there wouldn’t be much point, now would there?

 Illustrate My Own Fan Fics: Another goal that I was so stoked to actually do… and then just didn’t. Gee, I wonder why I couldn’t find the energy or motivation to do it this year? Truly a conundrum. (Hey, you know what? If Ghost Switch counts as a fan fiction in a visual form, then I am doing GREAT on this goal. 2.5 years in, 1 of ~4 arcs done, and still going steady~)

 Sew At Least One Stuffed Animal: Okay, I have a valid excuse for not doing this one. I even knew which stuffed animal I wanted to make, and had the pattern drawn out and everything, but I had no money for materials because I had just paid off my student loans. And then, by the time I did have enough money again, quarantine was in full effect and I couldn’t go out to the fabric store. I’m still trying my best to stay out of public places even if the rules are laxer now, because I don’t want to catch the plague even if everyone in my goddamn city thinks and acts like the problem is over already. Even if they’re all wearing masks, even if they’re staying 6 feet apart, I still don’t want to risk it. I will stay inside until health experts give the all clear, and when that day comes, then I will buy some fleece and make a plush.

 Make An Enamel Pin: I ACTUALLY DID THIS ONE. TWICE! Halfway through quarantine, I was feeling anxious and depressed about my job and how they were planning to have me work with the public despite climbing infection rates and positive covid cases. I didn’t quit then, but in a desperate move to try and become self-sufficient, I went to madebycooper and made two enamel pins based on some butterfly dragons I drew last year. They’re on my etsy store now! I even went out of my way to open a P.O. box just to start a small business! I haven’t sold a single pin yet, and I’m actually really nervous to sell my first because I don’t trust the efficiency of the postal system thanks to the actions of the GOP that really screwed them over this year! (If you would like to see my enamel pins, click here!)

 Read One Book A Month: I did this! With dragon books I bought a couple years back! In fact, I read FOURTEEN dragon books, and still have more books for next year to read! The 14 books I read this year were:

 The Hive Queen

The Poison Jungle

Wings Of Fire Legends: Dragonslayer

Dealing With Dragons

Searching For Dragons

Calling on Dragons

Talking to Dragons

The Bronze Dragon Codex

The Brass Dragon Codex

The Black Dragon Codex

The Red Dragon Codex

The Silver Dragon Codex

Dragon Strike, and

Hatching Magic

 To be honest, I had read The Red Dragon Codex years ago when it first came out, but completely forgotten what it was about. I remembered liking it, and I knew the reading level was on the lower side, but the whole dragon codex series was pretty good! So far, the Silver dragon codex was my favorite, and black dragon codex was probably the worst! Hatching Magic was also really slow and bad and had plot points that went nowhere, but the book was written in the 80s, so I don’t know what I expected. The Dealing with Dragons series was very charming and great for the most part, save for one line in the last book that really rubbed me the wrong way, and all the Wings of Fire Books go above and beyond in this third arc. The second legends book could be a little tighter, though (sky and wren are the best duo and I want a book solely about them, but I honest to god do not care about leaf and ivy’s stories.)

 Write one Page of any story every day/ complete at least one fic: I… did this? Okay, I kinda cheated near the end of the year. I was keeping up the one page a day thing for the first four months, but then the world went to shit and my schedule and habits got disrupted and I fell off my good track record. I completed 7 out of roughly 12 one-shots I had planned for this year (my goal WAS supposed to be one short a month, but… you know how it happens) I kept trying to catch up on this goal all year, but the days kept piling up…. Until November hit. I managed to write over 250 pages for Nanowrimo, and I consider this goal a win. 365 pages of fiction in total, which averages out to about one a day~. SHUT UP IT COUNTS.

 Learn Python or C# for the game I want to make: Another goal I didn’t have the mental energy to commit to this year. Truly a mystery to where all our willpower went in 2020.

 Fully Finish Scripting Ghost Switch: still haven’t done this one yet! The Snowdin arc is completely planned, but I just haven’t gotten around to getting the other areas. I’m not worried, though. I know all the major plot points I gotta hit, it’s just weaving them together in a way that flows nice is the final task. I’m not too worried though. I don’t expect to finish the Snowdin arc for another year and a half, at the bare minimum.

 And my last goal of 2020, Boost My Patreon. I did this at the beginning of the year, but then very intentionally stopped about a third of the way through. It didn’t sit right with me to tell you guys to donate to me when suddenly EVERYONE was financially strained from layoffs or being furloughed. I told my patrons the same, and if you ever need to stop donating to me to take care of yourself first, then by all means, please do. I would feel much better knowing you’re using your money to see yourself fed and housed instead of given to me (where it is pretty much only used to buy gas for my car, honestly)

 Welp! That was all my goals for 2020! I achieved 4 out of 10 goals plus 1 secret goal! Pretty much the same ratio as last year, but now this time I can blame all my failures on the pandemic! I don’t feel so bad about myself anymore~

 ON TO 2021!

 I have 11 goals for the new year, again some rolled over from this list, and some from even older years. They are, in no particular order;

 Read 12 new books (roughly 1 book a month)

Finish the first draft of 2019’s Nanowrimo project and rewrite it

Script TDV

Finish Scripting Ghost Switch

Build A Comic Buffer

Sew 1 Stuffed Animal

Finish 1 Song Comic

Make another Enamel Pin

Finish 2 short original comics (this one counts as 2 goals)

Finish the 5 remaining one-shot fics

 Now to go into depth on each one, more for my own sake, really. I want to know exactly what I have planned for each goal this year, and sometimes just looking at a short list doesn’t capture all the smaller details.

 1)Read 12 new books. Same as last year! I The only difference is I might not be able to make it all dragon-related books. (I try my hardest not to buy from amazon anymore, but half-price-books doesn’t always have the obscure stuff I’m looking for)

 2)Finish 2019’s nanowrimo project. If you read my 2019 year reflection, you’ll notice I said I wanted to do some original writing. And I did! The story I wrote for nanowrimo back then was a story I’ve been toying with since 2017, but it was only last year I finally got pen to paper. Now, you may find it odd that the keyword says “finish”. You may think, “but isn’t that what you’re supposed to do for nanowrimo?” and to that I say, WRONG! I wrote 50k words for nanowrimo, but the draft was only about halfway complete. I was kinda discouraged about what I had written last year, because I didn’t like how it was coming out, but I did manage to get it half done. Now it’s time for me to bite the bullet and just finish the thing so I can finally revise it and make it into something I DO like. (It’s still gonna be hella long, tho. That’s what I get for trying to write an epic fantasy, I guess.)

 3)Script TDV. TDV is the abbreviation of the game I want to make. I… still need to do so much for this project OTL… In addition to getting the story solidified, I still need to draw art and game assets, and learn how to code for it, both of which are no small task. I keep having some sort of new year’s goal related to this on my list, and every year I just don’t hit this one. Will 2021 be different?

 4)Finish Scripting Ghost Switch. (Or at the very least, get the waterfall arc completely written out). I have a plan to break this down into simpler steps, by focusing on just one arc for a month or two. Every major arc has 2 to 3 parts, broken up by flashbacks, and if I can just finish one section a month, then I should have the entire thing scripted by the end of the year. It’s not a difficult pace, but seeing if I stick with it will be the real challenge, as it is will all my goals it seems.

 5)Build a Comic Buffer: I’m actually working on this one right now! Since I paid off my last loan and got a new job this year, my current Patreon goals are kind of out of date. They had all been centered around me paying off that last loan, and working towards full-time employment, but those are both completed now! So instead, I would love to get to a place where my patrons could read pages at least a week ahead, and to do that, I need to build a buffer. And since I’m working 5 full days a week now, I can’t afford to fall behind. But you can’t fall behind if you constantly stay ahead! I would like to have… a 10 to 12 page buffer. That’s roughly 3 months’ worth of pages to always have on hand in case I get swamped with work, or something. Right now I currently have a buffer of 3, which will cover me for half a January, which is better than not having anything at all, but still not the best. (ultimately, I would love to have a buffer so big, I could queue them up for the whole year. Wouldn’t that be something?)

 6) Sew one stuffed animal: same as last year. ASSUMING the plague gets under control in 2021, I don’t expect to get to this goal until the summer at the earliest.

 7)Finish 1 song comic: I have 7 song comics planned. One is a gift, one possibly for wandersong, one is a collab that’s currently in the works, but I’m waiting on a friend to do their part before I can continue mine, 2 are UT related, and 2 (well, technically 3, but one is the collab) are KH related. It’s one of the UT ones that will probably get finished, if I’m being honest. It’s completely story boarded, and now I just need to ink and color it. I would like to get it done for UT’s 6th birthday, since I made a song comic on the fly for the anniversary this year, and it was fun, and I’d like to do it again! So, look forward to that next september~

 8) Make another enamel pin: I have a dolphin design I’d like to make because dolphins are cute, if not little murder machines. (need to save up some expendable income first, tho. THESE THINGS AIN’T CHEAP TO MAKE.)

 9 and 10) start and finish 2 original short comics: I’ve got some comic ideas I want to do, but I need to get them written out first. I don’t think either would be too long. Each maybe a couple “episode’s” length, if envisioned on a website like webtoons or tapas. They’d both be heavy in allegory, but not overly drawn out (hopefully)

 11)And lastly, Finish the 5 remaining one-shots I had planned for this year but never got around to. I’m going to try to write one every other month. Pure self-indulgent shipping fluff. If I finish these 5, then maybe I’ll ask other people for more prompts and ideas, which I’ve never done before. We’ll see how it goes~

 Also, Like last year, I’d like to look at everything that’s happened to me this year, though to be honest, I’m not sure how much I remember/how accurate it’ll be. God, I don’t even remember what January was like. Who was I back then? Who were we all back then? I guess I’ll start my yearly retrospective in march because, heh, god we ALL know what started happening in march.

 Firstly, I paid off my last student loan! Then a week later on March 18th, I drove half an hour out of my city to adopt a cat and I love her and it was the best day of this year for me. Spring break is just beginning this weekend, but the attendance at the zoo is shockingly low this year. Apparently, a lot of people watch the news, and they’re all taking precautions about social distancing. I wasn’t too disappointed. Fewer people at the zoo, the easier my job is for me. I was looking forward to getting some free overtime on spring break, since I’m broke after paying off that loan, and I’m a cat parent now and have a furry child to feed. Monday rolls around. My manager calls me and tells me that the zoo is going into lockdown until further notice. I worry for the birds I take care of, but understand it’s for everyone’s safety.

 For two months I sleep in and watch way too much YouTube. I join a couple writing discords. I have nightmares about my birds escaping their enclosure and I dreamed one of the security guards I really like at the zoo gets covid and has to go to the ER. I woke up really upset.

 I started and finished BBS for the first time. I also replayed and finished KH2 final mix for the first time. It had been about 5 years since I last played KH2 before my PS2 died, and it was like coming home~ I also finished tearaway, and played and beat Ryme for a second time (which I can’t remember if I did that last year, but it was a fun experience regardless)

 Mid-June, and I’m allowed to start going back to work, be it on reduced hours. The zoo is still closed to the public, but I’m loving it! I get to work with full-time keepers and do full-time keeper things. It’s so much fun not having to deal with the public. August starts to creep up and there’s a rumor that the zoo will be opening to the public again, which I’m not stoked about. I don’t want to go back to standing in one exhibit all day, talking to guests who don’t listen to the rules or to me. 2 of my younger coworkers (who had both only been there a couple of months) get chosen for full-time positions, while I get passed up which really pisses me off. My other 2 coworkers quit when they think we might be reopening because they cannot risk catching the virus due to at-risk family. I am now the last keeper in the interactive bird exhibit.

 I keep working, the zoo slowly opens, but with me as the only interpreter in our interactive bird exhibit, we can’t open because I can’t run the entire exhibit by myself. So my exhibit stays closed. September comes and goes, and then October starts. Now there is more serious talk of opening my exhibit before the end of the year because the zoo expects to bring in larger crowds for the Christmas lights event in November/December. I ask if I get hazard pay or health insurance since I’m doing full-time hours until they hire more staff. They say no.

 I immediately start searching for a new job feeling incredibly indignant/hurt/slighted/insulted/used/abused/ALL the negative feelings at my job. I had been there for 4 years, but never got a chance to work full time, while the two newest hires who had only been there 2 months both got moved up. I can’t help but feel they were holding one mistake I made two years ago against me and never wanted to give me a chance. (that, or they knew I was reliable when it came to showing up for work in such a volatile position that sees a lot of new faces, and they didn’t want to bother going through the process of hiring someone new) I don’t want to risk my life working around guests who don’t wash their hands and don’t properly distance. I don’t want to gamble with my health when they won’t offer me health insurance because I’m part time.

 Mid October, I get an interview for a full time job and get hired on the spot. I peace out at the zoo 2 weeks later, literally 3 days before they planned to open my exhibit to the public. It was a close call for me to escape before they opened to the public (and pettiness was only partially the reason I dipped out so close to opening). Sorry new hires who are now in charge of the bird feeding exhibit. I taught you the best I could in the short time I had. If the managers are struggling with what to do with one less person, I can’t say I feel bad. I can only hope they delayed opening/closed you down again for your own safety. You are not lightbulbs. I really hope the higher ups stop considering you as replaceable as one. Will I go back to the zoo to visit? Probably. But not for a year at least.

 I started my new job the very next day after I quit the zoo, and have been there ever since, (which isn’t that long yet, tbh. Christmas day was my 2 month anniversary). It’s full time, but it’s also a small business, and everyone’s hours this year have been on the short side due to the plague. I understand, though. They don’t want us to work if they can’t afford to pay us. Everyone is nice enough, though some people smoke and it’s hard to avoid them with how frequently we have to go in and out, and I really don’t want to get lung cancer, sorry not sorry, please and thank you. Also, with such a small team, gossip is certainly harder to go undetected, so it’s a relief knowing people don’t talk behind one another’s backs.

 I participated and beat my 4th nanowrimo in a row, I made TWO apple crisps on thanksgiving, and made baklava on Christmas and both of these recipes were my first time making them, and they both came out adequately! I voted the first day of early voting, and I did an art trade/collab with two of my friends for my birthday! (normally we would have done monthly “art days” where we get together and do art projects for fun because we’re adults and we can spend our time together however we want, but the plague said otherwise this year) We drew pokemon and it was fun! (hopefully I can show you all the results soon. At the time of writing, I’m still waiting for the last two colored parts to get back to me)

 I reached 100 pages on my undertale comic, and finish the first arc out of…! (im not sure. It’s either going to be 4 or 5, I haven’t decided yet)

 Over all, I managed to stay healthy as far as I know. I wasn’t as productive as I wanted to be this year, but then again, who was? (don’t answer that. I don’t need that kind of comparison in my life right now)

 Will 2021be any better? Honestly? I don’t think so. Not right away, at least. Just because a new year is about to start does not mean the slate is completely wiped clean. The change of the calendar year doesn’t magically make all our current problems disappear. Covid will still be here and cases will still climb when January starts. Small business will still be strained when the month rolls over, police will still go on murdering innocent civilians and getting away scot free, amazon and disney will still be monopolizing all consumer goods and media, and I can’t help but feel like there’s an impending shit show about to go down on inauguration day. I do hope things will get better, though. It’ll be arduous and unpleasant, but I do hope things will improve, because sometimes hoping is all you can do.

 Good night.

[alexthegamingboy]

Toonami Weekly Recap 11/02/2019

JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind EP#02 - Bucciarati Is Coming: In a flashback, it is revealed that Giorno, who was once abused by his step-father and bullied by other kids, began being treated with respect after saving an injured gangster, giving him a reason to live. Back in the present, faced with Bucciarati's Stand, Sticky Fingers, Giorno desperately uses Gold Experience to defend himself. Upon striking Bucciarati, the latter's senses to go berserk, giving Giorno the upper hand. Bucciarati creates a dimension-distorting zipper to try and escape inside another person, but Giorno tracks him down by turning one of Bucciarati's teeth into a fly, which attempts to return to his body. Given the chance to finish Bucciarati off, Giorno decides against it, instead asking to join his organization so he can defeat his boss and take over the city.

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba EP#04 - Final Selection: Two years have passed since Nezuko's transformation, and Tanjiro leaves for the Final Selection. Before his departure, Urokodaki warns him that a demon's strength is equivalent to the number of humans it has eaten, gifting him a fox mask with a protection spell. Tanjiro reaches Mt. Fujikasane, where wisteria flowers bloom all year round, creating a prison for demons. The test administrators, a pair of twins, explain that only those who can survive here for 7 days will pass. Tanjiro is soon ambushed by two hungry demons on his very first night. Using a special "Nichirin Blade" that can kill demons without risk of them regenerating, Tanjiro remembers his training and utilises Total Concentration: Water Breathing swordsmanship style, to unleash an attack that kills them quickly. However, him and another applicant come face-to-face with a huge morphed demon made out of ghastly hands. This Hand Demon promises to kill him, recognising Tanjiro as Urokodaki's student from the fox mask, and gleefully admits to murdering 13 of Urokodaki's students since he was captured by the man himself, Sabito and Makomo included. Tanjiro attacks him, enraged. Back at the boulder, Sabito and Makomo's ghosts wonder if Tanjiro can defeat their killer, having failed themselves to slice its neck. Sabito recalls that Tanjiro sliced through the toughest boulder of all of them and chooses to believe. By unleashing an array of attacks, Tanjiro successfully decapitates the Hand Demon.

One-Punch Man 2 EP#04 (16) - The Metal Bat: It is revealed that when Garou was young, he always rooted for the bad guys to win due to the good guys being too popular. When he asked his father, his father replies that the good guys will always win. Garou find that unfair to the monsters because to him the monsters were always the ones trying their best to win, but will lose all the time because they were seen as "freaks." Unwilling to accept the status quo, Garou resolved to become the strongest monster and never lose, and to change the scenario. Garou wakes up from his defeat against Saitama, with no memory of what happened. Garou meets up with Tareo and sees Watchdog Man and Metal Bat, and plans to find them. Saitama signs up for the fighting tournament, and is looking over a list of the contestants of the tournament when Sour Face, a former disciple of Bang, shows up. Sour Face plans to win the tournament to be famous like Bang, and reveals that the year before a contestant named Wolfman won the tournament. However the authorities found the real Wolfman tied up, which is why there's a new rule that if there are any participants that are wearing disguises or is an imposter, then the participant will be disqualified and banned from the tournament forever, as well as paying a heavy fee. It is also revealed that 6 months ago Garou decided that he has nothing left to learn and rampaged through the dojo, disabling many of the students, including Sour Face. Garou then received a beating from Bang and was expelled from the dojo, which also caused Sour Face to quit the dojo. When Sour Face insults "Charanko", Saitama points out that at least Charanko was brave enough to fight against Garou one on one while Sour Face quit, and vows to win the tournament which angers Sour Face. Meanwhile, the Hero Association plans to protect its officials from monster attacks by assigning S Class Heroes. King manages to get away by lying that he's fighting against a secret boss when in reality he is playing a video game. Metal Bat is forced to babysit Narinki, a VIP sponsor of the Hero Association, and his son Waganma at a Mouse Sushi restaurant in S-City instead of watching his little sister play piano. When Metal Bat receives a call from his sister, two monsters named Junior Centipede and Venus Mantrap attack Nanrinki but Metal Bat easily kills them. Suddenly, another monster named Senior Centipede attacks Metal Bat. A monster named Raffleseidon appears and puts on sleeping gases which knocks out Narinki and Waganma. Metal Bat is forced to endure many hits before hitting himself in the head, which pumps adrenaline into his system, rendering the gas useless and enabling him to kill the two Demon Level monsters with one hit apiece. Two local heroes take Narinki and Waganma when a Dragon-level monster named Elder Centipede attacks Metal Bat. During the fight, Elder Centipede knocks Metal Bat near Garou. Thinking that Metal Bat is dead, Garou plans to find Watchdog Man when Metal Bat gets back up. Garou naturally wants to fight Metal Bat, but Metal Bat wants to go back after Elder Centipede. Garou initiates the fight by attacking Metal Bat, and Metal Bat barely manages to block the preemptive blow. In the post credit scene, a martial artist named Suiryu asks two girls to lead him to the Fight tournament.

Dr. Stone Kingdom of Science Arc EP#11 - Clear World: Senku uses quartz sand to produce glass, which he uses to create glasses for the short-sighted Suika. Lacking the skills needed to glassblow useable lab utensils, Chrome brings in a skilled craftsman named Kaseki, who is able to quickly adapt to the unfamiliar substance. To break in their new lab, Senku offers to make Ginro a silver spear as part of a dangerous mission.

Fire Force EP#14 - For Whom The Flame Burns: While chaos reigns in Asakusa with Infernals appearing and people's appearance being changed at random, Konro and Benimaru argue over who should take charge. Benimaru eventually defers and gains everyone's attention. He explains what's happening, then goes after the Infernals while Konro and Company 7 attend to the fires. Meanwhile, Shinra and Arthur face Haran who has become a horned Infernal after swallowing an Infernal Bug. However, Benimaru intervenes and attacks Haran with his Ignition ability. Benimaru launches Haran into the air with his matoi to spare the town, but Arrow fires a flaming arrow towards them. Shinra uses all of his speed to intercept and deflect the arrow, allowing Benimaru to take the opportunity to use his Crimson Moon (紅月 Akatsuki) avility to create a massive explosion which destroys Haran. Shinra catches Benimaru as he falls from the sky, completely spent from the confrontation. Later, Benimaru and Obi share some sake, sealing the friendship between Companies 7 and 8.

Food Wars!: Shokugeki no Soma EP#17 - The Seductive Karaage: Arriving back home, Soma temporarily re-opens Yukihira Diner to serve his loyal customers, including his childhood friend, Mayu Kurase, who has a crush on him. He learns that the Sumire Shopping District has been doing poor business lately due to the arrival of a popular karaage chain shop, Mozuya. Wanting to help revive the shopping district, Soma decides to come up with a competing karaage recipe, calling in Ikumi as his meat expert while Mayu winds up as his taste tester. The three do some recon at Mozuya, where they find its CEO Kinu Nakamozu to be a spiteful woman, before beginning work on a karaage recipe of their own. As Soma takes Mayu's suggestion to use their shopping district location to their advantage, it is revealed that the figure behind Mozuya's success is one of the Elite Ten.

Lupin the 3rd Part 5 EP#20 - Zenigata, Gentleman Thief: Lupin, Jigen and Goemon take a trip to one of their old haunts in Russia to carry out some easy heists. To their surprise, they find another party of thieves already raiding the same targets with their old enemy Zenigata among their ranks. When Lupin talks with Zenigata, he finds that the latter has alcoholic amnesia from a massive drinking bout after another failure to catch Lupin. Zenigata has adopted the alias "Monety" and the modus operandi of his old nemesis Lupin while trying to uncover his lost identity. Unwilling to leave Zenigata in that condition, Lupin and company intercept Zenigata at the site of his next heist. When Lupin and Zenigata escape the crime scene together, the encounter finally snaps Zenigata's memory back into place, and to everyone's relief their relationship returns to its usual state.

Black Clover: Elf Tribe Reincarnation Arc EP#93 - Julius Novachrono: Marx, the Wizard King's advisor, sends word to every squad captain, ordering them to help the Wizard King. Licht's spells cause massive damage to the city, yet Julius holds back so as not to injure Vangeance's body. Julius reveals his Grimoire, which is so large with so many pages it has no cover, just an endless circle of pages around a central spine. Licht comes to believe that as he had planned to unbalance the world by eradicating humans, fate itself conspired to restore balance by creating Julius as the embodiment of order. Licht casts a spell powerful enough to completely wipe out the entire country. Julius recalls his youth as a magic knight, searching for his life's purpose, until he met Zara, Zora's father, who taught him that a true knight should serve the people. After Zara was murdered Julius grew disgusted at the way the class system kept both nobles and commoners from reaching their potential. He decided to become the Wizard King so he could help make the world a better place through the efforts of knights like Asta, Yuno and Noelle. Refusing to give in Julius uses all his accumulated time to reverse the entire country back a few seconds, saving everybody but leaving himself open to Licht who stabs him in the heart. Yami arrives too late to stop him and draws his sword in preparation to kill both Licht and Vangeance.

My Hero Academia Season 4 will air on Toonami November 9 at 11:00 pm EDT.

[equinoxts2]

The Many Deaths of Serena zan-Nutama

Or “Tribute to a sim who seems fated to not get a fair chance. Aww.”

Backstory: A few years ago, I adopted a group of sims from this post on FlyingRaccoon’s Test of Time blog. All of them were second generation sims who had died before reaching adulthood. In that timeline, Serena Earth (zan-Nutama in her second life in Kulo Seeri) had died as a toddler due to poor health.

When these sims arrived in Kulo Seeri, Serena married Kenan Stone (zan-Ku in KS) and they had a son, Dalos zan-Nutama. In one rebuild, due to a bug of some sort that I can’t remember what, they tried for a baby and Kenan got pregnant. Serena also got pregnant later on the same day. With mpreg being viewed with superstitious fear in KS (although Headwoman Etan is trying her best to counter that) they decided to go somewhere else to have the babies, then come back and claim they were twins.

I sent them into TS3. I do that sometimes when I want a short-term play experience of something slightly different, and/or there’s something I want to explore around the characters. They had their “twin” daughters in Lucky Palms, and then it spiralled out of control, as described in the blog post I just linked. Long story short, Serena was mostly relegated to sidekick role while Kenan built big scary robots - another Nuidya taboo - and although I didn’t like the turn it had taken, I kept playing regardless.

They wanted another kid. Another bug caused her to give birth within two hours of the Try for Baby interaction. I drew up a random dice table for effects on her and the baby, and thanks to a bad roll, Serena wound up dying in childbirth. Her son was born a ghost.

Then Nita zan-Avira, another TS3 spinoff-born sim, travelled back to the canon timeline to warn the Nuidya about the possible threat from Kenan’s robots. So they didn’t leave, and it became an alternate timeline that never actually happened; the “twin” girls were born in TS2 instead. 

Now here’s a spoiler for something I haven’t blogged yet. Serena and Kenan broke up, and she started seeing Hanis zan-Ave. Soon they were expecting a baby, thanks to ROS. And, thanks to another ROS three rotations later, she died in childbirth again. Just as I was planning to find a way of bringing her to the fore in a storyline :(

Goodbye again, Serena. It’s not remotely fair. :(

(PS: I am half tempted to let her ascend into the Nuidya pantheon of greater ancestors as the Red-Shirted Goddess or some such thing.)

[serenagaywaterford]

6) a flip of the dime. The nasty parts were always there, but he concealed/controlled them. Maybe bc said parts wouldn't exactly make him endearing to others? Anyhow, your interpretation makes him quite the interesting antagonist/villain, so I'm rolling with it, lol. /// There was another thing that was bugging me about S2: the baby's name. Obviously, Serena chose Nic(h)ole as a "fuck you" to Fred. But June in the finale? Of course, she stuck to it for Nick's sake, but also bc she recognized

7) Serena’s selfless (well, if you can call it that) act. Thoughts on this? /// As for your older responses, I forgot to describe what an epiphany it was for me to realize the significance of Serena’s use of the word “rape” for the first time. The anger I felt after 2x10 blinded me to the VERY OBVIOUS connection between her realization in 2x10 and her outburst in 2x11. (Silly me!) Imagine how much more intense that fight would have been if they included the marital rape. I remember a writer

8) that June didn’t kill Serena, bc she actually felt sorry for her in that episode. (Ngl, June’s kindness baffles me at times.) I knew that she wasn’t gonna do it of course, but it was 50/50 whether I wanted her to shoot them or not. /// Something I have not addressed so far is how lukewarm I found their explanation for June getting away with all the shit she does. Well, she’s no Janine (who loses an eye) or Emily (who gets mutilated), but still. Like you said, Serena and Fred might get away

9) get away with a lot more bc of their privilege, but June? Hm. // I’ll start quoting later (or maaaybe tomorrow).

———–

I always thought that was a really weird sort of thing for June to do. And it seems to be entirely because of Serena? Like, it was Holly, Holly, Holly. Even when she was talking to Nick. Then she has the exchange with Serena, and suddenly she adopts Serena’s supreme dickmove of a babyname? 

And I LIKED Holly. It meant something. Nichole (I HATE THAT SPELLING SFM LMAO) means nothing to June? Can you imagine the convo: 

“Mommy, why am I called Nichole?”

“Well, baby, you see, your Daddy’s name is Nick, so the lady that stole you decided to name you after him to eternally piss off her husband who she clearly hates and wanted him to be reminded that he’s impotent every time he looks at you.”

Like, on the one hand, Serena is fucking brilliant and it just shows the extent of her hatred for Fred. But then it’s kinda shitty to use a child as a pawn in that.

Then again, maybe there’s another reason Serena chose that name? I know there’s like a whole history about St. Nicholas and his role as a patron saint of childless couples, or something. (I can’t recall exactly rn). And there was something about St. Nicolette and babies. (Which is where the names Nicole and Collette come from.) Something like she raised a dead baby back to life. So, I guess, at a stretch perhaps that was her inspiration? I doubt it, knowing Serena. LOL.

It’s really curious June’s decision though. Despite EVERYTHING Serena’s done, June just wipes it clean and names her fucking baby after Serena’s choice? Maybe she was trying to retain the memory of Nick for Nichole? I dunno. And not only that, but she seemed 100% genuine when she said that farewell blessing and held Serena’s hand (again). 

I dunno, June’s own preoccupation with Serena is something I don’t truly understand but she clearly thinks there’s some odd connection or something. It’s funny cos I was reading a review about S2 and June’s choices in the finale, and her constant support of Serena despite ALL the reasons not to, and lemme see if I can find it… 

 Nah. I can’t. Anyway, it was something about how we all know June’s going back for Hannah, but this writer thought June was also going back for Serena.

I’m not convinced about that tbh, but I can see the argument cos June is strangely protective and compassionate towards Serena considering. I just have a sinking feeling that the show is gonna play that “Oops, Serena is evil again!! SHE WAY MAD JUNE GIVE BABBY AWAY trolololol!!!!” and make her despicable in order to get Nicole back. If that is the case, I’m gonna roll my eyes right outta my head. I have no issue with Serena having regrets, tbh. I think that’s pretty understandable and expected. But having Serena go hogwild with abuse and using Fred’s power to get back at June or something is just going to fucking piss me off cos like, c’mon my dudes, been there, done that. Over and over already. It’s the 3rd season and either you’re gonna put this bitch on a mild redemption arc or you’re gonna make her a full-on villain. Make up your minds. The will-she, won’t-she thing is old by now.

I dunno that was a random OT rant.

Also, TRUTH! Serena’s use of the word “rape” was important. Like, part of me is like DUH how did you JUST figure that out?! And, honestly I feel like the marital rape is sort of necessary for Serena’s epiphany to get recognised. I think, Serena is just wilfully ignorant enough to not truly consider the Ceremony rape. I honestly do not think she totally understood what she was suggesting with the 2x10 rape. (Serena really does lack forethought for like…all of her actions. That’s sorta her whole problem.) I think she thought it would be just like a sort of unsanctioned ceremony. But by the end she did seem to recognise what it truly was. And having her raped by Fred in the previous episode would have really helped with that. (Then again, it’s really hard to understand how a woman who was just raped turns around and basically suggests it. And this person is supposed to be not Satan. A pure evil woman sure. But Serena’s not meant to be that.)

I think Yvonne’s delivery of the line was interesting too. Part of it was like, “HOly shit it was rape” and part of it was like, “ha! you’re a monster!! you did that!” Like she had no culpability in it. I want to know if Serena has realised that ALL ceremonies are RAPE yet. I wonder if she’s got there. I’m not totally convinced she has. But… I dunno.

Oh! I hadn’t read that about June’s reasoning! That’s interesting. I mean, it fits with June overall but it’s a very odd thing. Like, to be holding a gun trained on the couple that literally held you down and raped you not 24 hours earlier… and feel SORRY for the woman (whereas the general population’s consensus is that Serena is even worse than Fred for doing that to another woman)? I went and watched it after reading your message I didn’t really see that on June’s face. (But that’s really neither here nor there since editing, directing, etc. all differs from what the writers/showrunners had in mind and those are the guys doing the interviews!)  I take that back! I watched it again and I can deffo see that if that’s what they were going for. Totally missed it and likely wouldn’t have picked up on it if not for this convo.

That said, I totally see June reasoning it out that way. For some strange reason, whether it’s Stockholm Syndrome or whatever, June seems to have a blindspot/softspot for Serena and she seems to have unlimited Get Out Of Jail Free cards for her. Like, c’mon, she literally held her down to be brutally raped, and at this point it seems like Serena could murder June and June’s ghost would just be like, “Hey youuuuu, wanna be my bestie in overthrowing the patriarchy?” (Okay, I’m not at all complaining cos I love their dynamic and I ship them soooooo… lol. On a personal level, it works very well for me and my crackshippy fantasies. I choose to believe June honestly sees something nobody else does and believes in Serena’s capacity for redemption–WHICH IS INSANE. But hey. I love it.)

So, for June to feel sorry for Serena, even after everything really does fit when you think about it. And also when you think about book!June’s attitude towards true power being in forgiveness.

I remember sitting around watching the ep the first time and thinking “I don’t want June to shoot them and be a killer” but also, “WHY ISN’T SHE SHOOTING THE FUCKING PLACE UP! DOES SHE NOT WANT TO ESCAPE????” And I was sitting there with the wifey and she was like, “She can’t. What if she misses? Then you’ve got 2 incredibly angry people chasing you.” And I was like… “Uh. Reload? Shoot them as they’re coming up the stairs.”

Because I have never fired a gun in my life so to me it seems really easy lmao. But to me, I didn’t even care about her shooting Serena but I did have an inkling she didn’t want to shoot Serena with the amount she paused. That would have been a perfect shot with teh type of ammo to take out –or at least injure– two people at once. I was like, “You gotta kill Fred and Serena is pretty useless then. It’s not like they have mobile phones! You can then choose to leave Serena to die there lol, or hostage her. And steal the car. You could get pretty far since nobody knows that Fred/Serena are even there.” To me, rationally, it didnt’ make sense not to shoot them. But… emotionally, obvs, I knew she wouldn’t cos a)the series would like… end rather abruptly lol, and b) that’s just not June.

AND yeah, June getting away with all her bullshit is insane in comparison. Janine literally lost an eye for backtalking once at the Red Centre! June has, well, done so much more and just kind skates away from ALL serious punishment. (Well, living with Fred and Serena is a pretty awful punishment in general.) And, sure part of it was cos she was preggers but … how Aunt Lydia/Fred/Serena/TPTB trust this crazy Handmaid not to KEEP breaking the rules is insane. I feel like nobody would trust her to just be a docile little thing after running away for 92 days. Not even Pervy Freddo. Despite all his creeptastic fetishes, he’d be like, “OMG she is way too high maintenance. i just don’t have the patience. give me that baby so i can shut my annoying wife up and then get me another more docile babyslave to play Scrabble and shave!” The plot armour is strong in this one!

Anyway! I got a bit carried away there…

[foolsiwillshowthemall]

Farm Report: baaaaaby

Everyone, meet our new baby.  Yngvi is new to the world and won't be doing much more than sleeping for a while, but we are both tremendously happy and proud to welcome them to our family.

It's a traditional name in our family.  I certainly didn't open up a random name generator and hit reload until I saw an interesting name.  That would be a completely irresponsible way to name a child.

New child or not, life goes on.  Abby is heading into town today - presumably to let Pierre and Caroline know that they are grandparents now.  I have animals to tend to.  And I'm still getting requests in the mail.  The Wizard wants an iridium bar, and those aren't easy to come by.  I have managed to scrape together enough iridium ore for two bars, and I won't come by more easily.  I'm going to give him one anyway.  This game has taught me that rare resources, like iridium or starfruit, tend to come around again in time, and it's more worthwhile to use them to make friends than it is to hold onto them when you don't have an immediate need.

Today, there are still no rabbit's feet at the traveling wagon, but they do have a Void Egg.  What could possibly have laid this?  This will be a good time to try out the incubator that Robin installed in my deluxe coop.

Delivered the iridium to the wizard promptly.  He's grateful, pays well, but is a bit rude in his brush-off.  "Now, Leave"?  Fine.  I don't need to stick around and watch or anything.

Next stop for today is to visit the sewers again.  The shadow person merchant is still down there, and still not attacking me.  I have a bit more money now, enough to afford to buy a few things.

First, I'm getting that Stardrop.  I don't know how he came by one, but then I have no idea how Abigail got her hands on one either.  I just want that extra permanent energy boost.

They also have iridium sprinklers.  Only on certain days, and only one at a time.  I wouldn't have thought there was much market for sprinklers in the sewer-dwelling shadow person community, but apparently there is.

Hey Pierre!  Did Abby stop by yet with the news about the baby?

He's not responding.  Being a grandfather already must be making him feel old.

Speaking of Abigail, I see that she's taking the time in town to hang out with her friends again.  Well, that's okay.  I wouldn't want her to give up her social life just because she's my wife now.

I wouldn't say nothing has changed .. but you go ahead and hang out with your friends.  I'm going home to take care of our child.

There they are, sleeping peacefully.  Children in this game are fortunately extremely low-maintenance. There isn't even much that I can do to meaningfully interact with them at this age, I need to wait for them to mature a bit before they even have a mood that I can effect.

I wouldn't want to put any pressures on them at this age, or really at all, to follow in my footprints at this age.  I just want to give them the best home I can and let them find their own path in life, sweetie.

I will however thoroughly disapprove of the choices that my rabbits have made, in not giving me any shed feet.  We are running out of time, rabbits!  You are going to disappoint Grandpa.

The animals are taken care of, the spirits are happy, it's early in the day, and Abby will be staying home to take care of the baby.  Time for me to head to the mines.

But first, I need to get my watering can from Clint.  Winter is a good time to upgrade those tools you won't need until the spring.

Level 115.  Crawling with tough monsters.  I feel less cavalier about going to these levels now that I know that the Shadow People are actual talking, thinking people, and not unthinking monsters like the slimes presumably are.  I'll try to avoid having to fight any.

Just slimes and bats so far.

Getting more stone, ore, and coal, but I'm mostly just taking the ladder down the moment I see it.  I just want to get to the next and presumably final checkpoint.

And I'm there!  What's the reward for reaching this final level of the mines?

The Skull Key.  I know of exactly one remaining locked door, the one at the back of that cave in the Calico Desert.  I'll be headed there at some point to try it.  But for now, I'm just getting out of here, and heading home to spend time with my family.

Sunday the 7th.  Abigail and I are discussing tomorrow's Ice Festival, and the fishing contest.  I won it last year, and I've only gotten better at fishing since then.  No way I'm going to miss this.

A kiss, and then I head out for shopping and errands.

My last tool upgrade for now - getting my hoe upgraded to gold level.  It may be a while before I have enough iridium for the next level of tool upgrades.

What you need, Jodi, is a babysitter for Sam.  I would suggest Penny, but I don't want to encourage those two to spend more time together.

That's what you get for pursuing a life of profit and competition, Pierre.  And now your daughter is off having fun on my farm.

Helping your wife with the cleaning and cooking might be a good start, Kent.  Or just get Sam out of the house for a bit.

WHAT?  That is totally unacceptable.  I'm going to have a talk with Demetrius about respecting both his children equally next time I see him.  Ugh.  I'm kind of ashamed that he was my best friend for so long.

As I'm checking the winery that night, I'm lucky enough to be there as the kegs are finishing processing pumpkin juice.  All forty or so lit up one after the other as I watched.  I harvested them all, and then re-loaded them with the rest of the pumpkin harvest.

Monday the 8th.  The first batch of winter crops is ready.  I'm mostly interested in the crystal fruit, for making wine, and the winter roots, for making more seeds.  The snow yams are marginally useful as food, and the crocuses are one of Sandy's most loved gifts.

Time for the Ice Festival again.  It's pretty much the same as last year.  Ice sculptures, snowmen, and a fishing contest.

I will suggest that for next year, Shane.

Uh?  I suppose?  I appreciate the attempt and that you've thought of me.  Doesn't really capture my mighty physique though, but you did capture my hairstyle.

That's probably for the best, Maru.  You get too creative and your dad will make you knock it down.  Just ask your brother.

Sebastian has his emo to keep him warm.

It's time for the fishing competition.  I won it last year, and was unimpressed with the rewards.  I still think it was all a scheme by Willy to promote his fishing shop.  This year I'm mostly here to beat Pam.  We'll see who's the queen of fishing around here.

I catch a single fish, and then for almost a minute solid I reel in nothing but seaweed. I'm starting to suspect this contest is rigged.  Pam hasn't pulled in any seaweed that I can tell.

Fortunately, the second minute of the contest is better, and I pull in four more fish.  It's just barely enough to win.

The prize this year is just cash instead of fishing equipment.  It's just as well, I already have all the fishing gear I need.

Strangely, they forgot to take the bamboo pole back after the contest.  What am I supposed to do with a second one of these?  I don't think the game will let me sell it or throw it away.

Chatting with my wife the next morning.  The reality of her new situation is still sinking in on her.  I can understand.  It all seems so sudden.  Only two years ago, I was working for JojaMart, in a dead-end cubicle job.  Now I've moved to this wonderful farm, made so many friends, become part of the community, fallen in love, gotten married, and adopted a child.  And in a few weeks, I expect the ghost of my dead grandfather to appear and judge me on how I've done.  Life is indeed weird, Abby, but I'm glad you're part of it now.

After picking up my upgraded hoe from Clint, I'm headed back to the desert.  I want to see if the Skull Key actually fits the locked door in the back of that cave, and I have business with Sandy as well.  This time I'm giving Pam a Pale Ale from my brewery to have before the trip.  Might as well keep her happy too.

If I ever have kids?  I'll have you know that Abigail and I are parents, Pam.  I have a child and wish the best life that I can for them.  And I'll treat them a damn sight better than you treat Penny.

Calico Desert.  I can already see a lot of forage items - cactus fruit and coconuts - scattered around and ready to be gathered.

Indeed, the skull key is for the locked door at the back of the cave.  Now to see what's inside.

It's full of mummies, and they won't stay dead.  If I hit them enough times with my sword, they collapse into a pile of bandages, but soon regenerate and get back up again.  I can't deal with them now, I need to come back later with better gear.

I'm also here to buy starfruit seeds.  The batch of starfruit I had growing should be just about ready for harvest by now, and it's time to dump another 44K of gold on the seeds for the next batch.  I'm just glad that Sandy sells all her seeds year-round, unlike Pierre who only sells seeds for that season.  Not very helpful for those of us using a greenhouse, Pierre.

Trying the Skull Cavern again.  No mummies this time, but I do have to fight a purple slime, and lose about a third of my health in the process.

This flying bug appears to be indestructible, but it's easy to avoid.  I'll just walk around it.

And then this damn thing attacks.  Some kind of flying serpent!  Similar to the flies from the early levels of the mines, it ignores walls and homes straight in on the player.  Not too hard to kill, but it takes focus and timing to hit it with my sword at just the right moment.

After that, I'm done.  Time to head home to my wife.

Starfruit crop has been harvested, and the seeds I just bought planted.  That's 108 starfruit right there.  I could sell them immediately for a good profit, but they'll be worth even more as fine aged starfruit wine.

I had a great day too, sweetie.  Got to explore an entire new deadly dungeon full of monsters!  Abigail would be thrilled to be told about this, she's all into the adventuring life, and though she's worried for my safety she can hardly tell me to say home where its safe.  I think I will take that bomb she gave along with me next time I go however.

Wednesday the 10th.  Kissing my wife before heading out for a full day of farm chores and errands around town.

Apparently, someone noticed my minor excursion into the mines yesterday, and has a challenge for me.

Ok, this sounds straight up like they want me to get killed.  I've seen what's in the mines, it's freaking dangerous.  If I'm going to get deeper in them, I'm going to need much better gear.  And a 'mountain of gold'?  That is not a fixed number, that could be anything, assuming you even intend to pay up.  I do not trust this Mr Qi at all.

While thinking it over, I decide to do a bit of quiet winter fishing in the lake.  Aim for the bubbling spots, just as has always done me right in the past.

I actually manage to catch another sturgeon.  As before, it's a very difficult catch, with the fish nearly escaping multiple times during the sequence.  And I didn't even have a fishing-boosting food first.

At the adventurer's Guild.  I am selling all my old adventuring gear, mostly weapons I've found along the way, but I'm also ready to sell my old insect head sword, and even the obsidian sword that I'm currently using.  It's time to trade up.

The Lava Katana isn't the best weapon in the game, but it is by far the best I can get my hands on at this point.  Maybe now I'll be ready to return to Skull Cavern.

What do you think, sword?

...

The sword thinks I'm ready.

[crimsondude]

Heat (1995), one of the best and worst influences on Shadowrun

Michael Mann's Heat (1995) is a Los Angeles crime epic that, if you're reading this, you've probably seen or been told to see. It is among Blade Runner and Ronin in the fan canon of Shadowrun inspirations. This is because it's an incredible movie with a well-crafted story world, and a gunfight so realistic that the Marine Corps shows it during Basic Training. Neal McCauley's (Robert De Niro's) crew is team of professional criminals, experienced in working together, are well-armed (They carry CAR-15s, Galil, H&K G33 or SR9 rifle, etc.) well-trained in their specialties and in overall combat and heist/burglary tradecraft (including hacking or using very technical methods to counter alarms and other technology), use sophisticated counterintelligence and counter-surveillance methods, and basically depicts what could easily be described as a Prime Runner team (The jobs they pull off or attempt to pull off escalate from $1.6 million to ~$4 million to over $12 million).

However ...

I was listening to the Sixth World Podcast #14 with Adam Koebel and as I replied in that episode's post (See More), I generally agreed with him. One thing that he discussed that I didn't really touch upon then that I noticed this time and want to comment on is the dichotomy between the cyberpunk fiction of a loose confederation of lone wolves and the reality of a tabletop crew being a recurring group of characters involved in a long-term campaign. The reason this matters is that First and early Second Edition were written mostly by the original developers, especially by Nigel Findley, and there was a consistent vision of the world that didn't really have anything to do with the experience of playing this game at a tabletop. Then Steve Kenson, Jon Szeto, and other second-generation authors came along; freelancers who had actually played Shadowrun (They even played by snail mail). Following them were freelancers who came up through the Internet because Shadowrun has had a consistent presence online and a close relationship with Internet fans since it was published.

And a lot of these players knew of Heat and referenced it. And beyond that, they also tended to come to Shadowrun as players or GMs in campaigns with set teams and basically running "professional" shadowrunner crews like in Heat. To be fair, Heat does not stand alone at this time in the mid-90s. Reservoir Dogs, Mission: Impossible, and Ronin are thoroughly Shadowrun movies even without knowing they are. These fans took influence from crime and noir fiction like the Donald Westlake Parker novels and similar movies that run from the 1950s-70s (Payback [1999] was the first film adaptation of Westlake's The Hunter since Lee Marvin’s Point Blank was released in 1967). Anyway, nostalgia in the 1990s was for the 1970s, just as today we are nostalgic for the 1990s. There were also very distinct themes and settings when it came to Shadowrun and especially Shadowrun online in the mid to late 1990s.

This was the era of the Professional Shadowrunner.

As it happens, this coincided with the release of a hyper-useful Shadowrun sourcebook, Fields of Fire. Fields of Fire was the intellectual precursor to adopting the attitudes and techniques we then saw in Heat because the first third to half of FoF is a treatise on being a Professional – it's about being a professional mercenary and also addressed repeatedly in the book to how to behave as a shadowrunner. It's so useful that it's a starting reference for being an adult in general because – SPOILER ALERT – "common sense" actually isn't. Plus, Tom Dowd wrote it. It's not quite Gospel, but at the time it was more like the Dark Lord on High's Letter to the Pink Mohawks.

Anyway, the Professional Shadowrunner was a mercenary and a sociopath, if not in fact then at least in effect, and any punk ethos was eliminated in favor of "realism." I should add that in the 90s, the idea of real-life mercenaries and private contractors was becoming a thing as the end of the Cold War put a lot of professionals onto the streets. So what do you do? In Ronin, you steal a case (Which is actually cover for a whole other job). The Professional Shadowrunner wasn't a Black Trenchcoat, he was a Grey Man Assassin. Black trench coats are ostentatious as Hell even here in the Pacific Northwest. The only people who wear them, except for a short time in the 90s, are men who need a coat long enough to protect their suits, which appropriately enough describes the Professional Shadowrunner sometimes.

The Professional Shadowrunner has to worry about living in the real world because once they're off the job, they're trying to be an inconspicuous as possible. These people don't squat in the Barrens, they have houses their fixer bought through cut-outs with laundered money and impeccable fake SINs. The Black Trenchcoat focuses on drama; the Professional Shadowrunner is No-Drama Obama about this shit. They over-prepare for everything. And like in Heat, when combat does go down they operate like a team of Navy SEALs — probably because according to the PCs’ backgrounds, they were Navy SEALs. Having a "legitimate" or "realistic" background to acquiring skills and learning tactics (and you could learn tactics online from field manuals and other resources) was critical to justifying basically the runner's entire existence.

This attitude towards "realism" eventually stretched into how people treated the entirety of the setting, excusing the fact that Shadowrun has MAGIC and just flat-out is not Real Life. All of this influence began coming to a head in the material following, ironically enough, Dunkelzahn's Will.

Yes, kids, the last will and testament of the first Great Dragon to be elected President of the successor to the United States was the primary catalyst to making Shadowrun more "realistic."

I should also mention that the death of Dunkelzahn and the will were also used as capstones for a period of time that was absolutely batshit within the context of the entire life of the line. In a two-year period, we got Bug City, Aztechnology Blood Magic, Harlequin's Back trying to stop the Azzies from bring the Horrors back sooner, and a ton of Earthdawn connections (Earthdawn was released in 1993, but references to the Fourth World have existed since the original Big Black Book in 1989) to sell the connection between both games, especially ED since there's never been a lack of fantasy settings for tabletop RPGs. Earthdawn's schtick was that it led to an already-popular cyberpunk and magic game set in the dark future.

With Dunkelzahn's Will in late 1996, FASA slammed the door on a lot of the more fantastical elements that had dominated the setting and metaplot. 1997 was the year of the Mob War, and 1998 was the year of the Corp Wars of 2059-60. The Corp Wars sought to address some of that lack of realism such as how Japan had experienced the Ghost Decade IRL while in Shadowrun the Japanacorps still ruled everything. So they added White Monday (the Tokyo Stock Exchange plummets), moved Yamatetsu to Russia, killed Fuchi, and replaced it with Novatech in Boston, and brought on CATCo and Wuxing – because no one foresaw China mattering at all in 1989.

And thematically, tonally, Shadowrun players were increasingly being told to reference 90s crime movies and other films about teams of clandestine or covert professional, either proprietary or freelance, and the library expanded. To contrast 1999's The Matrix; Mamet's Heist, Way of the Gun (Its combat scenes were choreographed by a Navy SEAL), and Payback (Yet another adaptation of Westlake's The Hunter). At the top of that list, however, are Heat and Ronin, and while Ronin is a better depiction of the random crew assembled for a job, Heat is the model for how to build a team of PCs who are going to run together for a long-term tabletop campaign.

I love this movie, and it's one of the only I still own a hard copy of (along with The Godfather Trilogy). It's incredibly useful for envisioning the life of shadowrunners both on the job and during their downtime, where the PCs have to balance life with their career of being professional criminals. Michael Mann created a beautiful world of the criminal underworld in Los Angeles, complete with a fixer, a Mr. Johnson, an Information Broker, Fences ("All fences are informants," Mann revealed in the 10th Anniversary DVD commentary), and the world they occupy off the clock. And, again, the downtown gunfight is fucking brilliant.

I also appreciate much of the influence, directly and indirectly, for inspiring people to add realism and depth to their characters and the world. However, I think these drives sometimes were excessive, and adding realism without appreciating the full context and world that preceded them. I'm not revealing state secrets to mention that people who would become freelancers, including myself, would even dismiss some material because it was "wrong" and not because, you know, this is a game.

[simchallenger]

100 Baby Challenge

Original Post: http://forums.thesims.com/en_us/discussion/793168/official-the-sims-4-100-baby-challenge-or-gtw-update

Your objective for this challenge is to give birth to 100 children in as few generations as possible. The challenge ends as soon as the 100th child is born or if you fail the challenge for breaking rules.

Rules

Your Sim

Create a Sim to start out with, this will be your Matriarch. 

Now with the update allowing men to give birth, you have some leeway, but it’s preferable that your matriarch be female (hence the title of matriarch) and she/he must be a young adult. 

She/he can be human [see Optional Alien Rules section for exceptions]. 

No other Sims in her household to start out with. 

She can have any physical appearance you want and any aspiration and combination of traits that you want. (The Romantic and Family Oriented traits are recommended but not mandatory for her to have.) 

It's also recommended that she have a trait that will help her bring in money from one of the hobby skills.

You can move your matriarch into any starter lot that she can afford with the $20,000 she starts out with.

Later on, as your household grows and your matriarch starts bringing in a larger income from one of her skills, you may move her and her children to another lot as long as she can afford the lot without the use of cheats. 

Any lot your matriarch moves her household into must already be empty. 

You cannot merge your matriarch's household with another household. 

You may download lots from the Gallery as long as your matriarch can afford the lot.

Life spans + Other Households

You must play with aging on and set to a normal lifespan.

You may play other households in the same file (for example if you wanted to play one of your matriarch's children for a while who have been moved out) but you MUST make sure your matriarch's household is not aging while you are not playing them. 

Do this by going into the in-game options under the gameplay tab and setting "Auto-Age (Played Sims)" to "Only Active Household." 

I recommend checking the box beside the option underneath that says "Auto-Age (Unplayed Sims)" so the game will still generate new townies to be baby donors as the current ones grow old and die off.

Jobs

Your matriarch and any heiresses that come after her cannot have a job, ever. 

Any means of making money that does not involve a career are allowed.

So your matriarch may paint, write, perform etc

To bring money into the household but she cannot join the painter, writer, entertainer or any other careers. [See Get To Work Rules section for exceptions]

Leaving the House

Your matriarch may leave her home lot freely. 

In previous Sims games, it was against the rules to leave your home lot for anything other than donor-hunting but this has been lifted in this version due to TS4's common space around lots and hobby skills that require you to leave the lot to make money from tips. 

If Outdoor Retreat or Get to Work is installed, there are additional exceptions. [See Get To Work Rules and Outdoor Retreat Rules sections for more information]

Your matriarch does not have to bring all her children with her whenever she leaves the lot. [See Outdoor Retreat Rules section for exceptions]

Marriage

Your matriarch may not get married while she is of child-bearing age.

 She may have boyfriends but she cannot become engaged to any of her boyfriends, nor can she move anyone into the house. 

Once your matriarch is an elder and her youngest daughter has come of age to take over, she may get married but she must move out of the household into her husband's household. 

She can't move her husband into your household.

Rewards + Aspirations

The Fertile aspiration reward (which costs 3,000 satisfaction points) is allowed to be purchased; in fact, it's encouraged! The more multiple births you can have, the better.

Any rewards or in-game methods of extending a Sim's lifespan, saving a Sim from death or bringing a Sim back from the dead are not allowed. You may not move ghosts into the household. 

Any other in-game rewards that you've earned by completing aspirations/whims and throwing social events may be used. You earned them fair and square, there's no reason why you should not be able to enjoy benefits that you've done the work to unlock.

Mods + CC

Any mods or CC that give you an unfair advantage over other players is not allowed. 

For example, a mod that allows you to have more than eight Sims in a household is not allowed because it will give you the ability to keep having more and more children without having to wait to move out older children first and that is an unfair advantage. 

A CC item of a sparkly pair of sunglasses would be fine for you to have because having a sparkly pair of sunglasses in your game does not help you with the challenge in any way.

Cheats

Any cheats that give you an unfair advantage over other players is not allowed. 

This includes but is not limited to money cheats, motive enhancing cheats, skill cheats, school performance cheats, satisfaction point cheats, and cheats that unlock special objects. 

The "bb.moveobjects on" cheat is allowed for creative building purposes. Resetting Sims to resolve glitches is also allowed. 

In the case of a glitch or game crash that causes you to lose your game data or otherwise corrupts/ruins your file, you are always allowed to use whatever cheats/mods necessary to recover what you lost.

Adoption

While you can adopt children without penalty, adopted children don't count towards the 100 children needed to complete the challenge, so it's not to your benefit to adopt children, especially since they take up precious space in the household.

The Men

Your matriarch may not get pregnant by the same man twice. 

Once he has impregnated your Sim once, he cannot be used again for more children. Obviously, if the one pregnancy results in twins or triplets, that is fine. One pregnancy per father, not necessarily one child.

There are no restrictions on who can father children in this challenge but none of the fathers can move into the household or provide any aid to your household whatsoever apart from impregnating your matriarch once.

Influencing Gender

The May 4th, 2015 patch introduced the ability to influence the gender of unborn babies. 

Listening to Alternative music during pregnancy and eating carrots will influence the baby to be a boy. 

Listening to Pop music and eating strawberries during pregnancy will influence the baby to be a girl. 

Your matriarch may not use any of these methods to influence the gender of her baby. 

If she is pregnant, she must avoid strawberries, carrots, Alternative and Pop music in order to avoid influencing the gender of her baby in any way.

Children

Your matriarch may go to the hospital to give birth.

Babies cannot be aged up until you get a notification saying that it is their birthday (not the one saying it is almost their birthday; it has to actually be their birthday). 

You cannot cherry pick your children's traits and aspirations. Use this random trait generator from Pinstar's Legacy Challenge to randomly assign traits and aspirations to the children.

http://www.simslegacychallenge.com/sims-4-legacy-challenge-random-trait-generator/ 

The randomizer requires all three traits of both parents and for this purpose, you may go into Household Management to find the traits of the father if your matriarch does not already know all of his traits. If you don't want to bother with the father's traits, you can also use the website:

 http://createarandomsim.com/ 

To generate the child's traits randomly. The benefit of using Pinstar's trait generator is that there's a chance your children may inherit traits from their parents but if you don't care about that and just want completely random traits, the Create A Random Sim website is also fine to use.

Children can be aged up after they get an A in school.

Teenagers can be aged up after they get an A in school. 

They can also hold part-time jobs to help the financial situation of the household. 

NOTE: There appears to be a common glitch with teens where their school performance bar will not check itself off despite being all the way in the green and all other school requirements being met, preventing the teen from moving up a grade. If this happens, you may still age up your teen regardless of whether or not they got an A in school as long as their performance bar is all the way in the green and all their other requirements are check marked.

Young adults can be moved out of the house to make room for more children but they cannot be moved back in after.

Heir

When your matriarch becomes an elder and can no longer bear children, her youngest daughter takes over as the next matriarch. 

If the new matriarch is not yet a young adult, you must keep your matriarch in the household until she comes of age. 

Once your next matriarch is a young adult, you may move out the previous matriarch to make more room in the household for the new matriarch to have children.

Killing Sims

You cannot make more room in the house faster by killing off underage Sims. 

For this reason, a child born into the household does not count towards the 100 children count until s/he becomes a young adult. The only exception to this is when the 100th child is born. Any underage children that are alive at the point of the 100th child's birth are counted and the challenge ends.

Outdoor Retreat Rules

* These rules are for players who have the Outdoor Retreat game pack installed. If you do not have Outdoor Retreat installed, disregard this section.

Your matriarch can go on vacations to Granite Falls but she must always bring her entire household with her when she does go. 

She cannot leave any children or teenagers behind. If there is a baby in the household, your matriarch may not go on vacation, nor can she go on vacation if she is pregnant.

Your matriarch may take up the Herbalism skill, catch bugs and do any of the new activities offered in Outdoor Retreat. She may sell any collectibles she finds or concoctions she makes with the Herbalism skill.

Your matriarch may use Granite Falls as a hunting ground for new fathers for her offspring but the same rules apply. She cannot get pregnant by the same man more than once and she cannot marry or move in anyone.

Get To Work Rules

* These rules are for players who have the Get To Work expansion pack installed. If you do not have Get To Work installed, disregard this section.

Your matriarch cannot take any of the new active careers (Scientist, Detective, Doctor).

Your matriarch may run her own business. There are an equal amount of benefits and drawbacks to this which is why this type of job is an exception to the "no jobs" rule for your matriarch. 

A business will allow your matriarch to support her large family more easily and while your matriarch is at her business, her children will all look after themselves; however, being away from the children all day gives you less time to bring up the kids' school grades to move them out faster and it also gives your matriarch less time to find new fathers for her offspring and reproduce with them. 

You must also sink a lot of money into a business in order to make a lot of money. It's up to you to decide whether the benefits of running a business outweigh the drawbacks in this challenge.

Your matriarch can take up the new Photography skill and sell any photographs she takes.

Your matriarch can take up the new Baking skill and sell any sweets she bakes.

Optional Alien Rules

* These rules are for players who have the Get To Work expansion pack installed. If you do not have Get To Work installed, disregard this section.

Some people like to play with aliens and others don't, which is why anything involving aliens is optional for this challenge. You can choose to play with the "Alien Incentive" option in a regular 100 Baby Challenge OR you can choose to do an Alien 100 Baby Challenge. You can also choose to do neither option and just ignore this section altogether if you prefer.

Alien Incentive

Your matriarch must be human.

Each alien or hybrid child born to your matriarch adds 2 to your total child count, so one alien or hybrid child is worth the equivalent of two human children. 

If a pregnancy with an alien Sim results in twins or triplets, only the children who are actually aliens/hybrids count for two children. 

If you have triplets with an alien Sim and two of them are aliens/hybrids while one is a human, you would add five to your total child count, not six. The human child counts as only one.

If you choose to make your next matriarch an alien or hybrid, you forfeit this bonus until you take another human matriarch. 

This means that any children your alien/hybrid matriarch has will count for one, not two, regardless of whether or not they are aliens/hybrids.

Any alien children and teenagers in the household must be in their human disguise whenever they leave the lot. 

If a human Sim who is not part of the household discovers that one of your household's Sims is an alien, their memory must be wiped immediately and that Sim may never visit the lot again (if they show up and knock on the door of their own accord, your Sims may not answer the door or leave the lot until the Sim does).

Alien Hybrid 100 Baby Challenge

Your matriarch must be an alien or a hybrid.

Your matriarch must only have offspring with human Sims.

Any other Sims that your matriarch impregnates do not count towards the 100 baby total. Only babies birthed by your matriarch in your household count.

Any human children that your matriarch gives birth to do not count towards the 100 baby total. 

You may not move out human children to make more space for alien children until they meet the normal requirements to be aged up into a young adult.

Hybrid children and full alien children both count towards your 100 baby score. Hybrid Sims are Sims with an alien skin tone but otherwise look human with hair and normal eye colors. 

They do not have the ability to put on a disguise and other Sims do not recognize them as aliens, but they have some limited alien interactions available to them when interacting with other aliens.

Your matriarch and any alien children and teenagers in the household must be in their human disguise whenever they leave the lot. 

If a human Sim who is not part of the household discovers that one of your household's Sims is an alien, their memory must be wiped immediately and that Sim may never visit the lot again (if they show up and knock on the door of their own accord, your Sims may not answer the door or leave the lot until the Sim does).

I Won! What Now?

Congrats! Not a lot of people can finish such a long challenge! Unfortunately, there's no money prize or anything; just a whole lot of bragging rights and this nifty little ribbon (found in the original post)

[oceanicdaniel]

I’m answering these because I’m bored and in study hall where I have no homework, questions from skylerwritestoomuchphansmut

1: How tall or short do you wish you were? 5′3″ 2: What’s your dream pet? (Real or not)  another dog 3: Do you have a favorite clothing style? the most depressing look i can achieve with really tight jeans 4: What was your favorite video game growing up? tekken 2 and frogger on the playstation 1, frogger on the atari, and mortal kombat on the nintendo 5: What three things/people do you think of most each day: sleeping, eating, and why i couldn’t be older so i could’ve graduated already 6: If you had a warning label, what would yours say? warning: says too many swear words, extremely awkward and polite. approach at your own risk 7: What is your opinion on [insert thing here]? i love science sm it’s my fav subject tbh  8: What is your Greek personality type? [Sanguine, Phlegmatic, Choleric, or Melancholic] i don’t know, i’m too lazy to google these 9: Are you ticklish? extremely, sadly 10: Are you allergic to anything? no, but i have hayfever (so fun) 11: What’s your sexuality? the most extreme rainbow out there (i’m pansexual but i make gay jokes too often) 12: Do you prefer tea, coffee, or cocoa? Hot Chocolate (cocoa and hot chocolate are different things you can fight me on this) 13: Are you a cat or dog person? dog 100% but i like both, i’m just saying if i had to choose what to adopt one 14: Would you rather be a vampire, elf, or merperson? vampire 15: Do you have a favorite Youtuber? subscribe to AmazingPhil on YouTube. 16: How tall are you? 5′7″ and a half 17: If you had to change your name, what would you change it to? My name is already Jesse but my birthname is way too feminine for my agender ass 18: How much do you weigh? i don’t know i lost a lot of weight recently bc i was sick and couldn’t eat 19: Do you believe in ghosts/spirits? yeah i guess 20: Do you like space or the ocean more? space!!!! (i’m sorry i’m an astronomy nerd) 21: Are you religious? i don’t think jesus would appreciate it if i was 22: Pet peeves? loud chewing, smacking gum (oh my god do not do this around me), chewing with your mouth open are the mains  23: Would you rather be nocturnal or diurnal [opposite of nocturnal]? i already am nocturnal 24: Favorite constellation? too many to choose 25: Favorite star? i don’t really have favorite stars 26: Do you like ball-jointed dolls? what  27: Any phobias or fears? hecking yes, the dark (depends on the situation though), tight spaces, crowds sometimes (again depends)  28: Do you think global warming is real? um yes??? the world will get warmer then fix itself and get colder?? the world will end with the icecaps melting then they will freeze??? 29: Do you believe in reincarnation? not really 30: Favorite movie? holy heck!! i don’t know!! maybe return of the jedi 31: Do you get scared easily? nah 32: How many pets have you owned in your lifetime? 4 33: Blog rate? [You’ll rate the blog of the one who’s asking.] YEET i’ll just rate my blog -10/10 34: What is a color that calms you? black or blue 35: Where would you like to travel and/or live? i would absolutely love to go to Key West again!! 36: Where were you born? in Mediapolis, Iowa (techincally west burlington but you know what) 37: What is your eye color? one eye is bluer and one eye is greener but technically blue 38: Introvert or extrovert? both i guess 39: Do you believe in horoscopes and zodiacs? yes i love astrology but not horoscopes  40: Hugs or kisses? hugs!!! 41: Who is someone you would like to see/visit right now? i would love to go see AmazingPhil who you should subscribe to on youtube 42: Who is someone you love deeply? my best friend and my dogs 43: Any piercings you want? 6 in each ear 44: Do you like tattoos and piercings? yes! 45: Do you smoke or have you ever done so? i don’t but i’ve tried a cigarette before (nasty dont do it) 46: Talk about your crush, if you have one! he’s tall-ish, has really beautiful hair, nice green eyes, this rlly cute face freckle thing, and he’s really funny 47: What is a sound you really hate? scratching nails against paper or a window 48: A sound you really love? piano and uke 49: Can you do a backflip? on a trampoline yeah but i haven’t ever tried on the floor 50: Can you do the splits? yepp 51: Favorite actor and/or actress? Jennifer Lawerence  52: Favorite movie? this was already asked but Return of The Jedi or The Revenge of the Sith 53: How are you feeling right now? Tired  54: What color would you like your hair to be right now? black or rlly dark brown 55: When did you feel happiest? when i am asleep 56: Something that calms you down? reading 57: Have any mental disorders? depression, social anxiety, and ADHD 58: What does your URL mean? the ocean is pretty and so is dan howell 59: What three words describe you the most? emo, nc-17 (inside joke), hungry 60: Do you believe in evolution? yeah  61: What makes you unfollow a blog? if they turn into a different fandom blog that i’m not in 62: What makes you follow a blog? i like their content 63: Favorite kind of person: funny and sarcastic and polite/nice 64: Favorite animal(s): dogs!! 65: Name three of your favorite blogs. @Amazingphil and idk the other two i’ll look later 66: Favorite emoticon: i don’t use them that often and i mainly only use like four 67: Favorite meme: spongebob  68: What is your MBTI personality type? oh man i don’t want to take another quiz 69: What is your star sign? Aquarius  70: Can your dog roll over on command, if you have a dog? nope haven’t taught him that yet 71: What outfit out of all your clothes do you like to wear the most? jeans, sweatshirt, and vans 72: Post a selfie or two? no thanks 73: Do you have platform shoes? platform heels, yeah 74: What is one random but interesting fact about yourself?  75: Can you do a front flip? yep 76: Do you like birds? yeah 77: Do you like to swim? yep, i do it competitively actually 78: Is swimming or ice skating more fun to you? ice skating 79: Something you wish didn’t exist: homework 80: Some thing you wish did exist: the ability to drive golf carts in the street in my state 81: Piercings you have? zero 82: Something you really enjoy doing: reading 83: Favorite person to talk to: my best friend 84: What was your first impression of Tumblr? i don’t remember i’ve had it for the longest time 85: How many followers do you have? idk i can’t open another tumblr tab im on my school computer 86: Can you run a mile within ten minutes? yep, i used to be a long distant runner in track 87: Do your socks always match? heck no 88: Can you touch your toes and keep your legs straight completely? yep 89: What are your birthstones? Amethyst  90: If you were an animal, which one would you be? hopefully a dog 91: If a flower could aesthetically represent you, what kind would it be? black rose (bc i’m emo af) 92: A store you hate? JUSTICE or abecrombie & fitch (oh lord) 93: How many cups of coffee can you drink in one day? none but i drink like 200 hundread cups of  mountain dew a day 94: Would you rather be able to fly or read minds? fly tf 95: Do you like to wear camo? who wears camo anymore you know besides rednecks 96: Winter or summer? Summer 97: How long can you hold your breath for? too long to be considered human 98: Least favorite person? everyone in my grade except for my best friends 99: Someone you look up to: adults bc they’re usually taller than me 100: A store you love? barnes and noble 101: Favorite type of shoes: vans or converse 102: Where do you live? some cornfield in iowa 103: Are you a vegetarian or vegan? If so, why? i don’t live in the correct family to be either of those, we eat hamburgers every friday and steak every sunday 104: What is your favorite mineral or gem? sapphire 105: Do you drink milk? yeah but i’m lactose intolerant  106: Do you like bugs? as long as they don’t attack me (except i always hate moths) 107: Do you like spiders? if they aren’t crawling on me 108: Something you get paranoid about? when i come home alone late at night and al the lights in my house are off 109: Can you draw: not well but yeahhh i’m a trashy artist 110: Nosiest question you have ever been asked? “is that a thong on your bathroom floor?” it wasn’t, it was a bikini top 111: A question you hate being asked? “when’s your sex reassignment surgery?” no joke a kid asks me this everyday 112: Ever been bitten by a spider? yep 113: Do you like the sound of waves at the beach? heck yeah i do 114: Do you prefer cloudy or sunny days? sunny 115: Someone you’d like to kiss or cuddle right now: i’d very much like to cuddle dan, his tummy chub is sososososo cute 116: Favorite cloud type: Stratus and Stratocumulus  117: What color do you wish the sky was? i like the current color 118: Do you have freckles? no but i wish i did  119: Favorite thing about a person: eyes or shoulders (idk why?? strong shoulders just wow) and dimples (if they have some) i love to poke peoples dimples sm 120: Fruits or vegetables? fruit 121: Something you want to do right now: go to the bathroom and eat cookies 122: Is the ocean or sky prettier? the night sky is gorgeous  123: Sweet or sour foods? both 124: Bright or dim lights? dim 125: Do you believe in a certain magical creature? tf no, no matter how much i love harry potter, magic doesn’t exist 126: Something you hate about Tumblr: how much people steal pictures 127: Something you love about Tumblr: a way to express myself since i can’t in my house 128: What do you think about the least? what people think of my sexuality 129: What would you want written on your tombstone? “ 130: Who would you like to punch in the face right now? this kid in my class who won’t stop calling me dyke 131: What is something you love but also hate about yourself? my hair 132: Do you smile with your teeth showing for pictures? yeah (even though they’re ugly af) 133: Computer or TV? yes 134: Do you like roller coasters? hECK YES if i get taken to a theme park for a date i am marrying that person right away 135: Do you get motion sickness or seasickness? nope 136: Are your ears lobed or attached? attached 137: Do you believe in karma? nope 138: On a scale of 1-10, how attractive would you say you are? -10 139: What nicknames do you have/have had? jay, jj, dad, (and some stuff with my birthname) 140: Did you have any pretend or imaginary friends? no 141: Have you ever seen a therapist/shrink? yep 142: Would you say you are a good or bad influence to others? bad in some situations, good in others 143: Do you prefer giving or receiving gifts/help? i don’t know both ig 144: What makes you angry? school 145: How many languages do you speak fluently? one 146: Do you prefer boys, girls, and/or non-binaries? yes 147: Are you androgynous? yeahhh 148: Favorite physical thing about yourself: nothing 149: Favorite thing about your personality: my humor 150: Name three people you would like to talk to right now in person: dan, phil, and amandaschronicles 151: If you could go back into time and live in one era, which would you choose? ancient greece 152: Do you like BuzzFeed? i like the ladylike series 153: How did you meet your spouse/girlfriend/boyfriend/partner? [If you have one.] n/a 154: Do you like to kiss others’ foreheads or hands for platonic reasons? yes! 155: Do you like to play with others’ hair? no i like when they play with my hair 156: What embarrasses you? if you point me out in a crowd oh nelly 157: Something that makes you nervous/anxious: i have social anxiety so a lot of things 158: Biggest lie you have ever told: idk 159: How many people are you following? 37 160: How many posts do you have on your blog(s)? idk a lot 161: How many drafts do you have on your blog(s)? 1 162: How many likes do you have on your blog(s)? 92 (i just reblog everything i like) 163: Last time you cried and why: last night, my mom was trying to force me to take a 14 hour class that i didn’t want to do and i got so frustrated i cried 164: Do you have long or short hair? short 165: Longest your hair has ever been: to the bottom of my ribs when it was straight 166: Why do you like, dislike, or have neutral feelings about religon? dislike because i don’t believe jesus or god exist  167: Do you really care how the universe and world was created? yeah i’m a science nerd as i said 168: Do you like to wear makeup? god no 169: Can you stand on your hands or head for more than thirty seconds? yeah 170: Did you answer the questions you were asked truthfully? yes mom