#had to be associated with [Least-Favorite Anime]

[musical-chick-13]

Very unfortunate that I am at all times Musician-Brained™, because this means that I have to consider [least-favorite anime of all time that I think fails the hardest at plot/characterization/tone/pacing/story elements] a net positive on the world because it has. Regrettably. The best anime soundtrack to ever exist.

[isuckatwritingsobenice]

𝐇𝐢𝐬 𝐰𝐢𝐟𝐞.

Synopsis: What I think Alastors wife would be like, if he had one of course.

Warnings: mentions of blood, pinning, harassment?, Alastor being himself, not in a specific time period but at some point shifts to hell? Let me know if anyone is interested in a part two!!

Navigation!! // Masterlist!! // Serendipity Writes (event)

Alastors wife probably didnt like him at first, and that’s a guarantee. He likes a challenge, but Alastor also likes being liked by people. It fills his ego, makes him feel good about himself. He likes to watch people stumble and fall but quite literally cracks under the pressure of doing just that when it comes to winning you over. Chances were he was constantly trying to figure you out, for two reasons. One, being that he didn’t understand how you couldn’t like him. I mean come on, look at him! He’s got the charm, the manners, the style and the class, the status. What more could you want? The second reason being, the more you denied him, the more he took it as a challenge, the more he wanted you.

Well, surprise surprise, you dont like people with an image to keep up; and to his dismay, that’s exactly what he does. He projects an image. One he refuses to change, and even after marrying you, still doesn’t drop the image, but starts to become more real and honest with himself.

“People who project an image of themselves to others are just trying to fool themselves into being someone they aren’t.” Was what you told him.

Alastor had also asked you out multiple times before you finally said yes. Everyone knows Alastor is very picky with the people he chooses to surround himself with. Everyone he associates with is either there to serve him, or to provide him with something, even if they’re unaware of it. Which only made you trust him less. What purpose did you serve him? What if one day he found you no longer useful and tossed you to the side? Well what were you to do then?

Denying him proved to be a challenge in itself, seeing that he’s quite literally everywhere all at once.

He’d try cheap tricks first. Buying you gifts, constantly showing up at your doorstep with a bouquet of flowers or a stuffed animal. One time he even got you a whole gift basket of your favorite treats. How sweet~ if it was actually about you and not him just trying to patch up his ego. Well at least that was what you thought on the matter.

If that didnt work he’d resort to going ghost. After all, people only miss you when you’re gone right? Well not in this case. He had left you alone physically, at least to your knowledge, but he had still kept a close watch on you. Why, he just knew it would bother you that he suddenly stopped! Until he overheard you speaking with a friend about how happy you were to finally get some peace and quiet. Well that simply wouldn’t do. After all, you should always make an impact, and what kind of impact would he be leaving on you if you went back to your old boring life? No no that just wont do dear.

He’ll start showing back up at your doorstep, taking you on surprise outing to force you to spend time with him. He’ll take you on a walk around a nearby park, a restaurant one day, the picture show the next. He has a long list of places to take you, so you’ll never go to the same place twice! Get your dancing shoes because he’s gonna take you out to the town for the night, after all the city never sleeps! This is when he becomes less forceful, but more of a decent calm. He begins to listen more when you speak, and you actually begin to care about what he’s saying, what a shock!

It’s almost like a switch flips after your outings. He’ll take you to an orchestra show, snickering to himself when he sees your eyes begin to water as the show closes out. He’ll force you to hold onto his arm as he walks you across the street on a rainy night, making sure you don’t slip or trip on the wet pavement. If you ever do, he’ll try his best to catch you and if he doesn’t? Oh what a nightmare, it seems he’s fallen too! For you that is~

You two begin to feel closer, not only physically but emotionally. He gets you to open up about your personal struggles, and in turn, he’ll share some of his own, but not too much. He doesn’t allow himself to be fully and completely vulnerable with you, not yet. But he does try his best to sympathize with you when you share your piece of mind with him. He feels accomplished to know this part of you, and his ego is the last thing on his mind anymore, but instead you take up all the space.

He doesn’t use pet names for you, not cute ones anyway. He’ll call you his devilish belladonna, especially if you love flowers. His creepy spider Lillie. He’ll often speak in the ‘language of flowers’, and will educate you on it if you don’t know so you know exactly what he’s talking about.

He’s the type of person to correct people in public to make them feel stupid, but he never does that with you. Instead he’ll wait until it’s just the two of you and tell you jokingly how wrong you were. You’ll get upset because he let you look like a fool, but in his mind he’s just protecting your feelings. If anyone else corrects you, they’ll have their mouth sewn shut that’s for sure!

He never gets you the same bouquet of flowers. They’re always different, and every week or so you have a new one. He keeps a separate batch for himself so he knows when to get you another. That being said he also makes the bouquets himself, he does not buy them for you already made.

When you finally take Alastor up on his offer to court you properly, he is over the moon about it! Finally, you seem to be coming to your senses dear! Though you quickly follow that comment up with a “Let the blood rush to your head first.” He just bats his lashes at you with a smile. You always know how to make him feel so loved!

Gets very jealous very easily. If he sees you laughing with someone that isn’t him, he’ll size them up before deciding if they’re a threat or not. Heaven forbid anyone actually put their hands on you and uh oh! Limb of the floor someone come get it!

His possessive nature is rooted in abandonment, and thus being said, he has deep attachment issues to you. You are never out of his sight when you two begin dating, and you’re hardly ever far from him in general. You two dress similarly too, especially if you’re from the same era. He’ll switch up your wardrobe slowly so it complements his.

He isn’t one for strong PDA unless he feels like he needs too or just has a strong want too. Usually it’s an arm around your waist, or you hanging onto his arm loosely. The most he’ll ever really do is a kiss on the back of your hand or to your temple. That being said, he’s like this for various reasons.

One, he has a lot of enemies, which means that not not only does that put you in danger, but if you’re also a powerful overlord, it puts him at risk too, though he doesn’t care much about that part.

Second, he doesn’t like physical contact much, and though he always makes an exception for you, he has his image and pristine reputation to keep up. Which you extremely dislike but tolerate because it’s Alastor and if he hasn’t changed much in centuries, nothings going to change ever.

Alastor is very very fond of you, whether you believe it or not. Your fiery attitude has him whipped more than he likes to admit. He’ll joke with other sinners that he’d sacrifice you to save himself but you both know that isn’t true, his nervous ticks prove it to be false, if you do say so yourself.

He’s very fidgety. He’ll tug a piece of your clothing or twirl a strand of your hair between his claws. If you claim he’s messing up your hair he’ll cast a tornado of shadows around you to fuck it up even more, and then smiling at you lovingly when you threaten to cut his ears off because you can’t tell if they’re his hair or just furry ass ears. You always give him a good laugh.

Other sinners are actually convinced you both hate each other, but turf wars on the news show that you two are the most in love when you’re wreaking havoc on innocent sinners for no possible reason other than the fact you two had an argument and the best way to settle it? Dancing in the rain, which actually isn’t rain, just blood falling from the sky because you like to kill people for fun.

“My darling looks the best in red if I do say so myself! Especially if she’s dressed by another’s remains, oh the beauty!”

Alastor has and will continue to get in his feelings about you and his mother getting along so well. He loves you both to pieces, so seeing his two favorite people together makes his dead heart swell with joy.

He’ll ask you to accompany him to the tailors, he values your opinion more than others so you often make adjustments to his suit and he’s just like ‘Whatever she says that’s what’s going on the suit.’ You also make him your personal dressing doll, trying different patterns and styles on him for fun. Alastor is a true skinny jeans hater and he will die on that hill, again. He really appreciates the 60’s style, but prefers to stick to his own decade.

He will take you out hunting with him, and the two of you share breakfast together with the fresh meat you’ve caught. He only gets the best quality for you because he refuses to have you two ‘eating like chums’. A restaurant tried to lie to the two of you, saying their meat was high quality and fresh. Alastor killed everyone in it and you two shared remains like a true power couple. Hells finest of course. ;)

He’s very critical of picking out jewelry for you. Hunting for the perfect ring for you took him ages, mainly because he knew exactly what he wanted but no jeweler had what he wanted all in one ring. So instead he forces them to make him a custom one. Torn limbs and bloody parts later, you have the ring that Alastor worked so hard to give you. He proposes to you Extermination day, claiming he’d love to spend another year in hell with you before the angels come to rip you two apart from each other. It was such a sweet day, at least to you it was.

The type of relationship where he plays the piano and you sing. He loves when you sing and will gush about you to anyone in sight even if he doesn’t know them.

Is very needy in private. He’s a stage 10000 clinger, and will stick to you like his life depends on it, but will be damned if anyone catches him. You don’t tell anyone about it, you like the private life.

You two have cook offs all the time. You make the hotel staff judge, and ultimately Niffty is the tie breaker because she’s brutally honest. Once she told Alastor he should stay out of the kitchen because women were better at it for a reason… harsh!

He was fine though, he got her back by ridding the hotel of bugs. He knows she likes chasing them around and for that she sobbed at his feet for ten minutes asking him to bring them back. It didn’t take much actually, Sir Pentious brought them back on his own, much to Charlies dismay.

He loves to read with you. You two often read a book and once you both finish you have a tea session over it. It starts off being about the book and then somehow shifts to just gossiping and talking shit about the other overlords, except for Rosie, we love Rosie in this household.

Speaking of, Rosie is usually where you get your clothes from. She’s a sweetheart when she isn’t picking pieces of muscle from her teeth, that sharp smile is a killer! She loves to talk about Alastor with you, and usually she’s where you go after you two have had an argument. You’re also her personal Barbie doll. She puts you in outfits and she and Alastor judge over them. Nine times out of ten you leave her boutique with a new wardrobe every time.

Now let’s talk about Vox.

Honestly the whole reason Vox knows about you is probably because he was digging through Alastors shit. But when he sees you? Oh lord, this man is HOOKED.

He doesn’t even know how Alastor managed to get you entangled with him. He finds out about you when you and Alastor aren’t dating yet, and he basically jumps at his chance to try to be with you.

Vox will forever consider you the one that got away, you can’t change my mind.

Alastor has proven time and time again that he’s basically better than Vox. He took a seven year back, came on the radio one day and boom all his viewers were back. In Alastors mind there’s no competition, just Vox being obsessed with the fact Alastor said no.

Valentino uses it against Vox all the time, and it will always make Vox buffer.

[fairestwriting]

Azul, Ruggie, and Lilia seeing their crush sleeping with a plush that looks like them! (An octopus plush, hyena doll, and a bat!)

𐙚 Azul Ashengrotto

When he tries to think of a sea creature that could make for a good design for a plush toy, octopi definitely aren’t the first to come to mind. It’s not like he’s never seen an octopus plush before. He just can’t bring himself to think they look cute and cuddly enough, they read more like a marketing mistake to him— or that’s what he would want others to believe, at least.

He actually has a bit of a soft spot for plush toys. They’re not much of a thing back home, where fabric usage is restricted only to things that can survive the harshness of the salt water. The plushies he’s seen for sale there aren’t as cute looking as the ones he’s seen on land, he’s firmly decided, then kept it to himself because the thought of having opinions on “children’s toys” at his age feels too embarrassing.

Azul maybe had a passing thought about you owning an octopus plush before, but dismissed it as him being kind of desperate. After all, even landmade octopus plushes aren’t really that cute, are they… you’d probably prefer something that’s easier to hold. And that’s if you even like that kind of stuff at all— He honestly thinks of you so highly sometimes, the idea of you owning plush toys feels unrealistic. Even if that thought itself doesn’t make that much sense.

You maybe had invited him over to study, the day he walks in and sees you with that plush, and it almost made him trip on nothing when he did. ”Ah, I’m sorry, I didn’t think you’d be asleep! Would you prefer I come back some other time?” He says in a flustered rush, it’s really a trial for him to get his thoughts back together if you, on top of everything else, ask him to stay. Inside his mind, the scene is crystallized like a crucial memory, and he feels flustered all over again when he comes back to it. If you two did study that day, he didn’t memorize a single word.

𐙚 Ruggie Bucchi

He’s seen little plush hyenas on storefronts back home, there’s been periods where they were trendy in his neighborhood too. Maybe he’s even mended one of the toys before, or purchased one or two to give out as a gift. They’re all far from being high quality, probably even a little wonky looking, he never thought too much about them.

If you ever expressed an interest in plushies, he’s definitely made you a little something as a gift. Maybe a plush keychain, since sewing a doll by hand would require an amount of time he sadly doesn’t have. It may have been a hyena or not, when doing this his first thought is to go for whatever your favorite animal is, and hyenas aren’t exactly the most popular, right? The association of the gift with himself doesn’t really come to mind at first.

Then, one day, he comes over to your dorm room to check up on you — it’s just a thing he likes doing from time to time — and he sees you asleep with the plushie in your arms. Ruggie’s heart melts, it immediately reminds him of home, he can’t resist taking a sneaky picture to keep to himself. “Shishi, I didn’t know you missed me so much while I was busy”, he lovingly teases you when you wake up. He’ll be curious about where you got it, wanting to know more about the “little guy”, as he calls it.

The whole thing makes him feel really proud of himself. He takes a little break to hang out with you and just relax for a moment, so you ”don’t have to feel lonely” when he leaves for his Lounge shift. One day, you come back to your bedroom to find out that a yellow bandana was tied around your doll’s neck, a tiny, embroidered thing made to look like the one Ruggie wears with his dorm uniform.

𐙚 Lilia Vanrouge

There’s no surprises here, because he 100% bought the plushie and gifted it to you himself. You couldn’t possibly beat him to it when he’s so often thinking about how endearing you are doing this or that. He walked by the store, the idea popped up in his mind, and so he executed his plan. It was only a matter of time until he would get to see you being cute with it.

Lilia’s very straightforward about it. “I wanted to make sure you wouldn’t be too sad whenever I’m away,” He tells you when he hands over the gift, smiling wide. The plushie has an oddly really specific look, being bigger than what you’d imagine for a bat, with bead eyes that were almost the exact same color as his own. He may or may not have had it slightly altered. He was really a man on a mission with this one.

He already seems to linger around your dorm way too often, straight up inviting himself is a line he won’t cross, but he sure manages to find a lot of excuses to be around. Since giving you the plushie, it gets even more frequent. You hear lots of cheeky excuses, things about how he decided to try out Malleus’ exploration hobby, or supposed dorm vice leader duties that definitely don't exist. And he knows you don’t believe any of it too, he’s just being coy. It’s basically just one of the many ways he flirts with you.

When he shows up, Lilia tiptoes the line between your nightly free time and the moment you go to bed. He knows he could probably just watch you from outside the window, but where’s the fun in that? He wants to actually be allowed to get as close as he can, instead of just staring at a distant image through a glass pan. The night he finally sees it, he can’t stop smiling to himself. How silly, for an old man like him to get so giddy over something so small, he thinks while he giggles. You wake up to a single, slightly cryptic feeling text saying he’s happy you enjoyed his gift so much.

if you like my work you can support me by commissioning me or tipping me on ko-fi ── ᵎᵎ ✦

[pigfacedbitch]

Phobia

idea : your phobia relates to your boyfriend's gifted godly abilities.

word count : 0.8k

type : headcanons

pairing/s involved : Jason Grace / Percy Jackson / Leo Valdez / Frank Zhang / Nico Di Angelo x Reader

warning/s : phobia speaks for itself. personally, it's thalassophobia for me. 😓

here is my masterlist!

Jason Grace | Acrophobia (Fear of Heights)

Due to having the same fear as his sister, Jason is completely aware of the dos and dont's when you're an acrophobic.

If you two are forced in situations where you need to be in high places, he always attempts to distract you with anything he can think of.

He prefers embarrassing stories over jokes. His delivery is too deadass and his 'i'm-trying-hard-here-it's-not-funny' look makes you laugh before the punchline.

Knowing that it can be associated with the fear of falling, Jason will reassure you every time that he's going to catch you.

If you did fall, during some battle for example, he will asks you to close your eyes and hold you tighter before slowly bringing you down.

He really lives up to that Superman nickname so much, the others started calling you Lois Lane.

Percy Jackson | Thalassophobia (Fear of Deep Bodies of Water)

Percy would be bummed out. Being the son of Poseidon, he loves to be in the water.

Everything about him— from his favorite hobbies to his happiest of memories, revolves around it and he wants to share that with you.

He plans on taking you on trips underwater; introduce you to the majestic marine creatures nobody else has seen before, unravel mysteries the sea has to offer, and form a big bubble where you can do whatever you want without being interrupted (ehem👀).

But how can he make all of it possible when your fear is literally all of those?

Percy would want to help you get over it. He wouldn't force you but he will at least try convince you.

If you refuse, he will respect that.

But if you accept his help, he'll try to take it one step at a time. Probably by starting to show you how the sea, no matter terrifying it is, is also beautiful place.

Leo Valdez | Pyrophobia (Fear of Fire)

Initially, Leo will laugh. I mean, who wouldn't?

You're a pyrophobic yet you're dating someone who is actually made out of fire?

After he notices that you're not joking, he will begin to be terrified for you. Expect that Leo will be extra careful when you are with him, especially when he is working on something.

His contraptions deemed too dangerous like explosives, will be kept somewhere far away.

As much as he thinks your presence will make Bunker 9 a lovelier workspace, he will understand if you don't want to go there. The essense of it is from the god of fire himself— I mean you need a blast of fire to enter.

He also will refrain himself from using his fire abilities in a fight, making do with his inventions instead.

While pyrophobia doesn't have specific causes, it may be possible that you had some traumatic experience relating to fire. Leo doesn't want to hurt you or make you feel worse.

Frank Zhang | Zoophobia (Fear of Animals)

Frank is confused. He doesn't know that the fear of animals is a thing and would wonder why you agreed on dating him in the first place.

He will ask you tons of questions; what caused your phobia? Are you afraid of all animals, a few, or just one? What can I do? After your conversation, he's going to search more information.

If you're afraid of one animal only, Frank will forget it ever existed. He will never talk of that animal again even when you're not around.

The others will joke about it. Example, if you're scared of snakes—

"What is a snake, Frank?"

"What's that, Leo? I have no idea, so let's never speak of it again."

In the case that you're afraid of all animals (this is a rare condition), he will not use his abilities and will train harder in combat.

When he really doesn't have a choice but to shapeshift in a fight, you two will separate with your friends' assurance that they got your back.

Frank is a nice guy but if someone made an offensive comment about your phobia or hardcore pranks involving that animal? Expect the wrath and rage of Mars.

Nico Di Angelo | Phasmophobia (Fear of Ghosts)

I'm sorry but Nico will slightly judge you. Really, a ghost? What are you, five?

Like Frank, he will ask you what caused your phobia.

He will feel terrible and comfort you if you have the same experience as Reina and Jason, who's loved ones turned into a mania. If it's because of horror movies, he will awkwardly pet your head.

You may think the subject is dropped but Nico will make sure that no ghost will ever come near you.

Having the infamous title 'Ghost King', he will not hesitate to torment and threaten the spirits who try to approach, scare, or talk to you.

He will take you on dates to McDonalds but he will not bring you to any 'ghost business'.

If you want to get rid of your phobia, Nico will summon ghosts who can entertain you; like singers, dancers, those that can do tricks, and stand up comedians.

He will also show you how easily he can bend any ghost to his will, proving to you that there's nothing to be afraid of.

[tackykachowch]

I wanted to make this post really extensive, with a lot of screenshots etc, but I'm literally operating at 0% so forgive me this one time.

So, you all know how I'm constantly after season 2's blood because of how it butchered well...Everything, but especially my favorites Silco and Jinx. And what do you know, they even screwed up Silco's glass. Yes. A Glass. Let me explain.

Animators at Fortiche are real professionals, so they know that every object tells a story, so even small things like glasses or cups can tell us a story or let us understand the character better, or even reflect the whole meta of the show. Arcane season 1 really exceeded at this. Going through every scene of this season I noticed that Piltovans use elegant and neat glasses and cups, and the glasses that are particularly used by the councilors are made out of gold. While Zaunites drink from simple glasses without any ornaments, metal mugs or straight-up out of bottles. But there's this one single glass that's different from any other glass or cup in the ENTIRE season - Silco's glass (also Jinx's cup but I'm not gonna talk about it here).

It's made out of simple glass and is pretty bulky to give an association with Zaun, but also has golden ornaments to associate it with Piltover. This single glass perfectly encapsulates Silco as a character - a Zaunite who rejects living under the status quo and who strives to get his people opportunity and freedom Piltover has. Also it reflects his unique position in society - he operates the entirety of the Undercity, yet even this amount of power is barely enough to compete with Piltover. Silco represents the middle of the barrel, a fusion of both cities at their current states. Then, in ep9 it gets destroyed, foreshadowing Silco's death and destruction of the relative peace the two cities had until this time. It's perfect, no notes.

But theeeen we have season 2 *barely disguised rage*. In it we have my favorite flashback out of all of flashbacks ever, where we see- huh??

Silco's glass?? How did it get in there?? And there's THREE of them now???? This is surely some kind of mistake, right? Let's fast forward a bit- WHAT IS IT DOING IN A CAVE????

So, you want to tell me, that an object unique to Silco and Silco only, which perfectly represented his character and even played a minor narrative role, is in fact NOT unique and its destruction in the season 1 finale meant Literally Nothing???? WHAT??????

This is what I meant when I said that s2 jumped headstrong into the fanservice without the second thought about how it impacts the story and characters. You see, Silco now HAS to keep a glass from the times he, Vander and Felicia were friends. He HAS to keep a diary where he says how he admires Felicia, even though nothing indicated that someone inspired him or something of that sort in prior material. (UPD: Also, Silco is more of an idealistic character in the first place. He DOES care about people to some extent, but he always seemed to fight for the idea itself, and not some people in particular. So to give him this new unknown character as part of his primary motivation is....strange, to say the least. It's almost like writers want to make him more sympathetic hmmm). He HAS to keep a photo of the three of them and an "Our Love" record, because he's a sap like that and he lowed his fwiends so wewy much. We already knew Silco had a soft side because he kept things Jinx made for him, we already knew that he hadn't completely let go of the past because he kept Vander's knife. There's no point in adding all this garbage except make the audience go "awwww". It's disgusting and insulting.

But back to the glasses. It makes no sense that the three of them have the glasses and use them, because none of them have any amount of power yet. Moreover, Vander never has ANY Piltovian aesthetic in his design, and Felicia is literally a non-character, so what is exactly the reason to give her such an important object to begin with? I don't know a thing about her, except that she's arcane's most manic pixie girl ever and that by her sheer existence she ruined Silco and Vander's dynamic. Cool. And why would Silco keep the glass with him throughout all these years? And then openly drink out of it in his office? Is it supposed to mean that he carries on the dream the three of them had? But Vander openly rejected this dream, and the remnant of this is located in the very same office (Vander's knife). Orrr maybe um. Maybe. Ughhh. I can't. Think of anything. Hang on. Maaaybeeee it's ssssupposed to represent how Silco's fight for independence went back to the place it started in (The Last Drop)? Okay, maybe, whatever. But then again, what was the purpose of destroying his glass in season 1 ep9 if presumably the two other glasses are still intact? Except Silco dying it doesn't tell us anything, because it lost the previous weight it had in the narrative.

Then we fast forward again to my favorite episode out of all the episodes ever - s2 ep7. In it Silco appears only for a few seconds, but by God are these one of the most destructive few seconds for his character. First he comes to the scene with his flask in hand. A....weird thing to have in a BAR, but okay.

But then as he says the infamous line about forgiveness Vander hands him- oh. Uhhh...A. A Piltovan glass.

Not Silco's glass, or maybe some entirely new glass to represent Zaun's progress as a free nation, but a Piltiovan one. Okay. You were pretty obvious with the line here writers but I guess it wasn't enough.

S2 proceeds to be an insulting, disgusting mess in its every aspect and I will fight with it for the rest of my life.

[cl0wnbytez]

Hlvrai but it’s marine creatures I think they’d be with an unnecessary amount of explanation

Basically an autistic dude rambles about what fish these guys would be with very specific reasonings. I’m a lot more certain on some more than others, some are just “yeah he’d be this lol” and others are a paragraph of explanation based on very specific behavior(s) of the creature.

Gordon

Clownfish

Now I don’t really know how to explain this one besides color lol, I suppose the common aggression they exhibit can be compared to him in a way, besides that just look at him that man is a clownfish

Benrey

Broadclub Cuttlefish

Okay for Benrey I had quite a few creatures in mind but I ultimately settled on the broadclub cuttlefish. Their mischievous nature for one can automatically be seen in Benreys character, but that is not the main reason I chose them. The main reason I settled on cuttlefish(and more specifically the broadclub cuttlefish) for Benrey is because of a specific behavior seen in the gif above. Broadclub cuttlefish will ‘hypnotize’ their prey into calming down and staying still. I mean if I didn’t compare this to Sweet Voice no one was going to. Also Benrey could be pretty much any fucked up deep sea creature, or if you wanna be really basic, a shark lmao.

Dr. Coomer

Mantis Shrimp

This one speaks for itself, I’m not even the first one to say this that’s how obvious it is. On top of being the sea creature he would be, I think mantis shrimp would also be Coomers favorite animal(at least when it comes to marine life). Once again I am definitely not the first one to say this.

Bubby

Blue Ribbon Eel

Honestly this is the one I have the least explanation for, they’re opportunistic hunters I guess. I really wish I had more to say for Bubby because he’s one of the most overlooked characters in the fandom in my opinion. But alas, he is eel coded to me, and he is blue, thus, blue ribbon eel.

Tommy

Yellow Stingray

Couldn’t find a gif for this one :(

Not only are these silly guys yellow, they are known for their kind, curious, and playful temperament, but they will not hesitate to sting when they feel threatened. Very Tommy. I also picked a ray specifically for reasons you’ll see in a moment, just keep reading. ;3

Forzen

Porbeagle Shark

Couldn’t find a gif or even a good picture for this one so fuck it, porbeagle side eye

I have the stupidest explanation for this one. Forzen is shark and dog coded, porbeagles are known for their playfulness and dog-like hunting style. Porbeagle Forzen.

Darnold

Parrot Fish

I’ll have a gif for the last one I promise

I know all of these have brought up behaviors of the animal for reasons why I associate them with that specific character, but this one is specifically for aesthetic reasons. I associate Darnold with colorful stuff because potions and parrotfish are underrated just like him leave me alone.

Gman

Manta Ray

I told you Tommy was a ray for a reason. Anyways, I mainly associate hlvrai Gman with manta rays because of his menacing aura despite him being much less of a threat and practically harmless by the end of the series(so far). Yes I know he threatened Gordon but literally everyone has so shut up, he mainly just told Gordon “take care of my son lol” and brought everyone to Chucky Cheese at the end. But basically yeah manta rays are menacing but harmless, they also just generally have Gmans shadowy vibe.

Idk how to end this bye

[bestanimal]

Round 3 - Chondrichthyes - Hexanchiformes

(Sources - 1, 2, 3, 4)

The Hexanchiformes are a primitive order of sharks, of which only 7 species in 2 families remain. These families are the Hexanchidae (“cow sharks”, also called “sixgill sharks” or “sevengill sharks”) and Chlamydoselachidae (“frilled sharks”).

Hexanchiformes have one small, spineless dorsal fin located over or behind the pelvic fins and one anal fin. Their cartilaginous vertebral column extends into the long dorsal lobe of the caudal fin, while the ventral lobe of the caudal fin is either small or absent. They have either six or seven gill slits, a large mouth, and small spiracles located well above and behind the eyes. The eyes have no nictitating membrane. Hexanchiformes are most common near the ocean floor in cold, deep water in the tropics, but are also found closer to the shore in more temperate regions. Many of these sharks exhibit vertical migration, following prey closer to the surface at night, and submerging back to the depths during the day. Hexanchiformes are ovoviviparous and feed on yolk within their mother. They have litters of varying size, ranging from 2 to 108 pups, depending on species.

The Hexanchiformes date back to the Early Jurassic, with some evidence of even earlier existence in the Permian. Fossil Hexanchid teeth have been found dating back as early as the Late Jurassic, and Triassic sharks appear very similar to modern Hexanchids. However, while the Chlamydoselachidae (frilled sharks) look ancient, they arose in the Late Cretaceous with most other modern shark families.

Propaganda under the cut:

The Sharpnose Sevengill Shark (Heptranchias perlo) and the Broadnose Sevengill Shark (Notorynchus cepedianus) are the only species of sharks to have seven gill slits.

Some Bluntnose Sixgill Sharks (Hexanchus griseus) recieved a unique spotlight when they began repeatedly bumping into the submarine of the Blue Planet II film crew, thinking the crew was after their whale carcass.

The Broadnose Sevengill Shark (Notorynchus cepedianus) (image 1) is the only shark in this order known to pose any threat to humans, due to their habitat being in proximity to humans and propensity for retaliating when provoked. Human remains have been found in one specimen's stomach, though these were likely deceased, drowned individuals, as this species has a reputation for feeding on anything it can fit in its mouth. In 2020 a 13 year old girl was bitten while surfing at Oreti Beach in New Zealand. The girl continued to surf for an hour before realizing her leg was bleeding.

Unlike its relatives which will often scavenge carrion and feed on whale falls, the Atlantic Sixgill Shark (Hexanchus vitulus) is known to be much more picky. It will not feed on prey after it has been dead for 24 hours, instead ignoring older prey to move on to its next kill.

Nothing could really hurt you in the freediving sim “Endless Ocean” (in the first game anyway) but I still got really freaked out when I had to dive down in the trenches. So whenever I had to do some deep-deep-diving, I would immediately go and find a frilled shark to befriend, because if you fed them enough they would follow you around. Having a smiley little buddy by my side always made me feel much calmer in that area, so frilled sharks still give me that little boost of seratonin just by association. They were there for me even when my stupid Risso’s Dolphin was effin off to go harass a squid or whatever.

While the two species of frilled shark that are alive today are relatively small, the larger of the two being the 2.0 m (6.6 ft) long Frilled Shark (Chlamydoselachus anguineus), some extinct species could get to be very large. The Late Cretaceous Rolfodon goliath was likely the largest, reaching an estimated 5-6 meters (19 ft 8in) long.

Meanwhile, the Southern African Frilled Shark (Chlamydoselachus africana) is much smaller, with the largest known female being the immature 117 cm (3.8 ft) long holotype, and the largest known male measuring 99 cm (3.2 ft) long.

They go like :o

Some Hexanchiform eyes fluoresce green (when the shark is alive)

(source)

[moonsdrs]

FANDOM IN MY 60S FAME DR...

would you be able to survive being famous in my 1960s fame dr?

there's only one way to describe fandom life in my 60s fame dr and it is: crazy. crazy as fuck. now, don't get it twisted! i truly adore and cherish mine (and the boys') fanbase with all my heart and soul and everything in between but dear god would i be lying if i said they don't scare me too. i'm already big and famous and i already associate with some of the biggest acts of the decade and decades to come so imagine my fandom and their fandom mixed together...yeah. it's a lot.

having to be escorted everywhere like you're god damn jfk with about 5-8 policemen on motorbike, cars with tinted windows, bodyguards to the 9, sneaking in and out the back. and it's not like they'd hurt you but they're just a bit- handsy. they like to grab and pull you and all they want is a hug but damn you bout to pop my arm out it's socket!

other fandom things is how serious they take things. like modern day streaming. they will get your whole album charting all numbers on the top 10 if they got to. they will go to WAR for you even if just as one bad rumor or word of you is dare uttered. like once this interviewer low key dissed me and mine and the boys' fanbase was so mean back that he had to send me a written apology directly.

my favorite memory is the first time michael and i confirmed ourselves to be in a relationship and y'know there are like those weird few that had acted as if he was THEIRS the whole time but otherwise we were well received. many of the guys' fandom didn't really dabble in mo-town or the type of pop i put out so they also benefited to expanding their own music to my own which then introduced them to jimi so on so forth. i had my own like..following? from their fans who basically dedicated themselves to me too. they made posters and letters and gave flowers and stuffed animals.

and another thing, items i even HOLD for merely a moment will be sold out within 72 hours. that one strawberry chapstick sold in basic corner stores? you won't see it for at least another month. those mary janes that were 35 bucks? yeah, well they're 100 now because of the demand. i said i liked this one song by this singer? suddenly they're charting (but not too close to my own).

so, i have more to talk about eventually and much more for when i shift and come back i'm sure. but for now this is where i will shut up. if you got questions and stuff please ask in my inbox and i'll get back as soon as humanly possible. love ya xx

[thequeenofthedisneyverse]

EurylAres HC'S to read while I write their kids!

Everyone is seriously concerned about WHY Eurylochus is just...okay with dating Ares. Yeah, he says he's a nice guy and all but, he's known for being a psycho.

Eurylochus doesn't like explaining his feelings very much because to be frank he's not used to it. Even with his own parents and family. emotions are hard to talk about. But let me break it down for you.

Ares is known for being involved in the terrible parts of war: Blood, gore, death, etc. And from this perspective, it easily makes him a guy no one wants to be around. But he is needed for war, you don't like him, but you need him.

Eurylochus can sympathize and empathize with that in a sense. He was the kid no other kids would go near because he was always the tallest kid around and always had a stoic look on his face. That naturally made him look scary. (The only kids that gave him a chance were Odysseus and Polites)

So, he grew up alone and a little introverted, shy even. Other kids took notice of this and saw him as a big push over. In other words, they started bullying him to the point where he would get hurt.

After a while, Eurylochus started to defend himself and you know what would happen afterwards? He would get blamed and treated like HE was the bad kid. Soon, he was painted as the "violent" kid that others should stay away from.

There's an audio that goes "My friends think that I like to fight but that's not true. Sometimes I lose my temper and blow off a little steam, but I never enjoyed it. I'm not a violent dog...I don't know why I bite."

Those words fit Eurylochus perfectly well (well, my depiction of him). Eurylochus always saw himself as a person and wished others would too (Even when Ody and Poli became his friends). That's why he's able to look past those negative traits of Ares and try to see HIM.

Because in a way, he knows what it feels like to be seen as just a violent brute who feels nothing and has little remorse. And what showed him that is when he first met him.

Eury didn't see a violent crazed brute who no one should be associated with...he saw a soul. A soul that wanted a connection in the purest form. Love. Something that Eurylochus wanted himself.

Yeah, Ares can be violent, blood thirsty, war-crazed son of a gun but he's more than that.

To Eurylochus, He's sweet, he's funny (intentional or not), generous (in odd ways or not), caring, brave, and he genuinely cares about the people that care about him. He's a lover of sports, food, blacksmithing, and especially his favorite animals which are vultures, dogs, boars, rams, and hawks). And lastly...Ares loves Eurylochus for who he is too, flaws and all.

That's enough for him.

I would like for everyone to know that I started the ship so if you make art with them can you at least credit me?

[f-cat]

Tickling FCat!

Hey there, fans! Fantine here. I know -- there's a lot of explaining to do; I don't even know where to begin. This is a long one, so I hope y'all stick with me.

A few days ago, Cat and I were going through our inbox and trying to reorganize files. Videos, shoots, requests, booking -- take your pick. We uncluttered a lot of shit and organized them into a nice list, and my boss - Cat - passed it over to me to handle. I spent a good half hour combing through the list -- I'm looking and looking -- and I notice there's a ton of messages asking:

"When's the boss gonna get hers?" "Is Cat available?" "When can we see Cat tickled?"

I'm not even joking, there's at least 20 or so messages from fans and associates about her, filled to the brim with their wildest fantasies. It's more than anything I've seen so far since we've been open. I think about how to approach this -- so I get up, walk to her office, and just lay it out. I'm reading through bullet points of ideas the fans had, and Cat's just scoffing. I remember she said "Yeah, that's never going to fucking happen."

Look, I love Cat -- we've been in business for a while, and she pays me pretty well to keep the equipment functioning, do setups, book appointments, etc. And she was never gonna be the ticklee? Not even once?

Nah. I wasn't going to let that slide. I knew in my heart she wasn't gonna fire me, because there's no one else in the industry with this much technological prowess mixed with a depraved, fetishistic mind like me. So I schemed. Just a tiny bit.

So I was like -- hey, we got these beautiful stocks auctioned off to us by some guy who we're gonna keep anonymous. Why not use it? I remembered, he told us this setup was cursed. Something to do with "Living Wood."

It took a few days, but I convinced our company nurse, our animal caretaker, and our analyst to "join the cause." No matter what, at the end of the day -- Cat is going into them stocks.

We were literally chasing her through the entire facility, and I gotta say -- this woman can fucking run. She's been training for months, and none of us on the staff are too athletic, but after a good 10 minutes or so, we finally got her. Cat was fighting and biting her way out, but sorry boo -- four is greater than one. (Cat if you're reading this, I love you, please don't fire meeee)

Now the special thing with these stocks that we found out -- they're like otherworldly, cursed, eldritch-type horrors. Arms literally spring out of them when they're about to receive a ticklee. So we put Cat in -- lock in her ankles, and I'm combing through the list to find the first bullet on the line. The fan messaged: "[I'd like Cat] with all [her] toes tied in stocks. Both feet tickled by electric toothbrushes, the arch on one and the toes on the other. Feet oiled as well if it’s not too much trouble. Thanks[.]"

We have to start somewhere, right? I'm taking off her shoes -- Cat's cursing at me, screaming to let her go -- but I mean...I've dealt with so many ticklees over the years and this shit is just blank noise. Instead of conventional baby oil or coconut oil, I'm rubbing this special concoction we made into her feet -- it's like an oil/paste hybrid with an ointment kind of consistency that makes the skin ridiculously slippery; it also retains body heat well to keep her extra sensitive. It's the stuff we put on our naughtiest lees usually.

Here's a few secrets you didn't know about my boss -- number 1: Cat's toes are her more ticklish spot. Number 2: did y'all know her feet blush when they're touched or tickled? Like they turn pink almost instantly when you're rubbing on them. I think it's fucking adorable.

Anyways, after I got Cat's feet all oiled up and we bring out the Sonicares - electric toothbrushes that vibrate thousands of times a second...it's maximum tickling efficiency capable of decimating nerves. It's her favorite tool to use (and have it used on her).

So the Living Wood comes out of the stocks and grabs the brushes up out of my hand -- I mean, she can't fire me if I'm not the one doing the tickling, right? And Cat is whimpering like crazy until they turn those brushes up on max speed and get it going -- they start gliding the bristles against her greasy-looking soles, and Cat immediately starts losing her mind. She's ticklish as fuck (on a scale of 1 to 10, she's a 30), and I know deep down, she loves it.

One of my favorite sounds I think is underrated -- is the buzzing of the electric toothbrush. Like it sounds like a nest of angry bees or wasps flying around, and the moment that buzzing becomes muffled slightly -- you know it's made contact with Cat's glistening soles. If you mix that with her roaring laughter -- I mean...paradise is right here on Earth. I'm not even joking - fans, this might be one of the hottest things y'all ever witnessed.

The toothbrush is just effortlessly gliding in between her greasy toes, and Cat is flopping side to side -- like a fish out of water. Her black hair is getting thrown back and forth as she loses her sanity. She's sweaty, blushing, wiggling, and howling...shrieking with laughter because we all know -- it tickles.

While boss is in the other room laughing it up, we'll keep her monitored. I don't think I've ever seen a girl wiggle so violently when her feet are tickled.

Anyways, I've put in a few days off for her (I'm such a caring employee, right?) and the stocks are gonna keep tickling her until the batteries on the toothbrush run out. I don't really know what it'll do after, so I'll keep y'all posted.

Don't worry about us too much, we'll take care of her! Much love to all of you!

-- Fantine

P.S. By the way, we got some secret shots of Cat if you wanna check out her DA gallery. She's gonna be mad when she finds out, so look them up while you can.

[alexthetrashyracoon]

i desperately need a tf141 beach day episode.

What comes next? A firework episode? A sick episode? The manly males of the masculine franchise Call of Duty becoming members of a 2006 Shojo Anime?

You got it.

CW// Bad attempts at humor, don’t take anything serious, the big boys deserve a break and so do you. Drink water, stay hydrated, eat your favorite snack and pat your pets like I do all the time. Plus, whatever happened in Canon universe, stays in Canon Universe, this is a happy family.

And I hope this was what you meant, just plain old TF141. Not TF141 + Reader. Now I’m having a crisis, not wanting to disappoint :(

Wordcount: 905 Words

A Day at the Beach means a Day away from Base

“That’s it, boys. You need a break.”

If anything Kate was as thick headed and stubborn as a mule, there wasn’t much that could move her from a position she took.

“No, Kate. What we need is finding Makarov and hanging this fucker from the ceiling. He almost killed Soap. I’m not letting this maniac walk around…” Price started, hands still firmly planted on the table where various files about Makarov and his associates were scattered around, before getting cut off by a sharp glance coming from Kate.

Sometimes he wanted to strangle the woman with bare hands.

“It’s a bit like Mom and Dad fighting.” Gaz whispered between Soap and Ghost. “Just missing the bloody popcorn.” He got elbowed by Ghost for that, Gaz knew he deserved it.

“Vacation. Now. MacTavish almost, almost died. This should be enough to give you a reason to start with fresh eyes, which you can’t if you’re as tense as you bunch are right now. Just a few days. A week at max, I’ll keep the operation going, we’ve got enough eyes and ears on the ground and the air… we’ll find Makarov but not if you can’t see the woods for the trees.“

A week later Price sat by the back porch of a small bungalow at the beachside of the Netherlands. It wasn’t like this American movie beaches but damn, it was nice to stretch out his legs, sip his, to be honest very sucky, tea and listen to the annoying screams of the seagulls over their heads.

“Kate was…” Ghost started but got cut off by Prices’ hand in his face.

“Don’t say it.”

“Kate was right.” Ghost snorted and stepped onto the fresh grass, it had rained the night prior and Ghost was barefoot.

A moment later Soap and Gaz sprint out of the bungalow, both dressed in swim shorts, Soap with a water gun in his hands and Gaz carrying a big floaty, both of them looking proud as peacocks. “You two stay where you are. I won’t let any of you madmen out of my sight after last time.” Price reminded them, making them stop in their tracks.

An hour they still sit by the bungalow, this time huddled under the tarp as heavy rain fell down, again. “We could have been swimming in the damn ocean for at least an hour by now!” Soap complained while gripping his mug of coffee. Not even a moment later there is lightning cutting through the sky.

“You would be grilled if you got hit by lightning while swimming in the ocean, Johnny.” Ghost reminded him while watching the rain fall.

For the next three days it was a constant battle between simple rain and heavy storms outside the bungalow.

“Wasn’t this vacation supposed to relax us?” Gaz asked from his spot on the couch, some stupid cartoon running as a background noise. “I am everything but relaxed!”

They had been scooped up for most of the vacation now. It wasn’t any different to when they were out of deployment, just that here they aren’t in the danger of getting shot at. One plus point.

“Blame Laswell.” Price called from the bathroom. “If she hadn’t make us go on a damn vacation we could be back at home, hunting down Makarov and…”

“Sun’s out, clouds are gone. Move your damn asses mates, we gonna drown in the open sea.” Ghost called and pushed the sliding doors open. Within seconds they all had changed.

This was probably the last chance they got to actually relax at the sea, and even if the window for that kind of good weather was a small one, they would use even the smallest chance.

So an hour later Ghost lays on a towel, Price sitting next to him, nursing a bottle of Heineken while keeping an eye on Gaz and Soap who have a water fight with a group of other tourists. And they were pathetically losing right now.

“Sometimes I wonder how they grew up and why they are still alive?” Price snorted between two sips of beer.

“Not everyone can be grumpy assholes like us two when they grow up.” Ghost joked and propped himself up on his elbows, watching Soap getting dunked by Gaz, who in return gets hit with a shot from a water gun.

They clank their bottles against each other while watching Soap and Gaz race through the water, diving under water for a moment or two until the sun started to settle slowly at the horizon and the two Sergeant crawled out of the water and hiding under their towels at the spot on the beach.

“It’s fucking peaceful.” Gaz said after a moment of drying himself and removing algae from his hair, throwing it away and leaned back on his hands.

The sky turned orange, pink and yellow as the sun set, slowly disappearing behind the line of water.

“That’s what Kate had been talking about when she threw us onto this vacation.” Price said as he handed out fresh bottles of beer.

This night they returned real late to their bungalow, enjoying the cloud free sky full of stars over their heads.

A few weeks later a single picture frame decorated Prices office, showing Price, Ghost, Soap and Gaz, all grinning into the cheap camera they had brought for their vacation. A bunch of great memories were made in those few days.

Please don’t hesitate to send in more requests <:

[jadeazora]

I have a bias for Flare since I love the potential they had and for the major upgrade they receive in adaptations, but the execution they had in XY is bad and they never got a second chance to improve on them as a team in the mainline games, so have to give it to Cyrus and Team Galactic, who I feel are at least pretty consistently good, both in adaptations and Platinum. I don't really like anime Cyrus, but I like that he felt more built up than Archie and Maxie and felt more threatening than how the anime depicted Ghetsis, and until we got the Flare arc, thought he was the best handled of the main villains despite being the weakest depiction of Cyrus as a character. (Also, I like him as a villain more than Faba in the SM anime, and tho the anime gave us a little more on Rose, they speedran his arc there, so I wasn't fond of that either.)

I also feel they came the closest to actually winning in Platinum, like he needed that divine intervention because I don't think there was ANYTHING the player could actually do there. The Lake Spirits could only balance one Dragon and he still had control of the other one, and he knows we have the Master Ball since he's the one that gave it to us, so fat chance he would have ever let us use it against him. You could generally at least fight back against the other teams. I feel like the only other place we were almost that helpless was against the AI Sada/Turo.

(Cyrus is also my favorite character in Pokemon currently. I like how you have to piece together his backstory to get a clear view of his motive, and like that he does show the capacity for changing for the better in the manga and in Masters.)

[xmads-omensx]

Noah meeting you and slowly learning that you're a huge history/archeology/paleontology nerd. He noticed you would drop random facts or correct facts (especially while watching your favorite movie; Jurassic Park). Falling for you a little bit more everyday when he finds out you are way smarter than you look (dumb blonde jokes inserted here haha) and he loves that your house is basically a museum.

Word Count: 1,470

Pairing: Noah Sebastian X Reader

Content Warnings: swearing, very vague mentions and description of a mummified person, questions surrounding morality of museums

Tags: @collisionofyourkissmakesitsohard @lacy1986 @collidewiththesav @kenjipepsi1 @follow-me-down-to-wonderland @alwaysfightforwhoyouare @chey-h @tosoundlessdarkistare @thisbicc @fadingangelwisp

ANON YOU GET ME! Not to pick favourites right now, but this is literally my fave request ever!! I'm such a literature and history nerd. SMOOCHES TO YOU ANON

(and yes I did put some of my uni museum assignment ideas here but we shall move bc it is still HEAVYYY on my mind rn)

As a self-proclaimed nerd, it was easy to be misjudged.

Typically, nerds were associated with comic books, maths, science and the like, which I most definitely was into don’t get me wrong, but I was a different kind of nerd.

The kind that finds true joy by learning heaps of useless information about dinosaurs and other extinct creatures. The kind that knows just a little too much about the Berlin Wall. The kind that you really want on your pub quiz team for the history round.

That kind of nerd.

Dating came with its challenges, since I had to physically refrain from correcting my dates on their incorrect factual knowledge, which I had discovered didn’t exactly go down too well the hard way.

Meeting Noah was an absolute blessing. He was a nerd too, not quite the same kind as me, but a nerd none the less, and I loved him for it.

Despite this, Noah never knew how into history I really was.

I had told him about my interest in anime and sci-fi movies, which he had really taken to, but my history obsession never really came up.

Our dates and hangouts had regularly consisted of watching movies or some episodes of an anime, but nothing that had particularly made my heart leap with joy and my brain whirl with interest.

Until our five month anniversary.

Obviously, that isn’t a long time and we didn’t do anything crazy to celebrate, but Noah still went above and beyond with preparations.

He had laid out blankets over his bed, with trays full of Chinese food and snacks, with my favourite soft drinks on his bedside table.

It was quite beautiful to be honest.

The dimly lit room was cozy, with the fairy lights that I had bought him hanging down from above his wardrobe, and his LEDs illuminating the room in a soft orange glow.

His TV was displayed on his wall in front of his bed, further illuminating the room with the familiar image of the Jurassic Park title card.

Noah had never seen it before, and had made it his personal mission to watch them, seeing as it was my favourite movie franchise.

“I thought that we should watch something you like this time, instead of always watching what I want.” He said, breaking the silence with his soft voice.

“Sound like a good plan.” I replied, reaching up to kiss him on the cheek. Noah had to lean down to meet me halfway so that my lips would actually connect with his cheek.

We snuggled down on his bed, with my head buried in his warm chest. The beating of his heart relaxing me as I was absorbed into the movie.

However, the peace didn’t last long.

“Fucking stupid.” I muttered when the scene depicting John Hammond explaining how the park was created to his guests.

“What?” Noah laughed.

“It’s stupid! This whole mosquito bullshit!” I exclaimed.

Noah paused the movie in order to let me explain my grievance with the scene.

“How is it bullshit? Baby it’s not real.” He said with a slight laugh.

“Well obviously Noah! But they could have at least made it more plausible, because then it would be a better movie!” I said, throwing my hands up in frustration.

“How is this inaccurate baby?” Noah asked, slightly intrigued by where I was going with this.

“The mosquito. Only female mosquitos bit animals, and there is no way in hell that they had the means, time or budget to spend all of that time identifying the gender of the mosquito, which they portray as male. And, there is no way to guarantee that that particular mosquito did, in fact, bite a dinosaur!” I was out of breath by the time I had finished ranting to Noah.

He simply chuckled, before pulling me back into his chest and pressing play on the movie, letting me rant about all of the inaccuracies as we went, which there are a lot of.

By the end of the movie, I had fallen asleep listening to Noah’s soothing heartbeat, whilst Noah sat and thought about all of the new and completely useless information he had gained throughout the movie.

He kissed the top of my head before snuggling into my body and drifting off to sleep.

The next time I had overshared far too many facts was when Noah invited me out on a group trip to the museum.

He had planned to go with his group of friends since they had a new samurai section that they all wanted to go and visit, whilst he also saw this as the perfect opportunity for me to meet his friends.

We all met up at a nearby coffee shop and hit it off like a house on fire.

Folio and Matt rapidly became my partners in crime as we walked behind Noah, making small jokes about him and giggling, making him turn around and look at us funny before walking away.

The museum was huge. Tall marble pillars stood strong outside the entrance, giving off an ancient Greek look.

Inside, the high ceilings held skylights which illuminated the entire building in a bright, warm glow, perfectly highlighting each of the exhibits.

The guys made a beeline for the samurai section, whilst I took my time looking at various artefacts from across the world, sprouting off additional facts that weren’t on the little information stands next to them, which had clearly impressed Folio as he whispered to Noah, “She’s a lot smarter than she looks.” And “I wish I was as smart as her.” Which mad made me laugh.

I never felt as though I was particularly smart, I just knew a lot of facts about a lot of things. But I guess that is more or less the definition of smart.

“Hey babe.” Noah called out, “The museum kind of reminds me of your place.”

“How come?” I asked, slightly confused by what he meant by this.

“All of this old stuff. It doesn’t all look important, but it is important. I don’t think that makes any sense.” He rambled.

“I collect a lot of stuff, if that’s what you’re getting at. I like to collect old things.” I laughed.

“Yeah, that’s what I was trying to say.” He laughed, pulling me underneath his arm and placing a kiss on my head.

I always had mixed feelings on museums.

Sure, they were cool to look around and see all of the different artefacts and displays, but something in my gut told me that it was wrong.

Was it okay that museums were taking all of these different things that don’t belong to them?

It was the archaeology exhibit that solidified my stance on the issue.

Right in the middle of the room sat a sarcophagus. An open sarcophagus at that. And inside this sarcophagus laid a mummified person. To the museum’s credit, they were covered enough to keep them decent, but the whole display boiled my blood.

Noah noticed my change in demeanour quite rapidly.

“You doing okay, bub?” He asked, wrapping an arm around my shoulder.

“I hate this.” I said simply. “She doesn’t even get a say in this. They’re using her like she’s an object.” I sighed, gesturing defeatedly at the display.

“Do you want to go and look at something else.” Noah asked quietly.

I wasn’t sure, so I just shrugged.

“That’s so fucked up.” Nicholas said, looking at the display.

“It’s not fair.” I said, loud enough for the others to hear. “If they’re displaying her like this for education, then it’s pointless because she isn’t teaching us anything that we don’t already know. Besides, it’s inaccurate. They’ve taken away the amulets she would have been buried with that she would have needed to get to the afterlife. These canopic jars are replicas, so they don’t even have the real thing. It’s a piss poor attempt at bringing the past to the present.” I ranted.

The guys fell silent before Jolly began to speak.

“Museums suck balls.” He said simply.

“Fuck yeah they do!” I exclaimed, making the rest of the guys laugh before suggesting we got get some food instead.

The rest of the day was spent with the guys quizzing me on random questions that popped into their heads.

It was nice feeling this close to people that I had only just met, who were impressed by my stupidly vast knowledge of history.

“Why history?” Noah asked. “Like, surely there are cooler subjects out there, like… biology or something.”

“Hey!” I exclaimed. “History is cool, dumbass!”

The guys all burst into laughter at the look of pure shock that had crossed his handsome features.

Being a history nerd was rapidly becoming one of the best decisions that I had ever made.

[emihawks]

Part 1/?? of my EPIC the Musical character designs

Prepare for a (potentially cringey) yap session. Starting off with my personal favorite design so far: 🪩✨HERA✨🪩

I had a lot of fun coming up with a design for her, especially since her part in God Games is my favorite section of the song.

I wanted a more 1950-60s Audrey Hepburn/Vogue model aesthetic for her. So big hat, long dress, big jewels. I wanted to make her as blinged out as possible. I was also really excited to use a cool-colored scheme for Hera since she is associated with peacocks. 🦚

If you’re wondering what she’s smoking…it’s moly. Yeahh my friends and I came up with a running joke that Hermes sells it to her and they do magic god blunt rotations together and talk shit about all of the other gods-mainly Zeus-the entire time. Just because she’s the goddess of marriage doesn’t mean she has to like her husband!

On a more technical note, I’d like to imagine she uses the smoke as a defense mechanism against foes. Either by blinding, distracting, or transforming her opponents. She also has a fan…not for any specific reason only because it makes her look more c u n t y

When I’m designing the gods (and all of the other characters) I’ve usually tried to keep three things in mind:

-have at least a little resemblance to their voice actor/singer (face structure, hair, etc.)

-(Gods) contain a certain piece of clothing or jewelry aligned with their divine association

-(Gods again) have a little resemblance to the animal or animals said god represents

Also pls lmk if this layout for long posts works or not, I tried my best to spread everything out evenly.

Ok that’s enough yap for now, next up will be Aphrodite! 🩷

[lavender-teardroplettes]

Meet my MC!

Thanks for tagging me! @indycinders .w. This will be a mess all of my headcanons are all over the place lol.

(Totally almost forgot Sylus’ mc so she’s her dragon version for funsies lol)

Name: Iris Artyom

Nicknames: Si, Kitten, Love, Bun, Starlight

Canon age: 23 (25 outside of canon)

Pronouns: She/They

Headcanons:

🪻Likes to sleep in as much as Xavier does.

🪻Used to have Caleb straighten her hair for her, now gets extensions or will wear wigs to protect her natural hair while on missions.

🪻Resonated with the cat evol one time on accident while playing kitty cards and is now permanently stuck like that. Still able to use the resonance evol due to the nature of how it works.

🪻Very sweet and affectionate once she gets close to someone, can be aloof or appear disinterested if by herself but will usually perk up and keep pleasant conversation when spoken to by strangers/people she doesn’t know well. Can be playful and cheerful once she’s brought out of her shell. Took a long time before she accepted the fact that Caleb was “gone”.

🪻Likes to spend her free time going out to karaoke.

🪻Do not ask her how much she’s spent on the claw machines.

🪻Most of the Iris’ lore happens in separate timelines where they boys don’t really cross paths that often outside of like…yknow maybe a love triangle here or there so still figuring out how things would overlap from say- Caleb’s Iris as a main starting point.

Main Love Interest:

(Heheh it used to a fist fight between Sylus and Xavier .w. No one was ready for Caleb to come back)

Caleb Headcanons:

🪻 These two were really competitive as children, and it’s something that’s carried into their adulthood. Iris is always trying to catch up to Caleb, but he’s always one step ahead of her. Not that she doesn’t keep him on his toes, it’s not easy to outsmart this clever kitty.

🪻She was an absolute sobbing mess when both of them finally broke down the wall between them- or at least as much as Caleb allowed it to be. She made sure he could feel the way she punched right his arm as the beginning of her retribution for not telling her for a full year.

🪻 Both are very clingy with each other, but Iris has to be the one to initiate it most of the time unless Caleb’s jealous or works up the nerve. She gets frustrated with his excuses and hesitation, so she drops very clear hints. Caleb has yet to win a single pocky game against her. She’s still waiting for him to be the one to admit his feelings truthfully, however, and now that there’s a big gap between them, she knows he has to be the one to mend it this time and not have her be the one to coax him into it.

🪻Regularly gets into little fights with Zayne over Iris still. Secretly wants her to change doctors but also wouldn’t trust that person with her either. He seethes in the corner in every visit he can make it to.

🪻Both sleep better together than alone. Caleb’s used that spare key numerous times just to come in and get some proper sleep before having to report back to Skyhaven.

🪻Secretly as a child Caleb had told every other boy they went to school with that he planned to marry Iris when they were older so no one dared to go against the king of the playground’s wishes and would leave her alone.

🪻Do not leave Caleb and Xavier in a room together- I repeat do NOT leave Caleb and Xavier in a room together. Somebody’s gonna die. .-.

🪻Caleb steals a lot of forehead and cheek kisses from Iris when she’s asleep. She’s caught him a few times and squealed to herself quietly about it when he leaves, but has to pretend to be perfectly asleep and not freak out over it when he lays down with her.

Favorite Outfits:

🪻Likes: Animals, plants, sweets, reading, sitting and watching the fire in fireplaces, cuddling, singing, dancing even if she has two left feet, dressing up, taking pictures.

🪻Dislikes: Mean people, being cold for too long, long hours of desk work at the association, “those stupid axe wielding wanderers”, making Caleb upset.

Platonic / Other Headcanons

🪻Rafayel might be one her best friends, maybe next to Xavier. They complain together a lot whenever she comes over to hang out/ “bodyguard” duties, and he’s heard a lot of her woes over Caleb and Zayne or the silly things her upstairs neighbor does while Xavier keeps her company when she’s lonely/they have free time from the association. Both are pinning for her quietly knowing she’s already getting pulled in two directions hoping to show her that they’re both also suitable for her and hoping she gets fed up with the other two so they can step in. Rafi and Xavi know about each other and aren’t exactly happy that the other has the same goals- but at least they’re on an even playing field. If both of them weren’t the jealous type- I see them being a good poly. .w.

🪻Sylus is biding his time hoping that he’ll be the victor in the end once Iris fully resonates with him and remembers who he is. He doesn’t mind if he showed up a little late, he wont fault her for having a little “fling” or two while he wasn’t around. Makes no effort to hide his affections for her despite this and it drives Caleb crazy thinking it’s from some guy named “Skye” he’s never met. Sylus always plans his and Iris’ meetings while Caleb is away on missions in the deepspace tunnel and has Mephisto keep track of him while he’s following Iris. The twins regularly make “mom and dad” jokes about them not only to tease the pair but to also get Iris to focus more on their boss since they actually really like her and wanna help Sylus out where they can.

🪻Zayne is beyond furious with Caleb and reminds Iris as a voice of reason that he’s deceived her multiple times and allowed her to think he was dead. Zayne was the one to really comfort her through everything, and he was making moves to confess his feelings towards her before Caleb turned up in Skyhaven. Zayne only found out briefly before Iris did and hoped they wouldn’t cross paths, but he knew they did by her expressions and the way she avoided bringing up the topic as to why she was late to their midnight meeting that day when they were trying to save the boy with the Aether Core fragment. He knows something happened during her “vacation”, but he also knows Caleb is a highly dangerous individual and doesn’t stand to do much but accuse him in private. Both of them know that either of them can’t hurt each other without dragging Iris into things, so it’s like they’re having a silent war before the real one starts.

[acquired-stardust]

Game Spotlight #16: Yu-Gi-Oh! Dark Duel Stories (2000)

Just in time to celebrate its upcoming release as part of Yu-Gi-Oh! The Early Years compilation, Ash takes a look at the very first title in the series released in the west with Dark Duel Stories, a quirky little game that remains surprisingly playable to this day. Come take a quick look at the game to know what you're in for when The Early Years releases later this year!

Yu-Gi-Oh! is a series that Larsa and I have a lot of affection and nostalgia for. Once upon a time we were even avid players of the physical card game (Larsa to much greater competitive success than I), and we've kept up with the series in all its various forms for most of our lives now. Binging the notoriously campy and hilarious English dub of the anime together was one of the first things we did as a couple, and when we started Acquired-Stardust it was a no-brainer to create some content in tribute to the series. That content even went on to become some of our most popular posts, so the series holds a special place in our hearts as well as in the history of the blog.

It's a fascinating series that has taken on a lot of different forms throughout the years and you might be surprised to learn that the iconic physical card game, now mostly known for its incredibly long first-turn combo plays that determine who wins and loses before you're even able to do much playing, wasn't even the original hook of the series. Yu-Gi-Oh! began life as a manga by the late Kazuki Takahashi, the story of a high school boy possessed by an ancient spirit that would punish Domino City's many bullies and thugs through the power of Shadow Games, dishing out Twilight Zone-esque ironic punishments to them, with the signature card game the series is so synonymous with only being played a total of twice in the first 60 chapters before becoming the main focus with the Duelest Kingdom arc which the anime most western fans are familiar is based on. It was a shockingly dark and violent manga especially compared to the camp that the series is more well known for.

Just as well, the physical real-world card game itself has undergone radical shifts in mechanics and formats over the years since its 1999 introduction, and the result is a series that means something different to everyone. If you poll a hundred people, odds are they'll all have a different bit of the franchise as their favorite and consider a different era to be its peak. Larsa and I are personally most fond of the early years of the series, and so playing some of the video games set in that awkward 'wild west, anything goes' time when they were learning and experimenting with exactly what they wanted the card game to be was a pretty intriguing prospect.

And make no mistake about it - Yu-Gi-Oh! Dark Duel Stories is very much in that early feeling-out period. So early in fact it released a mere two days before the Playstation classic Forbidden Memories and eleven days after the debut of the physical card game in America. Dark Duel Stories may have been the first Yu-Gi-Oh! game released in the west, but it's actually the third game in a Gameboy-specific series of Yu-Gi-Oh! titles (and has had its name swapped with its predecessor - whereas Dark Duel Stories is the name of the second title in Japan, this game was originally titled Tri-Holy God Advent in Japan). This series follows what I'll be calling the Gameboy Format for the game for the purpose of this piece, and for the most part it faithfully recreates the base mechanics of the physical card game (which we're assuming you have at least some level of familiarity with, but if not actually playing Dark Duel Stories yourself is a fine way to learn) with a number of key differences.

The first important difference in the Gameboy Format is its de-emphasis, but not total elimination, of Effect Monsters, Traps and Magic cards. Decks consist of a mandatory total of 40 cards, each with their own cost and level limit associated with them. Monster cards will make up the bulk of decks due to their low costs compared to the very costly Magic and Trap cards, necessitating clever usage of the game's largely weak lineup of Monster cards. Facilitating this is the biggest key difference between the traditional physical card game and the Gameboy Format in the much larger emphasis it places on the elemental typing of Monster cards, more inspired by the original manga's version of the card game. Each monster card in the game has an element associated with it (a total of eleven elements exist in the game), with the elements following a rock-paper-scissors sort of mechanic not unlike Pokemon that sees elements strong against one another (such as Water being strong against Fire) be able to inflict increased damage on their opposing element. Unlike Pokemon however, Yu-Gi-Oh's Gameboy Format sees Monster cards of an element weak to its diametrically opposed element outright destroyed before inflicting any potential lifepoint damage to players.

While this can (and will) lead to asinine scenarios in which the iconic Blue Eyes White Dragon card is destroyed by the meager Kuriboh, it adds an interesting layer of strategy to the game that goes beyond simply loading decks with the most powerful cards obtainable. It also stands in stark contrast to the physical card game in which setting up unbeatable scenarios with very little counterplay outside of hyper-specific scenarios on the first turn has become a hallmark.

Another aspect of the Gameboy Format that differs from the physical card game is the lack of Polymerization, a Magic card that enables the fusion of Monsters into a new and more powerful creature. While the Polymerization card is missing the fusion mechanic itself remains, relegated to an entirely unexplained process in which the player can attempt to combine any two monsters to potentially result in a successful fusion with getting the formula incorrect resulting in the first card being replaced by the second. It's small touches like this and the unique elemental system that promote a lot of experimentation and make sure that every Monster card has a potential use regardless of how weak they are statistically.

Players are given a deck of cards to start with and tasked with defeating three tiers of opponents, all of whom being an iconic characters from the manga and anime, five times each. Defeating opponents will earn the player more cards and card parts (more on this in a moment), as well as raising the deck level and cost limitations imposed on the player slowly but surely. There are a total of 800 obtainable cards in the game which can also be acquired through the usage of the Password system that allows players to add one of each card to their collection through entering the corresponding password associated with them. The Password system also allows players to unlock the game's hidden bosses as well as enabling additional post-duel drops indefinitely.

The game's main hook is its allowing of the player to create custom cards through combination of obtained card parts, with players able to combine top and bottom halves of original Monster cards in all sorts of ways that change their attack and defense values, elements, names and appearances. It's a small gimmick that the player is not necessarily required to interact with by any means but does help immerse you in the series by allowing you to create your own unique signature cards.

The end result of Dark Duel Stories' gameplay loop and format is a game that is perfectly suited for its handheld platform in all the best and worst ways. Its small, almost bite-sized duels go by rather quickly and painlessly but obtaining cards without the use of Passwords is a grind-heavy experience that leaves the player completely at the mercy of random chance. The costs associated with constructing decks can feel stifling at first but forces you to engage with the game and appreciate some of its eccentricities like the elemental system, and makes finally being able to include higher-value cards feel like the major upgrade in power that it really is.

It's a perfect fit with the Gameboy Color that allows you to sink however much time you want into it, grinding away to raise your level and cost limits or obtain cards on long road trips or just spending a few minutes beating Joey Wheeler or Seto Kaiba one more time.

Another strong aspect of the game is its art, faithfully adapting 800 cards from the game's early era to the Gameboy Color with a lot of success. Opposing duelists are also particularly strongly adapted, including a lot of (but unfortunately not all) the iconic characters one would expect to find in the game in impressive detail all without an over-reliance on digitizing existing artwork from the manga's original artist. The beautiful pixel art splash screens after selecting an opponent hold up extremely well and have my vote for some of the best visuals on the platform.

Not quite as strong is the sound, with songs being inoffensive and not super memorable but certainly serviceable - you won't be muting the game to protect your ears or anything, but turning on your own music instead might help with some of the grind if you're wanting to invest bigger chunks of time into obtaining Dark Duel Stories' large amount of cards or raising the limits imposed on your deck.

A small touch I greatly appreciated was the lack of manual saving, with Dark Duel Stories featuring a reliable autosave that happens after every duel, making rematching or putting the game down both a painless experience. One particular annoyance is the lack of a search function in the card library, so it's helpful to keep a guide on hand to reference individual card numbers you might be looking for rather than having to scroll through 800 cards manually.

While it's not a perfect game by any means, Dark Duel Stories remains a very fun and addictive time capsule of an era of the game now decades past and comes at an extremely early point in the existence of the physical card game and series at large. There's a lot of charm and a deceptive amount of depth to hook new and old players alike, and the gameplay remains smooth and fast all these years later despite obvious platform limitations.

It even allows players to link two Gameboy systems to duel or trade, though this will be less attractive a feature to people playing the game via emulation on PC which typically lacks the capabilities necessary for multiplayer functions. Original manga author Kazuki Takahashi constantly designed little games that appeared in the backs of compiled volumes of the manga, most often played with dice, and it's not surprising that he'd also come up with a very fun card game too even if this wasn't exactly the format we'd come to know in the years after the release of Dark Duel Stories.

A gem hidden among the stones, Yu-Gi-Oh! Dark Duel Stories is undoubtedly stardust.

-- Ash