#i also just dk about a lot of these places in general

[dawns-beauty]

Okay, to counteract all my complaining, here are some (lore friendly) mods that I just like a lot (no animals, people, weapons/armors, mesh/texture replacers, etc. because there's too many and it gets boring.)

-

Ghosts of the Deathbells: adds a really rare, somber event to picking a deathbell flower.

Falmeroon: adds Snow Elf ruins to some remote edges of the map. I've made an unofficial SE port here.

Snow Whale Bones: adds the remains of Snow Whales in some mountainous areas (iffy canon but sorry they are Cool.)

Windmills of Skyrim: adds windmills with unique, custom-painted sails to farms.

Scarecrows of Skyrim: adds scarecrows to farms.

Scribes of Skyrim: makes books and notes use a variety of typefaces (any fellow Pentiment fans out there?)

The Old Ways-Nordic Religion: adds totems representing the Nordic pantheon around Skyrim. Has patches for the next recommendation.

The Great Towns/Villages series: overhauls the smaller, worldspace towns in a really cool way, includes voice-acted NPCs. Personally, I like Kynesgrove the best because it actually adds to the lore about the Nordic pantheon. For Shor's Stone, I recommend this mod as well.

Redbag's Rorikstead: I like this mod over Great Village's version because the houses have sod roofs and I'm a sucker for sod roofs.

Capital Windhelm Expansion: adds some really thoughtful lore touches (Dunmer refugees outside the walls, an Arena, and a cool vampire quest)

Relic of Dawnstar: adds a Gehenoth skull to the White Hall (requires Cities of the North), inspired by the lore of the Travels game

Environs series: thoughtful additions that makes certain places change over time.

WiZKid's mods: especially Lund's Hut, Lively Farms, Icy Windhelm, Pinewatch, Hall of the Dead Stained Glass Windows, and Pavo's House. Sepolcri is also pretty good but loses immersion points for using celtic cross gravestones. You can pry Lanterns of Skyrim II from my cold, dead hands, though. Lux? Idk her, LoSII is my bestie.

Fancy Sleeping Tree Replacer: the Sleeping Tree is supposed to be a remnant of the sentient trees of the flying city of Umbriel (from the novels.) It should be weird, is what I'm saying, and this mod makes it alien and beautiful.

Unique Culture Riverwood: a mod that gives Riverwood its own style of farmhouse and a little more personality. The author has also made a mod for Falkreath.

Immersive World Encounters: adds more and edits World Encounters, including encountering faction NPCs out and about (ex. the Companions outside of Whiterun doing Companion-y things in the wilderness).

Glorious Doors of Skyrim: adds some really cool doors. 'nuff said.

Redbag's Dragonreach: adds some unique flair to Jarl Ballin's crib.

Cultured Orc Furniture: replaces generic furniture in Orc Strongholds with custom furniture.

Lavinia's Memorial: adds some gifts from her grieving parents to the little girl's grave in Falkreath. Ouch.

Nocturnal Moths: adds moths that spawn around lanterns at night.

Moons and Stars: fixes the positions of the stars and moons, as well as making moon phases consistent.

DK's Realistic Nord Ships: replaces Skyrim's ships with some gorgeous new models.

Morgenstern's Mushroom Circles: adds more fairy rings in the wilderness. Delightful!

Bloodmoon Brodir Grove: makes the grove in Solstheim a little more like it was in the Morrowind DLC. The mod author also has more mods that bring Bloodmoon details and locations to Solstheim.

Ships of the Horizon: does what it says on the tin.

EVG Animation Variance: the whole animation series by Everglaid is nice (haven't tried Traversal yet, but that is some incredible technology) but I especially like this one for the old people animations

jasperthegnome's houses: these are SO cozy and comfy.

Arctic- Frost Effects Redux: makes frost spells have cooler effects (including 3D ice spikes)

Northern Roads- Let Me Guess Someone Stole Your Sweetroads: a plugin that cuts down on Northern Roads, removing all the landscape changes and bridges and just keeping the clutter. Way more compatible than the original mod.

Skyrim Bridges: this is my favorite bridge mod. There are many, but I like this one best.

Edit: forgot two tiny mods in my original post:

Nightcaller Temple Unique Shrine of Mara: replaces the generic shrine with a wooden shrine Erandur carved

Broken Tower Redoubt Unique Shrine of Dibella: similar to the above mod, but Reachmen carved this one.

[faewoozi]

streetlights in the dark blue --- 18+

summary: you met seokmin in college, and in the beginning you were pretty sure you'd strangle him. but then he asked you out. everyone said marrying the goofy guy you met freshman year of college was insane. that someone better would come along for the both of you. by senior year you hated to admit that perhaps everyone had been right. since he just…disappeared. like you didn't mean anything to him. maybe you never did.

♡ pairing: theater major!dk x fem!reader

♡ genre: non!idol au, college into post college au, fluff, angst, some slight supernatural/sci-fi elements, smut ( probably more fluff than anything else though because dk really brings that out in me & angst because I have a crying myself to sleep at night kink )

♡ word count: roughly 8.5k or so

♡ this work feats: piv sex, unprotected sex, angst, some crying, being ghosted, oral ( giving and receiving ), fingering. let me know what i missed.

a/n: i was listening to abstract (psychopomp ) by hozier and i know it's about roadkill and all that but something about the lyrics + general tone of the song made me think of this. and who better to love you across the universe than lee seokmin? also now I have an idea for Hoshi x telepathy so this might become a thing. also i proofread this like once. so there's that.

"I'm Seokmin." You glanced up from your physiology book at the tall guy hovering near the edge of your table in the library. It was raining outside so the place was packed, where normally people would be studying on the plush lawns of the quad, they were all crowded inside whispering loudly and laughing louder. You'd rather be anywhere else but your roommate had a guy over and the common rooms were even more crowded with people. At least here in the library people were pretending to study, so if it got too loud you could tell them to hush within reason.

"Uh…so?" You hadn't meant for it come out so harsh. The ear splitting grin he wore slowly melted from his face and an awkward silence threatened to overtake you both but he just licked his lips and sat down leaning across the table conspiratorially and to your surprise not deterred at all.

"This is the part where you tell me your name." Seokmin said waving his hand in front of him. Was he serious? You didn't even know him.

"My name is please go away you're distracting me from studying." You responded reaching for your phone to turn your music up in the one headphone you wore.

"Nice to meet you, can I call you distraction for short? I just need a table to sit at. I was sitting with my friends but I'm gonna flunk this monologue thing if I stay over there any longer. I thought this might be the place to sit in order to memorize my monologue and it’s like the only empty table around here which is kind of weird. Because why has no else tried to sit here? Oh well. Hey if I'm bothering you I can leave." Wow he was talking, a lot. Your brow furrowed as you stared him down and slowly his chattering fizzled out. He pursed his lips, gave a small smile and opened the chapbook on the table in front of him purposefully avoiding your gaze. 

“In a week…when the flesh grows cold…” Two minutes in and you realized he was reading the words aloud to himself. You glanced up irritably from your book ready to snap at him but took notice of his red rimmed eyes and blatant sniffling as he continued to read in a whispery shaky voice.

"Are you crying?" You questioned in disbelief and he jumped, staring at you wide eyed and then he burst into nervous laughter.

"We're doing romance scenes for my monologue class. Some of the examples in this book are just so ugh…read this." He pushed the chapbook over to you, and your eyes ghosted along the first few lines of the page.

"I have a confession. I've never been in love. So I'm really going to have to tap into the acting for this assignment, and I don't know, the idea of loving someone so much that you'd rather lie down in a field and rot with them instead of being apart is…it's nice. It’s heartwarming. It seems morbid, but the real romance of it is that there's someone out there who'd hold my hand and leap into the unknown with me because if this guy can be so inspired as to write out such a thing then he can’t be the only one who finds romance in that right? Whether through death or something else…ah that's it I definitely have to memorize and read this one." He said with a wistful sigh, you stared at him. Clearly he was a sap but…sort of cute once you got past how much he was annoying you in the moment. Or maybe annoy was the wrong word, he was passionate. Unusual too and God could he talk, but he made it endearing somehow.

"Do you need help?" You asked, not entirely sure what had gotten into you. It's just, he said it all so sweet, and who wouldn't be a sucker for those shimmering brown eyes and ears he hadn't grown into yet? Who could hear words said by such a sweet voice and not have their heart flutter for just a second. You weren’t a monster after all.

As if to drive the point home his face lit up. He was all happy smiles and babbling excitedly about how much help he could use and how he couldn't thank you enough. Somehow you ended up in his dorm room out of the rain and the loud library because he was too embarrassed to practice in front of anyone. Which…sort of defeated the purpose but you decided not to tell him that, and somehow it wound up being one of the best nights of your college experience so far. Just him and you, reading romantic monologues together.

It was impossible to forget how after everyone he read he'd stare you down and ask in a completely serious tone. “Okay how did that one make you feel?"

At first you’d sort of shrug. But he wasn’t satisfied with that as an answer. “Do you feel moved when you hear me say it? Is it romantic or do I sound like an idiot? You have to give me constructive feedback because when I read this for my professor I want her to be a little bit in love with me afterwards or at least teary eyed. Then I know I’ve done a good job. Let’s go again!”

It went on for at least two hours and each time your feedback got better and better. Until finally he knelt down in front of you, your hand in his and said the words with so much conviction you were dumbfounded for a moment.

“Alright, how did that make you feel?” Seokmin asked still holding your hand, while catching his breath.

“Well. I guess it sort of felt like I was falling in love." You responded, heat creeping along the back of your neck.

“Really?!” He whooped in excitement. It didn't mean anything, or it wasn't supposed to mean anything. He was just someone you helped and now you knew him well enough to say hi around campus. But two weeks later after exchanging numbers and giving him your actual name, you returned to his dorm to find the place filled with flowers. His friends were holding signs, there was a whole song and dance number, all to ask you out. How he managed it so quickly you still don't know. But it had been enough, this sappy goofball was yours. And you were his.

"World's best distraction can I ask a favor?" Seokmin asked. You were laying on your bed in your brand new private dorm room. A room you'd snuck him in and out of no less than five times this week despite only just having moved in. He still had a roommate and most of the time Joshua kicked him out in sheer annoyance. In which case Seokmin would slink over to your building and pout until he was let in. It was way past “no visitors in the dorm” hours but you had managed to work out a system. If you timed it just right, you could get him out and have your RA none the wiser.

“If it’s about staying the night, no.” You replied highlighting a few definitions you wrote down in your notes earlier for class.

“You’re so mean. Who doesn’t want their boyfriend to spend the night?” Seokmin asked rolling over on the bed so that his face was smothered by one of your pillows.

“I don’t want to accidentally end up pregnant when I haven’t finished school yet.” You replied lowering your notes to stare at him being utterly dramatic.

“They make things to prevent that y’know….” He mumbled, voice sulky and childish.

“Have you met yourself? You’re literally so romantic it’s terrifying. Yesterday you wrote me a soliloquy about my hands. My freakin’ hands Min. This morning you kissed me twenty five and a half times, you did it again this afternoon and again an hour ago. You said you owed me because I made you happy 102 times last week but since we had class you couldn’t do all 102 at once. If I get anywhere near you while naked I’m liable to get you pregnant with how much love you have bursting out of you.”

“I still owe you the last twenty five and a half. I can start now?” Seokmin’s head popped up, his voice hopeful.

“Min…” He slumped back into the bed with a dramatic sigh.

“I’m sorry. That day when we first met and you were helping me with my monologues — all that romantic stuff. The sweeping kisses and loving poems, the impassioned expressions and worship of lovers. I was saying it all while staring at you. I was memorizing it all with your face etched in my brain as I said it, with your voice helping me along. And your smile kept making my heart skip a beat. So whenever I think about love, about having someone make me feel how all those epic sweeping grand monologues described —- it’s hard to keep it to myself. Because you are love personified in my brain I gue— oh!”

Seokmin yelped as you tugged him backwards onto his back. Before he could fully react your lips were pressing against his. His eyes went wide then completely relaxed as he leaned into the kiss. You pulled apart eventually, gasping for air. You realized with a start you were straddling him, his body very much responding to the intensity of your kiss.

“I love you.” He suddenly blurted out with wide eyes. He’d said it in a lot of different ways and gestures but he’d never said it like that before. It meant something wholly different when he uttered it now.

“Was there ever any doubt Min? You wrote me a thirty three page love letter last weekend and still had time to sticky note my car all over.” You teased leaning down to press your lips to his neck. “I love you too.” You murmured into his skin.

He took hold of your arms pushing you back to look you in the eye. He was slightly red, his hair mussed and his eyes shone with desire.

“Let me stay the night?” He pleaded, his eyes searching yours. You grinned.

“Ok.”

“How many kids do you want?” Seokmin asked lacing your fingers together. You two were cuddled up on the couch in the apartment he shared with his best friend Joshua.

You let out an exaggerated groan. “None right now. Or ever if you ask me again, that’s like five times today? What’s wrong with you?”

“I want to marry you so I thought I should start asking important questions.” Seokmin responded casually bringing your knuckles to his mouth and pressing a gentle kiss to them.

“We are literally twenty years old.” Your voice dripped sarcasm, it wasn’t like this was an unfamiliar idea to you. But Seokmin was always like this. Last week you had to gently break it to him that he had to stop giving all his stuff to Joshua, the two of you would not be moving in together. He took it hard for forty minutes then forgot about it as soon as you started holding his hand.

“I’m sorry, I know we’ve talked about how I have to stop doing that. Just, if I know you’re mine then why wait? Cultural convention be damned, so sorry for cursing. But the sentiment still stands. Why delay the inevitable when what we both want is to revel in the company of each other.”

You raised an eyebrow at him. “Are you doing one of those regency plays again? You’re talking weird.”

“Oh, you noticed. Dang I really thought I sold the gentleman scholar thing.” He said with a frown and you found yourself punching him in the arm. “Ow!”

“We talked about this! No shifts in vocabulary, weird accents, or method acting during serious conversations Min.”

“But baby how am I supposed to get better at this if I don’t use authentic situations?” He asked rubbing where you punched him with a pout.

“I’m not acting fodder for you, I’m your girlfriend.” You snapped rising to your feet.

His brow instantly furrowed. “Wait you’re mad at me for real.”

“Yes, I don’t like when you do that. I’m trying to set some boundaries with you about the weird questions and the marriage pressuring and you’re doing accents and playing a role. Instead of being my boyfriend which in those moments you need to be first.”

The hurt was all over Seokmin’s face for just an instant then it went completely neutral. Quite a feat for the most expressive person you knew. “I’m sorry. I didn’t realize how inconsiderate I was being.” He rose to his feet, suddenly his face was bright but it didn’t quite convince you.

“I’m hungry. I know you’re hungry. I’m going to go get us something to eat I’ll be right back.” He was already grabbing his keys from the table by the door.

“ Wait, Seokmin—“ Nope gone.

Like legitimately gone.

You waited one hour. Five. Ten. Apologetic texts were sent his way.Then angry ones. You went home. Every call went unanswered. Every text unread. Joshua said he hadn’t seen him but nothing of his was missing. Other than him and his car. You waited two days. Four. Eight. Thirteen. Your boyfriend fell off the face of the Earth without so much as a second thought towards you. You were terrified, you and Seokmin had fought before. About serious and silly things, but neither of you held long grudges. Even if he was angry, you knew him. He loved you. If you knew nothing else you knew this. He showed it in every single gesture, in every word and every action. He wouldn’t do this. Panic set in. Police stations and reports. Trying to question his parents but they were missing too. Their numbers blanked and their facebooks were archived. It was all so strange, had he been in witness protection or something this whole time?

Sixteen days. Akin to torture. Sleeping was impossible because you couldn’t stop worrying. Nothing about him for as long as you’d known him said he would do something like this. So you tossed and turned nightly, obsessing over every minor detail. He’d never done anything like this to you or anyone else you knew after some investigation. You were frantic and so had just decided to take a drastic course of action. Going up to his parents house. At least it would confirm something, but you had no idea if that would be good or bad.

You didn’t get the chance. Day seventeen and someone was beating hell against your door. You’d been on your own since last year not quite ready to leave the dorms, so whoever it was would have a ton of pissed folks at them if they didn’t stop.

You trudged to the door, yanking it open in irritation. And there he was. He looked…inconsolable. He kept trying to apologize through tears. He said it at least four dozen times. You were overwhelmed with relief. Anger didn’t come, not yet. You were just glad he was breathing and unscathed. You took his face into your hands frowning.

“Where did you go?”

“Doesn’t matter. Just let me stay here with you. In whatever way you’ll have me. Even if you hate me I’ll be okay just knowing you’re okay. We don’t have to get married soon. We can get married when we’re sixty eight if you want. Whatever you want. I’ll do whatever you want. Just keep me here with you.” He kept repeating it over and over, wrapping his arms around you and pulling you into a tight hug. Impossible to reassure and he wore his guilt openly. Yet he still wouldn’t tell you the truth.

“I’m so happy!” Seokmin sang doing some old folksy shuffle. He was in some play set during the 1930s and had taken to method acting at random moments throughout the day.

“Please don’t do that weird shuffle dance while holding my box of bras.” You complained. Seokmin was in the process of gathering the last of your wardrobe from your dorm room, you had chosen to move in together this summer.

“I can’t help it. I have so much stuff I want to do together! We’ve never stood at the toaster watching our pop tarts cook while holding hands so I have that as number one on my list for tomorrow. Today I think the number one thing I have is…wait never-mind.”

“No, no, no if I have to hold hands while toasting pop tarts you have to tell me what the number one thing is today?” You mused. Seokmin rolled his eyes and then hid his face behind the bra box.

“Taking a shower together. We’ve never done that before.” You heard him mumble sheepishly.

“How were you planning on asking me that?!” You asked trying to hold back your laughter.

“I thought maybe I’d just take my shirt off and you’d be so turned on you’d follow me in there or something.” He shrugged nudging past you to drop the bra box into his backseat.

“That—I told you I really don’t like when you hang out with Soonyoung he’s the worst influence.” You teased.

“He gives solid advice! He was the one who suggested me broaching the subject of moving in together again and you agreed! So really this is all because of Soonyoungie, we owe him.”

You did a fake gagging noise. “Please don’t ever say that again.”

Seokmin shrugged. “Anyway are you ready to go home?” He asked waggling his eyebrows. You rolled your eyes but you were just as excited as he was. No more slumber parties for the two of you, you’d be entering into the real deal of cohabitation and you were looking forward to all the first you would enjoy together. But you were also a bit nervous.

Things with Seokmin were great but they could be better. You were still struggling with trusting him sometimes, ever since the seventeen day incident — in which he gave absolutely no logical explanation for his decision to ghost you for two and a half weeks. You tried to be as reassuring as you could that he could tell you the truth but he didn’t budge on it. Which allowed paranoia to creep in on your end, what was he hiding? But it happened over a year ago and nothing like that had ever happened again. Leaving your side seemed to be the last thing he wanted to do.

The bulk of the day went on and you were exhausted by the time evening rolled around. How he managed to have so much energy despite lugging boxes all day was beyond you but it was in his nature. While you were fighting for your life to stay awake he was literally prancing around the living room with your bra on his face pretending to be fly people as if he hadn’t been doing physical labor all day.

And of course you loved him for it.

“Can I fuck you baby?” Seokmin was pressed up against you, his mouth on your ear. His hand was on your hip and inching forward to the seam of your panties. You glanced at the clock — 3:22 am. You didn’t remember falling asleep and you had no idea if Seokmin had even been in bed when you got in. But he was now. You could feel his cock pressed against your butt as he kissed down the side of your neck. “You’re tired I know, I’m just really happy you’re here with me.”

“I’m happy too. I’m glad we finally did this.” You responded trying very hard to ignore him creeping even closer to you somehow. You were certain if he could live inside you permanently he wouldn’t hesitate. Bye theater career I have a body to infest. You let out a soft giggle and he pulled back.

“What? Are you laughing at me?” He asked sitting fully upright. “You’re just so pretty. But we don’t have to — just we didn’t get that shower together earlier because you snuck in while I was gone  — but that’s okay. You being rested and happy is more —“ 

You rolled your eyes, grabbing him by the ratty t-shirt he wore to bed, interrupting his probably too long “whatever you want” speech and pulled him between your legs. It was rare that you got to return the favor by catering to him for once, no one loved harder than Seokmin. He got you the best gifts every major holiday, he always had something new he loved about you ( last week he said he’d never seen anyone drink liquids as sexy as you did ). He was the current manager, supervisor, president and ceo of romantic gestures and the scariest part was how genuine it was. In the beginning when you first started dating you were positive you were being love bombed. But Seokmin just didn’t do love halfway. He was all in at all times and the things he wanted in return were so subtle.

He craved intimacy and closeness like a toddler sometimes. Always needing to be touching, grabbing, holding, and so on. But nothing quite got to him like sex did. It was how Seokmin came undone. You weren’t a sex goddess by any means but he easily made you feel like one just by nature of being irrevocably in love with you.

Seokmin cups your face and lowers himself  down to kiss you. “Are you trying to impress me by using one arm to kiss me?” You ask teasingly.

Seokmin nods. “Yes, I do one armed push ups better than Joshua now, is it working?”

You pull him into another kiss, and only when he’s good and red in the face do you let up. “Definitely.”

You kiss him again and he lets out a little hum of delight as he kisses you back.  He keeps one hand on your cheek, but then he’s wrapping the other around your waist holding you closer to him even if it’s uncomfortable. You press in, your tongue teasing his, as the swell of your breasts push against his chest. He sinks his hand into your hair, fingers gripping, as he tips your head back, devouring your mouth. It’s been nearly four years together. Seokmin has kissed you thousands of times in hundreds of ways—quick kisses in the car, slow morning kisses while lying in bed, hurried kisses in a dingy bar bathroom. Each one is precious. But they aren’t his favorite.

His favorite kisses are the ones he claims while he’s inside you. He told you once that he craves the feeling of home that comes from feeling you everywhere all at once—under his body, around his dick, cradling his hips, in his mouth, gripped in his hands. That feeling of knowing your so completely his. More than being his, he’s yours. Irrevocably. Completely. The kisses he gives you in the heat of your passion are a claiming as much as they’re an offering. In those moments, he swears he’s giving you everything. Every piece of him. And he always promises that you can have it all.

“I need to be inside you,” He pants against your lips, gripping tighter to your hair. “I’m going to die if I can’t. Look at you.” He tugs your t-shirt up over your head exposing your breasts. He pulls his own off and shimmies out of his boxers. He curls a finger into the waistband of your underwear and tugs them down past your ankles discarding them on the floor.

His thumb slides through your pussy, spinning a circle on your clit. “I love you so much.” He scoots himself down until he’s half hanging off the bed but now he’s eye level with your lower half. His head drops, the pointed tip of his tongue mirroring the motion of his thumb. Your head falls back, hands to his dark hair. You moan. “Everything about you is so beautiful.” He murmurs.

You don’t even bother trying to talk. There’s no point. All your words disappear when his finger slides into you. After a few gentle thrusts, he adds a second finger. Your back arches off the bed in a silent plea for more. You want more, more, more. Then his mouth is on you and you’re having an out-of-body experience. Like you’re being consumed. Like he can’t get enough. Seokmin’s teeth graze your clit and you jolt on the bed, vision blurring.

“Fuck!” He pushes a finger in to work with his tongue and you’re a writhing, whimpering mass of limbs. “Min. I . . . oh my god. Fuck. That’s . . .” You can’t string a coherent sentence together. The only thing you keep asking for is, “More.” And when he adds a second finger, mouth suctioned onto your clit while he impales you roughly, more is what you get. Within a matter of minutes, you have an orgasm at the hands of the most infuriating and adoring man you’ve ever met. How could you not love him?

“It’s not enough.” Seokmin whines. He rolls off the bed and then he’s grabbing you by the ankles pulling you from warmth to the chill on the edge of the bed. He comes to stand between your legs and despite his eagerness to touch you, his face is as gentle and loving as always.Your hand reaches up, and trembling fingers gently trail over his stomach, tracing his abs, tracking the V-line that runs down to his groin. You watch as he shivers, taking hold of his cock in his hand and gives it a few quick pumps.

“Baby…can you open your mouth?” He asks and it’s almost shy. But it’s not really a question. Not from him, and not like this. You give him a hard time because you buckle under the weight of his devotion occasionally but you would do anything he asked you to. Your wide eyes turn up to him, and your lips part. He traces them with the head, watching a drop of pre-cum smear over your top lip. Watching your tongue dart out, like you’re dying to taste him, before opening your mouth wide again. You didn’t mean for it to be so sensual, but it undoes Seokmin. His control, his kindness and gentleness snaps. He takes two fistfuls of your hair and pushes his cock between your lips. You hum in satisfaction, watching your boyfriend shiver as the sound vibrates through him. His body clenches as he withdraws and then he plunges in again. It’s heaven having your warm mouth all around him, your tongue swirling, hands roaming over his torso as he controls your head.

Your gaze flits up to Seokmin and he’s staring hard at you, full of fire. Want. Desire.  Your mouth goes down farther and farther, hands gripping his ass. You swallow him deeply because you can’t get enough. His eyes are getting glassy, and he catches himself, immediately withdrawing from your mouth. Barely contained pleading dips into his voice.

“Just…please…” Seokmin for, if I’m not inside you within the next twenty seconds I will lose my mind. You know it well, know him better than anyone it feels like. All the little intricacies that make up the man you’re going to marry one day.

You lick your lips, and then he’s flipping you over, lifting your hips so your ass is in the air. He swipes through your wetness, watching the way your back arches, your knees slipping wider on the bedspread. You’re soaked for him and now he knows it.

He swipes again. A shiver races down your spine. Your pussy throbs. Your hips rotate and you push yourself at him. “Min please, I need — “

“This?” He slides in an inch, your mouth pops open as you manage to moan around the word yes. Your body vibrates with need. His body does it too. You can feel it. “This too?” He pushes in further, you fingers scrabble at the sheets twisting into the fabric. “It’s my favorite when you take all of me.” He pushes all the way in until he’s completely seated inside you.

“Fuck, yes,” you hiss, dropping to your elbows while he takes a hold of your hips. “Move, please move.” You whine. Your pants coming even like a drumbeat.

“Anything for you.” He whispers, pulling out and slamming back in. Your body bows, and your moans turn to screams as he hits a steady rhythm. Your groans mix with the wet sound of your bodies crashing against each other. He tugs your hair. You spread your legs further. He pushes your head into the bed. You chant his name. He squeezes your  throat, kisses your neck, bites your back. You take it all, still chanting his name.

Your hips, your back, your legs—every move you make is designed to get closer to him. To take it deeper. Harder. It’s never quite enough. Not for Seokmin, never for Seokmin.

“Just a little more.” His voice is wrecked, he’s hyper focused now, angling himself slightly so he can get as close and as deep as anatomy allows. “You have no idea how stunning you look, taking all of me. How good you feel. You’re the love of my life,” He grinds out as he thrust in and out of you again. You buck beneath him chasing the pleasure coiling in your stomach. The bed dips and you see he has a knee on it now. This shifts the pressure, the stimulation hits you hard and suddenly your leg is shaking as your orgasm builds. Everything tightens as you clench around him and then you can tell Seokmin is tumbling off that same cliff with you in this moment. His cock pulses inside you as you grip him tight before your legs give out and you both crumble onto the bed. A mess of sweat, weak limbs, and breathless touches.

He pulls you into his arms. His lips press against your temple.

“I know I say it a lot, so it loses its meaning sometimes. But y/n there is no place that you can go that I won’t follow.  No world where my heart doesn’t explode at the thought of you. I am unable to not love you. I can’t stop it. I can’t change it. I can’t be anything but yours forever.”

You have no idea what else he babbled. You were asleep within minutes the last words to him telling him that you of course felt the same. 

“Y/n please wake up. Please I have to tell you something. Please before I disapp —“

You shift in the bed. Was Seokmin just trying to wake you up? You roll over, the sheets are ruined, they definitely need to be washed. But he isn’t in bed. You yawn reaching for your phone. It’s later in the day than you thought. Almost 11am. Seokmin is not a late sleeper but he’ll let you sleep as long as he can keep himself quiet.

But there’s no noise in your new apartment. He’s not capable of being this silent. Did he go get breakfast? Or did he have something he needed to do for classes? You don’t have a message and he always leaves a message but he’s only human. You text him and there’s no immediate answer. Slightly frustrating but when he was free he’d respond.

Three hours and nothing. Three hours and you’re slightly pissed. Those old hurts are rising to the surface, it’s his own fault. He makes himself so available, there’s a text for when he’s arrived at every destination. He’s constantly narrating over the phone everything he’s doing or where he’s going. He tells you everything, well almost everything. Something niggles at the back of your mind. And you glance over to the other side of the bed after you’ve gone back in to change the sheets. Seokmin keeps his phone in the nightstand drawer. You don’t want to, you shouldn’t —- but you pull it open. His phone is there, all the notifications from you blinking a hello. You frown. Seokmin doesn’t forget his phone, ever. He likes to document everything — he sends you the most meaningless pictures sometimes. He says it’s like being together.

And he doesn’t have it. Your heart beats faster in your chest. You throw on a jacket and a pair of shorts rushing out of your apartment to the balcony. His car is still there. Parked next to yours. He’s not in it. Or around it. Immediately you’re texting his friends. Joshua, Jeonghan, Soonyoung. No one has heard anything but no one is worried either. They’re used to not hearing from him, because they’re used to losing track of him when he’s with you. It’s common they reply. But he’s not with you. You haven’t seen him since four in the morning.

Panic is setting in. Somewhere in the back of your mind those seventeen days niggle. They poke and prod and mock you. It’s happened before. It’s happening again.

Where did he go?

three years later.

In the end none of it mattered. He didn’t want to be found wherever he was. No amount of hounding the police, no amount of pushing the story on the news, or shouting outside of offices worked. In the end the matter was simple. There was no law that said he couldn’t leave. No law that said he couldn’t shatter your heart into fucking pieces as it suited him.

Oh it had been devastating in the beginning. You had an apartment you could only half afford, and his phone which held no secrets. In fact almost everything in it seemed mundane or focused on you. You had his car which you sold illegally to break the lease on the apartment eventually. And still nothing. You went to visit his parents and they were gone…again. Joshua swore it had to be witness protection. Everyone did. Because the only constant they could predict about Seokmin was that he’d never leave you. He’d rather die. Bullshit. 

You cried a lot. Screamed. Tried to have a one night stand with Soonyoung that ended with him embarrassingly driving you home and vowing to never speak of you attempting to jump him again. His response was that Seokmin would kill him. The same Seokmin that had basically ghosted you for six months at that time. But Soonyoung didn’t care, because wherever he was he had no choice. He would never leave you.

And you were sick of hearing that. Sick of hearing about his dedication to you. About his love. Eventually you avoided his friends altogether. It was too hard. Jeonghan would tell a joke, the kind that Seokmin would’ve loved. The kind he would’ve imitated to everyone he knew and later to you even though you’d been right there hearing it as well. They were his closest friends. They were angry with him but their hearts weren’t broken. No one wanted to hate him with you, they couldn’t.

You had to start over. After college you moved as far away as you could. You didn’t bother to keep in touch with anyone other than your own friends. No sense in letting his friends think you were holding out hope. You lost that a while ago. It stopped hurting as much. No longer a constant piercing deep pain. Now the loss of Seokmin was a dull ache. You tried dating but that would be impossible for awhile longer. What man could compare? What first date wanted to hear about how your hard and fast rules included being worshipped unconditionally and surprised with spontaneous romantic gestures daily? He had spoiled you for anyone else, right from the beginning.

Therapy didn’t help either. Your therapist would ask about red flags, what made you question Seokmin? His constant sweetness? His insistence that you would be married and have six kids? How he would make you hold his hand when he pressed the power button on the blender because loud noises scared him sometimes? All you could say was how it happened once before and you didn’t question it hard enough. You missed him so much that you never reached the level of clarity you had now. You just fell back into him — and what a horrific fool you’d been. To trust that bright, adoring smile.

Night was the hardest. When things got quiet and you had none of his laughter or happiness to soothe you. It had been three years and still you hadn't gotten used to it. You were starting to wonder if you ever would. At this point you were only months away from being apart as long as you'd been together and everyone kept saying that's when it'd get better. It had to right? Because the alternative would be that you’d always miss him and some part of you hated that. You just didn’t want him in your head anymore.

The one good thing in your life right now? A cute corgi named Yumi that you adopted once you moved into your new place. The house had once belonged to your grandparents who raised generation after generation of kids in it and now it would get to be yours to one day have your own family. You couldn’t wait to get there knowing some day you wouldn’t remember how much it hurt because someone would be able to love that pain away.

Feeling slightly better you headed toward the backyard to let Yumi out. A streetlight stood in the alley behind your house. It made the night time bathroom breaks easier for Yumi but it drove you crazy. There was a short or something in the light so it flickered like crazy all night. Even with blackout curtains you could see it sometimes and it would keep you awake. It was flickering now much faster than normal and you sighed, you really didn’t have the energy to deal with that tonight.

You were in the middle of the yard picking up dog poop when the light suddenly went out. You rose, tying the little plastic bag off and sticking it in the bin. You went inside to wash your hands and then came back out to investigate. The light still wasn’t on. Had it finally broken? That would make today amazing. Suddenly a sharp musical note caught your attention. The bedroom windows were open upstairs and you could faintly hear the sound. A ringtone. A familiar ringtone. Seokmin’s phone. A phone that you couldn’t bear to part with. But you hadn’t paid the bill at all. How was it ringing?

The streetlight flickered back on, it seemed much brighter than before. And someone was standing beneath it. They just…appeared. Aglow and beautiful and…Seokmin. A face you never thought you’d see again. Same big ears, sharp nose, glimmering eyes. He looked tired. His hair was shorter than he wore it before and darker. He looked stronger, muscles rippled from his t-shirt. The sight of him made you ache, and you felt faint. Suddenly you realized you had sunk right into the grass. Yumi was playfully hopping in and out of your lap.

Seokmin who had just been staring at you as much as you stared at him came running. Oh — he smelled different. A woodsy natural scent and so good. But you were angry, a numbing sensation began to smother that slight interest in him. He could never have you again.

“Y/n please let me explain. Please. I’m so sorry. I promised I wouldn’t leave again and I did I’m so —“ You stood to your feet ready to let him have it and promptly vomited all over him.

“I know I’m supposed to be sorry but I really don’t care about throwing up on you. I hope I ruined something really expensive.” You stood in the doorway of your kitchen watching Seokmin do his best to clean himself up. You were forced to loan him a shirt and at least let his shoes dry. It would be the perfect time to give him a piece of your mind, while he was at your mercy.

“That’s okay. I can’t say I wouldn’t have done the same thing if someone I thought cared about me disappeared for…a year?” Seokmin said with a minor hint of hesitation in his tone.

Your eyes went wide. You were going to kill him. “A yea—Seokmin it’s been three years! Almost four in a few months.” You snapped and his brow furrowed in confusion.

“What? No. I would’ve come back. I wouldn’t have—I’ve never…” His voice trailed off and he just stared blankly ahead for a moment. “I was gone for almost four years?”

“Get out.” The word came out bitter and distant. He didn’t even keep track of how long he’d been away from you. This was a joke but finally it was closure.

“Wait, please.” You didn’t have time for it, you turned, marching toward the front door and yanked it open. Seokmin looked ready to burst into tears at any moment but he didn’t budge past the living room doorway.

“Get out.” You repeated a touch of venom seeping into the words.

“You didn’t see me walk up.” Seokmin replied frantically.

“What?” You snapped in return.

“The light. You were staring at the light when I appeared because you were looking right at me. So that means you didn’t see me come from anywhere. You didn’t see me walk up to the light.” Seokmin said in a desperate rush.

“So what?” You still held the front wide open.

“So I didn’t walk up at all. I-I came back from where I was by shifting realities.” Seokmin said.

The front door closed. You were crossing the room towards the kitchen and Seokmin involuntarily flinched backwards as if he were afraid you might hit him. Instead you reached for your phone.

"What are you doing?" He asked.

"Calling paramedics because clearly you're unwell."

"What? I'm--" He gripped his hair desperately, pacing back and forth for a moment before he turned to you with a desperate look. "Where's my phone?"

"Seokmin why does that -- wait how do you know I have your phone?" You asked carefully, eyes narrowing at him.

"It's the first thing that signals to me. Unless someone throws it out which has happened before. But I knew it was here, it's how I found you. It came back on right? It only does that if I'm back. I don't know why, it's just what happens." He intoned and although it had been several years, although you had no reason to trust him -- his face and his voice felt so familiar. You knew Seokmin. And against all odds, you still knew him. You could tell when he wasn't being completely honest, like before when he subverted all conversation of his previous disappearance. Now he stood before you and everything in his demeanor was begging you to believe him. You just didn't know if you could.

An hour later you were sat on the plush couch that led to your living room attempting to make sense of the story he was telling.

“When it happened before it was my body needing to go. I have to shift somewhere else at least once a month. Or my body does it for me. Like everything is building up waiting to implode. I hadn’t been doing my due diligence. We were spending so much time together and I realized quickly that although there were all these other universes, this was the only one that had you in it. I kept trying to find you elsewhere I thought maybe…I don’t know maybe somehow the you here would know I was safe with the you somewhere else. But there is no other you, anywhere in any universe. I looked for a long time.”

“So you were forced into this?” You asked cautiously, still not convinced.

“No. It’s genetic. It happens to my dad too. My mom knows about it though, I — I didn’t know how to explain it to you. I thought if I explained it too soon I’d lose you. I thought that I could just control it and you didn’t have to know. I didn’t realize that by ignoring things for so long it would result in such huge gaps of away time. I had been slacking on shifting, but it was so hard to leave you. I just couldn’t. Not even for a second so I kept pushing things back because I was scared I’d be gone too long. Finally I knew something was going to happen and I should’ve told you but I was gone for seventeen days and when I got back all I wanted to focus on was getting you to trust me again….”

“Only to completely shatter our trust a year later.” You said voice steeped in sarcasm.

Seokmin winced and then gave a brief nod before staring up at you. “I wanted to take you with me. To prove it. But my dad said it would kill you, that your body wouldn’t be able to handle it.”

You chewed your bottom lip and your eyes narrowed. “So if this is something you can control, show me.”

Seokmin’s eyes went wide. “But I just got back what if I leave again and I’m stuck like before. It takes a long long time to sift through reality and find my way back here. I have to keep moving, if I stay complacent I won’t ever be able to get back to you. And — and I don’t think I could live knowing I was stuck somewhere in a world that didn’t have you in it.”

“Seokmin I can’t trust you. Whether this is some elaborate lie or the absolute truth there’s damage that’s been done. I was unmade by your disappearing. And if there is even a hope to heal that hurt within myself I need it. Even if it means I never see you again.” Because if it was true and he never came back well at least you knew why. At least finally you’d have closure and you could move on. But if he did come back what then? It seemed like finding your way back to each other wouldn’t be an option…not after all this time.

He frowned but eventually nodded. “Okay, if it’ll help I can do it. I’ll just live with whatever happens.” He rose to his feet and when he looked at you, despite the warning in your brain, your heart swelled. You knew that look on Seokmin well. Complete and utter devotion and love. Even after all this time he still loved you. And then he was gone. Without a word just vanished in thin air. It was the truth and as you stared at the empty space where he’d once been you wept. It had been just the kind of healing you needed.

“Look.” You pointed to the flickering street light hoisting the toddler clinging to your leg up onto your hip. The light went out and your toddler gasped in delight as if they hadn’t seen this happen last month. After roughly thirty seconds the light came back on brighter than ever. A familiar ringtone sounded from the kitchen window, you could hear Yumi barking at the noise.

Seokmin emerged from beneath the light all smiles. He rushed forward springing your toddler from your arms and spinning them around. He was a good dad though he would argue against it. It was laughable to think of the old you, who didn’t think Seokmin had the capacity to hold love for anyone else but he was ever a surprise. In fact he was even more insufferable now that you’d become parents. Things like the first time your toddler played with a new toy or took their sock off were extremely important to him. The shifting grew harder for him the older your child got. He had to miss some important firsts like walking and the first birthday party. But he wasn’t allowed to skip his body’s need to explore the universes out there. He always had the best stories.

After that fateful night in your house things got better. You and Seokmin took things slow which proved a particular kind of torture for him, but it was necessary. There was lots of hanging out and then casual dating and then things got serious when he asked you to be his anchor this was after the wedding of course. His mom had done it for his dad. As long as you were alive he could hone in and come home. It was a huge undertaking because the stress of the shifting affected the anchor too. When he was gone you felt more fatigued, emotional and anxious. Which were normal symptoms of a lot of things but it felt dialed up to a hundred the first time you experienced it. Your heart missed him and you wondered at the familiar feeling. Maybe you’d been his anchor all along — when he returned it was like someone had slotted all the right pieces into place. Relief.

Even now as you watched them play and dance around the back yard with Yumi judging from a respectable distance, you felt the huge impact of your anxiety subsiding. Like you could breathe again, and that constant feeling of tiredness was dissipating. It was an even better feeling knowing that when he came back it would always be to you, no matter what happened. You forced him to shift now, he tried to get out of it but you kept a tight schedule. He wasn’t going to put it all off and then miss out on his kids life because of it. You would never take the risk of losing him for that long again.

He smothered your toddler in kisses that resulted in delighted screaming from the both of them and then he came over to do the same to you. As he led you both inside you were struck by how lucky you were. Seokmin had been in entirely different universes with all manner of beautiful people inside and out. He had every opportunity to look elsewhere. To love differently to give up and stop fighting to be with you. Yet he always chose you. He said once that despite having travelled to 3,294 universes, he really only needed you. His entire world.

And funnily enough you believed him.

[fryday]

Disclaimer: major parasocial speculation is ahead. I dont claim to know that this is the truth. This is just my interpetation of events based on what little we know

I'm sure Dan's family suspected he and Phil were more than friends, but they were waiting for him to tell them himself. I think we all have at least 1 family member who has been living with their "roommate" for a long time and everyone knows they're gay, but it's like an unspoken rule that you don't ask about it. As for the phouse...I mean my cousin didn't come out of the closet until 2 months before his wedding, so it's possible they just didn't tell Dan's family about it until later! I do think the phouse was probably a big motivation for them coming out though. I don't think it's a coincidence that they started preparing to come out right after they bought it. Especially since they expected to be able to move in in 2018. I'm sure they were aware of how it would look to Dan's family and us and I fully believe that if it hadn't been for II, Dan's burn-out and subsequent decision to end their joint branding, and the phouse construction taking longer than expected, they would have come out together in 2018. I think it's good that Dan didn't come out under pressure though, bc he clearly wasn't ready and it probably would have led to another breakdown lol. It is beautiful that they were willing to make such a huge commitment to each other despite Dan's fear of coming out to his family, but I also think it was very calculated. They just didn't account for their plans getting delayed by a whole year.

Hello! I'm so so sorry it took me this long to respond to your ask, but it's a great ask and I wanted to spend a little time answering it (and that little time never came 😭). For those who dk, this is in reference to this post I wrote.

I guess I just didn't think you could plan a move as major as buying and building a house together without your family members knowing, but what do I know, really, and if your cousin could keep something like their wedding under wraps until 2 months before then it's definitely doable!

It makes me not a little emotional thinking about the phouse being a motivator for them to come out. That by that point they knew - yeah, this isn't just us taking every year as it passes anymore, it really is gonna be us for life, and we're going to put all the money we earned together into Our Place in the world. Cementing that, quite literally. And making that decision to commit to their happiness together was inevitably going to lead them to commit to happiness in their life, in general - by coming out. Lots of emotions around that, for sure.

[jess-the-vampire]

I see you're getting into No Straight Roads! Whose you're fave so far?

honestly i like about everyone in that game, i can't think of a character i really dislike ( i mean maybe you can argue kilff but he's meant to suck by the end and i don't find him particularly interesting either so like-)

the character designs are also just, a lot of fun

i like everyone for different reasons, some for more emotional reasons and others for purely their concepts and designs

like for example i wouldn't say neon j and 1010 are my favorite bosses, they don't even have my favorite boss soundtrack, but the concept of an military veteran running a boyband, them all saying military phrases in their singsong voices and just the goofiness of the fight in general adds a lot of charm to them and i thoroughly love them for that.

DJSS is purely for aesthetic, though his character being kinda vain but also seeking to have a place in the universe is fun, and his voice is like....great.

Yinu and her mother have my favorite boss soundtrack, also their fight makes me cry.....ect ect, we'd be here all day if i talked about everyone.

Dk west's rap battle with Zuke is also a lot of fun, i don't typically like rap either so it says a lot i've listened to that one as much as i have, i only have to mention that one because it was my introduction to the game....being recommended that song by spotify. (Kinda like what happened with billie bust up and "I've had enough of you")

there's a lot to like in that game now that i checked it out, not perfect by any means, i kinda wish they did more with the city and some elements feel a little pointless, not all the attacks really feel in sync with the music, and the finale boss fight with Tatianna is a bit lacking comparatively, but i guess if you're judging it on the merit of being a boss fighting game with great music it does do it's job well and it's worth checking out.

anyways, have a DJSS sketchy

[alarmsofmyheart]

Alright let's start.

Jack and Joker U Steal My Heart

Ep 5

Hoi cares more than anyone.

GODFUCK! I had to pause. I've never seen an actual wine bottle be broken on anyone's head. The closest I saw that was in Doona and he used helmet. But damn. Joker sure loves Jack alot.

I'm stupid what did I expect when Joke returns the ring.. I just didn't think, if I saw it week after week, I might have thought so but yeah..

Sweet he bought medicine.

Ajajshssh Aran becomes the bait now.

Wound cleaning!!!

Mark looks so royal and pretty!!!

God Yin the acting🤣 Jack was so over the top!

Omg are the wearing the same outfits

What is this cat fight 🤣🤣🤣

Jack, your eyes, can't be hidden by that scarf mask. I'm reminded of that one episode in word of honor where they used a barely hiding scarf as mask, but this is atleast black in color.

Are they idiots or what?? Oh they just hate each other.

Hope knows what he likes - Save, beating up people, graphic designing.

Well Joke didn't have a nice dad or brother to learn driving from. And yeah he was in jail too.

Not them using a BMW to learn to drive😭😭😭

Nice sneaking way of listening.

Stop smiling Jack. He stopped.

New disguise 🥸🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

It's nice to see him act different roles in same show.

Aran roaming around with three buttons of that jacket is cute.

Did Aran just smile at Tatoo?

The number of times Joker got choked, if I drank each time in today's binge watch, I would have been drunk by now.

Did Jack just take over the call from Tatoo.. aw..

War's wig is bouncing with every step haha

Why is that place empty?

Awww Jack showed up! Oh it's the same bar!

Same, if everytime Joker got kicked in stomach and I drank, I would have developed acute liver failure by now.

Not Aran getting slapped twice. Boi you should not be fighting. That's why you have bodyguards😭

Did he just throw Aran on top off Tattoo and walk away🤣😭

Tooth and Tongue by P'Bird 🤣🤣🤣🤣

Did he stab Jack???

Double kick was so well shot. In sync. Dk how many takes it took, but it was good.

Jack, Joke and Ama sound the same because they both love you, you idiot.

Did Tatoo steal it again? What's wrong now??

Awww povidone in :) shape

More Wound Caring 🩷

War's eyes. Crazy mad Joker.

Joke forgave. ???!!!!!!!!!!!!

Terrace! Is it terrace or parking area!! Or both.. this is reminding me of Vee Mark terrace scene. Yin War - They have both grown up a little.

OHmy Jack forgave!

Does that mean more than what he means?

Oh damn my tablet died.

Not the 'theres a lot to eat, do you want to come over' cliche cutest thing

Awwwww Kicking my feet in the air, they are restarting. Gosh those few minutes was so good SO GOOD. I could write about it more and more but the rest of plot also takes up space. I will probably write about in rewatch sessions.

(Now I regret not watching the show since it was airing, this would have felt so much better if I had been watching and waiting for a month.)

The issue with not registering the marriage sure shows up in hundred different ways in the next generation's life. It's sad.

It's sad to see Rosé walk all over Aran, because yes, she has more money and legitimacy. Fuck all these hierarchies.

Aran being a decent boss' son by covering up this and that and everything was actually very angel baby of him.

Not Jack getting caught out of all those people. But it's for plot purposes. Let's wait.

So the preview shows Jack introducing Joke to his home tuition kids and then sleeping together. I'll pretend that information is not yet processed and I shall wait peacefully for the next episode.

[multidimensionalguidance]

Hello!! How are you doing?

I got a quick question to ask. I know someone (a guy) and he has a vishakha moon and rising, and hasta sun. (His sun is conjunct my Lilith btw)

What are your thoughts about them? More specifically Jupiter Nakshatra men, and more specifically again Vishakhas (or just mainly Jupiter influenced). Moon men if you want too.

I've just come to realize I've attracted quite many jupiterian and moon men. (A bit of other Nakshatras too, the least was Venus and Sun)

Could it be bc I got Moon, Ketu (Ashwini) and Saturn in my big 3. I got mercury AatmaKaaraka in Vishakha. Is that also a possibility?

Thanks in advance if you take the time to reply to my question.

Have a nice day 🫶🏻

Hi! I'm great and hope you are as well.

I can deff share some of my personal observations mixed with information from KRS books.

Jupiter nak men ime tend to be foreigners or have behaviors that feel adapted from other places, a strong religious background, be into traveling or being expansive in the way they think. The type of guys to know a lot of fun facts from different countries, or in general very knowledgeable and funny. They also have a certain dark nature that hides behind the bubbly and curious persona which only appears when their morals, character, or philosophical view is challenged. Their background is usually good or privileged, meaning that they are educated and well cultured.

I'm not sure if you're talking about Vishakha nakshatra in Libra or Scorpio, but according to KRS book since they are ruled by a male tiger their behavior is quiet, analytical, and overall cat-like. They're often underestimated due to how patient they can before pouncing towards their target/goal/interest. They are not the types to be all in people's faces, not for lacking in capacity, but preference of not even getting their nails dirty. They'll watch from afar and move intensely out of passion or retaliation, etc.

If you have Aries energy, then it would be likely to attract Libras (Vishakha portion) as potential suitors, but we're commonly surrounded by our same/opposite moon sign, 3th house sign (childhood friends, school or near vicinity), 11th house sign (online, social network, social media, groups/communities, fundraisers, etc) AK, and DK individuals.

Aside from that, Cancer men are just *ominous music playing in the background* and being with Aquarius or Pisces in PBP feels like you're in an elevator that only has 3 stops in between major extremes. A lot to say about Jupiter nak men tbh.

[gcnpeachbeach]

are you also cosmically upset about the characterization of movie dk or is it just me bc like nobody gives a shit about dk's real personality everyone decided he was a dickhead because of a movie that doesn't even take place in the canon universe AAAAAAAARGH

YES OH MY GOD he was literally just a generic seth rogen character in it like they fucked him up soooo bad. first time dk gets the limelight in way too long and they absolutely drag him through the mud i hated it so bad n knowing its a lot of ppls first and only real impression of the character makes me want to bite glass

[iocainesmoothie]

Been playing ffxiv, paid to skip HW but really enjoyed stormblood, saw emet-selch for the first time.

I'm very impressed that his first introduction to the player was to be shot and rag dolled down the stairs, it immediately differentiates him from the other ascians who just say ominous and vague nonsense that never amounts to anything. It was almost more sinister, because it really illustrates the point that the ascians are noncorporeal horrors piloting a meat puppet.

Also very minor detail but I noticed even back in stormblood, instead of writing a boring talk quest as "go talk to so-and-so", instead they say "go meet SOMEONE at such-and-such place". Like it's so very minor, but instead of straight up telling me who you're going to meet they just sorta hint and say how excited that person is to see you again.

Mechanically it's the exact same boring quest format, and maybe I don't otherwise even care about that character, but even that tiny bit of speculating who it is and the implication that they have any kind of emotional response AT ALL is already elevating the writing.

I get the majority of quest text boils down to telling the player to go to X or talk to Y or collect Z and there's only so many ways to do that, and clarity of communication is always top priority, but in something long format like an mmo where the player has likely plugged in a hundred hours already you can kinda assume they've been trained to expect a certain order of events and can play with the format a bit.

Also the last duty of sb was one of those "everyone shows up at the big battle as npcs and cheers at you to go on to the big boss while they hold back reinforcements" fights and it's very anime but honestly it always works on me.

Been leveling up dark knight, but I bought the level 80 warrior boost because I hate playing with other people and I wanted to solo a bunch of the main scenario raids instead of queueing. Also I'm playing dark knight because aesthetics, and tanking for a group is too much responsibility for me.

Honestly dk kinda sucks compared to paladin and warrior, way less mitigation and self healing, and though it feels like I'm doing more damage it's still not as much as a pure dps.

Also bought a bunch of clothes on the shop in a moment of weakness, but now my outfit is so cool I don't want to change into anything else! And I kinda miss wearing vanilla gear and seeing your outfit change as you pick up upgrades. Oh well atleast I'm cute and it avoids those awkward moments when a piece from a new set doesn't fit with your current fit.

Ffxiv clothing designs are so gorgeous, even the shitty low-level vanilla garbage is kinda cute. Ppl who buy store stuff obviously look good but I have way more respect for the glamours I see where people just got really creative with in-game items. The graphics are like 10 years out of date but the hair and clothes and faces are still miles better than some of biowares stuff (guys I love you I'm on your side let's figure this out you can't just make everyone bald)

Also I've noticed the cuts scene cameras do a trick anime does a lot to cut down animation costs, the framing and panning and angles do a LOT of the work when they otherwise can't get these limited models to emote that much. Or else they just fully cut away and let a sound effect imply an action took place and your brain just fills in the difference.

Anyway I'm addicted and am probably wasting a lot of time on things I should be doing instead but it's nice to have something to hyper fixate on for a while, and I haven't even started SB or EW and I've heard they're both life changing so maybe I'll just glut myself until I've wrung all the dopamine I can out of it.

Also I've realized there is such a jump in writing quality in SB that I'm only really emotionally attached to lyse and hien and the general, the rest of the scions are all kind of... idk unlikable?? They're all the same kind of snarky but not really funny, and speak intelligently but not really with any character or having much to say. Allisae being maybe the exception but I feel like she doesn't get much screen time compared to her brother.

It was very touching that she's the tough prickly one, but very honestly tells you she feels alone and sadly asks you not to leave her in a moment of vulnerability before the fight where she reaches for your hand desperately before her soul is teleported away. Like damn yeah this is manipulative but you got me! I'm invested now!

Also that little crystal cat boy was in arr and I never finished/paid attention to his quest line so idk how he ended up i SB, guess I'll find out.

[shellofhappiness]

Hehe no you’re okay!! I’ve just heard that a bunch of times that Eric was Dylan’s third choice for nbk?? Like what the hell did I miss 😭

Also the (gawd) is so fuckin funny it’s like so sassy from Dylan, I can physically see the eyeroll lmao but I do believe miss everlasting changes her mind quite a lot because I remember her saying the (gawd) was after the term ‘NBK’ and not after Eric’s name as if he think the term is corny or something which is crazy because he definitely came up with it lol so it had probably less to do with being in disdain with eric and more so the idea that “damn I never got my halcyon chick and now I gotta do all this to break free” Because at the end of the day I feel he wanted love more than death but that’s just me !!

Another note (sorry I’m rambling) although miss everlasting does make some good points here and there she’s so creepy😭 she’s definitely middle aged and has made weird comments on Dylan such as “He got the nickname vodka because that’s how his semen tasted” so yeah a little weird lol

Yayyy!! Dancing around in circles. Lalala ...

Just some final thoughts ... I think a lot of confusion can stem from using the word "choice" to describe Dylan's fantasies, hence why this is such a common misunderstanding in the community. Eric was always going to be the most realistic option for Dylan, so it wasn't really a matter of choice in the first place! I'm sure you're well aware of that though ... I'm just voicing it directly for anyone else who reads this. >.<

Moving on, right!! He was so teenage girl writing about boy trouble in his little diary for that LOL. I totally agree with you on it being a more "in general" statement rather than specifically targeted at Eric! Also, you are SO based for " I feel he wanted love more than death, " YOU get it!!!

Anyway, yeah, I kind of raised my eyebrow a bit too when I first found TEC ... Like, she very much woobifies Dylan, but not in a way that exonerates him of committing a massacre LOL. I cringed a LOT when I first read some of her posts on Dylan though ... The GIANT " DK as a boyfriend " post is a bit of an inside joke with myself because of how insane it was she would write all that. Girl why?? 😭 I DID NOT KNOW SHE SAID THAT, BY THE WAY! I first got your anon at work and my jaw PHYSICALLY dropped after you subjected my sorry, little eyes to that ... I did not know it went that deep! GENUINELY mental.

With the horrors out of the way, you need to come off anon now ... we've come too far for you not to be my bestie!! ^.^

[auroraknux]

I've already complained a lot about the pacing, and how the film suffers because of it. So now I want to switch gears and talk about some of the stuff I did like (it's a long list!). Putting it under a read more, because of spoilers:

Mario being a protective big brother ❤️

Mario calling Luigi "Lu" (it's no "Weegee" or "Weeg", but it's still cute)

"Nothing can hurt us as long as we're together"

The flashback of the baby bros 😭

Luigi being the one to protect Mario at the end

Mario and Luigi's relationship in general is so incredibly sweet and definitely the highlight of the film for me

Peach is a badass, but she's also cute. Which is exactly how I think she should be depicted

Toad is cute and funny, and I wish we could've seen more of his dynamic with Mario and Peach

Mario and Peach's interactions are cute, even if they're rushed

THE MARIO AND LUIGI HUG WJEHEBEJSUUSUDHSHSBSHSHSJSJ IT'S EVEN BETTER THAN THE LM3 HUG I'M 😭 THE FOREHEAD TOUCH AHWEHEHEHDNJE THEY'RE THE BEST SIBLINGS EVER I WOULD DIE FOR THEM

I like Peach's backstory (even if I have a lot of questions about the circumstances surrounding them crowning her princess). I think it's sweet that she became their protector after they raised her. The idea of her possibly being from Mario's world is also very interesting to me. I hope fanfic writers go nuts with that

Mario having daddy issues is kind of a funny concept to me, but also really interesting, and it's something I'd like to see explored more (probably in fanfics)

I love how sweet and supportive their mom is!

Mario and DK's rivalry is fun

CAT MARIO IS SO ADORABLE SJHWHSJJWJJSSJ I LOVE HIM

Luigi 💚 (literally all he has to do is exist and I love him with all my heart and soul)

Lumalee was funny (even if I wish they'd actually done something with the character)

I was disappointed about Peach not actually using the halberd, but she still gets to beat up Bowser, so I'm not complaining too much

Peaches 🍑

The concept of Bowser being able to play piano is something I never realized I needed in my life (definitely need to incorporate it into a future fanfic)

I love the way they incorporated the game mechanics into the worldbuilding. I want to see what they'd do with other stuff, like 1-ups (like we thought we were getting)

The idea of Mario hating mushrooms is funny

Pauline got a cameo at least

The score was great

The DK Rap being included was funny

It's cool to have official versions of Mario's parents (even if they're probably not canon)

Having Charles Martinet voice Mario's dad was a cute touch (and it makes him saying "these are my boys!" at the end really sweet in a meta way)

I actually liked most of the voices. The only one that remotely bothered me was Cranky, because he doesn't sound old enough, but even then I don't really hate it. Yes, I actually came around to Prattio in the end, so fucking sue me (it helps that his performance is better than in the trailers, and you can actually hear the Brooklyn accent now)

The Bowser's Fury theme playing in one part made me so happy because that's one of my favorite Mario games ever

I loved seeing Mario being insecure and scared! It was really refreshing

This might sound weird, but I actually appreciate them not holding back on the violence in some places. The most notable example is during the climax, when Mario is all bruised up from Bowser beating the shit out of him

As I've said before, the animation is absolutely gorgeous. The expressive character animation and the color choices are what really make it shine

The action sequences are so good! Even just Peach doing the training course was mesmerizing

Peach is just...so nice. People were assuming she'd be a stereotypical girlboss that hates men or some crap, but she really isn't. (I never did; I had faith that they'd get her right.) She waits for Mario to complete his training so he can save Luigi, even though there's a looming threat to her kingdom. She lets Mario go with her even though he didn't complete it, and tries to make him feel better about not getting it on the first try. And she's willing to marry someone she hates just to protect her kingdom (and then tricks him and beats him up). I love her 💖

I like how Peach says "my Toads"; it feels like she's saying "my family" (because they are her family, and she'll never let anything happen to them 🩷)

I already mentioned Mario and Luigi's relationship. But one scene that I haven't seen anyone talk about it when they're in Mario's room after their dad rejects him, and Luigi tries to comfort him. Mario is a great brother in this movie, but so is Luigi 💚

As much as I love Mario x Peach, I'm glad they don't try to force the relationship (outside of other characters shipping them, lol). There's not much time for that to happen--partly because of the pacing, but also because they're both focused on stopping Bowser and wouldn't be thinking much about that anyway. I would like to see some romance between them in a potential sequel, but I also want the development of their relationship to feel natural

Mario finding his strength and confidence through his desire to protect the people he cares about 🥰

They did the "So long gay Bowser" tail swing

The character designs are sooooooo good! Mario and Luigi are precious, Peach is pretty, Bowser looks cool, etc. I love how everyone looks! 👌

Luigi's hair 😏

There's probably more I could add here, but I should probably stop before this post becomes ridiculously long lol. Despite the issues I had with this movie, there's still a lot I appreciate about it. And it made me smile and laugh the whole way through, so that makes it good in my book. It's definitely going to be one of my comfort movies from now on.

[ryoner]

So, i played the original Donkey Kong trilogy on NES.

I definitely liked all of them, though we've come a long way since then.

From Mario (then Jumpman) saving his (then) girlfriend Pauline from Donkey Kong (now Cranky), to saving Donkey from Mario as Donkey Kong Jr. (now MIA) and finally shooing Donkey Kong out of a greenhouse with help from Stanley the Bugman (rumored to be in Alcoholics Anonymous with Junior), it's a fun time all around.

But i'm especially fascinated by the very character driven nature of these classic quarter munchers.

Donkey Kong is Nintendo's first huge success story in the world of videogames. It went on to define the company and even ever so slightly influence their games for decades to come. But most of all, it debuted Old Man Ninty's two premier superstars, Mario and Donkey Kong.

Jumpman and Donkey and Pauline, oh my!

The legend as old as time. Ape fancies woman. Takes her on a date. Carpenter kicks him in the shins and makes off with his lady. Rinse and repeat.

Nothing new here. Proto-Mario jumping his way to the top, dodging the barrels, springs and flames that his adversary presents him, while also whacking things with his hammer. All in pursuit of a fleeting romance.

But it's all so charming! What else could a simple carpenter do but pick up his hammer and follow the miscreant up an unfinished building? (Leave it to the authorities probably.) What would you do in Donkey's place, other than use what is available to you at the moment to defend your first love from your assailant? (Other than admit to yourself that the lady is in a commited relationship and keep dating elsewhere.)

Though there's nothing Pauline herself could've done. She's an unarmed woman who was kidnapped by a wild animal. Might as well let your normal ass dude boyfriend rescue you while cops don't do shit.

It does so much with so little. And it's just the start of an ever growing cast of colourful characters.

Let's not think about when Donkey Kong got around to conceiving Junior that's not my job.

When you go around kidnapping people off the street and carry them up a building, people are bound to consider putting you in a cage.

So guess what? The carpenter you menaced decides to do just that, with an assortment of tamed animals to help keep you prisoner. And now it's up to your child to save you! What a twist!

Donkey Kong Jr. is my personal favorite, even if Donkey Kong 3 is generally more engaging and action-y overall. And part of that comes down to how it all fits together.

While in the first game, Mario was more focused on jumping (duh), Junior is purveyor of the fine arts of monkey-ing around. A master climber!

While jumping is obviously still part of his moveset, he mostly gets around using vines. He's also even faster while climbing if he uses two of them!

Since Junior is a responsible child, instead of weapons he uses fruits scattered around the stage to deal with enemies. He's probably learned how to use everything at his disposal from his dear old dad. Aww!

Another nice touch are the stages itself. It's not just an unfinished skyscraper this time, but a slightly wider selection of locales, from a jungle, a forest, a power station (or some kinda factory with lots of faulty wiring) to the compound that DK is supposed to rot in.

Donkey Kong Jr. is the prime example of a good sequel. More stages, more engaging gameplay, good music and a logical next step to take the story. And this will not be the last time a kiddy Kong saves the day, but i'm getting ahead of myself here.

Donkey Kong has learned nothing and we are an exterminator now. Wow.

I must admit, Donkey Kong 3 is a better game than Jr., but that doesn't mean i like it better.

Sure, Stanley the Bugman ticks all the boxes. He is a normal dude going up against impossible odds, as Donkey Kong descends upon his greenhouse with a veritable army of bugs, trying to steal his flowers for some reason.

His moveset is appropriate for his job, as he sprays DK and the bugs as he ascends and descends his scaffolding. Dodges attacks like a champ, gets stronger bugspray as a powerup after driving DK high enough. Very action oriented fun gameplay.

But everything else suffers. Donkey Kong seemingly shows up for no real reason at this unassuming dudes property to steal flowers, which is even more of an excuse plot than the previous two games, while the action is entirely localized within that one greenhouse.

Perfectly fine game. But utterly unrelated to anything that has happened before and not at all relevant later. Heck, Stan basically disappears beyond this point. Even Junior got another shot in Donkey Kong 94 for the Game Boy, before becoming a deadbeat dad to the current Donkey Kong.

It's just a little bit lacking, in the ways that matter to me and my variable attention span.

I am going somewhere with this and this will be on the test.

Nintendo has shown a great deal of care when it comes to character based games since the start, but also a tendency to take a wild swing in more or less random directions. Even way before their games shaped my tastes in a Scrimblo heavy direction.

And they won't stop any time soon.

[rukkilill]

ohh can i return the favour and ask for dennor? <3

I really love this pairing a lot. :V There is unfortunately no bingo square for "hot mess", but c'est la vie.

The nice thing about these two is that their relationship can run the gamut from "buckets of conflict" to "happy and comfortable" - it varies depending on time period and interpretation of such. It's just cool to have a whole bunch of options in one pairing.

Downside is, a lot of those periods aren't shown in canon (thus, 'only the version in my head'). I do like what we have, though. The two strips with the March Across the Belts and the Raising Taxes really appeal to me - because the dynamic that they have together is pretty good. Their personal relationship isn't perfect, but they do seem to like each other and care about each other. A lot of the problems they have do seem to come from Denmark's bad decisions, but also from other bad decisions imposed by others (Denmark's king etc). It's this rather than DK and NO's personal relationship with one another being inherently the biggest problem. Though differences in how to approach all these difficulties do lead to potentially interesting conflict between them.

I once described these two to a non-Hetalia friend as "They're very divorced". And. Yeahhh. They are just so very, very divorced. And it's for the better! I kind of run with that farther than most people - haven't addressed it in fanwork really, but I generally see them not restarting their personal relationship until very late. Like, post-oil, "last couple decades of the 20th century" late. NO needed time to himself, to re-find his sense of self after being attached to others for so long, and to properly settle into himself. DK needed time to grow and change too. I feel like the economic factor cannot be understated here, considering all the factors of their past. It's easy to forgive, move onward, and realize that someone has matured, when you're doing well for yourself.

Essentially - it's when they're apart (…and both financially stable/prosperous) that they have the breathing space to be able to find the best in each other.

Anyway - man, I love these two. They're fun to write. Also, I like the thought that their relationship in historical context was open the whole time, but that they mainly stuck to each other. Partly for convenience (it's just easier to be with someone you're married to) but also because they just liked each other - both relationship-wise and also in bed. It's easy to know what someone's preferences are if you've been married for a while (decades, centuries…) …And then all this makes it all the more fun to explore them discovering new things about each other in modern day; I like to think that they can still find ways to surprise one another.

Their personalities fit so nicely, too. They're like - the sea and the shore. And each of them could be either thing - depending on how you look at it.

This is all over the place so I'll leave you with a song: Bastille's "Flaws" is a very DenNor song to me.

[ney-thank-you]

mario movie was a very movie.

🍄⭐️🍄⭐️🍄⭐️🍄⭐️🍄⭐️🍄⭐️🍄⭐️🍄⭐️🍄

there i said it. i know ill be murdered for such a hot take 😔

but seriously

⚠️spoiler warning⚠️

it was definitely a fun kids flick, it felt very "illumination-y" with some of the character designs (*cough cough* every human besides mario family and Charles martinet character *cough cough*) but i wont count that against the film. its a nit pick and i will admit that.

in fact most of my criticism are nitpicks.

- it felt rushed at times, scenes were back-to-back that felt like they needed SOMETHING, anything there to make them transition smoother

-luigi was painfully absent from a lot of the film. DK was underutilized, too

-while we're at it, why didn't Toad's character get to do anything else with his frying pan? was it really only a gag? i was waiting for him to use it again after the first time.

- that blue star thing was more annoying in its brief screen time than all three of the Gargoyles from disney's The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

- Bowser.... oh Bowser..... i wanted to like him in this... Jack Black did a phenomenal job... but there was something slightly off about him that vibes with me wrong I guess...

-Chris Pratt sounded great as mario, actually, he and Charlie Day were the best parts of the movie IMHO.

-Peach, while she wasn't annoying, she lacked any depth... and speaking of,

- Honestly the stakes in the movie were in fact very high, but....it never actually felt like it..? Mushroom Kingdom was at risk of being taken over by The Big Bad^TM and yet. it didn't ever feel like there was danger?

-Mario's bizarro character "arc" if you can call it that. it starts with him, like Captain America, being like "i could do this all day" taking on the bully and being there for Luigi. i get it, ok. but there was never really a time when that was LEGITIMATELY challenge (save for the end, which is when he overcomes the challenge again) like, it felt like the obstacles for Mario's goal (save Luigi) felt manufactured at best and nonexistent at worst.

-Peach never got a good reason to trust Mario or spend all that time training him. I will put an addition to this post on what things i would change to fix these minor gripes*

- I did love all the little details and references, part of me wished it was taking place in the 80's instead of modern day, but thats again a personal stylistic choice.

- It looked very nice, The look of everything simultaneously seemed soft and sleek but also textured and real, idk it was a nice blend of "cartoony video-game world" and "life-like rendering"

- The whole wedding thing, while funny, (I freaking screeched at that first piano scene) fell short most of the time, and there wasn't enough juxtaposing Bowsers "evil bad guy vibe" with the "soft, i just wanna get married uwu" like he mostly felt like a dork who was lost in the script and almost fell in the just generic bland kids movie bad guy (something i personally think The Sonic Movie barely avoided with Dr. Robotnik)

-i have so much more to say but i think i will leave it at that. or i will make a yt video. who knows!

[simiansmoke]

@citizensofeggton cont.

"Pft, 'general'? That seems like a tall title for somebody shorter than one of these." Lifting a trunk of an arm where a series of three of the Kong kids hung- one over handed, one underhanded, and the other by the legs, looking more like a family of opossums than apes. A burst of flexes via his bicep cause the tag-alongs to squeeze their perch tighter and laugh while also engaging in the age-old activity of trying to make each other fall off via tickle attacks. "I never said it made me special." The Kong prince shrugs, also illiciting a chorus of chitters from the tailed Konglings on his shoulders. "Just one of those 'is what it is' so might as well take the rizz sorta things."

After one last dab to the sniffling kid's face, DK tucks the end of his tie into a grubby little hand and lightly loops it once around the conjoined wrist. There...a child leash. With a nod to signal they were all set to get back on the path towards the ice cream kart he figured would be at the beach at this point of the day with the sun high and demanding some way of cooling off, he begins to pad forward again towards the end of the dock where saw grass and sand swallowed up wooden planks and a path of Kong prints made a trail through the dunes.

Curious about the ape comment, he raised a brow at her assertion. "So you're saying...your kingdom's got Kongs? Dunno how far away you are, but that's kinda weird. The Jungle Kingdom's the only place as far as I know that we call home. Well...maybe after that big mess with the fruit tribes." Though his tone was pondering, he couldn't help the bitter taste forming in his mouth, though spitting to the side helps. Almost as if on cue, several of the Konglings copied him and eagerly spat into the sand. A good role model, for sure.

The kid he'd tethered continued to walk along, seemingly content to have something to hold onto - even if it wasn't a fluffy tail. They still stole a look over at their short and fuzzy chaperone, though flinched when she made mention of how tough they were even though they'd snotted up a bit back there, though not really from a scuff or a scrape, but moreso the feeling like they'd gotten in trouble for continuing to chase it. The reassurance is enough to earn a shy smile complete with a missing front tooth. "Yeahhh, I'm ganna be tUFF!" Leashed or not, the kid proceeds with a puffed chest.

"Uhh, keep the toughness down a level, champ. We all needa keep up here." DK grumbles, though he's partially glad the kid's got time to dry his face off now in the sun and perk up before he has to return the lot. The less explaining he has to do, the better-

As his paws enter the sand, the kids can't help but want to pound around in the loose earth, leaping off and racing around with renewed energy. That plus the sand's pretty hot and they're quick to keep their knuckles from cooking too much. DK pauses at the threshold between wood and sand to regard the dock trail behind them. "Eh...I guess railing wouldn't be that bad of a project. I could probably put up a few one morning before it gets hot." It wasn't like he was a stranger to carpentry either, given the tree house he'd made in his youth, shaky - unstable junk of a shack that it was.

The ice cream kart up ahead was just that - a rather large go kart parked on the sands with a trailer attached. Pictures of vibrant, sea-salt popsicles lined the side. As it slowly came into view, DK watched the onslaught of Konglings line up for a race to the finish line of frozen treats. "You know, I'm not against judging someone entirely based off their favorite ice cream flavor." Of course he isn't.

[cyberdragoninfinity]

Hey, I heard you like Duel Links Lore! As owner of the (inactive 😓) @incorrectduellinksquotes I would like to impart the Cursed Knowledge if I can.

First, an easy way to tell if someones AI? If they re-enact a duel in their talk. Pegasus and Kaiba(DM) roleplay their DK duel, for example.

Starting with DM, an interesting note about Isis/Ishizu - Even before Yami Marik was added, she and Rishid/Odion had a conversation about how Malik/Marik was missing from Duel Links... ish. If I remember correctly, what they actually say is that Malik is missing in general, and they came to Duel Links to try and find him. While Isis has evidence pointing to her being an AI clone, Rishid has no damning evidence either way. Its entirely possible that Rishid is the real Rishid, and Malik has actually gone missing. I wonder if (Yami) Malik's inclusion in the game was considered in poor taste and got backlash.

Also, its evident that The Real Kaiba used Kaiba (DM) as his avatar for a while, before DSOD world was complete. Oddly, Roland/Isono seems to listen to Mokuba(DM) as his superior despite Mokuba being an AI copy, which is just funny

Onto GX - Its true that most characters are pretty ambiguous, but theres some that are obvious. Judai and Yubel (separate, not Yubel/Judai) are both AI, Cronos/Crowler does the RP thing, Ryo/Zane is still a butt much, but thats about it. The only one who has any indication they're real is... The Chazz. Yes, Black Thunder seems to be the genuine article, if and only because of the company he brings with him. Ojamas Yellow, Green, and Black wouldnt be there if Manjoume was an AI, and even if they were they wouldnt Leak Yubel's Event like Yellow did.

5Ds... you seem to have a good grasp on them.

I never watched zexal :X

Arc V iirc kinda implied nobodys real? i dunno i dropped Duel Links at that point

Vrains is where it gets interesting again, but frankly thats its own post. The question isnt "are they AI copies" the question is like. If you're a digital copy of something already digital, and the original is gone... is there a functional difference calling you a copy? Or is it fair to consider you the original? the funny ourple blob boi is a philisophical nightmare and he'd probably enjoy knowing he is.

Sorry. but also im not

OH FUCK YEAH!! Thanks a bunch, this is a FANTASTIC compilation of interesting lore bits; I didn't know a lot of these! (as it goes, having not played the game for like...the first four years it was out dfhghsdfg) THE FACT CHAZZ MIGHT BE THE REAL DEAL, OF ALL CHARACTERS??!? ABSOLUTELY HILARIOUS. PLEASE. proving his humanity thanks to Ojama Yellow. truly only the best for The Chazz.

The thing about if a character reenacts a duel in their dialogue being a good benchmark for whether or not they're AI is fascinating....the brings up an interesting side-tangent with that when you have two confirmed AI characters dueling each other, and their dialogue isn't a perfect duel reenactment but still implies an established dynamic and history (like aporia and z-one's dialogue when they duel each other /obligatory comment about my old men). The way the AI themselves are evolving and talking with each other and being their own variations of these people....that's a can of worms all its own.

Arc-V's been such a weird case because even if everyone there happens to be AI, they're so kneedeep in trying to figure out how the memory cloning process works, what brings a person into this world, that you wonder if there's going to be some sort of realization of the self for one of those guys on the horizon. Could be fun if so!!!!

very very interested to see where the VRAINS implications go cuz that is SUPREMELY INTERESTING lore (especially for a fucking FREEMIUM TRADING CARD GAME ONLINE) and I want to see what they do with it. havent even SEEN vrains yet but I like watching these characters try to solve a mystery that should have never been their problem in the first place. great stuff!

[poof346]

The Super Mario Bros. Movie: A Rollercoaster Ride of Thrills (spoilers inbound)

So, last Sunday I finally got around to watching The Super Mario Bros. movie in theaters. I feel like I should preface my thoughts by giving a summary of my history with Mario as a series. When I was a kid, my family got a Wii around 2007, and I played a bunch of Mario Strikers and the Galaxy duology with my sibling. I got a DSi sometime afterwards and played a bunch of the first New Super Mario Bros., SM64DS, and Mario Party DS. From there, I eventually went on to play...pretty much every platformer this dude has starred in, alongside the mountain of spin-offs. Needless to say, I feel qualified to talk about how much I fucking loved this movie on nearly every front as a representation of the series.

Do I think it was great as a film? Ehhhh, not necessarily, the pacing was a little fast due to how Illumination writes their films and I think a longer runtime might've helped them flesh out certain interactions more. But I only really noticed these flaws when reflecting on what I saw at home. In the moment, I was overcome by a feeling of childlike joy and wonder at almost every scene, seeing every element I love about Mario on the big screen. The colorful world and art design, the beautiful and upbeat music, the kinetic and fluid platforming action...all of it. Pretty comparable to how I felt when I watched Sonic 2 in theaters, funny enough.

That said, I'm not really interested in comparing the two films against each other to see which is better. I got a similar level of enjoyment from both and can accept they're going for different approaches, while also wishing they would've made some improvements. This is solely about the Mario movie on its own, which I feel already gives me plenty to talk about. So, I wanna start with my negatives first so I can get to everything I loved in an uninterrupted burst.

As I alluded to before, my main issue was the pacing. Particularly, I think the speed at which scenes moved caused some character arcs to feel a little undercooked, like with Donkey Kong. The movie wanted a moment where Mario and DK realize they're not too different in chasing after approval from their fathers, but this exchange gets like, 30 seconds dedicated to it before they're back into action. I understand that as a kid's movie, it's probably preferred by the staff to have a high volume of fun stuff on screen to keep the kids entertained, but I always feel like Illumination struggles with a good balance.

While this is a much smaller issue in comparison, I also wish the soundtrack had remained entirely original without the licensed songs. Mario has a very particular kind of sound that these song choices didn't quite fit with, plus it meant that they took the place of original tracks written for the movie. There was also the case of songs lifted directly from the games, like the DK Rap and Fury Bowser's theme, where the original composers weren't credited for their work. Proper credit is generally a big issue with productions like these, so I wouldn't say it was surprising to see, I was just a little disappointed.

That's about my main issues out of the way, now for the fun part.

Most immediately striking, this is a gorgeous-looking movie, but that's something I had no doubts about going in. If nothing else, Illumination has proven to me they know how to make visually appealing films. However, I need to give special credit to the artists and animators for capturing the look and feel of Mario's world so perfectly in every detail. The blocks, the hills, the girders, the karts, everything is colorful and exactly how I wanted it to be. Plus, the scenes of action have great kinetic energy that matches the platforming you'd do in Mario games, they were all fun to watch.

The music is also a particular highlight for me. I feel like a lot of video game movie adaptations don't properly pay tribute to the soundtracks of what they're adapting, so hearing all these iconic Mario tracks seamlessly fitting into scenes is a treat. And of course, Bowser's piano ballad about Peach, absolute classic already. I would've been very upset if they didn't use the casting of Jack Black as Bowser for a musical number.

Since I mentioned casting, I'll also address the voice cast for the main characters. While I'm still not totally on-board with the practice of celebrities taking voice acting roles, they did pretty well! My personal highlights were Charlie Day as Luigi and Jack Black as Bowser, they really fit those roles. And yes, I did actually warm up to Chris Pratt as Mario. Honestly, the commercials must've had something out for him, the takes they selected didn't give a proper impression of his voice throughout the movie (and some weren't actually used, like the "Mushroom Kingdom, here we come" line).

In general, I would say the Mario movie was a great experience as a first watch! I compared it to a rollercoaster ride in the title for a reason: it was exciting and fun in the moment, but there's also not a lot to analyze in terms of story or anything like that. The mixed reception from critics does make sense to me after seeing it, since if you don't have the prior attachment to the Mario franchise, would probably feel like a lot of spectacle with little substance.