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666anxiety666 · 5 months ago

Note

can you maybe do Ler Swansea headcannons :3 (if you’ve already done that sorry I haven checked your blog💔)

Was gonna make a whole headcanons list for all the characters, so it thought I'd just answer this here. 🙏

🪓Mouthwashing tickle headcanons.🩸

♡♥︎♡♥︎♡♥︎♡♥︎♡♥︎♡♥︎♡♥︎♡♥︎♡♥︎♡♥︎♡♥︎

Curly

LEE

🧡 this man loves tickles but will never admit it.

🧡 his tummy and ribs are his most sensitive spots.

🧡 gets embarrassed when tickling is brought up in convo.

🧡 would always lose tickle fights to jimmy when they were kids. Sometimes on purpose

🧡 will try to keep his laughter as quiet as possible before it becomes too much, and it turns into deep cackles.

🧡 "noho, wahahait! wahaHAHAHAIT-!"

🧡 hadn't been tickled in years until Daisuke, in Daisuke fashion, found out.

🧡 blushes a lot.

🧡 doesn't try very hard to get away as he doesn't want to hurt the person tickling him.

LER

🧡 as a ler, however, his confidence is brought back.

🧡 will want revenge if he's playful and will chase you down to get it.

🧡 this man will tease you the whole time. he likes to play innocent as if he isn't wrecking you underneath him.

🧡 "What? what's so funny? me? tickling you? i have no clue what you're talking about!"

🧡 "Geez, you must think I'm hilarious if you're laughing so much..!"

🧡 he's strong. the strongest guy on the ship aside from Swansea. so pinning you down won't be an issue for him. no matter

🧡 he doesn't want to hurt you or take it too far, so he will check up on you afterwards.

🧡 he's actually very good at tickling. knows everything in the god damn book to get you screaming.

🧡 his favourite thing to do is the claw with his had on the lee's stomach.

🧡 he'll also give killer raspberries. Also, the only reason he attempts to grow his beard.

☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

Anya

LEE

🩵 she isn't overwhelmingly ticklish but still is.

🩵 she's ticklish all over, really. but the spots that really get her are her underarms, neck, and her feet. (not in a weird way obviously.)

🩵 she's a giggler in the beginning. but get one of her worst spots, and she'll be squealing.

🩵 her laughter is soft in the beginning, but after a while, she's howling.

🩵 "nohoho, plehehease..! ple-! PLEHEHEASE!"

🩵 will squeal loudly if you surprise her.

🩵 she actually doesn't mind tickles. she finds it strangely comforting. but I didn't tell you that.

🩵 she squeaks. she once did it when Curly was tickling her and was so embarrassed.

LER

🩵 she gives big sister energy when it comes to tickling honestly. her tickles can be either soft or rough depending on what they're for.

🩵 she'll be gentle if she's cheering someone up or if you're, i don't know, not Daisuke. Curly isn't off the hook either.

🩵 however. if you've pissed her off, it's war. Daisuke is a frequent victim.

🩵 she teases no matter if it's soft or rough tickles. either way, she has a way to make you flustered as hell.

🩵 "Come on, it's only a little tickle. It's not so bad... you sound so cute..!"

🩵 "Too much? maybe don't cheat then, you little asshole!"

🩵 her nails are a killer.

🩵 will feel bad if she's taken it too far, which is often the case during board games.

☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

Daisuke

LEE

🩷 MY BOY!

🩷 this mf is ticklish everywhere isn't not even funny. more so where there's muscle or bones.

🩷 his worse spots are his tummy, thighs, and hips.

🩷 he'll be giggling before you've even started. he hates anticipation. It makes him very flustered.

🩷 hates it when people blow in his ears. He'll squeal.

🩷 be ready to give chase if he's not sitting or lying down. cause this man will run for his damn life.

🩷 he secretly gets in lee moods a lot. its makes him very flustered and has a hard time asking for help.

🩷 was also very confused when he first got one and was freaking out.

🩷 that's why he'll annoy and provoke anyone around him.

🩷 on the very rare chance he has asked for tickles. he's very, very embarrassed about it.

🩷 he's very weak to rib counting and raspberries.

🩷 has a very loud and high-pitched laugh. you'll think someone is being murdered.

🩷 "NOHO, STAHAHAHAP! IHIM SOHOHOHOHORRY!

🩷 is sensitive to any and every form of tickling.

🩷 will giggle like crazy at soft tickles.

LER

🩷 like Anya, he's giving older brother vibes.

🩷 he's surprisingly strong, not Curly level strong, but can pin you down well.

🩷 knows where everyone is ticklish and it's scary.

🩷 his teases are ruthless. knows exactly what will make you flustered.

🩷 "Aw! right here? it tickles right here, right? I'll have to stay right here then!'

🩷 "At this point, i may never stop!"

🩷 he definitely knows every trick in the book, and one hundred per cent tells jokes to make it seem like you're laughing at them.

🩷 will sometimes take it too far. but will always try not to and make sure you're okay.

🩷 will get excited if anyone asks them to tickle them. he'll act like he's just been asked to serve the country.

🩷 teams up with Anya on occasion.

☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

Swansea

LEE

💜 I can't really think of much for Lee Swansea.

💜 I'd say he's a little ticklish on his tummy and sides.

💜 but will quickly swat you away before telling you off. (Daisuke 👀)

💜 has a very wheezy and gruff laugh.

💜 "h-hey-! enohough yohohou..!"

LER

💜 now ler Swansea is different.

💜 he raised two daughters, to he used to play tickle monster with them both.

💜 and ever since Daisuke came into his life, the intern is like the son he never had. so poor Daisuke gets it the most.

💜 when he's in a playful mood, he'll tickle Daisuke for anything. not listening, to cheer him up, to wake him, or just because.

💜 he knows every technique in the book, too. He was a former tickle monster, after all.

💜 he teases a lot. like, this man's will make sure to make you feel even worse better than you already do.

💜 "Listen to ya! squealin' like a damn girl."

💜 "Maybe if ya had gotten your lazy ass up, we wouldn't be here, would we?"

💜 always knows when to back off or when you've had enough.

💜 sometimes will laugh along with you. Only if he's feeling playful.

☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

Jimmy

(I know, I know it's jimmy, but let's just pretend he's normal... ish. he's still mean, but he doesn't do any of his crazy shit he did in the game. 😭)

LEE

❤️ he's definitely ticklish, yet he'll never admit it for as long as he lives. he claims it's weak.

❤️ Curly is the only one who knows where he's ticklish and is the only one allowed to tickle him.

❤️ he's a fighter and will kick or punch.

❤️ the only spot he's really ticklish and will get a laugh out of him is his knees.

❤️ squeezing them will get a yell out of him. he'll kick and do anything to get you off.

❤️ his laugh his wheezy and grumbly.

❤️ will swear and insult you through his laughter.

❤️ "g-gehehet the fuhuhuHUUCK OFF MEHE-! FUHUCK YOHOHOU!"

❤️ i wouldn't try to tickle if you're not Curly. you will not survive.

LER

❤️ he's evil. very evil.

❤️ this man is not letting you go until you physically fight him off you. or you're in tears.

❤️ the only two people he's tickled before are Curly, who he's more careful with. but Daisuke? Daisuke had learned his lesson way too many times not to poke fun at Jimmy.

❤️ rough tickles. Damn rough tickles.

❤️ this man will hunt. you. down just to teach you not to mess with him.

❤️ is mean even when he's tickling.

❤️ "It tickles? that's kinda the point, dumbass."

❤️ "Jesus, just how sensitive are you? its kinda embarrassing..."

❤️ will fight you just to pin you down.

♡♥︎♡♥︎♡♥︎♡♥︎♡♥︎♡♥︎♡♥︎♡♥︎♡♥︎♡♥︎♡♥︎

Absolutely loved writing these. They were great fun! 🙏 you can tell who my favourite character is. 💀

Make sure to send over your own headcanons if you wish.

#mouthwashing tickle #mouthwashing tickles #tickle headcanons #mouthwashing headcanons #mouthwashing daisuke #mouthwashing curly #mouthwashing anya #mouthwashing swansea #mouthwashing jimmy

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gnohomotho · 2 months ago

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Hello! Gonna be veeeery honest because this request is extremely personal and you ABSOLUTELY don't have to do it if it's too weird or something you don't wanna write 🙈🙈🙊

But like...the recruiter meets the femreader because she wants to end it (yeah that way) and plays with her for it instead..but he actually cares about her and doesn't want her to die 💔 Ik it's ooc I know it's stupid but I'd really really really appreciate it

Thank you and I love your writing so much! ❤️❤️❤️

Hello, Anon, of course it's alright. I hope I'm not the one being personal and intruding here - just a bit worried about you - if you want to drop into my messages and talk, that's more than alright, too. ♥

And no, it's not stupid. It's a very understandable thing to want to read when you're not doing well. :c Having a caring presence save you from the literal edge is - again - more than understandable.

Here you go. ♥

And a big computer hug from me.

Two Lives on the Table ➴ಇ

Pairing: The Salesman // The Recruiter x fem!reader Summary: She wants to leave, he doesn't seem too eager to let her go. No, this lady in her strong but crumbling suit of armour is something for him to play for - yet - he may be playing for more than himself as she finds...that perhaps someone truly, in their own, very sweet and very odd way, cares for her. Warnings: Angst, mentions of suicide, mentions of death, guns, loaded guns, firing guns, threat and consequences of death, 18+ MDNI, heavy personal contact, kissing, touch, teasing, harsh language. Word count: 1.8k A/N: You'd think I'd let you go without fluff? On this blog? Link to epilogue ฅ^._.^ฅ Gorgeous gif by @phantom-evil

"Do you trust me?"

The voice circles your ears and kisses their opening.

"Not really, no."

Your answer is as dry as a bone.

"Good," the voice coos before continuing:

"You don't need trust to play."

You straighten your back to avoid a shiver running down it.

"I find this game unfair."

The voice moves, circling to your other side, gently warming your temple.

"Good."

The shiver sauntered down your spine without issue.

"Has anyone ever told you you're an unhinged lunatic?"

"Many times," you can hear him smile into the words as they coil around his lips like honey, "though you know what they say. Dead men tell no tales."

"Is that why you never shut the f---"

"Ah ah ah. Little lady. That's a bit unbecoming." He hushes you, a single finger resting on your lips. His thumb traces their outline before laying in their center.

Why you agreed to play a game with this near stranger in a secluded place is starting to weigh at you. Almost as much as the blindfold.

He nudges your lips to open and his thumb gently rests on the border. Never quite intruding. But intruding nonetheless.

"Alright. Look. Stranger. Mr. Stranger. I know molesting girls you find on bridges under the guise of a game must be as fun as it is predictable, but I expected something different. Something more fun."

Oh, now you've offended him.

Attacks of character? No issue.

Attack of his games? Now you've done it.

The voice doesn't change, but the air loses every molecule of warmth it had huddled against its bare chest.

"Then allow me to make it more fun than your little wager with Death."

❥❥❥

You swallow on an empty dry throat. Did you really want to die? Or were you just playing? Or were you just...tired?

"You remind me of my favourite film," you voice in a low whisper.

You don't feel his breath anymore. But you do hear a distinct *click*.

"Hmm?" He voices, half amused, half bored.

"A young man who's been through enough meets Death, who is to take him. Fetching fellow, that one. Death. Nice calves. Anyway. The young knight says that before Death can take him, he has to play chess. And win."

"Does he?"

"It's never that easy, is it, Mr. Stranger?"

"Oh, little armoured darling. Do you think yourself a knight?"

"No, I just like Death."

"Then open wide, maybe he'll pay us a visit."

You do as you're told, and your lips feel the outline of a cold circle that tastes like…harsh metal.

“Good girl.”

He pushes the barrel of the gun just a little further as his sentence concludes, lightly turning it in your mouth. Left to right. Left...to right.

You don’t give him the satisfaction of mumbling into it, but your breaths are hurried, and a small whimper escapes your occupied lips.

Did you hear him sigh?

Just as elegantly, he slowly pulls the gun out of your mouth, and you cough.

“Innovative.”

“You know, I think we both know I can see straight through you, Y/N. Your cards are huddled up to your chest, but they’re…” he brushes the cold steel against your chin and runs it up your cheek, softly pushing into it, lenient pity in his voice that you know is false.

“…All turned the wrong way around. The whole table can see.”

His hot breath circles your cheeks, he must be gazing right at you with only millimetres separating his lips from yours.

“The whole table except for you, little lady. Blind to the game and blind to the threat. Blind even to yourself.” He playfully pushes three taps into your cheek with the gun and you feel warmth on your other, from your jaw to your eyebrows, even through the blindfold. It’s almost…kind.

His hand. His hand is on your cheek, as the gun pushes into the other.

“Now, let’s play a game.”

❥❥❥

Two bullets. One gun.

Two bullets. One blank.

Two players. One blind.

Two choices. Both wrong.

“Choose a bullet for me, little lady.” His slick voice rings in your ears.

“Who shoots who?” You try to remain steady, hands firmly clasped into each other, wondering how far he is from you, where you are, and what the table in front of you must look like.

How fast you could flip it on him and run.

“Well, curious little thing you are…I’ll leave it up to you. If you choose to shoot me and the bullet is blank, I get something in return.”

“Jesus, you’re predictable.”

But your voice is shaking. Anticipation? Cold fear? Armour crumpling?

“And you’re unravelling. If you don’t shoot, I get the gun. And I get to pull the trigger.”

“And I get a favour,” you add, your trembles not matching your thoughts.

Though by now the favour would likely be ‘fucking shoot me already’.

“Now who’s being predictable?” He teases, but you hear he must be having some sort of fun from his voice alone. It’s almost jovial, light, if he were anybody else, you would seek warmth in it. But you don’t. A painting of a fire underwater, that’s all he is.

You place your hand on the table, gently laying your fingers across each new inch to feel for the bullets and not disturb them.

He’s entirely silent, perhaps watching your fingers so softly touch even in their shivers, meticulous, elegant, gentle – perhaps he’s thinking you’re taking too long. You don’t care.

Your fingers find the two shapes, as you nudge them and envelop them in touch, you feel there is no discernible difference. Well, there goes the plan.

Left right left right.

I had a good home but I left, right…left.”

You pick that one and softly flick it towards the sound of his voice. The bullet rolls on the flat surface with a little dull *clink* and lands against what must be his hand.

He loads the bullet wordlessly, the magazine spins and you lift your palms as if expecting something delicate and fragile, you’re weary of holding the gun, even through your tough words.

“So polite, it’s quite lovely to see.” He coos his little lullaby of words that barely reach you, and as he lays the gun just as carefully in your hands, you feel a single finger brush the knuckle of your dominant hand’s trigger finger. Not much.

Just enough to make you falter.

Your breath is stuck in your throat, your lungs aren’t getting enough, and you want to be done. You want to be tired of it all. You want to hesitate and refuse and throw the gun at him. Not shoot. Reset the whole scene. At the same time…

It took you less than a second to connect the two moves.

Aim. Fire.

The sound fills your ears and your heart beats as if it were a sleeping bellringer just now aware it’s the full hour.

The sound woke you up and you tear off your blindfold, nothing but regret and shame on your mind, you couldn’t have shot him, it wasn’t supposed to be like this, no no no, no matter who he is, you don’t murder people he didn’t even hurt you no---

But you tear off your blindfold to a swift blur of both light and dark, so fast you fall back in your chair with a heavy weight pinning you down, sudden crude touch circling your nape and without warning, cool supple flesh connecting to your lips – his own.

Their smooth warmth traverses the entirety of your mouth from outer corners to the very centre, their brisk but no longer concealed hunger enveloping them fully as he pulls you in.

A large hand shoots around your neck, not quite pushing, merely resting on your rapid pulse and holding you in place. One final thrust of his body against you as you feel his tongue enter your mouth and the blur hushes, your eyes closing on their own, reciprocating its motion, holding onto him for dear life.

The anticipation, the fear, the relief – all expressed and all barely breathed between your intertwined lips, your own gasping body, his form over you and his hand tightening around your throat – momentarily leaving to brush through your hair and pull your head back – allowing his tongue ever deeper into you.

Exploring, taking, feasting, you feel both subdued and his – and you feel alive.

❥❥❥

“You…you could have…said the favour was a kiss.”

You barely manage words against your explicitly not steadying chest. The blindfold is back on and you’re glad at least half of your truly flushed cheeks aren’t on display. He seems far calmer from his voice alone, but you know what you felt. Oh, he’s at least half as fucked as you are.

“I am not one to kiss and tell. Choose another bullet.”

It almost sounded like an order.

Alright, perhaps twenty-five percent as fucked as you are.

You once more choose the one on the left.

“Never was one for variety," you try to chuckle, but it comes out dissembled and half cut off. You’re shivering.

He merely hums and loads the gun again. You’d give quite a bit to know what he’s thinking. Your heart is fluttering out of your chest and your breath keeps getting stuck in the same place he grabbed your throat. As if he were grabbing it for dear life.

The magazine spins once more and once more; you take it in your hands with care. You could take it with less consideration, but somehow, the weight of the gun seems…heavier.

You endeavour to do exactly the same as before but…you cannot.

Your finger brushes the trigger, but does not move to push. Your lips open a tad, his taste still upon them – sweet, poisonous, invigorating, life-giving. And here you are. Holding something to take life away.

Just two movements, like before.

Easier than opening an unlocked door.

But you cannot. And your hesitation is more the duly noted.

Wordlessly, he takes the gun back from your hands and you hear the safety click.

Your thoughts stop.

Your heart almost follows suit.

You stop breathing.

The silence envelops you, but you do not move nor fight. Merely open your lips just noticeably, drawing a small shallow breath.

“Thank you for a…pleasant game, Mr. Stranger,” you whisper slowly, softly, holding your hands to yourself with each finger intertwined, “never could play chess to save my life.”

You almost laugh bitterly to yourself. But end with a wistful smile in wait as the thickness of each passing second rings your ears hollow.

One second.

Two seconds.

Three seconds.

❥

One second.

Two seconds.

Three seconds.

❥

One.

Two.

Three.

❥

*click*

❥

Dull.

Reverberating.

Empty.

❥❥❥

He had taken the live bullet out.

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kcdodger · 18 days ago

Text

Starfield: A review by KCDodger.

No game has ever touched me the way Starfield has. I firmly believe that it is Bethesda's greatest product and achievement, but I've been here before. I've explained it many times to many people why Starfield is good, actually… but, will you listen?

Maybe this time it'll be different. Maybe this time I can change things. Maybe not.

Starfield is every bit as good as No Man's Sky, Elite Dangerous, or whatever other space game you've spent hours on. In the following overview, I am going to use a series of shapes to represent what each game does, and doesn't have.

Starfield: ⬤ Star Citizen: ■ Elite: Dangerous: ▲ No Man's Sky: ⬧

I need you to trust me when I say that I am being objective about this. Starfield does have its problems, but they have been exaggerated. I really do mean that. So, let's begin.

Interesting Worlds - ⬤ ▲⬧ Well thought out Characters - ⬤ ▲ A good story - ⬤ A thoughtfully constructed universe - ⬤ ■ ▲ ⬧ Good Gunplay - ⬤ Good Piloting - ⬤ ■ ▲⬧ In depth Ship Customization - ⬤ ▲⬧ Replayability - ⬤ ■ ▲⬧ Roleplaying Mechanics - ⬤ Base Building - ⬤ ▲(colonization counts honestly) ⬧ Meaningful Progression - ⬤ ▲⬧ Character Customization - ⬤ ▲ ■ Loading Screens - ⬤ ■ ▲⬧

Starfield's not lacking in any of these.

Worlds

Starfield is rife with beautiful worlds that are absolutely photo-worthy, and all of them are procedurally generated outside of specific instances. If you think Star Citizen's are not procedurally generated, you really may want to think that one over. Core instances are not, but the rest absolutely is. (Probably serverside. But you know not every mountain and field is hand crafted.) Starfield's biggest problem there is that it has such a limited array of POIs and interactions. Yeah, it's really weird to find a cave with bones on Luna, and there really should be measures to prevent that. But, that's what happens when you build a single player game designed to compete with overhuge MMOs. I'd have narrowed Starfield's focus quite a bit were I in charge. Be that as it may, my gallery of amazing sights only grows.

I can not overstate the level of achievement Bethesda managed to pull off here, with Starfield's "Settled Systems". The amount of thought and effort put into each planet's properties, orbits, the ways they interact with each other, it's some really mind boggling stuff. Elite's is easily the best of that, but their engine is designed for it.

Somehow, Starfield did that on Creation. I still do not know how.

Characters

Constellation's cast is fantastic. As is The Vanguard's. The Freestar Rangers are great too. UC Sysdef and Crimson Fleet are if nothing else, memorable, and Ryujin's characters, while honestly odd in the context of a space exploration game, was really good too.

I don't know many characters from Elite. Everything they do happens in the background with no meaningful impact on the world. I've never heard of a character from Star Citizen, and No Man's Sky is anathema to the concept of characters. All three of those games are big open worlds where you and the other players are characters. I know that NPCs you can run into in NMS are apparently memorable, but nobody's ever given me a name.

But I can tell you the story of Sam Coe, a single father who's really struggling with it. I can tell you about Andreja, the displaced member of House Va'ruun. I could go on about Sarah Morgan, a woman who's had a lifetime of adventures in the last decade. Goodness knows I can talk to you about Barrett. That's just four examples. They're very well acted, well thought out, meaningfully interactive characters. They'll call back to actions of yours, things you've said, even their romances feel really good. I'm a very married woman who loves my wife very much, and it's actually quite impressive to me how genuine the acting and presentation of interpersonal relationships feels. Given the game is about how we all effect one another, how we deal with loss, moving on with the world and life, this shouldn't come as a surprise, but the characters of Starfield deserve recognition. I really like them all, even the utter bastards.

Story

Elite doesn't really have a story. It has a developing narrative that the devs guide gently. Yeah, the Thargoid invasion happened and those of us who participated in it had an effect - but to say it's a story is… lacking, I think. Star Citizen wholly lacks one, and frankly I'm not sure what No Man's Sky's is.

Starfield, though? Starfield is about discovering a mystery beyond your comprehension, but you get wrapped up in it. Starfield is about becoming part of something more and meeting new people, about learning who they are and what they've been through. You're likely the youngest gun in Constellation outside of Cora Coe, but your accompanying cast is all in their 30s and 40s, some even beyond that in their 50s and 60s. Walter Stroud is a rare character that way. I know this is the story section, but I have to go off about how aged a majority of the case is. Nobody's truly new to the job, but everyone's going into this mystery unprepared and ill equipped. The characters are all mature, and have beliefs and convictions informed by their lives.

You end up discovering what the story about the artifacts is, what they lead to, why they're being collected. It's a cosmic mystery without much of a definitive answer, but the answer really lies in how it makes you feel. On my main, I won't go into NG+. but going through just one NG+ has left a profound impact on me… and that's not even getting into what happened to me when The Death, occurred.

Few games have made me stop everything to put it all down and cry. Starfield has, and continues to. Fallout can make me sad, The Elder Scrolls can make me think and maybe even be mad, but Starfield can make me cry.

Universe

Elite, NMS, and Star Citizen do all have well thought out universes with factions and characters and gameplay that is informed by it. I won't deny that. It'd be intellectually dishonest to assert otherwise. Elite's is far future and a bit blase to me, Star Citizen's world is… I mean as unfinished as the product, and truth be told I know little about NMS' world. But I do know about Starfield's.

Starfield's world, its universe (and beyond) is a NASA Kid's playground (Hi, that's me! NASA kid! Through and through.) Starfield is for the stargazer. For the kid who wanted to be an astronaut, who wanted to be aboard a space shuttle. Starfield is for that person. It isn't for the person looking for a sci-fi military epic or a huge war, it's about the wonder of space, and the universe informs that. I could go on about the "Set design" of the ships, particularly Nova Galactic's interiors (AUUGGHH SO GOOD), about how the food is all thoughtfully packaged, about how the CHUNKS brand is inspired by existing space foods (technically, it ought to be some kind of hexagonal shape. But a cube of Sauvingon is just… chef's kiss), about how the spacesuits are big, baggy, clunky. About how almost every door is an airlock (even if that IS annoying!). The whole world is built around not just exploring space, but living in it. Which I just… don't get from the other games, who feel Transient by comparison. It's such a shame then, that Starfield's outpost building is quite lackluster.

Gunplay

I can not speak to NMS' gunplay, so I will not. Last I played it, it had about ten weapons or something. Elite: Dangerous' gunplay? Don't even bother, it's hot ass. I'm sorry, but Odyssey's release is seen as the game's lowest point for a reason. Star Citizen's? I've dawdled with it, it's very whatever, fairly standard. Oh, but Starfield…

I love Starfield's gunplay. Oh my goodness. As a shooter, it plays wonderfully. The control you have over your character can be iffy, but actually pointing and shooting feels really good. The best any gunplay in a Bethesda game has ever felt, and given how good Fallout 4's felt, that's actually quite impressive. It's helped quite a bit by how fun and interesting many of the gun designs are (and how bizarre some are. No, there are no square bullets in Starfield, you have been lied to, big surprise.) I will complain that there's definitely a set of guns Bethesda *wants* you to use... but that doesn't mean they aren't all a joy to shoot. Except the Disruptor that thing's feel is just garbage.

Piloting

Every single game on this list has good Space Combat. Elite's is thorough and well thought out, Star Citizen's is fast and arcadey (it is), and No Man's Sky is casually simple, accessible and fun. (It reminds me of Starlink.) and Starfield's is also very simple. It's quite ambitious, though, and it does something that none of the other do. It's not that you can disable ships system by system. It's not that you can enter a VATS-like targeting mode to do so. It's not that you can allocate power ala the old X-Wing games and contemporary sims. It's not that you have full control of your movement in all directions and can even maintain heading while turning. It's that you can do all of that, while near-seamlessly boarding with an enemy craft at any time, once you've taken their engines and shields out. I can't put into words how bonkers that is, dear reader. Because not only can you do all the regular space combat stuff, even if it is SLIGHTLY simplified, but you can use all - all the ground stuff you use, in space, when boarding an enemy ship. You don't enter another map, either. No. Yeah, your ship interior probably deloads, but the battle in space rages on outside. The world outside does not stop existing while you clean out an enemy ship (and if you took out their grav drive, you get to even fight in Zero-G aboard a ship, it's VERY cool!). The world continues. Yes, this is true for Star Citizen. But I'm pretty sure you can't do any of that in No Man's Sky, and Elite is honestly just pathetic this way. No shot has ever been fired aboard a ship in the ten years Elite's been alive, but Starfield's ships are riddled with bulletholes. And you can take them. You can own them. You can do hijacking, piracy, you can scrap the ship for parts, sell it, you can loot the contraband the pirates had - reader, that is not something you can do in any of the other games. Not even Star Citizen, because the mechanics in Starfield work consistently, and it's a finished product. Starfield is not scamming you. I can not emphasize enough how excellent the interplay between ships and the space combat itself is. What's even crazier is you're not glued to your seat. You can just... get up. At any point. No, you can't EVA - that does suck! But you don't really need to at any point, as funny as being a bug on a windshield would be. All of this interacts seamlessly with all those RPG mechanics. It's actually insane to me, and they did this on the engine that powered Morrowind. The one everyone keeps saying that they need to replace. I have no true idea what smoke and mirrors make everything work, but I do know that when my camera's clipped around, there are people walking around in my ship while I am flying in any of those eight degrees I can move in. I'm sure the trick has to do with only one ship having a "Real" interior at a time, but it is actually wild to me that they still got all of that rotating in space realistically within the player's reasonable perception. Starfield also lacks Elite's Engineering and unlike SC, is a finished product so... that puts it into the best here, for me, in this category especially.

Ship Customization

Nobody does it as good as Starfield and I'm going to be blunt. Yeah, you can equip whatever modules you want on the ship frames you buy in Elite, yeah you can tweak the ships in Star Citizen, yeah there are even custom ships you can play with in No Man's Sky now. But every... single part in Starfield, is customizable. Color, rotation, position, no matter what you want you can make it work. It does all get blocky and funnily shaped, but it all works. The habs exist inside and out, the geometry can be walked on, you can fit in the gaps of your ship... You can color your ship, name it, rearrange it any which way you want, you can decorate the interior and it'll stay that way (Gods Forbid you move a window, though, whups.), it's actually insane. The thing is, these ships exist inside and out, fully traversible. Elite cannot do that. NMS only does that with bigger ships. Star Citizen can do that, but it's just not a finished product and what, you buy the ships for actual money? Are you really going to spend ninety dollars for a low-mid grade ship with the paintjob you want? For an unfinished game..? Starfield has none of those problems. Yeah, you have to load into the ship but it's a short load, and the outside world continues to exist. It's a non issue. The customization is out of this world. Now, I will be real. There are issues. You don't have strict control of the doors and ladder placement. That is bad. That must be added. But the customization in this game is genuinely astounding. I can't get enough of it.

Replayability

Starfield has a genuine, narrative driven New Game Plus. It's really cool and it's really good. Anyone who gripes about the fact you lose money and weapons and ships - are sort of missing the point of a NG+ anyway. So long as you like Starfield - any game really - it's very replayable. Are E:D and SC replayable? Well, you can always load them again or start a fresh character, but the persistent universes makes that kind of a doozy. I do know that NMS has a kind of reset once you get to the center of the universe, so if you like NMS, it's very replayable too. But yes. Starfield's replayability is very good. Lots to shoot, lots to loot, lots to do.

Roleplaying Mechanics

Starfield is Bethesda's best Roleplaying game. Elite, NMS and SC, are not Roleplaying Games strictly. You may play a role, but it is not necessarily roleplaying. It's hard to be nonlethal, it's hard to be a talk-first-shoot-later character, but you can flavor your game any number of ways. You can smuggle and trade goods, you can play delivery person, you can play mercenary, bounty hunter, you name it. You can even be a lawman, soldier for hire, any number of things, and there are dialogue options, skills, modifiers, even literal powers, one of which lets you see what the other NPC is GOING to say, to facilitate your style of play. Starfield is a true, honest Roleplaying game. It's one of the most easily accessible space RPGs out there, too. If you want a Space Roleplaying game, it's this one.

Base Building

I will level with you. Starfield has an intricate Base Building system that is honestly needlessly complex but if you really like that kind of thing it's pretty intense. And tedious. Much moreso than Fallout 4's base building and truth be told not nearly as rewarding. It is a step backwards... If only for the reason that you can't build an actual colony. The biggest reason to build an outpost is for infrastructure and manufacturing. To what end? This is one of the moments where I believe the vestigial bones of Starfield comes into play. They wanted fuel to be a mechanic, they wanted outposts to be important, they wanted you to network your way through the settled systems. I am simultaneously glad and sad that these features were left on the cutting room floor, because it would have been really cool, but it also would have been very tedious. There's an entire faction - LIST, they even have a quest that introduces you to them, where their whole thing is about buiding colonies on the fringes of Settled Space... and the game just does nothing with them. It kinda' sucks. I hope they add that stuff someday. I'd like to play a version of Starfield where I do actually need those enormous fuel tanks.

Progression

Every quest has a good end reward. You can level into the actual thousands (though, ~314 is where you're going to have every skill maxed out!), and Starfield is pretty cumulative by nature. So much so, that you can very easily run into long term storage problems. Very few containers have limitless mass (and it's why armor and weapon stands are great, because they can store limitless ammo and a few guns. Great way to reduce mass taken in your cargo hold!). Starfield has an issue with inventory. Everything has weight. Some things are stupidly heavy. It's not the most enjoyable system and will pressure you into building an outpost/depot to store your stuff eventually, but that takes resources and Bethesda saw fit to add the *entire* perodic table into the game as harvestable materials. There are 108 crafting materials in the game, and you can't make guns, armor or clothing and that is honestly bizarre to me. Amazing game with some odd choices. But the character progression really is fantastic. Instead of linear "You do more damage!" perks (it does have those, but it's not all it has), Starfield ends up offering effects, every skill has 4 tiers, and you level those up by completing specific challenges. For instance, to max out stealth to get the most (or anything!) out of your sneak attacks (fun fact, you don't even GET a stealth bar without the stealth skill! Love that.) - you have to get 75 melee sneak attacks. Not kills, fortunately. So you genuinely can't just sit there on your stealth archer stint, you have to learn that melee can do x10 damage if you want that x4 gun sneak attack damage. Roleplaying!!

Character Customization

You've all heard it before. "Fucking Pronouns". Let's cover it. Elite is binary, single body type for each, has a solid face customizer. You basically never see it. Star Citizen has an alright customizer, but you rarely use it. NMS, you are just a helmet. Starfield gives you a huge array of body choices. Wanna' be shredded to shit? Go nuts. Want to be wiry, or really fat? Go crazy. You can get huge. You can customize your gait, you can put on a beard at any time, there's an entire vendor in the game dedicated to letting everybody in the world pay 500 credits (cheap as shit!) to change their ENTIRE body. Good golly holly what a bright future we live in to have such autonomy! Body type, face type, skin color, hair type, voice, pronouns (Those two might be tied together?). He/Him, She/Her, They/Them, you get choices. More than most other games. It doesn't ask you if you're cis or trans, it just asks you what you want to be. Isn't that just... Really nice? That all that matters is who and what you want to be and that can change at any time if you so desire? I love that.

Loading Screens

You. Have. Been. Lied. To. Elite: Dangerous is full of them. Star Citizen is full of them. NMS is full of them. They are all just really good at obscuring it. It just doesn't seem like a loading screen. I know Elite best, so I will talk about it. Leaving your ship? Loading screen. In an elevator? Loading screen. Getting in or out of your SRV? Loading screen. Getting into your ship? Loading screen (with big blue circles, at that!!), jumping to low wake? That is a load. High Wake? That is the biggest loading screen of all. Entering a POI, like a conflict zone? Loading screen. Leaving low orbit? Loading screen. Elite, oft compared to Starfield, literally has more loading screens. In Starfield, you can actually get into your buggy without a loading screen! You can leave it midair, try it, it's really fun! Push comes to shove, you are having loading screen after loading screen thrown at you. In No Man's Sky, when you dock, when you enter orbit, you are loading. It has the least loads of all, but Elite has more. I'm dead serious. Can't speak for Star Citizen, but what's there to load? A broken mission? I flew free for a weekend, and everything I did was broken. Who cares if there's no or low loading screens, if the game won't even load in the first place? No, you can't truly seamlessly fly between worlds, and maybe that does suck. No, you can't seamlessly land, but what difference does it make? You will always land at the POI. Maybe the middle man is important, but Starfield saw fit to cut it out, and perhaps that was the wrong move. But goodness it's honest.

Conclusion

Starfield is it. It is the Space game you wanted. But you have to give it a chance. It's exceptional. Just stop letting yourself be lied to. I have had to tell people the truth of the starfield sandwich so many times, and that lie has damaged the game irrevocably. That's just one example. It's all pendantry, that hurt the game. "Fucking Pronouns" this. "Square bullets" that (lies), "Endless loading screens" ad infinitum (just as many as any other space game. It's just honest.) Play Starfield. There will be parts that frustrate you. There are parts that frustrate me. But Starfield is a comfort game for me. It's a game I love. It's also a game that truly challenges me. It's good. It means so much to me. I have a constellation pin opposite to my pride pins on my leather jacket. I have a Nova Galactic mug that I drink out of regularly. I have a Constellation hat. I'm gonna' get that Constellation wall art piece, and I'm gonna' get my hands on that Chronomark edition someday. (If only I knew, reader.) It's not a 10/10 game for me. It's a strong 8/10. But that missing 2 isn't so bad. To Bethesda Game Studios, thank you for the gift that is Starfield. It'll stay with me forever.

#Starfield #Review #Bethesda #Bethesda Game Studios #KCDodger #KCDodger Talks #KCDodger Reviews #Sci-Fi #Science Fiction #Game Review #Gaming #Video games #RPG #Science Fantasy #Added a “Read More” section so this isn't so huge on your dash!

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zzthekaiju · 2 months ago

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The GREAT MONSTER HUNTER RANKING! PART 1

Of all the video game franchises out there, none have captured my imagination or just in general really hooked me as much as the Monster Hunter series has.

It's funny, really. I remember picking up the first game in 2004 when I was just six, only to not get anywhere because back then I couldn't figure out any game that didn't explicitly tell me what to do/where to go (which might be why I played so many licensed games back then).

Then, more than a decade later, I played Monster Hunter: World. And by that point, I was well beyond needing everything and everyone to hold my hand. Now, I could appreciate this series for what it was: a world where you could fight a massive array of diverse creatures inspired by myth and nature, craft equally varied weapons and armor from parts harvested from each hunt, and in my case, fall in love with an ecosystem of fantastical proportions.

So naturally, Wilds is my most anticipated game of the year. And in celebration, I'm taking a look at almost every monster, and giving my thoughts on their looks and, if applicable, how it feels to fight them (fair warning, I've only played World, Generations Ultimate, and Rise).

So, let's get started with the monsters that debuted in the one that started it all:

The Herbivores:

Here we have all the plant-eating monsters at the thorough bottom of the food chain. Even the smallest meat-eaters stand more than a chance of taking them down. Still, that doesn't make them any less fascinating.

"So beautiful...I'm gonna eat it!"

The Aptonoth is the first monster any player will encounter, and it's a great way to communicate how this fantasy world takes a plethora of cues from prehistory as opposed to just sticking to the typical tropes. It's a very appealing design, being a Parasaurolophus with the tail of an Ankylosaur. It almost makes me wish it were in the fossil record. Definitely an 8/10.

"Here, the monsters dine on turtle soup!"

The Apceros is a desert-brand herbivore, and with the fortification to match. This time, the Ankylosaur features extend to the entirety of the body. It's not quite as creative as Aptonoth, but it's still got that prehistoric charm. 5.5/10.

Really, I'd just like to note how the first two herbivores would be near-unstoppable in the real world. Any person would have all their bones broken by a pissed-off specimen of either species. But that just tells you how brutal the world of MH can be that they're still at the bottom of the pecking order.

"Oh, deer..."

Kelbi are...not all that fascinating. While it's amusing to hear how they may have inspired Unicorn-like myths in this world, there's a certain mono-horned horse that fits that bill way better later on. These guys are just...deer. Though I find it a little weird/amusing that the recent games don't allow you to kill them. Wonder why? 2/10.

"A most plant-based porker"

Now, HERE'S a less dull mammal herbivore right here! The Mosswine carries that prehistoric influence with that rather odd Pachycephalosaur-like dome on its head, as well as the neat symbiosis with moss that gives it its name. Sure, it's just an average-sized pig other than that, but it still has its charm. And yes, I am aware of the giant Mosswine quest. That's just hilarious. 5/10.

"So nice and floofy!"

First of all, Popo is such a cute name. And these are some cute animals, too! They look like little mammoths crossed with musk oxen, complete with big honking tusks. But its those stumpy noses with the hair hiding their eyes that just exudes adorable charm! Out of all the herbivores we've seen in the wild, these are the ones I'd want to hug the most (though they are a bit aggressive). 8/10.

"The reindeer Santa doesn't talk about"

Anteka are a lot like the Kelbi, in that they're fairly standard forest ungulates with a couple fantastical features, in this case being moose-elk. But they have a couple things over their mainland counterparts. For one thing, they fight back, they have an almost comical combo of a mustache and goatee (HA!), and those horns sure look ornate! Among herbivores, bigger is indeed better. 6/10.

"Could have sworn I saw something like this in Scotland"

The Epioth is, by far, one of my favorite Herbivore designs as of this writing. There's just something very eye-catching about it being a plesiosaur with distinctly koi fish-like details, right down to the appealing patterns. It really does feel like the kind of creature I could watch swim in an aquarium for hours and never get tired of how serene it all is. It's a shame they're stuck in the third generation due ot being inseperable from the water combat that dominated those games. Yeah, that's never coming back, not with how janky it was. Sure, I'm open to miracles, but I just don't see it working. At least we have no reason to hurt these beautiful monsters. 9/10.

"There's a brick wall with your name on it!"

On the other side of the spectrum, we have the Rhenoplos, which seems to take all our dated depictions of ceratopsians and roll them into one animal. Not the most interesting design, it's a little too much on the rhino side of things (plus they charge at EVERYONE), though the big ears are a nice flourish to indicate a sense it uses to compensate for terrible sight. 5/10.

"It's not a hippo if it's not obliterating anything it sees and hears."

Slagtoths get a leg-up on the Rhenoplos for merit of originality. Sure, that huge droopy flap of skin is doing most of the heavy lifting, but the hippo-like look and that subtle ceratopsian crest on its head come together to make a stand-out herbivore. Plus, it's heightened aggression is a nice nod to how hippos are the embodiment of zero chill. 6/10.

"The Great Valley is THAT way."

I really want to like the Larinoth, and I do, but something about it frustrates me nowadays. It's a sauropod, but its almost just as much of a pushover as the rest of the herbivores. For me, that just fits the absurd idea that Sauropods were cannon fodder for the neighboring predators, completely ignoring how they were nature's living kaiju during their time. But as monsters isolated from their pitiful spot on the food chain, they're a fun design for a fictional Sauropod. 8/10.

You'll run out of excuses one day, Capcom. Soon, you'll have an Elder Dragon that looks like a Brachiosaurus on steroids.

"Our heads hurt."

The Kestodon are basically souped-up Pachycephalosaurs. Nice headgear, but that's really it. 4/10.

"Keep attacking! ALWAYS KEEP ATTACKING!"

Meanwhile, Gastodon is a much more interesting design than its predecessor. They too look like Pachycephalosaurs, but instead of a bony dome on their heads, they have huge plumes of feathers in the shape of a dome, with small horns on each side of it. In practice, it makes them look almost part-bison. This, combined with their borderline-suicidal tendencies to mob hunters that slightly ticked them off, make them a solid win. 7/10.

"The big monsters got their goat."

Gowngoats are a fun concept. Not only does their fur look like a gown, as per the name, but it also kind of looks like an anteater's hairbrush-like tail. Not at all imposing, but definitely cute. I'd pet one for a fee. 6/10.

Next up, Neopterons, Carapaceans, and Temnocerans!

Index:

Herbivores

Neopterons, Carapaceans, Temnocerans

Bird Wyverns

Flying Wyverns

Piscine Wyverns, Amphibians, Leviathans

Brute Wyverns

Fanged Beasts, Fanged Wyverns

Elder Dragons

#monster hunter #mh #monster hunter world #monster hunter rise #monster hunter wilds #monhun #ramblings

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getvalentined · 1 month ago

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FOR THE ASK GAME! i know you've posted a ton of amazing analysis, but i would love more of your vincent thoughts. If you're tired of writing about him right now, i'd also like to hear your thoughts about Glenn, who i don't know if i've heard you talk about a lot. 🖤

💭 How I feel about this character

I will never get tired of talking about Vincent Valentine. He is my favorite character in the whole of fiction, my blorbo of blorbos, and I consider him the single most personally compelling character ever created. I'm not sure I can quantify how much I love this character.

One issue I do run into with regard to how much I adore the guy is assertions and assumptions that it's because he's hot so I wanna fuck him, which is 1000% not the case. I do appreciate his looks—his Rebirth design in particular makes me slightly feral—but it's not from a place of attraction, per se. I personally have no interest in boning Vincent Valentine! I do think he deserves to do some boning, though.

💞 All the people I ship romantically with this character

I ship Vincent with Veld, Cloud, and Genesis, and often Cloud and Genesis at the same time. Also Reeve. Sometimes Tseng, but that's complicated.

I was the first person on the English-speaking side of fandom to draw VinVeld fanart, way back when Before Crisis was still fairly new, and I have RP'd VinVeld with multiple partners since about 2009. Chapter 19 of BC happened, I got fed a loose translation on LiveJournal, and my brain chemistry was changed—another Turk, still alive, who knew Vincent? And they don't refer to each other with any honorifics at all? And he recognized Vincent immediately when even Lucrecia didn't? Those two were basically married, I'm sure of it.

That said, I actually shipped Strifentine before I shipped VinVeld, and I still ship it really hard. My current slice-of-life slow-burn WIP fic is Strifentine, and in Ye Olde Fandom Dayes it was intended to be a core component of my massive Sefikura Bodysharing AU that temporarily broke FFN's review system, although I never got that far.

I've shipped Vinesis since Crisis Core, because Vincent and Genesis are kindred spirits in a way that is similar to Vincent and Cloud while also being completely different, and I love that for them. Two men-turned-monsters-turned-Weapons, doomed to walk the planet until its death, paying for crimes that were never their fault in the first place. Lovely.

While I've never personally posted much if anything related to Valenstrifesodos, I think the dynamic between the three of them would be amazing. Also, as I described to a friend literally yesterday, it's like this: Genesis is Sephiroth's soulmate by fate, Cloud is his soulmate by force, and Vincent is Sephiroth's only living relative so he inherited both of them when the guy died.

Reeve and Tseng are much less commonly shipped with Vincent for me, mostly because I ship them with each other as endgame 100% of the time. In my head, Vincent was kinda with Reeve for a bit postcanon but it just didn't work, and he's honestly pretty attracted to Tseng but doesn't ever pursue it because Tseng kinda hates him. (Tseng does not hate him, it's complicated and entirely Veld's fault, if Tseng ever gets over it they'd have a really fun dynamic.) Sometimes—assuming he doesn't get back with Veld or enter into a relationship Cloud and/or Genesis—I feel like Vincent would occasionally be a third while Reeve and Tseng are together, but it'd be very rare.

🤝 My non-romantic OTP for this character

Also Genesis (in universes where Valenstrifesodos doesn't happen they're generally platonic for a very long time before anything happens between them), as well as Barret and Reeve, but I think my favorite option here is Shera.

They don't really have any canon interactions to speak of, but I spend a lot of time thinking about Cid talking to Vincent in Dirge, telling him that Shera is worried about him and will want to know if he's been eating enough—so they've had interactions, offscreen, between the OG and Dirge. Enough that Shera fusses over him and worries about his diet and sends messages along with Cid to make sure Vincent is doing all right. That's adorable. That's so sweet. I love that for both of them.

🚫 My unpopular opinion about this character

I feel like I have a lot of these, but it really depends on what one considers "unpopular." I guess the biggest is that he isn't in love with Lucrecia anymore? Even though that's...canon. Like that's canon. That is something explored in Dirge, the conclusion of their shared storyline is that Vincent was never actually in love with Lucrecia at all, because he never really knew her, and now that he does he actually appreciates her more, but is able to move forward and leave her behind. (Which is literally what she wants for him! She wants him to be happy without her! This was her goal and she succeeded! But god forbid women do anything!)

The next one is that he would not enter into a relationship with Cid because even if Cid is his type (which he is!) he's in a dedicated relationship with someone else, and Vincent has already done the song and dance of "fool around with a scientist under Shinra's banner* who has a highly intelligent scientist partner who isn't afraid to go to extremes for their work.**" It has nothing to do with interest or a lack of interest, it's because Vincent literally, canonically got killed and turned into a monster for poaching*** and he's never going to even entertain the idea of that ever again.

* Cid is an engineer in Shinra's Department of Space & Aeronautics

** Shera is also an engineer in the same department and was literally cool getting burned alive if it meant the Shinra No. 5 launch would go off safely

*** Lucrecia and Hojo were canonically married and were already in a relationship at the time that Vincent showed up in Nibelheim

The rest include such hot takes as Chaos' consciousness being gone at the end of Dirge (which is also canon), Vincent being Sephiroth's biological father (which is not canon but fuckit), and him being unabashedly pansexual (any character that expresses romantic or sexual interest at any time in any media is bi or pan until proven otherwise) but not having relationships with cis women or anyone who could ever theoretically conceive—he interacted with Nero, immediately knew what happened there, and is not so irresponsible as to risk making any more monster babies capable of flattening the planet when they have a tantrum. (This is actually super rough for him because it's a big part of his sexuality that he just has to cut off forever out of safety concerns and that's pretty fucked up but there's nothing he can do about it.)

🌟 One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon

It's funny, because prior to Rebirth's release I said the one thing that would make up for Vincent not being playable would be if he turned into something and attacked the party, but obviously the devs wouldn't do that with a character everyone is supposed to trust—and then they did! I wanted to see them do something with the asymmetry established in Dirge, maybe give him a wonky eye or something like I draw him a lot of the time, but the devs would never do something like that—and then they did! I wanted him to be more fleshed out, like it would be nice to know if he ever had hobbies, but the devs would never waste time on that—and then they did! Rebirth Vincent was made especially for me.

All I really want now are more interactions between him and Cloud moving forward into FF7Re3, and I have a decent amount of faith that it'll happen.

[ for the character breakdown ask game ]

#vincent valentine #character breakdown ask game #ask game #vinveld #strifentine #valenstrifesodos #long post #kinda #headcanon warning #fandom ramble

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laylasverse · 4 months ago

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🍉,🍒, & 🍑 for the fruit game!

FRUIT ✶ ASK GAME ( 🍉 🍒 & 🍑 )

౨ৎ will you guys be mad at me if i just use this as another excuse to talk abt jason but this time in my better cr.

🍉 : JUICY WATERMELON . . . what’s your favorite thing about your lover in your dr? the way they smell like home, how they make your chest hurt with laughter, how they take care of you. maybe the way their hair falls in their face just so.

yea, i'm just gonna ramble about jason for a bit . . . sorry. his lashes are dark and longer than mine (im a little mad abt that but yk). his eyes are the perfect shades of dark greens. sometimes its difficult to listen to what he's saying when he's talking about his little books because of the sparkle in his eyes. they're very distracting. he'll give me a look when i make a stupid joke, that he knows he shouldn't laugh at, trying to hold it together before finally giving in and laughing. he laughs so hard and smiles so big that little smile lines show.

he is a big guy (bro's 6'5?), so it's amusing when he sleeps so soundly with my pink blankets with little cats on them. jason takes up most of my full-sized bed and i have to shove him over so i can lay in my bed. he's just a big cat that i drag around with me.

🍒 : BLOODRED CHERRIES . . . what is your biggest fear in your dr? you don’t have to get deep if you don’t wanna—it can be as small and horrifying as a spider or the dark. something that truly rattles you to your bones.

this isn't a deep emotional fear but here ya go. in all my drs, my biggest fear is heights. i hate them so much. yk that feeling in your knees when you go up above ten floors in an elevator? yea that shit makes me feel sick.

🍑 : OVERRIPE PEACH . . . what kind of a future do you imagine for yourself in your dr? white picket fence material, with marriage and a couple kids? perhaps childless but continuing on your adventures til old age, or all of the above?

i know that i'll have a career to brittany broski (w/o the extreme & continuous hypocrisy). i'd love to post creative & entertaining yt videos while also having a talk show to interview interesting people. also a podcast because everyone has one.

but in the other aspect of my life I honestly i don't exactly know what the future will be like in this dr. i would love to figure out more of myself before having others depending on me.

but yk hopefully jay mans up and gives me a ring. i would like to live in an apartment overlooking a city like chicago or seattle (new york scares me) for a bit then settle down on the outskirts in a pretty house with a big backyard & gorgeous greenhouse. and yea i already know what i'd name our kids even through idk if we'll have any yet.

౨ৎ : tysm for the ask franny 😘

#© laylasverse .#��ৎ layla answers .#౨ৎ better cr .#౨ৎ jay .#shiftblr #shifting #shifting blog #reality shifting #shifting realities #jason todd x reader #jason todd #fame dr

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misteria247 · 6 months ago

Text

1981 Journal Entry #2:

I've lost track of how long I've been plagued by the nightmare. All I know is that I get very little sleep, and it's starting to take its toll. I've been trying to research what I can about that Mystery Caller who had started this whole thing. There's very little I've been able to find. I'd gone through countless documents and books and everything that Gravity Falls has to offer. Yet it alludes me, the answer to this nightmarish game. I'm starting to turn to the more docile anomalies to try and find answers. And what I've been getting has been.......unsettling.

For example, the other day when me, Lee and F were on a field expedition. The Leprecorns (which I personally do not like) were talking to F and Lee. Seemingly enjoying their presence and conversation, while I took notes and drew rough sketches in my journal. When one of them approached me. He was an older Leprecorn, with a slightly weathered face and eyes that held the sheen of an older man. He was staring at me, not saying a word, to the point where it made me squirm from it. It felt like he was staring straight through me like the eyes that lurked in the shadows in my nightmare.

After what felt like eons he finally spoke.

"......You've been marked laddie."

I don't think I'd ever felt my stomach drop so fast at a simple sentence, that by all accounts had nothing to do with me. I glanced up to make sure that Lee and F were still distracted before I responded to him in a low tone.

"What do you mean by that? I don't-"

The Leprecorn interrupted me at that moment, his tone firm and damning.

"Ey, I recognize the look son. You haven't been sleeping have ya? It's because yer marked. By something foul, something dark. I've seen it before. Others who've been marked by the beast."

I couldn't breathe, because I knew somehow deep in my very bones that he was talking about that anomaly who had called into the station. The anomaly who had been haunting my dreams.

"The beast....? Who is this creature? What does it want with me?"

I'd inquired, perhaps a bit desperately, wanting to know what I was up against. Instead I was met with a grim, somber expression. Like.....like he was staring at a dead man.

"I don't know much myself lad. No one really knows about the beast. But......we do know that those who are marked do not meet a good end. Just.......be careful boy. He watches."

And then he'd left, seemingly done with the conversation. Leaving me shaken beyond belief. It took everything I had to not show it when F and Lee were finally done with their conversation and we'd packed up to head home. I don't think I was successful though, because my brother stuck to my side for the rest of the evening. As if he sensed that I wasn't okay at all. I don't know what being marked means, nor do I want to. I just want this to end, before someone else is dragged into this eldritch horror.

I'm going to try and get some sleep tonight. I can't let whatever this thing is win. I'd rather die than let him stand victorious over me. I'm going to do research on how to stop the calls as well. One encounter was enough.

Signing off

Stanford Pines

1981 Journal Entry #2 continued time 3AM:

I can't stop shaking.

I can't stop, my hands they're trembling from the nightmare. It was different, after so long with the same thing it changed.

The voices from the shadows they spoke to me. They said my name, surrounded by the static of that anomaly. His tone sounded cheerful but somehow I know that it was a rouse. He wasn't cheerful at all.

He was angry.

Like a lion in a cage, he had his fangs bared towards me. He....he'd said that if I keep digging, if I don't play his game........I was going to regret it.

I don't know what he means by that. But I can take whatever he throws at me, I'm not weak. I can handle any blows he's got for me. And yet.....

Why can I not shake the feeling that something awful is on the horizon?

Signing off

Stanford Pines

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ilsolefiesta · 4 months ago

Text

my Groom Persona Chart observation

spoiler alert: I try my best to remain as critical as possible and avoid falling into the delusional sea, because below you can find a description of my ideal type (obviously, this is not fully true, as there are some significant flaws). *here I'm using Tumblr's astrological justifications and rules for calculating degrees. for entertainment purposes only.

ASC: 18° (Virgo) of Aquarius. ☌ with Uranus (17°) and Juno (18°) in the 12th house. I don't know if there is any chance that I won't be scared during our first meeting. such an amazing, rebellious energy. probably, a thin constitution with a noticeable bone structure (Aquarius has Saturn as its initial ruler). a strange person, with some features that make him stand out among others. maybe changing hair styles too often or having tattoos/piercings. may like to draw attention to himself through his appearance. I'd also add an outstanding, exaggerated style, but 18° is Virgo's one. so, I assume he would wear something casual and plain. glasses (I'm willing to die) are also possible. overall, despite seeming a bit provocative, he may look smart and nerdy (Aquarius and Virgo, along with Gemini, give off these vibes, in my opinion). damn frightening aura for an introvert like me - chaotic, vocal, extroverted, unpredictable. but there is a nuance here...

Sun: 20° (Scorpio) of Scorpio, the 8th house. mercy... pure Scorpio. well, it's in exact ☌ with the cusp of the 9th house. I'm a big fan of Scorpio men, as they are deep thinkers, and it's always interesting to engage in mind games with them. at least I won't be bored in this relationship. here we come to this very nuance. Scorpios are really hard to reach and understand, as they tend to keep everything hidden. having the Sun influencing 9th house, I suppose here we have a person who delves deep into education and the spheres of their interests. probably can be interested in metaphysical or religious topics. here, I come to the assumption that, despite being outwardly, Aquariously prominent and active, this person's emotions, thoughts, and true self are far more hidden than they seem.

Moon: 27° (Gemini) of Taurus, the 3rd house. ☌ with Saturn (28°). my Taurus Moon is in the 9th house. this seems like a gift from heaven - I suppose that, since the way of "feeling" is very similar, communication should be really comfortable. It may be easy to understand each other's emotions. 27°, the 3rd house - double Gemini influence. with my 9th house, we both may feel comfortable learning new things together. very talkative and broadening each other's horizons relationships. Taurus is one of the most stable and calm signs when it comes to emotions. Saturn also adds here to make this Scorpio-Aquarius madness more stabilized. but it also means stubbornness, emotional detachment and lack of attention to other's emotions to some extent (again, hello, Saturn). so this similarity may lead to frequent quarrels due to each other's unwillingness to compromise.

Mercury: 1° (Aries) of Scorpio, the 8th house. mercy x2... let's continue with our mind games. very strategic and analytical, with good intuition, similar to X-ray vision. a hypnotic way of communicating, very persuasive. probably may like to curse, haha. very sarcastic and sharp-witted. however, for my Libra Venus, this suppressive and even manipulative way of thinking may be way too harsh... for now, I consider it an interesting experience, but I'm not sure how I'll feel about it when I have to deal with it directly.

Venus: 29° (Leo) of Sagittarius, the 10th house. exact ☌ with Industria. wow. "different" is the first word that comes to mind. we'll probably differ greatly from each other, as Sagittarius Venus might mean that his appearance isn't conventional in my socio-cultural context (or mine for his). foreigner? Leo degree, 10th house. old, but gold? may have an age gap with me and a profession that's greatly connected to his appearance or beauty in general, and something foreign. also may work among women. unfortunately, ironically, this is also a trait of a possible starboy hiding behind a philosophical idea of finding "the one and only". red flag, red flag... my Libra Venus can deal with that, but my Virgo Mars is like "wtf?". with such a person, you always need to stay interesting, new, and joyful to keep them interested. it's hard.

Mars: 5° (Leo) of Libra, the 7th house. once again, the idea of love at the first sight is somewhat questionable for me. romantic men who are capable of making beautiful gestures are, of course, cool. however, at this point, I can only say that all of these romantic gestures are cool within the framework of considering them as strongly positive. obviously, this is too simple and plain. and considering the possibility that placements may signify not only good personal qualities, I can say that my mr. Groom is a little bit more about feelings than rationality. for me, with Air and Earth dominating my chart, this could lead to a situation where I would want to scold and "teach" him how to live, and he would get sick of it quickly. however, if we are both able to accept these features, I believe it could be a great personal growth opportunity for both of us. in addition, Libra Mars in Libra's house, taking into account the previous placements, matches the description of my ideal partner - "my guy pretty like a girl and he got fight stories to tell" (thx, Frank Ocean). very flirty and sensitive, acting in a way that is typical of most "conventional" women. a rather interesting facade of kinda baby-girl. even if it's not my FS, I still want to at least take a look at this person.

Saturn: 28° (Cancer) of Taurus, the 3rd house. very patient in terms of achieving their goals, but with a little lack of flexibility. these people usually learn one way of doing things and then stick to it throughout their lives. however, they are extremely hardworking, especially when it comes to earning money. they may have had some childhood issues related to responsibility and discipline. in terms of ☌ with the Moon, btw, may have had a strict or emotionally distant mother.

Jupiter: 8° (Scorpio) of Gemini, the 3rd house. bingo! there is a stellium in the 3rd house. I may assume that this person has more than one sibling. two "yin" planets, versus one "yang" - probably sisters. despite the fact that school life was challenging due to discipline and hierarchical issues, they may study well and have a natural talent for foreign languages. also, may be popular at school, being a "voice" for the whole class, etc. probably has a wide range of interests as he's tend to loose interest quickly.

Uranus, Neptune: 17° and 4° of Aquarius (like mine in Natal Chart), the 12th house. I don't pay much attention to these planets in the GPC context, as they tend to stay in the same position for a long time. Uranus in ☌ with Juno. another possible sign of a cheater... active 12th house may, of course, indicate a good imagination and creative potential, but it can also be a sign of addictions and secrecy. if we consider it from the perspective of synastry, these placements relate to my 5th house, so he may activate my creativity. however, my DSC is in Pisces, and I hope that this doesn't mean that at some point I'll start to write songs like Halsey's "Without Me" about being in love with someone with addictions.

Pluto: 11° (like mine, Aquarius) of Sagittarius, the 10th house. exact ☌ with MC. well, the same goes for Uranus and Neptune. they barely change their signs and degrees. I can assume that career is a very challenging area for him - the place where he always goes through transformation. Sagittarius? perhaps career necessity forced him to change his place of residence, learn a new language, or adapt to a new culture.

another "I don't pay much attention" moment - Groom ☌ Fama in the 10th house in Sagittarius. interprete it as you wish. I'll just joke that he'll be famous af.

fun fact: in GPC Briede is in the 2nd house, in 18° (Virgo) of Aries. my Sun is in the 1st house in 25° (Aries) of Virgo. and my 2nd house is active. so, based of my Natal Groom's placement, I guess my FS should be Scorpio with Gemini traits/active 3rd house.

well, I don't know where to find him, but I hope to succeed.

thanks for reading!

Picture credits: Pinterest

#astrology #astro community #astrology thoughts #astrology placements #astro observations #astro notes #astrology tumblr #groom persona chart #gpc #persona chart

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dont-offend-the-bees · 4 months ago

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Hi, it's Quill! For the fic writer asks, can you please answer 40, 56 and 65? 😘❤️

HELLO MY FRIEND THANK YOU 💛💛💛

40. If someone were to make fanart of your work, what fic or scene would you hope to see?

Ooooooh, now THAT'S a toughie. And and all art of my fic would be recived with literal tears of joy, but let's narrow it down lmao. Discounting my horny ass just wanting aaaallll the art of my smutty side account fic (and tbh more horny art of the Cat King in general), I think it would be lovely to see art of Lonely Bones, considering how much time and feeling has gone into it and considering I think you could have a lot of fun with moody compositions. Somewhere Beyond the Sea is only on it's first chapter but especially from chapter two onwards it's gonna have so many fun and whimsical things/characters to draw! I'd also be an absolute GLUTTON for more of mine and L and H's 1920s poly boys as seen in Keep Me Warm, Love Me Long, Be My Sunlight, but that's a bit more niche!

If I had to pick one singular scene, I think I'd melt like butter if someone drew Charles in subspace getting therapeutically, nonsexually dommed by Edwin with silly cat's cradle games in ’Cause You Cut Through All the Noise. I'm so fond of that fic you have no idea.

56. What’s something about your writing that you pride yourself on?

Character voices!! I need to rewatch DBDA again soon to refresh my memory lest I drift into made-up voices but generally speaking I think my dialogue characterisation is pretty fun and believable!

65. Tell us about what you’re most looking forward to writing – in your current project, or a future project

I am looking forward to each and every aspect of the 1920s AU I'm working on with @dear-monday and @tw0-ravens, but especially the Thomas dialogue/arc/letters. I'm also huuuugely looking forward to writing my Edge Chronicles AU, but mostly for the world, vibes and character backstories especially pertaining to Edwin -- I'm currently struggling a bit with finding the actual plot, though! I'm also SO excited for the rest of Somewhere Beyond the Sea, there's going to be so much fun and whimsy and fantasy and sweetness, I'm really excited for the bits I've added as well as the bits I'm adapting from the source material!

Get to know your fic writer!

(And because you asked me to talk about WIPs, here we go, a very short, rough snippet of the Edge Chronicles AU from my notes app -- flashback to Charles and Edwin's first meeting!)

It was freezing cold in the prowlgrin roost. Maybe not up in the nests and the roosting poles, where the big old beasts dozed by the light of the burning braziers, the lucky sods. But down in the straw and the muck the winter chill was biting, creeping through every crack in the ancient slats. Charles was huddling down pathetically, dragging the ratty old prowlgrin tarp tighter round his shoulders, when he heard a creak. Louder than the wind through the slats, slower. The door. He froze, holding his breath. The air had... changed. It was crackling with something, making Charles' hair stand on end. And then, footsteps. Charles shrank back, tried to make himself small. But the shape that stepped into the roost wasn't any boy that he knew — anyone who might be looking to finish what they'd started. It was... strange. It was like looking at those old barkscroll woodcuts from way back; those odd, early academic knights with the leather armour, all tooled and riveted. Like something out of a fairytale. It looked at him, right at him, and pulled off its leather helmet and underneath was just… a boy. Not like any boy he'd seen, though. Pale, worryingly so, and gaunt, eyes the most piercing blue he'd ever seen; unearthly, iridescent. Like open, uncharted sky. "I was looking for the library," said the boy, softly, hoarsely, like he hadn't used his voice in a good long while. "It used to be here, did it not?" Charles frowned, for a moment too confused to be scared. Of all the things to be looking for! "Not anymore, mate. Moved it 'cuz of the rot, didn't they? That was what, thirty years back or summit." "Thirty years..." he hummed like a rumbling storm. "Right. If you might point me in the right direction — I have some very important reading to do.” Charles was starting to think the dunk in the lake had frozen his brain. "It's three in the morning,” he said, baffled. The boy knelt before him, and raised his hand. Charles watched, horrorstruck, as his long, slender fingers lost their shape and stretched, vaporous, into elongated strands of crystalline cirrus. "It is rather pressing," said the boy, deadpan.

And some of my tests of the art style so far 😊 this AU's gonna take me a WHILE with the illustrations as well as the writing lmao

#dead boy detectives #mr. bees speaks #ask game #my have to do the rest later after i'm done taking my dad to birthday lunch jfdkbgdafs #and i will also send some asks while i'm about it!#thank youuuu 💛💛💛#my fanfic #my art

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youraveragedirtclod · 1 month ago

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Small fic for @buggie-eyed for the prompt:

Lava realizing they really really really miss each other after the merge, maybe an abnormal amount

Length: ~750 words

Tags: Angst, Hurt no comfort

Note:

Uhm.... sorry??? This kinda is just sad.... Also only Kai's POV.... cuz I want this to be vaguely inconclusive about if Cole is still kicking.... so ig you could say its an AU/Canon divergent.... anyways.....

Every day, my heart aches. Nya's noticed it, I can tell by the sad eyes she shoots me across the dinner table, and the way she holds my shoulder with a sympathetic smile. I have to remind myself he's her friend too, but in the moment all I feel is anger.

How could she possibly understand what I'm feeling? What I'm going through? I want to yell at her, scream, shove her hand away and wipe that look off her face. I don't need her pity.

But he was her friend too. Is her friend.

He's not gone. He can't be.

Wyldfyre hasn't noticed, I don't think, which is good. I need to be strong for her, so she can grow into the great ninja I know she can be. I try not to talk about him with her. She's not that unaware. I know she'd see through me.

Nights are quiet in the monastery. We've lost so many. Jay's not screaming at whatever dumb game he's playing. Zane and Pixal aren't up late debating serious philosophical questions or computational problems. And he isn't bothering me.

He's not here to flop on my bed and complain about his dad. He's not here to wrap an arm around my shoulder and drag me to a restaurant I've never heard of that I need to go to. He's not here to show me an old movie he found at the thrift, or a new band he discovered in town. He's not here, and I miss him.

Nya sits down on my bed. I don't hear what she says, but she's staring at me, expecting a response.

"Kai?" She's probably repeating herself now.

"Hm?" I say, not lifting my head.

"Are you okay?" Her eyes have that pitying look I'm so used to by now. I'm silent for a moment.

"I just miss him."

"Cole?"

I flinch at his name. I don't remember the last time I dared say it out loud. It feels like every time someone says his name they say it like a distant memory. They say it like he's gone.

"I don't want to talk about it," I roll over, away from Nya. She sighs.

"I need you, Kai. Jay's gone too, you know."

"I know," I glance back at Nya. She's looking down at her lap, where her hands lay shaking. Tears well up in her eyes.

"You're my brother. I rely on you, and I want you to rely on me too. You've felt so distant, lately, and I need you back."

I sit up, wrapping my arms around her trembling shoulders. I'm crying too, and I hate it. I'm a messy cryer, there's snot dripping from my nose and my tears soak through Nya's shirt quickly. I'm hyperventilating and hiccuping and choking on my own spit. There's not one part of me that doesn't want to disappear into the ground forever. At least I'd be closer to him that way.

It might've been hours by the time we pull apart, but Nya's face and mine are both shiny with tears, our eyes red and puffy. She smiles, it doesn't reach her eyes but it comforts me enough for me to smile back.

"I loved him," I say without thinking. Because, truthfully, it didn't require much thinking at all. The second it's out of my mouth it feels like the most obvious statement in the world, like the sky being blue or the ocean being deep. "I love him," I correct myself. "And I never told him."

Nya hugs me again. Harder, this time. It's bone-crushing and I can't breathe but maybe that's because I'm crying all over again. Maybe I never stopped crying. Maybe I never will. Maybe the rest of my life without him will be crying, briefly interrupted by silent lulls of melancholic sleep. Maybe I'll never know peace again. Maybe I'll never know happiness. Maybe it's over. Maybe I'm broken for good. Maybe I'm incomplete without him.

"It's okay," Nya repeats into my shoulder. "It's okay."

But it's not and it never will be, not unless he comes back. Even if only for a moment I could see him again, feel his arms around me, run my hands through his hair or eat a meal beside him, I'd maybe be able to move on with my life.

But I can't. I won't.

Because I love Cole, and now he's gone.

#ninjago #dragons rising #ninjago dragons rising #ninjago cole #lavashipping #ninjago kai

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the-shifting-long · 27 days ago

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Can you talk about the Fury? What made you like her so much? (She's also my favourite, but I'd like to hear your opinion of her!)

Ohhhh, this is a fun but difficult one-there's just so much to get into that it's hard to know where to start, lol.

It's embarrassing to admit, even though I know there's tons of people who feel the same, but I'm the kind of person who gets romantically attracted to fictional characters, and it was literally love at first sight.

The build-up was already fucking insane-the meat, the music, the squelch of your footsteps, the buzzing of flies in the background, the knowledge that you deeply, truly fucked up to be here instead of anywhere else. Going from having an intense, fun, kind of sexy time with Adversary to this-like. It was a Lot. it was so much. and me, personally, have always been a sucker for Meat Levels in video games, being literally inside the body of some kind of ancient or godly creature, so this scratched that itch in StP for sure.

The temple just...invokes so much of what you need to know about her. Something once beloved and beautiful that has been overtaken, desecrated. The Narrator already helps describe and set the tone beautifully, but his description of her temple, the altar the blade's on...

"The interior of the cabin is a place that feels long forgotten. There was once an elegance to its construction, carved marble columns holding a high-arched roof, vaulted windows letting in the weak starlight. But that is how it was. Now, there is a growth that has overtaken it. A viscous fluid seeps from cracks in the stone walls, and it congeals into chaotic streaks of writhing nerves and wet clumps of living meat."

it says. SO MUCH. about who she is, what she's feeling-before you even meet her!

And oh GOD, the moment you go downstairs and see her. Her design is one of the best in the game by far. Everything about it drips in symbolism. It's elegant, it's badass, it's beautiful, and similarly to the cabin, communicates so much about who she is and how she's feeling. Her muscles are literally weeping. Her eyes are hollow and plucked. Her heart is completely exposed, vulnerable. Her ribcage is backwards and jutting out, framing rather than protecting it. There's a level of sexiness there, too, right-like. She's nakey 😳and her bone heels?

The heavy heartbeat-HER heartbeat. Her powerful voice. The way she breaks free is so unique-it reminds me of a Steven King novel, about a girl whose partner died in the middle of BDSM sex...so she was trapped to the bed with handcuffs and slowly dehydrating. She got out the same way Fury does-degloving herself. It's instantly memorable and intense, especially the visual and audio design. This is someone who is in so much pain but is so desperate to get her hands on you she doesn't even process it.

Isn't that kind of hot???

Okay, I'm joking about how sexy she is, because I do genuinely find her sexy, but like. Jokes aside. Personal attraction aside. Even pre-pristine cut, I felt like her chapter was genuinely one of the strongest in the game, and I'm not joking. We barely meet this woman, but the context of everything leading up to her + the sheer intensity and inevitably of what happened was just. So Much. it said so much.

I loved her immediately, during that first meeting with pre-pristine Advy-Fury. I grew to love her even more as I explored what her route had to offer, the short but fascinating glimpses of dialogue, especially with Tower-Fury. I always felt like I understood what Advy-Fury was getting at even as the rest of the fandom was going "??? what." and that was validated by the Pristine Cut's expansion of her route. There's so much visual symbolism regarding her cabin literally being hell itself and her name reminds me of that little phrase "hell hath no fury like a woman scorned" (that theory also ended up being validated by pristine cut calling her "an angel/demon scorned.")

Fury has always been someone who is DEEP in the depths of identity crisis. Who had all this confidence and strength and conviction, but who has had the reason for all of that ripped from her. She's forced to rebuild an identity from the ground-up, and without any concrete sense of self, has to fall back on the one thing she DOES have consistently-a body. Her body. But even her body isn't stable, is prone to changing on her. It's such a raw and real and intense thing for someone to feel, to be at rock bottom when they've spent most of their life feeling wonderful and not considering that this could even happen, it's so far out of the realm of possibility.

It's why her ending poem is the way it is-what is a person? Is it a body? Is it all of their body?

And this has different subtext for Advy and Tower-for Adversary, who has always lived in the realm of the physical, she's realizing there's a lot more to that and is having trouble coping with it. For Tower, she's forced down into the realm of the physical after believing herself the pinnacle of the spiritual. It's humiliating and harrowing for both of them.

How many people have struggled to have a concrete sense of self, and whose own bodies have seemingly betrayed them? When people suddenly become disabled, or even gradually so, they often don't think this is something that Could happen to them. They lose the ability to do so many things. They lose the things they thought made them them. Even outside of the context of disability, an identity crisis on Fury's level, communicated through metaphor...that's so. So very real.

I can't relate to people who say things like "HEA is sad because it's a Real chapter and Real things happen in them" because like. Every StP route communicates SOMETHING that happens in real life, and that real people experience. It's just through the lens of the fantastical. Fury especially is deeply relatable to me, her obsession with the body, her desperation for something, anything, leading to her to lash out.

I also feel like she's...maybe the most transgender princess? lol. Like. She's been stripped naked and decides to force her body into a feminine shape on purpose. The skin-dress, the heels. She's taken femininity and seized it by the throat, made her body into a feminine design, and that's deeply transfemme to me.

So on top of the Purposeful layer of identity crisis + obsession with the body, we've got layers of subtext re: dysphoria, dysmorphia, disability, and sexual assault. <- that last one might seem out of left field, but for Tower-Fury ESPECIALLY, the way she describes herself being "defiled" is reminiscent of that, to me. And, of course, that fact that she has again been literally and physically stripped bare. Like. Again. I describe her as beautiful and sexy because that's how I find her, but ultimately none of that really matters as to why I love her-there's so many layers of tragedy there.

AND THIS IS ALL BEFORE WE EVEN GET INTO THE PRISTINE CUT CONTENT

when i tell you i was SO fucking excited for the pristine cut. to have more dialogue from her so my shitty fanfiction wasn't struggling to come up with a consistent and in-character characterization based on what little time we spent with her. excited JUST for her chapter, willing to pay money JUST for her, because god i loved her so much and wanted to see more. I both felt like it was unnecessary, that her route communicated what it needed to as is, and of COURSE you took things too far and of COURSE an already-powerful chapter 2 princess would just fucking kill you for what you've done, and was. SO FUCKING EXCITED. every teaser for her had me insanely hype, especially since some of them seemed like end-of-chapter content but clearly COULDN'T be.

and i'm EXTREMELY happy with what we got! i love the differences between Tower and Adversary Fury, they're subtle but so meaningful. I love how complex her route is. i love how much further it takes the messaging of having a Body as something inherently horrific in and of itself. i love how much further she tears us apart. i love how weirdly intimate it all is. my biggest concern was "okay, i do want to romance Fury, I want to cradle her beating heart and kiss it, I want to show her she can still be loved" but i was worried it'd defang her route and be extremely out of character for her.

by having Tower-Fury be unable to be romanced/form a positive bond with because she's been pushed too far (and remember, this is the version of Fury that specifically uses the language of sexual assault, though I think the subtext is there in all versions of her.) some versions of Adversary-Fury be effectively unromancable (though the merging is a kind of romance, imo.) and some versions that require you to endure the very worst she has to offer and extend empathy anyways...that was PERFECT.

and i especially loved her being just. broken. at the end of it all. Without purpose. Because she came into existence by losing her purpose to begin with. Her eyes when you go to extend your hand just...they get me. They get me so bad. She's so messy and so human in that moment.

I love the Fury. And she genuinely doesn't believe she's beautiful anymore, that she can't be loved the way she is. And again, that's such a human, raw, relatable feeling. I always, always wanted to prove her wrong, that she can still be loved. I think it's a beautiful message to show that no matter how horrible things get, how horrible you believe you are, how bad your rock bottom is...you can be loved. You just have to be open to it, and open to letting the pain end.

i'm lowkey crying typing that lol

so. uh. yeah. i'm normal about her. I fully admit that I do look at her through rose-tinted glasses and occasionally...what's the word. Woobify? Does using that term date me ;-; Anyways. Idk how in-character the thought of her enjoying being fed pieces of chocolate cheesecake or a nice evening under the stars is. She is brutal as hell, after all. But I do think that, by the time you leave with her, she does want to move on from the violence, to experience new and different things for the first time in a long, long time. And the thought of showing her such simple and small acts of love, every day, just... ;-; ;-; ;-;

I care she so much...........

#shlong talks #god she makes me emotional #also she does activate the monsterfucking brain #she's so much bigger than the player character o///o and PatD proves he's a pretty big fucker

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neigepomme · 2 months ago

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let me ask you a question dear pomme… zaynecaleb but its a little bit romantic yes or no.

perhaps they were practicing kissing for mc🤔🤔perhaps it was a mistake by tripping🤔🤔 perhaps they were both drunk and kissed and both vowed not to talk about it🤔🤔

i, for one, am kinda into it since i am both a caleb girlie and a zayne girlie🤷‍♀️ i mean lets b fr ALL friendships have a bit of homo in them… but i wonder whays there homo🤔 especially their middle school and highschool phase HMMMM

especially since all of these zaynecaleb fanfics thay i have been seeing on my drafts🤔🤔 mayhaps their bromance is a little too mance instead of bro(ohhh i ate that)

giys am i looking too into this OR OR did they accidentally kiss mc🤔🤔 OR DID THEY ALL KISS EACH OTHED🤔🤔 okay im going too far haha!! on MY cellular device is crazy like hahahaha gets these homos out of here am i right 😹😹😹

— 🍓

KYAAAA KYAAAAAA YOU GET ME STRAWBS ANON YOU GET MEEEEEE!!!

like. Ok confession but pomme is a pseudonym i write under because i can speak french and i think it's cuter as a name than apple. but also. neigepomme is deadass snowapple ive been on top of this shipping stuff!! zaynecaleb REPRESENT

omfg i also need to find it but im like 200% sure i read a fic along these lines and it positively RUINED MY LIFEEEEEE like omfg . That's IT! im FUJOSHING OUTTTTTTT KYAAAAAAAA

also to answer your question. yes. yes they did. i can feel it in the apple stem on my head. the energy is resonating just right. those two made out together. i can FEEL it. this is my personal instance of boys will be boys because i truly truly TRULY believe that even tho there's some rivalry over mc, zaynecaleb care for one another. i feel it in my bones. this is like the spirit of seragaki aoba taking over me

im also a big fan of caleb bisexual agenda, and i WILL push it (bi pride REPRESENT). like me personally, if i was caleb, i'd be tweaking the hell out. imagine 1. looking that sexy 2. your two closest male friends being sexy too. i'd have to get in on that!! sorry!!! like omfg zayne AND gideon?#?@?#?@? caleb would be crazy to not at least kiss them once. or twice. or more maybe!! no shame in his game 🐕🐕🐕 WOOF

i think they're like lowkey sasunaru coded. falling to my knees. i love zaynecaleb.

also your last point made me laugh imagine mc kisses either of them and they're like. Good practiced kissers. and mc is like "girl theres no fucking way youre just built good" and they have to out the fact that mc is not their first kiss (crowd boos) but instead. their unsuspecting homie is (crowd cheers).

i think if i was more comfortable writing mlm id be on top of that shit bro like they're sooo. my sillies. my scrunklies. LIFE GOOD WHEN YOU'RE BISEXUAL!!! my personal headcanon is that mc decides that simone is her 6th LI and zaynecaleb are like "daaamn. might as well start dating each other, huh?"

#⋆ pomme replies #rubs my hands together like an evil fly #one of them is reenacting k.will's “please don't” mv if you know what i mean #also they'd be a crazy visual couple lowkey id be mad #like omfg greedy as hell leave some genes for the rest of the planet damn!

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derekscorner · 7 months ago

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Fated Rantings: I am the bone of my sword!...but it's Studio Deen!

I just finished the Studio Deen Ver.

And I won't lie, I liked it. I liked it quite a bit actually. Most of that fondness boiled down to animation. Even though this movie was made in 2014 it retained the style of Studio Deen's earlier 2006 adaption.

In other words, it was that early 2000's animation I love but with a movie budget! This dosn't make it automatically better what Ufotable did of course but it is something I enjoy more on a personal level.

I know animation is a hell of it's own kind but I can't help but like that older hand drawn (or mostly drawn) style more. I feel more engrossed in it in a way that extends beyond nostalgia.

It is something that I can't fully explain as to why.

I personally find it gorgeous

I truly wish there were more gifs that I could add to this post. Hell, I wish I had a way to just copy & paste what I watched into this post to show what I mean.

There was so many little animation things I noticed that I loved. Such as Rider's movements as odd as some were, the battle between Shirou and Archer, or the over exaggerated bits from expressive characters like Rin or Taiga.

I think my favorite was the fight between Saber and Berserker. It wasn't as amazing as the fight from Heaven's Feel but I found myself enjoying it for its own merits.

Part between I like this older animation style and partly because it shows how strong Saber actually is.

Of course, a part of that is due to Saber's servant body and I know it's a joke in the visual novel that she's weak as befitting her frame when not using mana to reinforce her body.

But that shows just how monstrous her mana core is. In life she was seen as a goddess of war on the battlefield. She became the legend of King Arthur thanks to that mana core and the raw power it applied to her body.

In conjunction with her earnest work and training to be a knight of course. All the power in the world is useless without temperament.

My point here is that I appreciated seeing her be effective against Berserker without the Saber Alter enhancement. It's great to watch in it's own way but I like this too.

Granted, even with my hyping of Saber's power, this is still Heracles we're talking about. If you rely on brute force alone even Saber's normal (fully healthy) form will struggle after a while.

A funny thing I noticed was that one of the most popular Saber gifs actually come from this movie. Specifically the shot of her disappearing.

But I must digress. I'd love to showcase more of what I mean but I'm finding difficulty with gif hunting for this specific movie. Not a surprise tbh but a let down.

Even if the style of animation is something I specifically love I at least wanted to show it more. I'd hate to ask any reader, the few I get, to search them on YT.

But oh well, ONTO STORY-

Or lack thereof

Just like with the Heaven's Feel movies I expected them to skim over things. It's disappointing yes but it's a given. I've stated it many times but the original 'Fate/Stay Night' is a visual novel.

A book in the form of a video game with a multitude of narrative pathways, several endings, varying scenarios, and a large cast. It is impossible to truly adapt that to an animated form if I'm being frank. Especially since every route is a timeline that does happen in the broader Fate universe.

This is why most Fate anime adapt the story as best they can. Deen's take on Fate in 2006 did this by trying to adapt several aspects of multiple routes. It wasn't the best approach but I could fully enjoy it due to having lore context prior.

The same can be said of this movie. I have seen the UBW anime since then, the Heaven's Feel movies, I know the parts it's skimming so while disappointing it's not deal breaking for me.

If you're new to Fate however or if you're unaware of 'Unlimited Blade Works' as a story route you will have lesser impressions. Although, if you've read the Fate Stay Night remaster made for Steam & Switch you may enjoy this movie even more than I.

There is no better place to start nor any better place to gain context than that remaster.

Something of Note

While there was little in the narrative that caught my attention there was some things. Mostly it was just me noticing small differences. Some funny and others appreciated. I was very happy they combined the Rule Breaker scene of the 06 anime and the UBW story route.

The whole Taiga exchange earnestly irks me so I like that this movie fast tracked it. That said, there is one thing that did catch my eye. It was during the Shirou vs Archer scenes to which Shirou says that he'll;

"I don't care if someone manages to beat me but I will not lose to myself!"

And that- well that is beautiful to me. I mean, don't get me wrong, I do think Shirou is a fool and I've stated as much in my UBW post. (link)

But just because I find him a fool does not mean I find him badly written nor this battle without weight. My biggest reason for thinking him the fool is that he's undermining his own dream due to how little he values his own life.

You can't save anyone if you don't at least prioritize yourself to a degree.

But I agree with what Rin says in both adaptions of UBW. I do think the world needs more of a fool like that. Shirou's heavily flawed but that's good writing imo.

I admit that I like his growth in Saber's route or Heaven's Feel more because he grows beyond that flawed part to be a specific person's hero. Those versions of him somewhat escape the trappings of Kiritsugu's shattered ideals.

But this, this line here is also good. One's greatest enemy is themselves and Archer embodies that. Even his desire to kill Shirou is a flawed plan because heroic spirits exist in the Throne and the throne exists outside of time.

By virtue of the very paradox that lets him and Shirou exist in the same era he's still going to exist even if this Shirou dies. The Fate world is full of timelines that either die for reasons or persist and Archer comes from a timeline that's already spun it's story.

Killing a part Shirou won't free him, it'll only create an alternate history that may or may not end up "pruned" by the cosmic powers that be.

I could make a joke about how Shirou did technically lose to himself but that'd be nitpicking a joke. No.

Shirou is right here. Not in the sense that justice always wins or that his way of living is okay but because he refuses to let what he stands for to lose to his own weakness.

And yes, the UBW anime also has this message but it comes off as them arguing in circles to me. Heck, I still do not think Archer is fully wrong either as he speaks from experience.

The nuance that I seemingly missed with the UBW anime (I reread it as I typed this) is that core message. Shirou hates that Archer gave up.

I still think they're arguing in circles but not in a bad way. It's meant to show the cycle they are trapped in and the hypocrisy of the dream they have. The flaws in the way of life.

But losing for reasons beyond your control and losing because you gave into that lesser side of you is two different things. You should always strive to be better than your yesterday.

And the fact that Shirou gets that happy afterlife with Saber in the later versions of the novel shows it imo. He still lived that tragic life but unlike Archer, Shirou found a hope and respite at the end of it.

Conclusions

Tbh this was smaller than my usual Fate post and has fewer meaningful words. This is because the UBW anime put three posts worth of ranting in my brain.

For me, the best part of this movie was the aesthetic, that animation or even the small things it skimmed that I didn't like otherwise. (such as the Taiga hostage swap)

Heck, I even liked the battle between Archer and Shirou more in this one. It's not as grand as the other UBW but I like that personal fight more because it's a very internal and external struggle. I even like that Shirou managed to physically adapt and best Archer even though that should be impossible.

But most of all I just enjoy that it was a fun return to that 2006 style of Fate that I liked more than I thought I would.

I'm sleepy now, bye~

===========================

For my other experiences with Fate go here: https://derekscorner.tumblr.com/tagged/fated-rantings

#fated rantings #fate stay night #fate unlimited blade works #fate series #fate saber #rin tohsaka #heroic spirit emiya #shirou emiya

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genuineformality · 1 month ago

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Fic Writer Asks

I was tagged by @marycontraire who is sneakily trying to get me to think about writing again. The worst part is that it's working.

1. How many works on AO3? 20

2. Total AO3 Word Count? 65,473

3. Top 5 fics by Kudos: The Lies We Tell Ourselves, A Hundred Theories, The Cleaning Lady, The Fever Called Living, Business Plan - all Six of Crows.

4. What fandoms do you write for? Arcane: League of Legends; Deus Ex (Video Game); Marvel (WinterWidow is my jam, so more comics than MCU, but also not NOT MCU); Mass Effect (Video Game); and Six of Crows, but I'm a fandom weirdo who will hyper fixate briefly in one spot, go for a long time without a fandom interest, then move on to something else.

5. Do you respond to comments? Inconsistently. I feel like I should be better at this, but I often get really in my head about posting something, then someone actually reading it and liking it enough to say something, and then I get self conscious, and then it disappears from my ADHD brain as if it never occurred, and then it's six months later. I love receiving them, I'm just a horrible goblin.

6. Angstiest Ending? I'm not much of an angst writer, but I will end things on... not cliff hangers, but a place where the ending is vague and the conclusion is probably not great if you take things to their logical end point. There's a word for this that I'm blanking on.

7. Fic with the Happiest Ending? No one in my fics is exactly having a great time. But I really like the ending of Eight Nights, my Chanukah Arcane fic.

8. Do you get hate? I'm not internet famous in this sphere to get hate about fandom stuff on any sort of regular basis. But having spent time in the hater trenches, I'm now extremely quick with block buttons and just deleting shit I don't want to see. Sometimes I'll even prophylactically block someone who has an opinion I find so ludicrous and their general vibe is so toxic that I figure I'm doing both of us a favor by taking them out of the picture.

9. Do you write smut? I'm very bad at smut, so I mostly leave it to people who are better at it than I am. I like writing emotional intimacy and love putting characters into situations where they're forced to lay bare things about themselves that they wouldn't show in the context of sex; as much as we talk about intimacy in the context of sex, I find that sex is often not emotionally intimate even as it's physically intimate.

10. Do you write crossovers? They're not really my jam, so I don't write them and I rarely read them. So much of my interest in any property is in the world building of that world and how characters interact with it, I'm not particularly interested in putting a different blorbo into that world.

11. Ever had a fic stolen? Not to my knowledge!

12. Have you ever had a fic translated? I have not

13. Have you ever co-written a fic? Nope! I'm open to the idea in principle, but I've been flaky in my current fandom forays, so I'd be hesitant to agree to co-write with someone if I didn't think I'd have the bandwidth to finish it out.

14. All time favourite ship? I'm not sure I have an all time favorite, although Bucky Barnes and Natasha Romanov will have a cozy spot in my head for all time. Super soldier and super spy coming in from the cold warms me to my bones.

15. WIPs you want to finish but doubt you ever will? I mean, hope springs eternal. If I want to finish it, there's still hope. I have things I'll never touch again, but that has more to do with souring on the fandom or the property.

16. Writing strengths? Dialogue and world building. I'm good at finding characters' voices and I love finding the edges of a world and asking (and answering!) how does this part of the world work if we make assumptions based on the text, especially if the writer clearly did not think that through to its logical conclusion. If I have written in a fantasy or science fiction setting, I can guarantee you that I have thought about how they get food and water, even if it's not stated in the text or relevant to the fic. I know.

17. Writing Weaknesses? Plot. Finishing what I start. Middles. I'm good at beginnings and endings. Those pesky in between bits are the worst.

18. Thoughts on mixed language dialogue? It's not my favorite and I don't tend to do it unless it's specific and relevant to the story or it's a character trait that has been established in the canon, at which point I'm selective. I have a lot of language peeves, and this is one of them.

19. First fandom you wrote for? I've been writing stories about characters since I was, like, six. But the first one I wrote for and shared with anyone was on a BBS/forum when I was a teenager for Nightcrawler (the Marvel character). Speaking of characters for which I will always have a soft spot.

20. Favourite fic you’ve ever written? I'm really fond of Eight Nights. It's cozy and sweet and very personal. It's a bit of melancholy and joy in a hard place. I like the character work I did with it.

Some no pressure tags: @tlonista, @elle-rosewater, @taralkariel, @feelinglikecleopatra; @carolinawrenn

#ask meme #about the author

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