#i don't actually have a lore for her since she is me but cooler

[alliemonade]

Second try is the charm.

[triglycercule]

guys i havent written since may (for killer's birthday) but stupid silly swapinverse has been on my mind for a little bit and i threw together this silly (he has a panic attack and throws up) little short draft 4 swapinverse horror!!

-

“hah… ah… oh god… no, no, nonono…”

he ran. sprinted through the forest like a frightened deer, his demeanor that of prey, although his previous actions aligned more of a predator. panting and shaking, his mind cycled through countless variations of how to react to what just happened, what he just did.

how should he react? how could he react? it was impossible to tell for him in the panicked state. and as the trees in snowdin slowly began to surround him (but weren't they always doing that?), paranoia couldn't run anymore. he was surrounded, he was blocked off, he couldn't escape. not from horrortale, not from snowdin, not from the dusty graveyard he had just left it, and not from the blood smeared across his mouth.

“no, i- what did, what did i do? paps, snowdin, even-undick, no, it-”

paranoia’s incoherent rambles brought his hands to wander across his face, tugging at the massive hole in his skull spanning majority of the left side of his head. picking at the chipped bone didn't help, it never did, but a nervous habit was unbreakable, and he was more than nervous in this moment. in fact, quite terrified. everything was terrifying. he was terrifying. and as the slightest hint of red blood touched his sleeve, the once red, now magenta eye quickly locked onto it, and he couldn't hold it back anymore.

“fuck- oh god, no, aliza-!”

falling to his knees, a disgustingly gorey mess of red, pink, and black spilled from his mouth. sounds of retching and hurling were all that filled the empty forest, and paranoia couldn't bear to look down and see the mess he’d made. the mess he’s caused. wasted food, he would've said. but that statement normally only applied to others. he never imagined using it on himself. choking on his spit and certainly not his blood, tears fell from his eye, joining the vomit and blood seeping into the snow. strange. paranoia didn't think he had enough magic to even shed tears anymore. just for the bare necessities. he managed to surprise even himself, after all this time.

but could it be could be considered surprise, or rather terror? he fit up to his name, certainly horrified at his own actions. forcing out as much of the grossness he could that he’d just consumed, paranoia couldn't help but look down at what he’d done.

red. a lot of red. too much red. he’d never been queasy before, never. he had to adapt to it, being the one to hunt down humans that ran or sneak up on those when times got desperate. there was no time or need to be queasy at what he even considered his job before. a duty he had to do.

but now, there was too much red. far too much red. and he didn't know why, although he totally knew, but paranoia couldn't stomach it. he just threw his guts out (shouldn't they be aliza’s guts, or no?), and here he was, wanting to throw up until his SOUL shattered. his SOUL cycled through those strange 4 shapes, unsure of which to settle on. he couldn't blame it. paranoia himself was unsure of what was even going on anymore. he wanted to run, but was frozen. he wanted to scream, but didn't know who at.

everything was contradicting. everything was going on, and not enough was given for paranoia to understand how to deal with it. and with a muttered curse, he flopped on his side onto the somehow dry snow, losing consciousness in the haze of fear now intermingled with his SOUL.

-

ik theres probably grammar mistakes i wrote this on my phone,,,, but like idk. had idea for a little moment in paranoia's lore and i sure as hell didn't wanna draw it so i wrote it as an easier media! god this is so much easier compared to drawing idk why i dont do this more often (because youre lazy silly!) anyways swapinverse silly i love swapinverse. i've only thrown up like never so i dont know if this works. also never had a panic attack (i think) and AGAIN i dont know if this is accurate but whatever i dont write to be good i write for expressing my ideas. like everything i do

[yumeinati]

Seeing what my sister knows about the Mechanisms - Spoilers: Not enough

I love my sister, I do. She lets me rant to her about the Mechanisms 24/7. But the real question is whether or not she pays attention to what I say. I decided to quiz her and see how much she retains from our conversations <3

DTTM Spoilers/Talk

Starting off with everyone's favorite Captain First Mate!

Name: Jonny d'Ville | Mechanism: Blood | Role: Master at Arms

"He's cool I guess"

Not really surprised by her response to him, nor am I shocked she got his Mechanism wrong since when I first asked her to do this, she was like "I only know three of them. Jonny d'Ville, Nastya Rasputina, and Jonny Sims" and I had to remind her that two of those were the same person. Speaking of Nastya Rasputina!

Name: Nastya Rasputina | Mechanism: Lungs | Role: Pilot

"My favorite" Proceeded to give a thumbs up.

As I taught her, Nastya is best girl and deserves the whole world. I am rather shocked she got her Mechanism wrong as I once word vomited to her about mercury poisoning when I was plotting for a Nastya-centric fic, but its okay. Next up is Ashes!

Name: Ashes O'Reilly | Mechanism: Eyes | Role: Quartermaster

"They're cool, I like them"

Used the wrong pronouns but immediately realized and corrected herself before I had to so that's a win that she paid attention there. (We stan an ally <3) I talk about Ashes so much so I'm surprised that she got their Mechanism wrong but its okay, I still love her. Now to an Archivist who actually knows how to do her job (this is S1 Jon Sims slander, I am not sorry, he did not know what he was doing)

Name: Ivy Alexandria | Mechanism: Brain | Role: ????

"I don't really know...Ivy I guess is cool."

I don't talk about Ivy as much as I should, which I really should change because Ivy is amazing. When asked about why she was '????' she just went "I don't know...she has those vibes." which is 100% understandable. Time for the drumbot himself!

Name: Drumbot Brian | Mechanism: All but Heart | Role: Engineer

"Cool."

How does she not have more to say about him? He's been the focus of my rants since I got home from Uni on Sunday and all she has to say is 'cool'. Engineer is at least the closest she could get to Pilot, but I'm still a bit disappointed she didn't get all the answers right. On to her...absolute favorite, TS.

Name: Toy Soldier | Mechanism: All but Voice | Role: Archivist

"The Toy Soldier is the best character and there's no doubt about that."

Her answer came so quickly after I asked her how she felt about TS, I honestly can't say I'm surprised though. She thinks it's a silly little creature. Now to the man that I'm like 100% sure she has a love/hate relationship with, Tim.

Name: Gunpowder Tim | Mechanism: Heart | Role: First Mate

"Cool."

Once again, really confused about how she doesn't have more to say about him. He's literally carrying a huge gun so like, a tad confused on my she didn't think he was Master at Arms, but its alright. Funnily enough, she got the next two completely right, starting with Marius.

Name: Marius von Raum | Mechanism: Arm | Role: Doctor

"His arm is cool."

Applause for her getting everything correct. I force her to listen to The Wassailant in the car. There is no surprise she got his stuff right because I talk about Kofi, and by default Marius, so often. And finally, last but not least, Raphaella <3

Name: Raphaella la Cognizi | Mechanism: Wings | Role: Science Officer

"Just take off the wings and she'd be cooler. Just saying."

The disappointment when she said that was at its peak. I cannot believe that she would say that about the Raphaella la Cognizi and I will be making sure she changes her ways.

I'm not too surprised with Nastya and TS being her favorites, seeing as I talked about them most when I first got into Mechs, but the Raph slander was absolutely uncalled for </3

I also asked her some lore questions.

Q: What is the ship’s name? | A: Aurora

Q: Who is dating the starship, The Aurora? | A: Jonny

Q: Which Mechanism Mechanized themself? | A: Nastya

Q: Who was the first Mechanism? | A: Jonny

Q: Who were the last two Mechanisms to join the crew? | A: Marius and Ivy

Q: Who was the first Mechanism to die/leave the crew? | A: Tim

Q: Who was the last Mechanism to die, timeline-wise? | A: Jonny

Q: Which Mechanism died by death by Octokittens? | A: Brian

Q: Which Mechanism has a morality switch? | A: Brian

Q: Who had a ‘best friend’ named Bertie? | A: Jonny

Q: Which one is an arsonist? | A: Raphaella

Q: Which one blew up the moon? | A: Tim

Q: Which one is a cannibal? | A: Marius

All in all, somewhat disappointed in my ability to get this cemented into her brain </3 Glad she at least was able to match names to faces so I'm at least showing her enough photos of them, but I will definitely start talking to her about Mechs lore more because she needs to know and understand it all.

I will still say that a success is convincing her and my mom to do matching Life360 photos with the most iconic sibling duo and their mother <3

[maddies-writings]

So I finished Veil Guard.

I don't think it's nearly as bad as some people are making it out to be. I will say I do prefer Inquisition, I think it has more replay value for me personally and I don't think I'll be replaying Veil Guard. I'm going to give a short little review/pros and cons list before talking about how Veil Guard will effect "So Far Away". This will contain spoilers for VG so if you haven't finished the game then all you need to know is that while the game did confirm some of my theories not all of the lore will be canon in my universe.

I think Veil Guard was ok. It wasn't amazing but it wasn't horrible either. I don't think I connected with it as much as Inquisition, especially with the companions. A lot of the decisions game play wise were fine, I just happen to prefer Inquisition's approach.

Like Combat. I was a female Qunari Mage Veil Jumper. The orb and dagger thing was cool. The fact that your companions were immortal was a convenient thing and the combos were cool but I preferred the tactical map and being able to switch between any of my three companions. I wouldn't call VG's combat system a pro or con, at least for me, just that I prefer Inquisition.

Pros:

Character Creation was amazing. I loved all the hair models and hair physics. The sheer amount of customization possible with this game was amazing. The tattoos, scars and makeup. It's those extra cosmetics that can tip the scale in character customization for me. If they don't have those options I usually start looking for mods. You've seen my Evelyn Trevelyan? My Skyrim is modded so much more than my DAI.

The parkour stuff was really good. I'm sure we all remember trying to jump up mountains in Inquisition. VG was much easier to navigate and I loved being able to actually climb stuff, walk across beams and do the ziplines. It was really cool.

The LORE! Seeing the Dread Wolf's regrets with everything like that was amazing! I had theorized that Solas was a spirit that Mythal had either asked or forced to take a solid form. I will say I did not see it coming that they basically created the Blight and sundered the Titans. That was an epic surprise.

The Graphics in this game were gorgeous. Kind of expected considering this game came out ten years after DAI but still. Especially that final mission? Felt like I was watching a movie, seeing Solas in his Dread Wolf form fighting that Arch Demon.

Now time for the cons

Almost no Previous Choices carry over to this game: I'm not saying who I selected to rule Orlais had to be taken into consideration. We are playing in the northern half of Thedas right now and the Orlesian Empire doesn't matter to our goals. But if you chose mages/templars and who you selected as Divine. I know mages are treated better in the north in places like Tevinter or Rivain. Who drank the Well would've also been important. What choices you made with your companions and the like. It would've no doubt changed Solas's opinion on the Inquisitor but I think that would've been great.

Mythal I feel wasn't criticized nearly as much as Solas. I think it would've been cooler if she was eventually revealed as another villain. She kept asking more and more of Solas, requesting that he do horrible things. Remember Flemeth in DAI saying that she wanted a reckoning that would shake the Heavens? What if she was corrupted not by the Blight but by her rage and thirst for revenge? She tried to reason with all of them and they murdered her. Maybe she would've helped us like Solas, making it seem like Solas would betray us but in the end it is she who uses us and Solas as pawns to kill the Evanuris before she attempts to remake the world or some other evil thing? There is a quote in Inquisition about Solas "burning her off his face" meaning Vallaslin and that he was once Mythal's slave. Morrigan also had Mythal inside her after having refused it since Origins (even if she doesn't know it was Mythal) felt like a betrayal to her character. What if Mythal forcibly over took her body or something? Anyways, not super happy with where they went with Mythal but it's not like it ruined the game for me.

Vallaslin and Tevinter Slaves are never really mentioned. I know we see slaves around the Venatori but slavery is legal in Tevinter. In Minrathous, the capital city? There should be slaves EVERYWHERE! Slavery is a massive part of Tevinter and it's only barely touched on. Could've had some missions with the Shadow Dragons that involve freeing slaves. Also, Vallaslin are slave markings, known as blood writting. They were to denote which god the master favored. It would've been amazing to have had the gods use the vallaslin to control elves marked for them. I think Davrin was marked for Ghilan'nain? Imagine if she had seized control of Davrin and forced him to fight us? Maybe what could've made him snap out of it was if Ghilan'nain tried to force him to hurt Assan?

Solavellan ending felt... dry? They haven't seen each other in ten years and all we get is this super gentle kiss from a man who kissed Lavellan like he was drowning? Solas didn't even walk holding hands with her into the Veil/Fade/Mystery Portal? He also didn't really apologize to Lavellan? I was expecting a much more emotional reunion. I knew we wouldn't get to have them live in a nice little cottage in the woods at the end and that they were running with the 'in another world' thing which makes their reunion kind of bitter sweet but it still didn't feel emotional enough. I did not wait this many years for a tiny kiss and not even a true hug. I'm not even super into Solas x Lavellan anymore because I think I read it so much I'm now like "let the other races have a chance with the wolf" and I love cross race pairings. Culture sharing and struggles is one of my favorite tropes. Plus it makes Solas's convictions even harder because he fell for someone who isn't even one of the people.

I'm sure if I wanted to I could think of more stuff for each list but I just finished the game last night and frankly, I probably won't play it again. If I want to see alternate dialogue and choices i can just look them up on YouTube when people inevitably upload them.

Now, onto how this game will effect my writing for So Far Away.

A lot of the theories I had before this game came out ended up being proven true so like with Solas not meaning for the prison for the gods to sunder the elves or how he was originally a spirit who didn't want to become flesh. The reveal won't change that, i had always intended for that to be the case in my story.

The reveal of the blight was a surprise and I think it is super cool, but I don't think I will have that in my story. Not only did I not plan on having the Blight be created by Solas/Mythal but I don't really see the Blight popping up in my story. Because of that i don't really plan on coming up with an alternative origin for it? It was just always there. Some kind of darkness in Thedas. Like I said, don't think I need to come up with an explanation for something that won't effect my story.

I also don't plan on including the Lighthouse. Just assume if it wasn't in Inquisition it probably won't be there because I never read the books or comics.

My story is obviously an AU I created before VG came out so while I may take some inspiration from this and may even have some character cameos from Veil Guard (You can't tell me Solas and Emmerich wouldn't be the best of buddies) It won't really change what I plan on for my story.

I haven't been writing because of job hunting and playing Veil Guard but I've found a job and finished the game. The chapter is more than half way done. i should post it soon. Anyways, thanks for reading my thoughts and please make sure to check out my Solas x Trevelyan political marriage au if you're reading this and haven't yet for some reason.

Love you guys!

[maxwell-grant]

Do you have any thoughts on Rose from Street Fighter?

(Art by Jo Chen)

Lots of them, because despite everything I'm gonna complain about she is a very personally dear character to me, and not just because she is why I got into JoJo's Bizarre Adventure and therefore irreversibly altered my life as a result. Rose is an excellently designed foil to M.Bison, a character who allowed the series to poke and unveil the mystery of his origins and greatly expand the worldbuilding boundaries as a character who opened the doors for new supernatural vistas. M.Bison broke the rules and defied convention with his non-traditional abilities, and Rose helped fix up new ones by establishing the balance through which the forces and powers of the series work. M.Bison stomped into battle in ostentatious dictator garb, and Rose glided gracefully in a fashionable bouclé dress, neither of which were remotely traditional or indicative of their true fighting prowess, establishing them as a class of their own in more ways than one. The dictator bent on domination versus the teacher striving to liberate, Bison is all take, and Rose is all give.

In battle, Bison is an oppressive force, his moveset revolving around his barrage of hateful kicks and stomps and fiery claws and sadistic techniques that maximize cruelty above all else, where as Rose is ever careful, ever gentle, using her powers to misdirect and counter and disarm you into quickly ending the fight. Rose was the character who introduced a projectile reflector into the series, a solution to fireballs that radically altered their dominance in fights against her, via a move that forces you to reconsider tactics and punishes you for your aggression towards her. She was a mysterious middle-aged woman (and even if she doesn't show it much, that fact alone makes her a unicorn in fighting games) who fought with zero aggression, all elegance and sophistication, and every now and then a bit of playfulness poking through with a smirk or a wink or a finger wag or a sudden card-between-breasts trick, little icebreaker moments like those that go a long way.

And as the entryway to mysticism in the series, she adds to the existing characters because her win quotes against them are all about highlighting singular thematic depths or secrets to them that she alone is privy to. Everything Rose says to other characters generally articulates their struggles dramatically, or highlights a unique and defining depth to them, or sets up things that lend retroactive weight to their future plotlines. Rose helps make all the other characters cooler, because she lends significance and weight to them via proxy. She is the voice of fate and sometimes the voice of fate wants to tell you that you've been searching for the wrong things, or wants you to pay attention to the guiding stars and looming shadows that hang above you, or it wants to warn Ken that he probably should try to get his shit in order before the next game, or that Dan can carry on being an idiot and oddly do just fine.

There is a lot that self-evidently works about Rose, which is why it's weird that everytime I remember that she's considered fairly popular I actually get kinda shocked? She doesn't come up often in conversation, she's rather gloomy and lore-heavy and even kind of a downer character a lot of the time, not exactly the kind SF fans tend to flock to. I honestly thought I'd never see her again after Menat took the internet by storm, the fuck you mean she got voted above Zangief, Ibuki and Bison? I mean don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining, it's just I tend to lump her in with my beloved niche Alpha freaks like Adon and Birdie and Sodom, whom I love but never expect to be a priority in a line-up.

I think part of that is because Rose might be the character who is hurt the most by the patchwork lore of the series and by the general lack of larger narratives that she is called for. As a matter of fact, I have been thinking of her lately, since SF6 just came out with what seems like FINALLY a proper set-in-stone confirmation that she always was her own person and not Bison's good side/other half of his soul, as was previously mentioned (and not just in Capcom USA mistranslations). I've been scouring plot guides and bios and translations since forever and could not begin telling you the origin/what was really going on with this identity mix-up and, frankly I like it better the way it is now without her being a weird Bison soul clone, even if it still leaves questions about her storyline hanging open. Which is a reocurring thing with her that I think hurts her as a character (not even gonna get into what the fuck was that SFV "she exists in a time loop/return to zero" thing and the implication she'd have to time travel to fix stuff or something, Rose you put that Mortal Kombat reboot bullshit back where it came from or so help me-)

Rose is weird and mysterious by design, that's a huge part of her appeal, but Rose also kinda demands a greater degree of coherence and narrative focus that the series doesn't really give her and probably won't unless she makes it into 6 (and I'm not expecting her to). She is very comparable to Nash in the sense that they were both designed around a prequel context with a clear story and a tragic ending in place from the get-go, since Bison clearly outlasted their missions to stop him and neither of them were around circa SF2, but then Bison came back for IV and both of them came back to pick up their missions, but with nowhere near the narrative importance to actually see them through, which kinda damned the two to have nothing to do. But where as Nash got a sacrifice, Rose has kind of spent the last two games she's been in running in place, and Menat aside it seems like they can't do anything more with her other than just have her wait for Bison to come back and threaten the world so she can ominously react and prophesize some other guy must take care of it instead.

Regarding the JoJo thing, Alpha 2 was my entry into SF and the one I played the most growing up, and when I dug around for info about the characters I learned about Rose being modeled after a character from a manga series. That was when I was a kid and before I could really read English proper and before the JoJo anime came out, so from what I could gather at the time via pages about the Capcom game and the Street Fighter connections, I thought it was a series about weird tarot mystics duking it out, and that this character Rose was based on was the protagonist, and for most of my childhood that's what I thought JJBA was about, some weird mystery thing waiting to be uncovered with this really cool mystery protagonist like none I had ever seen before, this weird fashionable older witch lady that wasn't like any protagonist I had heard of before was very intriguing to me.

And I guess this is more of a personal gripe but honestly, I never got over my dissappointment with Lisa Lisa. Less so that she wasn’t the protagonist (although that was there at first), but moreso that she turned out to not be a particularly cool or effective character despite her build-up. That's part of why I get annoyed at Rose being boiled down to just being Lisa Lisa first and foremost everytime she's mentioned, because people didn't do that until the Battle Tendency anime, and I didn't think Lisa Lisa was that great to begin with. And yeah I'm not happy that "cool powerful mystery lady who always gets put on the backburner so she can do commentary and chumps out at the climax so a male character can rescue her" is also something Rose shares with Lisa Lisa, and therefore I kinda got to be dissappointed twice. I guess it's the same cause with both of them, that they are so powerful that they kinda have to give way to the protagonist so as to not deflate the stakes. Rose is an excellently designed foil to Bison, but being set to fail from the get-go, she was never going to be any kind of meaningful threat to Bison, which unfortunately deflates her mystique.

Although when I stop to look at it now, with hindsight and SF6 reviving so much of my hopes for the series, there is a lot to appreciate in the fact that Rose's story has consistently leaned towards the subversion of her own self-assured doom. That from her debut she's been dead set on sacrificing herself to stop Bison, that there was never any other way and it had to be her and she had to face it alone and she had to make amends for Bison's corruption of their sacred power and stop him from destroying the world, and much of her dialogue in the Alpha series reflects this miserable burden she's tasked with and that other characters like Guy or Dhalsim tell her she might be taking a too fatalistic approach on, but clearly she can't stop her walk towards her inevitable demise.

"In every world, only the righteous survive."

"I have no intention of boasting about my victory. I'm no fighter..."

"Strength is not something to show off, but something to hide inside."

"I too… Maybe I shouldn't stay too long in this world…"

"God is helpless, and can't stop the flow of time."

Dhalsim (SFA3): "Even if it is for your mission, why do you close your heart...?"

And then it simply wasn't the case. She can see with perfect precision into the hearts and fates of every single character she interacts with, but has a major blindspot regarding her own. Three times she lunged herself to stop Bison and three times she failed at both stopping him and at dying while facing him, and in two of those occasions her proximity to him only enabled him to survive and turn the situation in his favor. Being the person who stops Bison simply wasn't where fate was going to lead her, and instead her purpose was one she had to find in taking a backseat and guiding others, joining the likes of Dhalsim and Oro as powerful but gentle mentoring forces in the background, and it's a beat I find more meaningful with her given her whole initial drive was to kill the man she once thought of as a master.

She's not just mentoring others to pass along her devoted fighting style or to pick up her slack and save the world, she's keeping alive the counterweight to the evil Bison unleashed on the world, she's replacing her former teacher so as to be his total opposite in every way, carrying on the torch that Bison sought to extinguish by murdering their master and fellow students, and she's imparting it to those under her care so they may reach beyond her limits in doing so. Rewatching her and Guy's IV endings gets me feeling something about Guy desperately calling her back to life when she's always been so ready to throw it away, imparting on her how much the world needs her. Not because she is going to stop the great evil, but because the world needs something more than great evil. There needs to be more than just evil dictating the rules.

Whatever happens in this upcoming Shadaloo vs Neo Shadaloo conflict they've been setting up it's going to feel awfully incomplete without Rose or Menat in it, given that Ed fights for the same things Rose did, stands as living proof of how even Psycho Power doesn't have to be a force for evil, and now Bison is back to challenge this bright new future they fought so hard for. In truth, while I'd prefer for Rose to come back, I wouldn't be bothered at all if it was Menat, I like her too (maybe let's go deep enough in the JoJo reference and have Menat fight with Rose's spirit accompanying her, fuck it let's make Rose a Stand why not). And more importantly, I like and need the series to continue being serious about putting forth the new generation. There is something important in a story about coming to terms with not being the main character, and that there is no value in action and sacrifice for the sake of it, but instead value to be found in staying alive to do good in the here and now with what you can. Death and mastery over fate are Bison's obsession's, not hers.

Gouken (SFIV): "Do not cower before your visions. Believe in your own power!"

T.Hawk (SSFIV): "Do not think your powers are your own. The spirits allow you to see things."

Guy (SSFIV): "Do not underestimate your importance to the world, Rose!"

Oro (SFV): "Look too far ahead and you may miss your very first step."

[i-didnt-hate-it]

I didn't hate Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire, honestly it was awesome!

I just got done watching it so I'm still digesting it, but here are my initial thoughts. Any potential spoilers will go under a break.

I went into GxK that it would be similar to GvK and the other Monsterverse films: big monkey hit big lizard, big lizard breathe laser, big monkey block laser with big axe, and so on. And don't get me wrong, it definitely was all that, all pro wrestling but with big monsters, but in a cooler way than what I thought. I'm still trying to figure out what all made GxK more than what I was expecting, but I think this is the main bit.

In today's media, there seems to basically be two options. Either you make a show on streaming, which means your seasons are too short so you have to sacrifice character to plot. Or you make a two to three hour long movie, which uses a big budget to explain either characters or concept, hopefully with something of a plot to tie it together.

But GxK is a secret third thing. Worldbuilding. Adding to lore. Letting the landscapes they paint and the creatures that inhabit them speak for themselves. There were long stretches of screentime where the titans weren't necessarily fighting, they were just doing their thing, exploring their worlds.

Now obviously we need some humans to A, be able to connect to the story some, and B, know what is actually going on. Because while I would love a completely dialogue kaiju movie, the concepts and gimmicks of the Monsterverse just get too convoluted to figure out without Exposition Lady.

I can confirm that Legendary realized that the less human characters they have the better. The cast was relatively small, and while character development was minimal, they did make me feel some feelings toward some of the humans. But they made the right call not giving them too much of the story. What is this, Godzilla Minus One?

It's not, and if you can go into it knowing that it isn't even close to being the same movie as Minus One, and just watch it as a fun Monsterverse entry, I think you'll love it. The music is great too, better than GvK, imo. VFX were awesome too.

Okay, now for some spoilers, just random extra thoughts:

Godzilla really did the OMG MOTHRA!!! thing from that one meme! And I did too tbh, our Queen is back and beautiful as ever!

I love how it wasn't an instant father/son connection between Kong and Mini-Kong (I don't remember his name). Kong tried to help him out a couple times, but then gave up after MINI KONG TRIED TO KILL HIM LIKE MULTIPLE TIMES! Like come on, this little guy is just chaotic. But like they actually had growth in their trust and relationship, it wasn't just like "me big, you little, I dad now".

Scar King was actually a lot cooler than I was expecting. Shimo/Shimu whatever her name is did not have as big a role as I was expecting, but I'm glad she's okay.

Shout out to Mothra for stopping her boyfriend from killing Kong, helping them in Hollow Earth, and then just chilling when they all went to Rio. She said, "you guys got this, right?"

When I saw there was another hollow earth inside Hollow Earth, I'll admit I had a bit of an eye roll. But they explained it away pretty well.

SCOTTISH GUY THAT SAID SHIT IN STAR WARS. Alex Ferns is literally the same character he was in Andor.

I love how they imply that they basically imply that the Iwi had something to do with building the pyramids in Egypt by having the portal thing open RIGHT NEXT TO THEM. Made a cool setting for the fight, too.

At this point, I have no idea how big the Coliseum actually is.

Last thing, for now. For having top billing, Godzilla wasn't in it as much as I thought he might be. I think Legendary is realizing that if you have a character like Godzilla who can just level up his powers instantly to take on anything, and just kinda does his own thing, you've gotta limit that screen time. Since Kong is kinda humanoid, it's easier to empathize with him and thus add character development. Godzilla can only convey so much emotion that most humans can relate to (obviously Shin and Minus convey a lot of emotions, but anyway). Godzilla is in the movie, but Kong is more of the star. Honestly the world of the Hollow Earth and the Iwi people and their history are almost as much of the focus.

[dearestones]

Muscle Memory Part Two (Azul Ashengrotto and Reader)

Warnings: Exploration of merfolk culture, elaboration on certain aspects of canon lore, etc. 

@lottieinlimbo Request: Hi Devin!!! Congratulations on the 750 followers :D!! Your writing is incredible, you have more than earned your success!!!! I’m here to steal the final request slot! There were a lot of cool prompts that would have been fascinating with multiple characters, it was hard to choose! But I’m thinking “why did you help me?” With Azul could be really fun, maybe something platonic? I’m really excited to see what you do with this, congrats again on 750 followers!!

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After a long day of getting splashed and almost getting dragged off the boardwalk by overly anxious mers, you were grateful when they finally transformed back into their normal selves. While ingesting the potion was quick and painful, the process to return was gradual and felt more like sharp tingles that flowed and ebbed depending on the location and intensity of the pain. Before you had transferred to this new location, a colleague of yours who was a mer, confirmed that it was a near universal experience that taking the transformation potions daily upon the first week followed by the natural regression into their former selves after such a low dose was more effective at retaining students rather than having them take the full dose that would last seven days.

It helped strengthen their ability to overcome the pain and helped them adjust by allowing them to take breaks after working their human legs. There were actually a few studies done on it, but since the population of merfolk who wanted to live on the surface was so few, it wasn't a conclusive study. For all you knew, it was more of a placebo effect.

After saying goodbye to your students, you picked up the equipment, the cooler, and the clipboard with the roster so that you could return it to the government facility. Inside, your supervisor and your fellow intern were comparing notes and commiserating at some of the antics that you had been slightly privy to. It wasn't often, but sometimes you were called to step in if one of the mers were acting unruly or if someone needed medical attention. Thankfully, you didn't need to call for help—your batch of merfolk were surprisingly well behaved—but the other intern was unfortunate enough to have landed himself not one but two gleeful troublemakers.

"I thought eel merfolk were supposed to be shy," Soren muttered as he wrote down some notes into his log. His pen blotted a little on his notes, which made him curse a little into his open palm before he produced correction fluid to cover up his mistake. "But, somehow, I manage to land not only the most brash mer I have ever seen, but also one who happens to be the most suicidal!"

You laughed a little to yourself as you joined them at the table.

"He is still a child, Mr. Andersen," your supervisor scolded. "And not only that, but he is also a child granted the opportunity to experience life on land. You've read his profile, he's due to attend Night Raven College if his magical proficiency and grades are any indication."

"Are you sure it's not the fat stacks in his parents' back account?"

You punched Soren's shoulder playfully. "I don't think paper money can handle the moisture," you laughed. "More like tall towers of gold!"

Your supervisor rolled her eyes at the both of you before she gestured at the paperwork that littered the table. "Make sure to clean up and organize the documents for tomorrow's session. The second day is usually better, but it's also the day when we get the most dropouts."

"You think that the Leech twins will drop out?"

"Mr. Andersen!"

You didn't know Soren too well, only that he was from the Land of Pyroxene and had spent most of his adolescent years in the City of Flowers before attending Noble Bell College. Although a proficient mage in his own right, he decided to dip his toes into a field that not many would have imagined him entering. 

Years ago, he had told you, he thought that he was going to be an archivist for magical artifacts. However, he fell in love with the many canals and underwater routes that flowed in and out of the City of Flowers. One thing led to another and eventually, he had immersed himself into learning more about merfolk culture and how they acclimated to living on land. Given his background in magical artifacts and history, he was a heavy proponent of the research and experimentation of using talismans or charmed objects to make the transformation both instantaneous and painless. Unfortunately, such an invention was still out of reach for various reasons, but he was confident that one day, accessibility for merfolk would be greatly increased.

Until then, he had to satisfy himself with this internship.

"Do you think any of yours would drop out," he asked to continue the conversation once your superior had headed out. He tapped on his notes, a furrow in his brow before circling something in red ink. "I think all of mine are willing to stay the whole period, but I can't say for certain they'll actually live the rest of their lives on land."

"Hmmm…” You thought for a moment. “One of my classic mers looked a little too weirded out after my cecaelia transformed. He actually handled it well, but she looked like she was about to turn tail and swim away."

Soren nodded, lost in thought. "Shame. It's rare that we get a one hundred percent attendance rate."

"True, but for those who do stay, we definitely get high ratings on how well they adjust and adapt to life on land."

After at least half an hour of chatting and locking up the lab, the both of you proceeded to your assigned dorm rooms. The initiative for acclimating merfolk to land life was fairly small, which meant that the community was fairly well knit and cohesive. Sure, there were times when a new intern or a transferee would cause some friction, but it wasn't all too often.

You passed a few other interns (some of whom were hard at work monitoring and working out the correct dosages for the merfolk) and a security guard (he tipped his hat to you in greeting after you presented your badge) before entering. Inside, you had your classic dorm room layout. 

On one side hugging the wall, there lay your bed with hastily made covers and a few clothes strewn at the foot of it. There was a small desk with a chair parked in front of it, and a window with a view overlooking the ocean. You were assigned to the third floor, a fact that you flaunted to your friends and colleagues just to mess with them. It was perfect: you could see how the full moon lit up the sky and if you waited for the right moment, you could see some bioluminescent creatures light up the water around them. During your first week, you had sent photos and videos of the phenomena to your parents, both of them delighted that you were having a grand time at your internship.

Tonight, however, you were tired.

While you did not have to call for help, you did have to jump into the water to soothe one of your classic mers. She was far from a predator, which was apparent from her whispery soft voice and the way she hugged herself despite your efforts to tell her that it was best to either hold onto the boardwalk for balance or to spread out her arms for proper wading.

Instead, she gave a low keen that had your heart clenching in your chest. You wanted to pat her head and rub at her scalp to soothe her, but protocols dictated not too much skin to skin contact. There were too many incidents when certain people in positions of power took things too far when manhandling their charges. (There was a scandal a few years ago which resulted in cold relations between the land dwellers and the children of the sea before reparations were settled between the two parties). To make up for the lack of comforting contact, you gave her a floating paddle, to which she awkwardly cuddled it close to her chest while tears ran down her smooth skin.

The angler fish and the other classic mer took to the pain and the loss of their tails and fins with just as much grace as the cecaelia, but they were quicker to use their legs and arms. Within half an hour of coaching and practice, both the angler and the classic were able to tread water and even swim like a human! It wasn't unheard of—there were even stories of mers who drank the potion, crawled onto the boardwalk and started walking as if they had been doing it since they were born—but you were surprised to see such rapid growth under your care.

(You made sure to take special note of this and the time taken from your heavy duty waterproof watch).

You let the angler fish play with the classic mer (both of them didn't look like they were going to antagonize each other, but you made sure to keep an eye out just in case playful nips became gaping bites) before you turned your attention to the cecaelia and the other classic.

The classic mer kept her head down low, tears still dripping down her cheeks, but you gently reminded her that the pain would go away if she moved her newfound legs for a little bit.

"Just a little bit," you cooed. You climbed back onto the boardwalk (you were soaked to the bone and wet from the angler fish mer trying to play with you) and sat down so that your shins and feet were submerged in the water. Kicking your feet made little splashing noises; you were pleased when you saw that in between the sniffles, she was trying not to laugh at how the water felt on her skin.

However, try as you might, she refused to move her legs and continued to cry even with your kind words caressing her ears.

"It's okay—" Quickly, you tried to remember the list of names upon your roster. Not Azul... Not Pacifica... Oh! Her name was Adria! "—Adria. The potion will wear off soon. Do you want to float while I help the other student?"

Adria shot you a terrified look, the tears in her eyes spilling like a fountain over her cherubic cheeks. She glanced at the cecaelia—who, up until that point, had chosen to float by hanging off the pool noodle in the most rigid way possible—before fearfully nodding in your direction.

You frowned. Had the cecaelia bullied the classic mer earlier when you were tending to the angler fish and his playmate?

Not wanting to jump to conclusions, you advised Adria to stay close to the boardwalk and to keep the buoyancy paddle close to her chest. She was welcome to keep trying, but something deep inside of you knew that she would be dropping out as soon as the transformation potion wore off.

Now that your attention was no longer split between the other mers, you focused on the cecaelia.

Shelly was a bit of an oddball, even according to others of her own kind. Back on the beaches of the Land of the Red Dragon, she would chance capture or sightings from the locals by wading up the shore and proceeding to walk along the sandy beach. The dryness of land and the harsh feeling of pebbles and rocks upon her suckers caused irritations at best and bleeding at worst, but she proudly told you that it was practice for the real thing. In fact, that was one of the reasons why she was so close to the beach in broad daylight during your first meeting. She had been scouting for a good place to practice, even if she didn't have proper human legs yet.

For most cecaelia and other species of mer that had to give up multiple appendages, the loss was almost too much. Most dropouts were octopus and squid based merfolk, which was a shame considering you knew that most depictions of sea dwellers were heavily skewed in the classical mers' favor.

Shelly was able to breeze through her lessons within two weeks of her land boot camp experience.

(Well… not without plenty of help and assistance from you. The land boot camp she had gone to was not as pleasant an experience as it was now). 

You wondered if this cecaelia would do the same.

First of all, however—

"Right arm and spread your fingers, please."

You had to make sure that all of his limbs were in working order and could respond on command.

And so, for the better part of at least an hour, you helped the cecaelia master all four of his limbs. His customary human arms were the easiest to obey him, you found. That was good, that meant that any and all problems had to do with his lower half being downsized into two working legs. After making sure that he could grasp onto the boardwalk of his own accord, rotate his arms to show off his full range of motion, and even write his name upon one of your notes, you deemed it safe enough to start working his legs.

This was trickier. It seemed like the cecaelia was firing off too many commands at once, but they weren't being well received by the lower half of his body. His legs would twitch one way instead of another or maybe he would overshoot and end up losing balance upon his pool noodle.

Shelley explained it to you once when you were stuck in the same dormitory and she was busy penning down her thesis.

"All of my arms have brains in them, you know that right?" You kind of had to know that. Your mother would bury herself alive if she found out that the most basic of octopus facts had never pierced your skull. "Well, when most of your body have a mind of their own and that disappears, the lone brain that gets left behind has to overcompensate, but then you end up sending mixed signals or canceling demands that were never completed in the first place."

"Like... a computer overloading on too many open applications so you have to use task manager to end them?"

"Kind of." She canted her head to the side in thought. "You know what? Yeah, you're right."

"So how did you stop overcompensating?"

"By relaxing."

Easier said than done.

There wasn't a lot of overlap between land and merfolk culture, especially in regards to the expression of feelings, but you had the feeling that the cecaelia was trying too hard to appear confident. His eyes were bright and determined, but beneath that steely veneer, you could detect the same sort of tension that you had previously associated with the other tearful mer. However, despite the similarities, you found that the cecaelia was more likely to attend the entire boot camp.

"Azul." His name sounded foreign on your tongue, but you kept your hesitance to yourself. At the sound of his name, he straightened upon the pool noodle and regarded you with a distant expression. "What do you like to do for fun?"

You tried not to laugh at the naked expression on his face. For all of how he seemed to hold himself up with a rigidity you would normally associate with your haughty superiors, the young cecaelia looked absurdly adorable when he tried to process your question. His mouth went agape and his eyes had widened in comical surprise.

"Fun?" He spluttered out. The grip he had on his pool noodle wavered, causing him to thrash a little on the water. Out of instinct, you gave him a steadying hand upon his shoulder. It was a slight touch, well within regulation, but Azul stared at you with an indiscernible expression on his face that you didn't have the heart to interpret.

(There was another reason why this government initiative was so discreet and small compared to other well known government plans: land dwellers were often let go and blacklisted if something untoward happened. Given his age, if he said something...)

You kept a professional smile on your face before you nodded down at your legs.

"When I was younger, I liked to chase my friend around. Both of us liked to swim in the water, but we ended up splashing each other more often than not." You peered at him, true curiosity brimming in your eyes. "You're from the twilight levels of the Coral Sea, right? How often have you gone to the surface?"

Suspicion lined the tension in his shoulders and darkened the brightness of his eyes.

"You're not going to get into trouble," you murmured, "it's not like I have the power to turn you into the authorities. It's just that I've taught a lot of merfolk over the past few years, and a number of them liked to sneak up to the surface to have fun."

A number of them had also been delinquents, often choosing to skip school just so they could splash water along the decks of small cruise ships or to wreak havoc upon the local fisherman. Out of respect for your past students, you refrained from saying that last bit.

Besides, something told you Azul didn't look like he was a troublemaker.

"Well..." Azul looked like he was weighing his options, probably scrutinizing you for any sort of underhanded behavior. You let him take his time. With more rest, you hoped that he would muster enough energy and bravery to start kicking his legs. "A few associates and I would explore sunken shipwrecks... but there were also nights when we would swim up to the surface and watch the fireworks show."

"Associates? Not friends?" You couldn't help but tease him. He glared at you and you watched as his eyes seemed to drift past your figure and towards another group of merfolk that was spearheaded by your fellow intern. Before you could inquire as to what held his interest, he turned towards you again, only to haughtily huff at you. "Okay, associates."

Were all fifteen year olds this edgy?

"Indeed." He sniffed, clearly done with this conversation.

"Well, have you splashed each other once you guys breached the surface?"

A scandalized look this time, that bordered on incredulous.

"Watching the fireworks was purely for educational purposes and—"

You didn't want to give him the look, but you had no choice.

With the full force of your irritation, you gave him one of the most deadpan stares ever. Even the most vicious of predators hailing from the abyssopelagic zone would have been stunned at the pure power behind your stare.

"A little bit." He muttered more to himself than to you. 

You would think from the solemnity in his voice that he was talking about a funeral. Still, you nodded your head and smiled with what you hoped was encouragement.

"Do you remember how you splashed each other?"

He looked at you and you decided to amend your approach.

He didn't want to be babied; that was understandable.

"Well, I want you to utilize those memories of splashing each other so that you can start kicking your feet. You used all ten of your limbs, right?"

"Not at first," Azul conceded. "Eventually."

"Good." Without missing a beat, you sank into the water with practiced aplomb, much to the surprise of your student. He gasped, a sound that he tried to stifle, but you were too close to hear it. "Splash me."

"P-pardon?"

"Come on! You need to exercise and gain control of all four of your limbs. Splash me."

At his continued hesitance, you splashed him with both arms before returning to wading in the water.

Surprise was quickly replaced with irritated determination. Before you knew it, you found a tidal wave of water heading in your direction.

Not bad, you couldn't help but think as you dove beneath the waves.

But he still needed to use his legs.

It took some time, but later on, you saw that he was wading in the water; his movements were a little jerky, but sure enough to signal that he was consciously controlling his legs.

It was strange seeing a cecaelia beaming at himself as he allowed his arms to splay out gently in the water as his newfound human legs tread the water underneath. For a moment, as you murmured congratulations to him, you saw Shelley in his place. Once upon a time, she had also been a young, aspiring cecaelia who had also been in the same boat as Azul. The only difference was, when she showed you how well she adapted to her legs, she lunged and tackled you into the water without a care for your need of oxygen. 

The cecaelia in front of you had no intention of doing that, but the hope within his eyes mirrored that of your best friend’s.  

For a moment, as you lounged within the dorm room, your head still swimming with the possibilities and opportunities that would surely arise come tomorrow, you watched as bioluminescent algae sparkled and glowed to life as small waves began to wrack the beach. If you paid attention, you could see that there was a large mass disturbing the glowing algae, but you chalked it up to either a fish or one of your students fooling around. 

You took a glance at your clock and cursed to yourself. 

Tomorrow was going to be an even longer day.

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Tagging: @missam

[PART ONE] [PART TWO HERE] [PART THREE] [PART FOUR]

If you want to donate a Ko-Fi, feel free https://ko-fi.com/devintrinidad.

TWISTED WONDERLAND MASTERLIST

[ask-beccalesatz]

..Hi. The name's Becca. I'm an 18-year-old ghost who haunts Starlight Records, which is right next door to Ray's Occult Books. I somehow got my hands on an unused Samsung and wound up here by accident. It's cool though, way cooler than what we had when I was alive.

And it seems that people here are pretty curious about ghosts - and if you're already wondering, yes, I have met the Ghostbusters before but we're on good terms since I'm not trying to do anything bad. For now.

But, since I don't have anything else better to do - I'll answer questions you might have for me.

Have fun.

-Becca Lesatz

[RULES UNDER THE CUT!!!]

This is a roleplay account [my first actually] in the form of an ask blog. It'll consist of questions, answers and random scenarios and comments about what I think would happen to a non-malicious ghost hanging around in the Ghostbusters universe.

This blog is "run" by my Ghostbusters original character, Becca Lesatz.

I hope to interact with other Ghostbusters ask blogs - primarily those from Frozen Empire and Afterlife - but always willing to travel back in time to interact with 80s blogs.

RULES!

Becca may be an adult, but I as the one running this blog, am not. Please do not ask any questions that are sexual in nature.

Any kind of hate speech, discrimination, and anything of the same nature is NOT allowed here.

If you break either of these rules, you will be IGNORED!

CHARACTER!

Becca Lesatz, 18. Born 1954, died 1972.

PRIMARY CHARACTERIZATION!

Since Becca isn't a canon character, all of her lore is created by me. She's obviously been around since the 80s and is still very active in Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire and Ghostbusters: Afterlife.

She has thick curly hair that was brown in life, and it always covers her right eye as to hide the injury that killed her in the first place. It's always noticed though, as there's blood that constantly runs down the right side of her face and neck. Her outfit at her time of death is a white tank top, wide leg jeans, a black embroidered belt, old combat boots, and a sleeveless green fringed cardigan along with three necklaces - the first with a purple crystal, the second with a crescent moon, and the third with a golden peace symbol.

Becca's face claim is Odessa A'zion.

[jackredfieldwasmyjacob]

POKEMON SCARLET DIARY #1

i've decided i'm gonna be narrating my experience through pokemon scarlet in here, i thought it would be fun :) i'll post all spoilers below the line and i'll create a tag you can block btw!!

anyways, let's start with my first day (idk if i'll be able to fit everything into one post but i'll try)

this is my character!!! it's been a while since i played a female character in a pokemon game so i chose the girlie; i like how androgynous she looks like tho, it's nice :)

i am in love with the starter house just look at this!!! beautiful!!

anyways i chose fuecoco as my starter and named him drac :)

also i really liked how the introduced the starters and how you could hang around for a bit before deciding, it was a very neat touch!!! and clavell feels more like a professor in this game that the actual professor, which actually makes sense as he is the one with a plant-based name. not sure if i trust him yet, tho.

i met nemona!!! she's nice i really like her :) also SHE'S LOADED WTF???? have you seen her mansion??? i'm really curious about her parents, i hope they get shown in the game. at first i thought her mum would be geeta but she's been shown talking to her and the tone was different (they could still be sisters?) i just know they're gonna be important, that's for sure.

i also met koraidon and omg the anime-esque aura of him! the dramatism!! i love it honestly and had a blast going through that initial cave and stuff

arven is incredibly different to how i imagined him to be and i'm so intrigued to know him better, he obviously has a secret agenda that has to do with his mum and area zero but for now i have no idea, it definitely shows that he's fundamentally connected to the main story

this was my team when i got to the first pokemon center by the way!!! i'll update it before every gym but yeah, these were my firsts!!!

I WASN'T EXPECTING HER TO TERASTALYZE OUT OF THE BLUE LIKE THAT???? it was kinda hard defeating her pawmi, but it helped me rapidly understand terastalyzing lol

there's churros and tortilla in the game 10/10 goty 😭😭😭

battled team star and got terrastalyzation through it!!! i like these guys, they give me team skull vibes and that's like my favourite 'evil' team so yay! also there seems to be something between them and clavell... and penny as well. humm....

after getting lost in the city i got to the academy!!! and aaaaah probably my favourite part of the game so far... when i tell you when i was like 10 i used to imagine i was a teacher in pokemon academy™️, used to give lectures to my stuffed animals using the whiteboard i had in my room, and used to write pokemon exams in word and grade them.. so yeah i think i spent more time that i should've had here but i don't care

i NEED to know who this woman is she sounds like james bond but cooler and i can't wait to meet her. also she has a bomb ass name.

i'm also loving the lore of this region!!!! i read the scarlet book back to back and i cannot wait to uncover its secrets it all sounds like that disney movie with the nerdy archaeologist and atlantis and i can't get enough of it

i finally got to meet the professor!! i fucking love how she's literally in the field and that's why she can't join us, i want to go to that area zero so bad please let me in

ah yes, a 1200€ per month spacious apartment in madrid, just like in real life

finally started the quest yayy

also TROPIUS <3333

i can't post any more pictures but i also unlocked rideable koraidon and had my first picnic :)

[nysus-temple]

They probably defend it because they don't know the original myths. People defend even Lore Olympus so you can tell the bar is low 😅. Like if they want enjoy the media go ahead do what you like. However books like these and Circe are not faithful so don't take them seriously.

Circe at least tried to fill the gaps and yeah in some versions Odysseus accuses many of being traitors but overall in the book he looked okay. However Ariadne....not I don't think making her story tragic was needed. She of all the women in Greek mythology had the a somehow normal life

Pretty much, yeah. People usually don't look up for anything when saying something is "a good retelling" and call it a day. Its worse when actual scholars praise them, since you know it's because they don't want to gain a bad reputation by critizicing them 🥲

I don't remember the full Circe thingy since it was a long time ago and i couldn't keep reading after the... Assault thingy. But afer having someone jump at me saying "how can you like Odysseus? Have you not read Circe?" and i just stood there like 💀 The book itself isn't the worst thing to ever happen to humanity, but as you say, people need to know it's not a source.

And i loved Circe back in the folklore ! She's Medea's Cool Aunt™ and the literal daughter of Helios ! She's way cooler in the actual Odyssey than in thr book mainly because she's the ✨gIrlBosS sLaY✨ people want without her being abused. Why do women need to be abused in order to be strong? 😶

And the Ariadne thingy, yeah ! It's like wanting to make a retelling about Eros abusing Psyche. Why? Why should we? Don't we want women to be happy? I'm a woman myself and the least thing i want is figures like Ariadne who have such a good positive impact in modern fantasy based around folklore get turned into... An assault icon? Dunno how to call it but, yeah 😭

[spainkitty]

So firstly, before I forget: Oh no, Agnes is not Lolth-Sworn! Her goddess is Tymora. She was raised on the surface. I'm basing her red-eye choice on maybe outdated lore?? I read some the old R.A. Salvatore books back in high school, and most drow just genetically had red eyes because they lived so long in the Underdark (except for the Protag, Drizzt Do'Urden, our special snowflake with purple eyes😌😌). They had infrared vision, too! (I think... it's been a long time) lol Did Larian/BG3 change that?

I'm so glad you like Karik's design! She is the VERY FIRST dnd character I've ever made and played, back in 3.5e/Pathfinder days! Yep, I have lots of tt DnD experience. I've been playing since I was 18, and I'm in my 30s now.🤭 Wildshape was so much cooler, then😔 Also, the very first original novel I finished, and won NaNoWriMo in 2010 with!, had Karik as the main character. My og gorl 🥰

Agnes Hamasa was actually a fire genasi in her campaign and we played up to, like, level 20. In her epilogue, she ended up joining with the gith (basically githyanki, but ENEMIES), getting a space ship, and travelling the Astral Plane, saving lives and killing mind flayers, so it's hilariously ironic to re-make her as a Tav!🤣🤣🤣 I made her drow because that fit her fire genasi design (ash grey skin, pointy ears, turn the typical drow white hair to flame red for FUNSIES) the closest. When I actually play, I'll have to think up real backstory for her though...

Wait wait. Hold everything. MR BUTTONS🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Okay, I'm back. I love all that stuff about the monk class and how it specifically changes dialogue! I played Karik for, like, an hour and noticed some Wisdom/Druid specific choices. Like when you see Gale's hand in the portal. (When I played Agnes, my friends were watching and made me slap his hand. LOL perfect first impressions. they totally gotta fall in love now)

Playing Nephalem sounds like it's going to be difficult, but also really rewarding and interesting! Did you get Minthara in his run? (Okay, wait, you used pt, does that mean playthrough? I thought it was a new stand in for "Tav", hence my confusion earlier, but playthrough makes more sense...) Did you go Durge with any of them? My friend (the Xbox guy) did a femDurge run, romanced Karlach, and ran off together in the end. He really liked it! He wants to replay to lean into the actual Dark Urge instead of redemption/fighting it. I don't know if I could, though. 😕 Even playing like you are with Nephalem sounds so HARD (I wanna play Karik True Neutral/Very Druid-y, but we'll see if I can manage that lol)

I'm so embarrassed! I thought I had replied to your last ask and I didn't😳 I'm sorry!🙈

I hope you're feeling better. I remember recommending you cloud gaming for BG3 so I wonder if you gave that ago and if you did, if it works for you👀

I'm deep in BG3 brainrot🙈😅 I'm in my 4th pt right now lol. I have a stand-by pt of my monk tav in act 3 cause the kiss animation with Astarion with a tav with body type 1 (the smollest one lol) is broken since patch 4. And yes, I'm becoming the kind of person who romances Astarion with every single tav I make😂

I'm curious to see your tavs so please show me whenever you can👀

Here are mine in chronological order of my pts:

Iriel - seldarine drow sorcerer

(the 2nd pt I did was Astarion's origin so no tav)

Ceres - half-elf monk (on stand-by until Larian fixes the kiss animation with Astarion in act 3 lol)

Nephalem - high-elf necromancer (current pt)

And yes, they're all head over heels in love with Astarion🙈😍

I really hope you've got the chance to play BG3 further! If you have, please tell me about your tav(s) and what you think if the game so far👀

I... can't even remember what I sent you, but I gather it was about BG3 LOL I'm feeling much better. I haven't tried your cloud idea yet. I wanted to finish my Adaar run and I replayed DAO instead. Mainly because my friend said during our little Christmas break (we have 4ish days off for it and we're coworkers) he's getting it on his Xbox and I'm gonna go play it with him! Which means when the spiders come I can hide 🤣🤣 I DID make three "Tavs" before I gave up (and I'll be remaking one for the Xbox marathon).

All your Tavs (pts?? pcs??) look SO cool! I wasn't super pleased with how limited the faces were, but you did a great job making each unique. Silly Larian, fix the bug so Ceres can have a kiss! KISS KISS KISS! Oh, also, how is it playing a monk?? I had a tabaxi (cat person) monk in a campaign and she was so fun to rp, does it work out well in bg3?? I think Iriel's design in my favorite, though. I looove that half-buzz cut. Nephalem looks very suave and cool, too 😎

As for my girls, I'll show the few pics I got.

This is Karik, my Moon Circle Wildshaping half-elf Druid! And her dream guardian. I made her look like my current campaign's Tepin Pallis Cuautl Lozano, another Moon Circle Druid Wildshaper 🤭🤭🤭 I wanna romance Lae'zel, but I never met Wyll or Karlach, so... we'll see.

Then, there's Andry Cousland, my og Warden, Warrior-Archer human. I just wanted to see what she'd look like in BG3. Not bad🤔

Lastly, the one I'm going to remake for the Xbox and I'm super excited for it! I'm probably going to romance Gale, maybe... Anyway, meet:

Agnes, half-elf drow, Trickster Cleric of Tymora

(you can see where the computer started losing itself and her hair looks weird and pixel-y, but still cute 💖)

[st-just]

Honestly Vi being an amnesiac with VI tattooed on her face like she's the 6th in some line of orphans who were the subjects of evil science experiments was such an interesting if cliched mystery and it's kinda underwhelming to learn that Vi just stands for Violet.

The shipping discourse is exhausting tho, I for one am happy to see Riot outright confirm it in the show because people have been shipping Cait and Vi in lore for ages now since Cait was so heavily involved in Vi's story. I think Cait and Vi was the most popular ship, possibly tied with Vi/Jinx but that was before it was confirmed they were sisters. Without confirmation people just saw them as rivals with this fun cat-and-mouse game going on and I can see where people might ship that but here we are.

Now they need to confirm Graves and TF like this. We've got a pair of... well, generally criminals? They do a lot of things and we've got Graves the dumb-as-rocks gun-slinging tobacco-smoking gruff loudmouth, and Tobias, the smooth-talking magic-card-throwing twink who tries to sound cooler than he is by calling himself Twisted Fate and sports the posh equivalent of a southern accent.

Now these two are perfect for ships because they're fucking morons, the both of them, and all the best stories with them involve wacky antics, gunfights, bullshitting, and a whole lot of luck. It's all best summarized in the Tales of Runeterra video about Bilgewater. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbJhZW-iN0s

These two morons need a buddy-criminal show, where instead of going around solving crimes and making police look either good or worse, they just go around causing problems on purpose for profit.

Okay yeah when I first saw art of her I really thought the tattoo was VI the numeral too. It really looks more like a creepy lab marking than a self-done prison tat, you know?

And like yeah Caitlyn and Vi have a cute and extremely well executed but incredibly predictable/traditional romance subplot (but gay for once) and are fun enough to watch and like would obviously have been the main ship regardless so from a representation standpoint it's, like, Good that they're canon I guess but I just really truly do not get how angry people (or, well, person, probably? Better than even odds it was all the same anon I guess) people get about it. But yeah shipping discourse generally is a bit alien to me.

Anyway the two dumb pirates have a very fun dynamic (real, I don't know, Jasper and Horace energy?). Also that really is the funnest/best of the shorts I've seen I think. They're all like low-tech Borderlands characters (also oooooh that's where the redhead pirate everyone cosplays is from)

(And you know 99% chance it's just my filter bubble but now that I'm thinking about it it feels like all the really big queer fandom ships that have actually been canon recently have been wlw? Like the closest with two guys I can think of is Destiel. Which lol. So yeah riot should do something with the pirate bros).

[sanchoyo]

danny phantom season 2, episode 17-20 thoughts! finishing up season two! the finale is the THIRD 2-PARTER OF SEASON 2. that's so many! I wonder how many season 3 will have?

see prev episode thoughts in this tag <3

-UERGH WHY DOES VLAD HAVE AN AI WITH MADDIE'S FACE ON IT. SOOO CREEPY. AND MORE 'CREATIONS' waiiiit. vlad is Dr. Frankenstein! (despite his ghost design obviously referencing vampires) HE HAS 'CREATIONS' HE MAKES THEN WONT TAKE REAL RESPONSIBILITY FOR!!! this bitch.

-danny was late and his friends immediately start going off about how hes inconsiderate, and has been treating them like sidekicks??? he just overslept, my god. chill. even if he has, be nicer about talking about it with him?? he really can't help that he sometimes has to chase the ghosts, or has a secret identity to protect...

-'what kind of ghost haunts a miniature golf course' umm. me as a ghost. next question

-imagine going home and theres a tiny child on your bed claiming to be your cousin. with as many cousins I have, I would probably believe her. but the 'ran away from home' BIT....SHES 12?? SHES SO TINY. I hate that they have her belly out in her ghost form, but I like how her colors are asymmetrical. something about her design...maybe the proportions?? are weird to me...anyway danny was good to feed her, but he shouldve taken her to his parents FIRST. or, tbh, probably jazz. (JAZZ DIDNT EVEN GET TO MEET HER!!! NOOO. I mean she said she'll be BACK BUT STILL)

-ANYWAY. shes voiced by AnnaSophia Robb, the girl who was in because of winn dixie, played as violet from charlie and the chocolate factory, and was the girl from bridge to terrabithia. (the movie that made me cry hysterically when I was 12 and I never watched it again because it Broke Me!) thats super cool.

-vlad sucks: the episode, basically. what's new!! I love how he's like, I'm Not A Villain. *immediately cuts to him torturing danny to make him transform, to get mid-transformation DNA, to perfect a Clone.* *immediately shows that he doesnt give a shit about his new daughter Dani and just wants a ''more perfect clone'' and will put her in danger to get that. will let her DIE to get that*

-Dani is danny's clone and is a girl? transgenderism....one of them has to be trans. or they both are.

-dani just. leaving at the end. WHAT? SHES 12. DONT JUST. NO!!! SHE WAS PROBABLY JUST BORN, A MONTH AGO AT MOST, RIGHT?? SHE NEEDS...SOMEWHERE TO LIVE. MONEY? FOOD?? A FAMILY?? AN EDUCATION???! WHAT DO YOU MEAN SHE'S LEAVING!!! OKAY BYE I GUESS!!! D: concern!!!

-the next ep opens with skulker chasing a ghost down. ...does skulker count as a ghost hunter in the way valerie and danny do? I mean, sure, he hunts the good guys too, but he. he hunts ghosts...also, we haven't seen his Real Form since his debut episode! tiny...

-the guys in white are back! ngl, I assumed they were a gag for that one episode. you're telling me they might actually be a threat? ok.

-valerie in her lil nasty burger uniform looks so cute!! glad shes not in that mascot uniform this time. I guess she stopped hiding that she's working there now?

-gregor having white hair, dressed in black and white...and green eyes...sam has a Type, I guess.

-danny being unnecessarily hostile about gregor. danny!!! hes been nice so far. he looks a little...tall to be 14, but. danny doesnt know anything about him! (he does Suspect, but...you cant just spy on people and be rude to them from a hunch.) also, gregor kissed her, and when she freaked out, he was like 'oh no!! sorry, we can take it slow! I understand!' which was NICE. I hate jealousy plots still tho.

-altho. umm. tucker, being concerned about danny spying on them??? SAM AND YOU WERE SPYING ON DANNY AND VALERIE A FEW EPISODES AGO!!!!! im not saying its RIGHT, but dont be a hypocrite!!! AND THEN SAM BEING MAD ABOUT IT, TOO.

-DANNY IS A 7 ON THE SCALE OF ECTOPLASMIC POWER!!! out of 10? so I want to know where the other ghosts rank...I mean it's a list from the guys in white, so, it may not even be accurate, like, they havent seen ALL of his powers, have they?

-Lancer being like 'im not cooperating with the FEDS' until they said they could access his tax records. they already did that joke with jack, but like, its still funny. kings of tax evasion.

-tucker's aggressive third-wheeling. but gregor being super into it. gregor/tucker is the real ship here. then gregor kissing danny on both cheeks after hugging him. bi poly king gregor. (he does turn out to be a liar with a phoney accent. unsurprising, BUT THE CONCEPT OF HIM BEING GENUINE AND THEM ALL DATING IS FUN)

-THE...GUYS IN WHITE THINKING GREGOR IS DANNY PHANTOM. LMAOOO. GET HIS ASS. or,, Elliot. lmfao

-sam saying tucker is part of the package because theyre friends was super sweet <3 but also 'part of the package'...polyships are obviously the solution to these dumb jealousy/love triangle plots.

-danny crashed a whole plane. the collateral damage...

-is he....

-you know....

.... (ITS NOT GAY IF YOU'RE DOING IT TO PRETEND TO BE SOMEONE YOU'RE NOT, AND LIE TO A GIRL. RIGHT? he was getting a little too into pretending to enjoy tucker's company, and the above...c'mon, guy.)

-lmao, freakshow is in actual prison. I didn't expect a follow up, or for him to show back up! in the finale of this season, too!

-THE SICK TATTOO GHOST IS NAMED LYDIA!!! more Lore On her. freakshow seemed genuinely concerned about her. also, is she mute? I don't think she talked the first time we saw her, either. and we didn't know freakshow 'envied' ghosts, either, the first time, we just knew he was controlling them. interesting!

-...they literally stole the infinity gauntlet from marvel and called it the reality gauntlet. is that legal. what the fuck. even with the gems in the lil slots, having different powers...they had freakshow in jail, but didnt check his pockets??! hes just still in his lil outfit??? what kind of ...oh, its in amity park. yeah, all of the adults are idiots, okay, sure.

-'freakshow!' 'in the anemic flesh!' dude take some iron pills then. also, sure, the red eyes could be contacts for his aesthetic, but the whites of his eyes are yellow! does he have jaundice?! he severely needs more...like, every kind of vitamin. (this is what im worried about as freakshow attacks danny with giant robots)

-again, goth circus is a sick theme, and I love his goth train.

-oh FUCK every single person saw danny transform. on a stage. including his parents via TV. oh god. the guys in white and immediately like 'youre coming in for experiments!' SCARY. at least the crowd is willing to help him to escape...perks of now being a local celeb! even the kids at school are accepting :) this is what, the third time his family has found out? its always been an alt timeline tho. and danny fully intending to just rewrite things again instead of...I dunno, trying to roll with it this time? hes really worried his family won't accept him, huh...

-'maybe our son IS THE GHOST BOY, but its not as if our family's ghostly activities have EVER PUT YOUR FAMILIES IN DANGER' maddie. mmmmmmmmmmmm. okay.

-danny 100% prepared to run away from home because of this :( oh :( and saying his parents are 'looking for him, or a scalpel to dissect him with' ouch...

-THE GUYS IN WHITE TRYING TO ARREST A 14 YEAR OLD. fuck da feds.

-side note (another one about voice actors...) freakshow's voice actor, Jon Cryer, was lex luthor in pretty much every DC tv show, which is why I recognized his voice, because my dad loves those shows so I've seen a good bit of them without seeking them out...)

-the old man saying 'hey, i still had minutes left!' and danny saying 'you gotta watch those roaming charges!' about danny destroying the people in the diner's phones so no one could report seeing him...would kids today understand these things. can you even BUY minutes anymore...I remember my first phone being a flip phone, and the fact I always had minutes when my sister ran out super fast, because I didnt have friends calling or texting me like she did...:/

-the fentons being genuinely like 'why didnt danny trust us and tell us this, we love him :(' and JAZZ LAYING INTO THEM WITH THE 'DISSECTION/MOLECULE BY MOLECULE' LINES. LITERALLLLY. they need to apologize

-technically, lydias stronger than you! -jazz lesbianism moments! when did you even learn her name!!! but also get freakshows ass. lydia is also cooler looking. looove her design sm still.

-jazz psychoanalyzing freakshow... (also, her also having ghost envy? au where jazz is a ghost!! id like to see it)

-im glad the kids still got to go to their respective vacation things, even if they cant really stick around and enjoy them much...

-furry: confirmed. (also tucker calling her hot. tucker is a furry confirmed)

-danny being mad someone at the comic con is selling comics of him without permission, lmfao. give him his royalties!

-freakshow > thanos because hes a drama clown and does use his gauntlet to be FLASHY AND DRAMATIC.

-jazz's 'USE PYSCOLOGY' to danny about freakshow LMAOO. AND THEN IT WORKING. but, oh, freakshow's ghost form sucks. I like him as a clown better tbh. good thing danny took away his ghost powers!

-his parents hugging him and saying theyre proud :"( and saying 'of course you lied to us, we never gave you a reason not to!' and saying they were in the wrong basically for always talking about hurting ghosts aaaa :""(

-then he WIPED THEIR MEMORIES AGAIN!!! FUCK. I can understand him wiping the goverments/student bodies' memories, but why his parents?? they were being accepting!! ARGHHH. season 3 couldve been them all trying to adjust to them knowing!

-I know, on a meta level the showrunners probably wanted to just reset things to the status quo of him having a secret identity. But. We've been doing that for (2) seasons, I'd love if season 3 could be like, his parents adjusting to this and trying way harder to learn more and accept it (and the shenanigans that could come from that) and for fun, if he didn't wipe the students memories, it could be him being popular for a while, then everyone slowly realizing, oh, he's still Danny. Like. he might have ghost powers but hes Just The Same Guy instead of putting him on a pedestal (and seeing them all try and help him hide it from the giw/people who don't know!!)

-fuck they didn't even explain WHY he wiped everyone except sam, tucker and jazz's memories. he just Did It right when his parents were saying they loved/accepted him!! and sam and tucker didnt question it at all!!! HELLO??? very annoyed about this turn of events.

-anyway. onto season 3! I know its shorter than the first two seasons, and is the last season... I might just do it in 2 bursts if I can... :3c depends on the episodes' content and how much I want to say about each!