#i kinda dont want to link the part 1 so you can see it on my blog

[ibahibut]

💀: Fewer wounds, more kisses from me.

🐦‍⬛: Contract's accepted, mi amor.

Music inspiration: A Little Death by The Neighbourhood

[juiice]

The Locked Tomb Fic Recs (8)

Part 1+ Links

Lots of people dont have time to read a lot of long fiction. so i'm going to make a list of my fave long fics, so you can pick out one to read! (hint: its most of the tag lol)(if your long fic isn’t on here i probably read it so long ago i forgot what happened so i can’t put it on this list until i read it again and that will take forever)

The criteria for this one is any hits any time. The Theme is..

… Double Novel Length! (over 100,000 Words)

Four very different roommate stories!

And They Were (the Worst) Roommates! by anotherpassingfancy Rated: E (yes sex) Finished

It’s her second year at Canaan University, and Gideon is finally coming into her own. She has a full athletic scholarship, best friends Pal and Cam, and a found family with the Pents and Terrible Teens. She shares a locker room with her hot teammate Corona, who even knows her name. 

Gideon is happy.

And then she meets her new roommate, Harrowhark Nonagesimus.

I actually need to reread this one because i dont remember what happens BUT i do remember it was awesome. Read if you want fun college AU (i sure am after finishing this list!)

semi-charmed kinda life By: strangedelight rating: E (sex as plot points) WIP

Gideon asked questions. Harrow surprised her with answers. They reached an agreement; they decided to be smart, to be patient. Gideon made a promise, Harrow gave her one in return. Wait and see.

semi charmed kinda life is like when you finally find a good anime thats NOT about teens.(is that just me? Ok) i love the deep characterization in this one, and the rich setting of the 1990s that’s familiar but not too familiar. and it has my favorite thing in it: cam :) more serious than ATW(TW)R, and not completed, but it's Worth It to get into. And it has art! X/X/X/X/X/X @griddlebait is the author on tumblr idk if hes active but!! awesome fic we love it! Read if you want realistic AUs feat team 69 and gay thoughts.

We Have Always Lived in the Apartment By: labyrinthineRetribution rating: T (gore heavy, id say M) WIP

     It is Harrowhark Nonagesimus' birthday, and it only gets worse from there.

WHALITA is crazy. LR always writes the craziest gideon/harrow ever, i think even more dysfunctional than canon, and it’s great to see them struggle with basic things, like… having a roommate. And not so basic things, like living out a horror movie. This one has some art too X @thatneoncrisis is the authors tumblr. Read if you want to be fucked up, and then abandoned because its not finished yet.

Let's Make The Most of this Beautiful Day (Since We're Together We Might As Well)  By:  br0ken_hands, jpnadia Rated: E (sex as major plot points) Finished

    “Harrow?” Gideon does a double-take and grips on to the nearest solid object for support. The keys on the entryway table give a forlorn jingle at the impact. “Harrowhark Nonagesimus?”

    The wraith stops dead partway down the stairs with her hand on the bannister. “Griddle?” (“Griddle?” asks Cam, incredulously, which is about how Gideon feels about that nickname, too.)

    Palamedes gives them a very narrow look. “Harrow, my undergraduate study partner, Camilla Hect. And you’re Gideon Nav, I presume? I’ve heard about you; it’s a pleasure to meet. I take it you already know my roommate, Harrowhark Nonagesimus?”

    Three best friends unsuitable roommate pairs buy adjoining properties and rip down the fences and have a shared garden. There is a goat.

    This fic does not contain spoilers for Harrow the Ninth.

LMTMOTBD (SWTWMAW) is one hell of an acronym for one hell of a story. Thats probably why it's called 4gfs. these are the types of stories i want to print out and put on my shelf. Fun and sexy, not as serious as SCKL or WHALITA. I love everyones problems in this one. does that make sense? Read if you want smut and found family.

Four Empire Griddleharks

 Cataclysmic Variable Star by: Elldritch Rating: M Finished

A continuation of the Harrow Nova AU from chapter 40 of Harrow the Ninth

     CVS is like its own book. Pretty sure i’ve put this on lists before. I love reverend daughter gideon, and how the canon beats are twisted to fit the altered characters. Harrow nova Is… i'm kissing her and she has killed me. Read if you want more canon adjacent. 

Attack on Ninth by: cmdrskip Rated:E (yes sex) Finished

Failing numerous times to escape the Ninth, Gideon gave up the ghost and settled into her forced servitude. The Emperor made no request for the Houses to attempt the Lyctor Trials. Gideon’s miserable life went on in the Ninth House, plateauing into a tedious rinse and repeat cycle of waiting for the seemingly unattainable sweet release of death. The monotony is broken when someone makes it their mission to murder the Ninth House scion. Somehow this becomes Gideon’s problem.

As if it was a universal rule, Gideon’s pitiful life gets worse in the drill shaft. (Get it? The Ninth is a pit and it sucks- whatever).

AU- Gideon becomes the Ninth's cav and tries to keep Harrow alive, without it killing her first.

This one was pretty good. I love the middle part of gtn when our girls are reluctantly working together. They are a little older in this one than canon, and managed to interact with people, and this has changed them just a bit. Read if you want that sweet enemies to lovers slow burn, and interesting plot to go along with it.

Resurrection By: N1ghtWr1ter Rated: E Finished

The Ninth House needs an heir. A little bit of flesh magic later, and its cavalier primary is set up to provide.

And then the Reverend Daughter manages to *ruin sex.*

 This one is 100,000 words of delicious porn. Read if you want 100,000 words of griddlehark fucking nastey on every surface of the ninth. It also has a 20,000 word unfinished prequel in the same universe, reading not required. 

The Flip Side By: No1fan15 Rated: M Finished

Gideon Nav is alive, resurrected by the King Undying, and she's having a hell of a time.

From a now embarrassingly protective Harrow, to her newly gained powers, to a Ninth House repopulated, shit is going down. With her sword, her wits, and her deeply buried feelings, she fights to keep this new life long enough to ensure her adept is safe. But Harrow's talking to herself, the Emperor is lying to them, and Gideon keeps fumbling every chance at a real conversation with the girl she died for.

Worst of all, the River is calling her back, and she doesn't know how long she can stay afloat.

This one is like an alternate HTN if gideon was immediately resurrected. Kinda similar to attack on ninth,in setting, but less sex. Read if you hated when gideon died and pretended like she was magically resurrected in your head. 

Three Earth AUs.

Yellow Card By: Moonblastbitch Rated: E WIP

Harrowhark had 3 things she would always be grateful for: her two cousins, and her son.

Everything else was…fine. Work? Fine. Dealing with the gossipy PTA moms? Her marriage? Not great, but it was fine.

But her son’s big, ginger soccer coach? That butch is FINE.

  What’s discretion compared to new discoveries? What’s loyalty and faithfulness when you’ve just found exactly where you belong?

Yellow card is immaculate. Read if you want to meet Kevin, and love him. Read if you want some steamy sex.

Ask A Ginger By: Rohad Rating: E  Finished

Of all her gigs, writing advice for a column in a skin magazine is probably Gideon's favorite, though walking Noodle for Cam and Pal is a close second. Even when it brings her within glaring distance of their across-the-hall neighbors. The Nonagesimus sisters. The younger, a little weird but fine. The elder? A pit viper.

At least on the surface.

AAG is so funny and gives that good good gideon POV that i love. Read if you love Gideon.

I Will Not Die For You By:ghost_maiden_of_delphi Rating: M Finished

Gideon Nav is a mid-level enforcer for the Nonagesimus Crime Family, and all she wants is out. Luckily, she has a ticket: if she can ferry the don's daughter, Harrowhark, across the country to a meeting of The Nine Families.

There's only three problems: they can't fly, they can't use any of the Family's resources, and Harrowhark is the last person Gideon wants to spend two weeks trapped in a car with. But now it's up to her, alone, to keep Harrow safe and keep herself from losing it on the long, lonesome road ahead.

Read if you love… i'm running out of taglines. It's mafia, guys. Read it. 

+ One Non Griddlehark Adventure

Everything Goes On By: cato_universe Rated: E Finished

In a different time and place, Mercymorn remembers.

or

2,000 years later the Lyctors are born again, to finally get it right.

This one is wild. This one’s not about our main cast at all and instead follows mercy, in another life. I really like it, it’s refreshing to follow her for so long. Read if you want something thats not griddlehark. Gideon is just barely in this one.

OK, if youve made it this far, congratulations! and goodbye.

[sevs-corner]

Back to more ideas on Tf 141: Mafia AU!

(Im world building rn + epilogue/ extra scene to the 1st Chapter)

Link to prev part:

So I was thinking how, the relationship would build between the 5 (Tf 141 and reader) naturally, ‘cause I want the story to build off of like small interactions and one shots but sometimes have like, coherent chapters in between to stabilize the “plot” per se.

(Im rusty with my writing skills and I kinda dont edit, ‘cause this is just practice for me but still lmao)

And I want it to be something gradual (just call it slow burn, they say) and I know I write interactions in a slow kinda way where it bounces back and forth from person to person, showing the reader’s perspective then subtly shifting to the character’s perspective— but I think I want to experiment into that, focusing more on dialogue and conversational exchanges that shows how close their relationship has gotten.

For ex, I was thinking how Soap was still wary of reader in the first chap- not as affectionate as he is with his mates right off the bat, he’s wary and it comes naturally in his line off work. You’re an oddity sure, but its not like he’ll put down his walls for you (yet). His speech is rough and clipped, not wanting to reveal much but letting you be privy to the information he can provide- in the mean time anyways.

Yet , at the same time, I want to show his attraction—

He’s enamored and has (maybe) a little crush, but who wouldn’t when you’re so pretty? Sitting there in the room where they grew up, blanket lazily draped across your form as your barely awake self tries to wake up on his bed, hair poking out in all sorts of places, drool dried at the side of your mouth but damn did he think you were a fresh sight to see in this city.

Maybe you were seducing him? Or was it the allure of the domesticity that was lacking in their relationship? He puts those thoughts to the back of his head ‘till he waits for the news of that meeting he was left out of last night- he feels its important when checking out who you really are.

They can’t afford to be careless, but on the other hand- you kinda were, when you first met them unfortunately, that is. Absent-minded and clumsy, that was what he thought of you as he stared at your tripped up self, sadly sitting in a puddle in pain. You were pale, shivering, and simply a mess.

Honestly, the more that he thought about it, the more it didn’t make sense to treat you like a threat. Well, at least not an active one at that. You could have been having an off day as a spy or an assassin, but if it were him— he wouldn’t be caught slacking like that in public, whether people knew him or of his occupation either way.

He could even see how you lowered your guard! Jeez, you should be more careful- especially with people like him and his mates- if you’re new to the place. He thinks you might be a lil’ looney for going to this place, especially that part of the city when all of its occupants know that it was mostly a dangerous area to get in to and stay at.

As the neutral hub for all of the mafioso around the cities, it is the one place for regular folks not to get involved in. (Unless you want to meet them of course, but he doubts that was your intention… or, shit- it could have been, considering how Price found something on you.)

Now he thinks of you as a potential client, which makes him feel worse of how off-handedly he treated you.

He knew he was gettin’ an ass kickin’ from Ghost if you were, surely.

Alas, what done has been done- at least you still treated him normally as he left, so he thinks he left a good impression.

Though, that wasn’t at the forefront of your mind right now.

Quite literally, you were being worked to the bone for information from the old Italian couple that helped you stay at their lodgings at the 2nd floor of their bakery.

“‘It’ll help un-fuck my week,’ they said but all gave me was a hope that my minimum wage self has to fight for as they get free labor in return!”

But you don’t dare say that, knowing you were speaking out of turn and out of misplaced anger so you keep your mouth shut- cleaning up the bakery for the opening in the morning.

The couple was sweet, but they were also strict, telling you that “you should move your arse so you can sweat off the sick!” Which… you didn’t want to make sense off so you just nodded, asking if that was the compensation for the information of finding your place, and they agreed. On the stipulation that you work and do all the chores on the list they handed you, making you gape and about to ask for a little consideration— but they quickly disappear, out of sight and out of mind, they say.

And you think that was better before you started mouthing off, not get anything, and then end up lost once more— which you wanted to avoid at all costs so you did sweat off the sick.

Albeit, you looked worse for wear.

Which Ghost bluntly points out as you waited their table.

…let’s just say that it was an overtime work-shift that you didn’t get money for and old italian people were slave drivers.

(yes, i made the love-hate relationship start with nonna and nonno)

[kimminsu]

Hiii your icons are so pretty, would you have a tutorial on them or tips on how to do it?

hello lovely and thank you so much!! i have been making icons for a long time, but have also just started with this style of icon, so i don't know how much of a help i can be but i'll try my best! i make all my icons in photoshop, but when i first started i used gimp, it works similar and i'd recommend it if you dont want to commit to ps just yet. this ended up getting kinda long because i went step by step on how i make my icons like the ones from this post, with a bunch of tips and tutorials linked, so i put it under a read more. i specifically go deeper into how to change the colours of his hoodie depending on your background/preferences. i hope i could help even a little bit!

1. the base

one of the first steps is deciding what you want the base to look like. you can do just a solid colour, gradients, patterns, etc. you can use the solid colours and gradients that are already a feature in photoshop, but there are also a lot of amazing resources and bases by other talented people either on here or on deviantart. just look up icon textures on deviantart, you'll be able to find a bunch of textures and pre-set gradients you can use as your base. this is a really great pack you can find on deviantart that offers a bunch of bases. if you'd like to make gradients yourself, here's a really good tutorial! i am not really an expert on explaining how to use textures because i've only really just started with headers.

2. the picture/png

onto the star of the show - the person you want to have in your icon. i usually get those from screencaps from whatever show/movie i am making icons of. you can get screencaps of most shows and movies from screencaped.net. i then isolate the person i want to be in my icon so that the background is removed and transparent. you can do that yourself, here is a very good tutorial on how to do that in photoshop, or you can use other platforms like canva or adobe express, that have features to remove the background for you. you usually cannot adjust those, so if they dont cut out things the correct way you have to adjust in photoshop afterwards. when chosing a screencap you should make sure that the person and silhupette are clear and delinated from the background, without any obstruction in the foreground, so that you can cut out the entire figure easily without parts of their body missing. i usually also look for screencaps where the head and the sites aren't cut off, so that i can freely adjust the sizing and move the figure around. i also try my best to get a scene where the lighting is alright so that i don't have to fight for my life colouring it, but sometimes it can't be helped.

this is one of the screencaps i used for my recent eddie icons and it's a good example: his upper body is clearly seperated from the background, nothing is cut off, etc.

this screenshot is an example that i personally wouldnt use because there is a jug in the foreground in front of eddie that would be in the icon as well.

buck looks very cute in his lil hat but the shot is cut off on the right and on top, so i didn't end up using it either. you just kinda go through the screencaps you have (or take your own) and figure out which frames fit for the type of icon you'd like to make.

if you'd like to make screencaps yourself, here is an easy tutorial to follow!

3. basic colouring

when i make icons like these, i usually dont go too crazy with the editing, i mostly just adjust the lighting and colouring the create a well-lit base. here you can see the unedited png (first picture) and then once ive used a basic colouring (second picture).

this is a very good tutorial on basic colouring using curves, hues, etc, as i've done as well. it is for gif-making but those same editing steps can be applied to still pictures as well.

4. colour isolation

the icons i am currently making are in a style that you can see a lot around tumblr - where parts of the person in the icon, usually their clothes and other accessories, are edited to be a certain colour that matches the background, and that colour can be changed to match different bases. you can see that the hoodie eddie is wearing has a different colour to match the different colours of the background.

i desperately tried to find the tutorial that i used to learn how to do this but i can't, so i'll try my best to explain it myself (brace yourself). i have seen people do this by drawing onto the png, but i use a different method. for this you'll need to have some basic knowledge on layer masks.

we're gonna start with our png image that already has the colouring applied to it (1).

now, click on the layer and add a solid color layer (2). you do that by clicking the symbol i've marked on the bottom and then selecting "solid color...".

in the screen that pops up now you can select the colour you would like the accents to have (3). choose the colour you want and then click "OK".

your entire image should be in the colour you chose. now right-click on the solid colour layer in the layers panel on the right and select "create clipping mask" (4). this will apply the solid colour layer only to the cut out of your lil guy. it should looks like this now (5).

now we're going to adjust the blend mode. right now it should be set to "normal" (6). click onto the drop down arrow and select the blend mode "colour"(7).

now we can see eddies features again! now we want to edit it so that the pink is only on the parts that we want to be colourful. for this left-click on the white box in your solid color layer (8) so that it's selected. after that select the brush tool (9) and make sure it's set to black. we use black to take colour away and white to add colour back in.

now go over all the parts that you don't want to be colourful. if you accidently take too much away don't worry, just switch the brush colour to white and go over what you want to add in again. it looks like this (10) for me afterwards.

you can change your colour if you double click on the little pink box of your colour layer and adjust it however you want.

5. adjustments

after i've done everything listed above i usually group the two layers (your cutout and the solid colour layer) together so i can move them as one (11). after that i pull the group over onto my base and adjust it so that fits properly (12).

now that the cutout is on the base layer i usually go in to properly adjust the colours and make sure the colours on the cutout match well with the background. you can do that by changing the colour manually or using the eyedropper tool. and voilá! i know it sounds like a lot right now reading this, but once you've gotten the hang of it, it really isnt that hard.

i hope this was at least somewhat understandable and that i could help a bit! there are a ton of amazing tutorials out there for all parts of editing and photoshop in general that go deep into details in case there is a specific part you want to learn more about. for now i hope this gives you at least a small overview.

[minjoonapio]

🎐 Wind Breaker Chapter 158: The Great Fires of Extinction (End of the Noroshi arc)

💭THOUGHTS & ANALYSIS [⚠️SPOILERS⚠️]

🧵Twitter/X Version 📖Where to read the manga: Kodansha | Other 📺Watch Season 1 now (S2 in 2025!): Crunchyroll, Netflix

There’s actually not much to analyze about this chapter ‘cause it’s simply well said. So I’ll be sharing my thoughts & feelings. This chapter has such a warm (with a hint of sad) end to a rollercoaster of an arc

Oof my dear boy here needs to rest

I do kinda feel bad for Endo. In a way, he just has this longing and slow burn love for Chika and he just knew he can’t be seen by him the same way he sees Umemiya; being accepted in his world.

Endo gives him everything while he receives nothing (but punches and kicks).

No wait. This is adorable. TF. Endo expects a good hit from Chika but was ecstatic when the kick was harmless. Chika didn’t even give one hit but multiple soft hits??!! STAHP! That’s too cute.

The way Chika's fist froze when Endo mentioned a hot bath 🥲 He's tired af and being babied by Endo 😭

This confirms all the things he said to Sakura about Umemiya is his negative perspective of him. He DETESTS and is jealous of the guy who’s able to be in his Chika’s world.

Now…this is sad.

Something tells me Chika had a really bad experience with people at a very young age…or maybe had none at all :(

Maybe links to his probable face blindness. People who have such condition are usually mistaken to be cold or indifferent towards people, but it's because they have a hard time remembering people's faces. Although, in here, it sounds like his indifference to humans makes him develop face blindness. So I hope we get to hear more of Chika’s past in their talk.

Ah, there’s our Umemiya.

Come to think of it, since his biological family died, Umemiya was exposed to people from different walks of like who are not his blood since he was 9. He has grown and absorbed a vast world for 8-9yrs.

And he could truly tell Chika how amazing it is.

Without even realizing it, Chika actually made the first step to expanding his world. It started from the moment he accepted Umemiya. He even said Ume’s name before Ume told him this trick.

And now that he is aware of it, Chika looks like he decided to accept more people in his world, little by little.

(For some reason, maybe it's because his hair is drenched wet, but he looks lost here 🥺)

I SCREAMED. I knew it. And I’m not even an endochika stan. Oh Endo. Chika has acknowledged him 😫AND A FULL NAME!

(I actually thought we’ll have something dramatic like Togame & Choji crying scene but i dont think it’s ready for that lol)

HUZZAH! UME WON! WE WON! 🎐

Tsubaki collapsed in relief, cutie Choji cheering, and Bofurin, Shishitoren and Roppo Ichiza together rejoicing 🥹and our Class 1-1 are okay 😭

Now y’all gotta tend to your wounds, bath and rest! Jeez 😮‍💨🤧

No words were said but that smile and gesture says a lot. Both leaders didn’t lose. They kept each other's promises.

Umemiya is thankful, happy, and proud of Sakura. Not only for winning and being there for him, but for becoming the person he is now. He is glad his kouhai part of the found family, Bofurin 🥹💚

And we got a double COLOR spread of the two!! 😭😭😭 Thank you Nii sensei! This is beautiful 💚

I hope they get to talk after ALL that. Sakura was a bit shaken up in seeing Umemiya like that and I'm sure he has questions about what Endo meant. Either way, I'm sure Umemiya would want to chat with Sakura about his fight with Endo.

Side note: I LOVE the silly exchange between Umemiya and Endo 🤣most especially reading those small text beside the dialogue bubbles.

I can hear the sarcasm in the “since you didn’t even give half a sht about me before” 🤣🤣🤣

Ah what an end to a great long arc! What a wild ride that was. Hope we get that BBQ! All of them (us included) deserve it 😭

Thank you so much Nii sensei for such an awesome arc. And Jacqueline and team for translating and lettering the manga for us 🥰 You all work hard! 💚

🧵Twitter/X Version 📖Where to read the manga: Kodansha | Other 📺Watch Season 1 now (S2 in 2025!): Crunchyroll, Netflix

Thank you for reading! See you in next week's chapter (Tuesday)!

[ghost-doodles]

okay so with the new link click pv I wanted to get some thoughts underway so uh not really spoilers but I am going to be referencing both seasons and any info from the Bridon arc I have found

first off I am only decently caught up with theories and info so if I get smth wrong lmk because these are very much 2 am rambling (barely even complete) but what I wanted to talk about was the link click powers and CXS death and the timeline.

First I personally believe that the eye changing colors are purely for audience speculation, in order to make it easier for us to identify who is whom and which powers are being used. i.e. Emma having yellow eyes when CXS is possessing her so we know its actually him and his powers. That being said the colored coordination is intentional and each power has a color, ie Lu Guang's past photo sight (idk what its official name is if it has one so I tried) is blue.

Second I don't think these powers are inherently specific to one person and can only stay with one person. as in I dont believe each individual needs to be born with any of these powers. I believe that there are a set of powers out there (so far a confirmed 4 but with the new arc I bet there will be 1 or 2 more introduced) that have the ability to be transferred and inherited, perhaps for some at birth but for the most part not. this comes from the fact that at the end of season 2 I dont think Li Tianxi was sharing her memories with Qiao Ling but what happened instead was her powers were transferring. this is also some what supported by the fact that Li Tianchen wanted to take Cheng Xiaoshi's powers some how. now where these powers came from and how each person got them idk, nor is it on the fore front of my mind right now, however, there are times we see a certain someone with yellow eyes.

Third I believe that in the original time line Lu Guang and Cheng Xiaoshi somehow acquired their powers either together or in a relatively short time of one another, tried to do the whole space time detective shtick and it just went horribly wrong

hence we get the first time Cheng Xiaoshi dies, because given the hints and visuals link click has dropped it is likely he has died multiple times. and from this first time I think this is how Lu Guang was able to go into the past. I just find it highly unlikely that Lu Guang's powers are able to have him dive into the past aswell given that even some powers which were similar were never exactly the same. I also think by him diving into the past and having both power leads to his creation of the rules, as it always seems like Lu Guang knows more than he should (which makes sense if he has done this whole dance before).

but one of the biggest things about all of this is how Lu Guang having, at times, multiple powers just fucks with the timeline. time lines hurt my head so I don't wanna get to much into it but it is important. so far link click runs on a fairly fixed time line where their dives have, are, and will happen (forgive the crap grammar but I think you get what I mean) and while some things are negligent, outcomes happen anyway. the biggest example being during the child kidnap case where Cheng was always the distraction, while always being the kid. ironically how Cheng acts as a distraction and being there as a whole is smth that can be changed a bit without consequences so long as he is the distraction despite one thinking him being this is a big no no.

Now if dives as I said are kinda always going to happen as a fixed point what does that mean for Cheng Xiaoshi's death. Personally I think that there is no feasible way for Lu Guang to save Cheng Xiaoshi as Lu Guang is always going to dive to save him but in order for him to dive he must acquire Cheng Xiaoshi's powers which must happen from his death which happens from the dive and now we've entered the grandfather paradox. I think somehow to save CXS an outside force needs to fix LGs fuck ups and CXS in order to kinda reset the fixed points of time. But bc the universe is rarely so nice it's more likely to try and kill the both of those fools than help them. and by universe I am some what referencing vein bc that little red headed bitch seems to omniscient to not have some sort of power to over see idk time itself or smth.

I also had a thought where in the original time line Lu Guang might not have had powers but via the first dive back to save Cheng Xiaoshi he some how created the complementary power in order to have more control over the time line in order to try to insure his safety or smth idk.

[eziojensenthe3rd]

Midnight Gaming: Slimes Against Ghoulality

From 1/4/25 to 7/4/25 I played some Slime Rancher, a farming sim game where you manage a ranch for lil slime blobs. Pretty straightforward really.

Starting off you build a corral and put some slimes in, feed them occasionally and they'll pop out plorts which you sell on the plort market to make some cash. And you do that for pretty much most of the game. Now sure theres a bit more to it than that since you have a variety of slimes you can bring to your ranch all having different tastes for fruit, meat or veggies as well their favourite foods for double the plorts of varying monetary values. You can feed one plort type to a slime of a different type to make largos, big hybrid slimes that produce plorts from 2 types such as for example a rock slime thats been fed a tabby plort will be a rock-tabby that'll make a rock plort and a tabby plort when fed, double so if fed the favourite food of the source slime.

But for the most part, running your ranch is mostly just feeding your slimes the food they like whether its fruit or veg grown from a garden plot or chickens from a coop plot, collecting the plorts they lay to sell on the plort market which if you sell loads of them your vacuum will speed up and shoot them faster which is a nice quality of life feature but it also means the sounds of plorts being sold creates a nice dopamine effect on the brain, kinda like jingling car keys. The other part of Slime Rancher is exploring the far far range and finding new slimes and items to bring to your ranch to further refine your plort production and rake in the dough, using your newfound wealth to purchase upgrades and ranch expansions to open up new areas in your ranch such as the lab which is important if you want to start on some slime science.

What the heck is Slime Science? Its crafting essentially, using plorts you insert into the labs refinery along with materials gained from drills, pumps and apiaries you can craft at the lab to create devices and such. You can make some teleporters, drones and resource links along with some cosmetic decorations that can be placed in various places in the ranch and outside of it. Getting teleporters and drones along with placeable ports for either selling plorts or sending them to the refinery does make things more convenient. But to be honest? Its mostly just making sure your corrals have food available for the slimes and plorts are being collected either for crafting or for money that can invested unto the aformentioned plots, ranch expansions and upgrades. Its not a bad gameplay loop for a farming sim but it honestly loses steam after a while. The only real issues that can cause problems for your ranch only really occur if you happen to raise largo slimes for getting plorts from two slime types, the first being they go feral and can attack you if you dont feed for a while and the second being if a largo eats a plort from a 3rd type then it becomes a tarr which is a hostile slime that'll absorb your other slimes and will always attack unless you kill it with water and I honestly never had tarrs on my ranch despite having mostly largos of different combinations grouped into several corrals, that situation has never came up at all.

Exploring outside the ranch is to me the more interesting part of the game since I get to explore the several biomes, see a lot of the wild slimes running around being goofballs and finding the gordo slimes which are mass amalgamations of slimes that you need to feed till they pop so you can get the slime key they have, which is needed to open slime doors leading to different biomes of the world. Eventually you get to the ancient ruins of a slime civilization with phasing lemons and quantum slimes and then activate a teleporter to a glass desert? With occasional periods of fire spouts depending on the time of day? Very cool but then things kinda stop... what amounts to a story in slime rancher is the messages left behind by the previous ranch owner known as Hobson who tells you a bit about his past and his thoughts on a lot of the areas you pass through and it seems to build up to something but then.... look Hobson its cool you decided to stay with the person you loved but when you talked about 2 doors in life and how we tend to wonder about the other door we could have taken and how things would've gone, I kinda thought there was gonna be a choice for me make at the end but instead i'm standing at the final area with the last message, staring over the endless desert wondering if there was meant to be an alternate ending here...

Thats the general vibe I get with this game, like it feels like there couldve been more done with this game, with its setting. You could look up your slimeapedia about all the worldbuilding they have for all the plorts you sold get used but beyond that theres not much. It kinda feels like im being harsh on this game and maybe i am but I feel that slime rancher is a bit... whats the word... less meaty than other farming games? Stardew Valley and Graveyard Keeper certanly have a lot of things for you to plan for and keep yourself busy. Stardew has a lot of the fishing, caverns and events that break up the farming loop and Graveyard has the ongoing goal of trying to reunite with your wife with several key npcs only being available during each day requiring you to plan your day to day activities so you can make progress. Slime Rancher doesnt really have that I dont think, you are mostly just ranching slimes with everything else being in service to that activity. Exploring different biomes allows you to gather new slime types and food to bring back and add to the ranch. Slime science lets you create some tools you can place to help streamline your ranching with market/refinery ports and automated drones. Heck theres even a trading post which occasionally has a selection of ranchers who give you offers for slimes, plorts and foods in return for money. But it all more or less revolves around just keeping your slimes fed and selling their plorts and watch the bucks flow in in spite of there not much left to spend it on. It gets a bit monotonous after a bit.

There is... technically something else you can do and its to do with what monomi park added later on. 3 of the ranchers you recieve offers from will invite you to their unique areas for a side activity you can do for them which usually boils down to getting a particular item in that area and deposit it for them in exchange for payment and unlockable upgrades when you reach a tier. Mochi's is a timed mission where quicksilver slimes run around a circuit and you need to hit them with electric shots to make them drop plorts while running through the track yourself and reaching relays to add more time. Ogdens is just walking through a area collecting some purple fruit while ferals try to attack and Viktors is going into a virtual reality simulation to track down hidden glitch slimes before leaving as the area starts being corrupted. You just gather the items they want and deposit them to eventually unlock new upgrades and some of their backstory. Sounds neat right? Except it mostly ends up being redundant in my game since I already have corals with largos of different types with drones doing most of the work for me, leaving me to focus on keeping the drones fueled. These upgrades dont do much for me and the final tier reward from them is they open up more vacant plots for you to use? Cool I dont need that, I have no use for money outside of just purchasing new tiers in the 7zee rewards club for more cosmetic and some powerful upgrades that are a lil too lil to late by now. Outside of going for 100% theres no reason for me to keep playing the game now since theres nothing left of interest to me. Not to say that I had a bad time with slime rancher rather its just something I sometimes go back and play a new save in before I eventually have nothing much else to do and move on. Sort of a rare comfort food type of game.

Ah well. I guess as they say when life gives you lemons, make lemonade or in this case make your own lemons and feed them lemons to promote citrus cannibalism.

NEWS ROUNDUP

New bill proposed to create a 35% subsidiary for animated series, shorts and features. - So I saw this pop up on socials regarding california introducing a bill to help support animation. I suppose with this subsidiary it'll help with the financial side of things and maybe promote some more animated works to be produced? I'll link an article that talks about it a bit more.

Nintendo Switch 2 Direct - So that direct covering the switch 2 dropped and... yeah its impressive as hell but I have never seen a moment more profound where the general hype and excitement that was created from a nintendo direct was dampened so quickly as it did here. Once people noticed that Nintendo didnt bother to reveal the price in that direct and decided to look into it themselves, it created some backlash when it seemed the console was gonna be around $450 with some games such as Mario Kart World being around $80. Yeah thats a bit steep and its definatly worse for folks in the US with regards to those tariffs. Atleast the new mario kart and donkey kong look fun.

Runescape developers jagex reveal a new survival game called Dragonwilds. - You remember Runescape? That browser mmo you played back then? Or perhaps currently still playing on either the old school or current version? Well Jagex has revealed a new game set in the Runescape-verse which is essentially a Valheim kind of survival game. Not much I can personally say other than that I remember that Runescape card game they made before called Chronicles that ended up dying out. Not really related just thought that was neat to recall.

NEWS ROUNDUP OVER!!!

So with not much left to say about Slime Rancher, whats left to fill this article? Well... I did decide to return to fallout 76 and took the HRT that turns you into Walton Goggins.

So from when I last played Fallout 76, theres been a lot of updates and new changes added such as perk card changes, a new raid involving a snake and of course a questline for folks at lvl 50 where you can transform into a ghoul with a lot of noticeable changes and not just how you look. 1st things first, radiation is now good for you since it now heals you and your hunger and thirst meters are now replaced with a feral meter that you need to take chems to raise it... or let it drop and embrace the negatives of being feral for a huge boost in melee damage. Now since you lose hunger and thirst, you'd think any perks or legendary effects that reward keeping your meters high would benefit greatly from them being disabled. Well unfortunately a lot of those perks are disabled for ghouls along with the legendary effects. On that same note since radiation now heals instead of reduce hp, any bloodied build you might have that relies on radiation to activate those effects are now much harder to proc consistently as a result. Course trying to create a bloodied ghoul build isnt really in your best interest since one other perk of being a ghoul is on full health, radiation will cause you to gain Glow which grows over your own health and act sorta like an overshield. In addition theres some ghouls perks that costs some glow for some extra damage or other effects such as Science Monster giving your energy weapons more damage for some glow, Glowing One where having high amounts of glow allows other ghouls on your team to gain glow and theres Action Ghoul where having glow increases you AP regen to name a few.

Of course there is some caveats to the ghoul life that you'll have to deal with such as the fact that many factions will want nothing to do with you and any quests you have with them will be paused until you head to radiant hills and acquire a disguise which covers your whole self and hides your ghoulish features. You cannot take this disguise off so any cosmetic outfits you had cant be equipped and if you want to take it off you need head back to that npc to remove it. This honestly kinda sucks and outside of the Enclave and the Brotherhood of Steel, most places are already kinda chill with ghouls yet will be cold towards you for no reason whatsoever unless you're disguised. And theres nothing available at radiant hills outside of disguises, no quests or even vendors. Its just a bunker filled with ghouls who constantly whine and were it not for the neccessity of wearing a disguise, you'd have no reason to be here. Seems a bit slapdashed with how Bethesda handled the whole ghoul thing huh?

So yeah, is it worth going back to 76 to be a ghoul? Well there are some benefits and its neat that the "survival" mechanics that were barely a problem are now removed entirely as a ghoul along with radiation being a boon rather than an annoyance unless you want the reduced hp for a bloodied build. I think the only other times you can play as a ghoul were in Fallout Tatics and that diablo-like Fallout Brotherhood of Steel that was lauded as the worst one in the series.  Up to you if you think being a ghoul is worth playing fallout 76 for.

Is it worth getting Slime Rancher? I feel with that game you shouldnt go into it with the expectation of it being like Stardew Valley or Graveyard Keeper since its nothing like those games. Its pretty straightforward in what you do there, your a slime rancher so you gonna manage a slime ranch and ranch slimes. The exploration across the far far range was the only other thing you can do besides ranchibg and once you've explored everything then all thats left is managing the farm and gathering more gold. It can be relaxing for a lot of people but for me it does get old after a while especially if theres no end goal to keep me motivated. Honestly just look at gameplay videos of it and screenshots and if the slimes look cute to you then you'll probably have a decent time with it if you pick it up when its on sale.

Thanks for reading this issue of Midnight Gaming, feel free to leave feedback and game suggestions. Talk to you all another time.

[stitchwraith-stingers]

CUPIDS GUIDE TO STIMBOARD MAKING

i want to state off that theres no wrong way of making it! for excample, i personally dont like using slime and soap cutting gifs but others might really like using them and thats ay-ok! just my own advice for people who might also want to do them, since my own sideblog is just self indulgent boards lol

PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD CREDIT UR GIFS

pinterest is your worst nightmare, alot of stolen and reuploaded gifs, people take time to make these gifs! i just usually link back to where i found these gifs, heres a post explaining it

for mobile its harder so i reccomend just pasting the links to whatever post that have the gifs you like in a draft and after youre done for the time being and are ready to put them you paste them one by one where youd like to put them (tutorial by stimboardboy here)

heres my own little link-back banner thingy i use so you can copy and paste -> 1 2 3 / 4 5 6 / 7 8 9 ; i myself just use different emojis corrilating to the theme but you do you, its your board

since im a laptop user, i usually download about 4-5 gifs on their own and when i have to download more i just override the savefile on those ones (make sure to save the boards before doing this! it could remove the previous gif due to it not being there now lol)

how to find gifs

heres afew tips from another person!

been using this tip ever since i was told this, say i only want to find blue, you type #stim #blue in the search tag!

and just like that, viola! posts that contain blue gifs! works abunch of other stuff

you can add another tag if you want to, and its mainly how i use to find my own gifs! i reccomend trying other tags like #Blue stim since ive also seen people tag certain things like that, go crazy!

cant find it? you can gif it yourself!

i personally find my own stuff via youtube shorts or tiktok, but if its a long video that you cant (i use icecream recorder, which has its own little watermark so i make sure i clip it slightly bigger) a

s for my own clipped videos, which is the middle pic, i just paste them onto a tumblr draft and download them on my computer from there since i dont like using my phone often, kinda a hassle, if you have the space then i reccomend google drive or emails instead lol

and then i use ezgif! which ill segway into talking about how to use it to color

it can be kinda tricky, sometimes it works well and other times it. doesnt lol, note to self that if you want the gif to become black and white (like these two) you check grayscale, not monochrome

if you want the tint to be lighter you have to put it at 100%, but other then that you cant make it lighter so it can look a little bit awkward and sometimes the hue wont be the best, try messing around with the saturation and brightness if you have to but i myself say that its semi hit-or-miss

i heard people using photoshop to edit their gifs but i cant help you with that from then on, lol

but what do i put in there?

i usually pick between 2-4 themes to use for my gifs and its by association, ill use afew of my own as excamples

first one is based off an episode, so my idea is what happens in it ill base it off, the whole idea is that its a board game set in the desert, with alot of biking and a snake antagonist, so i looked up those 4 subsecently

the second one is a character who has 4 different forms, and used to live in a rainforest, and by extention ill use rain gifs with the rain- part of it

if you ever need help then you can also look up said character to see if other stimboards were made of them for inspo, though that might not be very reliable if the character youre looking up for is sorta niche (me being the only person to consistantly post fop boards 😭😭) but you should give it a try anyways

of course you dont have to stay on a association theme, you could just look up brown and blue because the characters color scheme is brown and blue, thats up for you to decide!

find other blogs to help find gifs!

i reccomend finding other blogs to find gifs, afew i personally reccomend are deadboystims, starclanstims / battlecatstims / brightpawstims, stimboardboy, talos-stims and heartnosekid! its going to be a little bit harder since the search system on actual blogs is very finnicky lol but if you dig you could maybe find something you like

also another thing i reccomend is looking at blogs that archive old gifs from deleted accounts, accounts like stimkids, stimgifarchive, vintagestims and deletedstimgifs

stimmyvillain and stimmyvillainarchive also have aton of old gifs you can use, just arent circulated as often

other stuff

like i mentioned i reccomend just putting the links to posts with gifs you want to use untill youre ready to properly update your draft and link them back, and with every gif i upload i like to save the post as often as possible, thats just me being me though

that should be it, i dont think i missed anything but if anyone wants to ask questions lmk 👍 i hope this was cohirent as possible akjhkajhkajha

[dreamerwitches]

I have mixed feelings on the witches, I'm gonna go through them all.

Renata and Ren: It just doesn't feel like the minor bits match up. There's too many bits that are just slightly too different. Like the screen shape and the bone colour and style. Am I being nitpicky? It just doesn't feel like the witch and doppel are linked. Or that they wanted to make this design for the witch and didn't really care that it didn't look like her doppel. I suppose I like how the witch is more organised than the doppel cause my gripe with it is that it feels a little like the parts don't mesh well. Like, what is going on with that pink bit it does not work. On its own, the witch is good. Fine, pretty, but a little bland and simple. As a design taking from the doppel, I think it kinda fails. Too much was changed.

Cyan and Hinano: Ehhhhhhhhhh I think they just made her worse?? Like, there's so little changed cause the doppel is so witch-like anyway but the changes they did do make her look worse XT the bright tubes are ugly and I dont understand the moth-ear-thing additions. Also the skirt is worse too lol. I miss the gas mask though I understand if that was added for Hinano but you can keep it on the witch c'mon! It's just like they removed all the best parts...

Don Rocinante and Sasara: Ehhhhhhhh here we go again. It looks stupid. C'mon she looks so stupid. Not in an uncanny, scary way, she looks so dumb. I included the doppel attack where she does get legs and that was silly but not as much as this one. Otherwise so little is changed mehhhhh. I liked the doppel so you kinda ruined her for me, thanksssss

Shalimar and Emiri: This is one I'm on the fence on. Design on its own, I really like. She's spooky and weird and the colours are great. I have to main issues. 1) does a 13 year old need such a sexual feeling witch and 2) does she link to her doppel well. The thing with curvaceous or sexualised witches is ones like Roberta I know are okay cause she was in her 30s when she became a witch. You could say some like Candeloro are sexualised cause she's got the booba and stick thin waist, it's kinda hard to deal with... I'm also finding it hard to judge cause I don't know if it suits Emiri, I don't know her character very well. So we'll just move on. If I drew it I would make her less adult-looking My other thought when looking at her beside her doppel was 'if this doppel came from this witch I would hate the fact it uses so little of the witch'. So switching it around, im a little mad they used so little of the doppel. It's like they had the idea for the body and wanted to use it and were like 'oh yeah! the doppel!' so stuck it on as a tail... Also the flower things on the doppel arent in the witch at all ughh. If she was just a new witch on her own id love her...

Vayu and Shizuku: Wow! One I actually finally like now! I think she looks super beautiful, the additions work! But she's not perfect... Just like Emiri and Shalimar, I don't see the doppel working if the witch came first. Why is her handbag now the head? It feels like the teapot(?) head on the witch came out of nowhere. But it's nowhere near as bad as Shalimar. She might be my favourite. I've always been 50/50 on Vayu and she improves that score.

Aodamo and Natsuki: This one's a bit boring... it just feels like they stuck on some additions and called it a day. I think if she was stood up straight I'd like her more... Love the teeth on the horn thing. Skirt is fine. Legs look awkward. Sad they removed her puffy sleeves, doesn't make sense as why the doppel would add that aspect.

Overall, it is a little annoying how clearly some of these are just super easy asset copies of the doppels with no effort put in... I think that's fine for say, Vayu as I think the doppel incorporation makes sense. She's a four legged beast so Shizuku is now riding her. But ones like Don Rocinante, Cyan and Aodamo seem like 5 minute attempts. I'm disappointed. Happy to see witches though, I'm only critical because I care about witches being good

[alias-mike]

hi guys work is boring so im yapping about a fic im working on

ok. im writing an absolutely unhinged hi3 fic right. and its planned to have 2 parts, each based on a movie (basically a "what would honkai characters do if they were in the situations of these movies) and ive run into some problems.

you see, ive decided to make otto the villain of the first part because it lines up with both the plot of the movie and also honkai lore pretty well. however, i have no idea what his motivation should be/why hes evil. like yeah sure i GUESS his motivation can just be "to get more powerful" and "to cause chaos" but thats boring and a bit of a cop out. it also lowkey misses the point of his character because the reason he was Like That in hi3 was because he became obsessed with the idea of kallen and bringing her back to life. like he was a pretty chill guy before all that.

OKAY I HAVE AN IDEA BUT IDK IF I WANT TO DO IT. basically the setting is the cold war and the characters are an age where they wouldve been children during ww2. so, theoretically, there are many ways i could make ottos motivation linked with kallens death. the thing is, i dont feel comfortable writing about a serious and tragic real life event like ww2 and i dont think id be able to do the proper amount of research required to portray it accurately and respectfully. so uhh this idea is a bit of a no-go

the other issue is that i dont have anyone to make the villain of the second part 😭 otto lowkey has to die at the end of part 1 and while outlining part 1 i kinda made world serpent characters be the american government so kevin is out of the question as the villain of part 2 as well. i also havent kept up with hi3 part 2 and i dont reaaallyyy want to read all that just to maybe have vita be a viable villain or something. maybe otto just doesnt die and comes back more evil than ever. or something. ill figure it out one way or another

[boba-foxy]

ITS COINING TIMEEEEEEEEE (again)

Introducing....

Lafemmevocalstimmic! (yes, im making an entire xenogender related to a hyper specific vocal stim of mine, im dead serious) (just didnt feel like id'ing images this time, so feel free to rb and add image ids to it_

the flag is meant to resemble the colour scheme oif the actual song's cover art, not the one with the yt link i posted bc its the best quality ver i could find of the version of that song i like

Lafemmevocalstimmic is a xenogender related to saying "la femme" (the 1st 2 words of the french section of the italo disco song you... see by hélicon) or the entire french part (la femme la voie que je regarde (etc,etc, you get the point)) & Miché from regretevator (yes, ik that miché got removed from the game, but i do have him as one of my many f/os & i hyperfixate on him for some reason, but i kinda feel bad for his creator tho. but i cant stop it for some reason)

This gender may feel euphoric, energetic & joyful. It was made with fictosexuals/yumejoshis/yumedanshis who have miché as their f/os & fictionkins, but anyone (who is neurodivergent ofc) can use this xenogender, with or without the miche part, if they dont want to ofc! ^^ (1st image is the flag meant for its target audience in mind btw)

Possible pronouns may be: miché/femmes/lafemme/michéself/femme/etc

anyways

this is what song i was talking about btw (la femme part is at 1:59)

[wildernezz]

woahahaha im finally making an intro blog no wayyy, also dont mind me spreading my reblog > likes agenda

about me:

hey ho im wildernezz and we be ballin af. i'm an osdd-1b system and i might be more open about that later but i also maybe not who knows lol. i do animation, edits, writing, regular art, kinda anything art-related honestly, but i usually just post digital art here. pronouns are whatever tf you want but i prefer he/him. here's some other random stuff i can rattle off: infj, gemini, i like witchcraft, once made an album that currently has 200 pictures of joe keery because i thought it'd be funny, also once restarted the soviet union in 6th grade, currently making a presentation on david aames' mental stability for algebra, overanalyzing film is my only real personality trait, and i think bugs are funny-looking. anyways we vibe.

fandoms:

multifandom as all hell, but here are the ones i'm most consumed by currently and you can expect to see a lot of.

Dead Poets Society

Death Note

Homestuck

Musicals (BMC especially) & Film stuff in general

other fandoms that i'm also a part of but post less frequently about:

Camp Camp

Eddsworld

My Little Pony

Sanders Sides

Stranger Things

Undertale

there's a boat load of other fandoms but i don't engage that much in those so they're not entirely worth mentioning.

feel free to ask me for doodles btw. im always looking for ideas loll.

links:

here's some other places you can find me but they're honestly not that important since i'm only really active here.

abandoned youtube #1

semi-abandoned youtube #2

also abandoned twitter account

surprisingly not completely abandoned ao3 account

my spotify & pinterest if you want those ig idk this is all i got guys

also this other side blog where i analyze people from time to time: @analyzing-people-like-hell along with my cringier side blog @nezz-cringe-crib

friends!!:

here's some of my friends who are very cool and you should check out :3

@awesomejedie (all kinds of cool thingies!!!! i think of it as a silly treasure box filled with random goodies :33)

@b0cc (posts many awesome art stuff :D)

@chick3nbot1000 (reblogs fun stuff and every now and then posts fun random stuff)

@dandebbfan (posts random cool stuff about her interests that are fun to see)

@saucelys (FUNKY ART PERSON WHO DOES FUNKY ART THINGS AND OTHER STUFF AAAGAGAGA)

thats all i can think of rn. i'll probs add more later but for now we ball B)

[abberantmachine]

Umm hi you dont have to answer if you want. Can i maybe hear your thoughts on Nonagon Infinity? You've kind of made me realize that although the songs flow together so deeply, I've still been seeing the subject matter of each song as like, individual to each other. I'm curious what you think of the album as a whole.

oooh yeah, such a fun album - I think I felt similar the first few listen-throughs but now I do get more of a sense there's more like... 4 sets of 2 songs that feel connected and 1 that is just kinda hanging out there.

lyrically I don't know if Robot, Stop and Big Fig Wasp have much in common, but the wasps in the first song's music video insinuate some commonality. Same with Gamma Knife and People Vultures.

Evil Death Roll and Invisible Face's music video both have references to a crocodile, Wah-Wah and Roadtrain are both about the devil.

and Mr Beat is there. hahahaha

this has a lot to do with my feelings of the gizzverse being less of a single continuity and more of an interconnected multiverse where there can be parts that are more post-apocalypse dark sci-fi, or more of a high fantasy vibe, a psychedelic mixture of sci-fi with magical elements or using concepts from the Christian mythos.

In the same vein there isn't a straightforward story connecting all 3 parts of the MOTU album, I don't think they need to be explicitly read as one story - but there are decidedly links. Most obviously being the same wizards from Gamma Knife appearing in Invisible Face.

And as I said, I don't think it's a coincidence either that Roadtrain swings back into Robot, Stop - with both tracks having a mechanical focus.

I've heard whispering that Jason Galea was going to make a music video for the full album that never happened, one can only speculate what else might've been drafted up for that. Even then, I do think what's there already gives us a lot to think about.

eg. we have Han-Tyumi's first appearance (I believe!) and we see him in this factory under the ocean creating these mechanical wasps. We can sort of see the music video alluding to what happens in MOTU - Han-Tyumi is betrayed by his creation somehow, the mechanical wasps multiply out of control and create an enormous wasp to confront him. Han-Tyumi goes berserk and attacks it, then it retaliates.

considering a lot of the lyrics in Robot, Stop are about the physical limits of one's body, maybe the wasps were designed to help Han-Tyumi? He has quite a bit of compassion for animals and probably sees a lot of himself in colony insects that work hard and build things. Maybe he didn't even intend to freak out and attack the big wasp, it just unfortunately alarmed him.

Big Fig Wasp continues this thread, I think we start to see Han's conflict about his relationship to nature. We can feel it evoked in the imagery of biting into a fig with a wasp in it. Having a hornet in his throat. He's cognisant of the negative impact everything is having on the environment but still feels helpless to stop it.

but also, "did your God know / insects grow in my pome?" almost sounds cautiously optimistic. Maybe there's still a chance of something growing, it could also be a metaphor for the idea itself being planted into his head like a parasitic wasp.

Road Train is also interesting in this context of starting the cycle of infinity anew, the head of the ourosboros returning to bite the tail. It evokes that sort of industrial, apocalyptic feeling that defines Han-Tyumi's world. It has a bit of a thematic rhyme with the monsters in Petrodragonic Apocalypse. The universe is a machine, chugging along in an endless cycle.

I'm probably never going to have one definitive theory on this album, and there's other bits and pieces I've thought about but I'm not really sure I could tell you what I think they might mean. I sort of like just being able to let it speak to me in whatever way it happens to.

And it is sort of like. One of the most prominent in establishing this idea of non-linearity, cycles and this sort of... surreal cosmic entanglement. What a lot of the following "gizzverse" albums seem to vibe off of. I don't think it's a huge stretch to look at some of the following albums as branches of the nonagon cycle, in which case I think a bit of vagueness can lend itself well to contrasting with later parts.

[alicepooryorick]

Ship ask let's go with

Shivadinah

Shivababs

Dinahbabs

Dinahhelena

Oooo that's a lot. I got thoughts (please remember tho it's been a hot sec since I read BOP)

First off, ship all of these, they aren't all like... Final destination ships (some are) but they have content.

Shiva Dinah

I just talked about this in https://www.tumblr.com/toomanyf4ndoms7/774913989572460544/dinahshiva-for-the-ship-ask-game-please?source=share

ShivaBabs

1: What made me ship it?

It wasn't supposed to be a ship when I started writing my ShivaBabs fic. I wanted to explore giving Shiva time as a main character, and give her a human connection she'd be forced to respect. The idea I landed on was Barbara, as she is almost yang to Shiva's yin. She is the master of the non-physical, whilst being very formidable in the real world too. She's simply held back by a trauma that rebirthed her, same as how Shiva moves in instinct and not deeper plotting so as to avoid digging to hard in her mind and seeing Sandra. They're opposites but Shiva understands that if either wanted the other dead, they could do nothing. In my fic, I wrote it in part as Shiva deeming Barbara as part of the "gods" Shiva is part of, I don't outright say it but it's the same place Shiva puts Superman.

Then as I wrote, it kinda Chuck Dixon'd pretty hard, and Shiva felt naturally like things would go a direction, plus I had a commenter who REALLY liked the idea and .. honestly I did too. I was just scared to give Shiva a heteronormative relationship but... Honestly the BOPolycule protected her from that. I don't think this is a monogamous thing for Barbara, but i dont think Shiva would be part of the larger BOPolycule. I also don't think she'd WANT to settle down, but it's commited.

2: my favorite parts

Similar to the link in the previous, I think the ship is great for both characters. It gives Barbara a character that Bruce is not tied to to allow her stories to easy branch away from the bats, but it gives Shiva a character that's not Cass who she can think of as an equal.

Beyond that, I think the awkward dynamic of like... Cass's whole existence. I see Barbara as Cass's main caregiver, even if Bruce technically adopted her. And I'm certain Shiva would rather someone like Barbara look after Cass. But at the same time, as much as Shiva DOES care about Cass... She's no mother. She looks at Cass and sees Carolyn. She can't raise that kid.

Other note is how they run parrellell. They both faced extreme trauma and rebirthed themselves behind a new name, a new face. They became masters if their respective worlds.

3: hot takes

I mean this ship's existence is a hottake lol. I've had this idea (because I kinda want to write comics) of "World's Mightiest" a comic about Oracle and Shiva operating beyond the JLU's watch, using it as an excuse to return to Oracle Babs proper. Something something (because I always think about this as pre52 Babs, not comic Babs) a few scenes where Shiva says something like "you forsake your divinity for them" with her seeing Barbara on her feet, Barbara as Batgirl, as Barbara ignoring what she "ascended to."

DinahBabs:

1:

God. What doesn't make me ship them. They're kinda just... Obvious. Like, if Barbara could only have one partner? Dinah. Dinah... It's a bit hard, this isnt DinahShiva where honestly I think they have a complicated relationship thing going on, or Shiva is pining and they hooked up once in their own way... I will say the fact I LOVE DinahOllie gets in the way there. But IIRC Dinah explicitly said she wanted to keep that relationship open? (Citation needed) So like....

Also I love that panel showing Barbara sleeping next to her comms to Dinah.

2: honestly it's the way we see them just... Together. Living. This isn't some awful weird relationship that's probably toxic, they're just good for eachother. They even the other out.

3:

Hottake: OllieDinahBabs can be there. I think Ollie can get two girlfriends to cook and do house work for. as a treat. He deserves it, and it makes my one issue with the ship evaporate INSTANTLY.

DinaHelena

1:

Honestly, I don't remember BOP as well as I'd like, I'm trying to collect the trades to reread but 😩 I still know that they had some just... God... It's BOP, you know what it reads like. I'll be honest tho, this isn't a hard ship it like the other three. If this was never a thing, I wouldn't mind. I think of them mostly in regards to the BOPolycule. Whether these two are a big thing for me depends on how the BOPolycule is going. I think DinahBabs would survive over this.

2:

Honestly, I just don't think about this ship alot. It's not deep in my mind. Sadly. I don't really have one.

3: same as last answer, this is in by me loving the BOPolycule but I really do not think about it much enough to have a hot take. Which... Is bad considering I have far more thoughts on Shiva Babs which has no basis I know of in canon.

[bourbonificould]

I saw that you did thoughts on Lilly, so how about your thoughts on her main counter, Kenny

Fair goes. Again, SPOILER WARNING (+ A LOT OF TEXT)

I think Kenny is one of the best written characters in the entire series. The apocalypse clearly changes him from Day 1. In the first episode, hes family oriented and willing to do what it takes to keep them alive, but in episode 2, you can see how hes already cracking a little (mainly due to arguments with Lilly). I actually think we miss a crucial detail. Katjaa. Something tells me in between episode 1 and 2, he and Katjaa's relationship begins to get tough. They probably argue a lot(shown by him trying to convince Kat that guns are mandatory), and it ends up with Katjaa not wanting to live in a world where all she has is Kenny(could be a stretch, but Ken was willing to go on after losing Duck + Katjaa.)

Kenny's biggest weakness is his strength. He is TOO convinced that hes unbreakable, that bad things dont happen to people like him. And when they do, he doesn't cope well because he doesn't know how to handle it. In season 2, after losing Sarita, he blames Clementine briefly, but in little time, hes back to being all caring/trusting of her. AJ and Clem is what he wanted to protect, even if he was doing a questionable job. Arvo turns into his frustration punching bag, and while Arvo kinda..... does..... play a part in the group's downfall, Kenny is VERY hard on him.

One thing I love about Kenny is his willingness to make things right. He sacrifices himself for Christa or Ben, attempts to care for Clementine, and when he fights Jane, he accepts your choices for what they are, and he practically begs you to go to Wellington, sacrificing a person to turn to in the darkness. In my eyes, that's a great trait of his.

I do think that Telltale fails miserably with he and Jane in season 3. Kenny turns into a caring parent again, wanting to teach Clementine the basics and keep AJ safe. Its like a small family, which they rip away in such a lame way. He survives the herd in season 1 but dies to a car crash...

Idk really, I think Kenny is an S or A tier character in terms of writing and link to the story, and in my personal favs, he ranks probably top 5ish. But I can totally see why people dont like him, maybe my playthroughs have generally went well with him.

[rjschoicesstuff]

Musical Chairs game at the start of Book 1 + final 3some scene at the end of Book 2. How would those be different for Rippy + her Gabe and Cas? I think I remember you doing some drawings for the musical chairs some months back but still

Musical chairs scene:

I like the scene as it is because it gives you the choice whose lap to sit on + who to show interest to and I think that works best for Choices I guess. + I think it's funny with them both wanting to be chosen and getting pissy at each other and stuff and having that power in the scene. (Tho I think it could also work with mc sitting down and the choices are more about how you'll let mc react)

Howeverrr I do feel like Ripley would be like 'okay I'll join in' and sit down herself. Both due to being more into letting people come to her and show their interest and because she wonders if Cas will just back off if he has to play like that (he doesn't). I also like how Gabriela would act extra nervous while Cas is kinda just circling Ripley like she's prey lmao. When Gabe sits on her lap she's just comfortable and they're both rly giddy and stuff, acting a bit silly, Cas is definitely rolling his eyes at them. While when Cas sits in her lap she gets shy and a bit nervous and he'd tease her for it lol. I think it'd be so funny like everyone is just having fun while those 2 r just in a whole competition over who gets to sit in Ripley's lap. Tho it's only really about Ripley for Gabe, at that point in Time Cas is just trying to keep Gabe away from her because he can't stand seeing her with other people.

Linking the artworks of the scene again cuz they apply here hehe

3some scene:

(Note that due to my version being written before book 2 being out, when I speak about book 2, I just go with the canon lore and backstories and just reimagine the scene if I feel like it'd be different with Ripley and stuff)

Ok bye the cut didnt work but stop reading here if u dont wanna see nsfw ish talk:

So like I like this scene and I think they gave The People what they wanted lol. And it felt like a sign like ok these 2 rly have Accepted that mc loves them both and can love them both at the same time + they have accepted each other too now, u kno? Like by the end of book 2 they have become a package deal to me.

But ok that said, I like to imagine it wouldn't have been a 3some. Like it'd still be too soon for Cas and Gabe and instead it's mainly just heated kissing and caressing and stuff. And everyone, including Ripley is still sorta figuring out how to do this whole thing with 3 people. It'd be awkward, I think they'd kinda be in each others way sometimes and stuff. But they'd all be like rly giddy abt it lol, they're having fun and that's what matters. And cuddles and talking afterwards.

It's like that too in my version when they get more intimate as a trio for the 1st time, I honestly don't know if they'd ever have a 3some until becoming a triad, because I think they'd both just wanna throw themselves on Ripley, but Ripley feels a bit like a fish out of water when she's mainly on the receiving end? So she prefers just one on one until then. I think part of the fun for her is seeing them Together too. I like the idea of maybe one tipsy 3some that happens before becoming a triad where the next day everyone is just like 😳🤭😳 u know which emoji is Ripley. Maybe they never even rly have that talk like ok we're a triad now lol im derailing so bad im calling it quits now LOL.