#i kinda have an ancient egypt fixation

[invis-o-william]

Day 7: Mind Control

With a start, Tucker woke up, the memory of sand and pyramids fresh in his mind. After looking around his darkened room for a moment, he sighed and settled back into his pillow.

Ever since his encounter with the staff of Duul Aman, he kept having odd dreams. Of Egypt, ancient temples, and strange foreign words he could almost decipher but kept escaping his grasp.

Turning, Tucker looked at his bedside clock. It was 3:35 A.M. and there was no way he would be able to fall asleep again after his dream. He knew from experience that if he did the dreams would only grow in intensity. So instead he flicked on the light and grabbed his PDA from its stand.

He opened its journal app, and after tapping for a new entry began typing out what he could remember from his dream. It wasn’t much this time; a river boat on the Nile, an image of the Great Pyramids, and a few odd hieroglyphs, but nevertheless he recorded all he could. The journal was full of these dream entries. Sometimes Tucker could manage to decipher the hieroglyphs he saw in his dreams, but most of the time there were too few to gain any real meaning from them.

From what he could learn though, most of them were from spells. Spells reserved for only the highest priests to perform, often in secret. Spells that Tucker couldn’t help but wonder if he could use. He had used ancient Egyptian magic before hadn’t he? While it had been when his mind was in the grips of Duul Aman, it was still his body, his abilities. But he was still nervous to try. To do so would mean using the staff, letting its power course through him again, and Tucker wasn’t sure he could handle it.

He had long accepted that he was somehow the reincarnation of Duul Aman, living once more in the modern age. While that was true though, he also wasn’t Duul Aman anymore. He wasn’t a tyrant bent on power and immortality through any means, and he valued his family and friends more than anything else. What bothered him though was that version of himself still existed, at least within the staff.

Whenever he held it, it was hard not to lose his mind to the power that it contained. The staff would so easily overtake him and make him into the man he didn’t ever want to be that he was nervous to go near it.

If these dreams kept up though, he might just have to try. They were growing in frequency and intensity and Tucker desperately wanted to understand what they meant. Mulling it over in his mind, he sent a text out in his group chat with Danny and Sam which was appropriately titled “Boo Buddies” before beginning his research on the hieroglyphs from this night's dream.

. . .

The next morning at school he ran into Sam first, which was typical. Danny usually either ran into a minor ghost on the way to school, or was otherwise held up by his parents’ insane inventions.

“What did you mean by past life dreams Tuck? And in the middle of the night?” she asked straight to the point. Tucker sighed, he had been hoping she would at least wait for Danny to get there.

“Well, it's Duul Aman. Ever since the whole staff thing I keep getting dreams about him, and I want to try something." He kept his wording intentionally vague, half worried about her response and half worried about getting to class on time. “I’ll tell both you guys more about it at lunch, we should get to class.”

Sam narrowed her eyes at him, but followed to homeroom regardless as she saw Danny rounding the corner.

. . .

“You want to try what?!” Danny’s yell was swallowed by the cacophony of sound produced by the cafeteria.

“Keep it down will ya?” Tucker hushed him, “It’s not that big of a deal!”

Danny ran a hand through his hair, “Not a big deal? Tucker we’re talking about messing with Duul Aman’s powers. You know, the guy who kinda turned you into a megalomaniac for a bit? I’d say that’s pretty big.”

Sam shrugged, “I don’t know, I think it might be worth a shot.”

Tucker huffed a laugh. Of course, leave it to the goth to be interested in spells.

“But what if he takes over Tucker’s mind again and goes all Pharaoh-ey!” Danny said, waving his hand in a mimicry of Tucker using the staff.

“That’s why you guys will be staying with me.” Tucker swallowed, “Just in case I can’t fight it off, I want you guys to knock me out before I start going nuts.”

Danny looked at Sam for help, but she shut him down.

“You know if we don’t help he’ll just end up trying it by himself.” she said, and Danny couldn’t help but agree that she had a point there.

“Fine,” he sighed, “but I still think this is a bad idea.”

. . .

They met that night in Jackson Park by the treeline, Sam and Tucker on foot and Danny in ghost form with the staff. Ever since the Duul Aman incident he had kept it stored in the Ghost Zone with Pandora since she seemed the type to know how to care for ancient cursed artifacts.

“Ok,” said Tucker, rubbing his hands together nervously. “Did you bring a book Sam?”

Sam replied by pulling out a black leather-bound journal from her coat.

“Good, good. Ok so now I just need…the staff.” he looked hesitantly at the scarab topped staff in Danny’s hand.

“Uh, what spells exactly are you going to try? Just in case something goes wrong.” Danny asked, well aware of how the staff thrummed with power when Tucker looked at it.

“Right, um well, first I’m going to try a book protection spell that I found. I figure that should be pretty safe. And then, uh, there’s this one spell that’s for ‘opening up the west’. I think that one is to make a temporary portal to the afterlife, so like, it'll lead to the Ghost Zone? At least that’s if I read everything right.” Tucker’s nerves were really starting to get to him, but he had to try to do this and see if he was right. See if he could actually do it.

“I figure if I can make a portal then I could use it to help you when you’re fighting ghosts?” he asked.

Danny considered this for a moment. “The first one, yeah I can understand. The Ghost Zone though? I don’t know, there’s a lot of things that could go wrong there.”

“Which is why you’re here just in case!” Tucker said with as confident a smile he could muster. “Just, let’s try the first one and go from there.” he reached his hand out for the staff which Danny reluctantly handed over.

As soon as it was in his hand Tucker felt a wave of energy wash over him. That was okay though, he was prepared for it this time. Pushing back mentally against the power he cleared his mind and reached for his PDA. “See, I’m alright. Now Sam, we should probably have the book on the ground. Just in case.”

Sam nodded, “Right. Be careful with it, that’s my favorite copy of Dracula.” and laid the book carefully on the grass.

Tucker breathed deeply, feeling the staff’s power flow through him, pulled up the ancient text from his phone, and began reciting the words.

As he read, Danny and Sam exchanged a look. Tucker’s eyes had begun to glow golden but neither wanted to break his concentration by noting it aloud. Soon though that disappeared as he finished the incantation.

“Ok then,” Tucker said shakily, “that was manageable. Also, I think it worked. Danny, you should try and open it.”

Danny nodded and bent down to pick up the book. It seemed normal to him, however when he went to open it the thing felt like it had been glued shut. Raising his eyebrows he handed it over to Sam who was able to easily open the cover.

Tucker smiled, “Cool right, now only Sam should be able to actually open it!”

Danny had to agree that it was pretty impressive, and something he might think about using for his journal of ghost attacks as well. While he had hidden it in his wall for safekeeping from his parents he still wanted some extra security, just in case.

“Do you think you’re okay to try the next one? It’s okay if you need a break.” Sam said, both awe and concern evident in her voice.

Tucker thought about it for a moment. While it was exhausting trying to hold the power back from overwhelming him, he also couldn’t resist seeing what else he could do with this power. “I’m going to give the portal a try.” he said, and before Danny could protest he began the incantation.

Danny was more apprehensive about this spell. The book one was cool and pretty useful, but conjuring a portal to the Ghost Zone? That seemed like a huge leap forward for Tucker. But he wanted to be a good friend and trust in his abilities, so he watched as his friend started the next spell.

Tucker felt confident. He could do this, the first spell was a success and he was sure this one would be as well. As he spoke the ancient words he felt the power emanating from the staff increase, and as it washed over him he felt his mind slip to the power of Duul Aman.

Well, at least he had his friends there to stop him from creating another sphinx.

[mythicmanuscripts]

Ahhh, I love your work. Any more thoughts on Aegon’s oral fixation? When you brought it up in one of your works, it was just *chef’s kiss*. I’d love to hear more about it. Maybe a mix of SFW and NSFW? Maybe something with Aegon’s wife seeing his oral fixation and she uses that to tell when he’s getting turned on and needy?

Of course!!! Absolutely love how we’ve all come to the agreement that Aegon has an oral fixation (side note: while Aemond doesn’t have an oral fixation he does have some sort of fixation on your hands, but specifically your hands)

Anyway, my SFW and NSFW thoughts kinda melded together so I’m gonna keep everything under the cut just to be safe.

Right so as well know, Aegon has an oral fixation. It’s definitely something he’s known for a very long time. As a child the nannies were always having to tell him off and take things away from him that he’d chew or suck on.

I’m unsure if it’s ever been confirmed if straws exist in this universe or not but evidence of straws has been found from Ancient Egypt and from the Crusades so I think we can imagine they have them.

Anyway, Aegon LOVES straws. He loves how he can chew on them and suck them to drink whatever he’s drinking. If you want to get him to drink more water all you need to do it put a straw in a glass of water and he will happily drink the whole thing and then chew on the straw when he’s done.

Maybe that’s something he actually tries to hide from you? Cause he knows it can seem a bit childish how much he loves to drink from straws but then one day you catch him. You ask what he’s drinking and he says water, and then to his shock you immediately praise because he’s drinking water!!

He has to actually ask you about the straws before you realise that’s what he was shy about and trying to hide from you. Obviously you have zero problem with him using straws and you promise him he can always do that and that he looks very cute.

(One night you bring him a cup of warm milk and let him drink it with a straw and if you weren’t already married to him he’d get down on his knee right then)

Aegon always likes to chew or suck on something, but you know he’s getting turned on and needy when he starts to look to you for something to put in his mouth?

He’ll often put the charm from his necklace in his mouth or chew the sleeve of his shirt. But he does that on his own. He gets comfortable enough to do it around you but it’s still him doing it independently.

But when he gets all squirmy and whiney and starts to try and get closer to you? He’ll start pressing kisses wherever he can reach and the moment your hand goes anywhere near his face, he’s taking your fingers in his mouth and sucking. Then you have no escape. You have to find him something else to suck on or else he will cry when you pull your hand back.

Eating you out absolutely forms part of this. Sure he likes making you feel good any way he can, but fuck when he can do that AND he has something to lick and suck? He is in heaven. Absolute heaven he’s so so happy.

Sometimes you’ll pull him away from your centre when you’ve cum enough and you don’t want more and then he’ll actually be unsettled and whiney? Cause he’s not finished!!!

You have to let him come cuddle against your chest then and suckle on your fingers or maybe even your pendant?? He could stay like that for hours at a time, all warm and comfy.

Also, lord help you once he discovers hickeys. He loves when you give him hickeys sure, but when the lightbulb turns on in his little brain and he realises he can give you hickeys? Good luck.

After that discovery, when you pull him away to stop him from eating you out then he will just start giving you hickeys on your thighs and tummy until you eventually drag him back up the bed.

Likewise, he’s a biter. And I don’t he’s just a biter during sex. You are never safe. Nom nom.

(Also, Aemond is also a biter but that’s exclusively during sex when he’s completely overwhelmed and he bites hard enough to bruise. He always feels terrible afterwards but you think it’s a small price to pay to see him completely broken down by pleasure)

[wh0r3r4ngh43]

❦ About Me ❦

Just a lil random stuff to get to know me better<3

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My background info:

⌞ My name is Ali (I also like being called “Al” or “Alex”), I’m 18 (2005) and I’m from Sweden.⌝

I was born in Sweden but moved to South Africa when I was young and grew up there until I moved back to Sweden 4 years ago ^^ I’m not rlly connected to my Swedish roots, so that’s why my first language is English n etc.

I’m afab but currently unsure what I’d label myself as gender-wise, so any pronouns are fine<3 Though, They/them is probably my most preferred. Sexuality wise, I’m unlabeled/unsure. What I do know for sure is that I’m very much not straight XD

I’m currently finishing my last year of school before uni, and I’m currently majoring in “Social Studies”. I plan to eventually study onwards to become either a criminologist or someone that does research in psychology (regarding the brain).

Important to note:

⁀➴ I’m diagnosed with “AuDHD” (a combination of ADHD and Autism), so pls be patient with me and respect boundaries.

Groups I stan:

Main-> SVT

Besides them, I also (mainly) stan NCT + BTS.

I’m “into” a bunch of other groups tho, but I’m usually just a casual listener.

Main Biases:

✮ diehard Hoshi lover ✮

practically all of SVT tbh, but I adoreee BSS

Suga has such a special place in my heart fr

in NCT it varies from time to time—currently: Chenle, Haechan, Xiaojun, TEN, Johnny, Jaemin, YangYang

Hobbies/Interests:

Music: KPOP, Rap/HipHop, R&B and practically anything that I just happen to like.

Languages: I rlly enjoy studying/learning languages. School has kinda fucked up my flow when it comes to keeping up with the specific languages I want to learn.

Dance: It’s not something I do often atm bcs I’m living in an apartment with oldass neighbors, let alone the fact that I live with my grandparents who do NOT like noise.

Guitar: Currently trying to relearn the guitar, but it’s hard to find time for it.

Gaming: I really love gaming, despite how pissed off it manages to make me lmao. I loveeee anything resident evil n Silent Hill related :D. Open world games like Skyrim are things that I also adore. Besides allat, I tend to stick to horror games; shooter games; RPG; and fighting games like tekken. Sadly I game on a crusty old Xbox, but I love it regardless.

Fixations lmao: Being neurodivergent, I have hyperfixations that vary from week to week or month to month, as well as long-term special interests. What I’m rlly into rn is: Sharks, dinosaurs, history (like ancient Egypt n the medieval times), tigers (I’m not even joking, I blame Soonyoung tbh), psychology, criminology, neuroscience in general, and silent hill deep-dives XD. Not all of this at the same time though, it varies every few weeks but usually switches between these things.

SEVENTEEN in general: I’ve been a KPOP stan for YEARSSS omfg I feel old. Started being a carat around 2015, around 2017-2019 I was focusing on other groups like EXO n BTS. I was switching back and forth from SVT, but became a huge carat again early 2023.

I think that’s all? Otherwise I might update this later<3

Feel free to DM me btw^^ I’m always open to making new friends!

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[goaways-stuff]

Heyyy can I request some soft smut with Steven Grant?

As in this being his first time and he doesn't really know what to do and he's his usual stressed and anxious self not wanting to do anything wrong and accidentally messing up a lot like this?

Kinda him needing a lot of reassuring from the reader and him being lowkey embarrassed about feeling arousal for the reader

Yes, I love this anon! Steven is so soft and sweet and such an adorable dork.

Reassurance

pairing: Steven Grant x gn!reader (mentions of Jake Lock and Marc Spector x gn!reader)

warnings: smut, loss of virginity, fingering, oral (male and gender neutral receiving), unprotected sex

summary: Y/N's coming to Steven's flat for the first time. He's beyond nervous, but his nerves are settled after a good time with his lover

word count: 3k

a/n: I don't have DID myself, but tried to stay accurate to the show and real life, so if there's any harmful stereotypes/misinformation please don't hesitate to call me out. Also thank you so much for all the love on the moon knight fics recently!

dividers by @firefly-graphics

Nervous was one way to put it for Steven; you were coming over to his flat for the first time. After several dates of getting to know each other, you suggested meeting up at one of your places for a night in. You wanted a night with him of just the two of you alone, with the exception of Marc and Jake, of course. You had only met them a few times but considered yourself in a relationship with the three of them nonetheless.

Steven paced the floors and watched the clock tick, waiting for your knock on the door. The tea was being kept warm on the stove, and dinner was almost ready in the oven. What if you didn't like the food? Was his flat too messy? Doubts were running through his mind. He did try to clean up; the books were put away, but it was still cluttered as he had so many. He mentally cursed his fixation on ancient Egypt and Egyptian mythology.

A soft, rhythmic knock at the door interrupted his thoughts. "Coming!" He shouted, scrambling to the door. He struggled with the locks before smoothing his shirt out. He took a deep breath and opened the door. "Y/N- I," his breath caught in the back of his throat at the sight of you. "Wow, you look amazing," he said with a love-stricken look on his face. You sure did clean up nice. Your outfit was fancy but casual enough for a dinner and movie at home. How did you manage that?

"Oh gods, come in, love. I'm so sorry; I was just staring at you like a knob. " He apologized as he realized you were still standing outside his door.

"No worries, Steven. I mean, look at you, handsome. Love this shirt; it looks really good on you." You said, going in for a kiss on the cheek.

Steven swore his heart nearly beat out of his chest like an old cartoon. You kissed his other cheek as well; you had to make it even.

"How do you like your tea? I've got some freshly made on the stove, and dinner should be ready any minute now."

I'll take it however you take yours," You smiled, taking in his flat. It was just so...Steven. The books that had been attempted to be put neatly on the shelves, the goldfish swimming in his tank with postcards surrounding it, a cluttered table with open books next to scribbles in a notebook. Steven returned with the tea and immediately started apologizing again.

Y/N, darling, I'm so sorry, I should've offered you a seat, here- come sit down with me and I'll get a movie started, yeah? Or do you want to wait on dinner, and we can just...talk? I don't know; I've never really had anyone over before. This is so new to me," He rambled.

"It’s okay, Steven. I was just checking out your flat -"

"Yeah, sorry 'bout it - not the nicest or cleanest around. Sorry for the clutter. I just get way too ahead of myself, and I see a book on anything Ancient Egypt, then BAM! It's here at home with me. Can't help myself, ya know?"

"I was actually going to complement it. I really like it. I mean, it's cozy, and I love the goldfish. It's very you, and I like you," A blush spread across his face. He muttered to himself about how He could hardly believe anyone like you could like silly ol' him. You went to finally take your seat beside him before the oven went off, signaling that dinner was ready.

The two of you ate and struck conversations with each other. You were still curious about Marc and Jake and asked how they were doing. "They're alright; we're all still trying to adjust with being aware of each other and all, ya know? Definitely weird, and I'm actually surprised that it didn't scare you off. I mean, if it were me, I would've if I were you."

You grabbed ahold of his hand and rubbed your thumb across it. Wow, he had big hands. Long, thick fingers. No- not the time.

"Steven, I like you, and while surprising, it doesn't scare me off. I like you, and I like Marc and Jake, too. I'm excited for what our future together holds."

Yet, another blush spread across Steven's face. How did he manage to snag you? I mean, you had been his longest relationship so far, and you wanted more with him; you wanted to have a future with him. His heart fluttered in his chest, which turned into butterflies in his stomach. He squeezed your hand and looked up at you once more with a love-stricken face. It was your turn to blush now. He didn't even have to say words to describe how much he liked you as you could see it in his eyes. His gorgeous, coffee eyes.

"I guess we should get the movie started, yeah?" He asked, interrupting the silence. You smiled. "Yeah, I guess we should."

He got up and then took your hand in his, being the gentleman he is and leading you to the couch. He turned on a movie you both agreed upon before taking his seat next to you. You leaned your head on his broad shoulder, causing him to stiffen before relaxing into your touch. Eventually, you moved your legs over his lap and, unknown to you, pressed your thigh against his dick. His heart quickened, and his breath hitched. You turned your head, looking at him with concern. He played it off as a cough and shifted his hips, but he only rubbed his dick against your thigh, which didn't help him whatsoever. He was more aware of how good you looked and how your clothes only accentuated your gorgeous body. He wrapped his arm around you, trying to return the same affection you were giving him. The feeling of you under his hands just worsened his problem. Poor, touch-starved Steven was embarrassed. He felt as though he was sullying this special moment with you. His problem just kept growing, especially as you shifted your his on top of him, and he struggled to keep an ungodly noise in.

While you didn't yet notice his arousal, you did notice his struggle and were concerned for him once again. "Steven, are you sure you're okay? Is this too much? I can move or-"

"No, you're perfect, sorry, I mean, you're fine. I mean, you are perfect. You just don't have to move, I'm fine- I just. I'm sorry, I don't want to sully the moment I just…" He trailed off and went quiet.

"Steven, you can talk to me. I know things are still new, but I won't judge. You're not ruining the moment, pinky promise." You said, holding out your pinky to him. He smiled lightly and took it in his pinky before taking a deep breath.

"I just, when you put your legs over me, your thigh kinda- was on my- your thigh was on my dick and then I tried to shift my hips so it wasn't but it only made it worse, then you shifted your hips- not that it's your fault. And I couldn't help but notice how good you look, and now I've got a whole problem," He said, gesturing to his crotch. You immediately swung your legs off of him. "Oh, I'm so sorry. I wasn't meaning to, I swear. We don't have to do anything you don't want to do-"

"No, it's not that I don't want to, I mean- unless you don't want to, I just, I've never done anything before. Nothing past a bit of making out." His face was fully blushed, and he was fully embarrassed. He had ruined the moment, and now you were worried about him, and you were worried that you had ruined the moment.

"Do you want to do it? Tonight?" You asked, you could feel arousal sparking in you at the hope of finally feeling him.

"Oh, gods yes- but only if you want to," He said shakily. You pushed yourself into his lap, your legs on either side of him.

"I want to. We can go slow if you want, and if at any point it's too much, we can stop. Okay?"

He nodded. You leaned in and kissed him gently at first. You let him get comfortable and encouraged his hands to roam your body. You moved your own hands into his hair, massaging his scalp and pushing his face into yours. He let out a soft moan as you started grinding your hips into his. You deepened the kiss further and caressed his face.

You finally pulled away for a breath, and the sight in front of you had you even more aroused than you already were. Steven's lips were slightly swollen and reddened from your kisses and light nips, and his eyes were blown with lust. His breathing was labored, and his hands were gripping into you, eager for more. You went for the buttons on his shirt, looking up at him for permission. He nodded frantically. You unbuttoned it, one by one, taking your sweet time as you slowly revealed more and more of his body. You admired his build. He was hiding all of this under his baggy clothing. His perfect abs and pecs are soft but strong. He was by no means shredded, but that didn't matter to you in the slightest. In fact, you much preferred this over some shredded guy with a huge ego and nothing else.

You kissed his neck, then collarbones before moving down and nipping at his chest. He arched his back into you as you got closer to his nipple. You moved your mouth onto it and sucked gently, letting your tongue flick over it. You looked up to gauge his reaction, not wanting to push things too far. Steven was overwhelmed with pleasure as you found a sensitive area of his. You continued rocking your hips, starting to feel the arousal of the both of you making wet spots on your pants.

You continued your assault on his nipples, making sure to switch between them. Steven was practically whimpering from your actions as Marc and Jake were in his head, mocking him. Steven didn't care- he couldn't care. He felt much too good to give a single shit about what they were saying. He wanted desperately to please you back, but the way you were moaning made him want to stay where he was.

You stopped your attacks on his chest, much to Steven's disappointment, but it didn't last long as you removed yourself from his lap and onto your knees in front of him.

"Can I, Steven?" You asked, giving him your best doe eyes as you went for the buckle of his belt.

"Oh, yes, please, dove," He whined, doing everything he could to not jerk his hips in the air.

You took his belt off, followed by his pants. His boxers did very little to hide his hardened cock and the stain of precum let you know exactly how much he needed this. You slowly took his boxers off, finally letting his erection free from its former confines. The sight was gorgeous. His cock jerked at the sight of you, and precum flowed from the purplish-red tip. The veins were prominent, and his pubes had been recently trimmed.

With Steven fully naked, you wanted to even out the playing field, so you stripped to your underwear, causing more precum to flow from his needy cock.

You looked up at him one last time for permission; he nodded frantically once again. You took his girth in your hands, barely able to fully close your hand around it, and started stroking using his precum as lube. You leaned in, kissing the tip before taking it in your mouth. His taste was heavenly, and you couldn't get enough. You took him in as far as you could without gagging, using your hand to stroke the rest.

"Oh my god, Y/N, darling- that feels so good. You're so good, oh my God. Please," He whined. He continued his praises to you before eventually pulling you off of him, not wanting to cum just yet.

"Please, Y/N, let me pleasure you, please. Show me how you like it, show me what to do," He begged.

He had been so embarrassed earlier, but his confidence grew with each passing minute. He wanted to explore your body and find every little tick that gets you going.

"I'll show you in bed," you replied before getting up and making your way to his bed. He followed you like a lost puppy.

"You're so gorgeous, dove," He said, admiring you as you walked to the bed. You laid down on your back, inviting him on top of you. He hurriedly accepted and began kissing you once again. He followed your action from earlier and made his way down. He kissed your neck, finding the spot that made your back arched, and paid special attention to it before moving down. He kissed your chest and stomach, testing the waters with little nips. He praised your body; he wanted to memorize every scar, stretch mark, and freckle on you. You were perfect- no- so much more than perfect to him. You were divine.

Now, it was his turn to look up at you for permission when he got to your undies, and it was your turn to nod frantically. He took them off slowly and moaned at the sight of your now bare body. The word flashed through his mind once again. Divine. Instinct, or maybe muscle memory from Marc's encounters kicked in as he buried his face between your thighs. He pleasured you with his mouth, licking and sucking. Your eyes rolled back into your head, and your hips bucked up. Steven was a natural, but he needed to use his fingers. Both for you to get off and to warm you up.

"Steven, fuck that feels so good, baby, but I need your fingers, please," you begged.

Steven was nervous to use his hands, but you wanted them, and he only wanted to pleasure you. He slowly brought them up and pulled back from you.

"I don't know what to do with them," He admitted.

"That's okay, I'll show you."

He brought his hand back up; you took his wrist and brought it to where you needed it most.

"Use your middle and ring finger, Steven."

Steven didn't respond to Marc's comment but took the advice, starting with his middle as he slid it into your waiting hole.

"Atta boy, use your fingers to get 'em ready."

Steven muttered a "shut up, Marc," to himself and continued, moving slowly before adding his mouth into the mix. The combination of his mouth and now two fingers had you teetering on the edge. Your hips were bucking into him, and Steven moaned at the sight of your pleasure. He rut his hips into the bed, trying to relieve some pressure.

"Fuck, Steven- so good. You're doing so good. Please don't stop, ohmygod." You fought to keep your eyes open as the sight of Steven, blissed out between your legs, was enough to nearly throw you off the edge. "Steven, I'm close- please. I need you to fuck me- please Steven."

He was hesitant to stop, but the knowledge that you wanted him- no needed him had him pouncing on you. You lined his cock up to your entrance, letting him slowly push in. The noises the two of you made were unholy- noises that neither of you would admit to later, but there was no shame between the two of you now. You both wanted to explore each other's bodies, a nearly primal need.

He moved slowly at first, getting a feel for it. He paid special attention to your face, your sounds, and how your body reacted. He wanted to make you feel as good as he was able to.

"Steven, you're doing so good, but I need more. Don't hold yourself back. Faster, deeper, harder, please Steven," You whined.

"Yeah, Steven, give it all you've got."

Steven moved your legs over his hips and let himself go. He pounded into you. He thought your mouth was heaven- this was far beyond that. Your tight warmth surrounded his cock and squeezed like a vice. He let his thumbs brush over your nipples, causing your back to arch into him. The only words that you could form were Steven's name and praises to him; your praises fueled him. He took your hand in his and held it, as a way to show his care for you. You leaned up and connected your mouth to his. He continued his assault on your hole but was gentle with his kisses. They were soft but deep. Your other hand was wrapped around his back, holding on to him and pulling him impossibly closer. The rubber band that had built in your stomach was about to break, and judging by Steven's sounds and more jerky movements, he was right there with you.

"Steven, baby, I'm close. Want to come with you. Cum inside me, please. Wanna feel you cum inside me," you all but screamed as you fell over the edge. The sight of you releasing all over his cock sent him spiraling into his release as well. His hips stuttered into you as he felt your walls milk his cock for all it was worth. "Y/N, shit, dove- you're squeezing me so effing tight. Feels so good- so fucking good."

You felt his warm release coat your walls as you came down from your high, your breaths labored. Steven did his best to keep his weight off of you as he came down from his own high. Eventually, he rolled beside you, nuzzling his head into your neck. He muttered sweet praises to you, still on cloud nine. You returned them as he got up to draw a bath for you. You let him carry you to the bathroom, but you got in the tub yourself, not wanting to have an accident. You bathed each other off and exchanged compliments. Steven's ego was boosted as he had finally lost his virginity to someone he held so dear to him.

[steve0discusses]

S5 Ep 39 Part 2: Baby Pharaoh

My memory is something like tossed coleslaw at the moment with my on-and-off again long covid fatigue, but I’m pretty sure last we left off, Yugi and co were looking for Pharaoh, who as I’ve mentioned several times now, has fallen down a hole and can’t get up.

Alongside the Nile they have stumbled into Mana (man I hope that’s her name, it’s been so long since I’ve done a regular update, if her name is like Arkansas or whatever, I will not know, that’s just where we are. Bro who fact checks and spell check’s this blog was like “I dunno, sounds right? I’m not looking it up.”)

Whatever her name is, Mana is living her best life on this background that is askew just enough to cause me pain.

That horizon is killing me. I don’t recall exactly, but I’m pretty sure the bg was not supposed to be at an angle. Ugh, suffering.

(read more under the cut, assuming that tumblr still uses cuts? Pretty sure it auto-shortens my posts but I’ll still put cuts in for legacy users)

Anyway, this girl is a card as well as a magical person, so unlike all the other NPCs in Egypt, she gets the opportunity to set her eyes on 20th century people and be like “wtf are you assholes wearing?”

Rather than convince Mana that Yugi is the Pharaoh and see where this plot line goes, Joey says, “Isn’t that Pharaohs’ royal purple cloak like right over there? This cloak that probably costs in today’s money like 5 billion dollars because he’s a literal Pharaoh and wears an entire dowry on his ear lobes?” and Mana is like--”Oh shoot. Weird I did not notice that when I was so fixated on the fish.”

And so Mana has decided to join Yugi and Co because she is very much just here for the ride and also any information on how to run into her kind of sort of whatever the hell relationship is between her and Pharaoh. This makes sense to me, honestly, this was how I navigated all of college. You end up at a lot of weird parties doing this, but you’d be surprised how many people will ask you to just join their crew if you happen to be walking the same direction and know one person in common.

Bro came up with that pun and he’s extremely proud of it.

Again, rip the horse from last episode, at some point an alligator must’ve gotten to him (or the fall made him explode into little pieces, don’t worry about it). But we find Pharaoh in this cave, just out of sight of anyone who would actually be able to spot him.

Perhaps he’s doing this to stay out of the heat, but it’s also very likely that he’s just very embarrassed for that huge L he took falling down that hole and would like to just vibe out in a cave for a bit and contemplate his earliest memories.

To go from the man who remembers nothing to remembering yourself as a baby who gets his ass wiped 7 times a day.

Memory is freakin wild to Pharaoh.

I know this is a lot of caps of Pharaoh as a baby but that is a WEIRD ASS BABY. Also kinda cute but the baby is WEIRD.

Peak Renesmee energy, this old ass child.

Covered in tears, a preteen Yami is dragged to a tomb somewhere in Egypt, as if to scope out his future abode that he absolutely will not be buried in because he does, in fact, get smooshed into a puzzle.

And seeing a wonderful opportunity he immediately topples into it.

name a more iconic duo than Yugioh and ledges.

After walking down this long pit, we come to take part in some sort of Ancient Egyptian gods ceremony. Which is fascinating, because it’s not too, too often in this show that we reference the Egyptian gods outside of what is in the cards that Marik plays. But these are like the literal gods, not the fancy cards.

I have no idea if this is referencing an actual ceremony we know about or an actual mural that we have in some tomb in Egypt in real life. but I’m gonna guess this is probably not 100% historically accurate.

I have since been informed it is Kul Elna and not Kel Elna but I am not bothered enough to fix the cap.

Or this one.

Death count according to my google doc is 7,805,847,571 by the way. Originally I thought there were 700 people in Kul Elna. But thousands infer at least 1300 more so lets add another 2K just to round it off.

Says a lot when I’m like “eh give or take 700 deaths it makes like no difference to the number.”

A nice shot for anyone that wants to do an anime panel redraw for that meme (do people still do that meme? I have avoided art twitter rather successfully lately so I’m blessed to no longer have to draw memes. Unfortunately I’m still on webcomic twitter but that’s just a place where people get viral by complaining, so I don’t have to draw nearly as much promotional material. It kinda rocks.)

I really should not have laughed while watching this part of the episode but that realization that Pharaoh was trapped in a necklace anyway, and then this immediately following it was quite a funny jump cut.

And then he was gone.

so like.........

.......no backstory on Hassad, I guess? He’s just a guy who is wearing/is literally a millennium item and is currently depicted in a tablet?

I don’t even know where that backstory would go, it would have to be between Dartz and when the millennium items were forged out of the millennium stone. Or maybe he’s just a card? I dunno. But that guy jumped out of no where, just a brand new millennium item and now he’s gone.

My brother cannot tell the difference between Tahoma and Papyrus so hopefully it’s clear that Tea talks in Tahoma and Mana in Papyrus fonts. Unfortunately, they...have the same font color because I never initially thought they’d be on the same screen.

At this point, they run into Pharaoh, and Mana pretended like she knew that Pharaoh fell down a hole the whole time and that she didn’t spend half her day fishing.

Bro was like “Can you imagine trying to explain America to Mana?” and it sure was food for thought.

So, that’s all for this episode, in the next we shall find out how many more holes we can throw all our characters down. Which honestly is just Writing 101 when you think about it. As in Writing 101 the class, not 101 holes. Sorry I have a hard time reading and writing with long covid, although I still like to do it, so if parts of this are like incomprehensible, I’ll fix it in post. Like that joke just now. No idea if it made sense but we’re going to print it because I want to move on to the next episode.

And as always, to read these in chrono order from the very beginning when I had more than 3 operating brain cells, you can use this link here:

https://steve0discusses.tumblr.com/tagged/yugioh/chrono

[adultswim2021]

12 oz. Mouse: “Prolegomenon” | December 18, 2006 – 12:45AM | S02E13

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! No post last night, and I’m sorry, but I had to give this one more thought. Really, I got high and thought I not only finished the write-up, but also scheduled it in my queue after I wrote a single paragraph and fell asleep. Whoops.

Okay, so it’s all been leading up to this, and this write-up will eventually cover what “this” is. But before I go into it, I wanna say that this episode led me to do some googling. I learned something that I possibly knew at one point, but had lost sight of: season 2 was supposed to have 20 episodes but was shortened to 13. With that, the series was also canceled, forcing Matt Maiellaro to plan some kind of conclusion where there might not have originally been one. I guess you can draw comparisons from things like Twin Peaks; David Lynch wanted to keep the mystery of who killed Laura Palmer unsolved indefinitely, but the network forced him to come up with a conclusion midway through season 2. Arrested Development had one of its seasons shortened, and I recall episodes from before that happening seeming to set things up that never got resolved. Could that be the explanation for the ending we got on 12 Oz. Mouse? Or could it be that it meant nothing the entire time? 

Okay, so it’s not really a hard ending. Mouse plays pinball for a lot of this episode, while a floating light speaks to him. We finally find out the true nature of Shark and Square Business man, and the Eyes, and Peanut Cop and the question woman. The finale confirms what I suspected (and half-remembered), and what most viewers paying close attention to the series should have also suspected: Cardboard City is a simulation. But when we cut out to the real world we see a big green mouse and we see his rodent friend skillet, real as this show is long. They don’t have human counterparts. They are still themselves in the real world.  It’s all the others that have human counterparts (or a different outfit in question woman’s case).

So what basically seems to happen is the people running this program decided that it was time to stop it and roughly reset everything, so the intense war our gang was in the middle of fighting  just sorta turns off, basically. Then, back in Cardboard City, mouse and his friends shake off the fact that moments ago they were fighting a war, and now they are not. The sky turns blue and cloudy. The team waltzes away, for a brand new day. The simulation is over, and a vague sense that maybe another will begin. It’s like a soft reboot, sorta symbolizing what episodic TV is supposed to be. They’re going to go do a different adventure now. Perhaps a… web adventure?

Yes, there was a webisode. Will I relegate the webisode to ephemera since it didn’t air on television? Or will I give it it’s own entry? Only time will tell (I will give it it’s own entry). The webisode was announced, and I think Matt Maiellaro was hopeful that the show would be allowed to continue in a new format. Not now, my child. Not now. So, I think he’s setting up some sort of meta contextual way to explain that the show can simply be rebooted into different configurations. Kinda like if Bugs Bunny was revealed to be in the Matrix, and it somehow explained how he could fight Yosemite Sam in medieval England, ancient Egypt, and the old west, and seem like they’re meeting for the first time every time. 

The whole DVD being cut together like a movie gives you the impression that 12 Oz. Mouse is a huge epic story that wraps up nicely, with purpose. No such luck. It really was sorta nonsense, I guess. I’m guessing Aspirin would have made another appearance in some other context in some other version of the show, and not be elaborated on. Eventually Aspirin is revealed to be a god particle, or something, just as some other weird concept is introduced to fixate on instead. It can go anywhere and everywhere man. It’s like Everyone Everywhere All Over The Place, At Once! or whatever that movie was called.

So the ending is a bit of a disappointment. I forgot that it was, honest. I only saw a few random episodes of this show before getting the DVD and watching the entire thing in one day when I was recovering from a hernia surgery and on Vicodin. I was recuperating at my parent’s house and brought a stack of DVDs from home to watch. I had just gotten Human Giant season one on DVD which had dozens of additional commentary tracks that were all hysterical. Vicodin notwithstanding, it became less-than-ideal viewing material while I was on the mend because laughing physically hurt. A LOT. This isn’t a compliment, and I’m sorry, but I switched to 12 Oz. Mouse specifically because I could capably watch it without hurting myself.

The ending feels sudden and the series feels cut-short. That’s because it was. There was a webisode coming, which was meant to kick-start a new short season. It didn’t. Years later there was a special and a third season, some of which I’ve seen. But, the show is enormously specific, and that’s a good thing. It’s obtuse and feels like a show you’re supposed to be watching at 1AM. You can get really into it, especially if you’re high. I get why people love this show. I get why this might be a show people enjoy watching over and over. I feel slightly compelled to start watching it again, even if it’s just for background noise. But the idea that it fulfilled some kind of narrative promise is a stretch. I guess I’m glad I gave it a sincere shot at trying to “get” it, and I’m slightly eager to check it out again, even, in it’s movie form.

Additionally, in its defense: many network shows with much bigger fan-bases are allowed to have overlapping serialized story-lines that sometimes go nowhere and are quietly replaced by different ones. I’ve tricked myself into thinking that 12 Oz. Mouse might be a meta-textual critique of storytelling on television; the ending can be seen as symbolic of a network stepping in and rebooting the status quo of a TV show that’s in danger of going too far up its own ass. Or, maybe 12 Oz. Mouse was only ever meant to be about the vibes, which it has in spades. Who knows. But you owe it to yourself to at the very least check out the pilot episode, “Hired’. Don’t feel too bad if you don’t feel like watching more. Don’t feel bad if you like the show but don’t feel like you “get” it. Just don’t feel bad about anything ever. Mouse would want it that way.

EPHEMERA CORNER:

[felassan]

Mass Effect development insights and highlights from Bioware: Stories and Secrets from 25 Years of Game Development

This is the Mass Effect version of this post.

[In case you can’t read it the subtitle in the bottom left logo above is “Guardians of the Citadel”]

Note: Drug use is mentioned.

Cut for length.

Mass Effect 1

ME began its life in a vision document in fall 2003

Codenamed “SFX”

Conceived of by Casey Hudson and a core team from KotOR. Its genesis was the intention to create an epic sci-fi RPG in an original setting that BioWare owned (so they could have full creative control), and in a setting that was conceived of first and foremost as a video game

Initially players could control any squadmate, but they wanted it to be about Shep and for players to be focused on Shep being a battlefield commander, rather than on switching bodies

By the start of 2004 its story was shaping up. Initially humans landed on Mars in 2250 and discovered evidence of an ancient alien race and a powerful substance, Black Sand, which rapidly advanced tech to the point that FTL travel was possible. (My note: obviously now the Prothean artifacts on Mars & associated mass effect force tech enabled this in the final canon, but I wonder if aspects of the ‘Black Sand’ naming-type & powerful substance stuff was rolled into red sand from final canon) Humans were suddenly capable of travel to multiple star systems and made contact with a multitude of other species. At the start of the first game, these species together with humans had a fragile peace, with focus placed on the political center of the galaxy, a hub known as Star City, later renamed the Citadel

Multiplayer was a vision for the series as far back as 2003. The plan was for ME1, an Xbox exclusive at launch, to take advantage of the platform’s online components. Early designs saw players meeting in one of the central hubs to interact and trade items in their otherwise SP adventures

By 2006 it had the name ME and the story was more specific, with the theme of conflict between organic and synthetic lifeforms. The story’s scope now stretched across 3 games and included scope for full co-op MP

They tried to do MP in every game, discussing it from the get-go, but it always just fell by the wayside. “When you’re trying to build something that is a new IP, on a new platform, with a new engine, you’ve got to really focus on the core elements of the game.” 

The conversation system prototype was made in Jade Empire, and some of ME’s earliest writing was done in an old JE build. At first there was no conversation wheel. Paragon was “Friendly” and Renegade “Hostile”. In the prototype Shep was a silent unnamed Spectre. Many conversations in the prototype about the player’s choice in smuggling a weapon through Noveria made it into the game

In said prototype a merchant referred to themselves as “this one”, though the word hanar never appeared. The PC in it also had the option to end a conversation with “I should go”. In the prototype also, Harkin was voiced by Mark Meer

An early version of the Mako got used as the krogan truck in ME2

Early concepts of the Citadel were drawn in pencil by CH. A piece of concept art of its final design was painted based on a photo of a sculpture near Aswan, Egypt

As with any new IP naming it was a struggle. They put out a call to all staff for ideas, did polls, made a name generator that combined words that they liked in random ways and made pretend logos of ones they liked in Photoshop to see if they could make themselves love the name or find visual potential in it. (Some of these names are in the pic at the top of this post.) CH liked “Unearthed” as it was a reference to Prothean ruins dug up on Mars and humanity’s ascendance going away from Earth. They knew the game would have a central space station featuring prominently so some of the ideas were based on that - “The Citadel”, “The Optigon”, “The Oculon”. “Element” was another one they had in mind due to the rare substance in the game 

CH: “I was a big fan of John Harris’ book Mass, which had epic-scaled sci-fi ideas, so that was a word that came up often. Many of the names came from the idea that the IP featured a fifth fundamental physical force (in addition to the known four of gravitational, electromagnetic, strong nuclear and weak nuclear) so the word ‘effect’ came up pretty often.” Ultimately none of the ideas really felt right. One Monday morning they were going over the names and Greg Zeschuk said he had an idea on the weekend: “Mass Effect!” CH: “I said, ‘I don’t hate it’, which in the naming process is a high compliment. And it stuck!”

CH on Shep’s Prothean vision from the beacon: “It was hard to imagine how we would do this. CG was - and is - really expensive. Instead I wanted to try doing it through photography and video editing. So I went to a local grocery store and bought a few packages of the weirdest looking meat that I could find. Then I set up a little photoshoot in my basement, complete with some electronics parts and some red wine for juicyness.” He used these props to create a video sequence where the photos were rapidly cycled and blurred, along with production paintings, to create the scary vision an organic/machine experiment on the Protheans. These mashups were also used as inspiration for concept artists and level designers who were working on these themes

Tali used to be called Talsi

On the licensing side they often joke that they’re licensing N7 not “Mass Effect” due to N7′s popularity

There was a confidential internal guide to the IP in 2007 to help devs along and summarize/synthesize the vision etc. Some excerpts from it are shown in the book and this is the first time the public have ever seen them

Early versions of Asari had hair

Asari were designed as a nod to classic TV sci-fi (with human actors wearing obvious makeup and prosthetics to play aliens)

The turian design guideline was “we want them to be birds of prey”. They also wanted a range of alien types, some close to human like Asari, while others were to be a lot further away, like turians

BioWare patented the conversation wheel, which was a first for them. CH had been frustrated with reviews of Jade Empire that said that the actioncentric game was too wordy [with its list dialogue]. “I’m like, story is words. [...] What is it about our games that is making people feel like they’re wordy?” Then he thought “In a game you kind of need to feel like you’re continuing to play it. Maybe you should continue feeling like you’re playing it actively into the dialogue.” “[The wheel] kind of gave a new experience with dialogue when you did start to react based on emotion, and that’s ultimately what we’re trying to bring out in our games”

The original krogan concept was based on a bat “with a really wide squidgy face. We just used its face on top of this weird body and it kinda worked”

Geth musculature was based on fiber-optic cables, with flexible plates of armor attached

The vision for the IP was 80s sci-fi inspired space opera

The concept art of Saren lifting Shep by the throat inspired a similar scene in-game. The staging wasn’t planned til designers saw that art

A squadmate with Shepard on the way to meet Ash in an old storyboard was called Carter. Early name of Kaidan or Jenkins?

Bono from U2 was kinda instrumental in bringing us ME lol

Finding the right cover art for ME1 was notably tricky

Matt Rhodes got his start drawing helmets for ME1, including one which would become Shep’s “second face”. He estimates he drew between 250-270 different ones

Some of the sounds in-game were people smashing watermelons with sledgehammers and sticking fists into various goos

The audio team had fun trying to slip the iconic main theme into unexpected places throughout the MET. “We were very aware of how powerful that track was for the fans and it was tempting to overuse it for any moment we wanted to make really emotional”.

The theme was creatively repurposed in ME3: slowed down and reworked as the ambient sound for the SR-2. “If you listen to it for a really long time, just stand in the Normandy and listen, you’ll actually hear the notes change slowly. It doesn’t sound like music, it sounds like a background ambiance, but it’s there.” (My note: Well no wonder the Normandy feels so much like home?? 😭 sneaky..)

Bug report: “Mako Tornado”. There wasn’t enough friction between the tires and the ground, causing testers to lose control of the vehicle and send it spinning into the air like a tornado. “As it turns, the front end comes up, and then it starts spinning and spinning and spinning and spinning faster and faster and faster until it just flies up in the sky” (My note: Sounds like a regular day in the Mako to me)

Cerberus originally had a bigger role in this game. It was cut but they had a whole explorable outpost. “I called it Misery,” says Mac Walters, “It was this planet with a little outpost that said ‘Welcome to Misery’”. Everything on the outpost was shit - dirty worn stuff, no windows, no kitchen, the vehicle bay was open to the elements etc

The Reaper sound is literal garbage. Some audio designers went on a recording trip to a national park. One of them got fixated on a garbage can, “a metal bear-proof receptacle with a heavy lid that creaked horribly when opened”. “It was like, ominous, spooky, tonal and almost musical. I decided to throw a mic into the garbage and record it moving. I didn’t know what it was going to be until later”

They were making lots of noises to record like throwing logs and rocks around. An old couple peered at them through the window of their camper van in the woods and must have called the cops because then the cops showed up, pulled them over and told them to stop. The cops towed their car (the driver’s plates were Cali plates and expired), drove them to Edmonton outskirts and then the audio producer Shauna got a call and had to go pick them up “like three little boys”. “We got a stern talking to”. Once back they were playing around with the garbage sound, editing it etc. Casey heard it and proclaimed “That’s the sound of the Reapers”

Preston Watamaniuk: “There are things I could have done to Mass 1 to make it an infinitely better game with better UIs” and some simple cuts and changes. “But when you’re living with it, it’s very hard to see those things”

BioWare Labs

As social media and smartphone games exploded, BioWare dedicated a small team dedicated to exploring opportunities here - BioWare Labs

Mass Effect: Galaxy used a unique graphic art style and static visual presentation common in visual novels. It has the distinction of being the only iOS game BW have made during their first 25 years

Scrapped ideas were a 3rd person space shooter called Mass Effect: Corsair and 2 DA titles - a strategy game and a top-down dungeon crawler starring young Wynne. (My note: Maybe the corsairs stuff was rolled into Jacob’s backstory in 2, the Alliance Corsairs)

Corsair was a very short-lived project that never got its feet under it. It was a spin-off on Nintendo DS featuring a behind-the-ship perspective and branching dialogue. At one point it had MP. The idea behind it was basically “ME: Freelancer” - fly your ship around, do missions, get credits. It had a limited branching story but was a gameplay-centered experience intended to fill the gap between ME1 and 2. That gap ended up being filled by Galaxy

Galaxy and Corsair’s smaller screen allowed concept artists to use bold colors and a simplistic character design style to help those games stand out from Shep’s story

Nick Thornborrow did some art for Corsair but was worried his art style didn’t fit ME. He moved to DA where he feels his art style fits better

Lots of BioWare VAs and even a lead writer and the VO director are drawn from Edmonton’s local community theater scene, which is vibrant. Think this is how Mark Meer got involved

Mass Effect 2

Player choices carrying over was a first for BW

Dirty Dozen-inspired plot

Its plot is a web of conditionals (see Suicide Mission)

Was more of a shooter than anything BW had made since Shattered Steel

There was 2 camps on the team, those who wanted to push combat and systems forward and redefine the ME experience and those who wanted to make a true sequel, with the same gameplay and systems but a new story. Karin Weekes: “I think it ended up being a good push-pull. It felt like a pretty healthy creative conflict”

“ME2 was a game you could hold up to someone who argues that games aren’t a serious medium and go ‘Oh yeah, then why is Martin Sheen in this?’” Sheen was their first pick for TIM

The idea for TIM came from a mash-up of concepts CH had collected over the years. The name “Illusive” originally came from his pitch for naming DAO’s Eclipse engine, a word inspired by Obi-Wan’s line “It’s not about the mission, Master. It’s something... elsewhere. Elusive”. “I thought, what if we called our next engine 'Elusive', but used an ‘I’, and then it’s like ‘Illusion’. [...] I still really like the word with an ‘I’ and what it conjures”

When ME1 DLC was in production, CH had been watching a lot of CNN, specifically Anderson Cooper. “How is one guy travelling to all these places and never looking tired and always being able to speak with clarity?” CH says it seemed almost superhuman. “What if there was someone who is the absolute maximum of the things you would aspire to be, but also the worst of humanity?” Cooper, though not evil, became an inspiration for TIM down to the gray hair and piercing blue eyes

Inspiration for TIM’s behind-the-scenes role pulling political strings came from Jack Bauer’s brother Graem in 24. Graem “can call up the president and tell him what to do and hang up, because he’s so connected and so influential”. Sheen had played a president and his performance brought gravitas and wisdom to the role. He had quit smoking, but the character smokes. He didn’t want to fake it, but he also didn’t want to smoke, “so he actually asked for a cigarette” to hold so he could stop his words to take drags with natural cadence

Writing was still pushing to write and revise lines hours before VO started. A series of problems like injury and some writers leaving for other opportunities left it so that Karin, Lukas Kristjanson and editor Cookie Everman hand to land the story safely, with PW helping where they could. Lukas: “We took over the writing bug and task list, and I can’t stress enough how much [Karin and Cookie] did to get ME2 out the door. There’s no part of that thing we didn’t touch”. Karin: “That was the most dramatic 2 weeks of my life”

Initial fan reaction when they started promo-ing ME2 was very negative because people didn’t want to know about new chars like Jack and Mordin. “[fans were like] ‘Get them out of here. We want our characters from the first game’. But then when they played them, those became some of the most popular chars [of the series]”

Concept art of Thane has an idea annotation saying “Face can shapeshift?”

At one point when designing Thane concept artists sent multiple variations of him to the team asking them to vote on which was the most attractive

Most of the Normandy crew was written by lead level designer Dusty Everman. Lukas gave him advice in the evenings between bugs

BioWare Montreal made ME2 and 3 cinematics

CC for Shep was based on tools used by char designers to create in-game chars. Under the hood similar tools existed to create aliens

Aliens were much easier to animate than humans. When something is human it’s very difficult to make it look realistic and you can see all the mistakes and everything

Over the holiday period in 2007 CH worked out a diagram on a single piece of paper that would define the entire scope and structure of the game. The diagram is included in the book

Bug report: “I shot a krogan so hard that his textures fell off”. At one point shotgun blast damage was applied to each of the pellets fired, and shot enemies ended up with just the default checkerboard Unreal texture on them after their textures got blown off

Blasto was meant to be 1 step above an Easter egg but his fan popularity prompted them to bring him back in ME3

They rewrote chunks of Jack 2 days before she went to VO. She was the only one they could change because all the other NPCs were recorded. They redesigned her mission by juggling locked NPC lines and changing Shep’s reactions by rewriting text paraphrases to change the context of the already-recorded VO

Lukas snuck obscure nods ito ME2′s distress calls. In the general distress call for the Hugo Gernsback, there’s BW’s initial’s and Edmonton’s phone number backwards. In a fault in a beacon protocol there’s the initials and backward phone number from Tommy Tutone’s “Jenny”. In 2 other general distress calls there’s initials and numbers from Glenn Miller Orchestra’s “Pennsylvania 6-5000″ and initials and numbers from Geddy Lee and Rush’s “2112″ respectively 

Mass Effect 3

“The end of an era marks the beginning of another”

ME3 “marked the end of Shep’s story”

Saying bye to Shep was as difficult for devs as it was for players

JHale’s final VO session included Anderson’s death and romanced Garrus’ goodbye. “We were in the session and we both just started crying”, Caroline says. “I couldn’t come on the line to give her notes because I was crying, and she was crying. And so there was just this minute-long pause of like, nothing, nothing, nothing - just silence through the airwaves. And then I came on and just told her that I was crying and she said ‘I’m crying!’” They talked about these anecdotes also here on the N7 Day reunion panel

The Microsoft Kinect voice support required devs to teach Kinect hundreds of commands in a variety of accents across multiple languages. The result was useful but made for some awkward moments. Numerous players accidentally said “geth” or “quarian” while making a particular decision and accidentally killed Tali

MP chars were voiced by cops and military people

The helmet on one of the MP chars was originally designed for cancelled project Revolver

The payload device at the end needed to attach to the Citadel while essentially serving as a giant trigger. “It ended up becoming quite the engineering feet just to visualize how this thing would move and connect to the Citadel”

Concept artists explored creating an anti-team, where Kai Leng was almost an anti-Shepard essentially, with an elite squad to counteract your team. This idea never went beyond concept phase

ME3 Special Edition was released on Nintendo Wii U exclusively. This exclusive version of the game includes Genesis 2 (a sequel to the original Genesis comic) and unique gameplay features that took advantage of the touchscreen GamePad. For years Sonic Chronicles: Dark Brotherhood had had the honor of being BW’s only game made for a Nintendo console

FemShep regrettably didn’t feature in major ME marketing til ME3. Later releases like DAI, MEA and Anthem have taken increasing care not to gender their protagonists in cover art

To capture combat sounds they took a trip to CFB Wainwright, a military base southeast of Edmonton. They got a big tour of it and were allowed to record anything they could find. The tour ended with them getting to drive and shoot tanks (real shells). The force of doing that sent waves through Joel Green, he felt his whole chest compress when it went off; the perfect sound for the Black Widow! After the trip the soldiers let him keep the shell he fired and it’s been passed on like a torch to various devs since

Kakliosaurs began life as a joke in the writers’ room after John Dombrow placed a Grunt figure on a t-rex toy he had on his desk. Lore was brainstormed to justify the mash-up before someone asked, “Why don’t we put this in the game?” They loved it so much Karin had custom coffee mugs made

Bug report: For a while Tali’s final romance scene would fire when she was supposed to be dead

“Balancing combat: how designers in ME3 entered an ‘arms race’” - the solution to players feeling OP vs players feeling frustrated by really strong enemies is to find a good middle ground, but for designers Corey Gaspur and Brenon Holmes, it was war. Brenon designed enemies, Corey designed guns. Corey “was obsessed with bigger, heavier guns. We had this sort of informal competition where he’d make this crazy overturned gun that would just murder all the enemies, and then I tuned some stuff up to compensate”

Brenon had to invent new ways to “stop Corey” and this led to the Phantoms. Corey had in turn designed consumable rockets that could wipe out entire waves of enemies. He must’ve figured this would make short work of Brenon’s space ninjas, but Brenon had other plans: “I had just added the ability for her to cut rockets [when Corey was playing MP and he was watching]. She cut the rocket in half... Corey just turns and looks at me and is like: ‘Really dude? I just shot a rocket at this Phantom and she’s fine? Not even damaged? Zero damage?’” 

This friendly rivalry helped elevate ME3′s gameplay. Corey had a knack for making a gun feel so good to fire it had his fellow designers scrambling to keep up. It was his version of balancing. Before Corey sadly passed away he mentored Boldwin Li in all things weapon design and the arms race continued

Corey designed the Arc Pistol. It was causing problems for enemies because it was too powerful. It seemed hell bent on staying that way, Boldwin would tune down all its stats and it was still doing 3x the damage it should have been doing. “I was like ‘What the hell?’, and then I looked closer. It secretly fired 3 bullets for every pull of the trigger! Corey, you sneaky jerk”

The day it launched there were midnight launch parties across North America including one near the BW building. Numerous devs sat at long tables greeting fans and signing autographs as the fans picked up preorders. When midnight struck the line was long enough that it took several hours for some fans to get their game. One particular fan is remembered: “It was 3am. Some guy drove up from Calgary with his friends. He was like one of the last people in line. I think he was sort of tired-drunk. He threw himself across the tables, pulled up his shirt and shouted ‘Guys, sign my abs!’ And like I did, because he waited so long. It felt impolite not to. So I hope he enjoyed his copy of ME3″

For designing Protheans concept artists had free reign to design something that read as ancient

Before the concept art team had the story of the game to work toward, they explored wild ideas of their own including an image of the crew stealing back the Normandy to go after the Reapers

Jen Cheverie was testing scenes and was initially excited to be testing Mordin scenes, til she saw she was testing the Renegade version of his death. “This is even before like all of the audio and everything was in, so you didn’t even have the sad music. I remember sitting at my desk and my hands just went to my face when I saw that the gun Shep pulls on Mordin is the gun he gives Shep in ME2. I burst into tears and was crying for the rest of the day. People are waving to me as they walk by and I’m like, ‘It’s ok, I’m just killing my best friend’” 

There’s a segment called “Shepard’s story ends”. Casey on the ending: “There’s a whole bunch of things that come together to make it incredibly tense and emotional for players. I think the biggest one was the sense of finality, that whatever it was that happened in that very last moment... was it.” 

Wrapping up the story was a massive feat. In a way all of ME3 is an ending. Its final moments were the players’ last with a char they’d been with all the way from Eden Prime

“And while the critical reception of the game was extremely positive, many fans were unsatisfied with the ending, which became one of the most controversial in the history of games.” CH: “We were, on one hand, at the end of a marathon trying to finish the game and the series. But as devs we also knew that there would be more. We knew that we would continue to tell the story. In retrospect, we didn’t fully appreciate the tremendous sense of finality that it would have for people”. He envisioned an ending that posed new questions, something in the tradition of high sci-fi that left players dreaming about what that particular galaxy’s future could hold. “Frankly, there’s a lot more that we could have and should have done to honor the work players put in, to give them a stronger sense of reward and closure”

AAA games are massive undertakings with a million moving parts. Somehow they come together but even the best-planned projects don’t turn out quite like devs hope. From start to end video game production is a series of compromises. It’s rare if not impossible for devs to ship a game they’re entirely happy with. “I think that people imagine that when you finish a game, it’s exactly the way you wanted it to be. But whether people end up loving or hating the final result, we work hard to finish it the best we can, knowing that there’s a lot we would have wanted to do better. I think that’s true of any creative work”

As the dust settled after the initial reaction to the ending and later its epilogue, meant to show the wide-reaching ripple effects of Shep’s final choice, “players emerged mostly asking for one thing”. CH: “Now, most of what we hear, after both ME3 and MEA, is ‘Hey, just go make more Mass Effect’. And that to me is the most important thing. Knowing that players want to return to the ME universe is what inspires us to press on and imagine what comes next”

Mass Effect: Andromeda

By creating a new ME in a new galaxy the team was challenged to put their own visual stamp on the game while keeping it true to the franchise

Being the first ME game on a new gen of consoles meant for more detail

“Massive transport ships called arks populated with salarians, turians, humans, asari and quarians” made the risky jump to the Cluster

MEA was the first time BW had truly codeveloped across 3 studios: Edmonton, Montreal and Austin. The bulk of the work especially early on was done in Montreal, which was composed of a handful of Edmonton expats and heaps of experienced devs who joined from elsewhere specifically to bring a new ME experience to life. Series vets in Edmonton then came on to contribute writing, cinematics, design and QA, along with leadership from creative director Mac Walters and the core Production team. Austin writers and level designers also joined the fray

“It took a new team to take ME beyond the Milky Way”

Mac: “A lot of people in Montreal joined BW as fans of the franchise, so they just had this passion, and it felt like it was more like the days of Jade Empire, where a smaller younger team gets to do something for the first time. Even though it wasn’t necessarily a new IP for me, it felt fresh and new because of that. The team was just super excited to be working on it”

Early plans had the player exploring hundreds of worlds, procedurally generated, allowing for a nearly infinite variety of experiences. But as development wore on, it became clear that the game narrative required more specific, hand-touched level design on each world to keep the story focused and the experience engaging. “The plan was to give players numerous uncharted worlds to explore. Designers worked hard to come up with procedural elements that would make such planets special. Eventually the team made the difficult decision to abandon procedural planets in favor of more memorable hand-touched alien worlds, each with a specific story to tell”

One challenge was defining what ME meant without Shep. Care was given to include many of the MET’s key species. “Ryder recruited turian, asari, krogan and salarian followers”. Like Shep Ryder represents humanity’s hope for a peaceful coexistence among aliens who had long operated without human contact

Beginning with MEA the team decided that with few exceptions vehicles in ME have 6 wheels. Early Nomad concepts were bulkier. Later ones focused on its ability to move over its ability to protect itself from hostile fire, underlining the themes of exploration

German concept designer and auto-motive futurist Daniel Simon was contracted to create the Nomad and Tempest. The Tempest’s final design took inspo from the Concorde 

Concepts for angaran fighter ships have the following notes: “Two doors swing open, wings rotate down to function as landing struts, the landing struts split open. It has a spinning turbine engine 

Despite being set a galaxy away and some 600 years after Mordin’s death, there was a time when he had a cameo. It wasn’t cut due to running out of time however, it was cut due to drug references. John Dombrow explains: “One day I had to write a small quest for Kadara. I thought it’d be amusing if these 2 guys living way out on the fringes in a shack were growing plants for uh, medicinal purposes, and needed Ryder’s help with it. It occurred to me, wouldn’t it be amusing if Ryder had the option of actually trying ‘the medicine’ to see what would happen? And I thought, what if it turned into some hallucination that somehow involved SAM - like maybe SAM would sing? But why? How could I motivate that? Then it hit me. Who else in the ME game sings unexpectedly? MORDIN. As a nod to him I wrote SAM singing Modern Major-General. It got even better when our cine designer John Ebenger wanted to take it even further. Bless him, he came in on a Saturday to do a special hallucination showing Mordin himself. It was great. Til the fateful day we were told MEA had already been submitted to the ratings board. That’s when you declare things like drug references in your game. Mordin fell under that category which meant it was a no-go. We were too late”

Ryder’s white AI armor contrasts Shep’s iconic dark armor (intentional design)

Concept art for Ryder involved experiments with cloth (cloaks, ponchos, capes - “Pull here to release cloak”) and asymmetrical design elements

For alien design, there’s a few exceptions but humanoid figures are the ME standard and this persisted into MEA

Kett and angara concepts explored striking lines and textures 

– From Bioware: Stories and Secrets from 25 Years of Game Development

[waezi2]

Re-reading Yu-Gi-Oh (part 1)

So... I bitch a lot about Yu-Gi-Oh. When I don’t complain about it online and accuse it of scamming kid me, I ridicule the story and the many holes in the game rules.

But I actually used to love this manga with a burning passion. I bought it because I was fixated with the cards, but instead I got traumatized. In an awesome way.

So I decided to re-read the manga about the possibly best known TCG game in the world and see how it started, how it evolved, and if the story still holds up.

So, I’m reading chapter 1, and we have to talk about the art.

The art style at the beginning was chunky and sometimes downright awkward. But it was still very enjoyable. The characters were very expressive and the tone of the style could swing quickly from wacky and rubberhose like to eerie and brooding depending on the situation. It makes you forgive odd-looking legs and hands that becomes massive. It is clear that it is someone’s first project.

So, this is Yugi. Possibly the cutest and meekest punk kid who ever lived. Yugi is not an outdoor person, so he spends most of his recesses inside the classroom. He brings a ton of games to school, hoping that someone might wanna play with him, but all of his classmates prefer to go outside and do stuff like basketball. And being a short teenager who practically looks like a little boy means he is not a desirable team mate in any ball game.

This is totally just a theory, but I think Yugi’s signature punk hairstyle is his way of trying to look a bit more edgy to try do something about his cute appearance.

... Yeah, it’s not working. He still looks like a fricking Gummibear.

As Yugi is minding his own business, we meet two familiar faces.

... their names are actually Jounouchi and and Honda, but most people know them by their American names, so I will just refer to them as Joey and Tristan. 

It’s so odd to see their old designs. Especially Joey since his hair is not as big and square like as it is today. And what the fuck is up with Tristan’s face?!

Anyways, while Yugi decides to play with the most valuable game in his collection, Joey and Tristan decides to mess with him. They make an interesting bully duo where Tristan is more loud and is clearly having more fun bothering Yugi who is too short to put up a fight while Joey seems more stoic and is almost annoyed by Yugi for being a pushover. He even tells Yugi to be a man about it and at least try and take the game back from him by force. So while Tristian just enjoys picking on Yugi for the heck of it, Joey seems to sincerely dislike Yugi.

Luckily, Yugi doesn’t have trouble with bullies as such since he is friends with Tea who is so tough that she actually intimidate Joey and Tristan with sheer attitude. That’s actually impressive.

... A shame she is most of the time just the damsel in distress.

Tea is the only person in class who hangs out with Yugi since they have been friends since kindergarten. And she doesn’t mind staying inside at all since a ton of the guys are jerks who only wanna play basketball with the girls since it gives them an opportunity to look up their skirts.

Yeah, there is a lot of that in this manga. Most of the males in this series are kinda horny. the humor often relies on it, which downright creepy at times.

Even Yugi finds basketball more appealing now that he knows about the skirt-looking.

Lewd panty-shot aside, I think it is a nice detail that Yugi is as pathetic as the rest of the dudes in school, he probably just doesn’t have the courage to try get a look. It makes him less of a pure hero.

Altight, let’s stop talking about Yugi being a closet creep:/

Yugi shows Tea what his greatest treasure is: A LITTERAL treasure.

Yep, this is the famous Millennium Puzzle, practically the mascot of the series. It’s an ancient puzzle found in an pyramid that Yugi got from his grandfather who runs a game store. The puzzle is extremely valuable, both because it is from ancient Egypt and it is made of gold.

... And Yugi brings it to school where Tristan and Joey pushes him around...

Yugi has been struggling with the puzzle for eight years despite being a game nerd. Even though it is a blow to his not that big ego, he keeps trying to solve it since the box says that if he will be granted a wish if he manage to solve the puzzle.

Meanwhile, Joey and Tristan makes the fatal mistake of talking about picking on Yugi while Ushio is close enough to hear it. He is the school’s hall monitor and rumor has it that he is downright psychotic and is feared by most of the students. Heck, some of the teachers are uncomfortable being near him.

And this guy has decided to become Yugi’s bodyguard, something poor Yugi doesn’t take serious when Ushio tells him that.

Joey and Tristan are unaware how screwed they are as they keep having their fun bothering Yugi without our hero knowing it. Joey managed to steal a piece from the puzzle box before Tea interrupted, and Joey decides to throw the piece in the school’s swimming pool so that the puzzle becomes worthless as it can no longer be solved. I gotta say, that is pretty twisted and surprisingly sneaky of a teen bully. It’s downright creepy.

Speaking of creepy...

This is Yugi’s grandfather Sugoroku. He runs the game shop that Yugi lives in and is a living encyclopedia when it comes to games of all sorts.

And he can’t just tell Tea that she has grown. He HAS to mention her breasts as well. Da fuck is up with all the sex talk and panty shots in this series?! Does Kazuki Takahashi(the author) have some sort of issues?!

Yugi’s grandfather notices that Yugi is STILL trying to solve the ancient puzzle and warns Yugi that the puzzle is supposedly cursed. That the archeologist and his team died mysteriously shortly after finding the puzzle and the last one to kick the bucket said something about a “shadow game” with his dying breath.

That however makes Yugi even more determent to solve the puzzle. If it really is magical then chances are that he will be granted a wish by completing the puzzle.

Personally, I would call the nearest museum and sell the dang thing before it could kill me with it’s insane cursed magic.

Speaking of insane, Yugi realizes that he should have taken Ushio serious when he said he would be his bodyguard.

Yep, the SOB has dragged Joey and Tristan behind the school building and kicked their asses through and through. Tristan is in so much pain that he is barely conscious and Joey is so pummeled that all he can do is watch as Yugi shows how surprisingly brave he is as he demands that Ushio leaves them alone, even refer to them as his friends and that they were just trying to make him a man.

Yeah, picking on someone because they are too timid and demanding that they fight you despite knowing that they hat violence is the right way to make someone a man. Hip hooray for toxic masculinity!

Yugi defending Joey and Tristan results in him getting a beating as well.

One of the interesting things about early Yu-Gi-Oh is the raw and ugly violence. We talking dirty violence where people get kneed in the chest and kicked while they lie down. Not just off-screen, we witness our heroes be pummeled, making the series a bit more gritty and frightening. And this series is not for those with a weak stomach.

Joey is stunned, partly because Yugi defends him, but way more of the short spiky-haired kid’s courage. But Yugi is anything but afraid. After all, he refused to fight Joey, but he still tried to get the puzzle back(not successfully, but he made an effort instead of just squirming).

After Ushio finished kicking poor Yugi’s ass, he tells him to bring him money as “payment” for his “bodyguard service.” And we talking 200000 yen, that’s a lot of dough.

Ushio even pulls a god damn knife(!), just to show how fucking crazy he is!

Yugi goes home to see if he has money enough to pay Ushio, but he only has 1656 yen. In frustration, Yugi decides to solve his unsolvable puzzle, just to think of something else than the brute with a knife who is waiting for him at school.

But what do you know? Yugi finally get the hang of it. He sees that some of the pieces just needs to be rotated differently and he finish it in a couple of minutes.

... Or he WOULD have. He finally sees that one of the pieces are missing, breaking his heart and making his awful day even worse.

But Grandpa has the last piece. He tells Yugi that one of his friends from school had found it and asked him to give it to Yugi. And that he was soaked despite it not raining.

As Yugi is happy about being able to finish the puzzle and returns to his room, his grandpa thinks about that the boy was Joey and that he asked him not to tell Yugi it was him that came with the puzzle piece. Joey also told him about Ushio blackmailing Yugi, so Grandpa secretly puts money in Yugi’s schoolbag so he won’t get in trouble.

And this is where it get’s freaky.

Yep, here it is. the iconic moment Yugi gets blessed by the puzzle so that he can turn into the split personality we refer to as Yami which is Japanese for “Dark”.

Yugi then calls Ushio and tells him to meet him outside school at midnight.

Ushio is surprised as he sees that Yugi is wearing some sort of costume and that he looks way more cocky than before.

Yugi tells Ushio that he has the money he demands, but he has twice the amount. Fricking 400000 yen!

But Yugi only “owes” 200000 to Ushio, so he suggest that they play about them in a dark and twisted game.

Yugi and Ushio take turns stabbing the stack of money placed on their hand. They have to stab hard enough to take more than one single bill. The winner is the guy with most yen bills.

As they play, Ushio seems to be winning... but when it is his turn, he can feel that his hand is way too eager to stab.

This is not just a weird-ass game. This is a “shadow game”, a game that shows your true nature. Ushio’s greed is now collected in his hand, and he so desperately want to win the game that he can’t control it. He realizes that if he stabs, he won’t be able to control his strength and he will penetrate his own hand. Ushio has to either A) give up and keep his hand or B) win the game with one hand less.

Ushio picks C.

Ushio tries to kill Yugi, but that was a mistake. The puzzle has made him super human and he leaps from the ground, evading the knife.

And cheating in a shadow game is a big no-go as the host of the game has authority to punish you.

Yami Yugi curses Ushio with “Illusion of Greed”, meaning he will be doomed to live in an imaginary world where he sees nothing but money everywhere.

Next morning, he is still outside the schoolyard like a drooling idiot who yells about all of his imaginary money.

Yugi has no memory of what happened but is glad he no longer has to be worried of Ushio who is a harmless nutcase. Not only that, he has finally finished his puzzle... and Joey offers him his friendship.

And that was the start of the horror manga turned card game commercial. It has a lot of charm, is very eerie and I think I prefer Yami Yugi’s first look that is more child like. making him look downright creepy.

This retrospective will continue ASAP.

Till then, I’m Waezi2, and thanks for wasting time with me.

[blackbackedjackal]

i guess one thing i'd like to know about you is what got you interested in vulture culture?

It was a big combination of things that all kinda fell into place. My family owns a funeral home, and I used to spend a lot of time there as a kid. I got used to death pretty early on, and never saw it as scary. I wanted to be a veterinarian for a loooong time, but my talents leaned towards art. Taxidermy was the perfect marriage of my interests (art and working with animals), so I did a lot of taxidermy work in college. I also had this nagging connection to the Egyptian pantheon ever since I was really little. I remember doing a project about Ancient Egypt when I was like 9 and I was just fixated on the idea of working with the Egyptian gods. When I got out from under the smothering blanket of Christianity that I had to deal with, I went straight to Kemetism and began working with Anup and Bast. The animals I work on and preserve are in dedication to Anup, and with having a history with death from and early age it just felt right. The catalyst was when I saved up to buy Jynx, my wolf soft mount for my 18th Birthday. I fell in love with her, her energy, and just the general idea of animal preservation. The more I worked with the animals, the more at peace I felt with myself. It was like all the dominoes fell into place, so I've been doing it for the last 9 years and couldn't be happier :>

[moonwish]

okay so i was tagged by @sugarjaee​ THANK YOU AGAIN I LOVE YOU

rules: answer the ten questions then write your own and tag ten people

1. an album/song that decribes your life?

idk about albums but ‘hurts - illuminated’ and ‘the faim - summer is a curse’ are pretty good for this haha

2. name someone you’ve always looked up to?

well it wasn’t like always-always because i only met the guy when i was 14 but there’s this boy one year older than me who basically was my role model through high school (and lowkey still is lmao)

3. what makes you happy?

sunny weather, scented candles, cute summer clothes, the sea, kpop music

4. describe your style (fashion wise lol)?

after many many inner debates i’ve finally concluded that the style i like best is street/urban with a dash of girly here and there

5. what’s your favourite pastime? 

dancing

6.  what is your go to meme?

technically not a meme but i use this every chance i get

7. what is a new favourite of yours? (can be anything)

citrus-scented shower gel SDNSVKJBDSKD

8. who was your very first kpop bias?

i mean the first kpop song i ever heard was exo-k’s mama and i remember kai got my attention but i didn’t get into kpop any further than that bc i didn’t know what it was....then when i seriously got into it in late 2018 (ty blackpink) jennie was instantly my bias so i’m gonna have to go with her

9. what year did you start your blog?

april 2016 and i used to be a miraculous ladybug blog.....lmao

10. team edward or team jacob? (sorry i had to lmao)

listen listen i only saw the first twilight movie and that was it for me but from what i remember from it......edward lol

my questions !!

1. did you do anything to your hair during quarantine?

2. do you have piercings/tattoos? how many?

3. what was your niche object of interest that you were fixated on during childhood? (mine was ancient egypt + many many more)

4. what’s your ultimate vacation destination?

5. who’s your favourite out of the totally spies trio?

6. do you still eat cereal for breakfast?

7. how would you rate your make up skills from 1 to 10?

8. do you have a book that kinda changed your life forever?

9. what’s your favourite underrated disney movie?

10. what was your first cellphone?

tagging @zvde​ @metoo-3​ @bexis-mind​ @sweetbabycarat​ i know it said 10 people but i can’t think of that many rn sorry!!

[bexis-mind]

Tag~

Hi, hello, it’s been 500 years yay~ So I was tagged by @lovelyuno​ , thank you very much sweetie~ ^^ and sorry it took me so long my laptop was out of commission and you won’t catch me dead writing a tag like post on the mobile app  

rules: answer the ten questions then write your own and tag ten people

1. did you do anything to your hair during quarantine?

Tried to salvage the red by adding semi-permanent hair dyes but ultimately I ran out of it and my hair turned light copper/blond

2. do you have piercings/tattoos? how many?

Just two extra earring holes on both ears but I actually want more than that

3. what was your niche object of interest that you were fixated on during childhood? (mine was ancient egypt + many many more)

Ancient China and East Asian culture as a whole, everything folklore and mythical gave me a high whenever I read something, blame it on Wendy Wu and Mulan haha ^^

4. what’s your ultimate vacation destination?

Japan. I really, really want to go there <3

5. who’s your favourite out of the totally spies trio?

Honestly my favorite totally spies girl was Britney overall, but out of the trio it was Sam... now that I think about it maybe it’s because of her that I wanted red hair so much :))

6. do you still eat cereal for breakfast?

Absolutely!

7. how would you rate your make up skills from 1 to 10?

Maybe a 5? A 6 on a good day? Tho I only do eye makeup so I have no idea how accurate this is... 

8. do you have a book that kinda changed your life forever?

I think it has to be Strange Angels by Lili St. Crow? It’s not the most groundbreaking book series to ever hit the world, but if I hadn’t read it when I did, I don’t think I would’ve had a book collection now, 10 years later. Also Our Dark Duet (this is the second book) by V.E. Schwab, I relate to August on such a strong level it almost scared me and I didn’t realize it until I broke down in tears halfway through reading the book :’) fun times

9. what’s your favourite underrated disney movie?

Is The Aristocats considered underrated? It’s my all time favorite Disney movie so either way I think it works. And Emperor’s New Groove!  

10. what was your first cellphone?

A Sony Ericsson... something... it was a different/older model but this is the closest picture I could find to what mine looked like

my questions~ 1. Favorite DreamWorks movie? 2. First artist you ever liked? 3. Favorite game growing up? 4. What’s your perfect day like? 5. Do you have any pets? If so how many? 6. Why did you make a tumblr account? 7. Why did you stay on tumblr for as long as you have? 8. Favorite song right now? 9. Favorite subject in school? 10. Favorite vine?

Tagging (probably not 10 aye): @shady-smile​ @cest-la-vie-ma-copine​ @bia-s-mind​ @animusdissimilis​ @sat-dupa-sat​ @upgradedbeanie​ @argayzi​ 

[dragontamer05]

I honestly don’t mind Atem passing on to the afterlife. Sure it’s sad but first of all Atem was already like dead to begin with from the start.

- and out everything i have watched/read where a character is a ghost that character generally stays a ghost- unless you know the whole plot is like idk trying to resurrect them I guess

In away the whole point was that in order to protect Egypt/the world from Zorc he didn’t just sacrifice his life but any chance of going to the afterlife by sealing away his name.

I agree it’s sad.

But you know what I just realized it also kinda fits with the idea of burying the past, moving on,saying goodbye. Quite literally not hanging on to ghosts of the past.

Sure Atem befriended Yugi n co, has lots of memories with them and was only by the end he regained his memories of his life in Egypt but that still doesn’t change the fact that he’s the spirit of someone who lived thousands of years ago.

In away they (Yugi n co) are now being made to face much the same dilemma as those they faced in previous arcs. All of them had something they couldn’t let go of in the past

- Pegasus couldn’t move on from or accept the loss of his love

- Kaiba for as much as he preaches about looking forward/not looking to the past doesn’t seem to have let go of anything from his past/moved on. Whether from distant past or even just letting go and accepting defeat. And as proven by the movie is still clinging on to Atem’s spirit refusing to accept that he’s dead- and subsequently I guess doesn’t view Yugi to be a worthy rival?

- Otogi/Duke’s dad in Manga anyway clings to the defeat he suffered against Yugi’s grandpa

- Malik well okay he got a whole mix of a lot of things going on with all of it kinda culminating with a load of anger, hatred and what not from things that happened in the past

- Bakura is hella fixated on the past I mean he even decided to go as far as to recreate the whole ancient egypt thing for their final fight.

(Not saying any of theses characters aren’t justified in their feelings - and I know things go deeper then simply can’t let go of past but keeping it simple here)

Contrast with the majority of our protags where even if shit things have happened they keep trying to move forward and Atem literally has no past. His drive is to learn about his past. Heck by midway through battle city they kinda establish that once everything is done Atem will finally be able to go to the after life.

Idk i guess I just feel like the ending might not have felt as impactful if suddenly via who knows how suddenly he just regained life - that hey instead of accepting the dead should stay dead and don’t belong with the living poof Yugi gets to have both beating the pharaoh and Atem stays.

And what about Malik, Isis/Ishizu and Odion/Rishid’s jobs as tombkeepers part of that was to help the pharaoh reach the afterlife if he stays then that means they can’t be finished of their mission either.

--

[qweenmandymarie-blog]

((((the scariest thing I have ever done is share this))))

I guess the best place to start is the beginning. This… time line started when I went with a childhood friend to her grandmother’s house. I was 12 at the time. There was a horror movie on the television, I choose to believe this event spurred my interest in horror movies and all things ooky, spooky, weird, scary, ect. I do not know the name of the movie, but it was kinda generic scary movie stuff. A bunch of young people go into an abandoned hotel, a crazy killer dude lives there. They have sex, he kills them. What stuck with me was that he had this big hook that he would throw through the ceilings and walls and floors to catch people, and he would steal their eyeballs when he finished. I have a fear of eye things now, that kinda fucked me up. This movie translated to, really a fixation. My daydreams switched from being about general teenage girl stuff (twilight at the time I believe) to this movie, or the idea of it. From that Mandy Marie was born. Mandy is based off of me, but she is the badass I wish I could be. She always looked exactly like me at first, and acted like me. And then the crazy dude guy would capture her and she would morph like some sort of fucked up butterfly to what she remains as now. A badass queen with endless magical abilities, immortality and a sex appeal like no other. In reality I would n e v e r want to be Mandy. She hates her life, I know because I made it. The escape is nice, but Mandy isn’t a human anymore. WHICH leads into the next thing. So the weird movie set up the scene for me. From that came the ‘peculiars’. I didn’t have a name for my little collection of characters until Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. After I read that book I called them peculiars. I decided that wasn’t original enough at one point, so I changed over to ‘strangers’. Strangers are, essentially humans, born with a special gene that allows them, once expressed, to have magical powers and many other things. Most strangers have lived many past lives. I still haven’t quite come up with where strangers came from. In some timelines they come from demigods, but Mandy never was a demigod. That is again a story for a different time. For the most part strangers do not remember their past unless they have been around for a long time or are very powerful. Mandy does, but she is older than dirt and one of the most powerful strangers in the world. There are strangers all over the world. They live on compounds for the most part. Mandy is the queen of the 13th compound, the North American Compound. There is a South American Compound, the 12th , 1 in Australia, the 11th, 10, 9, 8 and 7 are in Asia, 6 and 5 are in Europe, and 4 through 1 are in Africa. The strangers started in Egypt, where Mandy was first born, in the ancient times. (this stuff is NOT supposed to be historically accurate I AM SORRY but not really) She was married to Anubis, they had 13 kids. She was taken by Horus and forced to marry him, taken again by Osiris and then forced to go back to the mortal world. Then she was found by Hades, and lived with him for a short time until Anubis found out and Hades and him had a big nasty fight and she was whisked away again. She lived through two lives and was then found by Loki. They were essentially fuck buddies until he knocked her up, but she lost the kid and he sent her back to the mortal world. She lived through 12 very miserable and disease filled lives, and then in the 13th life she was taken to a council, consistent of all the gods of death including a young man named death. They gave her the powers of a grim reaper. Her job was to help souls cross over, and to help decide who lived or died. You could also call her a miracle, she saved a lot of lives. Until she met Rodney. Rodney was, well a terrible human really. But she fell in love. He would use her to kill people and get away with it, and she would keep him alive. The council found out and stripped her of her powers. Her and Rodney and his three brothers went on to do really crazy fucked up shit. They created a circus, which was just a front for drugs and murder. Mandy slowly went insane and killed Rodney in his sleep. She proceeded to kill all of his brothers, and many other men that worked with them in the circus. She was taken to the council again, who wiped her memories and sent her soul back into the world to try again. Well she was still crazy, and spent her next 7 lives killing people, she just wasn’t as good at it.

To Be Continued 

[ualscout]

Captain's Log: No One

I did roughly 8 hours of field research for this project. If that doesn’t show how hyped I was, I don’t know what does. 

We were told to go to the British Museum to take notes and sketches of artifacts that interested us. We’d then incorporate our research into our first animatic by centering/including the artifact in a story. The British Museum is a pretty fukken big museum, host to artifacts from cultures all over the world. I was gonna be there a while. 

My first area of interest was the Ancient Egypt section. Even thought it was packed, I took a lot of sketches and notes on stuff I could picture as the centerpiece of a story- a means of congregating or hosting. For instance, a lot of libations bowls that would be used by many people a day who visited a temple took my interest, or the towering sarcophagi that looked way too big for only one person. I initially didn’t want the artifact to become the character, but to assist the characters interacting with it. That way, I could tell a story around it. 

My next stop was the Ancient Greece section. As a kid, I knew everything about greek mythos. It’s a religion not only with multiple gods, but fatally flawed gods is so interesting to me. I took a lot of notes, but most of the notes ended up being around the story as opposed to the aesthetic of the artifact. The Greeks shared an area with the Romans, so I took some notes there as well. I moved onto Ancient Asia. There was a lot of interesting material, I liked to look at the jade crystal carvings and imagine the cronch from biting down on one. They had interesting masks, but not too much stood out to me in there. As I spent more time in the museum, the more monotonous everything got. I don’t think it’s the cultures being repetitive, but it does show how humanity fixates on very similar topics, even beyond cultural barriers. Kind of like parallel evolution. Where I really started to find my spark was Ancient Europe and Scandinavia. Aesthetically and mythologically, I love vikings. Pagan traditions are really cool as well, it all just seems so foreign to me (we don’t learn much about it in American schools). Stuff was interesting me again, but nothing was really catching my eye… Until I was being ushered out of the museum at closing time. I saw a deer skull, the antlers still attached, with holes drilled in.

It was from Star Carr. Made of red deer skull, it served as a headpiece and is among the oldest evidences of shamanic religion. It seemed so unsettling in an ancient and earthy way on its own, the idea of someone wearing it intrigued me. Coming home, I started on three base ideas to bring into class. The first was using an ancient viking mirror as a gateway between an eldritch horror and a young adult who’s distant grandmother just passed away and received the mirror as inheritance… except the eldritch horror acts like an elderly guy with clearly racist beliefs but trying to seem like he doesn’t. They talk by fogging up the mirror and writing. 

The second was two people arguing over who would win in a fight: a person on horseback or a centaur. Inspired by the fact that any times centaurs are featured in art, they’re always fighting a human. Even after writing a rough script for it, I don’t know who would win. 

The last idea was using the mask I found. I liked the idea of it holding an ancient spirit tasked with protecting a humanity that has long since forgotten its existence. I also liked the idea of it being able to possess other living creatures. Not sure if I wanted it to be horror or not, but it would certainly be unsettling. You can probably tell which idea I went with. 

Today, we wrote a script. This is the only area I have any expertise in. My script ended up being 10 or so pages of screen direction and character building, but I finished the dialogue as well. 

The story follows three hikers who venture into some Scandinavian woods on a backpacking trip. Haak is the most serious and the leader, he has the most survival skills out of the group. Maya is the prankster of the crew, but is just as experienced as Haak. Robyn is the physically weakest character, often scared by everything and unnerved by the surroundings. The characters leave their car and enter the woods, but not before trying to make sense of the cryptic writing on the worn and torn trailhead. Robyn is the only one who seems to pay any mind to it. As the group start, a narrator that could be Robyn starts speaking about “tales for a trip through the woods.” The tips start out as actual advice one would use for a backpacking trip, like packing extra food and always having a map, but slowly get more cryptic and unsettling. The characters make their way through the assortment of settings in the woods, focusing more on the nature around them instead of what the group is doing. As the tips get more cryptic, saying stuff like “it may seem like the trees are following you, they’re just keeping an eye on you” and “be grateful you don’t know what’s under the dirt, pray you never find out,” the forest seems to retaliate against the characters. For instance, they get lost and double cross an area they’ve already been in, get haunted by the eyes on the birch trees, and more. Eventually, it all leads up to a normal bear attack being an Ursa Major, a bear with stars in its pelt and no need to hold a solid corporeal form. Haak and Maya get struck down by the bear after supposedly subduing it. As it’s coming for Robyn, Robyn backs up into the form that was following from beginning. The head is out of shot, but it puts a strange headpiece on Robyn, and allows Robyn to fight back against the bear. Once the fight is over, Robyn is faced with the ancient spirit who saved them- a towering, scraggly figure made of twigs and forest materials. It’s creepy to look at, and was framed at the start to be the creature tormenting the group. The creature reaches out and touches Robyn’s forehead, using their body to say verbally “no one believes in you, you should believe in yourself, too.” In Robyn’s voice. The next scene happens where the group dropped the car off, Haak blinking back to consciousness. Somehow, Robyn saved them, and Haak passes out again knowing they’ll be okay. Help arrives as Robyn looks back at No One for the final time as the spirit disappears into the forest. 

The idea is how humans have interacted with and continue to interact with nature. The reality is the forest provides, but it does not protect. People putting faith in the old gods to protect them is a tradition long dead with history, but the idea of this god still holding onto life for the soul purpose of protecting those who may wander into its domain is a very human story, even if it’s behind a creepy mask with origins we don’t entirely understand. It’s inspired by my love of hiking and nature, I actually work in the summer as a camp counselor at a ranch that takes our campers backpacking on the weekends. Each of the human characters show some kind of recurring theme I see in the people I go on these hikes with, and some are named after them. I think drawing the sets and characters for this will be pretty fun, I look forward to it. 

Character design is up next. I started with Robyn, the rest of the characters would follow in style. 

I wanted Robyn to have a very childish look, but not dumb childish. Like a smart bookworm who has no idea how to survive outside a library, much less civilization. However, Robyn couldn’t look like they thrived in society either. They should be a shy nerd who’s out of their element everywhere, not just in the wild, which just makes being in the outdoors that much more terrible. I also wanted Robyn to come off as genderless so anyone could relate to them. The story isn’t about their gender or age (even though in cannon the characters are in college/university/living on their own, but the style still makes them look like children… oh well) it’s about the forest and how they interact with it. 

I had a hard time getting a grip on the style I wanted, everything seemed so forced and I was never happy with what I drew. I kept erasing and redoing and changing without keeping anything. About halfway through the day, I was still only half a character sketch page done and feeling quite hopeless. I realized I was trying to be perfect on a sheet that wasn’t supposed to be. It Sucked… but I figured out the style I wanted. The t-shirt and swishy basketball shorts is the epitome of beginner hiker attire. I stopped caring so much about the quality of the drawings and just started drawing action poses. 

The next most important character would be No One. I had a lot more fun playing with No One’s design, probably because I didn’t have to make it look human. I wanted to make them look imposing, scary, but made of the environment. Like, with clothes of moss and litchin. Almost stitched together. I played with making them tall, wider, hunched over, in layers. The hardest choice I had to make was the horn shape. I pulled a lot of references from different horned creatures even though the original skull was a red deer. 

Eventually, I came up with final designs for both. I made up Haak and Maya while storyboarding, their designs were simple and based on real people, like their personalities. No worries ‘bout that. Their character models followed the base Robyn’s exploration found. 

Next, storyboarding. I spent so much goddamn time in storyboarding. Not too much happened, but I did like plotting out everything. I realized I can pretty easily plot out the setting and where the characters are in relation to each other then manipulate the camera as needed. Pretty nifty. The only problem is 1. Im bad at drawing and 2. Drawing the same thing over and over again kinda sucks. I spent a lot of time designing the varying backgrounds the characters would walk through and played with how the forest would interact with them. For instance, what if a path suddenly changed or wasn’t visible on the second cross through? What if you could see the reflections of eyes in the cave shadows before the characters entered? 

The idea originally started over the summer. I was hiking through a birch forest and noticed the markings on the white bark looked a lot like eyes… what if they were watching while you passed by? I let this fuel my imagination and inspire the script. I liked playing with where mystery or malice could hide in the forest, which is a lot of places. Sure, people generally feel threatened by the animals, but the terrain is arguably more dangerous. I didn’t want to introduce a wildlife enemy until the climax, or it would just make it less impactful. If a wild animal is revealed to be evil, it gives another face to the force tormenting them, which takes away from the little cameo No One gets at the start. 

Nothing really important happened over the storyboarding period. Just little epiphanies. I realized I got better at drawing the characters and much quicker at it as time went on. I spent a lot of time editing shots and order, which is why the storyboards are messy AF. Made me feel kind of self conscious because everyone at my table had works of art for storyboards, but whatever. They’re supposed to be tools. I also made the very stupid choice to go over every single goddamn board in digital. It was hell. Next time, I’ll probably do everything digitally… 

Capturing audio was hard not only because of the location but because of the season. For instance, I need cricket sounds, nature sounds, car sounds (that I could control), and quiet crisp sounds. Too bad I go to school and live on a street that’s triangulated by a fire station, police station, and hospital. And everyone seems to be lighting things on fire, getting crimed, or dying. 

I got what sounds I could, but I had a fun time recording with everyone. It was the first time the class was forced out of their comfort zones and made to talk to the people outside their tables. It was a welcome change and I met some cool people. We would talk about what sounds we needed in our stories and whenever we realized how to get that sound it was a group epiphany with excitement. Too bad nowhere in Camberwell is quiet. 

Instead of having one of them narrate my lines, I just did them myself at home with my own microphone. It was just easier because I knew what tone I wanted this character to be. In terms of pitch, I just edited it in Audacity. The quality of it didn’t matter, because it wasn’t supposed to be exactly human. I played with it being lower pitched, but if I wanted to make it seem like Robyn was the real narrator, I would need it to be higher. It sounds pretty close to what I wanted- hollow, indifferent, but all-knowing and wise beyond the years the voice should belong to. 

I knew from the start I wanted one of two songs in the soundtrack, even though Joe said no songs… sorry, but I envisioned it with this music, it wasn’t structured around it but it was structured with it. Both are the instrumentals behind the songs, so there’s no words, but I did make a playlist of music I wanted to inspire this animatic with at the start. Both songs were at the top. The first song is “Welcome Home, Son” by Radical Face. It’s got a steady beat, good organic guitar, piano, and what sounds like bells. It’s got a REI feel to it (and I’m realizing now that you don’t know what REI is, probably… but I’m keeping the comparison because it’s true) which is kind of like adventuring somewhere greater than yourself, understanding the greatness of it, being slightly scared of it. Like you’re on a quest with no destination. Like facing the mortality and insignificance of yourself in this vast and wondrous world, but instead of fleeing in fear or rejecting the fear, accepting it and finding a home in it. The background vocals add to the feeling of humanity that’s not quite ‘human’ but when tested it tended to mess up the dialogue. The sound of bells and wind chimes was nice, like a feeling of emptiness or forgotten home. Just all around a great song. Also there’s a wind sound effect, like it’s blowing through the trees outside the mouth of a cave. I just think it’s neat and put it at the beginning. 

The other song was “New Slang” by The Shins. It has a similar feeling to “Welcome Home, Son” but not quite as adventurous. Much like the song lyrics say, “Gold teeth and a curse for this town were all in my mouth, only I don’t know how they got out, dear…” it’s about returning home with a bittersweet feeling, somewhere you don’t quite belong, but desperately want to. The simple guitar strumming and bass feel melancholy, and the calm electric guitar (never thought I’d say that pair of words together) just make it seem like an amble through the old woods in the backyard of your childhood home, visiting the old treehouse, and sitting in it alone as you remember back to when you weren’t alone in it and much smaller. The simplicity of the song adds less of a dramatic tone and a more organic and realistic one. It’s also more comforting than “Welcome Home, Son” due to less swells and changes in the sounds. It also has background vocals, but they’re much more human and less dramatic, they almost sound like a mourning wolf separated from his pack, but his calls go unanswered. The thing is the runtime is 1/2 that of “Welcome Home, Son”… The middle section, when edited, made up about 4 minutes. 

I played with both and enjoyed both results a lot. The music starts as they enter the forest and the narration starts, following them as they go on their adventure. It’s supposed to show that time’s passing like a montage, but also ends up showing how the danger is real and haunting when Ursa Major awakens in the bear. 

My biggest issue while editing the animatic was sound design after the music cuts out. It ends at the perfect moment and even follows the story beats of the end, but after that I just had the haunting silence of the forest and the sound of the nature around the characters in which I had to put a dramatic fight scene. I didn’t want to bring the music back until No One revealed themselves to Robyn to show the connection had finally been made, but the fight scene between Robyn and Ursa Major was so empty… It felt like I was just layering bear grunts and damage sounds over dynamic shots, but it wasn’t translating as tense, it was just awkward. I also had trouble with selecting what sounds were real. Robyn doesn’t make any verbal sound, the only sound to come from Robyn is their footfalls and how they interact with the environment. I should have made more steady rules with how Robyn and the other characters are present outside of the middle montage.  

Actually while I’m writing this I realized I could restart the music and have it cut back out once No One takes back their face… fuck.

So, what did I learn from this? That I storyboarded way too fucking much and made way too many fucking characters. I was told all throughout diagnostic to be free and reach for the stars, especially in communication, but the reality is in trying to tell the story I wanted I ended up drowning myself in work. 

I really loved writing this story, though. That’s my favorite part of anything. Writing is the ONLY skill I have over everyone else, and I WILL flex on everyone when I get the chance. It was just too big of a story for right now. I mean, I got everything from a single deer skull, it didn’t seem like much at the time… Maybe when I’m better at all of this, I’ll revisit it and make it more like I pictured in my head. I felt like epiphanies kept coming to me as I was writing the script, but as time went on and I had to plan it, I would get too caught up in the details. I love preproduction though. Like, a lot. That’s for sure my favorite part of making animation and film. Just figuring out where everything goes and how it all works together is just so satisfying and I really enjoy it. A bonus is it doesn’t have to look like Perfect Art, either. The fact that it doesn’t look perfect is one of my greatest insecurities, but it’s something I’ll have to get over, and it’s easier to get over it if it’s forgivable/expected. I know once we do actual animation, it’ll just be harder to make longer stories and I won’t know how to cut down on it all… but whatever. I’ve always had a problem writing too much, so that’s just something I’ll have to learn to manage. I’ll try and do better next time. I was really tempted to make this a comedy, like I always do, but I didn’t. I made something serious for once, and it didn’t end up as I imagined, but it got close enough. 

That’s a victory Royale. 

[steve0discusses]

Yugioh Ep 36 S4: Seto Joins Dragon Wife in Hell

So I dunno about you guys, but 2020 aged me like a lot in just these 8 months, so I figured it was time to embrace the feeling of being on death’s door and I decided to learn Mahjong. So I could truly embrace the ancients and vibe in their natural habitat.

Anyway, once I learned some Mahjong lore, some parts of Yugioh just open up. Namely--Seto’s dragons. Like a whole lot of stuff about early Seto Kaiba that confused me at the time just makes so much more sense now.

But unfortunately, he dies this episode, and he never pulled out his Blue Eyes White Dragons, and it’s just like...

...but my Mahjong deep cuts...

Like every episode I’m just rubbing my palms together in anticipation that someone will die, but like...I never get to talk about how in Mahjong, there’s only 4 white dragon tiles, but if you have 3, you can steal the fourth white dragon from another player’s discards, and that when you that, other stuff happens...I don’t get to talk about that because Seto’s hella dead.

So lets just get to the death. Dartz decides to make all of our soldier frenemies attack Pharaoh--because that’s all he needs to raise the Leviathan. Like Dartz doesn’t even really need to finish this game. He just needs Yami.

Seto picks up that these friend (and Pegasus) soldiers that Yami refuses to kill are probably going to end the world very quickly so he decides to do something about it. If this were a blog where I talked about cards instead of Mahjong, then I’d dive into the intricacies of what that even was.

But, we’re not, so lets just talk about Pegasus.

(read more under the cut)

This guy harnesses some psychic energy he’s got leftover from S1 and communicates directly to Pharaoh’s mind.

So, hey, what was that about Pegasus not having powers anymore? Like? He’s still doing this? He’s still psychic and he very clearly can still make blank cards so like...I guess you can take out the eyeball and make him nicer, but you can’t take out some of the effed up magic side-effects. (like there was a comment I didn’t respond to (which, sorry about that, been a little nuts over here in California), but apparently there was a movie in between seasons where Pegasus saved their lives--so he’s legit good now...there was a DLC where character arcs happened.)

Which kind makes you wonder about Marik, but we’ll probably never see him again so o well, save it for the fanfiction.

PS Yami is totally fixating on that eye we can’t see, right? Like...it never outright tells us, but does this spiritual Orichalcos manifestation of Pegasus still have the golden eye? A human eye? Or no eye at all? Just skin?

Not like it matters because Seto does some sort of card shenanigans that undo the whole friends that are soldiers thing like it never happened.

MMMMM I don’t like these weird legs on Yugi. Don’t like the thighs it gave to Joey. No! I’m seeing like this skin-tight silhouette of half an ass right now and I really don’t like it.

Along with other card things I won’t go into that consumed most of this episode, Seto finally got hit by a...well, I mean you can clearly see it in the next cap.

So, in Mahjong, there are 3 types of dragons: a white dragon, a red dragon, and a green dragon. I used to think it was really lazy that we’re just calling monsters straight up “white dragon” or “red dragon” in this show, but now it makes more sense because this whole time it was probably baby’s first Mahjong reference but I’m too Western to know that.

Anyway, the white dragon is funny looking because it’s a white tile--just a completely blank white tile. I thought it was a wild card at first but nah--it’s a white dragon in a snowfield--which is a very funny Dad joke from 200 years ago we’re still doing today. But, often, instead of a Dad joke, they’ll just make the white dragon tile a drawing of a blank card, like this:

Kind of funny that the guy who’s shtick is white dragons, ended up with his soul in a blank card. Was that a mahjong reference? Probably not, but I noticed it.

And mahjong aside, the show paid it’s respects to Seto dying and so he took his sweet time passing on. It’s still not that much respect. We aren’t gonna get that amazing Joey death sequence from S3 that took like half an episode of scene-shredding for our mains to recover from, but like...Seto was very determined to keep going, despite not having a soul.

He even finished his turn of cards, as if to just spite Joey Wheeler for that one time Joey hella died before killing Marik.

Shippers rejoice, it’s a Yami and Seto Kaiba death sequence. If you squint really hard, it might even be an embrace. I mean they both have very sharp duel disks on, and if Yugi’s closes for whatever reason, it’ll snap Seto’s head clear off, but what other “hugs” do we really get on this show?

And as for Mokuba, he was quite tragic this episode. I mean it’s Yugioh, so it’s not like you’re gonna cry or anything, but Mokuba just doesn’t really have anything else going for him without his brother so it is legit like...man Mokuba gets a lot of crap thrown his way and even when he’s happy, he still has to live with Seto so just...Mokuba...

Again we get this bubble effect of other people trying to enter the Orichalcos which happens just a Hell of a lot this season. Like Dartz probably has never had a single person WANT to go in the green zone in 10,000 years and then these bizarre children happened and they just want to bounce off that thing like a jello pudding.

I think it took over 5 minutes for Seto to die, and he was very, very, VERY angry the entire time. Just fueled by literally nothing but rage. Could probably go a couple more episodes if he had taken a nap in the KaibaCopter, but alas, even Seto Kaiba eventually runs out of fumes.

Anyway, another Mahjong fun fact. The dragon tiles are considered an “honor tile” and how many times have we heard Seto--who is such a scumball--go off about his honor? It can be hard to use honors tiles because their rate of success is lower, so when Seto’s like “I have to live up to my dragon’s honor or I can’t keep these in my deck” could he be like...making a Mahjong pun as well as a literal reference to whatever he defines as honor?

...Again, just a Mahjong reference I noticed, but probably not what they intended at all. Which is Good Enough for this blog.

After he tragically passed on, and Yami delicately put his body on the ground, -- Dartz decided to make this moment very funny for me, instead.

Bless.

Not as good as Yami the both times his body was chucked casually across the screen this season--but a very good toss, nonetheless.

I have made so MANY clips of this season!

Tristan and Tea kinda just stood there this entire episode while this was all going down and like...I know they can’t really do anything else at this point but like...can someone give Mokuba a hug???

I can’t believe Valon was the only guy in this entire show about friendship who knew how to hug people. He was in prison since he was 9, and then was raised by freakin Dartz, why is he the only hugger?

PS, apparently Seto’s yummy soul was enough to make the Leviathan open a single eye-ball in curiosity.

Mokuba out there flinging so many insults that he got everyone else banned from watching devil cards. It’s like sports competitions in Middle school with that one kid who won’t stop cussing. That one kid who is the reason everyone else has to sit through a boring ass assembly about sportsmanship? That’s Mokuba.

Now that everyone is ‘passed out’, we can get to the juicy stuff only the olds talk about--which sounds a lot like I’m about to do another segway into talking about Mahjong again, but I’m actually all out of the Mahjong juice. Again, I’m ass at Mahjong.

(and like...the peanut gallery died in the original version, right? I know to never trust a “they’re just sleeping” line in Yugioh.)

Dartz telling me he dragged that ass length blue hair across Egypt?

Man.

I would say that it must’ve really thrown people, but then again, their Pharaoh looked like...that.

So Dartz ended up wandering the earth for 5000 years, cursed to live immortally, unable to revive the great Leviathan, wallowing in his failure. Sentenced to suffer the entire existence of humanity that he never wanted to see survive anyway, unable to die himself.

That’s an interesting plotline that I wish I saw more of. I really like the idea of a supervillian who is already past his prime, who’s already burnt out, who’s so far removed from what happened that he’s fully accepted his demise and is just wandering around out of habit. But, most importantly--that changes my math. That’s like...5000 years he wasn’t slurping no souls because he was too damn depressed. So I’ll append the Deathcount. One second.

OK so we can just subtract 7.3 million from what we had, leaving us with: 7,805,844,047. Barely even made a dent but...eh...when you got the current population of the Earth in there it’s really hard to make a dent in that thing.

PS I still have that google doc where I keep track of the deaths, we have 55 lines of entries, haha.

Yugioh is interesting because you do have some racial stuff going on here where Yami is SO OLD that he doesn’t remember not only his own name--he doesn’t remember what he looks like. He’s even seen it a few times in hallucinations but like...Yami legit doesn’t know what it is to be an ancient Egyptian anymore. It’s been a hot minute, and he still sees himself as a pale skinned Yugi clone when he spiritually manifests in the show. Because the modern day, set in Japan, through Yugi’s eyes--that’s all he knows about life.

Dartz was so impressed by Pharaoh’s magic powers that he knew--he just KNEW that this Pharaoh with the worst hair would be the yummy soul for the Leviathan tummy. But unfortunately...

This is a show that has had so MANY overlapping apocalypses that I did have to sit back and kind of count off on my fingers which crazy person this would be about.

Honestly? Either Seto or Bakura...guessing Bakura because we haven’t finished his storyline yet and I know that he’s the big bad of S5. But man...Dartz was just like “oh...no thanks to that guy. I’ll just take a nap for 5000 years, BIG no thanks.” and it does make you wonder...

...oh...so that’s why you didn’t bother Bakura in this timeline.

It also helps make Bakura even more of a threat. Again, Bakura is great because he’s just constantly leaving nuggets of what a threat he is and then just...disappears for seasons on end. The Bakura we’ve made in our head is probably way more awful than what he may end up being.

But for now, it’s fun to just fill in the gaps instead.

anyway that was it for this episode, I’m off to pretend it’s Thanksgiving week and will look forward to drowning my anxiety in a 16 lb turkey shared between four people.

Anyway, I brought up the cat that falls asleep on metal rods so I have to do this:

And for those that are new, this is a link to read these in chrono order: https://steve0discusses.tumblr.com/tagged/yugioh/chrono

[steve0discusses]

Yugioh S2 Ep 44-45: Kaiba Hallucinates a Dead Woman and Then no One Talked About it???

So, for the record, I am writing a little bit to the future here because I did make a little bit of buffer. And this episode had a Hella Random Thing in it and I just want y’all to know I try to create an authentic reading experience--although it’s not like a blind riffing, I clearly watched each episode twice to make the caps and write all this stuff--and I do it one episode at a time so you get a somewhat close to a realistic live cap experience, but like, believe me when I say I did not see this coming.

At all.

At all.

And if any of you were watching this at home and saw this happening then you are lying OR you have been writing a very creative fanfic and this fever dream was also shared by that one guy on this writing staff who really really really stans Seto Kaiba. Lets dive into it, shall we?

Things start out pretty normal, as we are yet tucking another hospitalized person into Kaiba’s floating coma ward.

I’m starting to notice that this room also has sheets which just means when they got to Bakura, they just didn’t feel like tucking that nasty boy in. They looked at him covered in blood and grime and whatever other sweaty layers are all over Bakura and were like “None of us like Kaiba, but we don’t want to do that to his linens.”

And then the episode starts with Joey literally saying this

Now in the actual line of the show, Serenity stayed behind because she wanted to be strong for Mai, a lady she looked up to so much for all of 3 hours. She also said that her brother’s strength inspired her to have the courage to stay well below deck and whatever the hell nonsense was going on up there.

I mean courage is a word you could use to describe it, I would just call it common sense.

Also, look at this Christmas miracle.

I like that someone on the animation team was like “How else are they going to know that Mai isn’t wearing the disk? Draw it on the table. We have to.” and then bam there it is. That is one super random detail.

(more under the cut)

At the top of the blimp, they’ve decided to give Marik a little bit more space.

The Yuge crew must’ve looked at this situation and been all “I can stand next to Marik, or I can appear to root for Kaiba.” And they made their choice.

Below deck we get to see one of my favorite things, that’s right, it’s fake UI for TV shows.

these look like windows you pull up in Maya when you’re trying to find the right vertex or something. Maybe that’s what inspired all this? I dunno, it’s very silly that he would need the same image of a card twice, and that he would need one flipped and in wireframe. Especially since all they're doing is translating a language.

Or maybe he’s just been dogging Kaiba for half an hour before this episode started? Who knows, but honestly, I kinda have to side with Kaiba on this one, moving Mai would be a bad choice since there’s doctors--right there--but like...they should land the blimp though. Like the blimp with a murderer on it maybe needs to land at some point?

But never mind that, there’s cards to be played.

Or...not played.

It takes Ishizu so long to show up that Roland almost cancelled the game and I was so ready to not have to watch a card duel. I was so ready for that to be the canonical end of Ishizu but of course that didn’t happen.

PS, Marik is permanently glowing now.

Kaiba still doesn’t believe in magic and this guy has a constant third eye. So did Yugi all of last duel and Kaiba was just like “I don’t get your weird fashion” and tbh that’s a fair assumption to make.

To be fair, they probably only have once source of not cursed jewelry living underground, and it’s probably why their so matchy-matchy. Like, we all have that one Aunt (I was that one Aunt for a little while) with an Etsy shop and way too much inventory that they just give away to family every birthday and holiday. Judging by how much jewelry these two are wearing, their one Aunt isn’t doing so hot selling her merch.

Anyway, Marik’s good side makes an attempt to reach out and it doesn’t get him very far.

Honestly, when you look at it, there’s more people here from Kaiba’s extremely close school class than there is from the Ishtar family. And they don’t even know that Odion is also related. Sort of calling the kettle black here.

Again, ancient Egyptian Samurai with Yugioh cards would have been one hell of a spinoff with so many problems, where is that anime?

So, the game begins, between a mostly-neutral-antagonist and a protagonist who has done nothing but lock herself in her room in the dark for about 1/4 of a season. I have literally no idea who I’m supposed to be rooting for. Neither does anyone on the show.

Things went about as well as you’d expect dueling a psychic, because Kaiba has learned absolutely nothing from dueling Pegasus.

*Mokuba still has the whistle*

Anyway, because Ishizu can read the future, she knew she’d be going up against a dude who relies on very big strong dragons, so she straight up removed every strong card from his deck, leaving only six cards. 

It’s at this point that he only really has one option, to play a Blue Eyes White dragon, which he had in his hand still, or to play the God Card Obelisk which I think was still on field? Again I don’t pay too much attention to the duels but the big thing is that he’s gonna use Obelisk, so Ishizu cursed it so it would hella kill him.

Much like any of the God Cards have done thus far. The worst cards. These are the worst cards and at this point no one should want them anymore. But youknow, hubris.

This is all pretty run of the mill since every time Kaiba duels, he gets hella dunked on, but then...this happens out of absolutely no where.

WHAT?

SHOW.

The least dateable guy in Yugioh!? How is it Kaiba--a past version of him mind you--but a shirtless Kaiba who’s got some lady draped across his arms like he’s gotta model for the cover of a Harlequin romance novel for old ladies? Which...I can arrange that.

Why--out of all of these boys, was it this one that has something the most resembling a fully formed relationship? More so than Tristan, more so than Yugi, more so than whatever was going on with Joey last episode.

What!?

WHAT?

This came out of no where like a jump scare!

And like, here’s the thing, if Kaiba was your slice of pie from the weird ass hair dessert tray that is Yugioh’s selection of husbands, that’s fine. Ship away. But like, imagine with me here, you have a boyfriend--and if you don’t like boys that only adds to this experience--you have a boyfriend and he has the most normal hair of anyone you know, and that’s really great. But his voice ALWAYS sounds like he’s announcing an NBC cop drama. Like you’re eating dinner and he’s like “Can we watch the food channel?” like he’s solid snake.

You’d kill him. You’d kill him way before you end up dead draped across his arms in some weird flashback. You’d straight up kill him.

Sorry, I just made him a lot more attractive for half of you. Whatever, my plan backfired.

But, despite...how...he is, now Seto has one of the most tragic of all the relationships on this show, up there with Pegasus and his dead wife. And so like, I turned to my bro and was like “WHY IS NO ONE TALKING ABOUT WHAT JUST HAPPENED??”

Cuz this show that has very, very little dating in it. A show that has had no physical kissing unless you count that time Pegasus macked a ghost. A show where someone almost got married to someone they never dated in their life and they shrugged it off. A show that had Mai and Joey friendzoning the hell out of eachother rather than admit any sort of crush. A show where Tea and Yugi went on a date but then I guess forgot that happened 20 episodes ago and are now in permanent friend limbo. (Tea and Yugi so far having the most realistic dating experience tbh.)

This is just straight up here’s a picture of past Seto, and his dead wife is here too, no explanation! Have fun digesting that!

(wouldn’t have noticed they forgot to finish Yugi’s necklace if I hadn’t done the cap. hm. So fast I blinked and missed it until I wrote this copy.)

And like, I’m making it seem in these caps as if these characters talked about what I just witnessed in any degree and straight up they didn’t. Of course they didn’t. Kaiba didn’t want to discuss this crazy ass thing that happened. Just me. I am the only one that’s talking about this in 2019. Just me.

So I turn to my bro and was like “you have to tell me what just happened” and bro was like

“Sorry to disappoint you but...I’m pretty sure that dead girl never comes up again.” and then he kind of continued “I’m pretty sure Kaiba sacrificed his one true love in order to get his Blue Eyes.” and I realized “Bro, is this just a headcanon you made up? Are you telling me your spicy Seto Kaiba fanfic as if it’s true just like that one time you told me that Yugi’s Grandpa ate a guy in Egypt and I believed you for 30 episodes?” and bro was like “Mmmmmm It’s probably a headcanon. I’m pretty sure they dropped Kaiba’s dead girlfriend plotline completely off the face of the Earth. Like a LOT of plotlines from s2, Rach, don’t get attached.”

So, because Kaiba believes that his.......dragon.......told him to play a dragon, Kaiba sacrifices his Obelisk to play a dragon--thus removing the Obelisk curse.

So if it’s strongly suggested that Kaiba’s love for this dragon is youknow, an equivalent to the devotion you would have a for a dead wife you have cradled in your arms, then -- has Kaiba been dating this dragon the whole time? Is that what the show just seriously suggested to me with this juxtaposition? Because I am an illustrator and if I wanted to make someone look like they had an intense and complicated relationship with a playing card, that is how I would draw it. Just saying.

And like for serious, how is it that Yugioh keeps writing it’s own fanfic? Like, is this dragon infused with the spirit of his dead wife? Is that why his reincarnation has this weird fixation with the Blue Eyes White Dragon? OMG this is absolutely ridiculous, I can’t believe I’m considering that Kaiba was literally married to what is now his paper card of a dragon. Of which he has 3 of.

Clearly I am thinking way too much about this.

I mean to be fair, Kaiba did save Tea that one time. He also took out a helicopter and a crane at the same time but Tea was just fine.

Oh boy.

That was so freakin random. Well...I’m glad that Kaiba got back together with the dragon. They had sort of a breakup at the beginning of the season and now KaibaxDragon is back in full swing. Good for them.

This was the only guy smart enough not to play a God Card, PS. This guy. I guess if Seto fell in a plot coma the entire tourney would be essentially over, so...it had to happen this way.

But dead wife, amiright?

Here’s a link to read from S1 Ep1

And PS in case you don’t know about the Billionaires and Baby’s books that have--I swear to you, like 400 books in the series--please admire the billionaires and babies books. Never read them. But I like to spread the news of these completely insane and real book covers wherever I go.