#i think it actually would've been really fun and interesting if they went with post crisis kara's origin for the show

[bisupergirl]

just saw someone say that cw supergirl stole the last name "danvers" from post crisis linda danvers and that cw kara should've been called linda lang instead..... i don't necessarily disagree with that last part but how about you read some real fucking literature before speaking on my princess:

[batsplat]

if you could change the outcome of any 3 motogp races (the outcome of the championship doesn’t change regardless tho) which ones would you chose?

one of those asks that immediately made me forget every single race I've watched in my life. it's a tough one, especially with the championship thing... I'm gonna add another criterion here and say nothing to do related to injury/death

so... I came up with one quite quickly, then got stuck, then came up with a second and got even more stuck. I'm quite reluctant to change any 'plot-relevant races' in the context of specific careers and rivalries, plus I'm ideologically opposed to stealing any win off a non-alien and giving it to an alien. which then kinda left me?? well. stuck. I don't like these picks but well maybe I'll come up with something better at some point

assen 2018: I simply could not come up with a third race so I'll just throw this one in. dovi + valentino really really should have gotten onto the podium in this race, those were extremely podium-worthy performances, it was such a deeply silly incident between the pair of them that took them out of podium contention. also it's still seen as a classic race and... I don't even begrudge the two beneficiaries for their podium, it's just one where the three best riders that day didn't end up on the podium and I would change that!! I don't even really care that much but also look I had a spot to fill. would've enjoyed the rancid podium vibes, it's what a race of that quality deserved

sepang 2018: just deeply annoying? like, I think it was a super impressive performance, the consistent lap times trick from a 78 year old was very neat, it was cute when jorge did unprompted valentino prop for metronome solidarity reasons, it's one of literally two premier class races where valentino crashed out of the lead so I don't even hold it against him. but... well, that one might have been building to a battle between marc and valentino, and it would've been fun to see that! not least because of location + relationship vibes in 2018. I'd change the result in preventing the crash, don't really care who wins after that point - hey, they can crash each other out if they want. I Just Wanted To See It

styria 2020: bit of a niche one but I remember being pissed off by this so I'm going with it - this should have been mir's win without the bloody red flag. now I'm very sorry that maverick was just having an abysmal time in austria, peace and love to him, I'd probably never step foot in the country again after the eight days he had in that country.... but still, his bike attempting to murder him did ruin what really should've been joan's first win. I'm very defensive of mir's win stats and I was supporting the title bid with zero wins agenda once that looked plausible, but now that he's just gotten stuck on one win for quite a few years... well, again, I do think it's kinda iconic but I'd also let him have two. and back then he wasn't even really looking like a title contender and was still going for his FIRST win.... I was feeling very sorry for him so. there

[dead-lights]

trai-lore!

because ya know. trailers. with lore.

i'll see myself out

but! before i go - I went and compiled all of the Vampires trailers I could find! I wasn't familiar with all of the shorts and I'm not 100% sure I found them all. There are a lot of contradictions, but aside from the gameplay trailer they can mostly be stitched together.

Also, I recognize I'm trying to wring blood from a stone, reading into things that EA never intended, but ya know. That's the point of exploring lore!

this is mostly validated by werewolves - Lily's dialogue confirms that Caleb was turned by Miss Hell, and the 7 years unlucky mirror confirms that Vlad ambushed her while she was brushing her teeth.

It looks like the bar Miss Hell attacks Caleb in is supposed to be in Forgotten Hollow. There are plenty of reasons he could've been there, but to me that implies that Lilith turned first, and he was there because that's where she hangs out now.

It looks like you're supposed to be able to see the normie parts of Forgotten Hollow from that cliff with the bench, rather than just more of the mountain. There's definitely supposed to be more than just those 5 lots.

I'm not sure if the person behind Miss Hell in the bar is anyone specific? they feel slightly familiar but I might be thinking of Leila Illes from island living, which came out afterwards.

It's unclear how Caleb ended up in the bathroom or whether he asked to turn - the animation is the same either way. In game, I've had a lot of success with both bat-form bathroom ambushes and the good ol' "ask for woohoo and then cancel the order as soon as you're alone together" maneuver so either is plausible. To me, it looks like she's reenacting her transformation, with her as Vlad, so she would've wanted unwilling prey. I've generally thought that Caleb followed her into the bathroom thinking he was going to get laid, but with that in mind it does make sense that she would've just ambushed him when he got up to pee (poor humans and their bladders can't handle their nectar). @charsimsalot has a lot of interesting things to say about how being forcibly turned would have affected Miss Hell in this excellent post about the apartment they built for the rebellious vampires!

That bathroom door is on backwards. I checked - that door only has a sign on one side. Maybe they really wanted to hammer home the point that this is a bathroom? the sink and toilet do a pretty good job of that...

Caleb is not a daywalker in this trailer - since this seems to show him in his earlier days, that 100% checks out. It takes 15 skill points to become a daywalker, which... yikes.

note: I know the sims is very gay these days but do keep in mind that vampires was released January 2017. Gay marriage wasn't fully legalized in the US until June 2015. It was a big deal that Caleb suave kissed a guy in the trailer!

fun fact: the song used for this, deadly flo, seems to be either very cheap or free to license. It is used in a few episodes of the Baking Championship franchise. Y'all, that franchise got me back into baking and directly inspired GOBC. I lost my absolute shit when I heard it playing! There are also parts of Holiday Baking Championship that sound suspiciously like the sims 2 theme... I kinda wonder if there's a simmer in their sound department.

Not really that interesting - earlier versions of their outfits/vlad's dark form. Lilith cannot actually turn into a bat in-game.

vlad bloodvein can use "deprive needs" (must be a master vampire at minimum)

brandy can turn into a bat (should be a minor vampire at minimum)

based on the view outside Brandy's bedroom window, it looks like the virtuous vampires might live in an apartment in San Myshuno?

vlad uses supernatural speed to collect figurines

Not very interesting - just Brandy and Elle eating.

↓↓↓ WARNING - jumpscare below ↓↓↓

lmao what

this one doesn't even seem real, but as far as I can tell it was in fact released as a teaser for the full trailer.

This is the official trailer - it lines up reasonably well with other lore. Also the song is so fun.

Most notably: this trailer shows that Caleb is the one who turned Inna. No context is given. Other promotional material & the in-game paintings show that she was a thrall, potentially for hundreds of years before Caleb turned her.

The exterior of the house where Caleb turns Inna looks exactly like Wolfsbane Manor. However, Inna's bedroom doesn't match any room in the manor. It looks like there is a nearly identical house where Widowshild Townhouse currently is, so either Inna was in that house, or Wolfsbane Manor has since been remodeled. It would be kinda interesting if Caleb and Lilith decided to buy Inna's old house when they moved...

When Caleb turns into a bat, he's in the graveyard to the left of Vlad's house. Maybe he and Lilith lived with Vlad for a time? It kinda looks like Vlad had a lot of vampires filtering in and out of his place.

Elle real horny. I wonder what happened to that guy - he isn't a gallery vampire but he shows up in a lot of the paintings. As far as I'm aware Elle doesn't show up in any paintings.

This trailer is an absolute mess. It contradicts enough existing lore that it shouldn't be taken as any sort of canon, but it's a decent source of inspiration to fill in the gaps, and I pulled heavily from it when I was choosing powers for the gallery vampires.

Elle uses her mist form (I checked the animations) - she must be a grand master. She can use Command.

Markus Crow has supernatural speed - must be master+

Lilith is using a computer at the beginning of this, which feels weird because this is supposed to be at least 50 years ago. That said, technology doesn't advance in the sims, so, sure.

This makes it look like Vlad just broke into her house and turned her like he did with Miss Hell, but to me Lily makes it sound like Lilith was a more active participant: "I remember when my cousin, Lilith, first told me she'd met a fascinating man named Vlad. After that, she started spending a lot of time "training" with him. I thought she meant they were workout buddies. It wasn't until later that I found out she'd been lured to the dark arts."

Lilith's bed is a reward from the painter career - not sure if the implication is that she earned it herself?

I can't really see outside Lilith's windows, but it does kinda look like Forgotten Hollow? Which doesn't make a lot of sense to me - why would she and Caleb have to move to Forgotten Hollow if they already lived there? That said, that isn't Lilith. And that isn't Caleb. This was from when their names were Gina and Raylan.

Note that "Raylan" doesn't have the good vampire aspiration, and his traits are completely different. The others aren't quite the same as the gallery sims, but at least they still have the same names.

Looking out the window, it looks like the Virtuous Vampires are in Forgotten Hollow with everyone else. In one of the shorts, it looks like they live in a big city. I'm not sure which I like better!

Lilith is used as the example for supernatural strength. While she doesn't actually have that in-game, this is part of why I like to make her fitness 10 brute with vampiric might.

Elle continues to be real horny. Who is that guy? I like the implication that they had to go get it on as bats because Vlad was taking a nap and they couldn't fuck in his coffin :(

Bonus! While this isn't a trailer, exactly, it's a promotional blog post from Vlad's point of view and it is the best. Every last part of this makes me happy, from Caleb and Lilith ganging up on Vlad to Vlad referring to sparring matches as "epic duels" (or, in this particular case, what seems like a pretty good training sesh for Caleb).

Nothing about Lilith makes it seem like she doesn't feed on people except a) her household description and b) this post. That said, those two things about as primary as canon can get.

Vlad claims to own 100 gray coats

Vlad only fought Caleb. There could be so many reasons for that - was Caleb the one who made the challenge? Does Vlad not want to fight his offspring?

Vlad claims that the Encyclopedia Vampirica is mostly based on him. Make of that what you will.

Second bonus: Did you know that Vlad has a normie cousin??? There was a bit of promotional content for seasons involving the Climate family. This is that time they invited Vlad over for Harvestfest.

Please let me know if I missed anything! There's a lot of material out there, much of it no longer available on EA's site, so it's definitely possible there are things I didn't find.

[pomplalamoose]

DILF Luke headcanons / story draft pt. 4

🌿modern day AU🌿

A/N: you know, I actually have a collection of ideas and notes I keep wanting to integrate into my Dilf Luke posts and yet I completely ignored it AGAIN in order to go off the rails with something else (this has been going on for several posts) anywaysssss I hope you have fun, mwuah <33

part 1, part 2, part 3, part 5

• as it turns out Luke isn't as unaffected by the night you spent together as he unintentionally makes you believe 

• and how could he ever be?

• he might be able to pretend like nothing happened but inwardly has to deal with a lot of conflicting feelings

• first and foremost he's afraid he scared you away with his intense behavior and stern orders, his loud voice and the demand you stay with him

• after all you haven't been over to visit his child ever since, maybe you fear to be around him?

• he could never judge you for it either, you, who always are so gentle and timid around him

• he simply overdid it this time, overstepped a line and it's in your right to act accordingly

• thinking back on it now he's only able to shake his head at himself and at the way he treated you 

• in the heat of the moment it all seemed so strangely justified, every action he took only with your best interest and well being in mind

• but since a little time has passed he sees that a calmer, more conventional approach probably wouldn't have you avoiding him presently

• left to his own devices he's helplessly replaying how he dragged you into the bathroom and made you strip in front of him, even intervening by ripping off your clothes himself when you took too long for his liking 

• he completely disregarded how you might have felt in the moment, that quite possibly you did not want to undress in front of your best friend's father 

• let alone be undressed by him

• it would've been better to drive you home afterwards too, what went on in his mind to deny you?

• you are an adult, he doesn't own you, who did he think he was to forbid you from leaving?

• Luke doesn't know, of course, that the complete opposite is the case

• you very much wish for him to acknowledge his actions that night 

• and neither are you actively avoiding him, your friend is making you stay away for research purposes 

• "let him stew for a while", they said, "and we'll see how long it takes him to ask for your whereabouts again"

• your friend still isn't exactly thrilled about the situation, but it definitely piqued their interest 

• they want to know what's going on

• why is their father playing hot and cold with you?

• they are not amused he's towing you along like this, they really expected better from him

• meanwhile Luke is doing his best to deny that, if he'd listen closely to himself, he'd have to admit what else upsets him so badly 

• to him, even worse than his brashness is the secret knowledge that he enjoyed himself 

• very much 

• finally, he felt, could he rake control, do what needed to be done 

• and you followed him so nicely too, looking at him for guidance, never questioning, never contradicting anything he said

• your blind, even naive obedience touched him deeply

• he felt so needed

• oh and the way you looked at him; if he had a say you'd never be allowed to look at any other man ever again

• he wishes for your eyes to be only on him

• only for him

• but to confront all of this would also mean confessing to himself how he, in turn, looks at you

• how he thinks of you

• the feeling isn't unknown, nothing new, but still comes as a surprise after all this time

• so he's not ready yet to admit how much he wants you all to himself 

• and how could he?

• you're his child's best friend, it's not his place to swoop in and take you away

• he knows how much you mean to them

• and yet he can't help himself despite how ashamed he is 

• again and again he touches himself to the thought of you

• to all the things he could do to you and make you do in return 

• the thoughts come so easily and just won't stop, never leaving him alone 

• would you follow his orders as eagerly as you did so far?

• or would you take on a different approach, maybe turn into a little brat? 

• someone he'd need to teach a lesson to first?

• of course for that you'd need to learn how to be less shy in his vicinity first, could he make that work?

• mmh, he's not sure how he likes you better anyways 

• maybe you'd be open for a little game?

• though no matter in which direction his imagination takes him, always it returns to the picture you made on the floor in front of him, tears running over your soft cheeks, a pleading look in your eyes

• he could do without the tears, but, truth to be told, you are remarkably pretty when you cry 

• so they stay and all that changes are your surroundings

• he wants you to be comfortable of course, you're not supposed to shiver in the cold or sit on hard stone floor 

• you'd be much better off kneeling on a nice cushion in the living room, or on the plush carpet in his office 

• meanwhile his child is watching him like a hawk, intentionally not bringing you up in conversation even once 

• sooner or later he just HAS to do something, mention something, ask even the littlest of questions

• so their theory, at least 

• and they are right, they know their father well after all

• Luke folds after not even two weeks to comment on your prolonged absence from their house 

• he's so busy playing it cool he doesn't realize the way his kid can barely suppress a giggle 

• "and what did you say???", you immediately want to know when they tell you about it the next day

• "nothing", says your friend and laughs at your face "I want him going wild"

• a few days later he asks whether you fell ill after getting caught in the storm 

• like seriously, is everything okay?

• don't they want to go check on you, make sure nothing's wrong?

• are you struggling mentally again?

• did you guys have a falling out?

• are you on vacation?

• your friend keeps a successful poker face through it all, again and again telling him in a noncholant way how busy you are

• and why is he asking about you so much anyways?

• it's not like you're coming over to visit HIM...right?

• Luke retreats at that immediately and it takes him a while to come out of his shell again

• though only barely does he keep himself from grabbing and shaking the answers out of his child 

• "he's sooooo dramatic" your friend tells you "one could think he's a teenager with how he's acting"

• soon they start contemplating and scheming on what they could say about you to unsettle him a bit

• at this point you beg them to stop interfering, to stop putting themselves between the fronts like this 

• it's okay, you assure them, you can let their father go

• but they're not having it

• this isn't about playing matchmaker 

• you are their friend and they'll make sure you're getting treated right even if they have to go up against their dad for it 

• he's a grown man and he needs to start acting like it!

• your protests fall on deaf ears 

• "No, you listen to ME. I refuse to stand by and watch while my dad is playing hard to get. He's either going to tell you to your face he's not interested or, if that's the case, admit he feels drawn to you! He didn't have a problem with that all the many other times it happened."

• you can't deny they have a point and since they know him better than you do, what else is there left to say?

• the next you hear of them is when you receive a quick text with no context whatsoever 

• "listen I think I overdid it a little bit"

• you blankly blink at your phone, no idea what's going on, though you have the sinking feeling it's somehow related to their father 

• the next messages is just as unnerving but proves you right 

• "yeah uhhh sorry about that but he's coming to pick you up"

• "no way", is your immediate thought just before you get a call that makes you nearly drop your phone

• of course it's Luke, of course 

• where did he get your number?

• and what in the hell did your friend tell him?

• you pick up and before you can even finish saying hello he demands to know where you are

• judging by the sounds in the background he's already in the car and most definitely not in a good mood

• accordingly quick comes your answer and your heart unclenches with relief when his voice somewhat softens 

• "be a good girl and wait for me outside then"

• you're so caught off guard it takes you a while to pack your things and search for your jacket and when you step out into the cold he's already waiting for you, leaning against his car

• judging by the way he's dressed he's either coming straight from work or originally planned to go there before God knows what made him change his plans 

• he doesn't look amused and as your heart speeds up so do your steps 

• so eager to make up for the time lost, you nearly bumb into him as you struggle to come to a stop before him 

• if he's annoyed he doesn't show it and nevertheless opens the passenger side's door for you, waiting patiently for you to climb in 

• you're horribly embarrassed when you spot your reflection in the rearview mirror 

• your hair is tousled beyond repair, your cheeks a flaming red from running 

• desperately holding on to your bag like it's an anchor you watch as he slides in beside you 

• but instead of starting the motor and driving off, he turns to properly look at you, his right hand holding on to your head rest 

• you swear you can feel yourself shrinking into the seat as his eyes bore into yours 

• shyly you greet him 

• you don't know what else to do

• a brief smile flits across his face before it grows stern again 

• "who is it?"

• "just tell me and I'll take care of it"

• to say you're confused would be an understatement but as he continues, it slowly dawns on you 

• your friend made up a toxic relationship for you to be in 

• and their father is furious 

[period-of-nocturne]

Yeah so I read the Canary event and oh damn Nene.

I evaporate into thin air when she started talking about how the thing she was always confident about is in the end the thing she didn't improve on.

Simply because I'm one of those people who will disintigrate if they don't sing and I feel that too much. That's why I started an obsession over pjsk in the first place

Oh it makes me think of An too. Practically born with a naturally good singing voice and everyone around you complimenting you for it until some day when you hit a wall/people's interest goes to someone else and you just feel like you falling behind. I guess that's the An/Nene parallel.

But as a socially anxious and introvert I really feel Nene. And I'm really bluffed by how she bounced back because I would've just melt into a puddle of tears (I did actually. I melt into a puddle of tears at every pjsk event I read.) and crumbled into pieces and died that girl's resilience is amazing. Those kids resilience is amazing because they're all like this and it's almost unbelievable.

Looks like the right post to place that fun fact : When I download pjsk and had no clue what was going on I just stared at the characters in the loading screen, and when WxS appeared I pointed at Nene and Rui and said "This is me. This is also me."

Then I went to the main story menu and saw Nenerobo and got extremely confused but also decided she was the most me out of everyone. She had to be.

Then I read WxS main story. And I've only been proven right since. (Yes, even about Nenerobo. I am Nenerobo.)

Point is that I have a kin-radar and I love Nene Kusanagi. I don't talk about her much because I can't talk about her without mentioning myself but I love her and I will fight every Nene hater on earth and you shan't ever insult Nijiro Stories in front of me or I'll enter your name in the Death Note. And bite u.

[narrativelysignificantturtleduck]

ok i know the sex ed post was ages ago but I saw it in your most liked tab and it got me thinking, particularly with zukka, that even though they had sex ed they wouldn't have had gay sex ed. zuko grew up with sailors + the royal family in homophobic fire nation, and sokka got probably taught by gran gran about having babies. so all i can think is that if they decided to take that step when older, they are gonna have no clue what to do. queue sokka very very awkwardly shuffling up to bato who he knows is in a relationship with his dad and saying can I ask a question. promise not to laugh at me. except bato is less amused and more mildly horrified that sokka has chosen him to answer these questions

oh my god yeah. like, i'm not sure gran-gran's sex ed would've been heteronormative - depends on what you think the southern water tribe's attitudes are - but there's a very strong possibility that sokka, as a sexist teenage boy who thought he was straight, may have been like GRAN-GRAN EWWW STOP LALALA I'M NOT LISTENING

like the convo went: here's how babies happen -> sometimes grown-ups do this without the intent to make babies -> people can also do it with people of the same physical sex -> sokka running away screaming

he now regrets that.

for zuko, i think he might have. um. hands-on experience. y'know. on the ferry. with jet. does that prepare him for being in an actual relationship? probably not.

i'm not sure either of them would want to ask for guidance tbh. both of them canonically have experience with women (azula saying "mai seems to be in a good mood lately" had an undertone to it, sokka and suki in "the southern raiders") and zuko has some experience with men, so they'd probably just assume it's fine. figure it out as they go. it can't be that hard, right?

that said the image of sokka asking bato for advice on having gay sex is SO funny. bato knew he was signing up to be a dad when he started dating hakoda but he didn't think he'd have to give The Talk. also he has to be really careful about what examples he uses since his current gay sex partner is sokka's dad. (i imagine bato had some other relationships, but they all ended bc they realized he'd never value them above hakoda.) also sokka is asking specifically because he wants to have sex with the fire lord and like bato knew they were dating but he's never gonna get over how weird his life is now. "my stepson is asking me advice on gay sex so he can fuck the fire lord". truly wild.

meanwhile zuko has started spending time at piandao's bc he needs a father figure since iroh fucked off to ba sing se (plus piandao knows fire nation politics & can help him navigate being the fire lord) so he walks in one day and is like "yeah i have a question. not about politics but uhh. personal stuff" and piandao's like "oh what is it" and zuko tells him and piandao is like "i'm so honored you're asking me" and goes to his library and finds him a guide to gay sex that got banned in the fire nation but piandao managed to find a copy (he has a lot of illegal gay lit) and hands it to him like. go have fun kiddo. i'm rooting for you guys.

the other possibility is that suki (who is still dating sokka, they have an open relationship) finds out they want to have sex and knowing the state of their sex ed decides that they need a Lesson. it's a very good lesson because kyoshi island has very good queer positive sex ed but sokka has some interesting feelings about his girlfriend teaching him how to have sex with his boyfriend. not bad feelings. just interesting

ANYWAYS this is a fun topic and thank you for the mental image of sokka asking bato about gay sex

[vanmarkus]

Hi I'm back having now watched the episode and oh my god it has been a very very long time since an episode of TV made me this emotional - i don't cry in general but this came very *very* close. Also no one I know is watching it so I hope it's fine that I'm just ranting in your inbox XD

I know you said it was good and emotional and yet it was even more than I expected?!? I think what is striking me so strongly about Brilliant Minds is that you can feel that everyone in the room just /cares/ so much about the characters and the stories they're telling? There's a tenderness underlying all of the character beats we've seen so far, from Oliver to the interns (Dana and her backstory especially comes to mind) and now to John Doe. Having that whole storyline expand over multiple episodes, building up anticipation, finallly meeting him (and oh the dialogues! Playing chess with Dana! Thanking Jacob! Aaaaah). I also really love and appreciate how they've addressed assisted dying, the ethical and emotional quandries that come with it, how your medical team might react to that... So so good. (On another note, I don't know if you're much of a podcast listener, but the very first Invisibilia episode deals with another Locked In syndrom patient - with a happier ending, though - and I couldn't stop thinking about it throughout the episode)

Honestly unsure how they're going to continue/top that in the following episodes, but I'm just so glad I'm along for the ride.

hiii, i'm glad you enjoyed it, i was trying hard not to give away just how mindblowingly good it was agxvgss

as you said, you can just tell that the creators and the writers and the actors and everyone cares a lot for the show, but they are also just there to have fun and it frees them up creatively, i mean i think that much is visible on the show and in the bts stuff they post!

but the show goes out of its way to humanise people with neurological and mental disorders instead of just magically fixing them up and sending them on their way, which is frankly so rare and even rarer to have it this well done. actually, i couldn't really bring up another example at all.

the way they broached the topic and the way they handled it was amazing. i mean... this person was locked in and he had someone who would've cared for him until the end of both their lives, doctors who cared about his wellbeing, his quality of life and him receiving help and love and they all cared enough to respect his wishes and let him die in a peaceful manner anyway, where he was surrounded by people who cared for him, who went out of their way to make it a genuinely good experience (as good as dying can be a good experience, anyway).

clearly my mind is blown, but all that and the way they shown the interactions between Roman and his boyfriend and the interns and Wolf and Carol and just... it was beautiful, painful and skillful storytelling.

it was everything i never knew i needed to see on television.

and i agree, i absolutely love how they just drop some info-nuggets and then let them be, until they expand on them in later episodes, be it the backstory of the interns or Wolf or any of the patients, they don't rush things that don't need to be rushed and get things done quickly to make a point when that serves the narrative better (the latter be more at play in the next episode, but no spoilers).

(also i don't know that podcast, but it does sound interesting for sure!)

in any case, i don't mind that you went long cuz so did i and this episode and this show certainly deserve the attention, so i think it speaks for itself how invested we both are agxvsgs

i'm glad you enjoyed it and thank you for sharing your thoughts with me <333

[doodlegirl1998]

I remember reading a post somewhere on Tumblr, I don't remember the exact one, I know it involved how Uraraka's plot was handled and how it could've been handled better.

One part is saying that Twice should've been her villain since they both dealt in poverty, one had support while the other had nothing.

And I think that would've been way better than what we got. Because if Uraraka and Twice were to have more genuine interactions with each other, she probably would've seen some of herself in him and how she could've turned out if she didn't had her parents or her friend's support.

Twice also probably would've been touched that a hero had suffered something similar but is able to keep moving forward despite the hardships and not having as much.

So what do you think? You think it would've worked better than the stupid love triangle that's happening?

Hi @theloganator101 👋,

Yes!! Twice as Uraraka's villain would have worked so so much better narratively.

In fact, this will be an unpopular opinion, I feel like because of how Toga and Twice were set up by Hori, their roles in the narrative being switched would also work better if one of them had to die.

Hawks killing a minor (Toga is seventeen) would be harder to excuse and brush under the carpet for him. So more consequences.

Twice would feel extremely guilty because now his worst fear has happened and his best friend has died because he trusted the wrong person.

Twice having a big moment of going full villain in the final battle would be more impactful and jarring than Toga who was honestly a full villain before she joined the LOV. Since he would go from a kind, goofy guy led into villainy and crime through his circumstances, mental illness, poverty to someone consumed by the need for revenge (rather like Dabi.)

Speaking of Dabi, there was more of a friendship between him and Twice and him and Toga. So having Twice fighting Uraraka getting more distraught because he was thinking he lost another friend while fighting her would be more impactful.

Also his fight with Uraraka would be more focused on his grief, his circumstances (that are rather like Uraraka's sans support) - the parallels between them both would be interesting to explore. Uraraka would have an easier time empathising with him.

Hawks would not have a fun time - could imagine Twice sending a legion of Toga clones his way, and only calling off the attack when Uraraka gets through to him.

Plus we would see more Twice asking the honest questions to her like "How do you keep going?" "How do you stay so positive and strong? I admire you, dude." "I was so stupid I trusted the hero who went and killed Toga-chan. How do I know youre not like the guy that killed my buddy? Toga-chan just wanted a place to belong like me..." Uraraka I could see providing him with the answers, support he needed as well as helping him forgive himself for what happened.

Toga (other than her sweet moments with Twice) was set up as an unrepentant blood yandere. Her friends? Her family? No mention of them (no build up of a mysterious past like Dabi either.) She's also a mass murderer prior to joining the LOV - so that's harder to redeem than Twice who wasn't and to my memory only committed burglary.

In my opinion, the Toga/Uraraka fight as it played out in canon was a mess. Hori seemed to try to do too many things at once and failed to give any of them real depth in the process.

Not only that by he failed to explore Toga's vengeance for Twice in more depth by distracting it with the love triangle B.S.

Hori doesn't allow her to really go all out trying to kill Hawks like she could have with the clone army.

He failed to explore Toga's backstory properly (I.e did her parents actually hit her? Her kissing her friends wound better - what happened there? Did she actually just press her mouth to the wound and suck? We don't know but she's covered in blood.)

Uraraka just her 'bond' with Toga, calling her the "cutest" and saying she wants to talk about romance now is all SO forced. Whereas the parallels with Twice were all already there.

TLDR - Twice should have been Uraraka's villain instead.

[writingforfishes]

worm when uhh. yeah.

iirc one of your fics mentioned Otto having been with people possessing various sexual organs. were they also of various genders or is that not solidified

in my brain atty is men only but Otto seems like he'd have been Resident Bi Slut in his late teens/early-mid 20s. attraction can be fluid tho so maybe even if he was, that could've changed since then.

also uh if they both have backstories somewhat, is there a story to how they met and got together? the proposal and wedding preparations? wedding day maybe..

cuz like I've read All of them and it's like slice of life ottocus, early relationship stage/kink confession ottocus, honeymoon, sick otto, roleplay, Mark's party, hiatus, atty's birthday (probably not the exact order chronologically but I think that's the post order since the first one?)

obvi this is like kinkfic stuff so I don't expect any overarching plot or something but you gave Otto so much trauma there has to be more dots to connect between then and "the beginning"

I think at some point it was said that they had mutual friends and Mark introduced them. beyond that....? 👀

n I doodled some silly Atticus frames after reading the newest one 😭😭 (they're just so funny 💔 I had to produce that visual) do u want

errr hopefully whenever u read this u had a good sleep beforehand (watch me already be awake by then 💀) and manifesting u and ur friends being ok soon!! yeeting healing and peaceful energy at y'all smh.. fr tho once everybody's good u should all go get tea or cupcakes or somethin

imma go pretend to sleep but actually draw and dissociate for like an hour until I pass out byeeeee

@worm-writes-hicfics

This must've sent when you opened the page up, because I JUST got it!

Oh, Otto is bi as hell. You're right on the money with that.

(Just erased a lot of text because it's more trauma that isn't really helpful to the question.)

He went a little wild in college. (Definitely Bi slut era.) He never finished his degree. Peek alcoholic life so lots of Stuff (tm).

He is still on the asexual spectrum (grey/demi). Having a kink that is related to arousal would probably make sex fun, I would assume! (Though I don't relate, personally. It's been interesting to write from that perspective and I'm probably doing not-so-well on it, but I'm trying!) But, like he told Atty in one story, a relationship based primarily on sex never worked out for him.

As far as Atticus, they actually have been physically attracted to all genders, but they haven't really had much romantic attraction. I don't think it would've mattered at all what gender (or nongender) a person was. They are also asexual in the same way I am, so they haven't had any experience with sex by the time they met Otto. (But plenty of experience with masturbation and knowledge of their own body.)

(Try and imagine THAT vulnerability as they say they want to masturbate on his couch to his hiccups!!)

They doubted they had romantic attraction as well before Otto and still have doubts about being completely romantic. They would probably fussily identify as demiromantic if they were forced to define it.

I think the stories have been mostly masc focused because, for some reason, I enjoy experiencing hiccups in masc identifying and presenting people more than femme. I think I would also enjoy hiccups in nonbinary or non-gendered people, I just haven't experienced that, yet. (That I know of.)

I, myself, find femme just as attractive as masc beyond the kink. (femme and masc identified by societal gender roles, of course) And I find nonbinary energy and non-gendered energy attractive as well! I find PEOPLE attractive. (I know, I'm pulling a Schitt's Creek David moment with that, sans sex. I would QPR with anyone, honestly.)

The story of how they met is a work in progress. I think Mark was a lead detective on a case based around a series of robberies.

Atticus was one of several renters in an apartment complex where a bunch of robberies took place on the same day. During the interview Atticus mentioned that in addition to some valuables being taken whoever the idiot was who robbed them knocked a mantel clock, a family heirloom, off where it was sitting as they left. Ever since, the clock hadn't worked right.

Atty was more pissed off about the clock than the TV and laptop. Mark happened to "know a guy" and that's the short story of how they met. I might flesh it out a little more at some point. We'll see. No hiccup content, though.

I'm trying to remember what I had ultimately decided for the proposal. I had a thought of it at one point. I need to come back to it with something else because whatever I thought of didn't stick in the lore. It was probably incredibly adorable though. Something like Atticus giving Otto a poem to read over and get his opinion on and the last line being "Will you marry me?" or some cheesy shit like that. You know, something to make you scream "OMG, I hate this so much! Augh why?!! I love them!!"

I might try to workshop that a little more and see what I come up with. I honestly don't even know which one of them actually proposed.

I will say, expect inconsistencies in the stories, for sure. I was initially writing them as a one-off so, much like a pilot to a series is inadequate in predicting the tone of a show once it's picked up, the first few stories were me just realizing I was actually crafting characters that might last a few more times and have deeper story potential.

I should probably explore Atticus' base friend group in addition to Otto's. Otto's is basically Mark, Ralph (Mark's detective partner), Alice (Mark's wife), Margie, Cindy, and Jana (Mark's Ex). I do think Atticus knew of Cindy previous to meeting Otto, but I don't think they were friends.

I guess because Otto was based around a character and his friends are based on other characters in the same show, I sort of borrowed from that so much that I neglected to give Atticus a proper social group.

I mean, this is kink fic so...it's not necessary but...it might be interesting to explore.

I WANT ALL ARTS YES PLEASE!

Ahem.

Yes, that would be nice.

[the-power-of-stuff]

thoughts on the changes are to sukka in the live action?

Hi! Thank you so much for this ask! I love this ask, cuz after I watched "Warriors," I immediately went to a bunch of my mutuals screaming "GUYS I have SO MANY THOUGHTS" but I was reluctant to share beyond that group until you opened this door. <3

That said, I really have SO many thoughts. But I'll try to summarize for the purposes of this ask, and if you're interested in reading me rambling on in more detail for 2.5k words, I made a separate post about it here: https://www.tumblr.com/the-power-of-stuff/743357633226031104/the-live-action-sukka-manifesto-that-i-just

Spoilers below!

The more I sit with this episode, and the more I think back on the original, the more endeared I become to OG Sokka and Suki and their relationship from the animated show. I love sassy Suki. I love Sokka also being sassy but then showing us and Suki not only that he is very capable of growth and change, but how badly he desires those things for himself. His growth trajectory is not quite so broad in the live-action version, and thus his training with Suki is a bit less impactful story-wise.

That said, I did have a lot of fun with live-action Sukka. I'm not immune to the fan service they gave us, and I thought Suki's characterization was adorable. She's very different! I realized while writing the above-linked dissertation just how different. And I think her live-action personality fits for the changes that were made to the story and her environment—the fact that she's not a scrappy orphan, but rather the sheltered daughter of a fierce and protective fighter.

And I think I'm generally okay with this change because it made Sokka and Suki's interactions so delightful. There was so much awkward romantic tension, and it was the kind of stuff that Sukka shippers have been trying to squeeze into missing "Warriors of Kyoshi" scenes fic for the past 19 years (oof, that made me feel really old, sorry everyone).

I was disappointed that we didn't get to see Sokka in the Kyoshi Warrior uniform. Less disappointed than I would've been had I not seen the fight scenes in the trailer and noticed he was still in his regular clothes. I think that gave me time to set my expectations low. And actually, the thing I was most poised to be disappointed about was a thing that didn't happen. When I first saw the trailer, I noticed a moment where Suki steps in front of Sokka to block a fire blast, and I thought this was going to replace the moment where Sokka jumps in front of Suki to protect her from a fire blast.

And because I felt like that moment was so crucial for Sokka's character and his relationship with Suki, the idea that we weren't going to get it was more heartbreaking to me than the lack of Sokka in uniform. However...!

Lo and behold, they didn't take this moment away from us, and the instant I saw this on screen, all past transgressions were forgiven lol. Like, honestly, the relief I felt... And we still get to see him use a fan! Even if he's not in makeup.

I go into some more critical analysis in the link above, but overall, I enjoyed what we got from live-action Sukka because I'm a sucker for all the glances and touches and near-kisses. I'm a sucker for all the tenderness they showed to each other right before they went out and kicked firebender ass together. They feel different in a lot of ways from animated Sukka, but I thought it was an interesting interpretation!

And I have a lot of questions about what the changes to their interactions might mean for the future development of their relationship (for example, the fact that they've already had a proper first kiss, and what that means in terms of how Sokka will process his fear and guilt and his feelings for Suki after losing Yue). But I'm curious more than anything about how those things will be handled. And I think it'll be neat if we get to see it.

[adobe-outdesign]

i love your korbat review! i hope it’s ok to request a color instead of a pet. could you review some UC grey pets? thank you!

(Similar to the species reviews, I'll do an overview of the color as a whole followed by my top three picks, plus a bonus extra least favorite.)

I'm not sure which member of TNT decided that there should be a paint brush for giving your pet clinical depression, but hey, I'm not complaining. I love neutral palettes, and the colour itself is super distinct—it would've been easy for this to just be a recolour ala silver, but instead they really went the extra mile in making it unique and distinct.

The only drawback to grey is that it has always been one of the colours impacted the hardest from customization. The entire point of the colour was less the palettes themselves (which are primarily, shocker, gray, sometimes with pink accents) and more the gorgeous artwork, which was incredibly expressive and sometimes outright beautiful. By making all the grey pets fit a rigid pose for customization, the colour ends up just being a recolour that happens to make your pet slightly depressed, instead of the full-on misery fest it used to be before conversion.

That said, I will defend customized grey pets a little—they do work as a great neutral base for customization and can look quite pretty when dressed up correctly. (Of course I, someone who has a converted grey Kougra, may be slightly biased.) Otherwise, this colour is best suited for UCs.

Favorite Species:

Yurble: The converted version is fine; it's not overly sad looking by any means, but that makes it a good base for customization. However, the UC version is the star here. What a fantastic design—the unfurled, limp ears are just perfection, and the long mane and drooping face are just wonderfully miserable. I also really like the pink eyes, which stand out nicely against the grey. The grey itself also has good contrast, with the dark eye markings really making the eyes pop.

Kougra: While this isn't the most interesting grey pet out there, I really like the overall look of the Kougra. The converted version doesn't look all that sad, but I like the subtlety stressed vibe and, like the Yurble, this makes it great for pets of any personality.

(Also, the customized version removes female Kougra's half-lidded eyes, which is a massive improvement across the board.)

Meanwhile, the UC is outright adorable, sporting a sitting pose, floppy ears, and an upward-looking expression befitting of a dog in one of those donation commercials. Once again, the pink eyes draw attention to the face, and the contrast between the shades of grey is good. I do think the stripes could've been a little drippy-er to really get that sadness down, but still, a very nice looking pet overall.

Acara: I was debating between the Acara and the Ixi for this, because I like both, but I have to go with the Acara for two reasons. First, the customized version looks pretty good—I appreciate the addition of tears to help make it look that much sadder, seeing as the pose is gone. It's not as neutral as some grey pets, but if you want a converted grey pet that still looks a bit sad, this is a good pick. Also, the pink ears and paws look lovely.

And secondly, the UC has a really neat thing conceptually wherein the horns are draped forward over the head instead of behind it. That's such a simple but fun visual touch, and like the UC grey Yurble's ears, it really helps to convey a sense of misery via the actual pet design. I also really like how it's leaning forward and looking up, like it's too tired to stand correctly. Great stuff.

Least Favorite Species:

Chia: Gotta give this one to the Chia. Even if you ignore the fact that it was made post-customization, meaning that there's no UC version to compare, it's also just really boring even by converted UC standards. There's no nice pink accents (unless you count the tongue), the hair looks fine, even the expression just looks more bummed out than depressed. I could've easily seen the feet being pink or the hair being mussy, or some deep shadows around the eyes; something to convey, well, anything, really. It's an alright customization base, but nothing more.

[batsplat]

Wait what's this about Casey, Marc and getting kicked out of honda

ah just a fun bit of old gossip. to clarify in case the phrasing in this post was confusing, we're talking about casey's role as a test rider with honda after his retirement, so 2013-15 (not casey's initial retirement from his honda ride, which was ofc entirely his own choice)

so! first of all! from the moment casey retired, everybody was going 'when will casey be back'. this wasn't based on anything casey was actually saying - it's just how people are about retirement announcements ig, the disbelief at how early casey retired, wanting to see him race again, refusing to believe he might actually properly be done. when the riders were asked about it in pressers, they usually gave very neutral 'sure that would be nice' responses. when casey was asked about it, he was generally pretty firm in going 'I'm not interested' and also 'stop asking'. but in 2015, dani made the decision to pause his season to get an operation for his recurring severe arm pump issues. he ended up missing three races, and inevitably people went, 'hey you know who would be fun to have back for a few races, you know who also happens to be familiar with the honda bike'

and this time casey WOULD have been up for it. except, according to him, SOMEONE didn't want him to race:

now fwiw, we have zero proof that this 'someone' was marc, although ofc that was something people speculated about at the time - the idea being that marc wouldn't have wanted to be undermined by casey outperforming him, especially in the context of a tricky start to the 2015 season. (funnily enough, the phrasing does echo the "somebody inside Yamaha didn't want me there" thing; a topic for another post but I'm pretty unconvinced valentino was involved in blocking casey's yamaha deal.) and... given this is the same interview where casey talks about his belief that marc forced him out of honda (which we'll get to)... I mean, he must have at least known it's a conclusion people would draw

marc was asked in pressers about casey racing as dani's replacement, and he basically stuck to 'it's not up to me'. some more casey quotes:

I like to think 'I would've won that' was one of casey's main takeaways from sepang 2015

anyway at the end of 2015, casey left honda to join ducati as a test rider. here is an excerpt from a piece about it at the time, saying marc had complained about casey's performance level as a test rider:

you'll note the HRC sources disagree with casey on how good casey's pace was; unfortunately we'll never really know either way. (in any case it's not particularly great form for sources to 'let slip' that your test rider's pace is poor, even if it was true, but there we are.) and ofc there's the assertion that marc felt 'threatened' by casey and/or didn't think casey's feedback was valuable. here's a screenshot of the piece from speedweek being referenced:

again, a lot of this is obviously hearsay. we don't really know how hard marc pushed to get rid of casey (if at all), and certainly not for what reasons - whether it was casey being too slow or the quality of his feedback or marc's ego or whatever else. we do know casey thinks marc wanted him out because marc felt threatened by him, as he's very helpfully said as much:

casey does make it clear he doesn't have any proof that marc (and his entourage) felt threatened by him, but, well. either way he did believe it. this story dropped in january 2016 btw, so at a time where press coverage of marc was not exactly at its friendliest anyway. marc hasn't really ever responded to these assertions afaik - but when casey ended up leaving ducati again at the end of 2018, he was pretty lukewarm about the idea of casey returning to honda:

here too there's nothing from marc's side to suggest any real antipathy, but of course we also don't know whether he's being honest about his reasons for preferring the distinctly unthreatening bradl. and finally, casey has more recently (aka start of this year, 2024) said that he left honda because they only listened to marc:

which is also obviously relevant now in the context of honda's long-term decline and marc's decision to leave (criticised in some quarters by those who feel marc is at least partly to blame for said decline)

anyway ofc this is all very he said she said, so who knows what really happened - but the fun bit is that nobody can quite agree! all a bit messy isn't it. it's very low stakes beef, kinda nice... but it does also fit in with casey's whole outlook towards the sport, where he often feels like he's being unfairly treated. and (this cannot be stressed enough) a lot of the time he was right, he was being unfairly treated, so it's absolutely possible some underhanded stuff was going on here too. believe what you will! who knows!

[grimalkinmessor]

Doing a little math again because I'm legit insane ✨✨ about Light Yagami ✨✨✨

THESE ARE ESTIMATES AND GUESSES DON'T COME FOR ME but I wanted to see how many people he'd killed by the time the broadcast happened!

I counted all the names on that one manga panel—thirty-two lines with four columns per row, which puts us at 128 names per page. There are obviously pages before the ones Light shoves in front of Ryuk, so that's already over 236 people dead.

Then the police say that all of Kira's kills are between the hours of 4:00pm and 2:00am—eleven hours total.

The average person can write anywhere from five to twenty words per minute; I took a guess and went with the upper bit of sixteen words per minute being Light's writing speed. NOW with this hypothesis (doing science in my DN headcanons now, watch me if-then), accounting for any breaks Light might have taken from writing between those hours by knocking two whole hours off altogether and making it a nice nine, given that he's shown to develop a bout of insomnia for that period—but not accounting for any names that are more or less words than two (which brings up the interesting question of if Light would need someone's middle name to kill them...hmm questions for another post)—Light fills about three and three quarters of pages per hour. That's 480 names per hour.

480 names an hour for nine hours is 4,320 names a day.

So in the frantic panicked haze Light would've been in during those five days before Ryuk showed up and told him he wouldn't be dying, Light likely killed somewhere around 21,600 people.

It slows drastically after this, because Light begins to calm down and think his kills through more thoroughly, developing an actual plan of action to justify all the people he's now killed. He starts getting proper sleep again, and likely does a lot more research because the "worst of the worst" (at least those in public eye) have already fallen under his pen. They had to have, given the number of them he nerfed in those first five days.

So he puts his sleep schedule back in place, starts doing more thorough research; that knocks his time down to about six hours a day to write names, give or take depending on the day. After Ryuk appears, there's only two more days before the broadcast. In those two days, using my prior calculations, Light likely killed around 5,760 additional people in those two days.

Putting his kill count as of the Lind. L. Tailor broadcast at a little over 27,000 people :D

(Then of course he levels out to twenty-four people per day once it comes out that L thinks Kira is a student, which is a FAR more drastic change from fucking over 4,000 per day. Really highlights how his priorities switched from cleaning the world to playing his fun new game with L lmao).

Do with this what you will ✨✨✨

[memoryoflooping]

chat i'm so scared. for how the rest of these are about to go tomorrow. but i might not see them tomorrow depending on how i decide to do things, new tanformer just dropped. we'll see.

loop 30 - -i don't think i'm getting any more new dialogue for doing everyone's quests… maybe i should not do them all… like once like i did with a bonnie-only completed one… but i fucking love isa's skill fuck this gay earth. idk. -save vaugarde wishes: 3 (4? if the fashion one counts? or the saving certain people ones??) other: 11 -siffrin is so damn hungry. whats his issue -"you're all cowards" option for the beautiful one???? -i think intent must also matter for wishes bc the save vaugarde list is really long… so wishing to save one person must also be a "save vaugarde wish" -SIFFRIN FORGOT TO LAUGH AT BOTH JOKES. NOOOO FUCK -"why shouldn't you take up time travel?" "because there's no future in it!" FUCK. siffrin be normal you got this. you can clutch this -"oh so we're going to ignore the whole hysteric laughing and crying huh" helppp. -oooo "why stardust?" -"distracting people with puns and jokes is the best way to evade stupid questions" just like siffrin does. loop def noticed that LOL -YES!!!!! MY PERSISTENCE HAS PAID OFF! TAKE THE FUCKING FLOWER YOU BLINDING FUCK!!!!!! -WHAT JUST HAPPENED???? BONNIE'S PORTRAIT WENT ALL BLACK???? -oh my god i could totally set up siffrin to one shot these fucking bosses i just did 8k damage to big ball head -why DID the head housemaiden record who wished for what? -she knows about wish craft… -hmmm… that is interesting. why is it just siffrin looping if it was everyone in vaugarde wishing for the country to be saved. siffrin isn't the key to victory, because the party can get up to the king on their own as seen in the spending a loop with loop.. i would consider mirabelle the key part of the party and not siffrin -"you have to go talk to loop in person" siffrin i'm going to kill you dead. fine.

loop 33 - -siffrin looping back based on his emotional state does check out actually -"you can't continue because somehow you know this is the end." -LOL HE TRIED IT ON LOOP -loop's eyes have diffrent shades? oh they do! i didn't notice -AWH he's drawing them! so cutes drawing! -siffrin's cloak and hat has backstitching, which means its durable. -made of wool, one thread up one thread down. -clothing that's here to keep you comfy and warm -awhhh someone wanted siffrin to me comfy and warm for a long time… -fucking KILLED that fucking tall as fuck saddness holy fuck i 9999'ed that thing. oh this just got so much more fun for me i'm doing this shit to the king after the paper jackpot -siffrin just automatically walked down the post boss hallway? -siffrin for the love of god you need to get out of the timeloop not embrace it rn -its too late for the loop to be fixed? but something went wrong… -"something goes wrong everytime" "it's because we did it wrong" -they didn't know the exact ritual. -the king might not have been defeated the right way… hmm -"i just hope that someday. you might learn to forgive us" loop 34 - -maybe siffrin does something wrong??? -going against the wish's will without realizing. hmm -ooooohhhh mirabelle always gets the last blow… hmm interesting. but why would a wish rot for just siffrin to do that? "save vaugarde" isn't something i think could be easily monkey's paw'ed into "trap this cunt in the timeloop until he personally kills that fucking king" -hmmm… i guess i could definately set up a situation in the king fight where siffrin kills the king before the scripted kill. but i already did something like that and it played anyway i think… -no yeah i'm with that train of thought. it's a lead but i'm not sure its right. -"these fictonal characters they've been replaced with." -defeat the king on your own. hm. boss i think you will fucking die -i need to do the friend events ? to get them as strong as they can be. well i would've done it anyway! yippeee! -oh shit act 5! that was pretty short! -uh oh. music slowdown. undertale. -the kid looks at you warily…. uh oh -i don't think wizard's make faces like yours -oh the statue is. glitched out? -UH OH the drawing of everyone! -SIFFRIN YOU CAN'T JUST SAY THAT -oh my god she slapped him -sif always teases mira. and she thought it was how he made friends. -always so mysterious -my god she's's pissed -well. i guess he's right about one thing. i'm only good at using the usual shield skill anyway. chat i'm so scared. -he was really squinty in that sprite i saw… like loop….. is he. acting like loop ? he's more like. aggressively using timeloop knowledge rn. -chat i'm so scared. he's about to start playing Doom on his personal relationships i think, seeing how this just went with mirabelle

[veebs-hates-video-games]

Sure whatever, I can put ten game in a single post, because that's how many I managed to play since the last one. Only for like an hour each on average, but that was enough to finish multiple of them and decide the others weren't really doing it for me.

Clickolding was pretty good. I don't usually play stuff right when it comes out, but it was a couple bucks and I feel like I can trust Xalavier Nelson Jr./Strange Scaffold to do something interestingly weird at this point. It's the most about sex work anything's ever been without explicitly stating it's about sex work, and it will do its best to make you vaguely uncomfortable about that and the mundanity and boredom and desperation and detachment that can go along with it. It's also about the impact our actions have on the lives of people around us. A decent way to spend like an hour of your time.

I had a bit more mixed feelings about the first DLC for Voxelgram. On one hand it's good because more Voxelgram is good. On the other the larger puzzles don't really make it more challenging or anything, just more tedious. The last couple took me a bit over an hour each, and I saw someone else saying the last one took them significantly longer than that. I think I would've been happier if they were a bit smaller and didn't go on for so long, and they'd also fit on the screen better that way.

Something I didn't have mixed feelings about was Strawberry Vinegar, which was kind of disappointing because I tend to enjoy ebi-hime's stuff even if it's never my favorite stuff ever. This one I just got through the bad ending and stopped though because I had no interest in seeing what happens in any of the other routes. The way the characters were written just didn't feel right to me, like this is not a nine year old girl despite you telling me it is, and the vibes were definitely off. Oh well.

I have mostly positive things to say about Seraphim Slum though. It's very not afraid to get weird with things, and I mean Capital W Weird, not lolrandom rawr xd. A tagline/pitch like "Play as sapphic Lucifer and corrupt angels to fall...in love with you." is a good way to get my attention. It's at least initially on the surface "date cute angel girls", but it very quickly leans heavily into corruption = love = freedom/release/relief. Overall I definitely enjoyed the vibes and presentation and where it went with stuff, and I only have a couple issues with it: one is that some of the auto-advancing text is borderline unreadable on certain backgrounds, which is unfortunate but can be worked around by reading it in the log, and the other is that the routing/structure of it is pretty incomprehensible to me and I have no idea how to get to a couple parts of it I haven't seen yet. Maybe I'll check the DLC guide at some point when I can justify spending more money on stuff.

An Arcade Full of Cats was ok. Not my favorite Devcats game but fun enough that I finished it. As someone who remembers most of the eras it represents (not the DLC ones though) it was fun seeing the terrible cat puns on old arcade games and various other things they snuck in. There was definitely some artistic liberty taken with some of it, but they did a surprisingly good job capturing the feeling of a bunch of stuff I hadn't thought about in a long time in a hidden object game about cats. I feel no shame about using the cheat button for a few things in this one though because some of them were genuinely bullshit. Even after it pointed out a couple of them to me I could barely recognize them because they were so small they didn't look like anything. I don't remember having that problem in Building or Castle, at least not to that degree.

Gorogoa took me forever to finally try out. I really like the idea of it, and they do some clever stuff with the presentation and ways you interact with things that let them do fun stuff with how puzzles work. I don't really like actually playing it though. It does a bad job sometimes with letting you know which things are interactable or in what ways, and as a result I feel like it kept deteriorating into the typical point and click adventure game problem of rubbing every object on every other object until something happens. It's just not very enjoyable to know what the end goal of a puzzle sequence is but have no idea how to get there because it's looking for a very specific sequence of very specific events, and you tried something very slightly different that didn't work, and there's no useful feedback why.

TET's alright though, if a ten minute cooking game about preparing food for Vietnamese Lunar New Year sounds like your kind of thing. It's cute and funny and even includes recipes. Also it makes me want spring rolls. Also also it feels much better to play with a touchscreen.

I was extremely underwhelmed by Muse Dash, which also took me forever to get around to actually trying. The gameplay seems fine. What I saw in my brief time with it didn't really stand out to me, but there also wasn't really anything wrong with it either. What definitely is wrong with it though is that it kept pestering me to create an account even though I was just trying to play by myself offline, and also the UI seems completely unmanageable. Like the song picker would work but be mildly clunky if there were 20 songs in the game. It appears to have hundreds though, maybe more, and it's just really not suited for that. Yeah there appears to be a filter, but it's just a bunch of incomprehensible icons and very inaccessible for a new player. The art and music seemed ok though.

Speaking of ok, there's also Luna's Fishing Garden. It had some better than ok moments, but overall...it's ok. The default/challenging fishing minigame did not feel good to me at all, and the relaxed/easy mode was a bit boring, but I got over it because it turns out you don't actually have to do it all that much once the game gets going. It's pretty chill, and there's some cute pixel art and characters. Shout out to the "you caught a fish" animation in particular for being adorable. Most of the time I felt like progression was pretty well balanced, but toward the end there was definitely a significant amount of waiting around to get enough of certain resources that dragged it out longer than it really needed to. Aside from that though? It's ok!

And then since I said ten at the beginning, uh...Townscaper exists? Let's include that even though it wouldn't be hard to argue it's not a game. I'm pretty sure I got it in a game bundle though, and it's on Steam, so let's just go with that. It's fun to poke at for a little while and see what you can build with it. And that's about all there is to it.

Video games ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[lunaprincipessa]

ENTRY SEVENTY-FOUR

Despite having a wide range in music taste, there's only a handful of bands that have really stuck with me through the years, getting me through the bad and helping me celebrate the good.

My top three of this handful are Nine Inch Nails, Tool, and Type O Negative.

A couple of days ago, I came across a comment section discussing Peter Steele's death. Something that was said, that was agreed with and emphasized on by multiple people, has been bothering me to my core since I read it.

Many people feel that Peter Steele would still be alive today had he "been with someone who gave a shit."

We might still have him around today "if he had someone who cared enough to get him to the hospital on time."

My heart sank and my stomach dropped after reading this. I immediately logged off. That didn't sit well with me at all.

I then tried looking it up. I felt discouraged and silly, giving up rather quickly. I thought I didn't know how or what, in specific, to search for anyway. I also thought there's a chance that it might not be true, that it's just talk, rumors, that kind of thing.

"Maybe people were just saying that because they don't like her. I have no clue!" Now I'm starting to question myself. I log back on to look for the comment section but everything refreshed and I didn't catch the name of the page that made the post.

True or untrue, the thought alone really fuckin disturbed me. I mean, it really did. He deserved someone to care for who he was outside of the celebrity. I hope to the Gods that those comments weren't true.

Peter Steele, aside from "musical genius" and "one of the most influential," was described to be kind, generous, helpful, supportive, inventive, and a hard worker.

When I'd see interviews with him on TV back in the day, and seeing interviews today when venturing around on YouTube, I found him to be very interesting, intelligent, and insightful. His dark humor was always fun too. And, of course, he was drop dead gorgeous. 🥰😌 The man was a living god, just saying.

Needless to mention the passion in the music he wrote and in the performances he gave (thank you TV and YouTube for letting me experience that by the way, I never got to see Type O Negative live).

He believed showing the world his heart would draw people to the band, and he was right. He said he wanted to be remembered as someone who helped people through hard times, and he is. It makes me sad to know he was sobered up, excited to make more music, and hopeful for the future just before his passing. Gut-wrenching when you think about it, and when you think about all the things he went through before that as well.

Being misunderstood, struggling with addiction, and the mental health issues involving Bipolar disorder, grief, depression, dealing with the aftermath of lockup, and feeling betrayed by his family. He also said himself he had huge problems with abandonment and loss, probably because he experienced those things more than we know.

In addition, being unlucky in love still blows my mind to this day. Especially knowing how he was worshipped by women all over this country, including me. How many of us out here would've worshipped the ground he walked on? And you mean to tell me some of the women that actually had a chance, screwed it up? Considering things like taking the breakups hard and being cheated on, he was carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders, wasn't he? Some souls are just too good for this world, I swear. And his was one of them.

But that's what terrifies me... He was unlucky in love, so what if the comments are true? Literally makes me sick to think about, especially since the band, his childhood friends, tried to reach out to him when he was sick but was only able to speak with her. There's a dark aura all over that.

Someone please tell me it's a rumor, that he had a good woman at his side in those final days. Hearing about toxic exes shows where a person was lost and hurting, and he deserved better. He deserved peace and quiet and comfort. He deserved protection.

Men like this, regardless of how big and tall and strong they are, need to be protected. Their bodies are hard but their hearts are fragile. People that are kind-hearted will often suffer the most in life. The way he loved his women and the way he loved his animals showed he felt everything so, so deeply. He needed to be protected. Yes, men are biologically stronger than we women are, but they need us to protect them too, just in a different way.

My guess is that Peter's spirit is still with us, silently urging us all to never forget about Type O Negative. And we never will. RIP 💔

More thoughts later.