#im obsessed with the character art and new minis

[karmicpunishment]

WHO CAN SAVE THEM?

THATS RIGHT! THE BAD KIDS !!!!

[dungeonclown]

Dungeonclown D20 “Rankings”

In quotes bc i love pretty much all of them and just had to post this for posterity and if one of my friends asks which season(s) to watch. [Bullet Points not in any particular order]

Level 0: did not finish

Pirates of Leviathan (lovely cast but i couldnt get all the way thru due to audio quality issues from being the first remotely recorded show.)

Shriek Week (gabe hicks)

Coffin Run (didn’t hold my interest)

Level 1: I Really Like This 😊

Fantasy High Sophomore Year (i love this season, literally the only downside was the livestream format. No!!)

Fantasy High (OG - we’ve come so far)

Tiny Heist (i mean, so darling, so funny. what so u expect)

Mice & Murder (better quality for remote but could tell the cast would have killed it in person since the zoom call situation is a big barrier)

Misfits & Magic (very cute and wholesome. Spaulding forever)

The Seven (needed more episodes to tell the story!!! wish they had sets and minis; covid problems)

Neverafter (love the themes and imagery, such a good study on storytelling.)

Dungeons & Drag Queens (fave sidequest character art and minis, mainly so impressed by brennans skill as a gm for new players/roleplayers)

Level 2: I Absolutely Love This 🤩

Fantasy High Junior Year (first show watched as it was airing, best FH yet, mary anne skuttle what more could u ask for)

Unsleeping City Part 2 (literally only downside is being filmed remotely. Breaks my heart they couldnt do this in person since this season is so special. BUT - got to see character art and illustrated backgrounds which was really fun)

A Crown of Candy (goddamnit brennan)

The Ravening War (goddamnit matt)

Mentopolis (superb cast w great chemistry and just lots of fun idk man i just think theyre neat)

Burrow’s End (fucking incredible storytelling by aabria, the cast, the crew w sets and minis and SHADOW PUPPETS goddamn.)

Never Stop Blowing Up (so stupid so joyful im just happy to be here)

Level 3: Has a Special Place In My Heart 🥰

Unsleeping City (some of my all time favorite characters and i just love how deeply these people love and understand New York City. Its the molecular structure of NYC in a show and its special)

Escape from the Bloodkeep (the first season i was like I Have To Stop Immediately And Share This With My Family. Every character is perfect. Every NPC is perfect. The minis and sets are darling. Every day i think about Hamhead and about muh hert)

A Court of Fey & Flowers (i just love them, i never thought id be invested in regency shit but if you put it in the feywild and add goblins and hobgoblins and owlbears and idiot bird people and shit im so down goddamn. Killed it. Absolutely killed it. Also gorgeous sets and costumes and props??? Gagged.)

Level 4: Rewired My Brain Chemistry 💀

A Starstruck Odyssey (screaming, crying, throwing up. The energy of these people being in person after covid creates a truly incredible maelstrom of dumb beautiful bozo shenanigans. id give a kidney for more ASO content. I Love This Show. And that it was based off of Starstruck is so fuckin special. This setting is amazing. also big barry syx is the exact bullseye of character im obsessed with that it makes me feral to think about him. I was going to joke that he was made in a lab specifically to appeal to my big beefy sex idiot himbo mercenary sensibilities but thats exactly his backstory and im mad about it)

[int3rn3tp1x13]

omg.. times goes by.. UPDATESL OLZ

WOOP WOOP SUMMERS HERE BABY!!!

mini school rant(bleh) its been pretty great! i hate school so much, felt like i was going to implode any second!! I still have things to worry abt school wise but honestly, i dont think i care anymore. its summer and im gonna have fun :) RANT OVER

OMG OMG OM- so much fnaf news!!! movie!dlc!vr! eeee im literally so excited for all of it!!! and MERCH!!! i love spending money, i literally preordered the new sun&moon figures on amazon (i hope they come lol) ive already seen ppl getting theirs but i have to wait until next month to get mine :(

also update to my last post: i got fired from shca lol, which is like totally understandable. i was pretty offline for some time but it was fun! might try to be a medic again but who knows.

ALSO NEW OBBESSSINO!!!!!!!!!!!!! SPIDEEVERSE!! which im pretty sure is most ppls obsession rn. the movie was absolute amaazingness!!! BUT MY OBSESSION MOSTLY LIES WITHIN THE SPOT!!!!!!!!!!! hes my dream guy..my little meow meow omg hes literally my type.. >//< - but cringe aside his character is so cool man. understanbly the next movie is gonna take awhile to come out (jeez im probably gonna be 18 by the time it comes out..) im willing to wait ofc but i dunno if my obsession with the spot will last that long, (NO ILL LOVE HIM FOREVER!!!!!!!!(lets see if thats still true 2 months from now</3) i believe in myself, sorta..

ee well art wise i think im getting better? eh ive been a bit unhappy with my art lately, i just dont think its interesting or all that pretty.. so im gonna try my hardest to improve!! though, when doing a redraw of one of my drawings from around 2021, i saw a HUGE improvement. which honestly,, made me feel better about my art. i guess its true that it can be hard to see improvement in urself unless you really compare!!! or something like that but yeah!!! keep practicing!! its advice that always rings true for the most part :)

ALSO YEAH!! another notable obsession, needy streamer overload!!!!!!!!!!!!!! KANGEL 4 LIFE....i almost got all the achievements!!! i just need two :3

i dont i missed anything else?? but yeah, life is pretty nice. its a bit lonely but who cares >o<

bye bye

[penpalspencil]

yo. you just got weezer'd!!!!!!!

[smalltragedy]

* ryan destiny, cis woman + she/her | you know kira blake, right? they’re twenty four, and they’ve lived in irving for, like, ever? well, their spotify wrapped says they listened to babooshka by kate bush like, a million times this year, which makes sense ‘cause they’ve got that whole lazily stretched out in a ray of light, daisy shaped irises and daisy chain braids, performing an intricate dance to move the ocean's waves thing going on. i just checked and their birthday is october 31st, so they’re a scorpio, which is unsurprising, all things considered. ( james, 22, est, they/them )

hllo ive hd kira in my head fr a bit bt i also know ntohing abt her! this is me winging it even though i hv no right to <3 this is my third character maybe whose birthday is in honor of ella n coincidentally 2/3 of them r in this rp. yea im messy smirks sexily.

DEATH, GRIEF, DRUGS TW

mini playlist.

wuthering heights ;; kate bush / babooskha ;; kate bush / dreams ;; fleetwood mac / california dreamin’ ;; the mamas & the papas / lavender moon ;; haroula rose / time of the season ;; the zombies / after the storm ;; kali uchis / left hand free ;; alt-j / always forever ;; cults / wait a minute! ;; willow / your dog ;; soccer mommy.

statistics.

full name: kira blake

nickname(s): keely.

birthday: october 31st, 1996.

zodiac: scorpio sun, cancer moon, aquarius ascending. 

mbti & temperament: esfp & catalyst / sanguine. 

label: the ebullient.

sexuality: bisexual.

pinterest.

biography.

born to two original hippies which hs pretty much set up who kira is fr the rest of her life <3 the type of ppl who didnt like the boundaries of marriage n held off frm it fr as long as possible until theyd hd a spur of the moment elopement involving a celebrity impersonator at fannie’s <3 yea theyre lesbians lets go <3

nvr rly took things srsly until kira ws like 5 yrs old n then they were like ah gee ah fuck we probably shld probably settle settle. n they job hopped n worked many odd jobs until they found their footing in careers they liked n one of them probably does like. blown glass art. n the other prob fixes old computers n other ~vintage~ mementos of the past fr ppl.

they make a decent living n they live in delpinius heights n they try a few times fr another kid bt it nvr rly works out (raises an eyebrow. adopted siblings anyone?) n fr the most part kira as a child spends her time running around town and tugging on the hem of other’s shirts to ask them small favors (mostly to play a game with her)

often left unsupervised as a kid, bt not in the way tht her parents dnt care (bc her parents love her a lot a lot a lot like she is their world) bt in the way tht they simply raised her the way they were raised. running amuck all day n coming home jst in time fr dinner, front porch light always on, cat always waiting faithfully on their stoop.

pretty evident frm a young age tht kira’s mind saw things differently, in a different light - the world an array of light n mystery n sound n taste n sometimes those collided n created new experiences. prob hs some form of synsthesia bt dnt ask me which one yet. she’s a painting prodigy with an excellent understanding of color theory.

always ws known as a kind of like. rambunctious kid. a well meaning class clown who cld nt keep her mouth shut fr the life of her. grew up constantly with a yellow card beneath her name in school bt ws always well liked by her teachers n classmates alike.

jst a very bright child who did well naturally bt always ws turned more towards art.

feel like her parents very noticeably turned a cheek when she started smoking weed w the cool older kids when she ws 13. the type of person who wnts 2 b liked so bad she’d jump over a hurdle fr it. hs jumped over many hurdles n many fences n many other obstacles to be liked bt does it without breaking a sweat.

(edit: nw tht i think abt it hwevr i dnt think she does tht anymore i think while a bit of a mess atm she. likes herself. n doesnt rly want or need the approval of others anymore she jst does her own little thing. bt when she ws younger? she jst wnted 2 b friends w the entire world.)

nothing bad rly happened fr like. a good bit of her life. got into psychedelics at some point in high school n tht only heightened her artistic abilities. most of her high school art portfolio ws probably done while high bt <3 does it matter.

hd a high school sweetheart n they were pretty serious like. full on in love. a total believer of soulmates kira ws jst like. this is the one. there is nobody else i cn imagine my life with.

death tw

death tw

death tw.

death n grief tw // yea. sometime during their freshmen year of college. car incident. kira ws nvr the same though she’d like to pretend tht nothing’d ever happened. like theyd nvr existed. like she didnt plan out their entire lives together hiking thru hills n valleys n boating across various bodies of water n traveling together until they were old n wrinkly. end of death tw //

cld nt explain 2 u why kira hd bought a van n completely demolished it only to drain all of her savings remodeling it bt nw she lives in it by the beach. hd dreams of travelling the world bt cannot go long distances in a car without feeling sick. sees planes n feels envy. stopped painting fr a long time bt she’s started back up recently. took on surfing. told her parents tht it ws fine n tht she ws fine n theyre concerned bt shes always by the beach, her van rarely leaves. she’s trying her best bt its only been a few yrs n i think ppl cn sense tht shes jst nt the same cheerful girl as they once knew. end of grief tw //

anyways. tugs on my collar. tht’s kira! she lives on the beach n surfs everyday n is obsessed with daisies n is prob growing her own shrooms somewhere. 

personality & facts.

always been very emotional n a little dramatic. nt a drama queen bt is a little messy n does not hv like. many rational thoughts up in there. very cup full or cup empty.

regardless though she hs an. overall reputation fr jst being. enjoyable to be around. her her little moments bt shes also pretty like. laidback. in a way. KDSHFSDLKHGHFLKSD

prob bc she smokes a lot or is often <3 on a trip if u know wht i mean <3

god. got obsessed with the 60s n 70s aesthetic at some point n hs not gone back evr. big fan of psychedelic rock. is a prodigy painter bt her life dream outside of traveling ws always to own her own record label. hs nt happened yet, maybe will never happen? works at a record shop though n does hide the good vinyls tht she wants away frm the customers.

very cheerful n usually uplifting n she doesnt like to b negative around others bt smtms she cnt control it n smtms thinks tht ppl r out 2 get her jst out of. anxiety. hs long bouts where she’ll sit in a still sort of sadness n then shake out of it n hop back into conversation like nothing’s happened bt. its fine we’re fine kira is fine.

shes not gullible or naive bt wants to believe tht everybody hs a heart of gold even if its false. keeps giving ppl second chances bc she hs a savior complex n thinks she cn change ppl.

is very into zodiac n will judge u by ur chart. knows everybody in town’s natal chart. even newcomers. it’s a little scary hw quick she finds this information bt its very important to her.

kind of like. into spirituality bt i wont lie its very surface level n a little superficial. learning tarot cards bt cannot fr the life of her memorize the meanings so smtms she jst makes up things on the spot. hs so many crystals she will not stop buying them.

i think a part of her is desperately trying to cling onto tht like. think positive. self care. msg thts super prevalent online without addressing or actually helping any of her problems. it is her flaw </3

hates to admit when she needs help. wld rather do everything herself.

head is a little in the clouds n her parents r a little concerned fr her bc shes nt rly doing much rn bt like. she jst needs time i think. shes jst doing her little thing.

does not give up on ppl easily she absolutely hates dropping ppl frm her life even if she grows 2 resent them over time which is bad bc she is bad at hiding when she is upset at someone or when she doesnt like someone.

like shes jst passive aggressive abt it n does not properly communicate <3

bt this is rare i think ... negative feelings abt other ppl

self centered bt not selfish if tht makes sense. she will do things fr others without a problem n sometimes trips over herself 2 do it bt at the end of the day i think she cares abt herself the most.

hs only been in love once bt hs hd many infatuations n many like. admirations n very surface level feelings. her body is a temple n she loves 2 b worshipped.

prob does fkn. beach yoga. probably vegan bt also maybe breaks tht every once in a while. almost noncommittal its hard 2 distinguish between her being carefree, not taking care of herself, or jst hving commitment issues? flaky or not? who knows.

feels jst a bit too strongly bt tries to contain it. jst full of multitudes or smth. idk. icon <3

like. cares bt doesnt care. does thinks tht r purposely self destructive n then acts like shes like. cool girl monologue frm gone girl. bt does it while being like peace n luv on earth x

ok thts all i hv goodbye

wanted plots.

a pseudonym 2 fool ‘em... ;; jst hd this idea pop up bt i like the idea of kira going undercover 2 expose cheaters. whether she does this on her own accord or is personally requested by smbdy is up in the air. a plottable point. she h8s cheaters n is chaotic good she prob thinks shes the relationship vigilante testing the strengths of other’s relationships. once again she cld b. specifically going undercover fr smbdy 2 help them out. im sure she wldnt go 2 very. extensive srs measures like actually. sleeping w the assumed-cheaters bt once again. world is our oyster n i lov drama?

crystal visions ... ;; once again. shes super into crystals n astrology n she will base sm of her opinions of others on it. this is nt just abt her being judgmental of others bt also jst. catching her running around in the rain trying sooo hard 2 fkn. charge her crystals in the rainwater bc she forgot 2 charge them under the full moon the night b4. this is her giving wrong tarot readings. she hs no idea wht shes doing at any given time bt acts like she does know. acts like she knows the entire world. she gives crystals as gifts n will do ur natal chart for u bt will also pack her things n leave if ur a capricorn.

time of the season... ;; i dnt knw admittedly. this song’s abt being horny so perhaps? perhaps. kira isnt rly able to keep a grasp on long term relationships rn due to. factors in her life so she hops frm person 2 person often. smtms jst flings smtms its jst a relationship accidentally led on. shes noncommittal n a little flaky atm when she’s usually ride or die fr others. perhaps this is all in the name of some good fun! world? oyster. 

literally anything .dsfskhdkgs ;; god. shes so new i jst dnt know. childhood friends. current friends. friends shes hd frever. enemies n ex lovers n ppl shes constantly pushing away or scorned lovers or both or anything?? she pushed them out of the roller rink to make more room fr herself or maybe they did tht to her. perhaps theyre both constantly pursuing some sort of fkn. meaning in their lives tht they cnt quite grasp. mayb they go on an acid trip together. who knows. 

[star-wars-multishippers]

Get to Know Me(me) - The Members of SW Multishippers!

This was an event hosted on the Discord server to do a sort of re-introduction of both old and new joiners to the server. Everyone who wanted to participate filled out the survey below to share a little about themselves and about their faves in fandom.

Survey (for anyone who wants to join in below in the comments):

Who Am I? - Name, username on other sites, mini bio if you'd like Where do I fit into the SW fandom? - Prequels, Sequels, EU, etc. What do you do? Fic, art, lurking and reblogging? My Top Faves - 2 or 3 max please! My Own Stuff - 1 or 2 max please!

MBlair

Who am I?

MBlair both on Discord and on AO3, maggzblair on Tumblr (MBlair, maggzblair)

Where do I fit into the SW fandom?

Mostly lurker/reblogger/occasional writer, mostly Original Trilogy and Sequel trilogy.

Fics I Love to Rec

Of Queens, Knights, and Pawns (and associated fics) by chancecraz

Hand of Fate by sweetestcondition

My Fics I Love to Rec

Reyuxmas 2019

A Wonderful Winter on Hoth

I’ll Love You ‘Til the Suns Burn Out

feckyeslife

Who Am I?

Feckyeslife#2003 on Discord, firelord65 on AO3

Where do I fit into the SW fandom?

I'm pretty solidly a Sequels fan, but I have a special place in my heart for the Prequels. I'm a fic writer who dabbles mostly in canon universe AUs, what ifs, that sort of stuff. Primarily my fics have Rey with a tendency to focus on the First Order characters and plots.

My Top Faves

A classic Reylo fic from an old friend - Beneath the Facade. It technically has a prologue fic before it in the series, but this piece was the one that I really enjoyed way back in the EARLY days of Reylo.

Because I'm an insufferable Reylux fan, I have to rec at least one. This piece by @every-day-is-star-wars-day  a oneshot that ever so masterfully crushes my heart every time - Thread

My one Original Trilogy rec, this is a beast of a long fic but so, so good - Dark Times

My Own Stuff

Reylux, medieval AU - La Vita Primus - is the first in a small series of this AU

Reylo, TROS Fix-It - Oh but it's a dark future, my star. Oh but it's a soft morning for us soon.

apple-au

Who Am I?

Call me apple. she/her/hers. I’m gold_pen_leaps on dreamwidth, ao3, and pillowfort. @gold_pen_leaps@tenforward.social on mastodon. I am doing my best to boycott tumblr, but I've been known to use a tumblr link embed on pf from time to time. (gold_pen_leaps (DW), gold_pen_leaps (AO3))

Where do I fit into the SW fandom?

I’m mainly into the Sequels and the Mandalorian. I joined the server for Hux/Kylo/Rey and all the combinations of the characters in my ot3. I can edit better than I can write. Sometimes I comment on fics.

My Top Faves

A Dance of Titans by @lucidlucy is a really long reylux fic. The delicious slowburn makes all the flavors combine in an amazing way. Love how they battle the main villain!

My Own Stuff

I helped give feedback on the second part of a series. Does that count? This is knight_of_dance's fic. It's really cool to see writers' takes on Modern AU, and this one has influenced my ideas of what sort of kinks those characters have. :smirk: Switch Up

Mizz

Who Am I?

 hi! tho im much more...a lurker around here im mizz (she/they/he). im badarmada on tumblr, badwrong-gimme on pillowfort, gimmemrss on twitter, badwrongprincess on ao3 (i have so many usernames XD, ive got a dreamwidth, wordpress, and art insta too if youre interested lol)

(@badarmada, gimmemrss (twitter), badwrongprincess (AO3))

Where do I fit into the SW fandom?

i liked the prequels as a kid (still do kinda), rouge one, i do like clone wars tho i havent finished it and the sequels (well tfa and tros tho only one of them is good imo) i reblog stuff mostly and read fanfic, tho i write some stuff too. finn is my fav and pretty much my center character (ie the one i focus on the most) and i like most finn ships (favs being finnhux, finnlo, finnrey)

My Top Faves

the things we do for love by glare is an unfinished finnlohux fanfic that i love a lot

worlds are built for two by synergenic (Losseflame). this is a poefinn fic from finns pov

My Own Stuff

um...im still working on this fic -(Be More Chill, Hux) very slowly this year has been super hard on me writing wise and ive been drawing ocs and for another fandom mostly but I will finish this one day!

Arsanimo - Marion

Who Am I?

Hi, I’m Arsanimo, self taught artist and nerd from Germany that’s mostly lurking. You can find me with this username on tumblr, twitter and instagram. I draw mostly Reylo at the moment. ( @arsanimo, Arsanimo (Twitter), Arsanimo (IG))

Where do I fit into the SW fandom?

I‘m in my thirties and an OT fan since birth, because my dad was obsessed with Star Wars and we watched it a lot as kids - they are the go to christmas movies in our family. Even as a very small kid I loved Vader. I didn’t like the ST quite as much when it came out in cinemas but still watched them multiple times. I’m much more fond of them now. But my love for Star Wars really got renewed with the ST. I really liked TFA and TLJ a lot. Not a great fan of TROS though, but to each their own. I recently started watching TCW, if you haven’t go watch it! The Mandalorian is also great and feels more like the OT for me, which I love. Oh, and R1 was awesome, I loved that one! Solo also was good. I think I will be a lifelong fan because it’s such a rich universe and everybody can pick a favorite. I’m also good at ignoring the parts I don’t like, lol. But I‘m mostly exhausted about all the drama on social media, so at the moment I take a bit of a break from social media and only post from time to time. And I’m of the firm believe to ship and let ship and if the art and fics are good, you can also find me enjoying ships outside of Reylo (honestly, some Kylux art out there, woah... and Finnrey is always so tender but Stormpilot has two hot guys in it... and don’t get me started about Finnrose! You probably get the gist)

My Top Faves

It’s hard to name so few, there are so many good artists out there. But Winter of Her (Twitter) has some outstanding art in her own style. Than I really like the style of Khallion (Twitter), check her out.

My Own Stuff

And last but not least two pieces of mine that turned out pretty good

https://twitter.com/arsanimo/status/1275789997426311173?s=21

https://twitter.com/arsanimo/status/1258757927910989825?s=21

Knight_Of_Cookies

Who am I?

Allo allo, I go by many names but many know me as cookies here. Lol I'm from the US and I've been a lifelong A+, gold star , nerd my whole life. I love writing among 5 million other hobbies. I am on Tumblr and A03. (@knight-of-cookies, Knight_of_Cookies (AO3))

Where do I fit into the SW fandom?

It all started with the prequels which I fell in love with and even wrote my first fan fic on. (I dragged it from fanfic.net to A03 for my own form of personal torture) I dropped out of star wars until I was in Japan and a close group of friends got me to watch Roque One and play a star wars based table top role playing game, which dumped me back into this fandom hardcore. I fell in love with the sequel trilogy and now I'm stuck forever. Lol

I have been writing on A03 for around 2 years now for star wars and it's been the most productive and progressive work I've ever done thanks to ya'll.

Also, hey, I created this multishippers discord, because multishipping rocks and everyone should do it. :P I know I've never active enough but I love this space and the people in it! My fav part about multishipping is how I'm always discovering yet another ship that is awesome. It never ends. ^^

My top favs - (of things no one should be surprised by)

Beastie by @feckyeswriting. It spawned a written series(multiple actually)

Glutton by Witchoil. Just very good dark and wonderful kinky smut. Always go back to this one.

In the house that skywalker built by @aicosu. This story got me into Reylux in a way I'll never recover from.

My own stuff

Nothing but Themselves - This is my favorite beast of a story I've ever written and it will be beautiful when I finish it. One day. Lol

Tanzaku - One of my most polished pieces thanks to the Reylo Anthology. My best combo of: insert culture nerding here and captive Ben as personal tropes.

[toxikbubblegum]

May Reading Wrap Up

I'm actually really proud of myself. I finished 13 books last month. Spent a lot of extra time away from screens and focusing on my mental health so I burned through way more than I normally would. So anyways, here's my reviews. - Also please understand that these are just my opinions and if I shit on your favorite book I'm sorry that I didn't enjoy it as much as you. Also, also Im terrible with character names.

Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor ⭐⭐⭐

I actually started this book at the end of April but didn't finish it til May 1st so whatever, here it is. This books is a YA urban fantasy novel about a girl with a double life. She spends half her days studying art in Europe and the other half running errands for a tooth collecting wish monger. I don't want to say a whole lot more because I dont want to spoil anything important about the plot. So, I'll try to be vague. Let me start by saying this story is amazing. I loved the writing and the world. I rated it so low solely because I can't stand the two main characters and it really dragged down what would have otherwise been an amazing novel. So yeah, great book but its a preference thing. Also took points off for the insta-love but not really insta-love shit. Idk. I have a lot of mixed feelings about this read even a month later. Gonna read the second to see if maybe my hatred of the two mains was just a fluke.

3/5 Stars

Spellbound by Rachel Hawkins

⭐⭐⭐

This is the third book in the Hex Hall trilogy. Not much to say about it. It was a meh ending to an overall pretty good series. 3/5 stars. Moving on.

The Wicked Deep by Shea Ernshaw

⭐⭐⭐

Realizing now how many of my reads this month were pretty middle of the world. Hopefully next month will be filled with 4 and 5 stars. Anyways, this book was honestly a struggle for me to finish and Im not sure why. It's a YA mystery magical realism story about a tiny coastal town that is cursed by the spirits of 3 sisters who were suspected of witchcraft and drowned 2 centuries prior. Because of this, every year the sisters return from the sea to take the lives of teenage boys by luring them to the sea. We follow the life of kind of meh and standard YA girl #1. She meets a strange non tourist boy and hires him to work in the lighthouse her family owns. Her dad randomly disappeared years ago and her mom is a loon. So yeah... I dont know. I kind of felt like this story was hot garbage in places. I usually dont have any trouble with the suspense of disbelief in magical realism stories but this one just had too many plot holes. Like, I get morbid stuff becomes tourist attractions but why wouldn't someone have stepped in and evacuated the town if at least 3 teenage boys die there EVERY SINGLE YEAR without fail? I honestly feel like the FBI or some other government agency would have cleared the place out after the first 20 or so deaths. There was also the whole MC can see the ghosts of the girls possessing people but chooses not to tell anyone? Like, I get it. You dont want people to label you a freak or think you're crazy but come the fuck on. You live in a tourist trap where people flock to watch local teenage males wash up on shore and you really think the authorities arent going to take you up on the help? It wasn't an awful book by any means. It was well written and extremely descriptive. Just had major beef with some of the details. Anyways, I wont say much more so I don't spoil the whole book.

3/5 Stars

An Enchantment of Ravens by Maragret Rogerson

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Finally, I get to talk about one of my favorite reads of the month. I love anything to do with the Fae in my YAfiction and this was literally everything I wanted in a Fae novel. It takes place in a town called Whimsy, a humanish town in the world of Faerie. The fae cannot do any Craft, or what we would consider craftsmanship. Art and humans who can do it well are very precious in this world because the Fae can't ever do it themselves. We follow the adventures of a girl who has been commisioned to paint the portrait of the Autumn King and the chaos that ensues. Let me just start by saying this is one of those insta-love situations where I feel like it's genuinely ok. I might be making excuses because I loved the title so much but whatever. It's explained and I accept it. Also, I realize that Gadfly had a lovely description but my brain willl not let me picture him as anything but Mr.Waternoose from Monsters Inc.

5/5 Stars

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

⭐⭐⭐

This book started out so good and went downhill very quickly. It follows the story of these two magicians who were fated by their Master's to one day fight to the death. There were so many things I loved about this book only for the last 100 pages to just take a firey dump on my face. I loved the setting and the majority of the characters. The supporting characters were so deep and interesting that I almost cared more about them than I did Ceilia and Marko (Im proabably wrong and I dont feel like googling but I think that was his name) . I don't know. I don't want to complain about anymore meh books.

3/5 Stars

Matched by Allie Condie

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Went into this book expecting to hate it. I usually don't like contemporary love stories but this had major City of Ember meets The Giver vibes and it just appealed to that 14 year old girl in me again. That seems to happen with a lot of dystopian utopia stories. Anyways, story is about a girl who lives in this town where when you hit a certain age you are brought to a place and told who the government has chosen for you to marry. She is matched with her life long best friend and all is well. Except that her little Get To Know Your New Husband microship thing showed her two guys instead of just one. And lots of bullshit ensues. I honestly think I rated this so high because I enjoy the world and not so much whats actually happening to the kids. Like, I loved the idea that art is harmful so the government chose 100 acceptable pieces and thats all these people know. I loved the brutality of the government in general. I can't say much more without spoiling some of the twists but geez did it have me hooked. I'm going to be started the second one soonish, though my TBR for June has gotten intense so we will see.

4/5 stars

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

I cannot say enough good things about this book. It is so fucking good! Not going to rant about it or anything because y'all just need to go read it immediately.

5/5 stars

Would give it every star in the sky if Im being completely honest.

Reign of the Fallen by Sarah Glenn Marsh

⭐⭐

Got sucked into this book by the cover and honestly that was the best part of this book. Its about this world where necromancy is pretty highly regarded and used to resurrect the royals after they die. The only downside is that if a living person ever lays eyes on the resurrected person's skin then they turn into these horrible monsters. Maybe it's just me but like that absolutely does not seem worth the risk. Plus, in order to bring the person back, these reapers have to go into the death world and bring the spirit back. And it's HELLA DANGEROUS. So like, WHY? Anyways, there is this stupid underlying love story that I absolutely wasn't invested in. This just all around was not a good book.

2/5 stars

Monster High by Lisi Harrison

⭐⭐

Little known fact~ I'm obsessed with Monster High and Ever After High. So yeah, I realize this wasn't targeted to me as an adult but even going into it with an open mind I was disappointed. Granted I didn't read the description of the book prior. I just saw this franchise I love and grabbed it. First, if you are a fan of the mini series and the movies do not read this. It doesnt follow the cinematic canon and I think that was my biggest problem with it. Frankie's character was all wrong and I hated the whole"Normy" cast. Was really excited for these but I definitely won't be continuing the series. I don't even want to torture myself with seeing how they manage to ruin my sweet baby Draculara.

2/5 stars

Unhinged by AG Howard

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

I can't say enough good things about this series. This is the second book in the trilogy and it was a fanatstic bridge book. It had me engrossed through the entire audiobook. Morpheus is still everything. If you loved Splintered I would highly reccomend continuing.

5/5 stars

Truthwitch

⭐⭐

Have had this on my TBR for a while because of how many Booktubers have hyped the series. Buy, was I disappointed. I was soooooooooo bored. Maybe it's because I don't really enjoy this type of fantasy or maybe it was just the slower paced story but I just slugged through this book. Both of the main female characters were bland to me and I didn't care about their friendship. The world was cool but not enough to keep me invested. Just wasn't my cup of tea.

2/5 stars

Paranormalcy by Kiersten White

⭐⭐⭐

Picked this up because of how much I loved The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein and it didn't meet my expectations. It follows this girl who works for a paranormal gorvenment group. She has a special ability that makes her really useful to them so they are trying to groom her basically. They capture this changeling and she befriends him and there is an overarching plot that I just didn't get invested in. The friendship between the two main characters was pretty much the only thing that I enjoyed in this title. The mother figure was insufferable and I just didn't really understand the whole org that they worked for in general. Not an awful book but not fantastic.

Solid 3/5 stars.

The Siren by Kiera Cass

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Going to preface this by saying I might be biased. I love Kiera Cass and have enjoyed almost everything she has written. That said, this wasn't nearly as good as The Selection series but it was a pretty good stand alone novel. It about a girl who becomes a siren on her deathbed and spends the next 100 years serving the sea by luring people to their deaths. After doing this for 70 years, she falls in love and pretty much ruins everything. Loved the characters, especially the male lead. The insta love was a little pet peeve of mine but the love interest was so sweet and genuine that I was willing to overlook it. Pretty good read if you dig supernatural romance.

4/5 stars

June holds the Ghibli-a-thon but also lots of holidays for my family so we will see how much I actually get read. So far my tentative TBR is 5 books but we will see where the days take me.

[thisweekingundamwing]

This Week in Gundam Wing (May 19-25, 2019)

Blog link:

https://www.tumblr.com/blog/thisweekingundamwing

Hello! I hope the week finds you well. Thank you for all your contributions!

Mod Duointherain

May 20 - 26, 2019

Fanfiction: 

Doctormegalomania, Eldritch Holiday Ch 20   https://doctormegalomania.tumblr.com/post/185041737678/eldritch-holiday-creature-of-the-night

There’s something wrong with Happiness. Duo doesn’t know what...

Duointherain, Beneath

Ch 7 https://duointherain.tumblr.com/post/185059008499/fic-beneath-7

Heero saves Duo after he falls back into the lake

Ch 8 https://duointherain.tumblr.com/post/185138585664/beneath-8

Well, that didn’t go as expected... Relena calls her mom.

Fanart: 

@ana-karenina-blog https://ana-karenina-blog.tumblr.com/post/140551670066/gundam-wing-pilots-i-was-recently-re-watching

Lovely pretty boys! :)

@Blancaxlobo https://blancaxlobo.tumblr.com/post/185103760741/one-of-the-most-unfortunate-hairstyle-designs-in

Duo and Trowa - unfortunate hair designs

@Chronicwhimsy https://chronicwhimsy.tumblr.com/post/157288516047/fapuary-day-14-gundam-high-school-host-club-i

The Gundam Boys host club!

@Gundayum  https://gundayum.tumblr.com/post/184983150346/okay-at-least-drool-outside-and-water-the

Hilde and Duo (dad bod Duo) taking a comfy nap!

@Gundayo https://gundayo.tumblr.com/post/185027035406/quatre-raberba-winner-52019-done-with-ugee

Beautiful Quatre

@lookitsmorefandomtrash https://lookitsmorefandomtrash.tumblr.com/post/184031207265/this-occurred-to-me-once-in-a-dream

Duo vs Duolingo - There will be blood!

@SapphireGamgee https://www.deviantart.com/sapphiregamgee/art/Seekers-795155096

Seekers - Trowa, Duo, WuFei, Quatre, Heero, Ryoga

@Snuffie https://www.tumblr.com/dashboard/blog/snufffie/134314772065

Heero and Trowa Baking

@bluesquishylemon https://bluesquishylemon.tumblr.com/post/185076915502/title-wufei-sketch-source-gundam-wing-character

Classic sketch of Wufei

@yaboycoach  https://yaboycoach.tumblr.com/post/185104301367/gundam-leg-sleeve-start-51819

Super cool Heero tattoo

Cosplay: (in Alphabetical order by blogger’s url)

@exasperatedagent https://exasperatedagent.tumblr.com/post/184969923943

Une and Noin, in a very cool cosplay

Photosets/Screenshots: (in Alphabetical order by blogger’s url)

@Bluesquishlemon https://bluesquishylemon.tumblr.com/post/184929642507/title-i-used-to-be-sweet-inspired-by

A lovely pic of Quatre - I used to be sweet, until life hit me in the face.

@Wingslanding  https://wingslanding.tumblr.com/post/184951390986/im-a-little-obsessed-i-mean-passionate

photo of manga and art, Heero/Relena

Chats/Dialogs/Discussions: 

@Cinderellaincombatboots https://cinderellaincombatboots.tumblr.com/post/84701884994/a-soldier-of-peace-lucrezia-noin-episode-04-the

An interesting discussion about Noin

@Cinderellaincombatboots https://cinderellaincombatboots.tumblr.com/post/83201371025/episode-03-five-gundams-confirmed-trowa-barton

Trowa and Quatre meet for the first time

@Helmsmistress https://helmistress.tumblr.com/post/184951251024/how-fanon-becomes-canon

It was bad chili... how to make Frozen Teardrop canon.

@Lemontrash https://lemontrash.tumblr.com/post/185103417709/game-night

Only Duo could roll a 20 for getting done by the devil...

Quotes: 

@gundaaamn  https://gundaaamn.tumblr.com/post/185136231062/quatre-i-heard-you-like-bad-boys-trowa

Maybe not that kind of bad, Q...

@Incorrectgundamwing quotes

Heero and Trowa - some dancing at a bar: https://incorrectgundamwingquotes.tumblr.com/post/184957186214/heero-being-carried-out-of-bar-by-bouncers

Duo and Trowa discuss sandwiches and Quatre https://incorrectgundamwingquotes.tumblr.com/post/184995991408/duo-you-ever-ate-something-so-good-that-like

Dorothy thinks we’re all extras https://incorrectgundamwingquotes.tumblr.com/post/185029699177/dorothy-out-of-my-way-extras-zechs-stop

Heero promises to kill Relena ... this time. Going to be hard to do with a teddy bear. https://incorrectgundamwingquotes.tumblr.com/post/185025017284/doctor-j-and-you-will-definitely-kill-relena-this

Duo and Relena discuss Heero’s mental health, or lack thereof https://incorrectgundamwingquotes.tumblr.com/post/185020068827/relena-you-dont-want-heero-to-die-relena-and

Heero does not know the bright side... https://incorrectgundamwingquotes.tumblr.com/post/185000573538/heero-look-on-the-bright-side-quatre-heero

Heero and Trowa - Did you miss me? https://incorrectgundamwingquotes.tumblr.com/post/185008999206/trowa-undercover-did-you-miss-me-heero-i-have

Zechs who? https://incorrectgundamwingquotes.tumblr.com/post/184980645248/at-preventers-hq-sally-duo-you-need-to-stop

Hilde’s in labor, married to Duo, she’s got a lot to do. https://incorrectgundamwingquotes.tumblr.com/post/185044179958/911-operator-whats-your-emergency-duo-my

Alpha!Heero during the wars... https://incorrectgundamwingquotes.tumblr.com/post/185053522384/i-understand-that-ft-is-a-dumpster-fire-and-that

Bubble wrap safety for everyone! https://noirangetrois.tumblr.com/post/185042675656/terrablaze514-incorrectgundamwingquotes

Life’s a freak show https://incorrectgundamwingquotes.tumblr.com/post/185118145541/quatre-whats-a-freak-show-trowa-its-like-our

Dorothy’s notifications https://incorrectgundamwingquotes.tumblr.com/post/185148104337/dorothy-is-she-crying-is-she-crying-sylvia

Zechs may have a head injury https://incorrectgundamwingquotes.tumblr.com/post/185122051486/zechs-pointing-at-noin-thats-my-girlfriend

Insufferable People https://gundayum.tumblr.com/post/185067883091/incorrectgundamwingquotes-heero-about-the

Illegal contacts https://janaverse.tumblr.com/post/185068368388/incorrectgundamwingquotes-quatre-you-have

Cold Hearts https://incorrectgundamwingquotes.tumblr.com/post/185033256206/at-the-antarctica-base-heero-im-cold

MoodBoards/Aesthetics: (in Alphabetical order by blogger’s url)

@janaverse https://janaverse.tumblr.com/post/185137327258/this-is-my-actual-license-plate-with-the-location

Heero and Duo

Heero and Duo again: https://janaverse.tumblr.com/image/185107799718

Stickies from Heero: https://janaverse.tumblr.com/post/185134611013

No Idea What To Put This Under: 

@christianmswanson  GW opening Remix: https://christianmswanson.tumblr.com/post/184938390981/extended-version-of-the-previous-post-i-know

Revisit the opening, with the EW gundams.

@bobo-is-tha-bomb https://bobo-is-tha-bomb.tumblr.com/post/185090557001/the-building-drive-is-big-lol-after-completing

Lovely new Sandrock model

Calendar Events: 

This Week In Gundam Wing Events: https://thisweekingundamevents.tumblr.com/post/185146959405/mini-bang-rules

Mini Bang Rules! Theme for this Bang: Unorthodox Undercover Work

This Week in Gundam Wing Events: https://thisweekingundamevents.tumblr.com/post/185146909570/mini-bang-results

Voting results are in!

Event name, host, and link

dates

News: 

News: AnimeNewsNetwork, Anime Limited Acquires Gundam Wing, Char's Counterattack https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2019-05-24/anime-limited-acquires-gundam-wing-char-counterattack/.147089

[candylani-draws]

When Evil Conquers YT - Chapter 2

Character List: https://candylani-draws.tumblr.com/post/177562446573/when-evil-conquers-youtube-character-list

Cover Art: https://candylani-draws.tumblr.com/post/177562290268/hey-peeps-im-so-excited-to-be-re-publishing

Wattpad Link: https://my.w.tt/rTElIdf6MP

Deviantart Link: https://www.deviantart.com/pandaserules97/gallery/67161703/When-Evil-Conquers-YouTube

(READ THIS FIRST!!) Important Notes: https://candylani-draws.tumblr.com/post/178727812658/when-evil-conquers-yt-important-notes-about-the

Prologue Link: https://candylani-draws.tumblr.com/post/178859191453/when-evil-conquers-yt-prologue

Chapter 1: https://candylani-draws.tumblr.com/post/178892439558/when-evil-conquers-yt-chapter-1

WARNING - This chapter uses high levels of offensive language, including insults and nasty comments about these certain Tubers. I obviously do not hate these people, this is just for story sake. If you feel that you are going to be offended by the words here, just skip to the end. Thanks!

Anon: "Ladies and gentlemen, I am here to announce my purpose for joining this occult!"

He leans down to inspect the pages, then opens the large book to the page he was looking for, a large slam echoed the rooms. In it lies a cell phone, and he pulls it out.

Anon: "Now, as I load my information, allow me to give some context. Most of you are aware of a popular video website called 'YouTube', correct?"

Lucifer: "You mean that stupid website that forbids copyrighted material and is full of pampering, self-absorbed morons?"

Anon: "Yes, exactly! And don't forget about ad revenue!"

His YouTube app has loaded, and he begins to search, both for his content, and in his notebook.

Anon: "Now then, I have four specific specimens who I believe deserve a bit of a punishment..."

Lucifer: "Ooh, what kind of punishment?"

Leader: "Have patience, Lucifer. We cannot have anything done if we rush into it..."

Anon: "Ah, here we are!"

Anon flips over several pages and reveals a large list of names.

Anon: "For 7 years, I've putting all of my time into this YouTube matter, finding out who and what is popular during different eras, and today, I have found the perfect victims. Now, if you look at this list, it reveals YouTubers that I wish to see be taken down by my command! Most of them are the gaming community, just a heads up."

The list was insanely long, and each of the names contained some sort of extra name beside it. From the looks of it, it seemed that Anon wanted to take these Tubers and...change their names? The first 4 caught everyone's eyes.

List of Dumbasses - 2016

1. VenturianTale → Jimmy Casket

2. JackSepticEye → AntiSepticEye

3. Markiplier → Darkiplier, Yandereplier, Authorplier, Googleplier

4. Pewdiepie → Lucius-pie

Anon: "Let's see here, ah! VenturianTale, the first channel on my list! To keep this simple, I'll make a demonstration and start off with the first four names, to warm us all up. If this is a success, we continue this tradition every October!"

He pulls up a video of some brunette man wearing a blue hoodie, screaming like a girl at some stupid animatronic animal jumpscare.

Anon: "Now then, here's out first Tuber, Venturian, aka Jordan Frye, a American guy who is known for playing Gmod and has 2.43 million subscribers. Even though that's not a large number compared to other channels, it still eludes me how a man in his 20s spends his time playing stupid mods with his retarded siblings. Yes, this isn't a solo channel, he has 3 other siblings who are equally guilty of this cringeworthy dungheep."

Random Occult Member 4: "No wonder they only have less than 3 million subscribers..."

Anon: "However, there is something that caught my attention from them during my studies...on their Gmod murder series, Venturian has created an original character named 'Jimmy Casket', a crazed murderer who happens to have some sort of personality disorder. It's a long, boring story as to why that is, but the point is...whenever Jordan plays as Jimmy, it seems to be one of the few times he goes insane and turns into someone else...someone dangerous...someone...evil.."

Random Occult Member 2: "Interesting..."

Anon: "Now, onto our next Tuber..."

Not even 3 seconds into the next video, and several of the Tubers covered their ears in pain from obnoxious singing and shouting. Luckily, Anon came prepared as he grabbed powerful earmuffs during his searching.

Anon: "Is the ear bleeding done?"

Everyone: "TURN THAT SHIT OFF!"

Anon: "With pleasure..."

Anon took off his earmuffs and paused the video. From the screen, and the audio, this Tuber is European man with bright green hair and a VERY loud personality.

Anon: "Our next Tuber is JackSepticEye, aka Sean McLoughlin, an Irish gamer with 12.36 million subscribers. I have no idea how the hell he's able to scream and shout for more than 20 minutes without a sore throat, but that is a gift he should never have been born with. This man is irritating, and he seems to overreact to every little fucking thing he plays! And he's friends with an eyeball that's LITERALLY septic! He's FRIENDS with a toxic fucking eyeball!"

Random Occult Member 2: "Greaaaaat, as if this man wasn't unlikable enough, now he's a gross slob..."

Anon: "...Riiight...now then, despite his annoyance, he also has a darker side to him that, this time, was created by his fanbase. Since his YouTuber name implies that he's all septic, it only makes sense that his dark side implies that he's antiseptic, and it's quite an irony. Recently, some of Jack's videos are giving canon appearances of this alter ego, and it helps give one a glimpse of what his true design looks like..."

Lucifer: "Ooh, now THAT is something I would KILL to see!"

Anon: "...Okaaaaay then...Next up is the pure definition of a manchild. Do not be fooled from his appearance."

The next Tuber who was on screen was an Asian-looking guy with an extremely American accent, red dyed hair, square glasses, and a skin tight shirt, playing some horror game about a rabbit.

Anon: "This here is Markiplier, aka Mark Fischbach, and this is another American Tuber here, with 14.55 million subscribers."

Random Occult Member 3: "Ooh, this guy has quite the bod..."

Anon: "Hey, remember what I said earlier? This person may look handsome on the outside, but inside, he's a scaredy-cat and...a bit of a crybaby...He's also really stupid."

Anon fast-forwarded the video, and the man screamed loudly and flew backwards in his seat, with his jaw dropped to the floor.

Anon: "See what I mean? Oh, and this guy seems to have a weird thing for boxes, considering he's friends with one."

Anon then clicks on another video with the man playing with some sort of small box creature with a big baby face and cartoony hands, and they're making stupid noises and faces.

Lucifer: "How in the hell did he even-?"

Anon: "It's best not to ask right now. Besides, I didn't get to the real meat here. Mark is unique, because he has not one alter ego, but FOUR!"

All Members: "FOUR?!"

Anon went into his photo album and pulled up a collage for 4 characters that looked eerily similar to the manchild.

Anon: "You heard me right, 4 alternate egos! The main one, and the most iconic, is his dark side named...Darkiplier...I know, hilarious. This ego has an interesting history. He originally started off as Mark trying to be "scary" to his audience, and this soon turned to a whole new persona. The last time Dark was seen canonically on-screen was a video named "relax", but I've been hearing rumors about the new appearance of Dark; it consisted something of him being all black-and-white, in a formal suit, and 3D effects..."

Lucifer: "Wouldn't that be cool to see?"

Anon: "Ha, tell me about it. Now then, the next persona is known as 'Googleplier', and this one is pretty recent. From Matthias' video 'Google IRL', Googleplier is a real-life Google machine who can answer any question, along with having an obsession with destroying mankind...to be honest, this one is my most favorite. Unfortunately, Googleplier has a retarded weakness against too many questions."

Nobody said a word, but they all seemed to have some sort of prediction that Anon is, in some way, similar to Googleplier's personality.

Anon: "Third one has a bit of 'style', if style meant a weeb who wants to kill everyone for their lover. This is 'Yandereplier', but I'm calling him Yandere Mark for short. For those who don't speak weeb, a yandere is a character in anime who acts nice but kills peers behind their love interest's back. Yandere Mark actually started once Mark started playing an indie game called 'Yandere Simulator'. Basically, the game is shit, and the developer seems like an asshole. But this persona has definitely intrigued me. To have a fake persona to hide your true identity from the one you love? Seems like the perfect ego to hide crimes."

From the weird smile/grimace on Anon's face, the group was wondering if Anon has dealt with a "yandere" before.

Anon: "Last persona is a lesser known one, but holds great promise. Meet Authorplier! Honestly, he doesn't have an official name besides 'The Author', but I'll be calling him Author Mark for now. This persona was created back in 2013 in a mini-series called 'Danger in Fiction'. Honestly, most of the videos consist of stupid, immature potty humor, but the parts that I find to be BRILLIANT is the character's appearance and his power to write stories to torture his victims. See, with Author Mark, he has a special book that plans out the victim's fate, and he wants the victim to follow it, or else he'll end them faster with his bat."

Lucifer: "Now THAT one is my favorite!"

Anon: "And FINALLY, the last YouTuber on this list is..."

Anon quickly went back to his YouTube app and typed away, and everyone was anticipating for who was the last Tuber.

Anon: "PewDiePie, aka Felix Kjellberg! Not only is this guy the biggest gaming YouTuber, he is the biggest YouTuber of all time, having 48.17 MILLION subscribers!"

Random Occult Member 1: "48 million?!"

Random Occult Member 2: "He could have his own country with this many people!"

Lucifer: "This guy must be rich for playing games all day!"

Anon: "HOWEVER! I must point out that Felix does not play as many games as he used to in his hay day. Still though, he is no exception...the fact that this annoying Swedish man can entertain or cause controversy for stupid games or unlogical statements is beyond me. If there's one thing I cannot stand about him, it's his enormous ego, acting like he's a mighty god. He kind of reminds me another YouTuber, I think his name was Joke Pole, but he's not a gamer."

Random Occult Member 3: "What's Felix's alter ego?"

Anon: "Ooh, now this is a tricky one...see, Felix doesn't have an official persona like the others, especially since none of them have a canon appearance or voice. However, one I did choose is similar to Yandere Mark and Jimmy Casket, where this one is based off a game that Felix played named 'Lucius'. See, 'Lucius' was a game he played back in 2012, and it's about a boy with the powers of Satan; his main objective is to kill his family members without causing suspicion. For a while, people loved Felix playing as this demon-writhing kid, and he seemed to take on the personality quite well, although he had a strange obsession with a beach ball."

Leader: "I see..."

Anon: "And that's everything I wanted to say! I only have these personas, but these people have a SHIT ton of more personas than I could count, a lot of them were fucking stupid. I only chose the ones that caught my eye, which were coincidentally the popular ones."

Lucifer: "The power of shitty fanbases..."

Anon: "And this is only the start...once I make these personas a reality with a special recipe I have made, they will cause havoc, ruin the reputations of these YouTubers once and for all! These are only with 4, imagine what it would be like with every other YouTuber gamer, or YouTubers in general, big and small, destroying the platform and taking down Internet entertainment with it!"

Everyone gasped and stared in awe as Anon caught his breath from all his speaking.

Anon: "So...am I in?"

[jeonbase]

I read that fic you talked about yesterday, which I really loved!! I was wondering if you could rec more Yoonkook fics you've read so far this year? Thanks xx

i have so much tabs open of fics i’ve been meaning to read from yk week but also fics i’ve come across and have yet to read… but these are the ones that i’ve read so far this year: 

the life we live by blackksakura

Jungkook begins to have doubts about continuing Golden Closet, but his boyfriend over at Genius Lab knows better.

(canon verse, fluff)

my will is yours by raspberrychai

Jeongguk is cursed with perfect obedience; he can never disobey a direct order. It’s a living hell until he meets Min Yoongi.

(au, ella enchanted au, chaebol!yoongi, childhood friends, slow burn, friends to lovers, hurt/comfort, eventual smut)

note: this was such an interesting concept and au for a fic, i’ve never read anything like it and i think it was the first work i’ve read of raspberrychai’s and… i was captured by their writing, this is such a masterpiece

bad boy by xiajin

roses are red, veins are blue, i’d do anything for you.

(au, murder, death, blood, violence, possessive behavior, stalking, obsession, sociopathy, attempted sexual harassment (not between yk), non-con/dub-con (not between yk), unhealthy relationships, minor character death, asphyxiation)

note: i’ve reread this twice this month and im… still not over it???  this fic was so… something i never knew i needed, god the way summer writes and captures a story and the characters/characterization always has me in awe and amazed… all the little details, the subtleness of certain things.. wow im… beautiful

home by dreamingdaegu

Home, Jungkook has come to learn, is not a constant.

(hyyh au, light angst)

note: dreamingdaegu blessed us with another masterpiece

just called to say i love you by raspberrychai

Yoongi isn’t like Jeongguk’s brother’s other alpha friends and Jeongguk is secretly sort of really in love with him.

(au, abo au, fluff, smut, alpha!yoongi, omega!jeongguk, friends to lovers, top!yoongi, bottom!jeongguk)

note: i’ve mentioned this in my last ask but i love this fic so much

i hear you in the spring breeze by ial

[17/09/01 2:12 AM] yoongi: i still dream about you[17/09/01 2:12 AM] yoongi: a lot[17/09/01 2:12 AM] yoongi: more than i should[17/09/01 2:12 AM] yoongi: is that weird

[17/09/01 2:43 AM] yoongi: don’t answer that

[17/09/01 5:57 AM] yoongi: is it though

(ANGST, implied depression, implied suicidal thoughts)

note: :) my heart still hurts, a beautiful fic written by beautiful wonderful talented nat, please give nat all the love

my little work of art by becomingjk

yoongi has a fascination with jeongguk’s scar.

(canon verse(?), established relationship, fluff)

note: ‘my handsome baby, prettier than all of the flowers’ kook is!!! he rlly is!!! this fic was so soft, i live for fics that mention kook’s cheek scar and yoons loving it cause… Same

small talks by licornes

At first, Jungkook just likes the sound of his voice.

(au, slow burn, underground rapper!yoongi, blind!jeongguk)

affection, always by suisei_honeymoon

jungkook shows up to genius lab and yoonkook have their own mini birthday celebration.or: the reason why the twitter birthday video ended so abruptly

(canon verse, fluff, mild smut)

piece of peace by dreamingdaegu

Yoongi and Jungkook spend the night together.

(canon verse, fluff,  light angst, smut, mature, top!yoongi, bottom!jeongguk)

now by rire

It hits him at the weirdest moment possible.

Jungkook’s got his perfect, pink lips wrapped around Yoongi’s cock, big doe eyes innocently contrary to the obscene noises he’s making. Yoongi slides a hand shakily down to cup Jungkook’s jaw, thumbing the scar on his cheek, and Jungkook kind of involuntarily nuzzles into his touch like he always does. At that very moment, Yoongi’s heart does a little flip-kick. He looks at Jungkook and thinks, with fierce, unmistakable clarity— I love him.

(canon verse, fluff, explicit, smut, top!yoongi, bottom!jeongguk)

note: i just talked about this fic the other day and honestly it’s so fucking good, this characterization is my fav and just like the little details and certain things that are said in this fic is so??? wow and yoongi fucking jeongguk and eating him out with agust d tracks playing in the bg…. A Fucking Concept (also im still ded over the mention of jin cutting his bangs adjjskdfl)

sonatina by raspberrychai

Sometimes we just need a little repetition to see what’s right in front of our eyes.

(Yoongi gets stuck repeating the same day over and over again until Jeon Jeongguk fades into view.)

(au, time travel, composer!yoongi, famous!yoongi, slow burn, pining)

note: :(( i hope raspberrychai comes back, their writing is so lovely, one of my top favs

parachute by cinibun (akiikook)

Min Yoongi is a lonely workaholic CEO who adopts a bunny hybrid named Jungkook.

(au, ceo!yoongi, bunny hybrid!jeongguk, fluff, smut, explicit, heat)

don’t say goodnight by artangeltae

Yoongi worked late and just wants to sleep but Jungkook keeps him awake. Can he even be mad about it?

(au, painter!jeongguk, fluff)

wake up (inside me) by asterismos

jungkook wants to try something new. yoongi’s apprehensive but gives in bc he’s weak. he likes it more than he thought he would.

(explicit, smut, consensual somnophilia, dom/sub, established relationship, top!yoongi, bottom!jeongguk, dom!yoongi, sub!jeongguk)

young & dumb by notyoongs

“Yeah. Wanna be your baby.” There’s another puff of air against his skin, and he feels Jeongguk turn his face further into Yoongi’s neck, like he’s trying to hide—it does nothing to quell the flip of his stomach. But Jeongguk is drunk—that’s all. He tries to remind himself of that even though he really, really doesn’t want to think about it. He prefers to pretend this is what every weekend could be, even without the alcohol.

(or: jeongguk is drunk and just wants yoongi to cuddle him. as usual, he gets his way.)

(au, college au, fluff, drinking, grinding)

note: also mentioned this in the last ask, cute ass fic

in the midnight hour by marienadine

Jeongguk can’t sleep alone.

(established relationship, mild hurt/comfort, fluff)

heart bind by xiajin

yoongi didn’t need to break his heart; jungkook did it all on his own.

(au, angst, friends with benefits, famous!yoongi, singer!jeongguk, anxiety, self-esteem issues, internalized homophobia, mentions of starvation, mentions of attempted suicide)

give me your hand and save me before i fall by arcticcircle

The manager’s hardest on Jungkook of all; he’s young, and excitable, and sometimes can’t help being silly on stage. When the other members aren’t around he knows the consequences can be steep - but with a little help from his hyung, he remembers that he’s not alone and that he has someone he can rely on.

(canon verse, emotional hurt/comfort, referenced physical violence)

engaging by xiajin

“hyung,” jungkook starts as soon as yoongi opens the door to the apartment they share, “let’s get engaged.”

(au, fluff)

l'heure bleue by pursuit

“i can’t sleep.”

or; yoongi is definitely weak.

(canon verse, hurt/comfort, fluff, top!yoongi, bottom!jeongguk)

[heybeyby]

okay okay. this is gonna devolve really quickly into crack-ish au territory but fuck it. ive been thinking abt the tobyzeo swap au and faust!zeo in general and like. what if his limits with twisted tempo goes beyond what ziggurat expects, and faust!zeo actually fucks up the timeline. like he gets actual time powers and unlocks the fucking multiverse. faust!zeo goes a little bonkers and abandons his timeline cause he believes his power is limitless now, he doesn’t need anyone holding him back, especially once he sees the spiral force unable to contain his power and ziggurat abandoning him once things get bad (kinda like how masamune did according to him ehehe)

and so faust!zeo infiltrates the multiverse and ends up in the canon timeline. i actually have a. sort of a mini-story involving this funky idea so are here are some notes i have

faust!zeo (im going to just call him Z from now on) arrives in the canon timeline post-fury, so everything seems happy atm! Not For Long

he decides to visit the dungeon gym to see if it’s changed, and low-and-behold he meets our team dungeon! toby has fully white hair, masamune’s back for some reason, and there’s this new guy named King who’s really annoying (he reminds him of masamune a Bit Too Much :sweats:)

Initially he acts friendly and introduces himself as Just A Normal Guy, having his interest piqued when he sees himself (or his former, weak self) still blading with his past team. it doesn’t take Z long to realize the timeline he’s in had him and toby switched places. Now Z is like. kinda fucked up emotionally like he sees himself as some superior being atp and feels almost insulted to see Zeo act so friendly with the people he believed betrayed him in a past timeline. it’s kinda difficult to explain lol

anyway so Z talks to Zeo for a bit w/o spilling anything and he eventually finds out the deal with Masamune and how he believed he never abandoned toby and zeo and like. he’s not having it (Z is very firm in their beliefs that masamune’s a bad friend and he refuses to be told otherwise)

Z then leaves the gym and proceeds to Fuck Time Up Further out of spite and reveals his bey Twisted Tempo, and fumbles with the multiverse a bit Spider-Verse Style™ and starts to converge several different universes. yk. as you do <3

this is abt as far as i got plot-wise but i have characters from other assorted aus i randomly come up with have roles.

there’s a damian who swapped with jack in the canon timeline so he’s the one who got the long end of the stick and managed to recover somewhat from the arrangement. he’s kinda obsessed with tech like jack is with art he’s a giant nerd lmao

there’s a beylin fist daxiang! a blading prodigy who was the rising star of the beylin temple that eventually goes down a darker path :eyes:

there’s a legendary blader hikaru. just cause i think she deserves to kick ass <333

so yeah the canon gang has to team up with people from other universes in order to stop a teenager with a god complex from further breaking time itself. fuck yeah

hehe hi guys

would you like to maybe perhaps like talk extensively abt ideas n stuff. i dunno, just headcanons, ocs, aus, ANYTHING just tell me a bunch of stuff abt some silly little guys bc I would just really like to hear it right now

[22degreehalo]

emmakoneko replied to your post

“Like I don't post about it much bc im always reading Ikemen Sengoku...”

Hm, I've been looking for otomege to read bc in all my years of reading/obsessing over visual novels I've been neglecting that genre and I feel kind of guilty. I'm putting this one on my list now lmdo. (You don't have to answer but do you recommend any others?)

Mm I’ve had a kinda ambivalent to otomege in the past as well because yeah it really did used to be hard to find ones that weren’t mainly populated by possessive, demeaning assholes :/ But I feel like over the last several years some better ones have been translated so it’s a good time to come in! :)

For recommendations: Ikemen Sengoku is 100% a good place to start, being one of the best otome games playable for free (with restrictions) out there - there are a decent number of routes available and almost all of them I’ve seen strongly praised. (Shingen is the only one people seem more cool on.)

The same people who do Ikemen Sengoku also do two other mobile games: Destined to Love (Ikemen Samurai), Midnight Cinderella, and Ikemen Revolution. The first two are older and aren’t as great as Sengoku but the routes I’ve read (Kirisato and Okita) were quite solid and there are a lot of route options. (Actually I haven’t finished even one of Midnight Cinderella yet but I’ve seen it praised.) Revolution is new and only has five routes (out of 14 planned) and it’s...a lot shakier apparently, so I wouldn’t recommend starting there.

I’ve also enjoyed some of NTT Solmare’s Shall We Date? games, namely The Niflheim+ and Oz+ - only got to play one route of each but both were quite enjoyable! (Skeletiano for the former and Solomon for the latter.) I also remember playing Angel or Devil+ several years ago and also quite enjoying it.

You’ve probably heard of Mystic Messenger, but just in case, I really recommend that, too - it’s a very unique otome with a totally different playinging style where chatroom conversations appear through the day and you have to log in during the right windows to make contributions. Naturally, you have to be able to make the time commitment or pay, so it’s not for everyone, but he characters and writing are also very funny and quirky, plus you can sorta date a girl (the main route is very ambiguous but the bonus Christmas mini-route makes it overt) so it’s worth considering

Finally on mobile I have to shill for Lovestruck, the game I’ve been playing consistently for well over a year now - it’s an original English brand split off from Voltage, a big producer, and from the hub you can access a bunch of different stories in various different settings with heaaaps of love interests all up. The games are actually super diverse with lots of POC, datable female characters, and even datable nonbinary characters, and the romances themselves tend to be really well-written and free of toxic tropes. They also update several times a week so it gets pretty addictive heh.

And I said finally but I totally forgot lol if you wan a mobile game but would rather pay upfront and be able to read without interruption, Voltage’s Love 365 app is best - Voltage also has a lot of well-regarded stories (although also some more old-style toxic ones, so be careful), though I haven’t read any pesronally yet because I’m cheap and have a short attenion span anyway lol so I can’t give personal recs!

On console, if you have access to a Vita, I’d recommend Code: Realise, a plotty steampunk adventure with nice art. I’m only on the common route because I take ages to read things lol but it’s really good!!

If you have an emulator, you might also consider the Tokimeki Memorial Girl’s Side series - you’ll need to download a translation patch because they were never officially released but all three games have them. The first I don’t recommend per se because it kind of comes across like they didn’t really know how to do otome yet and the love interests are kinda eh (TokiMemo began as a bishoujo dating sim), and the third one I’m just not interested in because there aren’t many love interests and I’m not interested in them much, but I played the second a bunch years and years ago and REALLY enjoyed it. It’s actually a dating sim so you need to raise stats and actually get to see your girl go through high school and hopefully get good prospects at the end which is satisfying!! Though it does mean that it’s pretty annoying going through again and again if you like other guys too;;

On PC there’s not as much Japanese-original stuff yet but Fashioning Little Miss Lonesome is meant to be really funny (haven’t played the full game yet but I did enjoy the demo a lot). Alice in the Counry of Hearts is also fairly popular (and also needs has an unofficial patch because the company went kaput years ago) but I think it also has quite a few jerks? I only played a little of it (and read the manga because I loved Julius;;) 

I know a lot more OEL otomes so:

C14 Dating is a really cute, easygoing VN about studying archeology that just bursts with love for the subject and has a really diverse cast in terms of sexuality (one dateable woman, two male love interests are bi tho AFAIK it doesn’t come up in game for either, and one love interest is a really well-written asexual that DOES come up in-game) and some fun minigames

Hustle Cat lets you choose your appearance and pronouns and date all kinds of people so it’s not necessarily otome but oh well haha, it’s a fun VN about working in a cat cafe where a magic spell has been cast to turn everyone into cats if they try to leave, and just has lots of kitty and magical goodness~

Arcade Spirits is also not really otome AND is currently still in development BUT you can access a beta by donating to the patreon and it’s just really good, all about basically everything to do with arcades you can imagine, ft. the possibility of playing the game aro and also a love interest who comes to understand they’re trans through the game!

Because We’re Here is also still in development but he first Act of 5 is out and it’s SO GOOD. It’s set in a fictionalised version of World War One and just perfectly captures everything about the time period. Naturally it’s pretty darn depressing haha but the characters are all interesting and different and the story is really well-written and historically accurate so I love it!

Autumn’s Journey is just a cute, short VN about dragonpeople!

Magical Girl Diamond Heart is an episodic VN that comes out now and then based around magical girls, naurally!! Very cute and a very diverse cast including canonically nonbinary and neurodivergent characters!

Seven Kingdoms Princess Problem is also in development though the demo is really fun, it’s another stat-based one where you’re a princess at a diplomatic summit and the number of different choices you can make and ways you can play it (it’s totally possible to make a political marriage with one character but pursue another romantically) is just OFF THE CHARTS.

Aaaand I think I’ll leave it there! Sorry for dumping so much of you lol - I get excited when I can make recommendations because it’s like it justifies all the time I spent looking up and reading through all these things? n.n;; Anyway, this should be a good introduction!!

[viralhottopics]

Six-month-long stretches of seven-day work weeks and looming deadlines: What it takes to be a strategy guide author

Image: Christopher Mineses/mashable

Ancient map-making required mastery over the disciplines of mathematics and astronomy, the means and courage to venture into dangerous uncharted territories, inhuman patience, artistry and attention to detail, and the ability to perch on the cutting edge of every new technological advancement your cultures most talented minds could muster. David Hodgsons job is arguably more difficult and certainly more tedious.

Hodgson makes video game strategy guides which, much like ancient cartography, is a lost art of primitive methods and painstaking processes.

Not that Hodgson would complain. He started working at gaming magazines in the 90s, but was always drawn back to the world of strategy guides. Currently working on contract for Prima Games, the largest strategy guide publisher in the US, he gets access to some of the biggest games in the world months before the public. And he slaves over their every detail, spending months and months gorging on each new obsession.

I think it’s one of those jobs that you kind of have to pinch yourself, he told me in his workshop a converted guest house behind his Spanish-style Southern California home. The room is equipped with comfortable seating, a large wraparound desk housing three monitors, countless books most of them strategy guides lining floor to ceiling shelves on one wall, and various macabre knick-knacks, from Lovecraftian posters to the crown jewel: Two replica Egyptian sarcophagi flanking the flatscreen like golden guardian deities.

It’s one of those jobs that you kind of have to pinch yourself.

Exact statistics about strategy guide sales are closely guarded info, Douglas Walsh, another longtime strategy guide author, told me over Twitter. As you can imagine, the sales today have consolidated around a few big hits: Skyrim, Grand Theft Auto, things like that, he said. [Sales] have also dropped off considerably, especially for shooters. The Call of Duty and Gears of War books sell a fraction of the copies they used to. But a big hit, especially as a Limited Edition hardcover, can crack Amazon’s top 25. Fighting game books in particular (and Skyrim, GTA, etc.) have even cracked the top five.

Despite those isolated successes, the number of guides produced each year is down along with sales to about 60 every year, half of what the figure was in the PS2 era, Walsh said.

Like vinyl records, the strategy guide as we once knew it all but died as a medium with the internets rise, transforming by necessity into a niche market for hardcore collectors and hobbyists. Hodgson said hes one of around a dozen remaining strategy guide authors.

In the middle of the afternoon, the rays of golden California sunlight barely grazed the exposed rafters of Hodgsons lair. He wore a black t-shirt with the words Who are you a ghost of? a reference to his brother Ian Hodgsons experimental musical act, Moon Wiring Club, described on its own labels website as confusing English electronic music. Hodgson often speaks wistfully of his succulents, and hes frequently sarcastic, though in the dry English way that you barely register after a while.

Each guide Hodgson authors is a massive undertaking involving a six-month-long stretch of seven-day work weeks and looming deadlines, gargantuan organizational conundrums, word counts and page limits, two-week spans of 12-hour days spent hunched over monitors far from home in a game studios back room, trying to beat every quest in a 100-hour RPG. Hes been doing this long and well enough with somewhere over 100 guides to his name (he lost count around 80) that he gets to pick what games he tackles. He mostly chooses massive role-playing games like The Witcher 3 and Fallout 4, simply because he loves diving deep into overwhelmingly huge projects. These are the types of games that seem to get more complex with every release. Each new feature Hodgson must chronicle and quadruple-check is another grey hair in his tangled beard.

I have a very understanding wife, Hodgson said.

***

The process of creating a video game strategy guide is shockingly complex. Look, for example, at what it takes just to make the hundreds of maps that go into the average guide on which Hodgson works.

In the old days the 90s hed draw maps freehand on graph paper and hand them over to a designer. But the games back then were significantly smaller than the ones he writes guides for now.

He starts by doing fly-overs in a special debug version of the game that still contains developer tools, taking screenshots of every single inch of the games exterior locations. In the case of Fallout 4, that included 3.82 square miles of irradiated wilderness and crumbling city streets.

What I’ve done is I’ve flown over the entire tiles of the map, multiple times, inch by inch. I do a north-south pass, I do an east-west pass, over the course of a week, he said. This isn’t playing the game. This is me floating above each sector in the game and plotting it out.

This isn’t playing the game. This is me floating above each sector in the game and plotting it out.

The game wont be out for several months, and its still very much in development, which unfortunately means that dozens of the points he and his assistants and co-authors have plotted in these exteriors could change.

Then you have 500 maps that need to be drawn of all of the different interiors in the game, he continued. You have to figure out first how many interiors there are in the game. So you go to every location in the game, and you see how big it is, then you estimate it, then you tell [strategy guide maker] Prima, ‘It’s going to be about this big. Find more mappers please.

At this point, hes still far from done. I’ve figured out how many primary locations there are. I’ve then figured out how many secondary locations there are that don’t appear on your worldmap. Those are just like, Oh, it’s a shed. Does it appear as an icon on the world map? No. Shit. Well, it has to go in the guide, he said. I’m talking about stuff that isn’t even a quest-related location. I’m talking about a pond with some barrels in it. Maybe he doesnt have to be that thorough not all strategy guides take inventory of every nonessential part of the environment the author can find. But thats just his personality, and its part of the reason hes so good at this job.

With the exterior and interior maps more or less complete, the rough versions based on screenshots are sent to a team of around 20 designers. Its now been weeks since Hodgson first received the early build of the game, and he hasnt even written anything yet.

He hasnt catalogued, sorted and described every single gun, sword, helmet, potion, blueprint, material, artifact, food, enemy, character, spell and skill in the game; he hasnt completed every possible branch of each and every quest, mission, side-quest, bounty, treasure hunt and optional objective; he hasnt compiled strategies for every mini-game, tactics for every boss, solutions to every puzzle and tricks for every fight; and he hasnt taken the hundreds screenshots that need to accompany it all.

A lot of it isnt playing a game necessarily its just checking something in a game and then checking it against an Excel document or a map or something like that, he said. If Im playing Skyrim for 6,000 hours over ten months with a co-author, Im not Woohoo! playing Skyrim; Im going here and checking to make sure that the guides accurate at that location.

The part of my brain that says ‘You don’t need to be this meticulous’ doesn’t work.

The games change in sometimes major ways, even after the guide goes to print. In that case all they can do is update the guides online component and point readers to the web should anything in the final book prove inaccurate. Whenever possible, though, Hodgson redoes a lot of work every time he gets a new build. For 2001s 007: Agent Under Fire, for example, he had to retake all of the screenshots two days before the game was going to go to print because they changed the color of one of the lasers, he said.

The part of my brain that says ‘You don’t need to be this meticulous’ doesn’t work, Hodgson told me.

***

Hodgson began working in the video game industry in the mid 90s after graduating with a history degree from the University of Sheffield in South Yorkshire, England. Hed wanted to become a history teacher, but instead used a PlayStation fan zine hed started called PlayStation Frenzy to get a job at Maximum, a new gaming magazine from a media company called EMAP.

He wrote massive 40-page features on individual games a precursor of things to come in his career while living on a disused German fishing trawler called the St. Michael that he says was moored illegally on the River Thames in London. They had to siphon power from a nearby car scrapyard.

It sounds quite idyllic, but it wasn’t, he remembered. It was dripping with different weird poisonous acid from roofs that hadn’t been sealed, and it was sort of slowly dissolving.

I kept my PlayStation, but not my sanity, he continued.

Maximum folded after seven issues, and Hodgson went on to a brief stint at Official Nintendo Magazine before receiving a call from Dave Halverson, publisher of the popular GameFan magazine.

Hodgson moved to LA and worked on his first strategy guides at GameFan for games like Super Mario 64, Soul Blade and Doom 64 under the magazines GameFan Books division. He flitted among various publishers and magazines until 2000. He called Prima, at the time one of the biggest strategy guide companies (its main competitor, BradyGames, would later be bought by publisher Penguin Random House and folded into Prima). He sent Prima his Metal Gear Solid guide, and they assigned him Armored Core.

That was 16 years ago and I’m still doing it right now, he said.

***

Hodgson flipped lovingly through his creations as we chatted, pointing out where hed embellished a simple description with some flowery joke, or where hed really gotten into it and written entire sections in the voice of a character from the game.

That love goes both ways CD Projekt Red, developers of The Witcher 3, built Hodgson his own tribute in the form of book merchant Marcus T.K. Hodgson, a character in the games Free City of Novigrad.

We just wanted to honor David for all the awesome work he does, CD Projekt PR Manager Radek Grabowski told me over email. This is just a tribute.

The Witcher 3 tributes Hodgson in the form of book merchant Marcus T.K. Hodgson

Hodgson seems to always go above and beyond. His humor is often self-deprecating, but hes also proud when he talks about some of the things hes accomplished within the limited medium of strategy guides, like the note he received from Hideo Kojima about his Metal Gear Solid guide in 1998.

Strategy guides were usually just go here, do this, go here, do that. I wanted it to be a bit more of an ‘official mission handbook.'”

He loved the guide. He liked the fact that I’d put box-outs for the history of the forklift truck in the first level, Hodgson said. Strategy guides were usually just go here, do this, go here, do that. I wanted it to be a bit more of an ‘official mission handbook,’ we called it. Kojima said hed shown the guide to his mother, who didnt really understand video games but of course knew what a book was.

For 2004s Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II Hodgson planned and orchestrated an easter egg on the strategy guides DVD pack-in: Pressing a secret combination on your DVD player remote results in a special menu where you can access videos in which the voice actor for HK-47, a popular droid from the games, quotes other famous fictional robots and AI. Hodgson was excited to get the voice actor involved for a secret he deemed so obscure although his assertion that Nobody A) cares or B) has ever found that, because we never published the easter egg code is more self-deprecating than accurate, based on the above YouTube video and this forum thread.

But he nevertheless lit up when he talked about it, or about the more creative work hes gotten to do, like A Fractured Land: Tales of the Northern Realms, a 96-page lore book that came with the hardcover edition of the official The Witcher 3 guide, or The Improved Emperor’s Guide to Tamriel, a 224-page illustrated guide to the lands of Bethesdas The Elder Scrolls Online that was packed in with the games Imperial collectors edition.

Hodgson wrote the Emperors Guide in character as the scholar Flaccus Terentius, conjuring the characters imagined journal entries as he walked the games fictional lands. It has annotations like Strange to find such Daedra worship among the devout, nestled next to detailed sketches, diagrams and paintings.

I studied history. Its sort of finding the evidence for something and then writing about it, and that was my transferrable skill, Hodgson said. If I wasn’t going to become a history teacher, I was going to maybe become a travel writer or something like that. And in a sense I am, except the places that I write about don’t really exist.

But travel writers dont go to Paris and painstakingly catalog every street sign and boulangerie.

Though travel writers much like strategy guide authors have been made obsolete. Why read a book about a place when you can simply search for photos of it on Instagram? Likewise, why buy an expensive book when everything you could want to know about every game ever made is a Google search away?

For one thing, you only have to look at one of Hodgsons guides to see the value for collectors and hardcore fans. And while the internet is always playing catch-up to catalog new releases in YouTube guides and Wikis, the official strategy guide arrives on day one (or earlier). That makes the physical strategy guide, ironically, the first choice for players who want instant, day one gratification.

“There’s a nice archaic nature to strategy guides that I enjoy. I can write about something that’s cutting edge, like Fallout 4, but I can publish it using 16th century technology.

Hodgson has his own reasons. I can’t show you the writings I’ve done for Maxim.com and Gamespy, because those sites aren’t there anymore, he said. Stuff disappears when you’re on the net. But this Akuji the Heartless strategy guide on paper, or in fact the Fallout 3 strategy guide that’s in the Library of Congress. So even after the bombs drop and we’re in the future apocalypse, you can go to the bunker down below the Library of Congress or even now, if you’d like to do it properly [and] you can search my books out. I think I’m the only person who will ever do that, but there’s a nice archaic nature to strategy guides that I enjoy. I can write about something that’s cutting edge, like Fallout 4, but I can publish it using 16th century technology.

***

Hodgson works on guides ten months out of every twelve, and he rarely plays video games for fun anymore. At the end of a long stretch, Im just sick of staring at screens, so I just go outside or I go and buy another aloe tree or an agave or a different type of succulent, he said. I maybe go on Facebook, but just to see what some of the people that I never get to see do. Friends.

You are suffering from extreme fatigue, and the dogs looking at you going I need to be fed and walked. Immediately, he said.

But if he quit tomorrow, hed still play games after a six-month sabbatical, at least. After your first week [off] youre just like Ah, sort of semi-retirement, this is great. This is fantastic, he said. And then another week goes by and youre sort of starting to get an itchy feeling. Cabin fever sets in. Youre like, whats next?

Hodgson recently wrapped up work on the Complete edition guide to The Witcher 3 and the official Watch Dogs 2 strategy guide, and at the time of writing hes putting the finishing touches on his Ghost Recon Wildlands guide. You can find his work wherever strategy guides are sold.

Mike Rougeau is a freelance journalist who lives in Los Angeles with his girlfriend and two dogs.

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