#it had fun and cool easter eggs and throw backs

[doctorscoobywho]

Blue Beetle (2023) reminded me why I love DC and the superhero genre

[softspiderling]

god, it's brutal out here | r.c.

summary:

“And yet you’re still thinking of your ex,” Barry finished the sentence, rubbing his chin. “Why don’t you get back together with her?”

“She doesn’t want me.”

“God, fucking Country Club,” Barry snickered. “You’re fucking dense.”

OR; 5 times your friends share their unsolicited opinions about your and Rafe’s break up.

pairing: rafe cameron x reader

warnings: mention of c*caine

word count: 5,4k

author’s note: the long awaited sequel of so obsessed with your ex! this can be read as a standalone fic, but there are little easter eggs hidden all over, which will be more fun if you read the first part! it's a little bit longer than I had planned, but there was no way around it. I hope you enjoy it so so much!!!!

✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦

I Wheezie

“Hey Wheeze.”

You had accepted the facetime without looking at your phone, keeping it rested on a shelf while you were halfway into your closet, trying to find a dress.

“Does Rafe have a new girlfriend??”

Pausing, you shut your eyes, letting out a silent exhale before you picked up the phone, giving Wheezie a wry smile through the camera.

“Nice to see you too.”

The girl only looked at you, unimpressed and her arms crossed. You sighed, running a hand through your hair, knowing you didn’t have a way out of this conversation. Grabbing your phone, you sat down on your bed.

“Yes, Rafe has a new girlfriend.”

“I knew it!” Wheezie shrieked, throwing her arms up, and you only shook your head in exasperation. The tendency for drama clearly was in the Cameron genes. Wheezie frowned, getting closer to your phone as she looked at you.

“Why am I more upset about this than you are?”

You bit back another sigh. “Because Rafe and I are broken up, Wheeze. He’s allowed to date other people, matter of fact, I’m really glad that he has moved on.”

“Bullshit!”

“Wheezie!”

Wheezie rolled her eyes, but she sat back down, crossing her arms over her chest again. “I don’t like her.”

“You don’t even know her,” you sighed, rubbing your temple, feeling a migraine coming on.

“This is crazy!” Wheezie exclaimed. “You and Rafe never should’ve broken up in the first place! Rafe is probably only dating her to make you jealous so you’ll take him back.”

You couldn’t help but snort at that, Wheezie clearly watched way too many rom-coms. She frowned at you.

“Why are you laughing? This isn’t funny, this is, like, super un-funny.”

“Because, Wheeze,” you started, plucking a feather out of your pillow. “This isn’t some 90’s rom-com where I see Rafe with Rebecca and suddenly a sad song is playing. This is real life. We are broken up.”

“I still don’t understand why.”

“Remember when we used to fight all the time? And I was just always sad?”

Wheezie was quiet, her lips still pursed. “Yeah. But that doesn’t mean anything. Couples fight all the time, doesn’t mean you just have to break up.”

“Yes, couples fight all the time and they don’t have to break up, but it was the right decision for me and Rafe,” you said, your tone final. Wheezie looked at you, her frown slowly smoothing down.

“If you say so,” she muttered, not quite convinced. She stared down at her chipped finger nails, before she looked up again. “Can we still talk?”

Your eyebrows shot up in surprise. “Of course we can still talk, why wouldn’t we?”

“I don’t know… I mean, you’re gonna find a new boyfriend and maybe he has a younger sister as well and then I’ll just be your ex’s younger sister.”

“Wheeze,” you said, fondly, knowing where she was coming from. You had been in her life for most of her teenage years, it must be weird not having you around anymore. “We’ll still talk, no matter if I get a new boyfriend or not, even if he has a cool younger sister, or even three.”

Wheezie smiled, rolling her eyes at you. “You’re so dumb.”

“Yet you still want me around,” you teased. “How about you, Sar and I go get some ice cream and then to the movies this weekend?”

“Sounds good,” Wheezie replied with a big smile. She paused when someone called her name from somewhere in the house, before she turned back to her phone. “I gotta go, Rose needs me. I’ll text you later.”

“Alright, Wheeze. Talk to you later, be good.”

Wheezie waved into the camera, before the facetime ended. Your smile dropped and you tossed your phone on your bed with a sigh, letting yourself fall back on your bed. Even six months after the break up it was still hard to talk about Rafe, and now that he had a new girlfriend, you thought it’d be easier to get over him, but all it did was hurt more. It didn’t help that Rafe was still texting you every now and then. Nothing scandalous, just small texts, but you never replied. You both agreed on no contact after the break up, because you thought it’d give you a better opportunity to heal. You should’ve known he’d break it. Picking up your phone, you unlocked it, swiping to your messages.

Rafe [11/30/23: 1:43 am]: couldn’t sleep. remember when we took out the boat at two am bc we both drank a red bull at ten?

Rafe [11/30/23: 11:22 am]: sorry, i was drinking. didn’t mean to text you. hope you’re doing good

Rafe [12/25/23: 2:44 pm]: merry christmas. it’s weird without you.

Rafe [01/01/24: 01:02 am]: happy new year’s.

Rafe [01/05/24: 9:56 pm]: are you really not gonna text me back?

Rafe [01/27/24: 3:07 am]: i miss you

Rafe [02/12/24: 12:05 pm]: saw you at the party last night. you looked so fucking pretty. took everything in me not to talk to you.

Rafe [03/01/24: 7:12 pm]: idk if you care or not, but i still wanted to let you know. i’m seeing someone

You never replied to any of the texts, knowing it was for the better. You could block him, but you never brought it over your heart to do so, telling yourself you wanted him to reach you in case of emergency, but deep down, you didn’t want to block him.

Just incase.

II Barry

“Want some C?” Barry asked as greeting, presenting Rafe a small baggie with white powder in it as soon as he walked onto the lot.

“Nah,” Rafe declined, already feeling jittery enough without it, “Won’t say no to a beer though.”

Barry let out a grunt, tossing the baggie on the table, disappearing inside the trailer. Rafe took a seat in one of the chairs, running his hand over his buzzed head, bouncing his leg nervously. He had needed to get out of the house for a while. Ever since Rebecca pulled the picture out of the drawer, he couldn’t stop thinking about you. Again.

Which is fucked up, really. He thought he got over you, he didn’t want to be the guy who thought about his ex while having a whole ass girlfriend. The door to the trailer opened with a slam, Barry exiting with two beer cans, handing Rafe one of them. The can was ice cold in his hands, and the cold liquid helped with his racing heart. He let out a sigh, rubbing a thumb over his eye brow. Rafe took another gulp of the beer, almost drinking the entire can in one go, while Barry watched him, assessing.

“You good?”

Rafe nodded, setting the can on the table.

“Yeah, jus’ stressed.”

“Work, or…?”

Barry trailed off without finishing his sentence and Rafe didn’t answer, wiping a finger over his jaw, which was clenched to the max.

Barry eyed him skeptically, leaning back in his chair. “How’s Mrs. Country Club?”

Rafe let out a loud sigh, tipping his head back, like he always did when he was annoyed with Barry.

“Barry, I don’t know if all the drugs you’re taking are starting to get to your memory, but we broke up.”

“Don’t be fucking rude,” he said, kicking Rafe’s chair. Not hard enough for it to tip over, but hard enough for Rafe to grip onto the arm rests, glaring at his friend. “How’d you know I wasn’t talking ‘bout your new girl?”

“Because you always call her Becky,” Rafe pointed out, giving him a look.

Barry shrugged, taking a sip from his beer. “You still know who ‘m talking about, so what’s the problem?”

“Problem is, it’s disrespectful. You know that’s not her name.”

“You’re still hung up on your ex while dating Becky, so who’s really disrespecting her?”

Rafe’s head shot up and the glare he sent Barry was deadly.

“Fuck this shit, and fuck you,” he snapped, pushing himself up from the chair, but Barry grabbed his wrist, stopping him.

“Boy, sit down.”

Rafe scowled at him, before sitting back down, crossing his arms over his chest like a petulant child. He did not come all the way out to the cut to get called out like this.

“If you came here to be coddled, you went to the wrong person.”

“I don’t need to be coddled,” Rafe muttered with an eyeroll. “Just wanted to let off some steam.”

“So?” Barry snorted, waving his hands around. “Steam away.”

Rafe scoffed, scooting down in his chair, shaking his head. “Do you think I want to think of her? I fucking hate feeling like this. Bex is nice, and she’s hot. And yet-”

“And yet you’re still thinking of your ex,” Barry finished the sentence, rubbing his chin. “Why don’t you get back together with her?”

“She doesn’t want me.”

“God, fucking Country Club,” Barry snickered. “You’re fucking dense.”

“Nah, you don’t fucking get it, “ Rafe sneered, leaning his head in his hands. And he didn’t, not really. Which really wasn’t his fault. Rafe just didn’t want to talk about the break up with his friends. Physically couldn’t. Now that he thought about it, he hadn’t told anyone why you broke up. Just made it feel all to real, he guessed.

“Nah, you’re right, I don’t,” Barry said, shaking his head. “All I know is, one day you’re all fucking sunshine and the next you’re more emo than that Friday girl.”

“What?” Rafe asked, lifting his head to stare at Barry in confusion.

Barry waved him off. “You know, that freaky girl from Netflix with the black lipstick.”

“Do you mean Wednesday?”

“Yeah, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, all the same to me,” Barry huffed. “Point is, life’s too fucking short to do things that don’t make you happy.”

“Bex makes me happy.”

Barry gave him a long, hard look, squinting his eyes at him. “Yeah, right. Whatever makes you sleep at night.”

Rafe stared back at him before shaking his head, finishing the last of his beer before crushing the empty can in his hand, declining to answer, because he knew he couldn’t convince Barry.

He wasn’t even convinced himself.

III Topper

top [05/03/24: 4:06 pm]: gonna be at alex’s later tonight with rafe and rebecca just fyi if you wanted to come

mrs. rafe [05/03/24: 4:57 pm]: k, thanks for letting me know

—— NEW MESSAGE ——

top [05/04/24: 1:37 am]: can you pick me up?

It was Saturday night, a little past your bedtime for a night in. You were getting ready for bed, exiting the bathroom when your phone buzzed in your hand. Lifting it, you read the new text, not quite believing he’d make you do this. What the fuck was he thinking asking you to pick him up? Shaking your head in disbelief, you typed out an answer.

mrs. rafe [05/04/24: 1:41 am]: topper no

Before you could put the phone away, your phone already buzzed with an answer, and you nearly didn’t want to read whatever lame ass excuse he came up with, your hand stilling when your eyes flit over his text.

top [05/04/24: 1:41 am]: please, i don’t want to get a ride with rafe and rebecca

top [05/04/24: 1:41 am]: she asked me so many questions about you and i can’t be around rafe rn or i’ll tell him

mrs. rafe [05/04/24: 1:45 am]: … fine

mrs. rafe [05/04/24: 1:47 am]: you’re so annoying

Cursing Topper and yourself for not going to bed sooner, you put on a sweatshirt and grabbed your keys and purse, typing out another text before you headed out of the house, getting into your car.

mrs. rafe [05/04/24: 1:49 am]: be there in ten

top [05/04/24: 1:50 am]: omg i owe you <3

Barely ten minutes later, you pulled up in front of Alex’ house, looking out for Topper, before you spotted him underneath a tree. You rolled to a stop next to him, giving him the most unimpressed look.

“You’re a lifesaver,” Topper groaned, getting into the car, shutting the door behind him.

You rolled your eyes, pulling off the curb without another word, driving towards Topper’s house.

“I’m really sorry for asking you to come get me, but Rafe was looking for me and I had too much to drink already to lie in his face,” Topper said, leaning his back against the headrest, shutting his eyes.

You desperately wanted to know what Rebecca had asked but you didn’t want to come off as the nosy ex, even if this was Topper. So as nonchalantly as you could, you asked: “What did you talk about?”

“Jesus,” Topper said, running a hand through his hair. “She asked me how you guys broke up and wanted details, too. Was super insistent, I was kinda scared actually.”

Okay, so just normal sussing out the ex, you could deal with that.

“What did you say?”

“That it was a mutual break up and I didn’t know why you broke up, just that you suddenly disappeared from each other’s lives.”

You sighed. That was the vaguest answer you’d ever heard.

“Why didn’t you just tell her why we broke up?”

Topper glanced at you, his brows knitted together.

“How can I tell her something I don’t know?”

“What?”

You slammed on the breaks, nearly sending Topper flying through the windshield because the idiot hadn’t buckled up, while you stared at him.

“What do you mean you don’t know why we broke up?”

“I don’t!” Topper exclaimed. “Rafe refuses to talk about it and you never told me either.”

“Because I assumed Rafe has told you! It’s been like six months!”

Blinking at Topper, it took you a few seconds to process, jumping when someone honked their horn at you, when you remembered you had stopped in the middle of the street.

“Shit,” you muttered, shifting gears to keep on driving, eyes flitting to Topper repeatedly.

“So…” he started. “Why did you guys break up?”

You gripped the steering wheel so tightly your knuckles turned white, letting out a deep breath. When you had left to come pick Topper up, you hadn’t expected having to tell him why you and his best friend had broken up.

“I was getting so worried about him. He was so stressed about the company every day, took home so much work and Ward was breathing down his neck to keep the numbers up. I told him that I thought he should take a step back, maybe take a break or something, tried to convince him of going on a trip or something, but the more I said, the more he seemed to be pushing himself into work. It got so bad that we were fighting basically every day, and it just wasn’t working anymore. It felt like we were going in circles.”

You cleared your throat when you felt yourself getting choked up, vision turning a little blurry from the tears in your eyes.

“Shit, I’m sorry,” Topper exclaimed, patting himself down, looking for some tissues.

“Don’t worry about it,” you snorted, wiping your tears away with the sleeves of your sweatshirt. You were so wrapped up in trying to retell the break up, you hadn’t even noticed that you already reached Topper’s house. “I shouldn’t even still be getting so worked up over this after all this time,” you sniffed, turning your car off.

Topper looked at you, with that typical look on his face and you rolled your eyes.

“Don’t look at me like that. I can’t believe Rafe hasn’t told you.”

He rubbed the back of his neck. “Honestly? I think he might be in denial about it.”

You scoffed at him, shaking your head. Why was everyone so hung up over your break up?

“It’s been six months.”

Topper didn’t reply, his hand on the car door and you expected him to bid you good bye, but that was too easy.

“… Do you think you guys will get back together?”

“He has a girlfriend, Top.”

“Still. I don’t think that Rafe and Rebecca are gonna last very long.” Topper looked at you, pressing his lips together, before shaking his head. “Sorry. Thanks for coming and for getting me home. Text me if you need anything, okay?”

You nodded, giving him a small wave, and waited until he got out of the car, shutting the door behind him, before you turned your car on, pulling off.

“What the fuck,” you muttered to yourself, wiping the rest of the tears off as you drove home.

IV Kelce

“Kelce!”

Kelce looked up from the pool table, a smile growing on his face when he saw Rafe come down the basement, his friend wrapping an arm around him for a brief hug.

“Happy birthday, man,” Rafe said, handing Kelce a bottle of the expensive whiskey he always drank when he was at Rafe’s but too stingy to buy it for himself.

“Ah shit, you didn’t have to,” Kelce uttered, though his eyes were sparkling as he looked at the bottle in his hands. He handed the pool stick to one of the guys next to him, leading Rafe to the bar. He grabbed two glasses from the shelves, pouring Rafe and himself a good amount, offering one of the glasses to him.

“Cheers to you.”

The two clinked their glasses, before sipping on the whiskey. Kelce really enjoyed it, too, with the way he closed his eyes, and Rafe only snorted in his glass. Kelce peaked his eye open, shoving his friend fondly with a grin.

“Rebecca here?”

“Yeah, upstairs.”

Kelce hummed in thoughts, nodding absentmindedly. He stared into his glass, swishing the amber liquid around before he spoke up again.

“You know she’s here, too, right?”

Rafe tensed, knowing exactly that Kelce was talking about you, but he had expected it. Firstly, because you and Kelce had always been friends, and secondly because he had heard Sarah making plans with you to go together. Didn’t mean this felt any less of a punch to the gut. He really hoped he wouldn’t run into you, because he wasn’t quite sure what he’d do; all he knew was, that Bex wasn’t gonna like it. Rafe cleared his throat, forcing himself to sound nonchalant.

“I figured, yeah.”

“That okay?” Kelce asked, and Rafe was starting to get annoyed, rolling his eyes. Why was Kelce questioning him about you on his damn birthday? He tried to dampen his anger though, not wanting to ruin the night.

“Yes. It’s your birthday, man.”

As soon as those words left his mouth, Rafe knew he did a shit job of hiding his emotions, and Kelce eyed him suspiciously.

“I don’t get you guys,” he sighed, crossing his arms over his chest. “You got a new girl, but you still haven’t gotten over your ex, clearly, but every time I mention her, you act like it’s the worst thing in the world, but neither of you have said a bad word about the other.

Rafe scoffed, though his heart started to race at the thought of you talking about him. He wondered what you had said, if you cared enough to ask about him, or if you had long moved on.

“Are you ever gonna tell me why you guys broke up?”

“Maybe next time.”

Kelce gave him a wry smile, knowing this was Rafe avoiding the topic again. He lifted his head when more people starting coming down the basement, curling his hand around Rafe’s shoulder to give him a squeeze.

“I really hope you figure it out bro, because this right now is not it.”

He then excused himself to welcome the new arrivals and Rafe gripped his glass, before downing it in one go.

“Alright, who wants to get destroyed in a round of pool?” he asked, clapping his hands together as he approached the pool table. Anything to stop himself from going upstairs to look for you.

V Sarah

“Oh my god, I thought you were gonna keep talking to her forever!”

You gave Sarah a look. She hadn’t even waited a minute after you left Rebecca on the couch before she started talking about her.

“I don’t have a problem with her.”

Sarah groaned, linking her arm with yours as to not lose you in the crowd that has formed in Kelce’s house. You were glancing around, hyper aware that you could run into Rafe any second, but you didn’t want Sarah to notice.

“I don’t understand how you can be so chill. Did you not see the picture she had in her purse?”

You sighed, brushing your hair back over your shoulder. Was this ever going to stop? “Sar, please.”

“Hello?? That was super freaky.”

“Maybe she was just cleaning up and wanted to throw it in the trash and forgot it in her purse.”

Sarah laughed dryly, shaking her head. “Bullshit! Admit that you find it weird.”

“Okay, maybe it is a little weird,” you admitted. “But don’t you do things that are a little weird sometimes? Maybe she’s just a little insecure. Which I wouldn’t blame her for, you’re so mean. Shouldn’t you try and be her friend or something?”

“Why? She’s not gonna be around much longer anyways, and I already have a friend.”

You rolled your eyes, fishing your keys out of your purse to unlock your car. Again with the sentiment that Rafe and Rebecca weren’t gonna last much longer. You decided against deeming that statement with an answer and got into your car, with Sarah getting into the passenger seat.

“Do you want to grab some burgers?” She asked, buckling up, like she hadn’t just told you that your ex and his new girlfriend weren’t gonna last.

You gave her a look as you tossed your purse to the back.

“What do you mean do I want to grab burgers? I thought you wanted to leave because you’re meeting John B early in the morning.”

Sarah blinked at you, before she reached out to give you a shove on the forehead. “I was lying so we could get away, stupid.”

“Oh my god,” you groaned, starting your car as Sarah protested.

“What? I was getting weirded out by you being all besties with Rafe’s new girlfriend. I don’t even understand how you can be so nice to her knowing she’s all up on your man.”

“Pray tell, who’s my man again?”

“Don’t even,” Sarah huffed. “You guys dated forever, I know you still love each other. And let me tell you one thing,” she said, raising her eyebrows at you. “If you got a new boyfriend? Rafe would not be this nice to him like you were to Rebecca.” With that, Sarah crossed her arms over her chest, settling back against her seat.

You only sighed, starting your car in silence.

“Do you want to get burgers now or not?” you asked, extending a peace offer while looking over at Sarah. She glowered at you, before nodding with an eyeroll.

“Yes.”

BONUS + I Rafe

“I did, at the party last night… She said she’s happy that you have me, that she was worried about how you work too much.”

Rafe pushed the pasta on his plate around with his fork, too engrossed in his thoughts to even think about eating. He didn’t even notice how Dennis had stopped talking. Rafe looked up from his plate, only to see Dennis look at him intently, an amused grin on his face.

“Sorry, were you saying something?”

“I was saying a lot, but you seemed like you were on a completely different planet,” Dennis noted, wiping his mouth with a napkin. Rafe winced, putting his fork down.

“Sorry, I have a lot on my mind.”

“I can tell,” Dennis mused. “Trouble in paradise?”

“Something like that.”

Rafe sighed, leaning back in his chair. Ever since you broke up, Rafe has been assuming that you didn’t care about him anymore, that you had long moved on from him and your relationship. He thought that you resented him, blamed him for the break up, which was honestly the main reason why he went back to the dating scene so quickly; to get over you. But hearing that you still cared about him? Enough to be nice to his new girlfriend and even ask about him? He wondered if there was still a chance for him and you to be together again.

If it weren’t for the fact that he already had a girlfriend.

“Can I give you some unsolicited advice, son?”

“Do I have a choice?” Rafe asked with a wry grin and Dennis only let out a belly laugh, shaking his head.

“Rafe, most relationships these days end because of your own ego, from both parties. No matter how big the fight or problem seems, will it really be that important in hindsight?” Dennis asked him. “How long have you an your girl been together? Almost 5 years, no?”

Rafe nodded, not daring to correct Dennis. He had never outright told him that you had broken up in the first place.

“See, that’s half a decade. I can assure you, in another half, you’re not even gonna remember this fight.”

Yeah, I don’t know about that, Rafe thought.

“Do you love her?”

Turning his ring on his finger, Rafe let out a soft exhale, before nodding. “Yeah, I do.”

“See. Problem solved.”

Rafe lifted his head to grin at Dennis.

“Thanks. Is it okay if we cut today short?”

“Sure,” Dennis said, waving Rafe off when he reached for his wallet. “Lunch is on me. Go get your girl.”

“I will,” Rafe promised, pushing his chair back to stand up. “I just gotta take care of something else first.”

BONUS + II You

You were staring at your phone, text thread with Rafe open. It was Saturday night; you and Sarah had went out to a small beach party. Sarah had gone to fill her drink back up and you had used that time of solace to overthink. About Rafe.

For the past few week, you couldn’t stop thinking about him. And you blamed your friends for it, really. First Wheezie, then Topper and then Sarah? Somehow all of them said that the break up was the worst idea, and even though you had always second guessed the choice to break up, this was the first time you actually actively regretted it.

The way Sarah seemed so sure that Rafe and Rebecca weren’t going to last long. Maybe you were wrong and they weren’t as happy as you thought. But then again, it wasn’t any of your business, was it? Who were you to put your nose into their relationship?

God, you shouldn’t be doing this.

“How long does Sarah need to fill her drink back up?” You muttered to yourself, finishing your vodka soda and burying the cup in the sand next to you, when you heard foot steps approaching.

“Finally! I was about to send a search group out for you!” you exclaimed, standing up and dusting the sand off your lap. “Seriously, how long does it take for-”

You froze when you turned around just to see Rafe standing in front of you, instead of Sarah. Swallowing thickly, you blinked at him, caught off guard.

“Rafe, hey,” you said, opting for casual. “Sorry. I thought you were Sarah.”

The corners of Rafe’s mouth twitched. “Yeah, I could tell.”

You looked at him, sighing a bit wistfully (mostly) internally, before you shifted on your feet nervously. “It was nice to see you,” you said, and it was true. “But um… I think I’ll go look for Sarah.” You gave him a small smile, before walking towards, and then past him.

“You’re still worried about me.”

You let out a startled laugh, pausing mid-step to turn back to him. “What?”

“You told Rebecca that you were glad that I had her and that you worried I work too much.”

“Of course I’m still worried about you,” you huffed, brushing your hair back. “You can’t be surprised about that.”

Rafe looked at you, and you could tell that this was news to him.

“Rafe.”

Rafe let out a sigh, rubbing his forehead. “You didn’t reply to any of my texts. I thought you were mad at me or somethin’.”

“I didn’t reply to any of your texts because we said we’d do no contact for a while.

“Still,” Rafe muttered, kicking a rock. “I didn’t think it would be so easy for you-”

“And because you were happy with Rebecca, do you think it’s easy for me to see you with someone else?”

“I broke up with Rebecca last week.”

“What?!”

Mouth agape, you stared at him and Rafe only rubbed the back of his neck. “She… Wasn’t what I wanted.”

“Oh,” you only said, letting out a soft exhale. “I’m sorry about that.”

Rafe sighed, stuffing his hands into his pockets. His gaze was trained on the floor for a bit, before he lifted his head to look at you.

“I want to try again… I want us to try again.”

“Rafe…”

You swallowed thickly, your eyes wide and you didn’t move as Rafe took a step towards you, reaching for your hand. Your fingers were cold in his but they quickly warmed to his touch, and the way he laced his fingers with yours, felt all too familiar.

“I love you. I never should have agreed to breaking up. It was arguably the second stupidest thing I’ve ever done.”

“And what’s the stupidest?” you asked, corners of your mouth lifting.

“Not listening to you when you were just trying to help,” he answered, looking down at you, so vulnerable like you hadn’t seen him in a long time. “I rearranged my schedule at the company so I could take on less work, take more time off and relax. Take the time to get us to where we were before it all went shitty.”

Your heart was in your throat as you listened to him talk, unsure what to say.

“Rafe, I don’t know… “

“Baby, please,” he begged, squeezing your hand. “Do you love me, still?”

You scoffed. “That’s not fair.”

“Why? Because you do?”

“Of course I still love you,” you mumbled, looking up at him through your lashes. “Do you know how hard it was for me to ignore your texts? To see you with another girl, so happy?”

Rafe shook his head, lifting his hand to tuck your hair behind your ear. “I wasn’t. Not really.”

You let out another sigh, looking at the way your hands were intertwined, how your heart had stopped racing, before you nodded, looking up at him. “Okay. Let’s do it.”

A smile spread across Rafe’s face, so big it was so uncharacteristic for him.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

It was like that word switched a flip inside of him, as he grabbed you by your nape gently, to kiss you, slotting his lips against your, and as your lips touched, it felt like you were finally home again. You only pulled away to breathe, both of you staring at each other like you couldn’t quite realize this was happening.

Sarah [05/11/2024: 10:45 pm]: (sent to 4 contacts) [picture attached: blurry photograph of you and Rafe kissing at the beach]

Topper [05/11/2024: 10:46 pm]: thank god.

Kelce [05/11/2024: 10:51 pm]: FINALLY!

Wheezie [05/11/2024: 10:59 pm]: !!!!!!

Barry [05/11/2024: 11:02 pm]: read at 11:02 pm

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author's note: sooo.... what are we thinking?

[femmecelworld]

holdover snack for the ‘anointed’ universe / a couple of cool guys series:

helloooooo my beautiful blueberries! (thanks to everyone who commented or submitted a question 💖) I’m going to give y’all something to tide you over until the next meal because I’m not sure when my next story will be done. so from here on out, you’re risking spoilers! beware all ye who enter here, etc

(splitting here just cuz too many long text posts stress me out)

after the conclusion of ‘fairytale’, I know I left things on a bit of a cliffhanger (I have been warning y’all about a romencken divorce, however temporary it might be) so I’ll give you an idea of what’s coming up / some easter eggs you might’ve missed until the next story.

I have said this before on here, but I’m bringing Tabitha back (because I LOVE her and I will not apologize for having correct opinions ♥️) but before you freak out pls remember I said the romencken divorce is temporary. Also, as many of you reflected in your distress in the comments… Mencken is not being a great partner right now or giving Roman what he needs. 1) the premise of their entire situation ofc but 2) Mencken is not capable of the empathy and emotional support Roman needs. He can barely recognize his own flaws and issues, much less support Roman getting help. Roman needs some space so he can heal and focus on himself for a bit. Obviously we are out of canon by now and while one of the great and terrible tenets of a tragedy is how people seem incapable of change or locked into their positions with no way out… I do think the ending of Succession showed that Roman, above anyone else, might be capable of breaking out of that cage. That bittersweet smile about leaving it all behind? He’s going through it right now but he’s clearly wanted a way out for a long time. (see more Tabitha/Roman hc at the end, moving on to other spoilers!)

Roman’s watch. 😈 so i have committed a crime against you all which I will now reveal, because it’s too delicious to wait for the next story:

there is no tracker in Roman’s watch.

yeah. Mencken had it repaired and didn’t replace the tracker. he already has the app in Roman’s phone, he figures, so it’s unnecessary (he’ll have fun figuring that out later). but in his own head, Mencken thinks he’s basically got Roman back and he won’t be needing it anymore with Roman taking a job in the White House and Mencken not traveling as much. So when Mencken gave him the watch back… it wasn’t a trick or a creep move (for once). It was just about wanting Roman to have it 💔

Who was the person on the other end of the phone call? While technically none of your guesses were wrong about who will be returning… it’s Tabitha. He called Tabitha and invited her to London for this NYE party his mother is throwing. (Shiv will be there also)

What’s going to happen, besides Mencken losing it? I know I said spoilers already, but I’m going to try not give away everything. But there’s going to be Roman going to therapy (yay!) and Tabitha gently blackmailing him to be honest in said therapy (FINALLY), Roman thinking over what Caroline said to him, more scenes with Chloe, and also some dark fash stuff with Mencken entering the White House. (and to answer those questions; yes, Mencken will make it into the White House if it’s the last thing he does *ominous music begins*). I’m still toying with what Roman’s going to do, job/life-wise, potentially bringing Matsson back in, and what all of this means for Roman’s relationship with Shiv.

Do you have any of it written yet? I do have some scenes already. Summer ‘23 the first thing I wrote after the scene of Mencken and Roman in the martini bar in ‘after the end of the world’ was him finally having a real conversation with Tabitha. Then there’s some Chloe stuff, some Mencken stuff (where he is predictably so normal and chill), and today I started an Aiden-Dan scene off camera where they discuss their insane boss.

How does Mencken plan to have Roman in the White House, would he live there? Nope! Even Mencken’s audacity wouldn’t extend that far. He is likely envisioning that Roman would be like other senior staff, namely that Roman gets a security clearance and hard pass—this is important because otherwise, Roman would have to sign in and out of visitor logs and go through security every time he comes to the White House. I think we can all imagine why Mencken doesn’t want an official government record (which are also public) of what time Roman’s leaving the White House or how often he visits. That being said, I don’t think even Mencken thinks they’d be able to have sex there on a regular basis, way too many cameras, staff, and security. Not to mention his wife.

But Mencken also genuinely wants Roman as part of his administration. If he thought Roman was only good for sex, he wouldn’t bother buttering him up because they already have that arrangement. If he wanted to pay him off for the Election Night heist or the other things Roman’s done for him, he could give him a cushy ambassadorship to Brazil or Jamaica (most big-time donors are rewarded this way) or put him in charge of some bullshit committee. But Mencken was being honest; he thinks Roman is good at this and he wants him on his team.

Oval Office sex? What do you think I am, some kind of hater? (♥️) Of course there will be kinky Oval Office sex with both of them making gratuitous gross blue dress jokes. Mencken is such a freak; obvi transgressive sex in America’s most sacred room (to republicans) is a must.

What’s going to happen with Mencken and Roman, happy ending? I really don’t want to give away too much, but I think you can all assume how Mencken is going to feel about Roman going back to his ex. So! 🫠

For an ending overall… I’m really torn. Because most of me wants Mr. Fascist to die alone and miserable, just like Ayn Rand. But. Roman loves him. Maybe Roman should get the things he wants, for once. The hazy ending I’m imagining will have everyone (the characters) getting most of what they want if not all.

Will Mencken ever use the ‘L’ word with Roman? Ahh…🥺. So. this exact scene is maybe the third thing I wrote after the finale. I’ll try to answer without spoiling everything… yes and no. He’s been saying it to Roman for a while now. And when this comes up, Mencken addresses it head on. If that helps?

Will Connor start a war with Slovenia? Maybe!

Hope this is enough to soothe y’all for a while! (and fingers crossed it’s not too long)

The rest of my Tabitha/Roman hc:

The other reason for Tabitha returning is 1) she and Roman are still in contact through the end of s4 in the script books. I didn’t know this either until I read them last winter! 2) I just don’t care what people might say, I really think Roman liked her a lot. Like Roman has lesbians beat for U-Hauling speed; he brought her to his sister’s wedding after 4 dates, introduced her to his whole family, and proposed to Tabitha after a MONTH of knowing her. And while she says no, they’re living together when s2 opens. Also… I know this is controversial, sorry! but 2) both the sex things with Gerri happen directly after he fails to consummate a physical relationship with Tabitha. LOOK I also think he loved Gerri, but I just can’t believe he didn’t care about Tabitha, and probably loved her. Roman is kind of a love slut. And 3) let’s contrast his relationship with Grace and his relationship with Tabitha: Grace calls him a cheater at family thanksgiving and purposefully shows the kids the movie that (maybe?) ended his tenure in LA—and Roman dumps her. Not great, but did it have to be a dealbreaker? Whereas Tabitha calls them EUNUCH BESTIES in front of his father, which for Roman was almost bad as the dick pic debacle—and he doesn’t dump her or even appear to be angry with her. This man is in love with her.

I also believe it’s mutual. Tabitha seems very laissez faire and unbothered about life in general, I don’t think that’s an indication of her feelings about Roman. And here’s my biggest piece of evidence: does anyone think Tabitha isn’t doing whatever she wants all the time? If she didn’t want to be with Roman, she would have left. The tenderness in her voice when she says, “I am not uninterested in figuring you out,” 🥺♥️♥️. I think Roman’s refusal to communicate about any of his issues when she kept asking him to just got to be too much for her. But if Roman called her and was like, hey you were right, um, wanna hang out? I can see her giving him another shot.

So! Tabitha’s coming back. However, Tabitha’s not a doormat. While she’s clearly a kinky person without a lot of hangups (re: her entire introduction)... we’ll see how far that extends to the Mencken situation 👀 Because Mencken is not letting his man go without a fight.

[ncisfranchise-source]

Reaching 1,000 episodes for the franchise was insane, and, by the way, I’m pointing out that almost 500 of those are just us,” says NCIS star Sean Murray ahead of that milestone. “I just have to throw that out there because I’m proud of that.”

That episode airs on the mothership on April 15, and Murray has been around for most of the ones to air on NCIS, having recurred in Season 1 and becoming a series regular in Season 2. So he has been there for a lot, including some necessary changes on set.

“It’s unreal. We had a lot of people asking what it was like, and I kept kind of shaking my head because it’s really unfathomable,” he tells TV Insider. “Shows are not supposed to go 21 years. It’s a miracle to get picked up. It’s a miracle to go past one year. It’s a bloody miracle. Sorry, I’m Australian, so I say bloody a lot. It’s a real miracle if you go five years. It’s an insane thing. And for a television show to go 21 years… We have had to rebuild our permanent sets because the partitions and stuff have fallen apart because they’ve been there for so long. And I’m not even joking with you. Chairs that were brand new when we started the series, these beautiful $1000 conference room chairs are falling apart like crazy because we’re in year 21, so we’re having to replace a lot of that stuff.”

Murray’s hesitant to share too much about the 1,000th episode itself (we already know Hawai’i‘s Vanessa Lachey and LA‘s Daniela Ruah will appear) but promises that both longtime and newer fans will enjoy it.

“My favorite thing of what we’ve done in the 1,000th episode is we have got little Easter eggs and things hidden all through the episode—and not even just hidden. We call back to a lot of things, but it’s a little hard to describe,” he admits. “It’s a great show for the people that are just tuning in for the first time or new fans. For the people that have been with us for a long time, it’s really something special because you’re going to see, like I said, Easter eggs of things. You’re going to see things that tip-off to old episodes, famous episodes that we did. Little moments. We have characters come back that we haven’t seen in a very long time.”

For example, like it was very much part of the first episode of the series, “Yankee White,” he continues, “Air Force One is very involved in that as are characters from that episode and from our past there. It’s going to be a cool one.” One such character from that episode is Fornell, played by Joe Spano, who we also know is back for the 1,000th episode, thanks to photos Murray shared on Instagram.

While there are those aforementioned characters from other NCIS shows appearing in the 1,000th episode, don’t expect a crossover outside of that, necessarily. (Ruah directed an episode, which Murray loved. “I know that she’d been doing a lot on LA, so it seems like a natural thing for that to happen,” he shares.)

With the shortened season, “we really want to make the most of our 10 episodes as possible, and so we’ve really turned a lot of it inward, and it’s even more character-focused,” explains Murray. “We really want to just buckle down and make it about our team there.”

But he’s not ruling it out for the future. “We like to do crossovers and do that stuff, and it’s a lot of fun. We know when the show continues, if the show continues, that that stuff will happen and everyone plays within the franchise,” he says.

CBS

And those crossovers are fun! After all, with the three-show event in January 2023, Murray reunited with LA‘s Chris O’Donnell (G. Callen) and LL COOL J (Sam) after he worked with them in the two-part backdoor pilot, “Legend,” during NCIS Season 6 in 2009.

“I will never forget doing that interrogation scene with Chris and Todd. That was so much fun because I’m the one in there usually grilling everyone, so I was on the other side of the table, and that was a lot of fun, having those guys there,” Murray shares. “I remember when they did the spinoff when we were in year 6. It’s wild. So to see the success that they had and the way that that show went was really cool. As much as it’s inside the franchise and we share names, the shows were very different, too. I know they didn’t want a carbon copy of NCIS, even though they share the name. It was a different kind of show, but being able to have those characters over with us was really fun.”

[canonicallysoulmates]

Jensen and JDM Gold Panel NJCon 2023

Jared was not able to attend NJCon this weekend so in his place, we get two panels with JDM! I’m personally a big fan of Jeffrey so I’m glad he was able to do the boys this favor and attend the con to do the panels with Jensen. Also, you’re gonna see me use both JDM and Jeffrey interchangeably when referring to him.

The panel starts with Jeffrey saying that they’re trying to get their caffeine going and he mentions that he’s had 3 cokes already, Jensen doesn’t understand how he can drink that much soda when it has so much sugar in it and Jeffrey replies that he hears that every day from Hil and that the day previous he was driving and his daughter, George, who also loves coca-cola told him that Hil said he’s gonna pee rocks if he keeps drinking coke 😂

Jensen says he and Jeffrey still see each other and work on projects together 👀 But they can’t talk about it, and this is when he reveals that he actually got into trouble recently because of something he said about one of his upcoming projects at a con, he doesn’t reveal what it was, obviously, but he does say he got an e-mail basically telling him to shut up. And, JDM, shares that he had spoken to Karl Urban recently, and when he told him he’d be seeing Jensen at this con Karl told him he better talk to Kripke and see what he could say. Which they both say is basically nothing. 

Getting into the questions, the first one is somebody wanting to know if they could say hi to their mom on video. They do, Jensen also makes a Walking Dead pun, Jared would be proud 😆

In several of their projects, there have been SPN easter eggs, how much of that is from the writers and how much of it is from them? 

They say it’s a bit of both. Jensen says he thinks the show is a bit of an institution so a lot of the writers know at least of it. He asks Jeffrey if there were references that he threw in, Jeffrey replies that he threw in a couple in TWD that anytime he can throw in anything, and especially after Jensen did the thing with Lucille he was trying to work in any reference to his boy. So, Negan had a boy for a minute, and he says if you go back to s2 but I assume he meant his second season of being on TWD which would be s8 of that show if you go back and watch it he said it a couple of times and he thinks they kept it in thinking they’d use it but they never did. 

Jensen mentions the salt easter egg from Big Sky. For those that have not seen Big Sky, one of the characters moves into a new home and Jensen’s character gifts them a loaf of bread so they never go hungry, and salt for protection, it’s a very fun little wink about SPN. But originally it was meant to be just the bread, Jensen is the one who asked the prop department for the salt and they ended up keeping it in, and they started also writing in little homages to SPN. He also mentions that he directed an episode of Walker and the writer for that episode was a big fan of SPN so she was writing in a lot of little easter eggs. 

JDM adds that the cool thing is they've been lucky enough to be on shows like SPN, TWD, The Boys which are big shows that are gonna live on much longer than they are which is super cool because he doesn’t think there are a lot of shows that live in that category that are gonna go past the end date of the particular show so they’re lucky, and if they can work in those homages for the fans they will that it’s actually more fun for them. That they’re hoping someone gets the hint and puts them back in the show together. x

Is there anything new this year they would like to try, learn or accomplish? 

Jeffrey would like to try to be home for more than a minute, that it’s been like three years solid of going from show to show. He thought this weekend would be the first weekend he’s had off in forever because he thought the con was next week. 

Jensen would like to do a film! Says he doesn’t do a lot of movies, it’s a lot of series work so he doesn’t have time but right now he has some things for later in the year but he doesn’t have anything imminent, and he has a couple of tempting opportunities lined up. JDM comes in with some honesty saying the thing is that sometimes they’ll read the script and it’s not as good as you want it to be, one of the fans says that it’ll be better cause he’d be in it and he says he appreciates it but a piece of shit is a piece of shit. My man speaks facts. 

Anyways, Jensen says he’d like to do something that’s a bit out of the box, still in the wheelhouse but flexing another muscle. Jeffrey asks him if by out of the box he means stretch it a little bit cause he did a good stretch going from Dean to Soldier Boy. Jensen would also maybe like to do another concert. x

Is there anything they do in their day-to-day life to make themselves laugh?

Jensen says he amuses himself all the time, that it happens sporadically but he can’t recall what it is that he does right now but it reminds him of a story about how Don Rickles was on a date, and across the restaurant was Frank Sinatra and Don went over and asked Frank to do him the favor of going over to his table because his date would love to meet him and he really wants to impress this girl and Frank agreed so he finishes his meal and as he’s leaving the restaurant he stops by Don’s table and says, ‘hey, Don, how you doing? It’s good to see you.’ and Don goes ‘Not now Frank, I’m in the middle of dinner.’ x

How did Jeffrey do the movie Fall? He answers that a couple of years ago, he did a movie called Heist and the same director called him in the middle of the pandemic and asked if he’d appear in the movie Fall, and that’s it. Jensen says that’s a common story, that’s largely how a lot of people in their industry get jobs it’s because they have a relationship with somebody, it is largely getting to work with people who know you and you already have a rapport with and they know they can rely on you. Jeffrey says that’s why it’s important to be a decent person, and Jensen agrees that reputation is important. No disrespect to both of these men, but we all know that’s a lie. x

With their schedules so busy how and who does the prioritizing? They have a team of people what’s called a camp and it consists of people like their lawyers, managers, publicists, their wives. When a project or opportunity comes up, it gets kicked around the whole group to decide if it’s a good thing, if it fits, if it should be done or passed, that it’s all usually carefully crafted. There might be times when you get a call from a director who you worked with on another movie asking if you’d like to be on another of their projects and you say yes cause it’s a good relationship but it usually doesn’t go without getting checked by several pairs of eyes. 

JDM adds that sitting down to talk with their family is also important cause they gotta think about what’s best for them. But, Jensen says they also gotta listen to their gut and what their passionate about, he reveals he got pushback about doing Big Sky but it’s something he wanted to do so they signed off on it but he thinks coming off Soldier Boy they wanted him to do something grander but he was antsy. JDM says they both get antsy when they’re not working, especially when you have years working on the same show when that goes away and that routine is gone- they’re a mess no one wants to be around them including themselves. x

Who do they have to petition to get Jensen on Dancing with the Stars? Jeffrey gets so excited over this, he says he would sign that petition or for Jensen to be on the Masked Singer 😂 

Jensen replies that he can't imagine how depressed he’d be if that’s where his career ended up. That hopefully he’s far away from that ever happening but you never know he might need that career resurrection at some point. Then he realizes he’s being a little too honest, and says that there are very talented people on that show but that he once heard someone say - and he insists he’s not the one who said this - but basically, someone referred to Dancing with the Stars as Dancing with I’ve only heard of them once, and for some reason that stuck with Jensen so he’s gonna stay away from that and stick to dancing in his living room. x

The next two are not questions, it’s a fan who wants to say thank you because they’ve been a fan for a very long time. And one who’s- I’m not sure I think it’s a family member of the fan’s birthday and they wanted to know if they could bring the person on stage and sing them a happy birthday, they can’t but they do wish them a happy birthday. x x

The last question is two-parter, have they watched One Tree Hill? And do they have a guilty pleasure song, movie, or series? Jeffrey loves Vanderpump Rules, it’s the one show he and Hil watch together, and he has never seen one episode of OTH. But the funny thing is he auditioned for the role of Keith Scott in the pilot of that show. 

Jensen has seen a few episodes cause he started dating D when she was on the show. He’s not the target demo for that but he can see the draw. JDM says he was way old for it, he was almost 40. As for guilty pleasures, Jensen says he keeps a few movies on his iPad in case he’s on a plane and he’s bored and wants to watch something, he has a few different categories depending on his mood, but the one that always ends up popping up is Tropic Thunder. x

Jensen and JDM Gold Panel NJCon 2023

[eisforeidolon]

Question: So I obviously love Supernatural, but I also know how you guys really love it because I tend to see a lot of little kind of subtle hints referencing the show in a lot of your other projects? And I was wondering how much of that is the writers of those projects paying homage, or if that was you guys?

JDM: Both.

Jensen: Yeah, I'd say it's probably a bit of both for me as well. I think there's - I think the show is a bit of an institution, so a lot of the writers know at least of it. And y'know, they - you could probably talk to this about, were there a lot of references that you threw in on Walking?

JDM: I threw in a couple. Uh, Walking Dead, any time I could throw in anything - especially after Jensen did the thing with Lucille? I was trying to work in any reference to 'my boy'. And everybody was like, 'What the fuck is he talking about?' So Neegan had a boy for a minute.

Jensen: [laughs] ??? We know.

JDM: You go back and watch, like, season two, I think, I said it a couple times - and they kept it in. I think they were thinking, 'Oh we'll use this somehow' and then they never did.

Jensen: We did - I did a thing on Big Sky where I come in with, one of the characters gets a new home - a new house, and so it's like a housewarming gift. And it was supposed to be just bread, but I had the props give me a little bag of salt. [JDM laughs] And I said, 'Bread's so you never go hungry and salt because ... y'know'.

JDM: That's pretty good.

Jensen: Yeah yeah yeah. And they kept it in. And then they started writing little bits to it. And there was another when I directed an episode of Walker, and the writer who wrote that she loved - she was a big fan of Supernatural, so she was writing a lot of little Easter eggs. So yeah. I mean, why not? Why not embrace that as entertainers?

JDM: The cool thing is we've been lucky enough to be on shows like Supernatural or Walking Dead or The Boys that are big fucking shows in this world. That are gonna live on much longer than we are. Which is super cool, because I don't think there's a whole lot of shows that live in that category, that are gonna have a life that goes on well past the end date of those particular shows. We're really fuckin' lucky and if we can work in any kind of little homages or tricks for all ya'll, we certainly will. It's more fun for us, believe it or not.

Jensen: Cause it's all that cross-pollination, which, you know, clearly is working for some people.

JDM: We're hoping someone gets the hint and just puts us back in a show together. [both laugh]

Jensen: Nudge nudge.

[casliveblog]

Custom Toonami Block Week 134 Rundown

Spy X Family: Anya and Loid move Yor into the house and don’t notice anything weird about how she has a Dragon Maid level of speed and power in everything she does. It’s kinda funny how Anya is very much portrayed as of her age and isn’t more mature because of her powers but she still had enough mind about her to not accidentally blurt out anyone else’s secrets despite blurting similar things. Anyway the practice interview goes terrible so Loid tries to take them out to do rich people shit so they can say rich people things during the interview but between Anya being a five year old and having an anxiety attack whenever they’re around more than four people and Yor orgasming over anything sharper than a butter knife it’s kind of a rough day. Also they talk about backdating their marriage certificate but like Yor has friends at the tailor’s that know she definitely wasn’t married last week so it feels like this story would fall apart real easily if anyone went digging at all but I guess Yor being as socially awkward as she is at least minimalizes that chance. Anyway after some adorable shenanigans the group use their respective abilities to catch a purse snatcher while not letting the others know of their roles and Loid has an existential crisis about actually getting thanked for helping someone. The day’s experiences help them do marginally better on the interview questions despite Anya still saying she’s gonna murder people so yeah I guess we’re ready.

Inuyasha: So you remember that bit where Inuyasha’s training with the Tessaiga and Totosai gets him to do a lot of chores convincing him it’s training? That’s basically this plot stretched out into an entire episode. Apparently Kagura’s been running around killing monks so the Baby can try and peek at the spiritual border between worlds to get the last jewel shard and Mushin, Miroku’s stepdad thinks he’ll be next and so gets the group to do all his chores and shit thinking he’ll die while the rest of them think he’s deathly ill. It’s a complete waste of time but does kinda lead to some of the best comedy moments of the series with everyone using their powers to do housework and the scene of everyone getting drunk and doing Three Kagome Karaoke and Drunk Sango flirting with Inuyasha always kill me, plus in the end Miroku does seem genuinely happy to spend more time with his father figure reflecting on his own mortality so while it’s ridiculously pointless it’s about as fun as a ridiculously pointless episode can be.

Yu Yu Hakusho: The group re-assess their strategy and get ready to invade Sensui’s place and it’s kinda funny cause they go in with the main three with Seaman as a temporary replacement Kuwabara and they just get kicked back out cause Gamemaster’s like ‘nah bro bring seven’ so they have to go out like twenty minutes later and bring everyone but Botan back in and like there’s absolutely no narrative reason for this to happen it’s just kind of hilariously pedantic. But yeah apparently it’s an RPG-themed game that is oddly anachronistic and just throws a bunch of different game genres in there and it’s the game Yusuke was playing while Kuwabara was out being attacked by Seaman, feel like that would’ve been a neat time for the anime to show a bit more of the game to make the easter egg hit harder but idk. Turns out Yusuke’s a big fan but he kinda sucks and never beat it while Kuwabara, the other nerd guy and Genkai of all people have beaten it a few times. So they rig up their team and first to four wins is the winner and Seaman gets to do his Junior Darby brother fight in Tennis World while Gamemaster chides him for being a little traitor bitch but Seaman’s pretty cool here and manages to pull of a win and is like ‘man I can’t destroy the world because I’m unhappy I have to work on me’ which is pretty chill, really liked that.

Jujutsu Kaisen: It’s time for Nobara’s introduction episode and she’s… kinda hard to get a read on, like she’s an arrogant brat and ridiculously petty but also elegant and confident and seems to kinda switch on a dime so I guess she makes a good intermediary for Yuji and Megumi since she could be on the same page as either of them at any time though she seems closer to Yuji’s goofiness mostly. Gojo throws Yuji and Nobara into the generic ‘random test mook enemy for character development’ house like we got in last week’s Chainsaw Man and we get Nobara’s backstory and are also introduced to the idea that curse beasts like to fuck with humans and just do fucked up shit to force them into sadistic situations. Nobara controls nails and voodoo dolls and fucks up the mooks with an assist from Yuji while reflecting on her reasons for being there. Turns out she grew up in a small town and was sickened by the prejudice the countryfolk showed her big city friend and wanted to literally move away from that small-mindedness and do fun city shit in the process so it’s like a combination of Rika Furude’s Higurahi Gou motivation and Ochako’s initial motivation like half material half symbolic and it looks like a pretty neat dynamic amongst the three of them. Also there’s a glimpse at next week’s enemy where apparently it kills one of the three first years but given that all these guys are still in the opening and I’ve never heard of a Mami Tomoe-style twist for this series I’m thinking there’s probably more to it than that.

Chainsaw Man: Picking up right after we left off with Power drenching a quarter of the city in Devil blood her and Denji are really going at it and only calmed by mutual simping for Makima. They are literally fighting like cats and dogs since Denji has a dog heart and Power likes cats but when Power says he can get to second base for saving her cat he IMMEDIATELY is like ‘fuck man I love cats fuck all my homies that hate cats’ and the next day he signs Power out of the Devil Nursing Home or whatever and they go to find her cat. Turns out it’s a setup and Power made a deal with the Bat Devil who actually is holding her pet cat hostage since she pulled a Misty’s Bike with the cat and claimed she was fattening it up while murdering things a lot bigger and meatier than it to feed it. Power apparently doesn’t understand metaphor and doesn’t get Denji’s part Devil so when the Bat Devil squeezes him like a Capri-Sun to vampire his way back to health he nearly gets sick because yeah Denji just looks like he doesn’t taste good. I’m just kinda confused about the timeline here like Power went from a naked wilderness girl with a cat to… getting clothes, being admitted into Makima’s devil program, being marginally introduced to human culture and society just to get the Bat Devil one human? Like she couldn’t just bonk someone on the head and drag them there? Like I get Makima prolly found her pretty quick and being signed out by Denji is probably the first time she’s not being watched like a hawk since she was found but still that means the Bat Devil just sat and waited for however long all that shit took and actually kept her cat alive for it all when he had no way of knowing how long this would take? Anyway the Bat Devil eats the cat and Power and Denji is kinda running half and half on motivation to save Power because he genuinely empathizes with her and half because boobs, like I feel like Denji kind of has a problem identifying his emotions and just assumes he’s doing things for the most selfish reasons like I don’t want to assign overly noble goals to him because it’s clear he’s a subversion of your normal shonen goodboy but he feels like he’s lying to himself at least a little. Like during the fight with the Bat Devil he claims not to be trying to protect people but also tells every civilian he meets to run away so he’s not ambivalent he just seems to either be lying or at least not willing to let protecting people get in the way of winning and/or boobs. We’re still in that process of excavating Denji’s standards so he may also just not be able to process anything other than his current goal like he’s a video game character with one sidequest slot and it’s currently boobs. Anyway he disembowels the Bat Devil so Power’s prolly fine though who knows for the cat we’ll see, I know from the scene that became a meme a while ago that he does end up feeling her up so it prolly turns out alright.

Ranking of Kings: We started out with Hilling taking a lot of energy to heal Bojji after Daida fucked him up real bad last episode which shows Daida’s whole ‘Bojji will never hold a sword again’ thing was really premature. And after that we just skip to the old king dying like that happened really fast jesus fuck I thought we’d have some more waffling but nope going right for the throat I guess and it leaves the kingdom in the awkward position of deciding which of these twelve year olds is best to oversee their whole kingdom. Though given one of them is deaf, mute and hits like a wet noodle, the peeps kinda have a prejudice towards their other generic teenager. See when the king died and a demon popped out of him and pointed to the kid that’s supposed to be the next king and laughed that was the perfect excuse to go ‘uhhh well maybe we don’t go with him’ so Daida gets to be king and wastes absolutely no time getting down to evil shit and demanding the two guys that voted for Bojji to be king be murdered because he’s a teenager and will do whatever enchanted mirrors tell him to. You see this is why in real life we had King Regents do the king shit until baby kings were old enough to have their balls drop. Meanwhile Kage’s taken away and having an assumed assassin say he’s going to ‘help’ the guy that just got jipped out of being king prolly isn’t a good look so snake assassin dude sends him off on a journey to… do some random shit idk. Bojji even asks the assassin dude’s best friend the two headed hydra snake and hydra snake’s like ‘bro you’re adorable and I love you but I can’t help other than saying he’s gone on a quest and lots of peeps like you’. So with all this on his mind Bojji decides he wants to go on a journey too in order to prove he can do shit without causing embarrassment on a national scale. Hilling is having none of this and forbids it until they both remember what it was like when it was just her and Bojji and even though she’s a stepmom she does love him like a son in her own way and even helped heal the baby hydra snake when it was a baby and it’s really sweet. So Bojji gets to go to visit Hilling’s parents on what’s a glorified red riding hood quest with his sword tutor and the one guy in the whole kingdom that wanted to go and knows sign language so epic quest ahoy!

Vinland Saga: So Floki and Askeladd’s negotiations to kill Thors kinda fall through and Askeladd’s men kill Floki’s hidden assassin so he’s kinda stuck paying double. Askeladd brings up a lot of the questions I had last episode and hypothesizes that Floki wants to kill Thors for personal reasons but wants someone else to do it both so he can keep his hands clean and in case Thors fucks up his entire crew. The day to go to war finally comes and everyone wants Ylva which is understandable because she’s hot as fuck but Leif lets all the homegirls know they’ll be ditching off all the warhungry young boys with Leif’s ship when they get to Norway so Thors is going to war alone so the young men can live. So they set out and turns out Thorfinn is pulling his best Monkey D. Luffy impression and pops out of a barrel which I imagine is gonna be hell on his mom and sister who just have no idea where he is for however long this backstory-generating death journey takes. Thors tells the dude that has the hots for his daughter that having children is what made him not want to fight anymore or at least it was the start of a longer change of character since he was still generic muscle man at that point. The group gets to the Viking equivalent of a truck stop and immediately get ambushed by Askeladd’s group dumping enough wreckage on them to create a miniature dam which feels like it shouldn’t work that smoothly but I’m not a marine physicist. Thors is ready to pacifist run through everyone and punches them without killing but Askeladd obviously has some weird power people on his crew and like a dozen archers above them so this is gonna be trouble.

[redfagdiver]

Nasty style

Sunny side up

With a little paprika on top

Missionary

Squirting on it and then leaving, like a fish

While listening to mambo number 5

After getting tinified by a mad scientist

Fucking someone who doesn't know they're trans yet

Necromancy

In front of an American flag

While riding a bike

Dr. Seuss style

Fucking someone named egg

Gentle foot massage

Film a porno with it

Covered in chocolate

Waiting for the egg to fall on them from a Rube Goldberg machine

Getting isekai'd and bringing back a dragon egg and fucking that

Microwave

Throwing it into the ocean like the necklace from Titanic

Being rude to it

Gangbang

A classic omelette

Putting back inside the chicken that laid it

Putting it back inside themself

Inviting the egg's husband to watch

Dropping it into a volcano

Finding it in an ancient tomb first (sarcophagus)

Egg on a spoon race

Just Having Fun With It

Making

Ladling it out of a soup

With the Easter bunny

Sensually making out with it

Burying it in the sand and waiting for it to grow into an egg tree (this one doesn't work)

Gun

In a shady back alley

On the red carpet

Using it as a bowling ball

Ballroom dancing

Artificial insemination

Thinking it just died and crying over it until their tears seemingly bring it back to life

Egg salad

Sonic the hedgehog style (they won't tell me what it means)

Like a rack of ribs

Inside a grand piano

Taking it through customs

Pretending they're not related to it

Throwing it out and making instant noodles instead

Nibbling on it like a lil mouse :3

Just vibing with it really hard

Telling it a secret every so softly

Wrapped up in banana leaves (the chef not the egg)

Doggy style

On an airplane

Keeping it between their ass cheeks for a reaaaally long time, like, way longer than you think. I mean that, whatever amount of time you're thinking of right now, double it AT LEAST. And if you're wondering how they can keep it there and still go to the bathroom, believe me, they have their ways, ways so wicked and deranged I couldn't talk about them in any capacity without getting banned from Tumblr or worse. Actually, I probably should've mentioned this earlier but you probably shouldn't be reading this at all, the chefs might come after me if they know I'm divulging their secrets, but the world has a right to know. Plus, OP started it, if you're going to start telling on them you have to go all the way or you're giving them even more power, and believe me, you don't want that. If I get deactivated in the next few days, you'll know why.

In public (secretly)

In public (explicitly)

While holding on to their last thread of childhood wonder

With a nice rosé

While vehemently denying that they're doing it

In a bog

On a log

With a frog

Wearing clogs

Eggnog

Re-enacting that part of the beauty and the beast song where they go "I need six eggs. That's too expensive!"

Breaking twitch streaming guidelines

Ultimate frisbee

Throwing it at the ex-chefs dedicated to spilling their secrets, killing me- I mean them instantly

Making it pass through their entire digestive track intact

Drawing a sexy face on it

While doing your mom

Deviled (literally)

Slicing it in half real cool like a samurai

In New York City

Like in a soap opera

Leaving it on the sidewalk for someone else to find

Trapping it then leaving it on the sidewalk for someone else to find

With the help of the pope

In a movie directed by Zack Snyder

Under the moonlight and the starry sky, wondering what they did to earn such perfect company

Skydiving

During an alien abduction

The worst way you can think of

Poached

Poached in the worst way you can think of

Anal

Making sure to post someone else's unfinished Tumblr post

While wearing sunglasses

While not wearing sunglasses

While wearing the hat they earned for knowing the Hundred Ways, thereby creating a paradox

Asking really niceys

As fast as they can

Almost as fast as they can

While calling their friend from college they haven't heard from in a while

Replacing people you had to take out with highly intelligent bots on social media so it looks less suspicious

Just straight up inserting their appendage into it and thrusting in and out

Scrambled

While watching the whistle blower blower you just killed take their last brea

The folds in a chefs hat represent the hundred ways they know how to fuck an egg.

[naughtygirl286]

Our Recent trip to Halifax

So yup we went on our weekend away this past weekend we left early Friday morning sadly I didn't take a pic at our usual gas stop reason being I was asleep lol I was up late Thursday night so I was napping on the drive up. So we got there around 10-10:30am I think so we went and had a lil bit to eat being we didn't have breakfast before leaving home after that we went and did a lil bit of looking around before checking into the hotel we didn't stay at the usual spot but somewhere new and different it was owned by the same company tho. It looked a bit shabby on the outside like the building needs some work but when we went in and up the the room the room was really nice! I would have to say I was impressed by it. We stayed in for a lil bit before heading back out and went and visited some friends and spent the evening over with them which ended a really nice Friday

So Saturday we went and did alot of looking around and some shopping and visited all the usual places apparently they are opening a Hot Topic in the Halifax Shopping center later on this month which will be cool We'll have to go in the next time we're there we also go in to the one when we go to Moncton also of course we went to Toys R Us but I made that a separate post and we went to GameStops and pretty much everywhere we did do some pick-ups but not to much being it was still somewhat after Easter some places still seemed a bit picked over. but we did have a great and fun Saturday morning/afternoon. As for supper we of course decided to try to go to the Casino to have the all you can eat buffet I was a bit apprehensive (I think would be a good word) about them being total dicks to me and throwing me out or attempt to throw me out for no real reason and I just didn't want the hassle! but we went to try it, we got dressed up kinda nice and found a great parking space and we went in I stuck extremely close to the person I was with I didn't want them to be out of my sight and vice versa so we go up to a security podium there. and showed our Membership card and… The security guard just waved us through!!

I was like shocked and kinda relieved to the point that once we got past the entrance way and actually on to the Casino floor I was like "We made it, past the the front desk with out any problems!!" and with that we went to the dinning area and got into the Buffet area now we did have an amazing meal I loved it so much and was totally stuffed afterwards but while there I did have an interesting exchange with one of the buffet workers which getting my food one of the workers noticed my green Tomb Raider necklace and he asks me if I was a fan of Tomb Raider? and I was like Yes! and then he asks if I was a fan of the movies or the games? and I of course say Both! Then he asks me a strange question "Have you played the other Tom Clancy Games?" and I give him a strange look and say "No..?" and he has a shocked look on his face and I say "Tomb Raider is not a Tom Clancy Game" and he reassures me that it is and I say "No, no its not" and walk away back to our table. so this kinda bugged me a bit the rest of the night and all the way home so when I got home I wanted to see what the hell he was talking about so I googled "tom clancy tomb raider" as I said Tomb Raider isn't a Tom Clancy IP it was a lil Mission thing in the Ghost Recon Breakpoint games its basically an Easter egg treasure hunt themed after the Tomb Raider franchise in celebration of the franchise's 25th anniversary. So it was a promotional thing no different then what they did in Final Fantasy Brave Exvius, Brawlhalla, Fortnite,ect.

So as we do when ever we leave Halifax we got to Costco. We bring our insulated bags with us cause we'll pick up some frozen foods and all kinds of stuff for the house. So we do our shopping and we get to the check out and the woman asks for the Membership card so I give it to her and she looks at the picture on the back and looks at me and says "this is not you" and I look at her kinda strangely I'm like "yeah I know, its them" (the person I'm with,the person behind me) and she tells me "I'm sorry you can't hand me someone else's Membership card" which I think is totally stupid the owner of the card is right there we're obviously there together so I'm like "are you you serious?" and she is like "Yes, So what would you like me to do?" and I'm like "I would like you to ring this stuff in, so we can pay for it and go" and she says "I'm sorry I can't do that its against store policy" and hands me the card back. So the person I'm with and I look at each other kinda dumbfounded being that this has never happened before and I hand them the card and then they hand it back to the woman at the register and she scans it then hands it back to them which in turn they hand it back to me and I put it back in my wallet and while I'm doing that she is ringing in the stuff!! I feel that this was one of the most asinine things ever. When it came time to pay I was surprised she didn't kick up a fuss about store policy when I pulled a debit card out of my wallet to pay for the stuff. I feel like this was just to waist time because like I said this never happened any other time we were in there.

but all in all we had a good time! it was nice to get away for the weekend and there is no doubt we'll be back to Halifax again probably during vacation time this summer if not before.

[rocket-69]

Tim Cain and Leonard Boyarsky Q&A 10/23/22

Tim Cain and Leonard Boyarsky joined the Fallout Wiki discord server to answer a few questions. Jason Taylor could not attend, but all three of them answered some questions in text sent ahead of time.

Interviewer: On a different note, we’ve been having a lot of questions about the idea of the US being divided into 13 commonwealths, and why. In the Fallout Bible Tim, you said that it was Leon’s idea to use a 13 star US flag, and had an idea for 13 super states, but didn’t finish it. LeonB: I picked that flag because it looked cool, I’d never seen it before Interviewer: Which is a guiding principle for a lot of great choices, that gut feeling. LeonB: Definitely

Tim Cain: Not to backtrack too much, but did I find a note from our marketing dept with two suggestions for a name for the game: "No Man's Land" and "The Deathlands". We politely declined.

Interviewer: To elaborate a bit: A lot of fans seem to believe that everything was pre-written and pre-made, and you just rotely executed that brilliant design. As I understand it, it was closer to how Deus Ex was made, with plenty of gut feelings and bold work with the box cutters to remove what didn't work (Warren Spector mentioned cutting a 500 page design bible to just 270 pages)? LeonB: We didn't have a huge design bible, per say. Not to the detail level it sounds like he was talking about We were flying by the seat of our pants Tim Cain: I remember when I was asked for a vision statement for the game. I was surprised because the team KNEW what we were making. Then I was told it was for admin and marketing. I tried twice and failed twice, then Chris Taylor wrote an amazing one. LeonB: Certain aspects of game dev never change - no matter how carefully you think you're scoping you always have to cut content and stitch what's left back together

Interviewer: Speaking of content that wasn't cut: An interesting question comes up from time to time, that is, when implementing special encounters (aliens, the police call box, dinosaur footprint), did you ever consider them as anything beyond a cool little Easter egg? A more direct part of the story? Tim Cain: No, I don't think so. Special encounters were tied to luck and meant to be fun and a potential source for cool items. No story elements, since they might never be encountered by some players. LeonB: Mostly we made those because we thought they were funny Interviewer: (and they were, plus the increased critical chance is awesome) Tim Cain: Although it would have been funny to comvince the Master to give up his plans using a velvet Elvis painting as a bribe

Interviewer: Speaking of the Master, he (it?) seems to have gone through many iterations. The Vault 13 timeline suggests he could have been an ambulatory foe - or was he always intended to be this glorious mess that they probably carted to the Cathedral in a barrel all the way from Mariposa? (For those who don't know what I'm talking about.) LeonB: I may be misremembering, but I felt he was ambulatory enough to get to the Cathedral on his own, especially depending on what he fed on/subsumed into his body, and then he became part of the overseer's chair over time I don’t remember him ever being planned to be ambulatory in the game, though

Interviewer: Were there ever intentions of integrating more eldritch or extradimensional aspects into Fallout, such as Old Gods, Elders, and more Lovecraftian things, or was Fallout always more intended to be like Buck Rogers than Lovecraft? It certainly had the Master, his corridor of revulsion, the psykers mentioned by Avellone to be closer to Childhood's End than just spoon benders… LeonB: I love Childhood's End, but I don't think I'd read it back then It was mostly supposed to be more Road Warrior/Buck Rogers, I just loved the aesthetic of the Thing movie Tim Cain: I think the more elements you throw into an IP, the more diluted it becomes. I regret adding the ghost to the Den (and yeah, that was me) because Fallout is so rich and has so much to explore that it doesn't need the supernatural elements to be creepy Interviewer: Uh-oh, this confession will not go down well with some fans. 😉 Tim Cain: I think the IP as a whole is better when it has limits

Interviewer: we had a question about Rhombus, do you remember this take on the T-51 talking head model? It definitely looks different from the end talking heads, but a lot like the in-game sprite.

LeonB: That looks like a badly lit and textured version of the digitized clay head. Not sure what's up with that armor, we used the same armor model for all the talking heads wearing power armor, taken from the model I made for the intro Interviewer: It's from an ancient German preview for Fallout GURPS, which included a shot of the process of digitizing the models. LeonB: Weird

Interviewer: Now, while I dig that up, a question. A big question. Do ghouls poop Or rather: Do ghouls need to eat and drink? Or is ghoul biology something that was written differently whenever it needed to work a certain way (Fallout 1 has Necropolis and endings tied to water, but later on it got confused; VB design docs even have a note "do ghouls even poop") Tim Cain: To quote my favorite book title "Everyone poops" LeonB: Jason and I bout that for Tim for his birthday Tim Cain: I always thought they ate and drank and breathed. They just aged slower (but sometimes things fell off or grew weird) Thank you again, Leon LeonB: any time Interviewer: Found it. And Tim Cain won't believe what the thumb is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=haKOhyUqk4c LeonB: Timmy! Tim Cain: Oh. My. God. I’m 12 Interviewer: What about Woody and Coffin Willie? Woody spent several weeks as a 'mummy' exhibit, and Willie was buried alive for a couple of months. Are they just a fun joke, or? Tim Cain: They remind me of The World's Smartest Orc in Arcanum. Someone was making some money…

Interviewer: And getting him to break character... Now, back to questions, since we're in the final stretch: Talking about limits, what's something either of you don't ever want to see in Fallout? Or something you could remove from Fallout like it never existed? (We already have the ghost thing on record, sir) Tim Cain: I am not a fan of the talking Deathclaws. They were meant to be the biggest baddest scariest thing ever. Not librarians. LeonB: Hear hear

Interviewer: Random question: Did the Overseer ever have a solid name? We have "Jacoren" from the concept art, but beyond that.… (for those who wonder)

LeonB: No Tim Cain: Internally, he was always referenced as Overseer LeonB: He was originally named that (obviously), but after that drawing I don't know that I ever referred to him that way again Tim Cain: That sketch really captures his eyebrows

Interviewer: Oooh, this is good. How did the original designs for the original robots (ie the floating Eyebot) come around? Was its design based on something specific that existed? LeonB: I honestly don't remember We were just trying to make robots that looked like they belonged in 50's b-movies Tim Cain: Wasn't a floating one pitched to reduce needed animations? LeonB: That's a distinct possibility

Interviewer: Given that we're slowly, but inevitably approaching the end of our roundtable, did either of you have questions you wished were asked, but never were? Aside from the ones I received and filed under cool-stuff . Alternatively, any message to the community at large? Tim Cain: Thank you all for your support. I don't go to conferences much, but when I have, I have met some of the nicest fans I could ever hope to have. Also, Fallout fans are just smarter and better looking than average, don't you think? LeonB: I can't think of any questions we missed (here or in any of the other interviews we've done), but I again want to thanks everyone for being such loyal fans to something we made as a labor of love We were hoping people would love it as much as we did, and it seems like it worked out Interviewer: Meeting you today, I believe I speak for everyone that we can see why it came out the way it did. Tim Cain: Talent (Leon) and Luck (Tim) LeonB: Aww, thanks But I've always said I cranked my Luck up to 10 It really was lightning in a bottle

Interviewer: Alright, so here's a popular question. Zusk asks; "Hey! There is this question I always wanted to ask you two. At the start of Fallout 2's development Fred Hatch proposed a outline for Fallout 2's story that didn't end up getting made. A few developers have talked a little about this in the past, but I was wondering if you could perhaps share a little more about your rationale at the time and what Fred's story entailed? Included is an excerpt from Honouring the Code: Conversations with Great Developers that goes into it a bit. Thank you for taking the time to reach out to the community like this."

Tim Cain: Fred's team's story started with the player getting amnesia and losing their memories (i.e. levels) and then wandering into a town that is colorless (just shades of grey). It turns out a computer is running it based on old episodes of Leave It To Beaver. That's mostly what I can remember LeonB: Tim has a waaaaay better memory than I do Tim Cain: Also I take LOTS of notes

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Tim Cain Text Q&A

Q: Was Fallout at any point going to be real-time like Diablo or real-time with pause? Or was it always designed with turn-based combat in mind? A: Fallout was always designed to be turn based. At one point, when Diablo had shipped and several higher-ups at Interplay were enamored with the game (or its sales figures), we were asked to consider a real time version. The projected time and money costs to change the design persuaded them that it was bad idea.

Q: Did you have the idea of the GECK while developing Fallout 1 or is that a later idea the game during the conception of Fallout 2? A: The GECK was conceived during Fallout 1's development. The proof? Page 5-34 of the manual for Fallout 1.

Q: Do you remember who came up with Nuka-Cola and why it was named as such (not wanting to tangle with the world's biggest soft drink corporation aside)? A: It was either Chris Taylor or Scott Campbell. And only they can reveal the secret behind its name.

Q: In the Building a Better RPG talk, post-mortem part you said that your past games (like the OG Fallouts and Arcanum I assume) had systems that were too complex and that it was okay to simplify or change them. Would you go back and redo Fallout with that in mind? What is your philosophy when designing? A: I don't think I would simplify Fallout's systems. In fact, I think they have been oversimplified in recent games, but I would consider simplifying their presentation. I would keep skills and traits, but I would change character creation and advancement to make it more casual friendly. This might seem like splitting hairs, but I believe that initial presentation is a huge part of onboarding players to your IP. It's possible to make rich and deep system mechanics without throwing a page of numbers at the player early in the character creation process, when many players have no idea of what character they want to make or what traits/skills/perks are important. As I showed in The Outer Worlds with skills, you can delay some decisions until the player has experienced the game and decided what they would like to explore in terms of player characteristics.

Q: When you created Fallout, did you view humanity from a cynical or hopeful perspective? On one side, the game has raiders and plenty of human flaws, besides nuclear war. On the other, humanity perseveres in the face of adversity, and changes, and tries to break the cycle through the Master/NCR/Brotherhood. A: Fallout represents many viewpoints. Some people on the team were cynical and liked to explore the darker side of human nature, while others were optimistic and hopeful that people would emerge from a cataclysmic event with a desire to make sure it never happened again. I always liked that Fallout showed that blend of perspectives.

Q: What were some setting ideas/content/artwork you considered for Fallout, but never publicly talked about or revealed publicly? A: We always wanted an equivalent to GURPS disadvantages in Fallout, but the closest we could come were traits, which were a blend of advantages and disadvantages. I eventually made flaws in The Outer Worlds.

Q: Did you establish that the Fallout timeline diverged from ours during Fallout's development? If so, did you establish when it more or less occurred (i.e. the timeline went in the Fallout direction and the transistor never caught on etc.? A: We always thought there was a divergence, but we never thought it was a single event where the timeline diverged, i.e. the invention of the transistor. Instead, Fallout represented a future that the 1950s thought might happen.

Q: Fallout was originally a sequel to Wasteland (according to Campbell) and many references remain in it. Did you see it as feasible to integrate it into the Fallout series, or at least made Fallout compatible with it? A: We made Fallout with ideas that were independent of Wasteland. It might be possible to merge the two, but I would always wonder what the point was. Why are you trying to force these two disparate IPs together?

Q: Do you remember why the Jackals and Vipers were cut? Were there any plans to involve them in the later development stages, or were they cut early on? A: I am not sure, but they seemed to be included as background information for characters like Ian. They weren't cut as much as they weren't explored.

Q: Were there any notable technical limitations, where the creative solution became an important part of the game's identity? A: So many. We explored making Fallout a 3D game, but the limitations of 3D games at the time pushed us back to an isometric game. Similar technical issues removed height features from the game. I am not sure what people consider part of the game's identity, but we surely wrestled with technical limitations.

Q: What is the one question you never get asked but wish it was? A: Why are you so awesome? :) No, seriously, fans have asked some very insightful questions over the years. Some of our answers have been "I don't know. We just kind of went with our gut feelings on that." I know it's not what people want to hear, but it's true.

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Leonard Boyarsky Text Q&A

Q: What were some of the setting ideas you considered for Fallout, but never talked about publicly? A: I think we’ve talked about all of them publicly at this point Q: What would you name the aesthetic design of Fallout 1 and 2? No, it can't just be called "Fallout style". A: I originally called it retro future fifties, I think, but the kids call it atompunk these days :P Q: What were the rules made regarding what did and did not fit Fallout's art style? A: We were very loose with our rules, especially since we started out as a non-retro fifties Road Warrior-centric inspired RPG. We also had to work with what we had in terms of time and budget, so we were a lot more flexible about what fit the setting than we would be now Q: Does the original artwork that you made (especially the unplugged television) still exist in a higher quality medium than what comes with the CD? If yes, will there ever be a book that is the Art of Fallout? A: I don’t know if the original 3d art files exist anywhere, and, if they did, what would have to be done to use them since they were made in PowerAnimator on Unix SGI machines. I have some of my original sketches in a sketchbook, but that’s about it. I wish I knew what happened to the clay heads, though, I made the Overseer’s and would love to have been able to keep it Q: What's the significance of the giant heads all over Fallout? Is it just Art Deco or something more eldritch/mysterious? A: We just thought they looked cool Q: I know that the talking heads were made with clay models and then digitized. Were the overworld sprites clay models too? A: The only other clay model was the Deathclaw, everything else was modeled in 3d programs Q: Many of Fallout's inspirations are worn on its sleeves, Mad Max, for instance, but are there any sources of inspiration which do not get enough love? A reference that you hoped everyone would pick up, but nobody did? A: The Hard-Boiled comic book mini-series by Frank Miller and Geoff Darrow and the City of Lost Children movie Q: Were there any notable technical limitations, where the creative solution became an important part of the game's identity? Specifically in terms of artwork. A: The whole reason the intro was on a TV was so that we could add noise and have a reason for any people to be fairly small in the frame but still have impact due to the difficulty of making realistic human beings back then. Also the reason for the clay heads. We also used the pixelization that was inherent in the color palleting process to make everything look dirty, which I was always very proud of but no one noticed... Q: Did you ever elaborate on your idea of the commonwealths? Tim Cain mentioned you came up with the idea while designing the alternate US flag (which DOES look cool and distinct), but did anything come out of it? A: Not that I remember Q: What's the one question you are never asked, but would like to be asked? A: I can’t think of any offhand (I’ve done a lot of FO interviews over the years 😝). If I think of any I’ll bring them up during the chat

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Jason Taylor Text Q&A

Q: What is the one thing you are particularly proud of in Fallout, but never seem to get proper credit for? A: When working on the original design we had quite a few brainstorming sessions. I remember coming up with these ideas: suggested game tile: Vault 13, reason to leave the vault: faulty "water purification chip", source of mutations: genetically engineered virus call FEV (Forced Evolutionary Virus) Q: Were there any notable technical limitations, where the creative solution became an important part of the game's identity? Or any other solutions that involved non-obvious resolves? A: Because we started out with the GURPS ruleset, we necessarily had hex-based maps. I don't know of any other CRPGs that did that. Q: Many of Fallout's inspirations are worn on its sleeves, Mad Max, for instance, but are there any sources of inspiration which do not get enough love? A: Brotherhood of Steel (designed by Scott Campbell) always felt like a nod to Pure Strain Humans in Gamma World. Ask him though! Q: Fallout was originally a sequel to Wasteland (according to Campbell) and many references remain in it. Did you see it as feasible to integrate it into the Fallout series, or at least made Fallout compatible with it? A: My understanding was Interplay did not have the copyright to Wasteland, and we weren't willing to pay for it, so we had to be careful to "not be too close to it and get sued". Q: What is the one question you never get asked, but wish it was? A: I'm not as famous as others, so I never get asked anything. :) So I would like to be asked, "What did you work on?" After Tim Cain I was the first member of the team, joining as Lead Scriptor. Because there was nothing to script (because we didn't yet have a game engine), I designed and coded a number of foundational data structures used by engine/map editor (e.g. 6 different types of map objects). Also, I wrote a number of tools including Framer, which imported Maya-rendered GIFs, allowed you to adjust offsets and animation speed, and exported .frm files containing animation and game data.

[lemonlurkrr]

@aureateart​ ok. My favourite parts of twilight princess  (and some other random thoughts about TP sprinkled in there) taken from my monster TP word vomit google doc :

Link lmao

Ok but for real, I like this incarnation of Link :)

I love Ordon (it just seems like such a chill and cozy village)

ALSO love how easy it is to interpret Link as being a sort of older brother figure to the Ordon kiddos. It’s just,, super cute? AND GHHH nice nice good thanks nintendo for giving me characters to care about/characters that I can imagine Link caring about

He didn’t sign up for any of this (tbh, none of the Links really signed up for this jshdjsd). But I mean like, dude was just going to take a trip to castle town, drop a gift off for the royal family, and come back. But haHA oopsies he did get to castle town eventually but definitely not the way he expected hsjdhsd

He’s just a little dude?

AND FUCK. HE REALLY HAD NEVER BEEN OUTSIDE OF ORDON UNTIL ALL OF THAT

everything is new for the player AND Link

Midna

She’s cool :)

she really just

*teleports into your jail cell* hello whore.

I am no master at writing but AYYYY she do got a character arc!!!

She was actually pretty helpful sometimes, I ALWAYS checked in with her before turning to a game guide

Other NPCs

NICE

Love all of the TP character designs (ASHEI’S ARMOUR??? AOWOAOAOOAO)

Saving Zelda and all of Hyrule was important yea but thinking back maybe it was more like, the Ordonians and the kids were what was pushing Link to keep on going

I like the Resistance members :) Very video gamey of them to have one NPC assigned to each dungeon but hey!!! Kinda cool getting to see a little glimpse of each of em

Idk, it’s just fun to imagine Link popping into Telma’s bar after each dungeon and taking a little rest :) (or to celebrate? maybe just chat, idk, give this man some downtime!!)

Honestly it was just kind of nice that Link wasn’t entirely alone. I mean, I know Midna was there the whole time, but I am always for giving Link a big group of friends (see my love for hyrule warriors, age of calamity, and LU LMAO)

Hero’s shade, very very cool, kinda sad he died with regrets but HEY. He got to pass on his knowledge eventually

AND the connection to OoT?? AND assumed to be related by blood too????? GOOD SHIT

Ilia, I REALLY really wanted to like her (er, it’s not like I dislike her, she’s just,,, kinda there for me).

It definitely seems like Nintendo was pushing to make her the romantic interest, but GHHHHH they really threw that out of the window for me by having her lose her memories

I saw a text post a while ago that said it would have been interesting if Ilia was Link’s sister instead and YES!! That would have been cool too :0

Wish we got to know Zelda a little more

I feel like we barely know anything about her

Idk man, like I said earlier, I never really had any sort of drive to save Zelda during my playthroughs

She obviously knows Midna, so maybe if they gave us just a little bit more of that relationship I’d be more interested in her?

TP WORLD BUILDINGGGG

Botw has good world building too, but each race felt kinda,,, isolated? I absolutely love the different architecture and vibe each town has (and all the the weapons too) but ghhh yea everyone felt so separated. As far as I can remember, we don’t see tooo much of the races interacting with each other? Now that I’m typing that out maybe that’s to be expected because of the calamity but KLSJDKJFD ANYWAYS THIS IS ABOUT TP

The world feels nice and alive, love how populated everything is

Castle town I like castle town a lot, it feels dense and busy and I really like how you can’t talk to every NPC you see

Very cool very fun that we got to see the Gorons hanging out in multiple spots

kinda wish we got to see the Zoras a little more (I guess they are a bit limited since they need water but GHHHH the tp zoras are so prebby,,)

BUT HEY, I do remember seeing a zora or two hanging out in the hot springs around death mountain after beating the lakebed temple (I think, might have been a different dungeon) 

but aaaa would have been nice to see them in at least a couple of other places. I think it would have really added to the “congrats Link!! You’re restoring peace to Hyrule” feeling you get from seeing the Gorons hanging out in Kakariko and Castle Town

ORDON

Love how chill it is and how it’s kind of separate from Hyrule proper

They really do seem to be doing their own thing apart from the rest of Hyrule

Just kinda adds onto the “he’s just a regular dude minding his own business” kind of vibes I get from TP Link

Also I like Ordona :)

THE LIGHT SPIRITS,,

Love their design

And love how they’re not exactly like a pure white?

Different spirit representing each aspect of the triforce my beloved

But yes hi I think Ordona is very cool

Who are you, how did you get here, which goddess do you represent? Do you even represent one of the three golden goddesses? Do the Ordonians know about you? Have any of them ever SEEN you??? Do they worship you? Does anybody even know about the existence of the light spirits?? FUCK so many questions but ghhh I like how they broke the status quo a bit by throwing in a fourth spirit :)

I feel like this one is kinda weird but I like that voice sample they used in the light spirit music. It’s spooky and pretty at the same time :)  

cutscenes mmmmm

Ok ok, the spooky lanayru cutscene is very good

BUT THE “Link, Chosen Hero! Lend us the last of your power!” CUTSCENE MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM LOVE IT SO MUCH

IT just

Idk man

It just hit different

I like the music

And seeing the light spirits swimming around in the light juice water whatever it is

Summoning the light arrows?

AND HHHHH “Lend us the last of your power!” THIS IS IT. This is the final battle.

Seeing Zelda bow down, and then Link putting his hand out 👌👌👌

Link: ok bud, let’s do this together :)

Connection to OoT (did I already mention this? Maybe., Whatever)

Very cool nintendo :)

I love seeing connections between all the diff zelda games.

Because like, on one hand, they’re all separate from each other because of yknow, individual hero stuff. BUT ALSO, they’re all connected because of the reincarnation stuff

Grrrr walking through the sacred grove and going “The Hero of Time walked around here a long time ago” FUCK THATS SO COOL

Is the Hero’s Shade watching me? What does he think of me? DIsappointed? Proud? The Hero of Time went through HELL so this timeline didn’t have to deal with any of the shit Ganon was gonna pull with the triforce, better not fuck this UP Link!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Midlink is cute

Kinda hurts that she smashed the mirror but that was probably so Nintendo didn’t have to worry about people going “but what about the twili??????” for any of the other games LMAO

BUT ALSO LIKE SKJDKLJFJ There are some pretty massive plot holes in TP anyway so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ whatever it’s fine we’ll just use this for angst because GOD do y’all like angst

So is Shadlink

Honestly don’t know where this ship came from but it’s cute so whatever

THE MUSIC??

Love Midna’s theme and how they referenced the dark world theme from ALttP (I remember trying to learn the dark world theme on the piano and doing the Leonardo DiCaprio point meme at the little jingle I recognized from Midna’s theme)

Hyrule field theme SLAPS.

Apparently references a couple of the other over-world themes from the previous zelda games (I got this from 8-bit Music theory’s video on the over-world zelda themes, he talks about TP at around 11:40 but def recommend watching the whole video if you’re into music analysis stuff)

So there’s this bit of the Hyrule Field theme, I don’t know the official name for it but I remember seeing somewhere it being called the “at an advantage theme” since yeah, you hear it during the boss music whenever you expose their weak points. FUCKINGGG LOVE THAT. Didn’t notice it during my first playthrough, but hearing it during my second was like a little easter egg for my ears every time :)

Midna’s lament is very pretty (and fun to play on the piano)

COURAGE THEME.

I didn’t care for it too much when I started playing the game but hearing it in ZREO’s arrangement of the Hyrule Field theme literally makes me turn into a puddle of emotions. Also hearing it around and of the Ordon kids (I think it plays after Link saves Colin) AAAAAAAAAAAAA

Orchestra piece #1 and #2 HOLY SHIT???????????????? 

Literally, the first time I listened to those I just,,,, plugged in my headphones, volume 100, layed on the floor/against my desk and silently vibed. I don’t know what the hell it is, but those two just fit so well with TP?? I still avoid listening to them nowadays cause if I DO I definitely will get overwhelmed with the “god I love this game so FUCKING MUCH” kind of feels.

Wolf link sucks at singing

the first time I heard him howling Zelda’s Lullaby I lost my shit because LKSJLDKSGLKJFSKG god that was.,, Bad. Anyways, hearing him howl some of the songs from OoT was cute :)

TP STAFF ROLL??? 

VERY GOOD. IT’s like 10 minutes long and GOD do I love every single second of it. It doesn’t have the same energy as the skyward sword staff roll or the orchestra pieces but GOD does it hit good??

Nice and calm after that big exciting adventure. Maybe it would have been more fun or emotional to have a higher energy piece but it was really nice getting to sit back and watch the camera fly around Hyrule. Seeing like, the Gorons and the Zoras having a good time, the kids returning to Ordon? GOOD SHIT.

and AAAAA that end, when you hear the main Zelda theme and see Link riding off out of Faron woods on Epona… good shit. It gets you thinking, where the hell is he going? What is he doing? Off ot do more adventuring? Going to help out the resistance or something? Going to help Zelda? Or maybe he’s trying to figure out a way to restore the mirror of twilight? Whoooo knows.

hhHHHHhhh it’s just that final reminder that YES!!! YOU JUST PLAYED A ZELDA GAME. JUST ANOTHER STORY APART OF THE WHOLE EPIC OF THE ZELDA SERIES AS A WHOLE

I also want to acknowledge the instrument/samples they used for all the twili stuff.

They’re all just so unique and contrast SO well with the rest of the TP OST. LIKE FUCK!! Anytime I hear the screech from the Twilit Kargarok? Sends a shiver down my spine. I associate those sounds SO strongly with the twili realm. (Like, the same way you associate the BSHEWW VVWWMMM sounds with light sabers)

I love it so god damn much

literally any time there’s a certain sound or motif associated with something I lose my shit

Sacred grove sacred grove sacred gro-

lovely lovely lovely so much fun playing that on the piano. AND again, I did the Leonardo DiCaprio pointing meme when I heard the theme from the lost woods come in GHHHHHHHH

shoutout to TP Faron Woods for helping me study and get through all of my schoolwork

BLEGUUHHH can you tell that I really love music?

and also yea I guess TP is kinda cool too :\

IF YOU READ ALL OF THAT THANKS I GUESS

[incorrectquotesconaisseur]

SO GUYSSSS I JUST FINISHED READING RULE OF WOLVES AND WHAT THE HELL???? I am a MESS

(so here are my thoughts that I had while reading it)

❗❗RULE OF WOLVES SPOILERS❗❗

• Lol Nikolai has a horse named Punchline, I love him so much

• Sankta Zoya Y E S

• Nina is sooo badass I love her - Brum needs to die btw

• Fjerda is a little shit

• "If not for Nina, their blessed termite eating at the heart of Fjerda’s government" - did I mention I love Nina?????

• Nikolai is a freaking mastermind and I love him

• OMG THEY HAVE AN ANTIDOTE FOR PAREM NOW???? HELL YEAH take THAT Fjerda!!!!

• Nina adopting Kaz's mindset when back at the Ice Court is what I live for

• UGH THE APPARAT

• Nikolai is soooo in love with Zoya I AM GOING CRAZY

• Zoya's "you forget that in Kerch greed is a virtue" gave me MAJOR Kaz vibes... I miss my crow babies

• Maybe it's an unpopular opinion, but I don't really like Ehri

• ZOYALAI NATION, HOW ARE WE??? ARE WE CRYING?

• I just REALLY love the found family trope and seeing everyone gathered in Zoya's rooms and Zoya curled up on the couch next to Genya I just AAAAAAAAA

• I absolutely adore the whole concept of the Darkling's prison and the CONSTANT sunlight he has to face HA - Alina vibes

• OMG "bring me Alina Starkov" WHAT THE FUCK I have literal chills ESPECIALLY after seeing the S&B trailer:)

• Nina being so confident in everything she learned from the Crows gives me so much serotonin I WANT MY BABIESSS

• Oh my god... I like prince Rasmus, he gives me major Nikolai vibes

• I draw immense satisfaction from Kaz and Zoya using "podge" as their preferred curse word :))))

• NIKOLAI CAN SEPARATE HIMSELF FROM HIS DEMON???? King behavior

• HOLY SHIT ALINA AGREED TO THE MEETING here we go again, fam

• I'm seeing Nikolai talking a lot about accepting his death and being undisturbed by the prospect of it and it feeaks me out - if he dies, I die with him

• Random, but: they need to get the thorn stuff from the Order of Sankt Feliks or whatever, right??? Maybe they have to steal it... and they would require expertise... MAYBE SOME CROWS PLS???????? (I am such a clown)

• Okay wait... so the letters that prove Nikolai is a bastard are in the druskelle sector... PLEASE TELL ME NINA HAS TO BREAK IN THE ICE COURT the fact that she is back there ALONE makes my heart clench so hard... I MISS MY CROWS

• FUCK ALINA SHOWED UP (also Oncat apparently and now I want to cry about Harshaw again)... AND MAL I can't take this I AM HYPERVENTILATING

• I AM LEGIT ON THE FLOOR Yuri is still there FINALLY understanding that the Darkling is evil AND NOW MY MAIN MAN GOT HIS POWERS BACK oh, I love the chaos

• NIKOLAI FUCKING CARRIES ZOYA'S RIBBON IN HIS POCKET nobody fucking touch me

• THE WEDDING IS FOR GENYA AND DAVID????? I AM SOOO CONFUSED what the heck

• Nikoali is the most fucking badass amazing cunning freakishly intelligent idiot I have ever seen in my entire life, my love for him is immesurable, I cannot put into words just how awesome his awesomeness is TAKE THAT MAKHI YOU BITCH

• OH HELL NO the demon is trying to escape SMACK THAT BITCH NIKOLAI BABY

• Oh wow, Rasmus is crazyyyy af he isn't anything like Nikolai my perfect boi SORRY

• OMG Nikolai's dad us a good guy??? I feel so sorry for him... SO NIKOLAI WAS RIGHT TO BE A ROMANTIC huh

• FUCKING HELL again with the nichevo’ya???? Darkling bby, what the HECK

• Nononononooo NO NOOOO NOT DAVID WHAT THE FUCK LEIGH

• "This is what love does" one of the most powerful quotes tbh

• Wait... they want to???? STEAL??? titanium from the Kerch??? .... DOES THIS MEAN.... C R O W S?????

• Okay but... the Darkling's POV? POWER MOVE I love it!!! And the fact that he uses Aleksander as his name with zero reticence now is just *chef's kiss*

• I'm sorry but... I don't like Mayu's chapters I AM SO SORRY I DON'T

• Nina is my badass queen STEP ASIDE PEASANTS

• All these SoC Easter Eggs and mentions are driving me insane

• Idk why but imagining the Darkling drinking beer is sooo funny to me

• I AM LOSING MY SHIT they are in Ketterdam KETTERDAM does that mean ....DOES THAT MEAN ....I better see my Crows or I am throwing hands

• The Zoyalai conversations in this book are KILLING me

• OH MY FUCKING GOD so Kaz took the Emerald Palace over and renamed it THE SILVER SIX???? LIKE???? I AM LEGIT CRYING???

• Ummm...Zoya, honey, WHY do you want to VOLUNTARILY stay away from Nikolai, HUH?????

• THE ONLY REASON HE AGREED TO HELP NIKOLAI WAS BECAUSE HE GUARANTEES INEJ'S PROTECTION if that's not L O V E idk what is YAAASSS KANEJ

• FUCKING SHIT JESPER!!!! IT'S JESPER!!!! WYLAN!!!! I AM FAINTING MY BABIESS

• The Crows' banter is WHAT I LIVE FOR

• Kaz is the most cold, badass and calculating motherfucker on the planet, I love him soooo much

• No NO NOO JORAN IS THE ONE WHO KILLED MATTHIAS????? HOLY SHIT I am sooo scared LEIGH WHYYYY

• Kaz's reaction to Nikolai's demon is legit the funniest shit ever

• Kaz and Nikolai are bffs - THIS IS HEADCANON LEAVE ME BE

• Queen Leyti has severely disappointed me

• I am having waayyyyy too much fun reading about the Darkling among blindly faithful monks - this is the stuff of sitcoms

• (I know the Crows only had a cameo and they won't pop up again, but I can't help desperation wanting to see Nina reunite with them and PLEASE GIVE ME INEJ!!!)

• Honestly, it's pretty cool getting to have a look in the Darkling's head - it's SUPER fucked up

• OOOOO the blight vs the Darkling = the only confrontation I want to see

• FATHER AND SON REUNION

• I don't care much for Hanne x Nina, but I have to admit that they make a very cute couple

• FUCK THEY BROKE STURMHOND'S BLOCADE FUUUUCK

• WAIT NO it was their plan all along HOLY SHIT electricity RULEZZZZ who knew physics would prove THIS useful???

• UUUGHH FUCK THE APPARAT I am so sick of this guy - Zoya was right, they should have killed him

• I am really pissed at the Darkling- YOU FUCKING ACKNOWLEDGE HOW MUCH RAVKA NEEDS YOUR HELP, YOU SEE NIKOLAI'S BRAVERY, YOU KNOW YOU CAM HELP, AND YOU DO NOTHING??? BRO WHAT THE FUCK

• HELL YEAH ZOYA IS A DRAGOOON fuck some shit up sweety Y E S

• MY SKIN IS CLEARED AND MY CROPS ARE WATERED BY THE DARKLING RAISING A MOB TO CALL ZOYA "SANKTA"

• Also... the Darkling winking at Nikolai? FLERT

• WHAT THE FUCK???? HANNE DIED??? holy shit, why???? WHY CAN'T NINA BE HAPPY???????

• Nikolai is an absolute SAVAGE in a debate

• Idk what to think abt Rasmus... he was kinda badass for standing up against Brum

• SOLDIER. SUMMONER. SAINT. slap me and call me a hoe I SCREAMED WHEN I READ THAT

• ZOYA AS QUEEN, SIGN ME THE FUCK UP

• Okay I stan the Darkling again

• ZOYALAI IS CANON I REPEAT ZOYALAI IS CANONNNNN

• OKAY WOW HANNE IS A FULL-ON BADASS yep, I stan

• I really???? LOVE??? this ending for the Darkling??? Idk but it is VERY fitting

• ALINA!!!! AT ZOYA'S!!!! CORONATION!!!! my life is complete

• FUCKING SHIT INEJ!!! INEEEEEJJJJ my queen my love AAAAAA

• The conversation at the end between Alina, Zoya and Genya DESTROYED ME

• STEALING THE HEART OF SANKT FELIKS yes please BRING THE CROWS BACK!!!!! I NEED ANOTHER CROWS SEQUEL!!!!

• I fainted, I ascended, I DIED at the last page

• NOW I NEED A SEQUEL!!!

• Leigh, you ARE goig to write what happens next, right? RIGHT? RIGHT????

[ebachan]

Sonic Movie 2 - Thoughts (NO spoilers)

Yo,

On the 2nd of April, I could see Sonic’s newest movie. And here, I want to give you my thoughts and a bit of review. I’ll avoid spoilers of any kind and put my review under a cut. Hope you will enjoy my little rambling :-D

So, we start where we left off with the first movie. Dr. Robotnik is still on Mushroom planet, doing his madman stuff like building an elaborated “coffee machine” (hilarious XD and intense) next to his means of escape. The results are literally shocking, which brings in Knuckles and they form an alliance.

Down on the Earth, Sonic wrecks mayhem by being a hero, leaving wreckage anywhere he goes. And while his attempt to cover for his night absence at home fails (it’s hilarious and gives you Home Alone vibes), Tom is ready to support him and offer him an advice he got from his father. Sonic isn’t happy, but listens.

Shortly after that, Tom and Maddies leave to Rachel’s wedding using Sonic’s ring. Your blue speedster stays at home with Ozzie (Ozzy - both spellings seem right, depending where you look XD) for 48 hours. Every child’s dream and Sonic soon turns the house into a mess.

But all the fun is interrupted by Dr. Robotnik’s return. Sonic would handle him alone if it wasn’t for Knuckles, who matches him in fight. In the most dire moment, Tails arrives on the scene and saves Sonic. They quickly have to cooperate to lose Knuckles of their tails.

That would sum up the start of the movie, and I won’t go too deep with the rest ;-) I hope just from those few paragraphs you can tell there will be more action. And you can get ready for a few variants from chase, hand-to-hand combat to high-speed battle in the middle of cold snow. Not to mention the last battle is phenomenal!!

Expect not just tons of Easter Eggs, pop-culture references, but also throws back to the first movie. You can immediately tell all the small things before were hints for the big events here. And that’s one thing I love about this movie. It was already “at works” during the production of the first one. At least the pivotal moments and objects. It also has “mirror” scenes from the first (double shouting scene in the car for example) which I hope to see in the third too XD Just for the fun :-D

We visit several places from good old Green Hills, pub to Hawaii, hidden temple and maze full of traps and place where Dr. Robotnik and Knuckles show some great chemistry. And here we get an epic showdown between Sonic and Knuckles. You will be on your toes for the whole fight.

I didn’t count it, but there is more music, and I found each track fitting. I’m not an expert, but I’ve read there are tracks from 90s, so that’s cool. You can expect soundtrack from the games as well.

The voice actors in my language are okay to good. Only Tails got a new voice for whatever reason, and that kind of ticked me off. I can’t wait for a DVD to listen to English :-D

Let’s talk about the characters a bit. Sonic is still going through his arc. He has a home and place to belong to, but it’s still a bit of prison for him. He can’t go outside and interact with people. The blue speedster is still unknown to them and covered up by military. Also, he is itching to use his powers for good, which back-fires in a big way. There is still a lot of growing up in front of him.

That’s where Knuckles comes in. Where Sonic is free spirited and not chained by past, this echidna is serious, and has only the past to keep him going. He is hunting Sonic to get back what he had lost, and what should belong to him in the first place based on birthright. And as much as he is serious, he is funny. He takes things to the T. And his speech pattern is odd and that adds to that fun part :-D

Tails is a bit cowardly. He isn’t a fighter, nor he has any experience in the field. All he has are his high-tech toys and enormous eyes earning for adventure, but too scared to go on his own. He only a bit reluctantly joins Sonic, shying away from anything that scares him. But that makes him work. He is younger than Sonic, and that’s what makes Sonic act as the “respectable” buddy next to him (despite he is still as reckless as before XD).

Anyway, all three of them grow and open up during the movie. The change is most visible with Knuckles and Sonic. Tails would need more time, in my opinion. And compared to Knuckles, Tails comes off a tad flat. That may seem so because Sonic had a whole movie to grow, and he was the primary focus. Both Tail and Knuckles get a brief introduction to their past. My hopes are in the Knuckles TV series to cover more for both of them.

Most people mention the B-plot with the wedding to be annoying and slowing down the plot. I can tell you it’s not the case. Okay, it may look weird a bit, but once you look at it from a distance, you will see how important it is. It just doesn’t tie well with Sonic’s quest, but it also shows how Tom and Maddie have grown and what Tom realizes about their current life. It’s also a nice to have some calm scenery after nerve-wrecking action :-D

Also, I can’t forget Rachel!! I loved her before, and in this movie she rocks! She has one of the best human comedic scenes in this movie. In a nutshell, she is a force to be reckoned with. Also, re-check her cut post-credit scene from the first movie. I’m sure you will notice the similarity XD

The new character, Randal, is an interesting guy as well. He shares the spotlight with Rachel and brings out her gentle side, among other qualities. Maddie also got more room to show off her exceptional talent, and she looks gorgeous in her dress. And both sisters kick serious butts as well.

After this wedding, it’s just a step away from the grand finale. It’s not just epic, but features tons of puns, Easter Eggs, quick action, humorous bickering between Knuckles and Sonic, and pinnacle scene from Agent Stone. No, seriously. I loved that! It’s perfection! It’s also a place where Sonic feels the weight of the words Tom gave him during the first act. That little kid is growing in front of their eyes, and they can’t be prouder and more worried.

The ending credits are great. This time 2D Sonic has his movie model instead of the classic from the first one. But the song isn’t... that great, I guess? It just didn’t get under my skin like Speed Me Up. But it made many people happy, so I’m happy for them ;-)

Also, the post credit scene is a chief kiss. If Tails made people clap, this one may make them roar XD I’ll write about my ideas and just general thoughts once the movie is out in US.

Now, you may say I’m in love with 100% of the movie. Hmm, I would say 90%. There are a few hiccups along the way. Some scenes had a tad jerk-ish feel. One featuring Maddie seemed like part of it was cut. The pub had a rocky start, but otherwise it was a pleasant scene a ground to introduce what Tails can do. A bit of a breath of fresh air between all the action.

So, I would mark this movie solid 9/10. It’s a movie for everybody from young to old, to Sonic fans or just casual fan or even non-fans. There is something for everybody, and that’s one reason this movie is so great.

So, what did you think about the movie? Don’t be shy to share your thoughts, but please AVOID SPOILERS :-)

[twh-news]

"Loki" Director Kate Herron Talks The Epic Season 1 Finale And The Easter Egg Fans Should Go Back And Listen For | Buzzfeed

Warning: There are MASSIVE spoilers ahead for Season 1 of Loki!

Welp, Loki Season 1 just came to an end and I think it's safe to say that the Marvel Cinematic Universe will never be the same. Following the Season 1 finale, we sat down with director Kate Herron to talk about everything — like how it felt introducing the multiverse and Jonathan Majors to the MCU, casting this incredible ensemble cast, Loki's bisexuality, and so much more. Here's everything we learned:

1. First, Kate has always loved Loki, so she knew she wanted to be involved in the "character's next step" in some way.

"Basically, I love Loki, and I found out they were making a show about him. As a fan, I was like, 'I need to know where he's gone.' Then, I just wanted to know what the story was going to be. I loved the character. I think Tom Hiddleston's performance is amazing. I really wanted to be part of whatever this character's next step was because I think Loki's had one of the best arcs in the MCU."

2. Directing all six episodes of the first season felt like filming a six-hour movie.

"Directing all six episodes was a really unique experience, right? Because normally TV is run through the showrunner system, and Marvel didn't do that on Loki. It was incredible. It was quite an undertaking to do six hours and run it like a giant film. I'm so grateful for the opportunity, and I'm really proud of what we made."

3. When Kate signed on to Loki, only the first few scripts had been written, the "rough shape of the show" was in place, and they knew Loki would be arrested by the TVA.

"When I started, Michael [Waldron] had written the pilot. Then, there was a second episode written by Elissa [Karasik], and Bisha's [Ali] episode was written. So, there was a rough shape of the show. It was already fixed in that Loki was gonna be arrested by the TVA and then it had this twist that he was going to try and solve the mystery of who this other Loki was, but then it pivots and becomes this love story about him falling in love with himself. I just thought that was so inspired and the message that had about self-love. I just really wanted to be part of that."

4. And they always knew the show would end at The Citadel at the End of Time and the multiverse would be born.

"As we dug into it with Kevin Wright, our producer, the studio, Michael, Tom, and also our whole team, I think it was always thinking like what was the best story, in particular during the second half of the show. We always knew they were going to The Citadel, something would happen, and the multiverse would be born, but we didn't necessarily know it would come out of Loki and Sylvie fighting. That idea came out of discussions with me, the writers, and the studio."

5. It was "always the plan" to introduce Jonathan Majors to the MCU during the Loki Season 1 finale.

"I think me and the writers were just like, 'Well, they haven't told us we can't introduce that character. I guess we're doing it.' It was really exciting and I felt really honored that I got to be part of it."

6. Kate was involved with Jonathan's casting for He Who Remains/Kang alongside Peyton Reed, who will direct Ant-Man: Quantumania, and Marvel Studios.

"Being part of the casting discussion with Marvel and Peyton was amazing. It was massive. I was just like, 'Wow, I can't believe I get to be part of this conversation.' Everyone was just so excited about Jonathan. He's one of the best actors. I just couldn't believe we got him."

7. Jonathan brought a lot of "cool ideas to the table" once he was cast, and Kate gave him "space to play."

"He just brought so many cool ideas to the table. I think when you're working with an actor like Jonathan, it's really just about giving him space to play, and let him find the character and give him a cool way to do that. I really enjoyed working with him. We finished the shoot filming in The Citadel, so it was really interesting that we finished filming with Jonathan. I just felt very lucky I got to direct him."

8. Jonathan actually voiced the Time-Keepers in Episode 4, which added to the Wizard of Oz homage.

"Obviously, the Time-Keepers were being made in post, and we hadn't cast anyone [for the voices] yet, and I thought, 'Well, Wizard of Oz. Like it should be the wizard, right?' So I thought it would be cool if it was Jonathan, and I think the key thing then was just working with him in a way that we could disguise his voice. I think the fun thing was, Jonathan is an amazing character actor. So we just sent him the art and he was sending audio clips to me and Kevin Wright and being like, 'What about this voice?' It was just so much fun to do that with him. I think that was just joyful."

9. Kate's favorite Easter egg from Episode 5 was Throg — in fact, Chris Hemsworth recorded new lines and sounds for that small part.

"That one I was very proud of and it was very fun. I had that shot designed for a while. I think I'd seen it in Futurama, and a lot of animation does it, but I love the idea of going through the dirt and it reveals something. I always felt like that shot would be the place to insert an Easter egg. When we had Throg in there, it was so much fun and it was perfect. We also recorded Chris [Hemsworth] for that. It was just so much fun."

10. She also loved the Thanos Copter and said it was a "funny" detail the producers loved from the comics, so they had to include it.

"The Thanos Copter was great. Kevin Wright, our executive producer, was really obsessed with that copter, I was like, 'We have to put the helicopter,' and it was so funny. Episode 5 is our best Easter egg episode. There's so much deliberately because of the nature of The Void as a place where deleted things are sent."

11. There's one Easter egg/detail Kate hasn't seen fans catch onto yet, and it involves a "familiar" voice at the very end of the Season 1 finale.

"The one I would say is — it's less Easter egg and more cool story-wise. So, at the very end of the finale, when Loki is in this alternate TVA, there's a character that runs behind him and is going to the armory and people should listen to the voice. It's very quick, but it's someone familiar."

12. Loki was inspired by numerous iconic sci-fi movies, like Children of Men, Alien, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Metropolis, Starship Troopers, and more.

"Bisha, in the episode [she wrote], she spoke about Children of Men and also Before Sunrise as a reference, so I was really inspired by that and the idea of bringing these sci-fi things together. Across all the TVA, I wanted it to just be a big love letter to sci-fi movies, like Metropolis, Brazil, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, [and] Alien. A reference I could never talk about early was Starship Troopers just because, obviously, the TVA are bad guys and in that movie they also use a lot of propaganda film and we had our Miss Minutes film. So, that movie played a hand. There was so much across the show. We had references from everywhere."

13. And the inspiration for how The Void would look in Episode 5 actually came from Teletubbies.

"I never really spoke much about it, but basically in Episode 5, The Void was originally written like a desert, but when I pitched, I said I thought it would be cool if rather than like a Mad Max desert apocalypse, it's more like an overgrown garden. Like, this is the place where the TVA throw their rubbish in. I just loved the idea of that. I think I realized as it started to unravel that I'd basically pitched the British countryside. As we were building it, I was like, 'Am I just homesick?' I remember trying to explain it to the visual effects artists who were making it, and I was like, 'You know, it's like the Teletubbies. You know, rolling hills just one after another.' So, yeah, the Teletubbies became a useful reference when describing The Void. So, that's how they played a hand in it."

14. Kate was the one who suggested Sophia Di Martino audition for the role of Sylvie.

"Sophia was in a short film of mine called Smear. I was very happy to pay her, finally, for her talent. When we were reading for the role, I was like, 'There's this actor I know and I think we should ask if she wants to read.' Everyone was like, 'Yeah, sure.' So, she read in these audition tapes, and we were all watching the tapes back and I remember everyone at the studio was like, 'Wait, who's that?' And I was like, 'Oh, that's my friend Sophia.' They thought she was amazing."

15. Sophia's audition tape was so good that she was immediately cast.

"Basically, everyone was really excited by her tape and I think she got cast in the room, which is incredible. I was excited because I got to bring my friend along. She's such a good actor. She's fantastic in Flowers and I was just so happy that she was coming along for the ride. I think she's done such a beautiful job with Sylvie."

16. One of the most important things when crafting Sylvie and the other Loki Variants was making sure they were their own characters, and not just Loki copies.

"I think the most important thing, minus just tiny little gestures, was really making it important that Sylvie was her own character and that all the Lokis weren't just 'faded photocopies.' They were all their own Loki. It wasn't even that they stood in a similar way or looked similar, but what in their soul made them a Loki. I love that line, 'Lokis always survive.' That idea goes across all our characters who are Lokis."

17. Casting Sylvie was one of the hardest things, and Sophia was able to bring her own spin to the character and she was the perfect "sparring partner" for Tom.

"Sophia has this talent — and I think Tom has it as well — where she's so funny and naturally so witty and charismatic that you can't take your eyes off her. She's also really good at playing characters with a lot of anger, pain, and vulnerability. I just felt that those qualities were so Loki to me. She brought her own spin on it too. Tom's performance is so iconic, so Sylvie was a tough role to cast because you need to give him a good sparring partner, but also, it's another Loki and people love Loki. So, it was really making sure that she felt distinctive enough that she was different, but also that we gave Tom a really fun actor to play alongside. It was really fun watching them. It was really fun seeing their chemistry grow."

18. Sylvie's fighting style was actually crafted to have similar movements to Loki's, thus showing that they are basically two sides of the same coin.

"I know Tom and Sophia spent a lot of time together. I think the fun thing with Sophia was the little things, like the fighting styles. She has a very different life to our Loki. Loki is very balletic in his fighting style, because he grew up in the palace, whereas Sylvie grew up in apocalypses. So, she was going to fight a bit more like a feral cat. I thought that was fun to play with. We worked with Mo [Ganderton], our stunt coordinator, and it was really fun to find little mirror image stuff they would do when they fight. We did a little bit of that on Lamentis and there's little bits here and there where we've done that. There's also little gestures that they do that are quite similar."

19. Kate had a "four hour" phone call with Owen Wilson before he was cast. They talked about Marvel, Mobius, and Loki.

"Everyone was so excited to cast him. I remember, they were like, 'Kate, just call him and see if he's up for it.' That was a lot of pressure. But then, I spoke to him on the phone and we spoke about Marvel and Loki in Marvel. Also, we talked about what our show was doing, who Mobius was, and then just getting his take on it. It was a very detailed conversation. I think we spoke for like four hours. At the end, he was like, 'I'm in.'"

20. Wunmi Mosaku's role was originally supposed to be a male character, but Kate suggested having an "open casting" because she thought Hunter B-15 would be really great as a female character.

"When I spoke to the studio, I was like, 'This character is cool, but I just think it could be really interesting if this was a female character. So, could we do open casting? We'll have men and women read, and we'll just see who's the best person for the role.' So, Wunmi read for it and just blew everyone away. We were like, 'We have to cast this person!' So, we kind of remade the role, really, around her."

21. Kate loves the idea that Hunter B-15 joins this club of sci-fi female characters who were originally supposed to be men.

"It was cool because I love Ripley in Alien and I love Kara Thrace in Battlestar Galactica. In the original Battlestar, Kara Thrace's character was played by a man, and Ripley in Alien was originally written as a man, so I liked that Hunter B-15 was joining these badass women in sci-fi. That was really cool to me."

22. When Kate pitched her ideas to the studio, she include Gugu Mbatha-Raw as the actor she wanted to play Ravonna.

"Gugu was in my pitch when I spoke to the studio. I was like, 'I think she'll be really great.' I love her work as an actor. From Belle to the episode of Black Mirror she's in, everything she's in is so different. I think that's so interesting with Ravonna because in the comics, Ravonna's been good and bad, and she's such a big character. I was like, 'I'd love to see Gugu's take on that character.' The studio was really excited by that and so was Gugu."

23. Kate said it was "important" to recognize Loki's bisexuality in the show, and she loved how it was naturally worked into a conversation between him and Sylvie.

"It was just important for us to do it in a way that made it canon, acknowledged it, and also done in a way where like, if someone asked me, I would just be matter of fact about it, like, 'Yeah, I'm bi.' I think that was the important thing for it and building it into the conversation. It was important to the whole team and the way that it was written was really beautiful. It felt like the right place to do it because these two characters are starting to open up to each other and are being a bit more honest about who they are. So it felt like the right place to have that moment."

24. The TVA weren't always going to be Variants/humans. That idea was born out of conversations with Kate, the writers, and the rest of the Loki team.

"When I started, I think it was a bit more up in the air with like, who are the Variants who work for the TVA? Are they Variants? They actually weren't Variants when I first joined. Casey was an alien, for example. I think something we all locked onto was it was more effective to make them more human. It was already in there that the Time-Keepers wouldn't be real and that would be a big Wizard of Oz rug pull. But the extra rug pull we added was that, on top of all of that, the TVA don't realize that they're actually Variants."

25. One of the things Kate enjoyed the most was figuring out the "inner workings of the TVA," like how the Minutemen would operate.

"I think it was really fun, in terms of the bigger structural stuff, to work with everyone. Also, figuring out the inner workings of the TVA, like every squad of Minutemen would have a hunter and they'll be little details sprinkled across all the world building in the show. Generally, we always looked at the characters and what was the best story and how to get to the end goal in the most effective way."

26. The season finale intro — which included seeing space, the sacred timeline, and hearing quotes from the MCU and history — was an homage to Contact.

"Basically, Eric Martin, our writer, he'd written in this amazing idea that for the opening we do an homage to Contact, and kind of move through space to the end of time. Then, we'd see the physical timeline, and then we see The Citadel. I love Contact, and I was like, 'Oh, that's so cool.' We took that idea to Darrin [Denlinger], our storyboard artist, and me and him just nerded out about space and about how we wanted to pay homage to Contact but not be completely the same.

So we played with the idea of time and he was bringing in so many cool ideas. But then, the amazing pitch he had as well was like, 'What if when we pull out at the very end, the timeline isn't a straight line like how you guys have been showing it in the show? What if it's actually circular?' I thought it was such a good idea."

27. Kevin Feige helped come up with the idea to include Marvel quotes over the Marvel logo because it was something the MCU had never done before.

"I had this weird idea where I remember saying to my editor, Emma McCleave, I was like, 'Oh, can we add a baby crying or the sounds of the city? And it's like we just hear life.' So her, me, and Kevin Wright got really into that. So we were adding all of these different sounds into the timeline. We also had quotes from just life, not Marvel. Then, we showed that cut to Kevin Feige and the rest of the team.

They all thought it was cool, and then Kevin Feige was like, 'Oh, do you know what? We've never done quotes on the Marvel logo before.' So, we thought that was cool and we added the quotes to the Marvel logo intro. Then, me, Kevin Wright, Emma, and Sarah Bennett, Emma's assistant, decided to just put the MCU quotes across the whole thing."

28. Going from hearing all of the voices in the season finale opening to utter silence in The Citadel was also a way of learning something about He Who Remains.

"I loved the idea of all the noise and this Greek chorus building because when you finally pull out and see The Citadel and how isolated it is, it tells you so much about He Who Remains' psychology because he's surrounded by all this brimming life, but he's completely isolated and alone. I thought it tells you a little bit about his character and who he might be before we see him."29. Kate loves that the season finale opening is a "beautiful handover" from the previous phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe into this one with the multiverse.

"It was a real group effort, and we were just really excited at the idea of it being this really beautiful handover from the previous phase of Marvel. Also, we get to encapsulate a little bit of our world as well, which was really fun. The editing team put so much time into that. I really want to watch it in a planetarium or something."

29. Kate loves that the season finale opening is a "beautiful handover" from the previous phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe into this one with the multiverse.

"It was a real group effort, and we were just really excited at the idea of it being this really beautiful handover from the previous phase of Marvel. Also, we get to encapsulate a little bit of our world as well, which was really fun. The editing team put so much time into that. I really want to watch it in a planetarium or something."

30. And finally, even though Loki sets up a lot of upcoming MCU projects — namely, Spider-Man: No Way Home, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, and Ant-Man: Quantumania — Kate didn't have a lot of conversations with other MCU directors and writers.

"Kevin Wright and Stephen Broussard from Marvel were our producers on Loki, and they worked with Kevin Feige, Louis [D'Esposito], and Victoria [Alonso]. They always steered us in terms of the Marvel big picture and let us know if anything was off base. It's so secretive at Marvel, so I only spoke to Peyton just because our timelines crossed [with Jonathan]. Generally, Marvel manages everything internally and keeps us all in check."

[yoongsisbae]

Tumblr Year End Review Game

Rules: post the top 5 works you’re most proud of that you released this year (not necessarily your most popular), the top 4 current WIPs that you’re excited to release in the new year, the 3 biggest improvements in your writing over the past year, 2 resolutions (ways you wish to improve your writing/blog) for the new year, and your number 1 favorite line you’ve written this year!

5 works you’re most proud of that you released this year

Yoongi is a Rock I tend to make paragraphs sound sing-songy when I write normally 😅 as soon as I started writing this story, I noticed how much everything began rhyming so I completely reworked the story to be like a poem and I'm really proud of what I was able to do. It's not easy to make things rhyme and flow on top of making sentences make sense and tell a good story, that's what I am most proud of. 😄😄

Handshakes of a Lifetime Ch5 It was my first time writing an action kind of story, I am very proud of my "fight" scenes lol. And proud of how badass y/n was 💅🏽this chapter really helped me write Run Run Run: Seoul Flow later on.

Bon Voyage: Into the Sea Ch3 I knew I wanted the time skip/jump in that chapter, and really struggled writing it, but I'm really proud of how it ended up, this is also the longest chapter I've written, it's massive, I didn't sleep for two nights editing it D: that was a feat.

Handshakes of a Lifetime Ch7 About halfway through Tae's story, I realized the twist in chapter 7, it just kind of happened, writers speak about "talking" to their characters, well, I definitely had a moment there with HOAL Joon 😅😅😅like, 'go back here' and 'go back there, see right there.' it was very cool writing experience and I guess I'm proud of my brain lmao. 🥲

4 current WIPs that you’re excited to release in the new year

Agust D vs RM Super Hero Christmas Special While writing Friendly Neighborhood RM, Yoongi's power seemed kind of lame ngl. But while writing his story, I realized his power is ridiculously overpowered 🥲🥲. And also since we are talking about it, I'm excited for Seokjin and Jimin's Versions (next stories in line for the Super Bangtan Universe) mainly because they are both so full of crack. Seokjin is really a menace with his mindreading powers and shapeshifter Jimin...shapeshifting penises...need I say more lmao. 😳😳😳

HOAL Ch9 which might be coming out sooner than anticipated u.u everyone's sweet comments is really motivating me 😭😭💕💕💕

BV:ITS Ch4 I'm so excited!!! y/n stuck in the middle of two tsunderes Yoongi and Hobi pls, and then add bratty vampire Jimin to the mix...

Go Home, You're Drunk You groan, annoyed. Where did your friends go? WHERE ARE YOU? Everything is muffled, was that a car passing by? Everything is dark and hazy, are you still near the club? These are the questions you should be asking yourself, there should be alarms going off in your head. You should be screaming, crying for help, but you laugh, and laugh, and laugh. “Oof!” Strong arms lift your boneless body up, into his warmth, against his hard frame. Your world tilts and sways and you bury your face in his chest, trying not to throw up. “Who…are…you…” “Your worst nightmare, sweetheart.” “Really, ‘cause you look like youugh belong ina boyband.” A one-shot that I don't know whether to make dark and funny or both 🙃🙃🙃 u know just dealing with ✨trauma✨ in my own fucked to way 🤠

3 biggest improvements in your writing over the past year

I wrote a request 🙊🙊 (requests still scare me please don’t ask lolol) and actually was able to come up with something cohesive and sexy if I do say so myself.

I NEVER would have been able to write a story like Your Friendly Neighborhood Superhero, RM before. Twists are hard 🤠

HOAL Ch6 that story was soo difficult to write, but getting through it really helped me with tone, since it was set in ancient Greece I did a lot of research on gods and the time period, added mythology as fun easter eggs, it was one of the first times I felt like my writing was improving.

2 resolutions (ways you wish to improve your writing/blog) for the new year

I really want to figure out how to improve my blog and create more reader engagement 🙂 if only I knew how 🙃🙃🙃

Come up with more special writing events like my X-mas stories.

number 1 favorite line you’ve written this year

THIS IS TOO HARD. 😖😖😖 This is one of my favorites for sure: You look straight into his soul, see him for who he is, and he sees in your tearful eyes the words left unspoken between you, “I love you.”

[legionofpotatoes]

we decided to watch all story cutscenes from the new resident evil village videogame on a whim, since it’s not really our cup of tea gameplay-wise but seems to be this massive zeitgeist moment that made us morbidly curious. And I know how much everyone cares about my thoughts on things I know very little about, so. let’s get into it huh gamers. and yeah spoilers?

for context, I’ve only played resident evil 4 and a small portion of 5. I also read the wikipedia entry for 7’s plot recently. all this to say I was only vaguely aware of how tonally wacky the series was going in

I also completely gave up following the plot of the mutagens’ soap opera, so that paid off in spades here as you might imagine

anyway so that baby in the intro. that baby’s head is just massive. humongous toddlerdome. when ethan finds the baby’s head in a jar later on. there is no way that head would fit into that jar. bad game design. no not even game design. basic stuff. one hundred years in prison for jar modeler

if I see a single functional hetero marriage in video games I will cry tears of joy. I understand their misery is kind of The Point irt them badly working through the hillbilly romp trauma but like. sheesh. at least set that up as an emotional story goal the plot will help resolve. but nope they start off miserable and it goes nowhere

I know I know the mia thing has a huge wrinkle in it but like. not really in terms of dramatic function?? set up a happy end to the re7 nightmare (miranda can keep up appearances for all she cares) and then take that all away from angry griffin mcelroy for manpain. it will still absolutely work to set up the dramatic forward momentum. why throw in this cliche Hollywood Tension in their marriage if you’re not going to address it oh maybe because it’s normalized as automatically interesting because nuclear families are a self-propagating pit of a very narrow chance at emotional happiness relying on social stigma to preserve their empty function oops my baggage slipped in yikes abort mission

I called him griffin mcelroy because I saw his face on twitter and. yeah. I will continue to do this occasionally. my house my rules

... fuck the reason I’m hung up on this is specifically because the rest of the game is so tonally dexterous (which is a shining point to me! more on that later!), and yet they felt weirdly compelled to create the aesthetic trapping of a family-at-odds trope without following it through too well. a sign of both the good and the bad stuff to come

but listen the real reason why I wanted to talk about any of this is to nitpick the fascinating backwards-engineered nucleus of the entire thing; in that this game essentially creates a melting pot of just SO many disparate horror tropes and then makes a no-holds-barred unhinged effort at weaving thick lore to piece them all together. it is truly a sight to behold. like straight up you got your backwoods fright night situation, your gothic castle vampires, your rural-industrial werewolves, and don’t forget your bloated swamp monsters over there, with then a hard left turn into robotic body horror, and the entire ass subgenre of Creepy Doll writ large, and the bloodborne tentacle monsters, and a hellboy angel bossfight, which rides on the coattails of a mech-on-mech pacific rim bonanza, and just jesus henry christ slow down

almost all of these are textural hijack jobs that don’t really get into the metaphor plain of any of those settings but the game sort-of makes an argument that the texture IS the point and revels in it. It is kind of admirable almost. The same reason why the intro felt boxed in and unmotivated is also why the rest of the game just blasts off of its hinges to the point of complete and self-indulgent tonal abandon. I kinda loved that about it. lady dimitrescu made sure to hold her hat down as she bent forward in mahogany doorways and then suddenly she’s a giant gore dragon and you settle in your temp role as dark souls man with Gun to take her ass down. Excellent??

this rhino rampage impulse to gobble up every horror aesthetic known to man comes to head when the game wrestles with its FPS trappings in what is the most hilarious solution in creating visceral player damage moments. Since most cinematics and the entire game is in first person, that leaves precious little real estate for the devs to work with if they really want to sell griffin’s physical crucible. To wit. This dude’s forearms. Specifically just the forearms. They are MASSACRED throughout the story. The poor man lives out the silent hill dimension of a hand model. by the end cutscene he looks like a neatly dressed desk clerk who had decided to stick both his grabbers into garbage disposal grinders just a few hours prior. like in addition to everything else it manages to rope in that tinge of slapstick violence into its general grievous genre collection except this time it IS for a lack of trying! truly incredible

but wait his miracle clawbacks from everything his poor paws go through are retroactively explained away, yes, but far too vaguely and far too late to console me as I sat and watched everyone’s favorite baby brother reattach an entirely severed hand to his wrist stump by just. placing it on there. and giving it a lil twist ‘n pop terminator-style. and then willing his fingers back into motion right in front of my bulging eyes. this game just does not care. it does not give a shit. and boy howdy will it work to make that into one of its strongest suits

cause generally speaking resident evil was THE premiere vanilla zombie content destinaysh for like a decade, right? and as the rest of the world and mainstream media started encroaching and bloodying its blue ocean it went and just exploded in every single conceivable horror trope direction like a smilodon on catnip. truly, genuinely fascinating franchise moves

yeah the big vampire milf is hot. other news; grass... green. although I do love the implication that her closet is just identical white dresses on a rack. cartoon network-level queen shit

apropos of nothing I’ve said there’s also this hobo dante-devimaycry-magneto man, and I can’t believe this sentence makes sense. anyway he made that “boulder-punching asshole” joke referring to chris redfield and it was probably the only easter egg that really landed for me and boy did it land hard. I have not seen him punch the boulder in re5, mind. I had only heard about how funny it is from friends. and here this dude was, probably in the same exact mindset as me, trying to grapple with that insane mental image. with you on that ian mckellen, loud and clear

I advocate vehemently against the shallow pursuit of hyper photorealism in art direction but I gotta admit it works really in favor of immersive horror like this. the european village shacks especially gave me super unchill flashbacks to my rural countryside retreat in western georgia. I could smell the linoleum dude. not cool

faces are weird in this game. can’t place it. nice textures, good animation, but the modeling template is... uuh strange? and the hair. it has that clustered-flat-clumpy look that harkens to something very specific and unpleasant but I just don’t know what. sue me

griffin’s mental aptitude to take all this shit in stride and end every seemingly traumatizing bossfight involving some fucking eldritch being yet unseen through mortal eyes by essentially throwing out an MCU quip is just. What the fuck dude? I mean that was funny how you casually yelled the f-word at a god damn werewolf that you considered a fairy tale an hour ago but are you like, all right?? it was swinging a sledgehammer the size of a bus at you, ethan

oh oh the vampires are afraid of cold and your last name is winters. I get it haha

Pro Gamer Nitpick: boss fights seemed a bit unnecessarily long?? idk why the youtuber we picked decided the ENTIRE propeller man fight counted towards the vital story scenes he was stitching together, but man mr big daddy lite there really had some get up and go huh??

why are they saying dimitrescu.. like that. is it really how you say that word or is the english language relapsing into its fetish for ending every single word with a consonant at all costs

I’m not saying it’s a dramatic miss of a twist in context of all that’s going on, but the “you died in the last game actually and have been DC’s clayface ever since” revelation is low-key. it’s. it’s just funny to me, I dont know what to say. century-old god-witch fails her evil plan after she mistakenly removes heart from what was definitely NOT just some white guy with eight fingers after all

chris realizing he’s about to become the player character and immediately swapping out his tsundere trenchcoat for the muscletight sex haver sweater

the little bluetooth speaker-sized pipe bomb he taped to his knife was nuclear?? really??? I must have missed something because that is just too good. I buy it though I totally buy it. chris just got them fun-sized nukes in his car trunk for, you guessed it, Situations

anyway this is all for now just wanted to briefly touch on how unexpectedly funny and tonally irreverent this seemingly serious game turned out to be. did not articulate any cathartic story beats whatsoever but my god it had fun connecting those plot points. he just fucking put his severed hand back on his stump and it Just Worked todd howard get in here