#it only effects me a little but i guess the lack of being super effected makes it easier for me to relay what someone else feels

[euclydya]

Soooo. A question.

Am I/Would I Be considered a bad person if I have little to no empathy, and have a very hard time showing sympathy for others. I don't even know where I stand w compassion either also.

like. Does that inherently make me evil or some shit lmao

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

You know, Zoe's comment about Adrien's lack of reaction to Lila slandering Ladybug and your comment on Lila's potential to be a rival to both protagonists led me thinking of Lila going "Hel hath no fury like a Rossi scorned", and going on trying to destroy Adrien's reputation first (He rejected me when I was so great! How dare he?), and Ladybug second (Oh, he likes her so much that he wouldn't even let me say she's not that great? Well, no nobody will like her!).

Marinette in this case? More of an afterthought. A tool, another target to turn against Adrien and Ladybug (poor Lila, she doesn't know how hard she's gonna fail).

Pros:

+ gives Adrien a rival

+ a rival for LB, too, but not for Marinette. Marinette has enough rivals already.

+ greater freedom for Lila while still allowing for episodic format: she's not deceiving the class, she's deceiving Adrien's fans. Online communities can be VERY fickle, so "Adrien's fans turn against him because of an outrageous claim, but this gets resolved during the same episode, Lila gets away with it because of anonimity and gossip spread" is actually believable

+ a wealth of lessons for the kids about dealing with gossip, popularity and notoriety, lies, personal boundaries, dealing with rejection, etc.

Cons:

— May be a bit too dark/mature for a kids' show (that said, Gravity Falls pulled off the Gideon plot without it getting too dark, so this one may work as well)

— Another case of a girl falling for Adrien and not taking rejection well. That said, 1) this time it is at least "girl vs Adrien" instead of "girls vs each other" and 2) I personally think Chloe's crush on Adrien is redundant and she works well enough as a needy, toxic friend. But that's a story for another time.

What do you think of this idea?

Once again, thanks a lot for all your work! I learned a lot about writing because of your blog, it is really enlightening!

(Post this ask is referring to)

I don't think that's too dark for a kids show. Kids deal with the rumor mill all the time! You just have to keep the rumors TV-kid-friendly (which will be much nicer than real kids).

Beyond that, I like this approach. Lila's hatred of Marinette never made much sense. It's too extreme! Until Marinette starts dating Adrien, Lila shouldn't care about Marinette. There's nothing Marinette can give Lila and Marinette has done nothing to effectively stop Lila's power or mess with her plans. Lila's Marinette hatred would only makes sense if Lila knew that Marinette was Ladybug, but she doesn't.

Meanwhile, Lila actively wants to be close with Adrien because he's a rich popular guy who can give her access to power (I do not think she has ever had any actual feelings for him). His denials of her approach are actually messing with her plans! Just look at the two conversations we get in Chameleon. This is what happens with Adrien:

Adrien: Hey, Lila. Lila: Adrien, we'll have to figure when you're gonna help me catch up on all the schoolwork I missed. I also heard you play piano, my uncle's the great pianist Chuch Boroughchuck. He wanted to teach me when I was little, but I had to stop playing because of arthritis. But when my wrist gets better, I'd love for you to give me some lessons. Adrien: Lila, I'm perfectly happy being friends with you, and I'll gladly help you catch on your schoolwork, but please don't lie to me like you did last time with Ladybug. Adrien: (in flashback) So I'm guessing you're not a descendant of a superhero, either. Ladybug: (in flashback) She's more like a super liar. Lila: Ladybug's the liar. Adrien: I'm not judging you, Lila, but instead of making friends you're going to turn everyone against you. You can tell me if there's something bothering you. I can help. But you need to be honest with me. Lila: Are you trying to be some superhero lecturing me just like Ladybug did? Well thanks, but no thanks. Ugh. (storms off)

Meanwhile this is what happens with Marinette:

Lila: Don't tell me it's because of this new seating arrangement in class! (Marinette turns away from Lila) It is! Of course, you're jealous because I'm sitting next to Adrien, because you would've given anything to sit there yourself. You know what? It's really not worth fighting over a boy. You and I could be friends, and who knows, I might even be able to help you with Adrien. Marinette: You and I will only be friends the day you stop lying, Lila! (Lila gasps) I can't prove it, but I know for a fact that you don't have tinnitus, that your wrist is just fine, that you don't know Prince Ali because you've never even stepped foot in Achu, and despite what you got Alya to write on her Ladyblog, Ladybug has never saved your life! Lila: I only tell people what they want to hear. Marinette: It's called lying! Lila: (Unconcerned) There's nothing you can do about it, anyway. People can't resist when they hear what they like to hear. If you don't want to be my friend, fine! But soon you won't have any friends left at all. And trust me, I'll make sure you never get close to Adrien in class or anywhere. You seem a little less dumb than the others, so I'll give you one last chance: You are either with me or against me. You don't have to answer right away. I'll give you 'till the end of class today.

One of these conversations angers Lila, the other barely phases her. If there's a character that she should be out to punish, it's Adrien. He's the one who keeps denying her in ways that actually matter. For her Marinette hate to make sense, Marinette needs to actually have someone believe her when she points out Lila's lies or she needs to actually stop Lila from getting what she wants. That never happens in canon. The way their relationship is written in canon, Lila should see Marinette as pathetic and no real threat. Basically just nothing but this moment from Oni-chan:

Outside the Agreste mansion. Lila spots Marinette inside a pile of trash bins. Lila: I could take a photo right now and post it online, but that would be too easy. (walks away. After she leaves, Marinette becomes furious and jealousy that Lila kissed Adrien.)

How does Lila go from this to a hate campaign? Why does she care? It seems like a massive waste of her time, especially now that we know the kind of grand plans she has going on! Someone who is making multiple identities does not have time to hyper focus on petty school drama. Her season five actions would actually make more sense if she was going after Marinette to punish Adrien for picking the "wrong" girl.

Don't get me wrong, Lila should enjoy tormenting Marinette right from the start, it should just be a bonus thing and not something she does without a larger benefit because the show totally failed to make Marinette feel like a real threat to Lila. Why risk exposure for no real benefit but the removal of a non-threat? Getting Marinette expelled in Ladybug would make so much more sense if it was a calculated move to make Adrien do something. Like Lila would only undo the lie if he took her to a gala or went on a date with her. As-is, Lila had no grand plan. She just wanted Marinette expelled for the crime of not believing the lies and that's it. How boring and petty.

The Adrien antagonist route could also make Lila feel like she belongs in the story. As-is, she's just a bigger, badder Chloe who has no business being on screen while Chloe is still around in her petty bully form. Story wise, they are the same character with the same goals (antagonizing Marinette for no good reason).

Making Lila into Adrien's Chloe would at least somewhat fix that issue by changing her target and giving her an actual motivation. As-is, even if Lila properly replaced Chloe, there's still the issue that Lila is nothing more than another petty mean girl. Lila really should be more than that if you want her to feel different from Chloe or even just work as a character. Like I said above, petty mean girls generally don't have multiple identities. It's a total mismatch that makes the character hard to buy. Chloe is well designed. Lila is a disaster on ever level.

And thank you for the kind words! I'm honored that the blog has been useful to you. That is the goal, after all!

[shadovvheart]

I'm still struggling to bring myself to continue my second playthrough. Partially due to some memory leak issues, but also because... i am bored. I hype myself up because i want to spend time with my rook, but as soon as i open the game up and look at the quest log, i go "eugh, not again". Which is insane considering the amount of ungodly hours i spent on all three previous games.

More bitching under the cut cus i feel heated now 🙈

I'm just sad because. I definitely had my issues with previous games too, i had many criticisms with da2 and dai and there's a good share of lost potential in those, but most of it was due to lack of development time/resources.

But one thing stayed consistent though: complex, nuanced worldbuilding, lore, well-written characters, interesting dynamics and relationships between all of them. Darker narratives with some humour and wholesomeness sprinkled on top as a palette cleanser. This is the only franchise where I've been super invested in its politics and religion (except for maybe mass effect cus it had all the same things that made da good). On top of that, crafting my worldstates by making different choices and seeing what changes they bring in the next installment was a fun little thing to do. So even with all the flaws i enjoyed the shit out of these aspects in previous games.

Dav just. Has next to nothing for me. The one thing I'm looking forward to on my second run the most is trying out the combat with a different class 💀except i anticipate it to get repetitive once again once my built is fully active. Plus a different romance ig except it's also less satisfying than other games because I've already seen all the scenes? Romance is the same as the friendship route with some added flirting and a couple kisses. With the exception of emmrich i guess who gets a whole extra dinner date. But even then, all romances follow a very strict formula.

Idk man, I'm just mourning what we could've had instead of this. Guess I just need more time to stop being butthurt to enjoy my second run a little more. Well and if bio could please fix the damn memory leak issues that'd be great too.

[nyarlathotep-thecrawlingchaos]

I'm kinda sad, guys. Completely off-topic super-long rant incoming, feel free/encouraged to disregard.

So basically, I managed to get in on a paid month-long trial of an eczema face cream in exchange for feedback. Honestly didn't even care about being paid, I was just in desperation for my face to not feel all scaley and shit anymore (seborrheic dermatitis is a fcking bitch, and it's even worse in a humid climate and GUESS WHAT THE CLIMATE IS LIKE HERE FOR MOST OF THE YEAR HAHAHA) and have been willing to try literally anything for some time.

Well, anything except steroid creams. I refuse. I did it once, it made it worse, never ever again. And I stfg that's ALL that dermatologists want to hand out for this type of eczema, despite glaring evidence that even if it works temporarily, it creates even worse problems down the line.

Sebhorric dermatitis presents with similar symptoms to psoriasis, and tends to present its symptoms around the face, neck, ears, and scalp. Liken it to really terrible dandruff that can cover your entire face. Scrubbing it off just leaves redness and itchy/painful open wounds. It's impossible to cover with make-up. It's at its worst in the humid summer months. I have to consistently use more than five products twice a day in the spring/summer/fall just to keep it under control enough to not be noticeable to anyone but me. And I'm already really bad at being consistent when it comes to self-care.

Enter this stupid fucking trial cream. This shit with its lack of labeling and mysterious code.

I had to agree to stop using all other products except my regular facial cleanser to make sure my feedback was accurate to this one product, okay. No other lotions or toners or face masks or anything. Use this stuff twice a day to once every other day, give weekly feedback for the duration of a month. ALL I know about it, is it isn't steroid based. I was in the middle of a very bad breakout when it arrived in the mail. I had scales of dry skin on my fucking eyelids. It literally hurt to blink. It was awful.

I'm almost two weeks in and my skin has not felt or looked this amazing since before I hit fucking puberty. I noticed a difference literally the first time I put the shit on. The dry flakes essentially just melted off and didn't come back. I actually cried a little out of pure shock and happiness.

I'm almost halfway through the month and absolutely no sign of any negative side effects. No acne, no oiliness, no rashes, no dryness, no inflammation, nothing. It doesn't have any weird smell or leave any weird residue, absorbs in less than a minute. Just...genuinely clear skin with no issues at all for the first time since I was a literal child. I've still got a little redness around my cheeks, chin, and nose (which I've had since the eczema first started to flare up in my late teens), but even that's beginning to fade.

Aaaaaand since it's a trial, I don't know the product name. Which means once it's gone, it's gone.

I'm hoping taking part in the trial means I'll have the opportunity to find out about it and purchase it in the future, but I have this horrible sinking feeling it's going to be far beyond my price range. You know, test it out on the normies to make sure it works, then slap an astronomical price tag on it to market it to the rich and influential. I just know that's where this is going and I hate it.

It is nice having good skin for the first time since I was like...twelve. And even nicer only having to use a tiny bit of this one single face cream once every other day, and not having to worry about my skin screaming in protest if I happen to forget/skip a day or two (which I have done, again I suck at consistent self-care).

But the knowledge that it's probably only going to last for as long as this tiny little magical unlabeled bottle lasts...makes me so so very sad.

[allwormdiet]

Gestation 1.2

There's such a specific pain that comes from the person you trust the most stabbing you in the back, I don't know if it's the worst pain in the world but there's really nothing else with that... I dunno, that feeling that the ground's gone out from underneath you. And knowing about Annette's death, and that I think Emma becomes this way as a kind of idolization of Sophia... it's just a bad situation that gets worse with context and over time. Utterly miserable.

Two hundred pages of notes on your own powers and training as a superhero is like. So fucking much. I don't think I'd manage that one, I don't know how many people could match that one. Is this a side effect of Wild "7000 page novel" bow being the author here? Is this what he considers normal?

Bless Taylor for making even a token effort at trying to look at the bright side of a shitty situation, I don't know how long that's gonna last but even now she's still trying.

Also, okay, the dismissal of Taylor's power isn't just textual, it's coming from inside the house. Kid, your power is great, that's the self-loathing talking, you're gonna change the world with that shit.

Also lmao @ Taylor's lack of killer instinct, how long does that last I wonder.

Is a little interesting that Taylor doesn't even necessarily get the full factual information of a bug under her control, but I guess that's not really necessary for her power to do its thing.

Also interesting to note that Taylor still has nerves about her bugs, considering how much art I've seen of her absolutely crawling with the things. Guess that attitude doesn't last super long.

Okay so I think there's actually a lot to unpack in this section so I'm gonna get into it

There's an immediate and sharp divide between independent capes like Taylor and the big dogs who have people to take care of things like costumes for them, and that divide is only going to become more stark over time. I don't even know what the solution for such a thing would be, you can't exactly do small loans to anonymous capes for this kind of thing and any kind of neutral third party that could do this would be an immediate target for stealing customer information. It's a logistical concern, and a thorny one at that.

The cleverness with the spider silk and the subsequent roadblock of realizing that it's hard as fuck to make a costume out of spider silk are both great. Awesome idea that's immediately undercut by a complicated execution, I wonder if that's gonna come back up at any p

I'm a little curious about the exact decision making on Brockton Bay's location. Not to say that it's a bad call off the bat to put it where it is, more that Wildbow seems to have immediately made a call, realized it was going to complicate some things, and then made a workaround. I dunno how different the story would be if it took place further south, if at all, but it stands out to me at least.

(It is also a little funny to imagine that Brockton Bay is more popular with capes because it's easier to wear silly costumes in the local climate, I don't think it's true but not-trueities are fun)

Taylor's resourcefulness is an immediate standout trait in this chapter, I think this is the first time I learned that the armor plating was literally made from reinforced exoskeletons but wow what a cool and slightly gross detail.

I'm sure this will be the only time that Taylor feels a bridge has been burned beyond the point where it's worth mending and move to take decisive action in whatever direction doesn't involve that bridge, yessir. This will definitely not be a recurring behavior in this character.

Immediate Thoughts

More time spent getting to know Taylor. The plot isn't so much moving forward as getting into position at the starting line, which gives us time to get used to her perspective and her thought patterns. What I wanna know is how she thinks being an independent superhero is gonna, like, work? The likely answer is that she hasn't thought that far ahead and is just gonna like, wander around looking for random encounters. She's still too square (and broke) to get a police scanner or something like that, that's for sure. Wait to see what happens, I guess.

[chapel-of-rizztual]

👉👈 I'm coming with a humble prompt (ehm, again, eheh) - Plus-size / chubby Copia with tummy and all, being self-conscious, having a down time, and one of the ghouls (any of them) being absolutely obsessed with him? For being soft and hot and just yummy? If you'd be comfortable with this? Please and thank you 🖤 (Also I'm not projecting into anyone in this prompt.) (I might be projecting into both sides of this.)

It was a joke. A self deprecating one, but a joke non the less. And it had made the congregation at mass laugh, all be it an awkward laugh, but it was a laugh and Copia was taking that as a win. 

Dew didn’t find it funny. If he’s being honest he didn’t really understand what Copia was trying to get at, he’d always viewed the man as some above godly creature, so to hear him say something so…low about himself made an uneasy feeling swirl in his belly. 

Dew had waited until the end of mass, until all the ghouls and siblings had made their exit. He waited until Copia was alone at the alter, blowing out candles and clearing up the equipment from the mass. 

He steps up to the alter, glad his mask hides his face because he knows he’s glaring. He clears his throat, making Copia jump and drop the ritual book he was holding. 

“Shit!” He picks up the book, looking sheepishly at Dew. “Don’t tell anyone I dropped that, it’s super old, I'd get in so much trouble.” 

Dew doesn’t respond, just tilts head to the side slightly. Copia doesn’t seem to notice Dew’s lack of response. 

“I didn’t know anyone was still here, normally everyone runs off as soon as it’s over, I’m use to clearing up on my own-“

“Did you mean what you said? That…joke. Did you mean it?” 

Copia looks at Dew with a stunned look on his face. 

“I-I-uh, what? I-didn’t- I don’t know?” His cheeks are getting redder and redder the more he stutters. 

“It’s not a trick question. Did. You. Mean. It?” Dew takes a step forward with word. 

Copia looks scared as he places the heavy book back on the ritual alter. 

“I mean-I guess?” 

Dew tilts his head to the opposite as before, frowning behind his mask.

“Why?” 

“I mean, look at me.” Copia gestures to himself. 

Dew’s frown deepens, not that Copia can see behind his mask. 

“I am looking. I don’t get what I am meant to be be seeing?” 

Copia gestures to himself again.

“All of this. You don’t see it?” 

Dew shakes his head, stepping even closer to the man. 

“You’ll have to be more specific.” 

“This! All of this. Me!” Copia’s voice is louder then he expected, the sound echoing around the empty chapel. “Look at me. Look at this.” He grabs at his stomach through his robes. “This fat that just refuses to leave no matter what I do, in fact, it’s only getting worse! Nothing I do seem to works and I’m just getting…chubbier.” He breathes out.

Dew was even more confused then before. Of course he knew Copia was a little rounder in areas, he’d seen him naked often enough to know, but he’d never thought it could anything bad. He’d always like how soft Copia’s body felt against the sharpness of his own, he liked how warm his skin felt under his touch, how he always knew he effected the older man by seeing the flutter of his belly. He liked tracing the silvery lines that seemed to flow down Copia’s body like little rivers. He never thought these things could be considered bad, he always just viewed them as a part of who Copia was. 

He takes another step forward towards Copia. 

“And that is…bad?” 

“Of course it’s bad!” Copia exclaims, his hands flying out. “I wish-I wish I could look like my brother’s, more muscular, slimmer, more angular, but unfortunately I don’t! I’m stuck looking like this. No matter what I do I’ll always look like this, and I-hmmmugh-“

At some point during copias rant Dew had taken his helmet off, discarding it somewhere on the floor, and cut the man off by forcing their lips together. 

Dew kisses him like he’s starved, pushing him backwards until his back hits the alter. He squeezes at Copias chin, forcing his jaw open and pushed his tongue into his mouth. Copia squeaks as he does, gripping onto Dew’s shoulders for dear life. 

Dew pulls away, a string of saliva connects their lips. “Needed to shut you up.” He pulls him back for another searing kiss before Copia can even respond. 

Dew manages to undo the buttons on Copias robe without him realising until it’s being pushing off his shoulders and onto the floor, leaving Copia stood there in his dress shirt and pants. Copia pulls away from the kiss this time with a squeak as Dew works the buttons of his shirt open.

“I-what? What are you doing?” 

Dew shushes him, pulling his shirt off and letting it fall into a pile onto of his robes. “I don’t need to you speak.” He drops to his knees in between Copia’s legs. “Just need you to listen.” 

He tries working the pants open, growling as the zip gets stuck. He ends up using his claws, shredding the fabric easily, leaving Copia standing before him, panting, in just his boxers. 

“Dew, what-“ Copia gets cut off by his breath hitching as Dew licks a long up the inside of his thigh. “I can’t listen to you comparing yourself to your brother.” He bites down at the flesh at the top of Copia’s thigh. “Especially when you’re so perfect.” 

Copia moans, unable to stop his hips bucking a little. He leans back against the alter more for support. 

Dew grabs at his hips, kneading at the flesh, pulling Copia more towards him. “You don’t see how perfect you are, just as you are.” He sits up more, tracing a stretch mark on Copia’s belly with his touch. He feels him flutter under his touch, trying to keep his breathing even. “Let me show you.” He looks up at Copia. “Let me show you how perfect you are, how much we all love you, how much I love you.” 

Copia whimpers, grabbing at one of Dews horns to try and pull him away. 

“Dew, you don’t- I don’t need you to do that.” 

Dew nips at his belly with a growl, his ears flatting against his head. 

“This is a place of worship, isn’t it?” He gestures around the room.  Copia nods a little nervously, feeling his heart pick up. 

 “So let me worship you.” 

[timetoeatthebread-blog]

Thank you for the delicious food, I'm very much flattered you answered with the chapter, I actually got super giddy because of it haha

Good to hear ;-O

A filler chapter lol, I don't know what I was thinking about revealing that reader is from a different world should have kept it secret for longer, now it's awkward and cringey but I'll roll with it lol

Next chapter is going to make reader and phel closer I promise lol

Aphelios x Reader - "Dreaming of You" (Part 6)

“It’s more like I’ve read about it, Alune,” you took a deep breath and continued, “How much do you and Aphelios know about me?” 

Alune gravitated towards you, closing the distance between the two of you. Her head tilted to the side and her hair soon followed. She soon answered your question. “Little Beam, Mother Moon sent you to us.” 

“Well... I think Mother Moon meant that quite... Literally,” you took a deep breath, ready to explain everything and trying not to sound too crazy. “My guess would be that I’ve been somehow transmigrated or teleported to Ionia, honestly. From a faraway place, of course.” 

Aphelios watched from the corner of his eye as the scene unfolded.  

Alune closed the gap even more, seemingly excited as you revealed that tiny bit of information. She pressed her palms together and closed her eyes. “Mother Moon is amazing, isn’t she?” 

Yeah, Alune wasn’t impressed with your information. Aphelios, however, looked straight at your form. No longer watching from the corner of his eye. He was waiting for you to continue. 

“Yeah... Seems like she holds immense power.” You continued to walk, looking at your surroundings.  

You were back on the original track, the night as vibrant as ever. Not much change could be seen, though. The mountains seemed endless, stretching across the vast field of vision presented before you. You focused on the feeling of the wind as you contemplated your next words. 

“In my world... Runeterra is not real. It’s a story with multiple stories woven into it, deepening the world. So, I guess I’m knowledgeable about many things when it comes to Runeterra, although I can be clueless when it comes to some things.” 

Okay, you lied about it being a part of a story, kind of... Since it’s originally from a game. But you doubted they knew what video games were and you were not ready to open that can of worms yet.  

Alune mused, a quiet hum filling the air. Aphelios offered a raised eyebrow as he looked at you.  

You just walked ahead, putting more strength into your steps.  

“That’s interesting, Little Moonlight. Can you tell me more about the place where you come from?” Alune asked, enthusiasm in her voice as she flew in front of you, stopping you in your tracks.  

“Sure... Where should I start?” You agreed to her request, ready to answer most questions that could be thrown your way.  

You truthfully told her as much as you could about your own world. Information ranging from animals, to nature, to lack of magic and the language and different cultures. She seemed really hung up on the lack of magic, wondering how you could survive. Which led you down another rabbit hole, technology and other advancements humans made over the years. 

Warm sunrays hit your skin as you made your way along the trail. You followed Aphelios obediently, depending on him to lead the way. With how effective today’s hike was, you were already halfway through the way to Weh’le. In turn, it meant that soon enough you would discover what Mother Moon has prepared for you.  

As warm morning sun rays enveloped both you and Aphelios, you enjoyed the tranquility that took over your body. Alune eventually disappeared as she usually did around this time. There was only you and Aphelios at this point.  

Since it was morning, it was time to find a safe space to rest. Not too far away from the main trail, not too sunny. You found a small butte some distance away, enough to cast a shadow over both of you.  

As you placed your things on your right side, your legs could finally rest. Aphelios stood on your left.  

He brought his right hand to his shoulder and massaged it, before leaning against the stone wall and sliding down, until he was finally sitting on the ground under his form. A sight left his lips as he relaxed.  

“Hey, Aphelios.” 

Aphelios looked in your direction, his head tilting to the side as he cranked his neck to look at you.  

“Do you have any questions? About my world. Alune was quite curious, but if there’s anything you want to know, you can just ask.” 

The man looked to the ground, thinking deeply before swinging his head from left to right, clearly signaling that he doesn’t have any questions. A hum leaves his mouth. He leans his head against the wall and closes his eyes, ready to rest. 

[gasha40k]

I have unfortunate news. I think that, in the last three months or so, this has unexpectedly become a Khorne blog. I really and truly did not foresee this when I first started posting. No factions really spoke to me on a grander scale, except for my own. But now I’m actually legitimately obsessed with the World Eaters. To be fair, I guess no loyal servants of the Emperor expect their corrupted descent into Chaos ahead of time. The tragedy is always in the lack of foresight, after all. I don’t think my own dark baptism is anything close to a tragedy, though. I’m having a good time with it so far I think.

Got quite a few things to talk about, but first and foremost, I got my hands on some Valhallan Blizzard and finally finished the bases on the few Berzerkers that I have painted. I’m pretty happy with these! The dry brushed stone beneath the snow gives a sufficient enough impression of, like, a rocky, mountainous environ, and the white contrasts really nicely with the red armor and dark ground, I think.

Initially, I was going to really drench the snow with blood—I think you can see that in a few of the bases that I painted first—but I decided against that after seeing how it actually looked. The bloody snow is a neat effect, for sure, but it’s super eye-catching and makes the minis a little noisy when overdone. In the future, I’ll likely save the blood for the more notable or interesting members of my World Eaters army (likely on characters and standout grunts), so as to make them stand out and add a little bit of base variety to the army.

This is my third time painting an Ultramarine, and my second time painting a dead Ultramarine

Lord Akselos, though, gets next to no blood on his base, so as to make him stand out in an inverse fashion. The snowy, mountainous base here represents the frigid crags of Gorranax, the planet upon which Akselos landed after betraying the Ultramarines on Valefar. Gorranax is also where he would first encounter his Berzerker-Surgeon partner, Kastigor Spineripper, who would eventually be responsible for implanting the Butcher’s Nails within Akselos.

I think his base is probably the best of the bunch. The placement of the snow sort of visually balances the black, swooping cape, and adds some interesting color in that bottom right section, which is a spot where the model is otherwise lacking in visual variety. I’m mad happy with this and glad it looks as cool as it does! And with the base finished and his highlights complete (complete enough for me, at least), Akselos is fully finished, and ready for the tabletop!

I say this all the time but I love this sculpt so much, the 2002 Daemon Prince is the most iconic Daemon Prince—the fella from Dawn of War—even if it is pretty silly looking objectively

Speaking of finishing things, my big boy is finally complete. My ugly, ugly son is painted, based, highlighted, and Ready to KILL. This is, by far, the largest non-flyer model that I’ve finished, and while he definitely isn’t the prettiest or best painted model on the planet, I’m really proud of it. I pulled out all the stops on this model and utilized just about everything I’ve learned about miniature painting in the last few years. I also took a good handful of risks and learned a bit from him, too, and despite it being a kind of treacherous and elongated ordeal, it was a super fun experience painting him up, and I’m glad he’s done with. I did, however, lose the hilt of his sword to my carpet, but I’m working on replacing it with a cool little custom skull hilt, which I’ll post eventually, probably.

But with one big boy done, another boy has filled the empty slot in my to-do list with his huge red bod.

Finally got my hands on Angron, the man himself. I can’t quite describe just how obsessed with this model I am. Not only am I excited to have him because he’s one of my favorite characters in the 40k mythos, but he’s also a fucking Primarch—and a strong one at that—which is something I never thought I’d get to have as a custom Chapter player. All in all, I’m incredibly excited to paint this guy up and get him terrorizing my group on the tabletop.

I did have the opportunity to run a test game with my list on TTS a little while ago, which was both my 2nd ever World Eaters game and my 2nd ever 10th Edition game. Lemme just say about Angron: wow. He barreled into the enemy deployment zone in the first turn of BR1 and immediately mauled an Armiger. As a Space Marines player, I’m very used to none of my units being extraordinarily good at destroying shit, but those days are OVER!!!

Since he’s a big ass model, though, it also means that he’ll be a big ass painting project. I plan on making him a proper centerpiece, and after painting my Daemon Prince, I’m totally confident that I can make him look pretty fancy given a few weeks of work. To make that process easier for me, here’s the subassemblies that I’ll be painting him in.

I also got my hands on some Mephiston Red primer, which I’m using to expedite the painting process. As shown above, I’ve primed

My Khorne collection is getting pretty huge. So huge, in fact, that I now own more Khornate shit than Space Marines, both in bodies and points. My Khorne collection contains:

2,115 points of Adeptus Astartes units

59 individual Astartes models

2,995 points of Khorne units

107 individual Khorne models

Dark baptism confirmed. Corpse worshippers malding.

That being said, I’ve been focusing super hard on my World Eaters recently—mostly for economical reasons—but I’d definitely like to shift focus back onto my Astartes soon. There’s a lot of new, cool kits that I want to get my hands on, and a brand new codex, too. Feels neat having gone through an entire edition. Wonder if I could sell my codex from 9th. My current chore is just to paint my men, as per usual. I have some plans for my Thunderbearers that I’ll post about next.

[thejabber-talkey]

I know I'm mad late to the Priory of the Orange tree craze, but I'm about halfway through and I have thoughts. Specifically thoughts on the religion of the western half of the book's world.

I don't super love how religion is handled in terms of overall rhetoric. The religions on a ground level are really well done; they're realistic and believable without being too direct a rip from existing religions. Though, the Saint and the Virtues are more clearly Christianity than the rest of the other religions are anything else. And I think this really effects how the narrative treats that religion in relation to all the others. I find it really cheap and uninteresting when books have two 'opposing' religions where one is obviously wrong and the other is obviously right. That's not how any religion has ever worked, for starters, and it also lacks nuance. You can tell from the get go that the Saint and Virtues are meant to be the bad/wrong religion. Even if Ead wasn't our primary narrator and perspective into Inys culture, the way things are written have an obvious derision for the Saint. Now, I don't hate the idea of a false religion built on lies, but the way it's set up against the vastly superior and narratively favoured woman-led counter religion is just, well, boring. You have the 'bad' religion founded by a man who is a liar, and the good religion founded by a cool woman. The whole, one religion is good and one is bad just lacks any sense of real intrigue, especially when the book flat out tells you which one is bad and which one is good. I would really love for there to be truth in both the Saint's and the Mother's stories, but I can tell that that's not the direction the book is headed and it bums me out, because it makes the religious divide in the west into obvious moralism that plays on what we as readers are apt to agree with. The rest of the world-building bangs, so why cant we have nuance in the two main religions, too?

The narrative and Ead + the rest of the priory are generally unfairly shitty to those who believe in the Saint. Fuck those guys for believing their religious leader, I guess? It's not like they chose to be lied to, and they don't know any other truth, so having all the other characters treating Inys citizens like deliberately ignorant and hateful doesent have the same punch as if they did know their origins. Getting pissed at another culture for not knowing your real history when you deliberately hide it from everyone is petty, esp when you know they've been lied to for the past thousand years. It also makes Ead's perspective vaguely annoying because she has an obvious bias against the Saint and Inys, which isn't inherently wrong because, again, she follows the good/real religion. But it does feel a bit, i dunno, unfair, because Ead knows they don't know their religion is a lie, and she still thinks poorly of them for it. Like, i cannot emphasize how little empathy is spared to these people who do not know their entire religion a lie, they're just treated how we would treat a nation of christian colonizers. Except, the people of Virtudom aren't colonizers and, I cannot stress this enough, do not know that their religion is wrong, as far as they are aware, it is actual history. I can smell from a while away that Ead is going to convince Sabran to convert, and that Sabran in turn is going to forcibly convert her entire queeendom, because she has that power as a monarch. And the book is going to treat this like a 'good ending' and not the massive cultural and life upheaval it actually is.

The whole 'there is only one right sect of this religion, and all others are inherently bad' thing just reeks of christian rhetoric, even though the 'good' religion is supposed to be from a more Arabic leaning culture. It reads a lot like an ex-christian trying to overcompensate for their former religion, whilst still maintaining all of that religious rhetoric about sin and 'true good' and there being only one right way of life and that the people who don't follow this right way are bad and morally inferior by default.

The book is still great (could use more dragons, tbh, I feel like they oversold how many dragons are in this book) I just hate that one specific narrative aspect.

[incorrect-ikevamp-quotes]

Comte’s Drama CD: Track Two, An Extraordinarily Elegant Awakening

All right, I gotta preface this one with the content warning that it is so domestic fluff it may induce cardiac arrest. I haven’t recovered and it’s been like two months, so take that as you will. The title is pretty self explanatory on this one, in that it’s basically a morning between Comte and MC, and he brings her breakfast in bed.

I will say this one is less meta only because I spent most of it squealing and/or hiding my face in glee LMAO. I’m weak to the man of my dreams, sue me Additionally most of it is just Comte being so on brand of like: “share my time with MC with others????? In my me????? It’s less likely than you think--” That also includes being the most doting and affectionate husband ever, which is the only kind of energy I want in my life. (It keeps making me think of that post that goes something like “goth husbands who are hopelessly in love with their wives is the only vibe I enjoy in hetero couples.”)

Anywho, enjoy the translation and fangirling beneath the cut! I put the sound effects in brackets, because leaving them out felt criminal to Comte stans everywhere~

Mm…morning already…

My dear lover… (HE SAYS ITOSHII WAAAAAAAH)

[chuckle]...You’re still dreaming

…you look awfully happy and cozy. I wonder what kind of dream you’re having?

[giggle] Since your lips are smiling, it must be a nice dream.

Just looking at you is enough to fill me with delight too…

Besides, I can’t help but think I’m the only one who gets to see this cute sleeping face. Just a few more minutes…

Literally what more can be said than him being the sweetest man alive. The affection????? Wants her all to himself as much as possible????? Just waking up to her beside him is enough to make him overjoyed?????? Anybody got some tissues sobsob I just love him sm 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

[kiss sound] To witness this kind of defenseless position is a lover’s privilege alone… (👀)

Since that wasn’t enough to wake you up, I’ll do it again… [kiss sound]

…Oh, [giggle] did you wake up?

Are you awake, princess…? (ohimesama) Good morning~ [kiss sound]

Haha, a good morning kiss was enough to make you blush…you’re so adorable.

With such a sweet greeting, you’ll make me want to do it over and over again.

Okay but I gotta tell y’all. I was re-listening to see if there was anything else I wanted to convey and like. The way his voice is a little sleepy and wispy at the beginning, just super content/relaxed/indulging. Then she wakes up and you can just hear the YAYAYAYAYAYAY SHE’S AWAKE. OKAY, BE CHARMING PERFECT LOVER I WANNA SEE HER BLUSH AAAAAAAAA, and I just. That’s so adorable???? I’m dying????

He’s so playful and giddy????? So many kisses????? Excited for her to wake up????? It’s so bad for my heart???? Truly nobody does romance like them, 11/10 I gleefully kick my feet every time I listen to it. Damn, me too MC, if I woke up to that every morning I would be error 404 shut down blush constantly

Also that first line. For lack of better words to describe my thoughts, BOW CHICKA WOW WOW. But more seriously I do love how much he prizes and respects the vulnerability that’s shared between lovers. This isn’t the first indication of it by far, but something about the deep value he places in intimacy and sincerity shared between them hits different in the best way. I guess, as a pretty serious and sensitive person myself, I can’t help but appreciate the same sentiments reflected in him.

[many, many kisses] Well, if you wanted a deeper kiss, of course I’m happy to oblige…now, what do you want to do? [seductive whisper, Horie-san have mercy]

I’m sorry. Don’t turn away, I won’t tease you anymore (THE WAY HE INSTANTLY BACKTRACKS. WHEN I TELL YOU I WHEEZED AND THEN COOED)

…I’m sorry for being mean. (STOP I’M YELLING THE PLEADING, HONEY YOU DID NOTHING WRONG. I CAN FEEL THE DROOPING DOG EARS)

I don’t mean to make excuses…but I can’t help but think you’re the cutest. (that is the best excuse ever, and in the sexiest pout voice imaginable, you are forgiven)

Now that you’re awake, let’s have breakfast soon…I know, would you like to have breakfast in bed?

[chuckle] Well...because I still want to have you all to myself. [kiss sound, more sultry murmur] It’s okay once in a while, isn’t it?

I can’t get over how fast he’s like masaka when she turns around because she’s overwhelmed by his teasing, it’s so funny to me. She’s not mad, Comte!!! You’re just too powerful!!! Have mercy, she's just a human woman!!!! And not only that, he tells her two seconds later he wants her all to himself. When I say he has me by the throat, figuratively ofc because SOMEBODY keeps his fangs to himself--

If that’s the case…I’ll get breakfast ready then.

You should stay in bed a little longer, I’ll be right back.

--------------------------------------------------------------

Is it alright if I come in?

Sorry for the delay, I’ve brought you breakfast.

A freshly baked baguette, and omelets from Sebastian--

and our favorite morning teas, of course.

It’s a special breakfast for an exceptionally elegant morning.

Okay the way I snickered when he mentioned the baguette, the man really do be like “world cold and sad, baguette warm and soft.” Is this part of why he’s obsessed with MC’s thighs?

Come on over and eat. I’ll feed you, so open wide.

We’ll start with the omelet…it was just finished, so we’ll have to cool it down first.

[He’s blowing on it lmfao]

[laughter] There’s no need to be embarrassed, is there? It’s just me and you here. Come now, don’t be shy…

[chuckle]….That’s a good girl. Yes, aaah…

[laughter]…Ah, I’m sorry. You just look so pleased to eat it, I can’t help but wonder.

You taught me that smiles can even emerge in such everyday moments. (the fondness in his voice I 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭)

Yes, next time I’ll feed you potage…aaah (OPPORTUNIST Ò//Ó)

…is it good? Haha, [BOYISH LAUGHTER SCREAMING CRYING THROWING UP] that’s good. I’m glad you like it.

I can’t believe I get to see your happy face this close first thing in the morning…I think today will be a good day.

I’ve specially planned our day together today, so I hope you enjoy it.

…let’s have a great day together, shall we? [kiss sound]

Honestly MC deserves more credit for not imploding on the spot, I know I’m not strong enough to be faced with all that and not literally become the PANIK meme. I love him more than life itself but that does not mean I’m ready to be doted on--

I have to say though, I really am touched by relationships that are built on little, day-to-day pleasures like this. The way he’s just happy to share mundane things with her, that every day together is a gift. The idea that her smile is enough, that he simply loves to be with her and look after her. Every time Comte manages to far exceed my expectations. (KING OUR EXPECTATIONS WERE ON THE FLOOR AND Y E T--) Well played, monsieur, well played. I concede defeat 👑

[withgreatpowercomesmyfuckingdick]

GENESIS CHAPTER!!! YESSSSSSS MY BOYY

Genesis is a hate-reader 🍷 Canon to me. I'm also glad you give him time to shine as a strategist, like, he IS a caster and one of the most proficient SOLDIERs in existence 💅stands to reason he does have to think things through on the battlefield and this isn't addressed nearly enough imo.

Zack "I'm not traumatized 😀" Fair is breaking my heart here. Both Cloud and Zack get to miraculously be together after losing the other, but the fear is fresh in Zack's mind. And unfortunately due to the rapidly developing situation (SCREAMS) he doesn't really have time to process and address it, and that's assuming he isn't avoiding doing so like the plague because Cloud's alive so everything's fine now right? 😀 Except it's super not and now Zack is the only one who really knows how not fine it is 💔

Speaking of not addressing emotions lol Angeal is in full repression mode and Sephiroth is isolatinggg 😬 I know how easy it is to withdraw when you're used to not having anyone there for you, when you have to figure out and manage everything yourself regardless of how unequipped you are for the task, but I also feel for Genesis here because it really does take a lot of work to gently coax people out of that over and over again. I like how you're addressing this in general, but especially from this pov! I really feel Genesis' frustration here. He knows it would get better if Seph just came home 😥

I really enjoyed the intel gathering scene with Bolin 👌👌👌 You're really serving up top shelf Genesis in this chapter and it's delightful to watch! But Camp 28 is stressing me tf out agagshshshshs Zack is somewhat reassured for now but even Kenny is worried about Cloud's lack of self preservation (physically and emotionally damn) and he doesn't even know how bad of a situation they're walking into! Though no one really knows and that's kind of the problem, but I love Kenny and I want him to survive this 😭 He needs to survive so he can be brave and trust Juvie with the kids!

Speaking of kids, CLAUDIA IS SO PRECIOUS I CANT 💕 I'm as bad as Vincent at this point. Claudia deserves the world (and she doesn't even exist anymore.. I will never be ok again 🫠)

I'm a little worried about whatever Genesis has planned to address the Camp 28 situation, because, well, it's Genesis lol but at the same time I love his constant rebellion against being told "no" 💅

Thanks for the amazing chapter!!!! Time to reread the whole thing again to distract myself from the incredible suspense of what's to come 😁🍿

HI HI HI THANKS FOR LEAVING ME THIS TO WAKE UP TO!!!

Genesis being a strategist just makes sense to me. Like. The man led a rebellion against Shinra that turned into a straight up war, waged it for a decent amount of time, and managed to not immediately get eradicated. That in itself says the man’s got SOME brains on him lol

Yeahhh Zack’s still in the “just happy Spike’s here” stage and honestly doesn’t even realize what he’s doing. The weight of carrying Cloud’s secret is kinda trumping his own emotions in importance, which miiiiiight not be good :/

It’s kind of sad when, to an extent, Genesis is being the most emotionally intelligent among them. I mean. Seriously. Genesis? Same guy that thought talking Sephiroth into insanity would make the dude help heal him? Yeah if he’s the smartest emotionally everyone needs some DIRE help.

But also guess what conflict is going to be resolved next chapter because I like making Seph suffer but not THAT damn much? Angeal’s repression might take a bit longer but gimme a second there’s five character arcs going on at once 😂

Camp 28 is, if you guys didn’t notice, another parade situation, except I’m dragging it out for effect LMAO. It obviously isn’t exactly the same but…well, you’ll see ;) Kenny’s just trying to look out for a buddy :( Cloud’s doing the same thing, just like…way more risky and possibly self destructive. Immortality went RIGHT to his head IMMEDIATELY

Cloud says it’s his daughter but that’s OUR DAUGHTER!!!

And like you said lmao—

Sephiroth: Genesis, no

Genesis: is that a fucking challenge

Nah seriously like, Genesis and ‘letting that slide’ don’t go in a sentence together. it’s just

Genesis, squinting at Camp 28: I don’t know what the fuck’s going on but TRUST you will be dealt with

Feel AWFUL for leaving this answer to you in my drafts for like…for fucking ever 😭 But thanks for leaving me this lovely!!! Always encouraging to read a lil smth from you 🖤🖤🖤

[carewyncromwell]

“I’ve always been a smart girl... Always made the grade -- always got the gold star -- I’ve always been a smart girl, But ‘smart girl’ only gets a girl so far... You win at every single game... You want a quest -- they tell you, ‘tough!’ If you don't go, you'll never know If you’ll ever be good enough...”

~“My Grand Plan” from The Lightning Thief (musical)

x~x~x~x

Hey all! I thought I’d go ahead and draw up a proper concept for my HPMA girl Anastasia “Ana” Read, since quite frankly I never envisioned her as skinny, short, or talkative as MC in the game is. The lack of body diversity in the MC’s models in particular, or even among MC’s friends, is actually one of my biggest hang-ups with all of the recent Hogwarts games...as much as I understand up to a point thinking it’d be difficult to program a lot of different outfits or animations for different size models, it’s still a little sad to me how the player character is always programmed to be skinny, and in Magic Awakened in particular, that favoring of skinny character designs is only accented all the more thanks to the quasi-Tim-Burton-esque animation style, which favors toothpick-thin necks and limbs. It’s one of the few aspects of poor representation in Rowling’s original books that I would argue these recent games haven’t tried as hard to address -- we’ve seen attempts at more LGBT+ representation, as well as more positive representation for different cultural backgrounds and disabilities (especially in Hogwarts Mystery), but not as much in regards to rounder body types. And I guess for me, being raised by a woman who struggled with her weight her entire life, that’s a little sad. Regardless, it was nice to draw Ana again after such a long time, particularly using the original game’s model as a kick-off point!

If you’d like to learn more about my “Strong But Silent,” daydreamer, Sailor-Moon-loving girl Ana, here’s a masterpost of links to get you started!! Enclosed under the cut is the original unedited sketch, embellished with some extra messy chibi doodles of Ana I did on the same page, in case you’re interested!

Ana’s Moodboard

Ana’s Intro Post and Model Sheet

Ana’s Playlist

Meet Ana’s awesome step-dad, Bradley!

See Ana’s dynamic with her stepdad and stepbrothers!

Bradley’s Moodboard

Preston’s Moodboard

Jasper’s Moodboard

Why Bradley is the best dad ever

The first doodle is kind of based on that first pair of duels with the Frey twins and Cassandra Vole in the game. As I discussed with my friend @dat-silvers-girl​, I see Ana being suuuuper quiet the entire time, to the point that everyone thinks she’s really shy or nervous, until she -- seemingly out of nowhere -- uses Wingardium Leviosa to levitate poor Colby a good five feet off the ground and then abruptly drop him, effectively putting an end to the duel before it even got started. (As it turned out, Ana was really inspired by Flitwick’s story about Ron Weasley using the spell on that mountain troll to protect his friends and worked super hard to master the spell herself, with the thought that maybe she could do something that cool someday. It ends up becoming one of Ana’s favorite spells to duel with, though she usually uses it to levitate herself over her opponents to give herself the literal “high ground.”) Ana accepted Cassandra’s invitation to the Dueling Club, as well as challenges Cassandra on the dueling field several more times over the years, out of her strong sense of honor, which is funnily enough rather akin a knight’s -- Ana will never back down from a challenge, and if her loved ones or her view of common decency have been insulted, she will absolutely ask to “take it outside” and fight the dispute out on the dueling field, rather than insult the person back, ignore them, or actively lose her temper and attack them straight out. 

The second doodle is Ana in class, a good chunk of the time. Ana isn’t actually that shy, nor is she stuck-up, but she’s much better at writing eloquent essays than coming up with witty phrases or sassy one-liners on a whim. And because of how incredibly sensitive she secretly is (and the bullying she experienced for both her magic and her weight), she’s actually kind of hard to get to know, preferring the company of her fiction books to lots of people. She’s honestly a true “Belle” type, if one thinks of Beauty and the Beast, despite being in the house of Lions.

The last doodle is of Ana with Daniel Page, because, amazingly, these two are on the exact same wave length when it comes to the Statute of Secrecy, though for very different reasons! Ana’s stepfather, Bradley Pinkstone, is a pro-Muggle and Squib rights activist who passionately believes that the Wizarding World should find a way to work alongside the Muggle World, to the extent that the Statute of Secrecy isn’t necessary -- he and his sons even work in a theater alongside Muggles everyday, embracing Muggle technology just as much as they do magic! With Ana being Muggle-born herself, she’s likewise very supportive of the thought that if the two worlds knew more about each other, other little magical kids wouldn’t have to grow up feeling like freaks and outcasts the way she did. That doesn’t mean that Ana would ultimately agree with NOTME’s tactics, though -- she thinks there’s a very big difference between protesting against an unjust law and causing abject terror and chaos. (I personally see Daniel as more of a Ravenclaw/Slytherin type than a Gryffindor type myself, but that’s just my headcanon.)

[tdoong15]

Toddler!Sana little!Jeonghyo Cg!Nayeon

Warnings: none

Adventures with mommy

Everything seemed to be fine throughout the dorm, everyone was doing something productive, well almost everyone, the same thing can't be said about Sana, who was constantly prodding Nayeon's arm to get her attention. She wasn't alone in this either because right behind her was Jeongyeon and Jihyo who just decided to tag along because they wanted to be with their big sister and Mommy today.

"Hey, hey, hey, hey. Mommy, mommy, mommy. " Sana repeated numerous times, she huffs slightly when Nayeon doesn't pay attention to her. "Mommy if you don't look at me I'll... I'll eat all of the icing!" She warns Nayeon, Sana also had a very serious look on her face. Sana's words made Nayeon make a confused and surprised face. "Sana, please don't eat the icing, I promise to play with you later I just need to deal with this very challenging task." Nayeon explains, the task was actually having to deal with vegetables.

"Well be fast 'cause Jeongie and Hyo want to play too" Sana responds and moves out of the way to reveal Jeongyeon and Jihyo sitting on the floor. Nayeon looks at the vegetables and then at the three regressed girls then back at the vegetables, she then places the veg in a plastic freezer bag on the counter. "I guess that the task can wait until later. Anyway let's have some fun!" Nayeon grins widely when she hears the girls cheer because they're glad that they could be with their mommy.

"What should we do first?" Nayeon wanted to know what the girls wanted so she wouldn't make any of them upset with what she would have chosen. "Pawk!" Jeongyeon yells passionately, she was very determined to go to the park. Jihyo had jumped slightly but she agreed with Jeongyeon. "Let's go to the park, mommy" Sana smiles and Nayeon nods in agreement. "Alright then we can go to the park. And I'll let you pick out your favorite plushy to join us" Sana, Jihyo and Jeongyeon all gasps in surprise and ran to their rooms to grab a toy.

Jihyo was the first one to return. " 'Dis is Bbuyo" She holds up the elephant plushy that she had named after her cat. "Woah cool Ji" Jeongyeon said when she came back with her plushy of Russel from the TV show Paw Patrol. Sana came back with a complete outfit change, it was a princess dress because she felt like she needs to look like the prettiest girl at the park, and a Barbie doll that kinda looked like the Cynthia doll from Rugrats. "I'm ready, let's go!" Sana says in a cheerful tone.

With the fact that all of the girls are ready, Nayeon leads Jeongyeon, Sana and Jihyo out of the front door and to the park. Thankfully the walk to the park is only a short distance and it wasn't long before the regressed girls played their own rendition of Superheroes with their plushies and doll. Nayeon, watched them play with a smile evident on her face, she also thought that she wouldn't be involved with the game that was until she was being attacked by 2 plush toys and a hard plastic doll.

"Ahhh! I surrender you guys win!" Nayeon says in hopes that the attacks would stop, and they surprisingly did. "Yay we win against the evil bunny! Good job gang." Sana exclaims which makes Jihyo and Jeongyeon cheer at their victory. "So what are your characters superpowers?" Nayeon questions, which makes Jeongyeon, Sana and Jihyo huddle together and whisper what they should do.

"Okay I'll start first since I'm the leader" Sana clears her throat before continuing "This is Barb and her power is her hair" She explains very seriously, Nayeon was very skeptical of the hair power since it was the thing that the doll lacked but she didn't question Sana because she was happy. "Bbuyo's power is everythin' super powerful" Jihyo gives a very simple but effective explanation of basically calling her plushy Elephant an all powerful God. "Wubble's is the 'Wolling attack'!" Jeongyeon says passionately like Rubble was the most powerful hero out of all three of them.

"Woah they're all amazing, guys. How about we all go home and watch a movie together? I know that these superheroes must be very tired after all of the crime fighting they've done. " Nayeon goes along with them since why should she be the one to spoil their fun. "Yeah let's watch Robin Hood, but only the cartoon one" Sana gives her idea before anyone else, Jeongyeon and Jihyo agreed but that was only because all of the running around had made them tired plus Robin Hood is a very good movie.

And with that, Nayeon picked up Jeongyeon and Jihyo and placed them on each hip before she walked home with Sana slightly in front of her so she could keep an eye on her. When they reached the dorm again, Nayeon sorted everything out before she went to the living room and put on Robin Hood. She also had completely forgotten about the vegetables from earlier.

Hii I decided to write this during my break at college since I had a lot of time to do it lol. Also if you have never seen Rugrats this is what Cynthia looked like.

I hope you guys all have an amazing day/evening/night. :)

[hoardlikegoldenirises]

*edited Sept 2023: alternate version of agony because it bugs me how much the original one looks like a penis in this color scheme.

**edited Jan 2024: added another costume for him to use in a different post: (link)

***EDITED AGAIN Feb 2024: to be actually up to date for the years, including the black suit in late 2015/early 2016, between the pink tarantula and the fully pink shocking pink spider costume. Also made some new updates to the styling of the suit because I'd been avoiding figuring out how to give him a more practical suit. Now it's more practical.

agony is still just a hypothetical but I am not removing it from this post.

Anyway here he is, the one with a dedicated color scheme

obvs this uses the costumes i designed from (this post) but like ben's have been modified a teensy bit as i thought of small details i liked better or changed the soles etc. plus some minor additions like the fact that kaine doesn't have *checks notes* fingerprints

closeups under the readmore:

woo

kaine's face is real fucked up esp early on, just fyi

this is early one when Kaine is still only like... two years old (well, he's like, 24 physically and mentally, but Technically—)

anyway kaine only gets this outfit after a couple years, when warren sends him out to threaten peter's loved ones as leverage to get peter to cooperate/surrender. before this he mostly only wore hospital clothes.

he's pretty lean at this point but def buff.

because of this fact kaine doesn't know how to tie his own shoes at first (but he figures it out) (he has a lot of amnesia so peter's memories aren't necessarily super helpful and the muscle memory is lacking i guess)

anyway the one (1) outfit warren gets him is probably all from an army surplus store or a thrift store or something, like the salvation army or w/e

(that's how you know he's evil)

i gave kaine's other suits vibram soles on purpose but this one was totally on accident, i was just looking for american army-issue boots that came in black and the ones i found happened to have vibram soles.

After Kaine is rescued/escapes/starts hunting Ben down for reasons, he ditches the balaclava and starts growing his hair and scraggly beard out and steals a couple of other clothing items including a hot pink rain coat. His hair is greasy.

Also at that point he's homeless and his only source of medication is *squints* stealing ibuprofen and pepto bismol, so he's not doing so hot in general 😅 but at least he has ~bodily autonomy~ while wasting away.

he probably also kills some people (aside from Louise i mean) 🤷

i haven't been very consistent about what marks, wounds and scars go where (except for some of his burn scars) but i was reading some wikipedia pages and decided i think probably a lot of the open sores and other things follow Blaschko's lines but maybe not all of them.

so in spring 2014 after the aforementioned Lost Years and Redemption-based stuff, Kaine ends up leaving the country after making himself a costume, which is, of course, pink, and probably mostly stolen fabric.

His mask is like the Tarantula's 100% on purpose cause it ties into a little subplot where he goes to Medellín, in Colombia, gets mistaken for a member of the Tarantula's (Jacinda's) gang whilst minding his own damn business, and ends up dubbed the Pink Tarantula (aka La Tarántula Rosa) because of it. which he thinks is annoying but what can you do

Also he gets braces in Colombia after he starts stealing from rich tourists. i would say not so much out of vanity as much as the fact that his teeth need some help straightening themselves out after being physically (etc) abused by Warren for 3 years but it's probably both. but, you know, it's easier to chew when your teeth aren't aligned like a broken cartoon piano.

He also gets a whole new medical regimen while he's down there so he looks slightly less like a decaying corpse though he's def still plagued by clone degeneration side effects and feels like death a lot of the time but... better than before lol

Only vomiting blood SOMETIMES and not every day

color matched soles—i saw these and was like omg... they're perfect... black and pink... (in your area) has been updated to be boots which I'll admit make him look extra Tarantula-y...

Suit has been updated to be a two-piece so that Kaine can like. go to the bathroom without getting naked. Now it's a leotard which has been DIY'd to have a snap crotch (thus the back zipper).

it's regular ol' spandex... maybe with a slight metallic sheen of bluish idk... not the best material but he was just taking what he could get at the time.

gloves. modified work gloves from before, and then some uh... well they're pole-dancing gloves to be perfectly honest, but i picked the style because they have a very low cut on the hand and i want as much room as possible for his spikes—could i simply handwave it and say all he needs is a hole in his sleeve, probably, but where's the fun in that.

if i can't overthink logistics i'll die—anyway in this AU the spikes are a direct malfunction of a spinneret organ that Warren tries to give him, and which Warren does successfully give Ben (who has organic webbing). Kaine's don't work right so instead of webbing he makes spikes. they come out of his wrist and it's hard for me to draw 😂

black suit

(this black suit has a separate post cause it's new) another leotard over tights. less visible since it's black.

it's black. it's gothy. etc.

this is a repurposed suit i was originally gonna give to peter but i changed my mind, adjusted some minor details, and am giving it to kaine instead.

and he'll swap to the pink suit after he stops shaving his head—v

At a certain point Kaine stops shaving his head and starts wearing a new costume including a new mask... same old same old— expensive fire resistant materials etc.

i just reused the texture overlay from peter's FR suit for this. stretch nomex blend, basically. very durable, fire resistant, but still stretchy.

OBVIOUSLY this suit is HEAVILY inspired by his red and black Scarlet Spider costume but I modified it a bit in terms of color and some of the patterning (like black arms), to make it pink, because... I think he should wear pink lol and I didn't include his tattered pink cape (i know, tragic) so I had to include something other than the rain coat

it's not a high tech stealth suit though. just regular expensive fabric.

Also updated the logo and has been made mroe practical now—it's tights over a snap-crotch leotard which, of course, means that all three of the boys are rocking the same setup, just in different ways. Even Ben, underneath his hoodie. lol

Also, as i mentioned before, he has no fingerprints this whole time. because his palm is melted from using the mark of caine/kaine.

lol.

oh and his new gloves are made of lambskin and calfskin with perforations to make them more breathable. the claws are probably metal or something though idk.

he does have to take his gloves off to use his mark, though, which is true the entire time. it doesn't work well through fabric (though depends on the fabric) and if it did activate it would probably just burn or destroy anything on his hand since it's essentially just an exothermic chemical reaction related to his wrist spikes rather than... uh... magic? or whatever the 616 version is 😂 i mean lbr it's still basically magic bullshit though but i have pseudo-scientific basis for it (it's superglue)

the whole thing is intended to be durable. still has to get naked to use the bathroom though lmao

these are also vibram soles. my reasoning behind this was that (i was tired of trying to make up new sole designs) he just buys shoes and takes the soles out, modifies them if he needs to, and attaches them to his suits by hand, either with sewing or glue or both.

decided to update these into boots.

also I originally wrote he has thermasilk underwear under this suit but I think I'm gonna ditch that.

here is a bonus of what the mask would be like for the above costume if he was still buzzing:

also yeah he doesn't have web-shooters, because of his spikes, OR organic webbing, also because of his spikes, so he is a mostly parkour-based spider-man XD but he can still stick to walls and stuff since that's a different mechanism (electrostatic)

the real reason of course is that i was trying to come up with a design that would let me keep the lenses and also his beautiful long hair LMAO

(for a different design my approach was adhesive lenses which is also what felicia uses)

(speaking of that design i did recycle the body for this:)

AGONY!!

IDK if I'll actually use this, it was mostly for fun as I was thinking about how I could prevent Kaine from... uh... dropping dead and I was like. oh symbiote. Literally their whole thing in this setting is they originated as a medical thing so a symbiote is perfectly suited to Kaine's autoimmune dysfunctions etc.

And then I was like, hm which symbiote though? and then I was on the wiki page of symbiotes and was like, oh, Agony, duh lol she even has acid??? (not that kaine's mark is acid but, still)

also, you know, pink. (and purple since the color of Agony seems to vary slightly depending on artist team, host etc. so i decided to use both)

so i ended up with possibly the most glam rock hair metal blacklight poster symbiote-host pairing I've ever drawn in my life

and of course i couldn't resist making them just a little bit glossy.

like every symbiote, is expressive, but kaine... isn't, so. you know. they're pretty much always glaring.

alternately could go without the hair for a sleeker spider-man look i suppose.

i wanna say by this point he's gained some weight as well. I did slightly modify the lineart so that the Agony "suit" is slightly more solid than the Pink Tarantula suits and before but...

lbr... very minimal difference in the lineup lol which bugs me but... you know. would prob be more of a difference if i was drawing it from scratch for each one instead of editing an existing drawing. he should be slightly less skinny—he's def huge either way tho just by virtue of being 6'4".

long pretty hair... post 2015 prob. The hair color isn't quite right (his hair is supposed to be a little lighter and redder than Peter's) but I don't care enough to change it.

he is missing a piece of his ear, yes.

anyway his hair grows super fast:

terminal length is to his knees as an adult, ~5 feet long ish... technically longer since it's curly and doesn't hang as far down.

here is a bonus pic of him and Aracely from a drawing I have not finished yet which is basically just size comparison with a McLaren 650S lmao. that would be 2015 in-universe probably.

also for the others:

Peter's high school and college suits: link

Peter's post-college/FF/late 20s suits: link

Peter's 30s-40s/post-Aunt May death suits: link

Ben's suits: link

Kaine's 2020s cape costume: link

[chocolatey-umbreon]

TMA Season 5 Live Blog

Episode 166 - Worms

I love Helen. and I love Martin being ready to cheer on Jon killing every single thing that causes fear now that we know he can lol. Obviously he’s also scared of Jon’s power but it’s fun to hear him so supportive of a murder spree.

The description about the Buried was good, but not my favorite yet. With the previous three I’ve come out satisfied that I now have a more profound understanding of the Fear, or at least I’ve felt it deeper than ever before, but in this case I think it doesn’t top other episodes that center on the Buried that I like (the one where Jon goes rescue Daisy from within the coffin and one where there’s this huge flood taking over a city. oh and also Gravedigger’s envy). I don’t know why but I felt like with those others I felt a certain comfort in the pressure that paired with the dread and the claustrophobia, which was a super fun combination. Maybe I just didn’t pay enough attention in this one but I think I felt more emotions and deeper ones then.

The part where Sam and Richard fight to the death over a tunnel felt unnecessary to me. We already had that in the previous episode with everyone fighting each other for a face and it was great then already. I guess it makes sense to bring up how the lack of space also means that there’s no room for others, for empathy or companionship, so it’s either you or me here. But I still didn’t love it. Maybe I’d prefer it if Sam had to hurt the other in some way that left them suffering, for his own benefit, that wasn’t literally killing them.

In this episode there’s also a bit of stolen spotlight by the Eye. The description features a couple mentions of the worm feeling watched and I think it’s cool, it’s fun to continue this idea from the last episode that the Eye is still ruling over everything and it’s all just for it. I liked the part about there not being an actual Sun because there’s only what light is enough to allow the horrors to be seen, and the worm doesn’t know this and continues dreaming of the sky. I think that would have been enough of a nod to the Eye during Jon’s recording? I don’t know.

The bit about Annabelle Cane has me thinking. Clearly if there’s a Fear that matches or even surpasses the Eye’s power it’s the Spider. Elias had adviced them to mostly leave the Spider alone because there’s no point, but I’m not sure I believe he had no plan for it, since he had years to figure out every detail of his takeover. I don’t think he intended to just take the “approval” he interpreted from Jon coming to him marked by it and leave it be. Or idk, maybe he did and that will be his downfall?

The possibilities between the Spider and the Eye are so intriguing to me. They’re both apparently passive, but in reality their actions are indirect, staying hidden and both manipulating and watching from the side. The contrast lies in how the Spider relies on not being seen or known— it is the fear of the strings being there without your knowledge; Annabelle says that the illusion of free will comes from ignorance of all the little factors that actually control you—, while the Eye must see and know. So how would they interact?

I have no idea what Annabelle’s intentions are but I assume she’s addressing Martin because it’ll be more effective to get to Jon than going to Jon directly. But what for…

[anexlomara]

TOTK doesn't really feel like a sequel.

Now don't get me wrong, it's an amazing game. Within the first 5 or so hours of playing, it shot up to my top 3 games of all time, just behind Portal 2 and Super Mario Galaxy 2. Guess I have a thing for sequels. That said, TOTK functions less like a sequel to BOTW and more like a remix, taking what BOTW laid as groundwork to change and rework into a wholly new experience.

Now TOTK as a game has its roots as DLC for BOTW, with the development team having too many ideas to put into the game as DLC, so they decided to start on a whole new game. This presents an opportunity to take what worked with BOTW and build off of it and to take some of the criticisms of it and rework those aspects, to varying degrees of success. For example, BOTW's massive open world was both a source of praise and complaint from the audience, with many praising the new direction for the series and some complaining that the world was too empty with not enough to do in the world. The development team for TOTK seems to have taken both statements to heart, effectively doubling or tripling the world size with the additions of the sky islands and the Depths, but also reworking the world to have more interesting places to explore, like the myriad of cave systems and mines. This is what many sequels attempt to do, double down on what worked and fix what didn't about the previous installment.

But TOTK doesn't just do this, it also removes aspects of the world that BOTW went to great lengths to introduce as integral to the world. The Sheikah Tribe is a major piece of the story of BOTW, with its ancient tech being the catalyst for the setting and how the player/Link interacts mechanically with the game via the Sheikah Slate. Their towers are how you acquire the game's map, their Guardians are a constant threat, and their Divine Beasts serve as the games dungeons. In TOTK, while the Sheikah Tribe exists as an entity, their technology and role in the story are massively reduced, with incredibly little of their tech remaining in the world with no explanation as to where it went. Now this is obviously to make room for the new focus on the Zonai and their technology, but without an explanation, it feels like there is a lack of context/information to what happened in between the two games.

So what do I mean by TOTK feels like a remix. Well, it's what it shares with BOTW and the changes to what they share that gives me this feeling. Take the Shrines for example, in BOTW, they are Sheikah technology rising out of the earth, as most Sheikah tech was unearthed; but in TOTK, they are now Zonai tech, falling from the sky with the coming of the sky islands, and not only that, they are in new locations, resetting the puzzles and exploration needed to find them. For another example, the powers Link acquires in TOTK are similar, but differ from the ones in BOTW. Ultra Hand is incredibly similar to BOTW's Magnesis, but allows much more freedom in with you can interact with and how. None of the other powers have good equivalents across games however, with the dev team seemingly wanting to try new ideas with how Link can interact with the world.

As said at the top of this post/essay, TOTK is an amazing game. It expands on both the lore and mechanics of BOTW and the Zelda franchise as a whole. If BOTW was a testing ground for a new way to play Zelda, TOTK is the logical next step, remixing and reworking the lore, mechanics, and world of BOTW into something wholly new yet incredibly familiar.