cricketwashburn

[incorrectsmashbrosquotes]

Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition

...Nintendo, it's a Tuesday of no particular importance. YOU CAN'T JUST DROP THIS IN MY LAP WITH NO WARNING AND EXPECT ME TO BE NORMAL ABOUT IT!

IT'S HERE! IT'S COMING TO SWITCH! AT LONG FUCKING LAST! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

[bridoesotherjunk]

[500-moths-in-a-trenchcoat]

GET OUT YOUR JACK O' MELONS TUMBLR SUMMERWEEN IS UPON US ONCE MORE

[crescencestudio]

Alaris: A Story of the Stars

Enhanced Demo Out Now

Enter a world of magic—of Fae and Dragon.

A global crisis that only continues to escalate. A dangerous run-in with a shadowy stranger. And a mysterious word that won't stop gnawing at you. How does everything tie together? And what role could you possibly play in all of this? 

Features

Aside from my blood and remnants of my soul, the New Alaris Demo contains:

A Customizable Protagonist: Choose your name and pronouns (including a whole new Expanded Pronouns system)

Personality: Shape your personality with four different traits and watch how the world interacts with it. Punch people, scare people, live your life how You Want!

Free Time: Choose from four locations and go on a date of your choosing with any of our love interests.

Affection & Stats Screens: Check how much the LIs are interested in you and what your personality looks like!

Communicator Interface: Improved messaging and calling features

Energy Vision: Tap into one of the MC's special abilities to see the different auras of the cast.

Memories: Revisit free time dates and let our love interests woo you as many times as you'd like.

Extended Music Room: Listen to the custom Alaris OST

Partial Voice Acting: Hear the characters come to life through the talented cast for the LIs

Updated Art Assets: All new sprite, CG, prologue, background, and GUI art (basically Everything looks Different).

If you played the old demo, the new one is Very Different! While the general story is the same, many features have been revamped to create a New Player Experience.

❝ Not all mysteries... ❞  

Some mysteries, beyond man, have no logic, have no fate. In the face of such, keep your wits close, but do not trust them.  Trust not yourself, nor your senses. Your time, nor your wit.

For where time has stopped, but its flow has no end.  For when passion calls, but hate runs deep.

Heed this warning, and do not wait.  For laws of nature and laws of man.  Have no logic, and have no weight."

❝ ...can be explained by the logic of man. ❞

[rocktavian]

[dramashii]

Aunt Mi Sook gave me your wedding invitation. She offered to buy my plane ticket, but I think I'll be too busy to make it.

LOVE NEXT DOOR (2024) | Ep 1

[tuttle-did-it]

HAPPY THRESHOLD DAY LADS

[snow-white-shadow]

I'M SO HYPED, GUYS

[ronancecats]

So I'm going to point out something I haven't seen many people point out and that's the significance of Nancy spilling the punch on herself in s2.

It's meant to represent blood, more specifically, Barb's blood, and it was spilled on her during her monologue scene about her survivor's guilt, meaning it's used as a physical reminder of her guilt.

When I first watched this scene, back when s2 came out, I didn't understand why they included the punch. It wasn't for comedy, so at the time I thought it was just an unnecessary scene. However, when I rewatched it, I understood why it was added and why it was spilled at the party. It was meant to remind us as an audience that Nancy associates letting loose with losing Barb.

And the fact it was spilled on a white shirt, is even more brilliant. Nancy was seen as "perfect" before everything unfolded, however, losing Barb was the thing that made her "imperfect". (Aka, her white shirt being stained by a red liquid and never being completely white again)

Also, the spill happens when Steve tries to grab her but the punch ONLY gets on her. Which I think represents that she doesn't blame Steve for Barb's death, only herself. Then, when Steve offers to help her get it off, she says she's got it, meaning she'd rather deal with her guilt by herself.

And I feel like the fact Natalia said, "We had to get the spill just right," in that one interview, just proves that the duffers included this scene to represent exactly that.

This also adds evidence to why Stancy won't be happening because during her bathroom monologue, there's that constant physical reminder of losing Barb on her shirt, on her chest, over her heart. She will always think of Barb when she thinks of her relationship with Steve, and that's proof, as well as the fact her and Steve's sex scene kept cutting to Barb's death, and the fact her Vecna vision started with that.

I also feel the bow on her outfit could represent Nancy feeling choked with guilt, or her relationship with Steve, but that feels like a bit of a reach, but I still think about it.

I hope this makes sense because this makes SO MUCH sense to me.

[stellesappho]

i wanna live in a land of lakes where the great waves break and the night runs right into the day i wanna be with ones i left - i will be back one day by lord huron

[maybe-im-dark]

Brotherly reunion

Part 1

----

The alley was dark, cast in a murky orange glow from a single flickering streetlight, as Wade strolled down the cobbled path. The TVA had messaged him; apparently the whole time ripper thing had caused an anomaly in one of the timelines and someone had escaped and made their way into theirs. Someone related to Logan, as far as they could tell. So before they pruned them, they wanted him to check it out. Wade hadn’t told Logan about this. He didn’t want him being confronted with his past again, now that he had settled in.

Wade squinted, trying to make out the figure lurking in the shadows, leaning against the brick wall. As he approached, the shape became clearer—a towering man, dark and broad, with muscles that strained beneath a well-worn black coat. His arms, though intimidating, showed a hint of age; the forearms, visible under the rolled cuffs of his sleeves, were scarred and slightly weathered, veins prominent under his skin. There was a streak of grey in his otherwise dark hair, and deep lines creased his forehead and circled his eyes, telling a story of years hard-lived. Wade noticed a slight bulge over the waistband of his black pants, not quite hidden by the coat that had seen better days.

But the smell—that was what hit Wade first. A pungent blend of old, cracked leather, metallic blood, and stale sweat, lingering like a storm cloud over the man. He wrinkled his nose and wondered how he hadn’t been affected by the Transigen GMO's, since he was from the old timeline. He probably had been hunting animals, living off raw meat and not been eating processed food with cornsyrup in it.

„Victor Creed,“ Wade said, drawing the name out with a grin. “Figures that it’s you.”

Victor’s eyes narrowed, a flicker of confusion crossing his face before the aggression returned, his jaw clenched tightly. “You…” His gaze shifted, lingering on Wade’s face with a mix of recognition and distrust. “You’re not supposed to be here, and you’re not supposed to look like that.”

Wade shrugged, unbothered by the towering man’s confusion. “Oh, I look different, huh? Let’s see, last time you saw me, my mouth was sewed shut, and I was basically Stryker’s attack dog. Not a great look, admittedly.”

Victor’s face twisted with anger, and his fists clenched. “Don’t mention Stryker,” he growled, voice low and dangerous. “He betrayed us, did something to you!”

Wade raised an eyebrow, fighting back the urge to burst into laughter. “Ah, ‘Weapon XI,’ the silent treatment, I remember it like it was yesterday. But I’m back, better than ever, and with all my snarky bits intact.” He leaned in closer. “So, what brings you to this little universe-hopping adventure, huh? Trying to find Logan? ‘Cause, let me tell ya, buddy, he’s not rolling out the welcome mat anytime soon. In fact, he already killed you, but that was another version of you played by Tyler Mane.”

Victor’s hand twitched, claws extending as he bristled with frustration. “This—this isn’t real. You’re not real. None of this is.” His voice broke for a split second, conflicted memories flashing in his eyes. “Stryker’s playing another trick, isn’t he?”

“Oh, this is no trick,” Wade chuckled, crossing his arms with a cocky grin. “And, hate to break it to ya, but I’m very real. Painfully real.” He reached up to tug at his mask, as if to drive the point home. “I mean, not to brag, but I’m the only Deadpool who can pull off this look.”

Victor growled, taking a threatening step forward. “I don’t know who you think you are—”

Wade cut him off, raising a finger. “You know, for someone as big and bad as you, you sure smell like Logan’s second-hand gym socks. Must run in the family.”

Victor froze, his claws twitching. “You think you’re funny?” he snarled, his voice low but tense with restrained anger.

„Oh absolutely“, Wade said giving a little bow. „I’m hilarious. My one-man show is practically sold out and it features a lot of jokes about feral mutants with serious anger issues! Wanna hear some?“

Victor’s eyes bore into Wade’s, flickering with a mixture of hatred, recognition, and reluctant restraint. He took a shaky breath, his chest heaving, but not attacking yet.

“Look“, Wade said. „I’ve been through enough timey-wimey nonsense to know when someone’s having an existential crisis. Just breathe, big guy. You’re in another universe. One where I’m free to talk as much as I want, and where you—if I’m reading the room correctly—are basically a walking time bomb of confusion and anger.”

“So, instead of fighting like the predictable musclehead you are,” Wade added, pacing around him in a circle, “how about you tell me why you’re here? I mean, you’re probably wondering where Logan is.“

Victor stared at him. „This version of you knows Jimmy?“

Wade didn’t miss a beat. „Oh, we know each other. We’ve fought together, bled together, saved the world, argued about whether or not pineapple belongs on pizza.“

Victor’s expression darkened, his eyes flickering with a mix of confusion and anger. „Where is he?“

„Oh, don’t worry, he’s around. Probably off brooding in our living room, glaring the TV down and petting Puppins. He’s probably pissed i didn’t tell him where i was going.“ Wade stepped closer, now inches from Victor’s face and whispered theatrically. „But between you and me i think he'd be a bit scared of seeing his big brother. Daddy issues, maybe?“

Victor snarled and lunged, his claws stopping inches from Wade’s throat. „Tell me where he is or i’ll make sure you never talk again.“

Wade’s eyes lit up with excitement. „Ooooh, threats! They’re like foreplay but with more sharp objects.“ He reached out and gently pushed Victor’s claws down, unbothered by the danger. „But fine, fine, i’ll take you to him. I’m sure he’d love to see you, big guy. Just don’t get too emotional, okay? I’m not good with tearful reunions. Makes me all…verklempt.“

Victor’s lip curled, a hint of a growl rumbling in his throat, but he seemed to rein it in, his eyes still blazing with barely-contained fury and something else—something raw and almost vulnerable, though Wade knew better than to bring that up.

“Fine,” Victor snarled, falling in line behind Wade, who, with an exaggerated swagger, began leading the way.

As they walked, Wade couldn’t resist the urge to chatter. “So, what brings you to this universe anyway? Bad breakup? Midlife crisis? Need a bit of family therapy? Though i gotta warn you, this Logan is not your Logan. He’s from a different universe. I’ll explain more on the way.”

Victor’s silence was absolute, his jaw tight as he focused ahead, each step heavy with tension. Wade continued to grin, unfazed. He knew Logan’s brother was trouble, but he couldn’t help but poke the bear—especially when the bear looked so damn serious about it.

„Anyway, should we grab chimichangas to bring home? You must be hungry. Or are you just gonna go and hunt down a squirrell?“

Victor didn’t answer, his fists still clenched as he glared at Wade, but there was a slight shift in his eyes—a mix of fury and pain he couldn’t quite hide.

[lineffability]

hey remember when aziraphale and crowley ran into each other in rome and aziraphale said 'well then let me tempt you to- oh, no, that's your job, isn't it, haha'? what if crowley succumbed to the temptation in more ways than one? what if they had oysters and sex about it? then what?

wordcount: 17,8k rating: explicit tags: PWP, Rome 41AD, oysters, so many oysters, so many orgasms too, banter, little bit of emotion little bit of angst, but mostly fun, oysters and aardvarks, food kink, oral fixation, roman baths, an oyster is never just an oyster, and what is love but hunger (more tags on ao3)

READ ON AO3 🦪

[letters-to-rosie]

The Silco Essay

Long post ahead, TDLR included.

Let's do a little thought experiment. We're trying to institute socialism, worker control and ownership of the means of production. This is currently far from our reality, so we have a lot of work to do. We get together and talk and strategize, but it's difficult with all the surveillance we're under as we work. Not only would seizing the means of production be met with a harsh backlash but even unionization, which doesn't automatically lead to worker control or ownership, is suppressed even though that suppression is illegal in certain countries like the US.

How does that suppression happen? There are a lot more workers than owners. If we worked together, we could take them, right? Well, the owners have the law and access to call upon the state to enact violence on us. We can't exactly own the means of production if we get killed. Even if we overcome other hierarchies keeping us from solidarity, such as miners in West Virginia did by organizing across racial divisions, we can still be beaten. Those miner had bombs dropped on them.

Okay, thought experiment over. What does this have to do with Silco? It's taken me ages to think about how to explain it, but my beef with him is that he has what are essentially perfect conditions for creating a mass movement and does not use them. He is uniquely in a position to protect any burgeoning mass revolt until it would be too late for Piltover to stop it. This is why his comments to Sevika that they can buy another police chief ring hollow. They both know how good they had it.

This is not to say that I think Silco is poorly written or a "bad character." Silco being the way he is all comes down to the entire conceit of the show: two cities against each other, with a sister on each side. However, this does lead me to want to critique some things about the show's premise that lead to my critiques about Silco.

For the cities to be meaningfully opposed, Zaun can't just be oppressed. It has to be "bad" to counter Piltover's bad. This, I think, causes the majority of things that make me sad about the show overall. While I still enjoy it, much of what I enjoyed was a fantasy setting that dealt with real-world issues in its own way. However, for all the realism in the setting, there are some distinctly "not real" parts that seem to blunt discussions of the depth of the oppression Zaunites are suffering. There's only fleeting mentions of labor oppression, even though it must have been key to organizing their society. The way Piltovans like Heimerdinger and great house members like the Kirammans must've had an active hand in organizing and benefiting from this oppression is mostly skipped over. Much of Piltover's evil is shown to us in the form of police brutality, but under any system of police brutality is one of hierarchy that is actively maintained and serves more of a purpose than just violence for its own sake. Even so, the police brutality we're shown is more than enough to have us sympathize with Zaunite characters if they were to have a massive rebellion and change the shape of Piltover forever. But Piltover's shape can only change so much. That's the conceit of the show. We can't completely root for Zaun and have them be entirely sympathetic because it would break the world. This is why I think Silco has to be the face of Zaun instead of Ekko and the Firelights, why Ekko has to befriend Heimerdinger to soften that antagonism, and why the Firelights never gain enough power to challenge Piltover at a systemic level. Even when Ekko wants to, he's thwarted and unable to cross the bridge.

We have a lot more fantasy imagination than political imagination. Silco is very realistic. Authoritarians do tend to rise up and stop movements that are closer in practice to socialism. If there were a mass movement in Zaun, as there seems to be potential for around episode 3, Silco would want to redirect that energy so he can control it, and I wouldn't be surprised if that is, in some form or fashion, what he did while consolidating power in the wake of Vander's death. While I appreciate the realism, it does make me sad that many times we put so much more energy into imagining magic systems and mystical creatures than we do imagining ways people could live freely with each other. It's like we have to keep capitalist realism alive even if we have hoverboards (also, if it wasn't already clear, I think the greatest potential for socialism/other lefty schools of thought is seen in the Firelights; so we could totally have political imagination AND hoverboards if Riot weren't cowards).

Silco's strong individualism works well for his relationship with Jinx and allows him to serve and Vi's primary antagonist. Even as Vi goes on a path that leads her to become more and more morally questionable as the plot goes on (like her sister lol), the sheer horror of what Silco inflicted on her makes Vi's story easy to digest. For Silco and Jinx, Silco's individualist outlook allows him to see her separated from the conditions that he is exacerbating outside. There are probably at least a hundred kids who could be as smart if given the right conditions (which makes Jinx and Ekko foils, for instance), but Silco doesn't care because he doesn't have a personal connection with them. He sees Jinx not as a child among many but as the child. I think this is part of why it's so hard for him to even think of giving her up and why he really never would have. However, I think it would be wrong to suggest that we'd have to sacrifice a great storyline for Silco to be more class conscious. It's possible to hold the tension between seeing greatness in individuals you love and knowing there is similar greatness in every individual that is being stomped on by the various oppressions we face, including the ones we share.

Because of these factors (Piltover being written to be the oppressor but Zaun needing to be equally bad so the show can "both sides" the conflict; a general lack of political imagination, which is also hemmed in by the source material and keeps us from fun fictional socialism except in small doses; and the general individualism baked into Silco's character that leads him to not even consider that a mass movement is the best way to achieve his aim of independence), I find Silco's politics very boring, lol. If we're to think about what his revolution might bring about, I'd find it much easier to compare to a bourgeois revolution (such as the US one) than to a socialist revolution that devolved into state capitalism (such as the USSR). One thing that characterized the US revolution was its unwillingness to include all the potential actors who might've fought in the war, particularly enslaved people. More enslaved people actually fought on the British side, as they were promised independence (even though Britain had not abolished slavery, so this was probably a scam). By desiring to maintain the system of chattel slavery and the hierarchies it created, the US revolutionaries missed out on the possibility to create a mass movement and jeopardized the success of their movement in the process.

This all reminds me of the distinction Kwame Ture (formerly known as Stokely Carmichael) draws between the Black Revolutionary and the Black Militant:

Now, there are a number of groups functioning in the black liberation movement in this country. I will not give the philosophy of those groups. I will not speak for them because I wouldn’t want their representatives to speak for us. There are, of course, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the Congress for Racial Equality, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and the Black Panther Party. Most of these groups have basically been fighting for a share of the American pie, at least until recently. That is to say, they were kept out of the American dream, and many of them thought that if they were to adopt the manners, the mode, the culture of the oppressor, they would be accepted and they too could enjoy the fruits of American imperialism. But today, among the young generation of blacks in this country, an ideology is developing that says we cannot, in fact, accept the system. This differentiates the black militant from the black revolutionary. The black militant is one who yells and screams about the evils of the American system, himself trying to become a part of that system. The black revolutionary’s cry is not that he is excluded, but that he wants to destroy, overturn, and completely demolish the American system and start with a new one that allows humanity to flow. I stand, then, on the side of the black revolutionary and not on the side of the black militant. (From Stokely Speaks: From Black Power to Pan-Africanism)

Silco's demands to Jayce, along with his exclusion of most of the people from Zaun in the process of transforming society and his exploitation of them via shimmer, place him firmly on the side of the militant in this equation. Silco wants access to the fruits of Piltover's progress while only upsetting the structure where it negatively affects him. Again, while there's a lot I can enjoy in his character, I get frustrated with his insistence at being counter-revolutionary at every turn. I have a long reading list for him, and since he's in the afterlife now, he'll have time to get to it.

TLDR: Silco says he doesn't have to beat Piltover, just scare them. You know what's really scary, Silco? The masses of the people standing up and demanding that their oppression end, for fuck's sake.

[radiance1]

Making another for the Interdimensional Mini Occult Detective au.

Tucker is very, very, very stunned by this new dimension. After he managed to settle himself down enough for him to actually start looking into this place, he realized that it is vastly different from that of his own.

There was heroes and villains, people called 'metas' that had powers that others don't, magic is just plain out in the open instead of hidden on the downlow and there's genuine aliens that both reside on and have tried to take over this planet.

This is, well out of his normal experiences, he would admit. Even with knowing Danny and being involved with ghost hunting when he was younger.

He questioned how that government branch managed to do what they did, and if they were a genuine government branch at all and didn't just, you know, mess with his own governments heads to make them one.

Safe to say, there is a lot he doesn't know about, and not knowing is something he doesn't like. Because facing an entire magical branch on his lonesome, knowledge and technology was the only way he could even the playing field somewhat between them.

But now, not only was his knowledge put into question, but his only other weapon has been reduced to-which certainly useful- a single arm bracer. Which is painfully lacking when compared to his usual arsenal that he equipped himself with.

Okay, this, this is fine.

Everything was fine.

He just had to gather information like he did before, but he doesn't have access to his various spybots, but it's fine he could just remake them.

But he doesn't have the materials to do so.

...

He regrets a lot of things.

Facing the magical branch alone wasn't one of them, but various mistakes surrounding them did he regret. People he failed to save, experiments he was too late to stop, magical artifacts he failed to get before them, failing to know regarding them and putting others in danger because of not knowing.

His biggest regret, as of right now, is that he couldn't have even left behind a note for his best friends. Or at least a video recording, he didn't even get to say goodbye.

Would he even get to see them again...?

...

Alright, that's enough of that. He's the Tucker Foley, one of the best detectives regarding the occult and the regular enemy to and a threat to the magical branch. He doesn't have time to just sit around and think depressing thoughts.

Who cares if he's been stranded in another dimension? He can just force his way back to his own! Who cares if he's a child? He's done a lot of things as a kid, and he sure as hell wasn't stopping now just because he's goddamn 10-years-old.

He made himself their enemy, and he'll keep being their enemy until he sees them extinguished.

Now that that's out of the way.

He hacked into a nearby source for wifi, and took to the wide web. First order of business, information gathering.

He needs to know and by the Ancient's sake he will.