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starbage · 2 years ago

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finished the beginner set of levels in the Strawberry Jam Collab, moving onto intermediate :-) here's some pics of my favorite maps from it (but not all of them; a lot were really cool). ive been jotting down short reviews of them as i go so i'll put those under a cut if you also like celeste and are curious. be warned im not very descriptive with these!!!

forest path - utilizes a very interesting take on the dreamblock mechanic (giving you a crystal to effectively dash through any wall once) which i really liked. a few of the rooms had a nice and fun fast-paced feel to them, which is what i play Celeste for. also the music is really good

azure caverns - simple. fun. it takes the thought process behind the gear blocks and changes it up a bit. overall easy, but the last room felt a bit more precise than everything else. not necessarily a bad thing though. music got a bit grating. colors were pretty and easy to see.

loopy lagoon - really unique aesthetic and mechanics. it just feels really good and lets you go fast. loved it.

seeing is believing - the concept is novel… i like that they added a version for single players. overall not much to say about it, its just kinda neat but not challenging or anything.

if my 'driveway' almost did you in… - interesting use of the falling/moving blocks. made me think a bit.

cassette cliffs - the music tempo changes were sort of annoying. concept was alright. art was pretty.

over the city - im not a huge fan of the extra jump mechanics so this one was just ok. got a bit frustrating at times. i dont feel like it overstayed its welcome though, it just isnt my type of level LOL

troposphere - i like the dream block jumping mechanic and this level had a lot of that so i liked it. very pretty. has nice music. i feel like the inclusion of feathers may have been a bit arbitary but it felt nice to play.

potential for anything - i knew this level was going to be a VVVVVV reference from the moment i saw it. It reimagines some of the rooms from the original game with celeste's added dash mechanic, which is super cool. I liked it a lot. wish the music was better. LOL.

midnight spire - this one was simple and not revolutionary but i liked it! mindless fun and pretty design.

paint - super pretty art and the mechanics were interesting but the art got in the way of visibility at times lol.

rose garden - this one was VERY delightful to play. the art is absolutely gorgeous. i thought the music was a bit too high-energy at first note, but then i realized it totally has the cadence of mario galaxy music, which i assume the main mechanic is trying to reference. it wasn't very hard, just plain fun.

treehive - sooo so silly and fun. i loved the bounciness of it. also the honey aesthetic was cute.

the squeeze - it was fine. i liked the little jingles that played each time you successfully 'squeezed' through a gap.

soap - i really like how this level looks. admittedly the mechanic had be stumped on the very first room because i didnt understand what was actually happening. once it clicked (aka, once i watched a video of someone else playing the first room) though, it became a very interesting dilemna. i was fighting my instincts to randomly dash basically the entire level. not my favorite custom mechanic but it was still neat. the heart room was also a challenge in itself instead of just being a big blank room with no danger so that was sorta cool.

switchtube vista - I REALLY LIKED THIS ONE!! the color palette was awesome, the music was awesome, and the gameplay was fast paced and somewhat precise but not in an obtuse or confusing way. The level makes it incredibly clear what you should be doing, you just have to be able to do it. i thought it was one of the easier levels so im not sure why its marked as being difficult but whatever…

a gift from the stars - this was another puzzle level. the mechanics of it sort of fucked with my brain, i won't lie. i looked up parts of solutions for hints at times… really cool though. i'll admit however that the visibility of the level kinda sucks. cool music too

strawberry orchard - music was silly but sort of distracting at times. i dont love the theo mechanics but i think they were used well here and did not overstay their welcome! overall fun

dropzle - ok admittedly the concept sort of bored me at first; i don't really play this game to be challenged by puzzles. As i played more though, i found myself being a bit more forgiving and really digging the idea more. The puzzles were hard, but not toooo hard. i loved the music, i think that contributed to my enjoyment of the level a lot. very calming.

coresaken city - didn't dislike this one as much as i thought it would (not a huge coreblock fan). i think it utilized the mechanics well without making itself too difficult which was nice for my weak hands.

blueberry bay - ohg my god the music was awesome. i loved the reusing of the lobby music. ok i'll admit i didnt love the puzzle portions of this but i know they had to be included somehow. such a beautiful testament to the overall level pack. im sure im gonna say this about very heartside though.

#celeste

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echo-of-sounds · 4 years ago

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adhd

How Aizawa, Toshinori, and Hizashi would help and support their s/o who as ADHD.

Warnings: nothing incredibly explicit, but a couple of these talk about sex

Aizawa Shouta

Overstimulation is hard to explain to someone who’s never experienced it. The TV, that lavender candle, the taste of tomatoes, your own hair touching your shoulder overwhelms you to the point you’re crying. Every noise is too loud. Every smell makes you feel like throwing up. Anything that touches you scrapes your skin. Every sensation is just too much.

Aizawa pays attention to anything specific that may trigger you. That lavender candle that’s too strong? He’ll throw it away. Loud restaurants or sand on the beach? Eh, he doesn’t like going out that much anyway. He’ll ask what you can tolerate and will change his shampoo, detergent, or whatever else to help you, even if it needs to be odorless. He isn’t picky so the change is easy. He’ll also come up with a nonverbal signal for you to use. Like when you walk by that store that always smells like someone poured out a thousand perfume bottles. Squeeze his shoulder and he’ll lead you someplace safe.

He isn’t bothered by fidgeting, squirming, or overall restlessness. He’s been around Hizashi most of his life and now he’s a teacher. That stuff doesn’t faze him anymore. However, if you’re a pen clicker or a beat tapper, he may snap at you once or twice. Sometimes he just wants a silent room after a long day and hearing those noises could easily set him off. He’d apologize after but will also ask if you could find something else to fidget with, something that doesn’t make noise. When you keep going back to clicking and tapping because it’s mindless, he’ll buy you multiple fidget toys that are quiet.

He likes to think he’s pretty good handling mood swings since he can control most of his emotions quite well. But the keyword is most. His anger and frustration flare up every now and then. It all depends on his stress level and how tired he is. So when you can’t pass a level on that stupid phone game or when the bread tie is on wrong and it ignites your anger so much that you lash out to a simple question he asked, he might just snap back. An argument could brew quickly even though you aren’t actually mad at each other.

It’s in your best interest to take some time to calm down and gather your thoughts. When you’ve relaxed, you’ll have to be the one to approach him. He won’t since you snapped first and wants you to have space. He also won’t know when you’ve calmed. You’ll find him stewing on the couch with his little pouty face. After some apologies, he’s fine. He understands you have difficulty managing emotions. He just wishes you wouldn’t take your anger out on him.

He really tries not to get frustrated with your trouble focusing and poor planning/time management. He has to keep reminding himself it’s something you struggle with- everyone has things they struggle with. But you can hear his heavy sigh as he repeats himself for the fifth time this conversation. You don’t need to apologize. He knows you did nothing wrong. His sigh is more out of exhaustion than anything. More patience is something he’ll learn for you.

Hypersensitivity is somewhat daunting to Shouta when it comes to sex. He’s generally rough, fast, and quiet in the bedroom, often without realizing. It’s his go-to setting. If he ever looked up and saw you crying because his fingers and tongue hurt, he’d feel uncertain of himself next time. To help you, he'll train himself to go slower and be gentler. He’ll also start talking more during sex to be more open with you.

Yagi Toshinori

Chores and tasks can be difficult to remember. You’ll look right at the pile dishes and not notice it. Or you’ll say you’ll do them then forget for three days. Toshi won’t get frustrated. Instead, he’ll place bright sticky notes with reminders where he knows you will see them: on your laptop, bag, pillow, or shoes.

He’ll learn other ways to work with you. Any appointments go in your phone calendar with notifications on so you can’t ignore them. Whenever you get home, keys and wallet are placed on the counter in their designated spot. Since he has to plan his meals, he’ll set a dinner schedule for you so you don’t forget to eat. If something works, he’ll have you keep doing it. Soon, it’s part of your everyday routine and you do it without thinking.

He’s the best when it comes to handling emotions. After working as a Hero for so long, he’s built up a tolerance to people lashing out. However, if he’s having a bad day, specifically one where he’s insecure, one quick snap from you would upset him deeply. He won’t reply. He doesn’t want to fight. But he will recoil, leaving you alone. Find him when you’ve gathered yourself. If he’s ready to talk, apologize and explain why you were frustrated so he knows it wasn’t about him. Also cuddle him. He could use it.

Any fidgeting or clicking he’s fine with. It’s when you start to pull strings from your clothing, bend and twist something so much it breaks, or pick at your skin, that his concern rises. He doesn’t want you ruining anything, especially yourself. When he sees you fidgeting in a way that’s not exactly good, he’ll hold your hand, either to stop you completely or to let you play with his fingers. It’ll become second nature to him- every time you mindlessly pick at yourself, he’ll mindlessly reach for your hand.

If you’re ever out in public and become overstimulated, he’ll give you his jacket. It’s comfortable. It’s heavy. And it smells like him. He’ll let you wear it and direct you towards a quieter area to sit for a while. If he can’t leave with you, because he is All Might and does attract a lot of attention, he’ll drape it over your shoulders and tell you to go find someplace to rest while he talks to the people swarming you. He’ll find you after and ask what you want to do.

The ebb and flow of your sex drive isn’t a problem for him. During the times where sex has no appeal to you because it’s too many sensations at once, he takes care of himself. When you are in the mood, he’s very aware of your sensitivities. His hands remain light as they run over your skin. His fingers slip tenderly into you. His tongue is gentle with every lick.

Reaching orgasm is another struggle that’s beyond frustrating. You’re aroused, enjoying every sensation, almost there, then your mind is somewhere else entirely and you’ve lost the build-up. Any accommodations to help you focus, such as a dim room with no noise, he’ll do it. It’ll also let him hear every small sound that comes from you, creating a more intimate moment. It also helps that he loves foreplay- cuddling, kissing, caressing, anything he can get. It relaxes your body, making you in tune with intimacy rather than just reaching your orgasm.

Yamada Hizashi

Hizashi is a physical person. He loves hugging and cuddling. He also loves to talk and sing. All are great qualities by themselves. But if you’re prone to overstimulation, the constant noise and touching can be difficult to manage. Especially since he does it without thinking or telling you- he’ll all of a sudden plop down on your lap or hold your waist or start whistling right next to your ear. If he ever set you off, even if it was an accident, he’d feel terrible. He’ll begin to ask if you’re okay for some cuddling and he’ll tune down the volume of his singing. It might take some time however since he’s always done it without thinking.

Anything that helps you, he’ll buy. Seriously, he’ll buy you so much friggin’ stuff. Blankets, fidget toys, puzzle boxes, candles you find soothing, soft towels, the list goes on. You’ll need to tell him to stop when he brings home a ninth weighted blanket. He might protest and pout a little, saying he just loves you and wants you to know that. Explain that you do, in fact, love him and everything he does but there’s only so many anxiety bracelets one can wear before their arm weighs ten pounds. At least he uses the toys and blankets as well so it isn’t a waste.

You don’t need to hide your excitement and knowledge. If you want to ramble about the differences between Homotherium, Smilodon, and Dinofelis Hizashi will listen with a giant smile on his face even though he has no idea what you’re talking about. He’ll ask questions just to keep you talking because he adores seeing you so excited about and immersed in a subject. In his free time, he’ll look up whatever you were talking about so he can follow along better. And when you’re done, expect him to start venting about a new band he found or some weird instrument he really wants to get.

Being impulsive and blurting out your thoughts before someone else gets to finish their sentence can be annoying to some. It’s not to Hizashi. He does it too and understands that sometimes your mouth starts moving before your brain can consider if it was a good idea. Your conversations are a lot of back and forth babbling while the original context gets lost.

Disorganized? Cluttered? He’s right there with you. To keep your place from getting absolutely chaotic you will need to set aside days for cleaning. It’ll go great until you get distracted by the book you haven’t seen for ten years. And he’ll join you, playing the harmonica he thought he lost.

The desire for or needs during sex can suddenly change. That sex position you loved two days ago could be overstimulating today. Be open with him about where you don’t like being touched and whenever you feel too stimulated. He’s mindful and will focus on all the places you love. And since he likes talking during sex, he’s always checking if you’re comfortable with whatever position you’re in. If he sees your focus shifting, he’ll bring you back with deep kisses and a few tickles to your sides.

You know what? When you think about it, he probably has ADHD as well. Good luck trying to keep each other on track.

#aizawa shouta #aizawa x reader #aizawa shouta x reader #all might #all might x reader #yagi toshinori #toshinori x reader #present mic #present mic x reader #yamada hizashi #yamada hizashi x reader #aizawa headcanons #all might headcanons #present mic headcanons #bnha #bnha x reader #bnha headcanons

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musinglymuse · 5 years ago

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This recommendation list focuses on the main pairing, the hottest couple in Check Please: Eric “Bitty” Bittle and Jack Zimmerman or more affectionately known as Zimbits. They’ve come a long way since the beginning of Check Please!

I’ve compiled some of what I consider excellent fanfics that feature this couple although it does not contain all of my recommendations. They are in no particular order. I plan on creating more recommendation lists down the line, especially for other pairings in this fandom.

As a reminder, please make sure to check the tags and any warnings before reading. Take care of yourself!

Hold It All At Bay by psocoptera Psychic Bond AU // ~50k // R

The theory of extrapolative synchronization of the mirror neurons was debunked back when he was still in his teens, so Jack is reluctant to mention that he can smell Bitty's pies baking from across campus.

Easy P-Z by ebjameston HGTV AU // ~21k // PG-13

Jack and Kent are the ridiculously handsome house-renovating married retired hockey players that’ve been making HGTV an absolutely stupid amount of money with their new show.

And Eric Bittle just got hired to be their show’s caterer.

Eric Bittle, NBC 10 by foryouandbits Journalist AU // ~82k // NC-17

In 2009, Jack Zimmermann was drafted 2nd overall to the Providence Falconers. After a tumultuous first season in the minors, Jack returns to the NHL and is named captain within a year. Known to the media as the "hockey robot," no one seems to be able to break through the polite barrier that Jack has built — no one until Eric Bittle, newest intern at NBC 10. Bitty, interning as a requirement for his journalism degree at nearby Samwell University, forms an instant connection with Jack. Throughout the rest of the season, and the rest of Bitty's junior year at Samwell, the two grow closer while learning how to both trust each other and succeed in their respective careers.

What I want to feel, I want to feel it now by RabbitRunnah Bakery AU // ~28k // PG-13

Eric Bittle knows the way his life is supposed to go: According to an old family curse, the love of his life will take one bite of his famous apple pie and fall madly in love with him. And they'll live happily ever after.

There's only one problem: Jack Zimmermann doesn't like pie.

Back to You by PorcupineGirl Canon Divergence // ~15k // PG-13

When Jack kissed him at graduation over a year and a half ago, Eric had been too shocked to really think about what it might mean, long-term. They'd talked constantly over the next six weeks, enough for him to feel confident that Jack felt the same way he did, and to start to imagine what those far-off futures might look like together.

And then Jack came to Madison for the Fourth of July, and Eric made the stupidest mistake of his life: He let himself and Jack talk themselves out of it.

he will take you by hockeydyke Camp Counselor AU // ~55k // PG-13

Jack Zimmermann has been a part of Camp Samwell for the majority of his life-- first as a camper when his parents spent summers in nearby at a lake house in scenic upstate New York, then as a counselor, and now as the program director of the entire camp. The problem now is that the camp is attracting bad luck left and right, and they’re losing campers and staff at an alarming rate. Enter Eric Bittle, Jack’s new co-director. He’s young, enthusiastic, and maybe he’ll have what it takes to get the situation turned around.

Unfortunately, something powerful is in control of Camp Samwell, and it wants Bitty to get out.

<lj-cut text="you see who I am and what I did"> by tomato_greens Rock Band AU // ~11k // PG-13

Rolling Stone

No Jack Zimmermann Is An Island by Jennifer S. Harada

After avoiding me for a week, Jack Zimmermann calls to ask me to meet him at a bakery. Or maybe a diner; he’s not sure what to call it. A brunch place, although they make great pies, too.

“Sure,” I say, “whatever you want, Mr. Zimmermann.”

“Jack,” says Zimmermann. His voice is higher than I expect it to be, and his Québécois accent more pronounced. “I’ll see you there.”

someone to count on (and other cheesy idioms about finding your soulmate) by heyfightme & omgpieplease Soulmate AU // ~9k // PG-13

Eric’s counter reads 1. That’s all. Just 1. He’s eighteen years old, has not left the state of Georgia in his entire life, and his counter reads 1.

He has spent many mindless afternoons and worn out many pens in tracing it over into a 0. If the counter did read 0, the morning wouldn’t be looming like the black rainclouds that Mama used to call “omens.”

Eric is leaving for college in the morning. When he passes the state line from Georgia to North Carolina in the passenger seat of his Mama’s sedan, he’ll also be passing the last chance he has for the counter to make it to 2.

Calendar Boy by darter_blue Canon Divergence // ~15k // R

It was supposed to be totally innocent. A friend of Lardo’s was putting together a little project, compiling a calendar of some of the openly gay athletes on campus, fundraising for the LGBTQ+ community outreach programs at Samwell.

Bitty hadn't really even been reluctant. Excited about the prospect of a fun photo shoot and a chance to dress up a bit, do something glamorous.

And he thinks it's a great photo (if not a bit more revealing than what he was expecting…). And when the calendar comes out it’s nerve racking but exciting. Until one by one the team finds a copy (Jack may be hiding one under his mattress), and then it's pandemonium.

is it too late now to say sorry by magneticwave AU // ~5K // PG-13

I CANNOT BELIEVE THIS, Eric types furiously into Twitter. THIS IS LIKE RENAMING LAKE WOEBEGONE “LAKE SCOTT WALKER.” // Or, the only person in the entirety of Canada who is upset about Jack Zimmermann’s first Stanley Cup is Eric Bittle, and by God is every single one of Eric’s 160,000 Twitter followers going to hear about it.

I Can Feel the Storm Inside You by Effyeahzimbits AU // ~15k // NC-17

Life is going good for Eric Bittle. It's summer, he has an exciting new job with the Providence Falconers, he's in a club celebrating with his friends, and he currently has a Canadian Adonis grinding up against his ass. Life is good.

Until said Canadian Adonis flees the morning after some mind-blowing sex, leaving behind a rubbish note. Bitty tries hard to forget about him and his huge, pert ass and focus on his new job, but then Canadian Adonis and the Falc's grumpy, anti-social captain turn out to be one and the same. And Bitty really couldn't forget about that huge, pert ass.

three words that became hard to say by the_one_that_fell Canon Divergence // Series // ~35k // R

Ten years after Samwell, Eric Bittle and Jack Zimmermann find each other again.

Flight Check by edgarallanrose Flight Attendant AU // ~15k // NC-17

Flight attendant Eric “Bitty” Bittle has been working his way up at Samwell Airlines for the past four years, and his new promotion has provided him the opportunity to work with a brand-new crew. Unfortunately for Bitty, that crew includes an incredibly handsome but equally grumpy pilot, Captain Jack Zimmermann, who seems to want nothing to do with Bitty. Even worse, Jack refuses to eat any of Bitty's baked goods. Will Bitty be able to win the captain over? Or is there another reason Jack has been avoiding Bitty?

Bits of Heaven by WrathoftheStag Older / Bakery AU // ~22k // R

At age 44, NHL legend, Jack Zimmermann, knows three things for sure: retirement is boring, love is probably not in the cards for him, and his aging father makes a pretty good roommate. When the bakery "Bits of Heaven" opens up down the street, Jack finds that a happily ever after is possible—even late in the game.

A Tolerance for Pain by uniqueinalltheworld Soulmate AU // ~3k // R

It makes sense, his mother tells him when he's nine: Jack's such a physical person, of course his indicator would be his soulmate's pain. Jack doesn't have anything to say about it, really, he just scowls and winces as his soulmate falls down again. Alicia Zimmermann, whose heterochromia reversed itself upon laying eyes on Bob for the first time, because she’s more passionate about visual media, pats him on the shoulder with a completely insufficient amount of sympathy. Jack's backside is sore for months as the falls keep happening, and he can only think that somewhere, his soulmate must be learning how to skate.

#zimbits #omgcp #omgcp fic rec #jack/bitty #bitty/jack

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needletail · 4 years ago

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Nintendogs vs Nintendogs + Cats: a review and comparison.

There’s no doubt that most people want a new Nintendogs game for the Nintendo Switch. But when I see these posts, very few of them are referencing the 3ds variant of the game, but rather the original ds version that everyone continues to know and love.

The addition of cats is Nintendogs + Cats’ most notable feature. It was, while cute and fun for a short period of time, notably worse than its predecessor. But why is that? The formula stayed roughly the same, but the charm didn’t quite hit.

Before we dive into this: these are my opinions on the games, and personal comparisons. Every person experiences things differently, and will likely have different opinions.

We can start with breaking down the original Nintendogs. The graphics have not aged well, but the charm and entertainment factor have. While replaying, I found that the general ambience and the music used endeared me further to the game, and I wanted to play more. The half hour timer on going for walks was frustrating (as was the stamina system), but it otherwise engaged me more to figure out where I wanted to go. The map feels surprisingly big with so much to do, and the side-scrolling walk screen keeps the mystery alive in what you’ll encounter. The competitions were fun and the voice recognition system may have been even better than the 3ds incarnation. The only thing that really suffered were the graphics - but this game is 15 years old and this was advanced for its time, so we can let that slide. The dogs can be a little strange to look at at times, but they’re expressive and distinct, which is what matters in a pet simulator.

The information you can take in is optional, but an exciting part of the game for those who are interested. Your dog’s profile is detailed but easy to understand, going as far as to tell you what it ate last. There’s something so charming about it being displayed as if it were a document you had in front of you - it brings another element of immersion into this sim.

[Image ID: a photograph of the informational sheet on Nintendogs. It includes the name, gender, breed, trainer, time together, coat, hunger, thirst, and things eaten. The trick list and contest results are also on this screen.]

From cars passing by to horns in the distance and dog barks from somewhere vaguely nearby, the sound design of Nintendogs is audibly aged, but still strong. The few tracks spread in the game are iconic, and stay in my head a lot longer than I’d like to admit.

The competitions are another huge highlight of the original nintendogs. The banter between the hosts, Ted and Archie, is something that continues to be remembered. Everyone’s seen the line “you make me feel like a man, Archie”, and the banter they keep up in each competition is less like a mindless tapping chore and just more entertainment. The settings are surprisingly realistic - less so on the obedience, but the ring set up for agility certainly is. The balance between realism and fun is another part of why Nintendogs appealed to all audiences.

Agility is my personal favourite event, and the same goes for a lot of people I’ve met. There’s a level of interactivity here that isn’t met by the successor (something we’ll touch on later). Guiding your dog over hurdles and through tunnels, and later having to balance speed with accuracy - it’s an event that keeps you, the player, engaged. It becomes a sort of fine art once you hit the Championship level, as your dog, by that point, is likely going to be very fast and have a mind of its own, often trying to predict which obstacles it’s going to go through.

[Image ID: an angled photograph of the starter agility training course. The dog is laying on the green, and the hurdles and tunnels are in view.]

Disc is in both versions, and is fun in its own way. I, personally, don’t tend to use the disc competition - in the original Nintendogs, the projectiles can be a little speedier than you intend them to be, and the dogs are a little too determined to hold onto their toys. But, with a well-trained dog, this event can be as fun as anything else. In the original, you didn’t have to contend with the other dogs - something that I’ve grown to appreciate over the years. But, like with the event that removed Agility, I’ll be looking at how the changes fared later.

Obedience is held on a stage, and is a fun event for people who take the time to train their dogs. Your dog can typically learn three or four tricks a day (depending on the dog), and between the tricks listed in the Obedience Guide Book and the unlisted tricks that your dog can learn, you can usually blow the competition out of the park. It definitely requires the most time and effort out of all of the events, and it can be frustrating if your dog suddenly stops listening - but the rewards are surprisingly good. It’s always fun to have a well-trained Nintendog, if only because showing them off when I was a child was my favourite thing to do.

Obviously, competitions are the main money-makers in these games. Tackle a solid few of them, and you’ll find yourself able to afford another dog or two. Though your room is limited to three dogs, there’s also a Hotel to keep some other dogs in. As time progresses and you gain more of a bond with your dog(s), you’ll unlock more breeds.

Something that went over my head when I was a child was the method to unlock Jack Russells, specifically. You need to find an incredibly rare book - something which I don’t ever recall doing, and still haven’t. I found this information via the wikia, so I’m not too sure how accurate is, but it is an interesting breed to lock behind a time and patience-based method.

[Image ID: an angled image of a German Shepherd laying on its side. In the corner is an idea bubble.]

Overall, Nintendogs is a solid and fun pet simulator, and it’s clear why so many people have such good memories. The dogs are filled with personality (even being expressive enough to show you when they’re angry vs happy), the competitions are engaging, and though the format will become stale after playing daily for a long time, it’s always a fun game to come back to after a period of time.

Which is why it’s unsurprisingly that it gained a sequel.

I remember being ecstatic when Nintendogs + Cats was shown in advertisements on television. When I got the 3ds, I also got a copy of Nintendogs + Cats. The Golden Retriever version, specifically, but I do own all three. For some reason? As people got bored with it, they usually gifted me them.

At first blush, it’s almost as charming as the original. The graphics style handles much better than the original, with slightly more realistic movements, and less cardboard-y models. I much prefer the Nintendogs + Cats models to the originals, for obvious reasons - though their movements can be a little repetitive and strange at times, and a lot less expressive than the originals. But that said, I much prefer the Kennel system of petting and exploring the dogs and their behaviours (limited as they are) before you adopt, and I enjoy sorting through colours or getting unique colours/patterns. The rare white variants used to be my obsession, as a child.

[Image ID: a german shepherd holding a present in Nintendogs + Cats. The model is significantly better than the original Nintendogs model.]

Immediately, though, there’s a lot less ambience in Nintendogs + Cats. I play with my volume up all the way, and it’s typically just my dogs and cat making noises. I miss the cars going by and the general background noise that the game can provide. It feels just a little too silent, and the music tracks are repetitive and unmemorable for the most part. Obviously sound design don’t make or break the game, so I won’t harp on this point for too long.

The gameplay is...fine? I’m not a fan of petting a shadow of my dog, but I understand they did that for 3D purposes (something which most people didn’t use, to the point that the 2DS was made. I play on a 2DS). The camera control is an incredibly nice feature to have, the showering minigame is a little more thorough. They didn’t really add anything to the care features, though. If anything, they took away a lot of experiences - reading the care books and instead guiding you through the tricks one by one instead of as you want, forcing you to learn a specific set of tricks before you can move on to the next ones. The game is far more hand-holdy, which can be frustrating at multiple points. But, hey. There’s cats! Let’s talk about the cats.

What’s their purpose? Not much. Which is fine, although they take up a slot in your three-pet designation. As cute as the cats are, they definitely got done dirty. There’s three selections to choose from (Standard, Oriental, and Long-hair), with multiple colours, but not much depth beyond that. Obviously, the cats were just a cute addition - I do like having my little cat wandering around the house with my two dogs, and I know from past experiences that once you bond with the cat, it’ll go out and get presents for you if you leave your ds on. Gaining affection with the cats is very slow-going and if you’re someone who likes your pet simulations to be more interactive, it might be wiser to stick with the dogs. I’m not complaining against the addition of cats - it just could’ve been done much smoother, with better mechanics enabled. Be it adding some breeds and a proper grooming minigame to maintain them, or the ability to train them but have them be much harder than the dogs. There were many ways to put cats into the game, and I just don’t think they hit as intended.

So, how did they do with the competitions? Well.

The short answer: they’re pretty bland, and a downgrade from the original. The long answer...

[Image ID: a white cocker spaniel chewing on a banana lure.]

In the competitions, there’s no more Ted/Archie banter. It’s just Ted. Doing his thing. I honestly do not read the text for this game, and instead tap quickly to progress to the events.

Replacing Agility comes Lure Coursing. I’m not sure about other countries, but that’s an incredibly niche section of dog sporting here, and it’s also notorious for being...very boring. And in the game, it lives up to that. Instead of guiding your dog through obstacles, you wind the cog of a lure and honk it to get the dog to follow it. Sometimes you honk it to get them over hurdles. I have to admit, I usually space out when I’m training my dogs with this - it’s an easy moneymaker once you’ve trained them up to Nintendogs Cup level, but it’s easily the most mind-numbing event. Anything would’ve been better. If they didn’t want to implement Agility, there are other dog sports that could’ve suited well; guiding your dog through the Flyball course and using its name to bring it back until it could do it on command (maybe even utilising a team of three, for reason as to why you can have up to three dogs), or sledding, using your dog to pull a lightweight sled (on wheels) through a course in a race against other dogs (or, again, even using your trio). There could have even been scenting sport in which you teach your dog how to scent and go off to find a mark, or herding. The point is: lure coursing is the most unengaging thing to put in a game.

The Disc competition barely changes, so I won’t say much. I don’t particularly enjoy having the other dogs in the ring to compete with as it becomes all too easy for them to interfere heavily with your own dog, but I understand why it was implemented and know that a lot of people enjoy it. I prefer the throwing speed and the control you can have over the disc, and will admit that overall, the Disc competition is generally improved.

But then you come to the Obedience Trial. AR Cards are mandatory. You don’t have a surface to put your AR Cards on, or lost them years ago? Then you can’t do it. I actually ordered AR Cards, having thrown out my old ones due to damages and general...lack of use. As of this post, I have been unable to play the Obedience Trial, so I can’t say much on whether the system has improved. I do know that AR Cards can work on a laptop screen or something similar, but the 3ds camera is pretty horrible and can glitch out, making it unreliable for screen-based AR cards. Unfortunately.

[Image ID: a white cocker spaniel standing on an AR Card.]

The walking system is fine. I love being able to go to different routes (as limited as they can be - but the original was no saint to repetitiveness once you knew the whole map), and I like having to go between grass patches, with a chance for a surprise present. I think the addition of the BARC stores are a cute touch, and the Miis walking their own dogs are cute, too. The interactions between your dog and theirs is based on your dog’s personality as well as theirs, which makes sense - but there’s basically three outcomes. More than the original, but meeting with other dogs tends to be to see if you can backtrack when you’re near the end of the walk by having them invite you to the cafe or park, or to get presents from Streetpass miis. I like the cone minigame to test your control over the dog and its leash, and as a rule, I just...like it. It’s relaxing. I don’t prefer it over the original, but I don’t prefer the original over it. They both have their benefits and downfalls. The biggest upside to + Cats’ system is that you can take your dog on as many walks as you want.

Interactivity isn’t really a thing, with + Cats. Whereas in the original you could legitimately piss off your dog and it would bark and snarl at you for a while before you regained its trust, this game doesn’t punish you for much. I poked and prodded at my dog for a while, and it didn’t really do much for me. This is a game where you sort of just have cute looking models that hold up surprisingly well for their time, and that’s it. There’s not much game to the game, as it were - and that’s from a game where the gameplay was limited as it was.

Adding multiple accessories to your pets is a very nice addition, albeit expected. Overall, though, the gameplay has been significantly dumbed down and while I understand that kids play it, my generation played Nintendogs as small children and we got by just fine. It’s a very intuitive game, and it’s almost insulting how little Nintendogs + Cats thinks of its audience.

Another nice addition to Nintendogs + Cats, though, is body type for your pets. There’s a few that your pet can be: underfed, skinny, optimal, plump, and overfed. I usually have optimal dogs, but apparently plump and overfed dogs run slower and as such they do poorer in competitions, which is a pretty neat feature to have in-game.

In the short of it, Nintendogs + Cats is fine, but Nintendogs (the original) is Good. I have a lot more nostalgia for Nintendogs which may cloud my opinion, but playing it in 2020 is still fun, and I’m especially happy to play the Agility competition.

For an interactive pet simulator with fun competitions and plenty to do, Nintendogs is the way to go. For a pretty enough game with simplistic gameplay, Nintendogs + Cats is the way to go.

Both games have their perks, but I certainly have a clear favourite. If a Switch edition of Nintendogs ever happened, I’d much prefer the original style with some of the quality of life changes made in the successor. In the end, it’s all up to what you’re looking for in a game - but as someone who’s looking for a fun time, I’m a sucker for the originals.

(Note: I have not played the knock-off Nintendogs for Switch, and would appreciate input on if it’s worth buying or not. Reviews are poor at best, as far as I can tell, though.)

#nintendogs #nintendogs + cats #video games #game review #eph reviews

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lunchador · 4 years ago

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so when do we get the long post about your feelings about dragon age inquisition!!! i dunno if u wanna wait until dlc or not! i am i n t e r e s t e d (also its ok if u dont feel up to it im just!!!! again, interested in ur opinions/feelings)

kajsldkjf PLEASE I HAVE SO MANY DA FEELINGS ALL THE TIME and Inquisition was twice as long as the others so might as well do a word vomit now and I can always do another after the dlc (which several people have assured me are worth playing )

Yeah so inquisition is long. I dislike open world games so a lot of the (super repetitive!!) side quests did grate on my nerves and that docks this game a few points but over all the LORE IS SO GOOD, and it tying in so many choices in from 1+2 is the greatest butterfly effect I ever experienced in video games. I thought telltale + Until dawn were fun for that but good LORD bioware has showed up all of those games and I am really stoked to try mass effect when its out later and play more bw games. I only played Anthem before this and that game seemed...idk, gutted against BW’s wishes.

ANYWAY

Yeah, I managed to go into the whole DA series knowing very, very little, despite how many artists I followed did fanart for it. Once I started playing, I added all the words I could think of to my blacklist but a lot of untagged stuff came through (fair, series is 10+ years old and inq is like what 4-5?). I allowed my friends to pressure me into playing an elf mage for the lore and to romance solas cuz they said he was as important to the story as alistair was. A lot of online followers said I should play how I wanted, which I def would recommend to anyone else, but honestly I can see where they came from and while he never would have been my first choice, I think he actually paired REALLY well with my Inq and how I was playing her. I put her as sensitive but trying to put her responsibility above herself, she was definitely the least funny of my 3 characters, but not incredibly serious. A bit reserved? Just more mature. She’s got faith but she didn’t think she was the chosen one but she’ll do her role the best of her ability. She makes hard decisions and then sobs her chest empty over them because how is one to ever feel like its the right one? I really like how the game lets you choose how you wanna approach the responsibility. Like i said, I wasn’t a reluctant chosen one, but she will do what she can. Versus my friend playing at the same time as me said he played as the second coming of jesus essentially lmfao Having so many characters come back for different roles was so GOOD!!! Like everyone told me Varric was in this one but were like ‘teehee you still cant romance him though’ but you how you play drastically changes your relationships with each person. Tons of characters I met I knew would be personal favorites but I ended up interacting way less because others were more fitting to my inquisitor. So i.e while I love Varric and would’ve smooched him a heartbeat with Hawke, I didn’t get that vibe with Clover. They were really good friends, he was a grounded friend with a sense of humor that was a good escape from everyone else and the ~inquisition~. At least, until the Beyond the Abyss quest. That obviously heavily fractured their friendship and hurt them both :( And i felt that for a long time, until the end. He looked tired. Poor guy is gonna be borderline dead in 4 at this point. But so many side characters you talk to coming back like Dagna and Samson??? Speaking of that quest, I got Stroud because, yeah...Alistair was dead for me and APPARENTLY IT COULD ALSO BE LOGHAIN??? If he stays a grey warden?? wish I did that so def would’ve preferred to save Hawke even if I think the wardens are more important as a concept but like.......i wanted to behead him, so....But yes even tiny details like..Varric wrote home to kirkwall to Carver for me because the rest of my family was dead and I never completed a full romance in 2 lkajslkdjf but the fact that changes based on your play through. BUT YEAH THE way this game weaves all your decisions in and how yeah, overall the story is the same but it makes it so personal to YOU and so different from everyone else ;w;

But I could see my Inq genuinely falling for Solas, and I see her best friends as Cassandra and Blackwall/Thom. Really close to Leliana and the Iron Bull as well. I just loved all their interactions. All the characters were so cool to get to know?? Like I thought I would’ve hated Cullen (hes a dick in O) and tbh I just got into the series as the VA was being a complete shit. But I liked him a lot!! I love the work buddies vibes between the Inq and the advisors. I thought I was going to love Sera!! And like, I did, but she hated my Inquisitor and their personalities clashed a lot. Shes the only one i didn’t get a cut scene for in the end :’) I loved coming back from story quests and having to take like 20 minutes to go around skyhold and make sure I talked to /everyone/ for their new dialogue. You genuinely feel connected to all these wonderful npcs ljkasljdf

I wanted to make Cassandra the new divine but I made leliana on accident and kinda dug it so I stuck with it. VARRIC IS THE NEW VISCOUNT??? h i l a r i o u s.

One of the things I loved the most in this game in particular, and while this is something in all of them it just really struck me in this one, was....everyone gave up so so much to devote themselves to the cause, y’know?? Like, it’s almost heartbreaking how much everyone loses and they’re still looking towards you with their belief and willingness to follow you to the end ;-;

The final fight almost felt, Idk, underwhelming? Dude dragons are way tougher than him asdkjhfkhjd. I even went up a difficulty in this game after feeling like I got the hang of the series. But at the same time, we just spend how many hours knocking down each and one of his advantages so fuck him lol.

But yeah there are so many things I wanted to do but I felt so worn out by mindless sidequests and story being level locked in comparison to the previous games. askdjhflkd

One of the things that blows my mind is so so many people were stoked i was playing DA and they couldn’t wait til I got to Inq, and so I find out most people I know only ever played Inquisition? TBH if I didn’t play O+2 I think I would’ve dropped inquisition and never finished it *shrug* all of the build up just means SO MUCH!!! Everyones argument seems to be the older games are ugly and yeah O has rough battle system but its easy to get over imo. Like, you need the chaos of 2 to get the real weight of the mage/templar stuff?? Theres so many characters and story and dialogue that go over your head without Origins?? Like yes inq can stand alone pretty well but, idk, I’m in love with this entire series and the world building and THE!! WAY!!! IT!!! ALL!!! CONNECTS!!!!!!!!!!!

I love how a quest can go differently by whos in your party, I love you can have more dialogue based on lore you’ve managed to pick up around, I love HOW COMPANIONS BICKERRRRRRRRRRRR!!!! The lore of these games are so good. It’s like playing an epic line of novels. It’s so immersive and I don’t think I’ve played too many games to this level.

I didn’t like the skill trees to being a mage in this one, Idk why. It wasn’t nearly as fun for me as 2, but then again I really fucking liked being a force mage haha. I wanted to be a rogue to complete a diff class per game but everyone said mage brings a lot more interesting story/lore stuff so

but yeah I love having the full context now and seeing other peoples Wardens/Hawkes/Inquisitors and asking people how they played and how their options differed from mine and THERES JUST SO MANY POSSIBLE DECISION TREES!!!!! No wonder the fans play over and over.

but yeah ultimately so much fucking happened?? I’m probably missing a lot of key points.

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maxthommusic · 4 years ago

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Persona 5: Strikers (Review)

Persona 5: Strikers is the best sequel/spin-off I can ever remember. Crafted so lovingly and with such great awareness, Strikers knows its strengths and plays to them incredibly well. However, whenever there is such ingenuity, less-than-stellar moments tend to stick out sorely and Strikers is not averse to this trouble. Yet despite it’s missteps, Persona 5 has received a strikingly fantastic sequel that rises above any qualms and will surely steal your heart along the way.

To get it right out of the way, my two least favorite parts of the game were the intro and the ending. The intro because if you’re a fan of Persona 5, it means you’ve probably not only played 100+ hours of the original, but you probably also sunk about as much time into Royal just last spring, too. With Strikers coming not even a year later, the exposition manages to drag pretty heavily. While the content is probably rich and engaging for newcomers, I have to imagine that’s not most players... Here I was again hearing about people’s hearts needing change and diving into the metaverse to alter cognitions-- I spent the first few hours going, “Okay, okay, I get it. Let’s go.” Especially with the tutorials, I found myself only half-reading them, being irked because it was a mix of, “This seems familiar, don’t I know this already?” and “But let’s just make sure...” I couldn’t escape the feeling that maybe I’d had enough Persona 5-- perhaps Strikers was a bridge too far... And as far as the ending goes-- well. I’ll let you decide how you feel about that one...

Nevertheless, when the game finally drives away from Shibuya and we’re off on the vacation road-trip Atlus marketed to us, things begin to light up. New locations, new music, new dialogs-- everything goes from stale to fresh in a flash. Even the combat begins to make more sense and the map layouts seem less convoluted. Something about starting the game in Shibuya just seemed stifling and I was elated to let my hair blow in the country wind.

A quick tip? Leave the Japanese voice-acting on. Not only is it top-notch, but the English VO leaves a lot to be desired simply from a production standpoint. It didn’t take more than 15 minutes for me to Google if there were any articles relating to the English actors doing their parts at home during COVID. I applaud the team for conjuring a way to get their voices in the game and get this thing out sooner than later in the time of COVID. But if anything makes me appreciate the ability to work and collaborate in-person, as a team, it’s Persona Strikers. The Japanese team certainly didn’t have to worry about a pandemic when piecing together this lovely roadtrip, so their performances are ultimately the superior way to experience Strikers.

But aside from VO, it’s amazing how well the writers captured the voice of these characters in a world that factors in the reception of Persona 5. PStudio plays up the fan service and we get tons of moments worth smiling and laughing over. Sophia and Zenkichi, two of the biggest new characters, are total delights and are as welcome as Kasumi and Maruki were for Royal. Which, when you have an established cast that is so beloved and can still inject newcomers worth fawning over, that’s an achievement in and of itself.

What really drew me to Strikers over and over was simply the ability to step into this universe and spend time with these characters again. The in-between moments where you would traverse a new city were some of my favorite gameplay elements. Seeing all the stores and buying new items was a consistent joy. Which is a great conceit: from items for battle to groceries for cooking, whenever you were out on the town, exploring a new locale, Strikers gives you a reason to check each and every stall. And the addition of “Requests,” mini-quests urged on by Phantom Thieves members and more, is a fantastic way to not only add replay value to levels, but also trigger side story moments, further propelling the notion of a carrot on a stick. The devs seem to really have an understanding for why want additional helpings of Persona 5 and they play up those strengths incredibly well.

Amazing though how we’ve come this far in the review and I still haven’t brought up the combat, no? The honest truth is that Persona as a musou actually makes perfect sense. In fact, plenty of times going through the game I thought to myself, “If Persona switched to this permanently I would have no qualms.” It’s not so mindless like a Dynasty or Hyrule Warriors and I found myself having to employ plenty of strategy to make it through. I died enough times to feel like I had challenges to overcome, but not so much that I couldn’t see a way forward. Even on the more obtuse maps, I employed a “just charge ahead” mentality, trying not to overthink the objective, and I usually came out the other end without much tribulation. Persona 5 Strikers is very focused on having fun and I surely got my helping. Each character has their own Arts to be mastered, giving everyone a different play-style. While I usually leaned on Joker, since he was the most balanced, in my opinion, the game does a great job of making you want to swap those characters because of their Personas. Part of the joy of jumping into a new Jail (read: Palace) was always running with the crew you wanted, then discovering the crew you needed based on the Weaknesses left to exploit. Everyone’s unique Showtime attack (read: Ultimate) adds extra flair to the presentation and overall it’s safe to say Persona 5: Strikers is a celebration of the Phantom Thieves through and through.

There’s no denying how fun P5S truly is and I mostly found myself addicted to the gameplay loop. As mentioned, the beginning and end might be a drag for veterans (or not, depending your affection level for the franchise), and I even really appreciated that not all levels were created equal. Some are shorter than others and whenever the game didn’t overstay its welcome, I was overjoyed. While I’m all for a lengthy experience, I’m more for narratives that say what they need to say. Persona 5: Strikers manages to do this well, which feels like something worth mentioning since its predecessor is known for being incredibly long in the tooth.

While it’s not going to be any sort of Game of the Year contender, not everything needs to be. Persona 5: Strikers is honestly as perfect a game we could have probably hoped for. My gripes with it are middling, at worst, and the things it does right are very worth celebrating. Strikers is focused on fun and serving its fan-base. If you’re in desperate need of a vacation with some best pals, Strikers delivers across the board. And to match that holiday-like sensibility, the musou gameplay pairs perfectly. Less pausing, more action, but plenty of strategy needed to mow down your foes. And for those in need of extra challenge, Strikers definitely delivers in the post-game goods.

VERDICT: Persona 5: Strikers is a must-buy for fans of the original-- so long as the gameplay mechanics sound right. While the fan-service is through the roof and the story does in fact continue the Phantom Thieves’ journey, you probably shouldn’t play a musou if you’re strictly into Persona’s turn-based battle system. Just be aware what you’re diving into-- it’s pretty easy to get informed.

#persona #persona 5 #persona 5 strikers #atlus games #ps4 #ps5 #reviews

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mooifyourecows · 5 years ago

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Hello dearest Moo. So I’m thinking of getting the new Animal Crossing and would like some guidance please. I’ve never played any of the previous Animal Crossings nor do I play many video games in general, but it just looks so fun and cute. Can you tell me some things that I should expect while playing?

Animal Crossing is a great game and I def recommend it!

It’s a game that you can spend hours and hours playing. It’s intended to be played in real time, so it has a relatively slow pace that allows you to really grind for your progress. There are people who don’t like playing in real time so they time skip but EH I don’t encourage that style of playing. I think it’s more satisfying to go about it slowly.

Then again, hey, you can play any way that you want, don’t let me bully you into doing anything you don’t wanna do

Animal Crossing is one of those games that you can’t really play... wrong. This is the first AC game I’ve ever played and so I went in completely blind and have been figuring things out as I go. Just when you think you might get bored, new things are added that keep you interested.

You get to personalize your home and yard and island in general. You get to catch bugs and fish and dig up treasure and fossils. People show up to sell you things and you can go to other islands, whether its an empty island where you can gather supplies and stuff, or an island that belongs to a friend on online play.

I’m someone who really enjoys putting hours and hours into mindless gameplay. I’ve played hundreds of hours of Breath of the Wild and Stardew Valley, just wasting time exploring or fishing or what have you. So this type of game has always appealed to me. There’s no story line that demands your attention. You’re just tossed into an environment and encouraged to make something out of it!

It’s creative and tranquil and the only stress involved is when you shake a wasp nest out of a tree or get spotted by a tarantula. And even that is pretty minor stress as far as videogames go.

Now, I won’t say it’s a perfect game. I don’t want to talk it up too much because I’m a true critic (ha) so I’ll include my criticisms too.

The controls are sometimes a little irritating to me. The camera controls are inverted, which is something I despise, and when I looked in the settings, I didn’t see an option to change that. Maybe I’m dumb and there is a way to change it but I haven’t found it yet. Another thing I don’t like is that you can only move the camera so far, and only up and down. There are times I want to turn the camera side to side in order to see where I am when I’m behind trees or buildings but it doesn’t let you and that’s irritating, especially when you’re trying to pick things up but can’t see where they are.

You have to be really precise when you’re fishing, and there are times when the bobber is extremely close to the fish but it doesn’t see it and you have to readjust your aim over and over. This is especially irritating because the controls can be a tad touchy and your character will sometimes turn way more than you’re intending.

The controls are also super touchy when you’re trying to type. I thought maybe just my controller was being a dingus and making my cursor hop over letters and numbers but when I switched to another game, it worked perfectly fine.

I don’t care for the button choices for opening your inventory/switching through tools/etc and I wish there was a way to customize them.

These are all just minor annoyances though and don’t really detract from my enjoyment of the game. I’m just a picky bitch who has been spoiled by the perfection that is Stardew Valley

Well, I guess that’s all I have to say about it! Overall I do recommend it. Especially if you just want an easy game to waste hours on.

Let me know how you like it if you buy it!

(oh, one more thing. only one island can exist on a Switch at a time. So if you have more than one person in your household that wants to play it, you will have to live on the same island. This sucks sometimes because one person might miss out on specific experiences if the other person does them first.)

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jujuoh · 5 years ago

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Slimebodies!

This post is for a bunch of fun history and anatomy stuff! In the Goo AU, I haven’t decided yet if there were natural slime people originally, but the googioh characters are actually using slime bodes as avatars of a sort. They’re created via various slimes, oozes, and gelatinous cubes, and various secret magic-science known only to the Kaiba Company.

Gozuburo Kaiba, a human merchant who had no problems dabbling in necromancy for his own gain, started out initially trying to make a new (or at least temporary) body for his dying son, Noa, but quickly veered off into using the research for soldiers/weapons that could live indefinitely and heal from almost any common battle wound - to be created en masse for the highest bidders. Noa’s mind and soul were uploaded with technomancy to an isolated machine in the back of a warehouse and forgotten until Gozuburo’s death, and his adopted son Seto Kaiba inherited all of his possessions and assets. Even though Seto is ridiculously competitive and appreciates a good fight, he detests anything resembling actual warfare and wants to use the technology and magicks to create rather than destroy.

Seto is a human technomancer Warlock, who’s magical sugardaddy is the lightning dragon goddess, Kisara. Mokuba is still in training. Their parents were killed in an avalanche, later discovered to be caused by one of Gozuburo’s weapons. The man adopted them after Seto showed off his intricate knowledge of electrical runes.

Seto goes back into the original slimebody research and tries to give Noa the body he was always meant to have. To do this he had to start the spells and potions over almost from scratch, trying to steer it away from necromancy and into artificery, and while doing so discovered that adding fruit extract made the bodies more stable and less.... unsettling, more sentient rather than living weapons or mindless beasts like they were under Gozuburo’s direction. The type of fruit didn’t seem to matter beyond what colour (and bizarrely, flavour) the resulting body had.

After this success (and with a new whiny, but clever, slimy, green-apple-and-mint brother in tow), Seto decided to do more test trials for others in need of a new (or spare) body. Along with everything else he was making in terms of technomagical supplies and creations, the Kaiba Company was rebranded into a force for good. The slimebodies could be used when traveling or doing work underwater or hazardous conditions, or for people who are in magically induced comas to promote healing or are unable to move, in order to keep their daily lives going and their minds healthy and active while their bodies rest. They’re especially handy for disembodied souls like Noa, though ghosts specifically seem to have a harder time possessing them than flesh-and-blood bodies.

Now we finally get to use the infographic up above! Here it is again:

Humans, elves, dwarves - Any of the races can use slimebodies, even non-humanoid ones, though the transition will be more difficult the farther away in similarity the body plans are. All you need is sentience and the ability to give consent (that last one isn’t technically necessary but Seto won’t do it without it unless it’s an absolute (medical) emergency and the affected party physically isn’t capable.) The comparisons here will all be to humans for simplicity’s sake.

1. Auricles - In place of both ears and noses, the auricles are little triangular protrusions on the side of the head, that sense vibrations (and thus sound), chemicals (smell), and also electricity. This makes them highly empathetic. All three of these senses are stronger than those humans have, but sensitivity to bad smells is much lower, and sensitivity to bad sounds is much higher.

Piercings aren’t permanent and will close up immediately upon removal of piercing jewellery, but they are easy and nearly harmless to redo. Jewellery and jewels can be simply stuck into or onto the bodies as well, and is a unique form of accessorizing available to the slimes (though I suppose one could glue jewels to the body, this is much more secure, and there’s no threat of sweat loosening the gems).

2. “Hair” - Nobody knows why, but the slime on top of the head seems to mimic hair growth, down to the specific hairstyle the embodied prefers. Mobuka’s answer is “It’s magic, dummy.” It can be changed as well, and sometimes even grows out the way actual hair would, but other times it doesn’t. Mokuba’s answer still holds. Long natural (A), cut/blunt end (B), short and spiky (C), and pulled back (D) styles can be seen here. For some reason - *coughmagiccough* - any “extra” flavours like mint or honey end up in the hair, as can be seen in Noa’s pale, minty bangs, and Yugi’s golden bangs.

3. Eyes - Slimes have vision nearly identical to humans, though they have no trouble seeing underwater without goggles, and with no limit to their pupil size, have a wider range of light they can see in. The main differences are in purple (or approaching purple) eyes, which can see in ultraviolet as well, and in red (or approaching red, like orange) eyes which can see in infrared. They don’t need to blink, and can see through their eyelids even though their irises are obscured from outside view. Blinking is just a residual habit or an emotional response.

4. Mouth - Slimes don’t have teeth. Not permanent, solid teeth, anyways. Hard ridges form in the mouth while eating or in response to emotion. While slimes technically can be able to taste (and eat) with their entire bodies, reminiscent of their oozy progenitors, it is something that they must actively concentrate to do. The mouth area and the tongue do these passively, and it’s more habitual for one to eat with their mouths and no, say, shove food directly into their digestive center. It’s also pretty rude to taste your friend when giving them a hug - you wouldn’t go up to your bestie and lick them, would you? Or would you...?

5. Organs - Or rather, lacktherof. Slimes breathe through their skin, much like frogs do, and can breathe in the air and underwater. Fresh water is preferred, but they are able to stay in salt water for quite a time as long as fresh drinking water is available. They also need to absorb a lot of light - slimes are capable of photosynthesis through the presence of chlorophyll (green-blue) and rhodopsin (red-purple). Due to this, slimes try to wear as little clothing as possible without feeling or appearing naked or inappropriately dressed. They do, and must, however, eat actual food. Anything from hamburgers to non-toxic minerals can be digested in the cores of slimebodies. Need to hide a corpse?

6. GenitaIs - Slimes only form temporary organs between their legs during certain times, which can be uncomfortable at first for those inhabiting the slimebodies. Others use this as the perfect excuse to forgo underwear.

7. Nails - While the ends of fingers and toes are firmer in order to function properly, there are no nails. Slimes that find this uncomfortable or just want to decorate themselves use stick-on nails (no glue required. While the sticking-to isn’t permanent, it’s more like semi-permanent, like a perfect vacuum seal.)

8. “Skin” - As you can see, slimebodies are overall semi-transparent and heavily tinted. Depending on the lighting, the position, and the slime, objects might show through the bodies clearly or be barely visible. While the outside has a shiny, slick appearance, to the touch the “skin” of a slimebody feels no different to an amphibian (or perhaps a damp, sweaty person). While slime droplets occasionally drip down or even off the body, not much is lost throughout the day, no more than a flesh-and-blood body loses from sweat, dead skin cells, and other passive loss. Slimes wear clothes and shoes not for concealment (though hiding the digestion process is considered polite), but to keep themselves clean, like any other being, though slimes tend to pick up much more lint than anyone else due to the constant slight moisture at the surface.

Mostly made of water, even more so than FnB bodies, slimebodies are immune to water attacks, strong to fire attacks, weak to ice attacks, and are immune to electric attacks as long as they have contact with the ground. Slashing attacks can cause damage, but unless it’s magical or elemental, the cuts will heal quickly and completely. Crushing attacks cause more damage and are hard to reform from, but it is possible.

In times of high, unstable emotion or high damage, the shape of the bodies way denature temporarily and turn partially or entirely into a slimy puddle. This is reversible, and not harmful in and of itself, but it will certainly feel very, very strange. Should a body be cut in half, the two halves can either be cleaved back together, or the bigger half will reform into a new body with rest and food. The bodies can stretch and melt through conscious effort as well, and many slimes can even be seen “melting into each other” during particularly snuggly hugs. Any foreign residue will eventually be converted or replaced by the original slime, so any colour or flavour changes are not permanent.

The way young Yugi came to inhabit a slimebody is quite an adventure. The short-ish version is this:

Sugoroku Mutou in his youth was a human adventurer, a budding merchant-slash-warrior that would go on quests for rare, expensive items, either for a wealthy client or to expand his own collection. Whilst in Fantasy Egypt looking for an ancient cursed game board (the very one he would later use against Mr. Otogi, an eladrin bard), he stumbled into a lost tomb. From what he could tell, it was the tomb of an Aasimar prince, 3000 years gone, and yet the only thing in the burial chamber was a box on a pedestal, and you know the story from there...

A powerful, but gentle presence urged Sugoroku to take the box, filled with what appeared to be a magical, solid-gold three-dimensional puzzle out of the tomb and back home. Having had many, many, MANY experiences with cursed objects, Sugoroku could tell this thing was deeply and powerfully cursed, but not in potentia, the trap had already been sprung long ago. There was no danger, here, just a lot of loneliness.

He returned home and kept the box shut, having given up on solving the puzzle himself after a few decades, got married, had a kid, his son got married to a spritely elf, and they, too, had a son, all before the puzzle was even thought of again.

Yugi, a half-elf with the makings of a great hero, solves the puzzle one year after finding it at age 7, and he suddenly has a second shadow. The shadow is always there, though sometimes it hides in his real shadow, and it does its best to protect Yugi throughout the years. Slowly, ever so slowly, the shadow gains sentience, and sometimes Yugi sees the shape of smiling eyes, and Yugi always smiles back.

On Yugi’s sixteenth birthday, several years into his magical training, he can suddenly hear his shadow friend’s voice, and his friend can possess his body, and everyone realises that this poor ghost has been trapped sealed in this piece of metal for millennia. He doesn’t even remember his own name.

Yugi decides to set off on a quest to discover his friend’s past and try to find something to help him, but Mr. Otogi shows up to exact his revenge before he even gets the chance to ask his friends along on the quest. Yugi’s body is burnt to ashes, but his shadow clings to his soul and hides it in the puzzle alongside his own.

Seto hears about what happened, and Jounouchi is the one to suggest that Yugi might be in the puzzle with his shadow friend, and Seto makes them both slimebodies and hopes for the best. It’s a huge adjustment for everyone, especially poor Atem, suddenly in a body, remembering scraps of his past thanks to Yugi’s brief presence in the puzzle. Unlike the other slimes, Atem can’t stay in his body unless the puzzle is encased in the goop - why is he so different?

The slimebodies were always intended to be temporary, and now with three different people in need of new, actual flesh-and-blood bodies, their adventures are only beginning. What - there are other ways to create slimebodies? Somebody is trying to compete with Kaiba Co? There are groups calling this blasphemy? Must they foray into necromancy in order to return Yugi, Atem, and Noa to their actual bodies? Who cursed Atem in the first place? What caused the lost prince to become lost? There are other cursed golden items with souls hidden inside? Why does Seto choose everyone’s fruit so carefully? It’s because he’s gay

#googioh #long post under the cut

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lady-griffin · 6 years ago

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GOT Circle & Spiral

Since the beginning of the show, we’ve been introduced to the White Walker’s symbols. Perhaps it’s a way they are communicating and expressing their intentions or perhaps they are just copying what they have seen before, without any meaning behind it.

There is the circle. Introduced, in S1E01 “Winter is Coming”

And then, there is the Spiral. Introduced, in S3E03 “Walk of Punishment”

From what we know so far or have gathered, is that these two symbols were taken from the Children of Forest by the White Walkers and they have been using them to communicate something to the living.

Now perhaps these are just empty symbols for the White Walkers. But the WW are capable of thinking and strategizing, for instance, they adapt to start wearing armor once one of them is killed. So, I do believe they are communicating something to the living.

Now in season 6, we are reintroduced to these symbols once more. As Jon draws our attention to them when he shows Daenerys the cave drawings in Dragonstone, in S7E04 “The Spoils of War."

The second picture and the spiral that is shown, I think represents the creation of the Night King and the place he was created. But we’ll get into that a bit later.

Circle

First, we’re going to talk about the circle. While we haven’t seen it all that much in comparison to the Spiral, particularly in the later seasons. It still is the first symbol we were introduced to.

The first scene of the first episode of the entire show introduces us to this symbol and that episode is adeptly named Winter is Coming. The White Walkers are the Winter the Starks have been talking about, and they are not only coming, but are already here.

The final scene of the final episode of Season 1, reintroduces the symbol to us with Drogo’s funeral pyre and the birth of Daenerys’ dragons. And again, the episode is adeptly named, “Fire and Blood,” which directly refers to the Targaryen dragons, who are now also present in the current story.

And before we go to the circle and its relation to Sansa Stark, it’s important to note, that we do keep seeing the symbol in relation to the overall show.

The font style of the Title, turns every “O” into the circle.

Okay, back to the story within the show.

The circle is strongly associated with Sansa Stark, who wears the symbol as a necklace when she leaves the Vale, first appearing in S4E08, “The Mountain and the Viper.”

This is quite interesting.

While we know the chain reflects Littlefinger, a piece Sansa took from his own style (particularly in the way she wears it later on) andthe end “needle" piece is related to Arya’s very own needle. We still don’t actually have any meaning applied to the circle itself, at least not to my knowledge.

We should also take note of the scene where we first see Sansa wearing the necklace in S7E08 and the implication behind it. Because Littlefinger to some extent “creates” this new Sansa (or he thinks he does), but over time he loses control over her and she turns on him, resulting in his death.

Which is a scenario that is repeated quite often within the story.

Sansa’s later circle necklace (which becomes a stable in her wardrobe), continues the idea of Littlefinger’s influence/lessons and Sansa having her own Needle.

And this necklace reminds me more of a thread going through the sewing needle eye, than the first one. And overall sewing in general. Sewing and more traditional female activities are also closely associated with Sansa, just in general.

And while the new circle itself might continue the symbolic weight of the old circle (whatever that exactly is), I believe this new necklace carries an additional symbolic weight.

Especially, when Sansa wears her Twin Direwolf Collar/Clasps.

The necklace and collar, together, create a visual makeshift of a Viking King’s Chain.

And several other blogs/people have brought this up as a visual clue.

If this is an intentional visual clue by the costume designer or creators, then I think it clearly means that Sansa’s circle necklace (new version) is her very own Chain of Intent.

Matching & opposing Daenerys’ more famous Chain of Intent and if that is true, than these two are already made out to be two opposing forces before they even meet.

It’s also quite interesting that both Sansa and Daenerys have been strongly assoicated with the WW symbols and no one else really has. Sansa the Circle. And Daenerys the Circle and Spiral.

And the circle has come to represent opposing forces already. The WW and the Dragons.

But yet, we still don’t actually know the meaning of the White Walkers and Sansa’s First Necklace.

In our own world, the circle is similar to the Greek Letters of Theta and Phi.

Theta is a closer match to Sansa’s necklace, a horizontal line contained within a circle.

Theta is the eighth letter of the Greek Alphabet. In Greek numerals it has the value of 9 though and it is likely derived from Phoenician letter Teth.

The Phoenician letter ṭēth means "wheel" and possibly is the continuation of a Middle Bronze Age glyph named ṭab meaning "good".

But back to Theta.

It was once used to represent death, as it was used as an abbreviation for the Greek θάνατος (thanatos, “death”) and as a warning of death, in the same way that skull and crossbones are or have been used.

The idea of death is very fitting for the White Walkers/Night King. To those who believe in the Lord of the Light, the WW are death and the true enemy of R'hllor. But in general and for everyone, it’s pretty easy to associate death with the WW.

But this idea of death is pretty interesting in regards to Sansa, who wears the symbol in the end of Season 4 and a good portion of Season 5. And while she stops wearing it later on, the visual style of it continues on in a different form.

The symbol could represent the symbolic death of the old Sansa that once was, the one that existed before she walked down the stairs wearing said circle necklace.

Or perhaps it’s a forewarning of her own future, literal death. Or perhaps, like the WW, Sansa herself is a harbinger of death.

A warning of death to come.

Tyrion himself, in S8E01, brought up the fact that those who’ve underestimated or cross Sansa are now all dead. But it goes a bit further than that, doesn’t it?

Many of the characters who have directly impacted Sansa’s life or interacted with her on screen are now dead.

Lady. Ned Stark. Catelyn Stark. Robb Stark. Rickon Stark. Robert Baratheon. Joffrey. Tommen. Myrcella. Jory Cassel. Septa Mordane. Lancel Lannister. Loras, Margaery and Olenna Tyrell. Ser Meryn Trant. Maester Pycelle. Ros. Shae. Dontos. Lysa Tully. Tywin Lannister. Roose Bolton. Walda Frey. Myranda. Ramsey Bolton. The old woman. Ned Umber. Petyr Baelish.

And even those who haven’t died, have in many ways gone through severe changes that we could see as symbolic deaths.

The Hound. Jon Snow (+ literal). Cersei Lannister. Tyrion Lannister. Jaime Lannister. Arya Stark. Bran Stark. Theon Greyjoy.

In all honestly, though, we could make a list like this for every current living character and some would far exceed Sansa’s own death list.

But it is interesting for one of the few characters not involved in active fighting or killing, death sure does follow her.

But again, this is Game of Thrones.

Now Phi looks closer to the White Walkers’ circle, as the line is vertical and even passes outside the circle.

Phi, is the is the 21st letter of the Greek alphabet and represents the numeral value of 500 and also 500,000.

The symbol of Phi can represent a whole number of things, most importantly the Golden Ratio. Which itself can represent infinity, beauty, nature, life and balance.

And, the Golden Ration is often represented by a Spiral shape.

Spiral

This leads us to the Spiral in the show, which has become the far more prominent symbol in later seasons.

It is first shown in S3E03, “The Walk of Punishment.” John and the Free Folk come across this symbol, specifically one that is made of horse parts. Though they don’t know its meaning, they talk of how there are no human remains.

The men that these horses belonged to are now wights, the NK has gained more soldiers. And in the same episode, Daenerys makes a deal with the Slave Masters of Astapor -- One dragon for the Unsullied. Daenerys in this episode, takes a step further in gaining her future army.

Interesting how the wights are completely mindless soldiers following one master, while the Unsullied or the idea of them is sold to Daenerys as being just that. In addition, while the Masters of Astapor never got their one dragon, the Night King did.

The Spiral is also shown when the Children of the Forest create the first ever White Walker, in S6E05, “The Door.”

Bran learns in that scene that it was the COTF who created the WW to protect themselves from the First Men. And it is also in that scene we get idea that the acts people do (or weapons they create) under the justification of war, is not always justified.

While COTF were being killed and their sacred trees destroyed, they created new life that they could not control and even slaughtered them, as well as the First Men. The COTF, in the end, had to work with Man to defeat the NK and imprison him beyond the wall.

The NK also creates the spiral in the most recent episode, S8E01 “Winterfell”, using body parts to create a spiral featuring Little Ned Umber in the middle (much like how the NK was in the middle of another spiral).

Beric Dondarrion even comments that it’s a message from the Night King. So once more we know the WW are sending the characters a message, we just don’t understand nor know what it is exactly means to the WW.

The Spiral is also associated with Daenerys Targaryen & potentially Targaryens in general.

In S4E10, “The Children” Daenerys wears a dress throughout that has the very same spiral pattern.

In that episode, Daenerys receives citizens in her hall when she is Queen of Mereen. She learns that some of the slaves want to be sold back to their former masters (as they feel there is no place for them in this new world). Daenerys learns the lesson that the freedom she has given these people, means they can defy her own wishes and wants for them.

This idea is further cemented when she learns that Drogon killed a small child. She has lost control of her dragons (drogon) and they are acting on their own will, which won’t always align with hers. So, she decides to lock up her two remaining dragons, to prevent this from happening again.

The episode is adeptly titled “The Children,” (it’s almost like the title is intentional).

We as the audience are introduced to the Children of the Forest. But further more we learn the trouble and dangers of “children” to their “parents”.

Some of the slaves don’t wish to be freed by Myhsa (mother) and the Dragons are acting on their own will.

The Hound begs Arya to kill him, who has become a pseudo daughter in a way, but she defies his will and leaves him to die a slow death. Well first she robbed him.

And the final nail in the coffin, Jaime frees Tyrion, who then kills their father, Tywin. Which is not what Jaime nor Tywin wanted.

Your children, the people you save or free from their former imprisonment, still have their own free will and that will can go against your own.

And this is a lesson that has been on repeat for quite some time.

The COTF learn this. Daenerys learns this. Littlefinger learns this. Tywin learns this. Cersei learns this. Doran Martell learn this. Roose Bolton learns this. Ramsey learns this.

Now, defying your “parents” wishes and turning on them does not always work out in the best of ways for the “child”. Robb and Sansa both went against Catelyn and Ned’s wishes in who they wanted to marry and both acts led to some terrible consequences for House Stark and said parents, as well as themselves.

So, there is a balance to be had. But the lesson remains, everyone has a will of their own.

And it’s also important to note that to create the first WW, the COTF used Dragonglass. Which is also refered to as frozen fire and is found in abundance on Dragonstone, the ancestral seat of House Targaryen.

There is of course one other way Daenerys and Targaryens are connected to the Spiral, their sigil resembles it quite a bit.

Of course, everyone has commented on the possible connection of the WW Spiral & Targaryen sigil as the similarity was made quite clear with Little Ned being set ablaze.

The Spiral itself could be seen as an abstract form of the Targaryen Sigil. Similar to how Cersei’s crown is an abstract form of a lion.

Heading back to the actual Spiral for a quick second.

Spirals in our own world can have a ton of meanings depending on different cultures, history and overall context. But overall, they can represent movement, life, creation, infinity/eternity, reincarnation/ rebirth and time (past, present and future).

And I think those meanings from our world can also be applied to the GOT Spiral.

Back to the Targaryen Sigil and its connection to the Spiral.

The Targaryen Sigil itself is reminiscent of Ouroboros - A symbol that depicts a serpent or dragon devouring its own tail.

Ouroboros represents or can represent wholeness, infinity, rebirth or a renewal of life (same as the spiral). A continuation of a cycle.

It also has the negative connation or idea tied to it -- eating (hurting) yourself to satiate your own hunger (desire).

Basically, a self-defeating way of trying to accomplish what you want.

Which is a way to describe several of the characters we’ve seen on the show and continue to see, the more they try to cement their power the more unstable that power’s foundation becomes.

But even more so, we can see it with how several of the “children” defy their “parents”.

And of course, both the Targaryen Sigil and Spiral Symbol also look like something else. A wheel.

Daenerys has sworn to break “The Wheel.”

While we can easily infer what the wheel is, it’s never actually fully discussed within the show.

We’re told the vague idea that it’s the families fighting one another for power and the destruction that follows (crushing the smallfolk), but that’s really it.

However, that idea is often shown to the audience in every episode, with once again the literal Title of the Show.

This looks like a wheel, with the different families being the spokes on it, just like what Daenerys said.

But back to our main point.

We have no idea how Daenerys exactly wants to break the wheel (dismantling the institutions of power that legitimize rulers? maybe?) nor do we know what she wants to do when the wheel breaks. Or what she wants to implement afterward.

One idea, is that she could mean she wants to do what Joffrey suggested in Season 1, dismantling the independent powers of the lower lords (Stark, Tyrell, Tully...ect) and cement the central power of the crown (mainly through armies).

This actually isn’t all that far-fetched. Daenerys has become the central ruler of her army and people, with seemingly no official lower branches or groups.

But that’s more stopping the wheel on the Targaryen Spoke, not breaking it.

The real problem is that it’s a nice line with no plan behind it and there is a fatal flaw in how it’s supposed to be achieved.

It’s hard to break the “wheel”, when Daenerys needs the wheel or the institutions of power that were or are still currently in place (monarchy/feudalism, succession rights, Targaryen rule, Iron Throne) to become Queen of the 7K, so she can break said institutions that reinforce the current social structure and help crush those below.

Daenerys (and the other characters) are part of this wheel. They might be able to change it, but can they truly break it?

I’m going to say no. The wheel and life keep spinning. The spiral continues. No matter what they do.

The wheel imagery also reminds me of the Seven-Pointed Star, the primary icon of the New Gods, which is the major religion within Westeros.

The New Gods is an interesting religion. It’s predominant across the show. It’s one of the few religions we see that has set rules and practices and it is (was) a formal institute of power in Westeros, but yet has no “proof” behind it.

The Old Gods, The Lord of Light and even the Many-Faced God have magic users and practices that seemingly reinforce said power of their god and prove its existence.

But magic isn’t linked to one religion or one god. In fact, it might not be linked to any. Magic might just be a natural part of this world and some religions may have been created to explain said magic and shape it.

Perhaps those who follow R’hllor can’t see the future through the flames because of their god, but many R’hllor exists because people could see the future in the flame.

But back to the Targaryen connection.

It always interested me that the Targaryens never brought over or implemented their own religion or gods from Valyria to Westeros. They just adapted to the dominant religion and allowed it to give them legitimacy.

One could also argue the Targaryen Sigil has “Seven Points” to it.

Three Heads. Two Wings. Two Tails.

And also, Joffrey based the throne room off the old Targaryen-style of the room. Including the Seven-Pointed Star windows.

Joffrey didn’t include the star because he himself is religious, he did so to invoke the style and power he admired in the previous Targaryen rulers.

Robert, who overthrew the Targaryens, had removed and replaced the Seven-Pointed Star (and other decorations) with forest/hunting stain-glass windows and decorations.

While we might associate the current throne room and its “look” with Joffrey and later Cersei, they are only trying to invoke the Targaryens, who were overthrown so they could have power.

And we can see that in the flashback of the Mad King, as he too had the Seven-Pointed Star glass window.

So, in the past, the Targaryens have used the Seven-Pointed Star, not just in their decorating, but legitimizing their own power with The Faith of the Seven.

Overall, the Seven-Pointed Circle it a symbol of power that keeps things more or less the same. And Daenerys might have to reinforce or rebuild this religion once more to keep or gain her own power, if she were ever to become queen.

Once more, fortifying the wheel and making it more difficult to break.

Now overall the Spiral and the Seven-Pointed Star Circle aren’t that similar in appearance, other than them being circles with “spokes”.

The Spiral has 8 spirals. While the Star has 7 points.

The Star is contained in the circle and the Spiral is the circle that can continue on and on.

But they might just both represent religion. While not confirmed, from what we can tell so far, the Spiral is a symbolic part of the COTF magic (and potentially their religion as well).

So, there is again an element of opposite forces. The Old vs. The New.

And from a Watsonian perspective, whose to say the Targaryen weren’t influenced by the dominant religion of Westeros & the Spirals imagery found on Dragon Stone (plus their three dragons) in creating their sigil.

The two symbols the WW have used can be linked to and related to many different things from our own world to the world of Game of Thrones.

And while all of these different circles and symbols may not all be directly connected together in some overall giant meaning/conspiracy that will explain everything.

We can’t ignore, the same ideas and meanings keep coming up and connect different symbols and ideas together.

They are all different, but nonetheless similar. Reflections of one another.

What do these two symbols really mean in regards to the WW?

Well, I hate to say it I don’t have a concrete answer, despite everthing we’ve talked about. But I do have speculation.

In a more literal sense. I think the circle represents the First Men and the Spiral represents the COTF. Or at least they use to.

Basically, I think it will be revealed that the circle symbol we first saw (unless they’ve forgotten about it) was once a symbol of the First Men. We actually haven’t seen the COTF really be associated with that symbol, at least not in the same way the Spiral has been shown to be related to them.

True the circle is part of the Cave Drawings, like the Spiral, but the COTF were telling the story of how they joined together with the First Men to defeat the WW.

So I believe, the WW are taking what was the primary (or what they saw as the primary) symbol of the two groups that they wish to destroy and made them their own.

For the WW to have life, they most kill the old life in the current world. And these two symbols the WW have been using is that threat. Death is coming for the First Men (humans) and the COTF.

And that leads to what these two symbols represent (not just a single person or group anymore), but ideas.

Overall, I believe they both represent opposing forces and the duality of said forces.

The Fist Men and The Children of the Forest. Ice and Fire. Starks and Targaryens. Non-Magic and Magic. Old Gods and New Gods. Greatness and Madness. Death and Life.

Different sides of the same coin.

However, these symbols in my view don’t simply represent said opposite forces themselves, or more accurately, one doesn’t necessairly represent life, while the other represents death.

They represent both opposing forces at the same time.

But more than anything, these two symbols separate or together represent --

Rebirth. Renewal. Reincarnation. A continuation of the past in the present and future.

Both symbols have come to represent the duality of Life & Death and Death & Life.

The COTF created the Night King by killing the human man he once was. (Spiral)

The Night King kills humans and brings them back (creating “new life”) as either wights or WW. (Circle & Spiral)

Daenerys had three deaths (Drogo, Rhaego, Mirri Maz Durr) and willingly walked into the funeral pyre and by doing so, she created new life in her three dragons. (Circle)

Sansa has to symbolically kill (change) old Sansa to become this new and smarter Sansa (when she leaves the vale). (Circle).

And that idea, even though the symbols aren’t presented in literal form, repeats time and time again.

The Drowned God Religion in general.

Theon must die for Reek to exist and Reek must die to allow Theon to be reborn.

Jon has to kill the boy to let the man be born.

Jon also literally dies and is resurrected.

Human Bran has to die to allow Three-Eyed Raven Bran to be born.

The Faceless Men try to get Arya to kill Arya Stark so she could become No One.

Jaime most kill the King slayer to become Jaime Lannister.

For new life, you need the death of the old life.

Both symbols represent that overall idea, particularly in association together. But yet what once was, never truly goes away, does it?

“What is dead, may never die”

The old (the past) is never truly destroyed. And thus, you get this continuation that goes on and on.

But overall the idea of the future, despite its best attempt, being a reflection of the past is something that seems inevitable.

Though I would say the future of GOT won’t look exactly like the past, because many different reflections of the past will take part in creating this new future.

So, I believe some form of the old (current) life we’re viewing now must die, for the new life to exist.

And, there are a couple of questions we might want to ponder during S8.

Which “children” will defy which “parents” in this new season?

Which of the saved will defy their savior?

Which reflections of the past will actually be realized in the future?

What exact aspect of the old must die for the new to exist?

We’ll just have to watch and see.

#Game of Thrones #GOT #GOT Symbols #White Walkers #Children of the Forest #white walker spiral #White Walker circle #Daenerys Targaryen #House Targaryen #Sansa Stark #House Stark #COTF #GOT symbolism

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a-spark-of-gold · 5 years ago

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Dancing with the Stars

3/8/40 LC, Past midnight

We’ve been here on our vacation for a few days and some interesting things have happened during them.

When we arrived Thursday, we had our own little beach party to kick off the vacation. During this time, we found out that Pridion is dating a beautiful Kaldorei woman (who is the dominant one in their relationship), and that Sam has been afflicted by the Worgen Curse.

Friday, we spent most of the day hanging out at the beach. I talked to Sam about my plans for the vacation, and any potential hookups I might find while we’re here.

I had a swim to think about them, and come upon the decision that, for my long-term goals, I’ll look for someone that respects and communicates with me, and that otherwise, I’ll let the cards fall where they may, regardless of who I end up falling in love with. However, for the short-term, I told him I’d just be looking to get laid to satisfy him, but kept to myself that it’d be more of a chance to test the waters and see where things may go.

While Sam and I were talking, Darioch came by and relaxed with us for a bit. After Sam had left, he and I talked for a few hours about our relationships, how they were going, and how we hoped they would go in the future. I told him that I was potentially interested in Istins or Melwyn and why, and he told me what he thought about either of them. I also told him my feelings about Ardan, and he advised me that I should talk with him about how I felt when we got back, even if he didn’t feel the same way and ended up staying with Lily.

I also found out something about Dare and his relationship with Nasira that I won’t write here, on the chance that someone finds this journal and reads it (if you are, you should be ashamed of yourself).

When evening rolled around, Sam, Lt. Witherseed, and I faced off against Thaddeus, Alison, and Spears in a beer pong competition and won 10 to 8. Those of us left after the game went up to the steam pools to play a few rounds of Two Truths 1 Lie, and I may have gotten more than a little carried away with my drinking.

Saturday was left open, so most of us stuck to ourselves, which was nice because I was nursing a hangover for most of the day. Eventually, once my headache was gone, I managed to take some time to go out, relax on the beach, run a few laps, and have a nice swim.

Today was more of the standard beach fare: running along the coast, swimming laps, sunbathing, talking with friends. A group on the other side of the beach celebrating one of their birthdays. Things like that.

When evening rolled around, our group went into Kingsport for a few hours for a change of scenery. We stopped at some of the market stalls and had a bit of a browse (nothing good caught my eye), went into a seafood restaurant and had an overall okay dinner, had a glass of red wine that got me pretty messed up (I don’t even remember it being that strong), went to the dock for a nice view of the nighttime ocean where we almost killed a group of actors because they were dressed as pirates, then went into a dance hall to finish off the night.

When we got to the top floor of the dance hall, the music playing a bit more relaxed than we were anticipating, but that didn’t stop some of the couples from taking to the dance floor, though there were more than a few of us singles who mostly stayed to the outer edge.

I saw Melwyn was dancing by herself, so I took the chance, and asked her to dance with me. Thankfully, she agreed, and we talked as we danced, though she mainly asked questions about me: how long I’ve been with the 1st, why I joined them, how long I’ve been a mage. I think my answers kept her interested, because she kept asking, at least.

She asked if I was originally from Stormwind, and at first I only told her it was a bit of a story, and we might not have time for it. She pulled me in to dance with her, and convinced me to go on. So, I told her: how I came to be raised by the goblins on Kezan, our fleeing the island, both Hellscream and the Bilgewater Cartel casting me out, and how I found myself alone wandering the forests of Ashenvale when I was picked up by a sentinel patrol. She eagerly listened, and when I was done, she said that I was better off with the Alliance. I said I was glad to be, as otherwise I wouldn’t have been here to enjoy the moment, implying that I was enjoying my time with her.

I think she was, too, but Kaldorei don’t really make it easy to get a read on their feelings, though I guess that comes with the territory of living for hundreds and thousands of years. The dance ended, and she had to go to tend to her owl. I told her that next time we talked, we could talk more about her, as I didn’t get the chance to ask her anything tonight. She agreed, and left the building, leaving me there breathless and wanting more...

I think Sam must’ve caught on to how I was feeling, because even as he and Mera danced, he asked me if I was alright. I got my head out of the clouds long enough to tell him I was fine, and that I was just thinking. I don’t think he was quite satisfied with that answer, but didn’t press further.

We left the dance hall not too long after, took a carriage back to the resort, and we all went our separate ways for the night.

Melwyn is... a mystery to me, as of writing this. I don’t know much about her, but there’s something there that’s calling to me, almost begging me to find out more about her. I think she’s still considered young by Kaldorei standards, but, she’s a Captain of the Crescent Glaive. Surely, she’s done quite a few good things to have gotten to that position so young (by their standards, anyways; she’s probably got a few centuries on me, or nearly any other human).

...

Dammit. I think I’m falling for her, as well. But, I still feel something for Ardan... right?

... I don’t think I know anymore...

Mera did a tarot card reading for me, before we left. One of them sprang forth from the deck, and she drew two more. My cards were the inversed Justice (dishonesty & corruption), the Three of Wands (moving abroad), and the Hanged Man (sacrifice). One piece of advice she gave me after the reading? “The Hanged Man holds his own rope, and is free to let go at any time.”

I think... in order to move on, I have to ultimately let go of my feelings for Ardan, and to not force him to choose between either Lily or me. Then, I will be free.

Shit. I’ve never been one for the dramatic arts, but fuck me if joining the 1st hasn’t brought out that part of me. Heh.

At any rate, tomorrow we’ll have another day to ourselves, and then we’ll be doing... something, during the evening. They have us vote during the day on what we want to do that evening, and they tell us what we’ll be doing as a group based on what the most people voted for.

I’ve never learned how to play marmotball, but it sounds like a fun, if mindless, way to spend an evening. Should be fun. Maybe if we get done early, we’ll finish up our beer pong tournament from Friday.

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staticsamuraiart · 5 years ago

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Hoo boy, this one's a long one

There's a TLDR way at the end.

I had one of my longer running games come to a messy head last night where a couple of the players enacted a party betrayal. Here is your cast primarily involved so I don't have to keep using full titles to keep everything straight. We're level 17.

The Tiefling Barbarian who's been having a mental breakdown for the last 3 or 4 games as his entire life up until a certain point has been revealed to him to be a lie, thus causing a downward spiral of paranoia and a refusal to trust literally anyone, party members included. Shortened to "The Barbarian" from now on.

The way-too-hard-to-explain Ranger turned Devil Vampire Queen (there's a lot going on here). The character was once a Tabaxi with a hunger for treasure hunting. Now she wishes to ascend to godhood and become what is essentially a god of piracy and treasure hoarding. Shortened to "The Ranger" from now on.

The Undead Warlock/Life Cleric who has thus far been an amazing healer and generally has a fix for everything and is unaffected by most things who gets the most screwed over in this scenario. Shortened to "The Cleric-Lock" from now on.

And the more minor involvements, a Lycan bloodhunter, our demi-god Bard, and myself as the circle of the moon druid. We were affected but not nearly as directly.

The situation! We were in the Feywild and crawling through a dungeon. I'm not gonna lie, I wasn't expecting this dungeon because I was under the impression we were gathering allies in the Feywild because our plane is at war with the Devils but that's another story. We split the party (first mistake) because the dungeon has two paths to go through and one team was forcibly separated after a cave in. The Bard, Bloodhunter, and Barbarian go one way. The Cleric-lock, Ranger, and Druid go the other. Party A and B respectively.

Party A proceeds forward. There's pretty much mostly harmless or not at all dangerous traps laid out through this place so they kind of murderhobo on through. They uh.... let's just say an innocent child gets straight up murdered by the Barbarian who betrays them and tries to book it for the item at the end of the dungeon. Shenanigans ensue and the Bard traps the Barbarian in a Forcecage, while he and the Bloodhunter bamf out to continue through the dungeon.

Party B has a significantly easier time, because overall we are the less* murderhobo side (*one of the traitors is in this group, guess whooo). We power through a much more significant portion of the dungeon and make it to the boss room. "The Boss Room" being the room where the treasure is guarded by goblins...

Now to condense the story, the Vampire and the Barbarian for different reasons were trying to obtain AN INSANELY RARE AND POWERFUL LEGENDARY SWORD THAT GRANTS WISHES. Like high tier shit. The Ranger's plan was to trap or kill everyone in this dungeon because she is the reason it even exists. She has been meticulously planning with the DM for months on her ultimate betrayal and finally reached her point. She plays her trump card (although it ends up not being as awesome as expected because she misunderstood a mechanic, nbd) but proceeds to continue. Here's where things get complicated so let me explain piece by piece:

The ranger supposedly had a wish saved from a previous session when she encountered multiple wish granting items all at once (Frankly she's had insane luck in obtaining wishes all through this campaign). Many of us at the table were pretty sure she did NOT have the wish saved, but the DM ruled she definitely did even though the math didn't line up. The Ranger used this wish spell to force the Cleric-Lock to have amnesia.

Clarification; the DM specifically stated there is no save, no counter, no anything to stop this wish. It happened and there was nothing the player could do about it. Now you might be thinking "but you're the druid, couldn't you have still stopped her?" or even "that's not very fair, shouldn't there still be some kind of DC if the wish copied a spell that exists?"

Well to answer the first thought as simply as possible, I am a homebrewed version of an Eidolyn. You know? Those things Summoners essentially make a bond with and can summon out to fight and shit for them? Yeah, it's neat. The second answer is like, wow hey same bro, I agree. That doesn't make much sense to me. DM ruled "It happens because it's not the 'spell' wish, it's like the 11th level bomb ass crazy powerful WISH wish." and personally I didn't agree but DM rules so I wasn't gonna fight it out. Powerful magic is powerful. Other players at the table were incredibly upset over it and the tensions rose.

Back to explanations, I was originally bonded to the Bard, because at the start of the game we were playing a dnd skin of El Dorado but our "Tulio" left left the game early on. Anyway, here's the problem; I wasn't bonded to the Bard. I was bonded to the Ranger.

"But Static, how can that be? you don't just un-bond to your chosen person!"

Yeeeah well, there was a situation where I got petrified and that sucked. I failed my saves twice. The Ranger had a very powerful ally who had unpetrified me, but he also apparently marked me and bonded me to the Ranger. The DM's argument was that because I "died," I was no longer bonded to the Bard, and was open to have a new bond made. Now I'm not mad or anything at the situation, I'm a very flow with the punches player, but my problem is that that seems like something I should have known, right? I didn't though, I had no idea my bond was shifted; no idea I was even remotely connected to the Ranger in such a way. It was well hidden, because we WERE connected BEFORE that situation came about. Devils' rules, souls being traded and shit, partially due to my Eidolyn heritage; it's complicated.

Why is that important? Well technically speaking, because I was HER Eidolyn, I was HER minion. She ordered me to go ahead and grab her legendary wish sword while the Cleric-Lock was essentially reverted to a mindless Spectre- complicated- and proceeded to possess the Ranger because he still had the general notion that the situation was a hostile one. Ranger failed her save, became a vegetable. I was still following my order. Those Goblins? Used the wishes to wish for Fire toads, and then wished to be okay with fire. AKA they're slowly burning to death on their new Fire Toad mounts as I grab the now innert sword. Okay well it's still a wicked sword, but the wishes were spent.

ALLLLLL things come to a head. The druid goes wild berserk for a while as her "summoner" has essentially been incapacitated, a powerful ally the Ranger summoned whisks the Ranger's body away as the Cleric-lock still maintains control of her body, the Barbarian is trapped in a Forcecage, and the Bard and Bloodhunter bamf the fuck out of there (don't worry we had a sort of anchor that kept the time dilation at bay and they successfully saved on the memory loss thing). Eventually the druid returns to herself, and also bamfs out back to the anchor point with successful memory saves; leaving half of the party essentially wiped and the players for the Barbarian, Cleric-lock, and Ranger will be rolling new characters.

Now this was a lot to go over, because it is a very complicated set of characters with crazy backstories and hordes of batshit insane items and powers because we're so high level and it wouldn't be easy to understand from an outside view if I hadn't provided as much context as I did. The situation with the wish being un-salvagable for the player, combined with the seemingly random entering of a dungeon when our goal was nowhere near such a thing, and the overall out of character tensions that kept rising with disruptive players ended up causing a lot of arguments and a lot of strife; DM and players alike.

What I'm trying to get at is that it's okay to disagree with how your DM runs things. It's okay to think a situation in game was handled unfairly. It's okay to clash opinions. Sometimes DMs are set in their ruling, and sometimes a DM enacts Rule 0: DM says, therefore it is. That is valid. That being said, if you communicate your concerns with [insert clashing opinion here] and you feel you are just butting heads with the DM with no resolution, compromise, or even validation then it is OKAY TO LEAVE THE GAME.

The Bard's player was the most upset with how the game turned out; what with disagreeing with the wish rulings, finding the lack of any possible inklings to our evil players plotting schemes (by that I mean there was only secret conversations with the DM and no in game nuances noted with no rolls involved), and overall finding the betrayal to be from left field and otherwise just an unfair game with multiple examples of the DM railroading certain party members into being or acting some kind of way when they didn't have the chance to save themselves, notice the issues, or generally be involved in the decision that was forced upon their characters (Cleric-Lock and Druid as the main examples). it resulted in the Bard's player deciding to leave the game prematurely. The DM and him got into a heated argument in person and over facebook, and they just couldn't agree and it ended up getting to that point of "well if you want to run the next game go ahead" attitude.

The situation is fresh, so it's still heated between the two people. Maybe they'll make up, or maybe they'll see that they clash and don't even want to be friends anymore. Idk, but I for one see the game as a learning experience. I myself have had reservations about the game and the DM for a long time, and in general just haven't really felt a deep connection with my character or the story. There were moments, but they were pretty few and far between. I don't hate the players, and I don't even blame the ones who took evil routes and betrayed us. I just wish there was a better synergy between us with Players, Party, and DM. Things probably would've been better.

Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk. I just wanted a place to unload the story and organize my thoughts on the situation. I want to clarify too that the DM isn't a bad DM or a bad person, in fact he even pre-game warned us that things might get heated and cooked for us while he tried to be as fair as he possibly could be. This isn't a blasting on social media, nor is it a callout post. I just don't like putting these things on facebook because do you see this novel I wrote? Fuck that noise I just wanted to journal it somewhere and voice out that not every DnD game is perfectly balanced or perceived to be handled fairly. He did his best, he made his calls, and he urged us all to make sure we knew we were all still friends after the game was over.

TLDR; Our DM kind of railroaded a couple players and made some questionable decisions on how he handled some PvP scenarios which angered a chunk of the players and overall it was just a bad time. We're still friends but sometimes friends get passionate over the things they have strong views on and arguments happen. It's okay though, humans aren't perfect. We cool.

Thanks for reading. <3

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themildestofwriters · 6 years ago

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Meet the Cast: Babette

Tagged by the magnificent @kijilinn who tagged me in this a long time ago and I’ve been desperately trying to write up for. There’ll be one for Josephine out soon so take care of finding that one but outside of that here we go!

1. On a scale of “is occasionally forced to bathe” to “Instagram model with sponsors to hoe for” how involved is your OC’s Skincare routine?

Babette cares about her hygiene and while she doesn’t by the most expensive products available—seeing them nothing more than superfluous wastes of money—she tends to put more than the bare minimum into the products she buys. In this, she’s quite involved in her cleanliness. She keeps herself clean and tidy, grooms herself and even moisturizes often though not every day. Overall, she does care but it isn’t the most important thing in her mind and there are times when depression hits and she just can’t bring herself to care about hygiene.

2. What are your OC’s food preferences (flavours/textures/spiciness/calories/ when and how they eat) and how did they get that way?

I think I made a mention of sour lollies to a friend of mine? Nevertheless, Babette’s food preferences are actually quite interesting considering her nature as a non-human entity. She still must eat but doesn’t have to eat physical food. In fact, physical food is akin to Babette going vegetarian or vegan. Her kinds natural diet consists mainly of metaphysical energy: life energies, magical energies, mental energies, things that can be found in abundance around the universe but can be considered unethical to harvest for food. To take life energy is basically devouring souls. To take magical energy strips an important component of reality that manifests in many different ways, some positive and some negative. To take mental energy would be to drain the memories and other important brain-things of living creatures leaving them mindless husks.

However, as implied before, physical foodstuffs are a substitute. Unfortunately, she needs to eat a lot to substitute the recommended amount of energy for her to consume. If she doesn’t, then she’ll grow weak, first magically but considering she’s not entirely a physical being, it will soon to affect her physical health. She’ll grow weak and frail, decrepit as rapid onset physical aging takes place. Her hair will begin to thin, teeth falling out along with her feathers. It’s not pretty. In this, however, it means calories are of no importance to her. She physically can’t get overweight due to most of her food being turned into this substitute energy while the rest is turned to waste. This doesn’t mean she couldn’t over eat—or over drink—as she’s found. If she eats too much at once, the food cannot be digested quick enough and it will result in her vomiting up the excess.

Babette prefers savoury foods and especially meat. She could literally tear through an entire leg of ham on her own, bone and all, and she would not regret a thing—aside from the bill, probably. As an aside, she could probably do it in one bite, not that the sight of her doing so would be good for your mental health. However, while meat products are her favourite food type, she does enjoy vegetables as they add verity to her meals, both visually and in taste. They’re not as important considering their energy content relating to metaphysical energy, but she enjoys them nonetheless. Fruit as well, milk and sweets! She loves the taste of white chocolate (dark chocolate is eww), and has, much to Josephine’s exasperation, eaten an entire cake by herself because she just needed just one. More. Bite.

For texture, Babette doesn’t have much of a preference. She’ll eat a lot of things and isn’t too picky about what she eats in this regard and in most regards.

For spiciness… Babette may be a goddess, but she cannot handle too much spice. It still burns and can sometimes be a bit overwhelming for her. Lightly spiced food is fine but its not like she’d empty an entire bottle of chilly powder onto her meal before eating it. While it wouldn’t hurt her, she would still not enjoy it. At the same time, she wouldn’t enjoy her meal if it was too bland. If she’s cooking, it can be expected for her to add some home grown or otherwise hand-picked spices into the mix and, perhaps, some experimentation.

Babette eats when Josephine eats and beyond. Josephine has a healthy eating schedule and so Babette does. However, this isn’t always a constant and sometimes she just can’t bring herself to eat whether due to depression or some other reason. When she does eat, however, she eats like royalty. She finds eating messy uncouth and would prefer eating with utensils whenever possible. She does make exceptions but only with certain foods that won’t result in her needing to wash her hands afterwards. If she needs to eat chicken wings, she’ll use a knife and fork, but a burger is fair game if wrapped properly.

3. What’s something pointless/petty/unimportant that IRRATIONALLY ANNOYS THE HELL out of your OC?

To name one, it would be walking slowly in narrow pathways. She has the patience of an immortal, but it doesn’t mean much. She doesn’t want to deal with having her life slowed down and would much rather prefer spending her time at home or with others she cares about. She’s a fast walker and finds it annoying dealing with anyone going slower then her on purpose. If you’re old or injured or something like that, then that’s good, but if you’re purposefully walking slower then she’ll get pissed off. The same can apply when shopping, especially if she’s inline to check out and someone decides to take their time, needlessly—most of all, she’ll hate you for life if you decide to slow down the check-out line by making a massive scene and yelling at the clerk because they didn’t greet you right or they didn’t accept your two-years-out-of-date coupon.

4. What’s your OC’s response to being asked for money by a homeless person?

If she had money to spare on hand, she would part with it. If she didn’t, she would turn them away apologetically. Her heart goes out to them, and she would feel guilt knowing that she could do something about it but won’t. As will be mentioned for question 6, Babette doesn’t want to help any more than a human could because she knows that it would be a slippery slope that would result in her overexerting herself in her attempt to fix the universe’s problems as she had once before. It’s the strongest piece of self-control not to fix all their problems and she feels guilty.

5. Does your OC get lost easily? What do they do when they do get lost?

It’s unlikely she’ll get lost. She knows her way around a map and has a very good memory—though not a perfect one—that allows her to mentally map places with some effort. However, if she ever does find herself lost, her usual response is to try not to panic and plan. Lost in a forest? Fly above the tree line and figure out where she is. Lost in a city? Ask around. Lost in space? She has no idea and would probably attempt to find any navigation technology nearby or fly to the nearest star. While there are times where she hasn’t reacted the best, she knows what to do and acts efficiently once the initial panic is gone.

6. What would STOP your OC from Doing The Right Thing in a tense situation?

It depends on what is considered the “Right Thing”. To make it easy, I’ll base it on what Peter Parker, The Spider-Man, considers to be the “Right Thing’ which can be summarised as “With great power comes great responsibility.” In other words, if you have the power to do something good for the world, it is your responsibility to do that thing. In this, Babette is stopping herself from doing the right thing, even in a tense situation.

She has godlike power and doesn’t use it to hep the world. She purposely makes sure that she only helps as much as a human could but she’s not going to do anything more—she won’t fly over seas to solve world hunger or end tyrannical regimes or anything like that. Those kinds of things aren’t her responsibility and she forces herself to leave it to those responsible. Earth is the domain of humanity and so it’s humanities responsibility to look after the Earth and solve the problems that afflict it. She might help out occasionally but no more than a human reasonably could—unless she becomes emotionally invested, which she tries desperately not to. Of course, this isn’t just because she knows it isn’t her responsibility, but rather the knowledge that the last time she took responsibility into her own hands the galaxy was wiped of life and she doesn’t want that to happen again no matter how many aeons it took to get to that point originally.

7. Realistically, could your OC (in their normal circumstances- i.e. at their own house/battlecamp/spaceship etc.) keep a small child alive for a week if they had to? A Dog? A Houseplant? A rock with a smiley face painted on?

Yes, she could. 100%

She might not be a good role model, but she’ll keep that kid/dog/plant/rock alive until it dies from means outside her control which she’d probably attempt to fight against nevertheless because by then she’d have imprinted on the kid and unceremoniously adopted it. If it were a baby, she would raise that thing as if it were her own flesh and blood—she would tend to its needs, sing it songs at night, play and engage with it and perhaps attempt to teach it a few things. If the baby ever managed to say her name, she would probably break down crying and once the week is up there will be more tears to share as she says goodbye to the little bundle of joy. A dog? She’s more of a cat person but with such energetic playfulness and joy, she’d be hard-pressed to not start enjoying her time. With a house plant, she might just pawn that off to Josephine because its Josephine’s thing, probably the rock too.

8. If your OC had to take the S.A.T. tomorrow with one night to prep, how would they do? both emotionally and academically.

Emotionally, no fucks would be given that night or day. She’s been in more stressful situations and even if she did care about the S.A.T.s she wouldn’t worry much at all. She has a great memory and I’m pretty sure her academic knowledge is one of the few parts she’s confidant with. As for her academic results, I’d say she’d do very well. She wouldn’t score the highest she could, especially with only one night’s worth of prep—which, depending on how far she’d humour the S.A.T., she might end up pulling an all-nighter—but she would do remarkably well and score fairly high. Over all, she doesn’t care much because she doesn’t really need it. She’d probably be the most chill person in the entire building.

9. What would cause your OC to choose to do something petty/pointlessly cruel?

As of Divine Intervention Babette isn’t one to really act out if things are done to her specifically. Well, she would but only in specific situations. If someone does something to those she cares about, even if it wasn’t that bad but still caused a problem? Well… Babette doesn’t really understand “Proportional Retribution” and due to her life experiences, she might see something relatedly minor as something major and react as such. Getting physical with her girlfriend in an ill-fated attempt to court her may result in a fractured wrist, for example. Another example would be from the film Man of Steel as Babette would totally crucify someone’s truck if they threw something at her head.

10. On a scale of “Complete and Justified nervous breakdown” to “Conquer The Entire Galaxy and become an Immortal God-Emperor”, how well would your OC handle being abducted by Aliens?

…she did both.

11. What song is 100% guaranteed to get your OC beyond excited and will be sung loudly and embarrassingly, either in public or the shower?

Babette’s a singer and musician, often at times sings along to many songs when she has the energy. She plays music while in the shower and can be heard singing along with—same as with the car, where she’s either drumming along with the beat or simply singing her heart out. Singing is a passion of hers and there isn’t really a specific song that would lead her to start singing her heart out. As of 2018, she would so get into the Country Roads meme and would absolutely sing her heart out if it ever appeared on radio.

12. What perfectly-normal-to-them-thing does your OC do that confuses/pisses off/terrifies their neighbours?

Probably the things coming out of her mouth. Babette is very bad at hiding the fact that she’s a god and the things that come out of her mouth don’t help. Some would think her comments about “kids these days” as jokes at her own expense, but if the neighbours actually listen to the words coming out of her mouth, the more they’d get confused and worried. The anger in her voice; the pain; the misery; the grief; if they listened, they would hear it. That’s normal for her, isn’t it?

13. Under what circumstances would your OC appear naked in public?

Very, very specific circumstances. She doesn’t mind performing rather nsfw deeds in public and is rather excited by the prospect, but she would never do it in public. Always it will be public-adjacent where only those she’s performing these nsfw deeds with can see her. It’s unlikely that she would ever actually appear naked in public proper and is rather prudish in this situation. If her clothes were somehow destroyed, she would cover herself as best she could whether by using hands, wings or magic to obscure her form. About the only time I could think for her to appear naked would perhaps be at a nudist beach but I’m finding it a hard time seeing her appear naked of her own volition elsewhere.

14. What thing did your OC’s parents do that your OC wishes they had a better explanation for?

I would probably say… she wishes she knew why Maria and Matthew divorced—her biological parents. She doesn’t have the full picture and even when she tried to ask all she got was conflicting evidence. Maria was a bad wife, no, Matthew was a bad husband. Both don’t like each other, and Babette doesn’t know who’s telling the truth of if there’s a grain of truth to each of their stories.

15. How often does your OC “zone out” or do things on autopilot and how severe have the problems that have arisen from that been?

Sometimes when she’s playing an instrument where she’ll just zone out as she plays. Sometimes she’ll zone out when doing a menial task. She zones out in the shower, she zones out on the bus, she zones out in class, she zones out a lot. She hasn’t really done anything bad while zoned out but there have been a few times when someone’s startled her bad enough that her fight response kicks in and she attacks the “threat”. Usually, however, she’s able to catch herself before she actually injures them—unless they were an actual threat.

16. How strong or weak is your OC’s Impulse control? What’s the worst thing that happened because of their Impulsivity or inability to be so?

It depends on the subject. She is very impulsive when it comes to helping people and great self-restraint is needed to not fall down that slippery slope of helping everyone she meets. However, she’s not an impulsive buyer and is mostly in control when dealing with fighting people—she’s not going to hurt someone unless she knows for certain that they deserve it. On the other hand, when she’s dealing with the man who murdered her mother, the only thing she could think about was removing that pathetic excuse for life in the most painful way possible.

Because of her hesitance, she’s probably seen innocent people get hurt or even die. With her impulsive drive to destroy the man who murdered her mother, she’s jeopardised missions. She’s done things she’s not proud of because of her impulsiveness and there are times when she wished she were more impulsive.

17. How does your OC sabotage themselves?

Babette self-sabotage’s herself in a lot of ways. She focuses on the negative aspects of herself, completely ignoring her positive sides. She focuses too much on the bad things in life and tries to act like the good things aren’t that good. She focuses on negativity in general, especially in regard to herself and experiences. She tries to suppress herself and her emotions. She’s far to self-sacrificing, putting other’s needs way before her own. She compares herself to others and doesn’t let what other’s do inspire her to do better, instead wallowing in guilt. She’s a perfectionist who’s only satisfied when 100% of problems are fixed. Instead of dealing with her trauma she puts it off until it starts negatively effecting her love life. She deprives herself of sleep just to get away from traumatic nightmares instead of getting help. She forces herself to relieve horrible moments in her life (i.e. listening to her first girlfriend’s suicide note during Christmas). Self-generating stress and over working herself when she really just needs to take a seat.

To say the least, she’s very much into the self-sabotaging occupation.

18. What’s the trashiest item in your OC’s wardrobe, when was the last time they wore it and why do they still have it?

Babette doesn’t really have anything trashy in her wardrobe. She tends to keep it clean and clear with about the only thing she’s kept around for a long time being her necklace and a once-radioactive dress of hers.

19. How Dehydrated is your OC right now? Are they going to fix this?

At 6:50pm, she’s probably just had dinner or something so not so dehydrated. She doesn’t drink the recommended amount, but at the same time she does have a bottle of water on hand to drink every now and then. Especially in the summer when it’s uncomfortably hot, she likes water whether it’s bathing, swimming or drinking.

20. What’s your OC smell like? No, not that “Vanilla and Anxiety” evocative stuff, realistically. Body odour? What have they been touching all day? When was their last shower? Did they put on any kind of artificial scent?

Babette naturally smells faintly of burning ozone in line with her affinity for lightning. If she doesn’t bathe, then she may begin to smell offensive after a few days. It’s not as bad as others as she doesn’t have particularly bad body odour, but it’ll still a bad smell and she’ll still want a shower. Outside of her natural smells, the lingering ozone is sometimes mixed with soap or perfume or deodorant. Usually, these things will be scented in line with the forest or fruits.

She bathes at least once every two days, perhaps more depending on the weather and what activities she’s up to—and usually at night—and she brushes her teeth twice a day and flosses once a day. As it’s like… 3:02am at the time of writing this answer, she’s probably had a shower earlier and is attempting to get to sleep.

She usually only wears perfume when going to a party or out on a date.

I tag: @gottaenjoythelittlethingzz; @randomestfandoms-ocs; @rose-writes-and-drinks-tea; @ariellaskylark; @cometworks; @i-tried-and-i-loose; @pens-swords-stuff; and anyone else who wants to do this!

#oc: babette melwyn #original character #ocs #work: divine intervention #goddess #eldritch #main character #writeblr #writers on tubmlr #writing #oc wip

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allthehetalia · 6 years ago

Text

Jolly Sailor Bold (Dark!Pirate!England x Mermaid!Reader)

You did not sleep that night, too caught up in those jade eyes and the feel of soft blond hair through your fingers. Your stomach felt empty as you managed to pull a poor fool into the water after you failed to ensnare the captain. Actually, you were pretty mad at yourself for letting him get away.

Dawn started to peak over the horizon as you munched on the poor drunkard’s arm. Elizabeta having joined you an hour or so ago before the rays attempted to warm the water soaked rock you were perched on. She managed to take the hand from you and was eating it herself as you told her what happened.

“So that’s why you are eating yourself fat? I thought it was becoming winter,” she teased as she picked her teeth; “obviously you're not doing something right, if it were me or Rodrich we would have already had him in the water drowning.” Her statement earned her a growl from you as you tore another chunk and chewed angrily.

“Geez, calm down buta*, all you need is a little bit of practice. C’mon, let me hear that voice!” Elizabeta coaxed you. She was an odd siren, to say the least. Most adults would never deal with a youngster such as you, your scales just having hardened to where you could perch on land and not be burned, you were too hard to deal with. That being said mermaids were independent at birth so you never really met the male who gave birth to your brood… actually, you never met your siblings, they were all hatched before you were. You were kind of a late bloomer, in both growth as well as skills. Your voice still scratchy, your hunting skills were still amatuer, and your looks still a bit babyish.

“His hair it hangs in ringlets, his eyes as black as soles. May Happiness attend him-”

“Okay, okay, stop right there! You sound like a dying whale for heaven’s sake, no wonder you’re having trouble catching humans.” Okay, ouch. You thought you were doing okay, a few hits and misses sure, but overall not that bad. She was thinking, you could see it. Her green eyes filled with a quizzical look at she stared at the grey clouds in the sky.

“Maybe you should leave the Captain be, it’s best to pick and choose your battles and I’m scared that if you keep messing around with him like a guppy you’ll end up in a fishing net. He’s not what he seems that’s for sure.” With that, she splashed back into the water and left you to your thoughts. At which point you huffed and went back to eating. Honestly, if only she knew how close you were to having that blond hair under the water, then she wouldn’t be calling you such names.

That was it, you made your decision, Captain Arthur Kirkland would be your next meal, whether you starved or not along the way. Elizabeta just could not tell, after all a siren’s voice to other siren’s sounds like harsh hissing and screeching anyways. He was so close, you almost had him too, you were so mad when you were interrupted that you could have dragged Arthur’s friend and his greasy hair into the water.

With a pitiful sigh, you decided to try your luck again at this, maybe succeed this time too besides, your scales were getting too dry anyway. Hopping into the cold water that the sun had yet to warm it was clear by the lower temperature that winter was coming and the accused need for migration would soon be starting and you’d have to put on weight to deal with the cold. You have only had to migrate a few times, being born in more tropical oceans yourself, but what times you did you always found it to be a pain.

Your mindless swimming found you at the same perch as the night before, and to your surprise so was the Captain. A blanket wrapped around his lithe frame, nose a little red from the cold morning air, he looked so tired and drowsy. Those lush green eyes opened wide as you popped your head from the cold surface of the water almost as if he could not believe that you were real and not some illusion. On the other hand, he startled you to the point that you ducked back into the water, having no plan just yet it all caught you off guard.

“You! You’re real, please come back!” His voice sounded elated from the water’s muffled surface. The chiming, gentle ring of it made you want to peek out again to maybe, just maybe, catch the smile you think he held on his face.

Wait, what were you thinking? That was your chance! You could easily just yank him by the sunkissed tresses and pull him under. I mean by God the man looked completely enraptured when he saw you! It would be so easy just to wrap your hands in his hair and drag him under, not like he would protest. So, stealing your nerves, you peaked back out from the water to where he could just see your eyes.

“I… I thought you were just some drunken allusion…” His baffled voice and labored breathe gave out foggy puffs as he perched dangerously close to the edge of the rocks. He looked on the verge of tears as he laid his eyes upon you obviously relieved that you were no mere illusion made up from his drunken stupor.

You were so caught up in those glittering, glass eyes that you never noticed him reach out and run a finger against your cheek in awe. The warm sensation making you move away from it, your predatory instincts keeping you from moving your eyes from him. He was obviously dumb, even for a human, to leave his hand dangling over the water like a treat to be given if you did a proper trick. Hesitantly you moved back to face him, your hands reached to comb through his hair.

“My happiness attend him wherever he may go. From Tower Hill to Blackwall;” You pooched your lips out in a pout as you began to pull him in; “I’ll wander, weep and moan, all for my jolly sailor until he sails home.”

His head was under the water at that point, hands grabbed onto your own as you continued to slip him from the surface. Tiny bubbles of air leaving his nose and mouth when the thought hit you; maybe you could drown him? He looked to be one who would put up a fight if I felt inclined, the water always makes human panic.

All of a sudden, those green eyes widened and the all too familiar game of struggle began. You were smaller than him, he had years at sea on his side, your hands were torn away from his scalp as the Arthur scrambled to the surface to grab some much-needed air. His hand grasped around your wrist, pulling you up with him.

#hetalia #hetalia axis powers #aph england #pirate au #yandere #reader insert #repost from my old blog #jolly sailor bold

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