#its easier plus I think it looks neat

[storybookclan]

Intro

…

Once upon a time, there was a group of cats…

Lignin took care of the younger ones… she named them too when they were given stupid names

She was sad and scared

Page was the youngest… so sweet and kind. He took care of Lignin because she couldn’t take care of herself

He was too pure for the world

Then there was Quill. He was troublesome and fun. Always made everyone smile, even when he was the most annoying thing alive

There seemed to be no end to his energy

And… Ink… he stepped in for Page when she couldn’t do everything… which was almost always…

The others joked that there were hearts on his pelt because he had too much love to contain it all inside him

There was also a cat named Story

…

He was a jerk

[nyatbinary-81]

@vulpixisananimal sifstem art jumpscare!! more specifically i got bored and decided to mess around with sif and mal's outfits.

[greyborn2]

Elisif headcanons now! (friendly tone ofc <3) Why do you think she would be a good marriage candidate? I'm curious :)

Yesssss!!! Okay - so this boils down to two categories. Personal interest in it, and underrated narrative JUICE. Starting with the former because its easier to begin with. So Elisif is just... she's neat. She's simultaneously one of the most politically important people in skyrim while also being COMPLETELY overshadowed by the men around her (Nobody talks about her, really, they talk of Torygg. The civil war isnt her vs ulfric, its TULLIUS vs ulfric. Her own decisions in court the first time we even see her are seemingly overruled on a dime by her own court, by Falk.). Its like she's this big thing of incredible importance and is constantly hidden away both in narrative and in game. But despite that, if you actually sneak in a bit, ignore all the big figures standing in front of her and propping themselves up on top of her, she has a surprising amount of meat to her.

Most of the Jarls are like... a few word summary at best. Greedy idiot boy, honourable honorman, paranoid bigot, old seer, etc etc etc. You get an initial impression of them and thats kinda it. Ulfric has a lot more, obviously, because he's a major character but it would *SEEM* that Elisif should be on the lower end of content. It takes so much to seek her out in her overshadowed little corner after all, but she has so so so much surprising stuff around her. The necromancer potema plot revolves around her, a whole big dialogue tree that isnt super common to see for a jarl, some touching personal quests that go into detail about how she saw her late husband. Its just all super compelling to me to have a character that, despite being so important, is *soooo* hidden away actually have some meat to her. Plus she's just a nice person!!! ANYWAYS!! PART 2!! The JUICE!!

For starters, I think, there should just be more opportunities for the dragonborn to play the political game if they want. Beyond just choosing a side in a war or ticking off their 'thane of everywhere' list, actually getting in on climbing the ladder and enmeshing oneself with the politics of the land they're in. BUT BUT... same can be said for Ulfric. Absolutely true. I do think he should also be a marriage candidate. BUT...

I think Elisif PARTICULARLY makes sense as a marriage opportunity that isn't one you seek out, but one that is put forward to the player. Specifically with an Imperial victory in the civil war.

The war is won. Alduin MAY or MAY NOT be slain. But either way, no matter what, at this point the dragonborn is a war hero, a champion of the people, and decorated imperial legate. And this would be fucking FRIGHTNING, I think, to the politicians back in Cyrodiil. There's a *history* of war hero dragonborns, popular with the people, turning on their commanders and declaring themselves emperor afterall. Oh boy is there a precedent. Suddenly they're the big figure in a war that was supposed to be Tullius' duty and they might start sweating in their boots a little.

SO... after the war is won... the legion starts... pushing. Just a little. A few letters, a few comments, that the dragonborn should maybe marry Elisif. Become High King by marriage. Lock them in and satisfy the war hero with a political title off in the ass end of the empire before they turn their gaze toward a ruby throne. Don't give them time to think on it. Ooooh look tasty treat right here shhhh dont think yes you did very good dragonborn yes yes be high king.

I think from there it could go one of three ways;

1) Last Dragonborn marries Elisif but with her actually agreeing to the union (after completing her personal quests) and she FINALLY steps out of the shadows. Rather than the expected you using her for power, she uses YOU for power. You allow yourself to be the thing she props herself up on and finally really starts coming into public view. Maybe to the nervousness of the Empire as she's a less eager puppet then they might have thought, now.

2) Last Dragonborn falls right into the trap the empire placed. You didnt do the quests for Elisif, she remains in the shadows, there's a loveless marriage and you get to be satisfied with a big title that hopefully keeps you occupied.

3) Last Dragonborn refuses all of this. Things seem to proceed as they do in canon but... well... maybe you notice a few more non-DB assassins using imperial weapons attacking you on the road then you did before. Curious.

[void-chara]

@mcytblrholidayexchange gift for @irrealisms !! you had lots of prompt ideas for writing, but not for art, so i hope you're happy with eclipse federation misery and agony compilation, plus song lyrics

lyric credits: Temporary - Chase Petra / Stranger - The Mechanisms / Easier - The Crane Wives (appears four times) / Two Birds - Regina Spektor / Little Soldiers - The Crane Wives (appears twice) / Heretic Pride - The Mountain Goats

feel free to ask if you want me to adjust some text to make it more readable or something, i think it looks fine but i know different peoples eyes and devices are different, and if i had more time i would definitely have spent more time messing with the colors on everything

speaking. of time. im really sorry i took so long ._. i kind of suck at estimating how long projects will take and how much time i have. thanks for being so patient!!

oh, also, some lyrics and drawings have story reasons for being grouped together, and some went where they looked good. uh. ideally id make sure everything had reason for its location, but this is one area where i did correctly estimate my time, instead of getting stuck in the planning phase.

also in the process of typing all this ive already gone back twice to change stuff in the images and re-add them to the post lol

OH also!! the part where vitalasy jumps off to his death! is as far as i can tell NOT canon accurate!! all the footage shows him jumping off the prison, since thats where he respawns. i didnt think to check this until after id already drawn most of the stuff, and already had the prison drawn, and i didnt want to reorganize the drawing. im telling myself that we only see a few of the later deaths and so theoretically the first one could have been jumping off a grassy ledge somewhere but its still bothering me and i needed to mention it.

anyway yeah really hope you like it i tried some new stuff with this one im not sure how well it turned out and thanks again for being so patient!!

EDITING TO ADD SOME MORE WORDS!!! i love talking about my art! so first, all the text on signs and stuff i did go back and look at videos and vods to make sure was entirely accurate, and i wrote all the words entirely by myself. for the lyrics and other text(death message and DELIVERANCE), i used a text tool first to make sure the words would be neat and where i needed them, and then traced over that on a new layer and deleted the original text layer. my handwritting fucking sucks always no matter what, this was a very necessary step. also! this is officially the first thing i have drawn entirely on my phone, rather than on my ipad like i used to do! also i dont use a stylus of any type i just draw with my finger lol.

[ejaysstuff]

DESIGN REFERENCES FOR LI JINZHA

⚠️NOTE⚠️ I am NOT a researcher, meaning I did not go beyond his baike article for this post, so please don't take this post as a concrete, definite description of Jinzha. Remember that there are different versions of mythology characters all the time, and these are simply some of them. I'm only making this so others can have a starting point in designing him!

Any rbs with corrections/additions are highly welcome!!

Throughout my year of Li Brother Illness TM, I've seen some li brother designs which always makes me incredibly happy. However, I still thought it'd be neat if I shared some stuff that helped inspire my headcannons/designs of the li siblings. This one will be about Jinzha!

I hope this gives a little more insight to my beloveds while also generating more ideas for them <33

Jinzha is described as a handsome young man who wears light yellow/white Taoist robes. Sometimes the ends of his Daoist robes is drawn poofy which is so cute,, he is also depicted wearing a golden hair crown (束发金冠). Other figures like Sun Wukong and Lu Bu wear this too, but with pheasant feathers attached to it

There are also designs that depict him in armor!

SNAKES (蛇）

This is an older version of Jinzha, Bodhisattva Jundali Mingwang. He is a Buddhist figure, and can be seen decorated with red snakes and yellow-collared snakes around his body. He also has a spirit snake (灵蛇), which could either mean a magical snake or a fast and precise one. He uses it as a weapon, which I think means he flings the lil guy at his opponent and it just starts biting them (erlang shen strat with his dog)

While this isn't fsyy Jinzha, I still think it'd be neat to include snake motifs in Jinzha's design more,, plus I think it'd tie in nicely with his Dragon Stake :)

(Bodhisattva Jundali also wields other weapons such as a spear, a whip and a polearm that looks similar to a halberd (戟). Jinzha doesn't have any of these in fsyy, but just gonna put these here if you want more weapons to draw him with :>)

DRAGON STAKE (遁龙桩)

I've shown this weapon briefly here, but I'll show it again so it's much more organized! The Dragon Stake appears time to time in fsyy alongside Jinzha's swords, and is a weapon that can bind any opponent. It's commonly depicted as a pole with three rings. It seems to be able to change its size, growing bigger when in use. In fsyy, Jinzha would sometimes bind the enemy first with the Dragon Stake before finishing them off with his swords.

I was luckily able to find an illustration showing how it looks like in action!

This weapon was used by Jinzha's master before it was passed onto Jinzha. It's also what was used to subdue Nezha when he tried to kill Li Jing

More illustrations with Jinzha holding it:

more illustrations of Jinzha and the stake!

(^illustration credits: 苍狼野兽 on weibo)

VASE OF SWEET DEW (甘露宝瓶)

(For those who use his wikipedia article, the 'Ganlu Treasure Vase' is this.)

甘露 gān lù, meaning sweet dew, is a special substance that functions like holy water. It is contained in a vase, and Bodhisattva Jundali used this to defeat demons. This one doesn't seem to have a particular design, but it looks similar to the one that Bodhisattva Guanyin holds in her hand.

I did find some variations of it online though!

I hope this can give more ideas when drawing Jinzha! There aren't many english sources about him, so maybe this helps make researching a little easier <33

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

Raven-san you need to stop gaslighting yourself his hair is atrocious! OTL Its like rock paper scissors, and he lost to the scissors type of bad.

[Referencing this post!]

NO I SWEAR THAT iT ADDS TO HIS cHARACTER 😭 (I mean, I won’t pass up an opportunity to bully him for his haircut but I’ll still defend it with my life—)

It just suits him in a way that’s hard to put into words. Like, I can’t see him in any other hairstyle, it fits his neat and tidy look so well. But it also??? Sort of makes him look like a pathetic little constantly angry cat looking for something to claw into… which, again, is super fitting. I sadly find something oddly endearing about it 😔 It’s a resonant chaotic energy that matches up with how fucked up his character is… It’s got strong gap moe 💕 PLUS THE MORE FOREHEAD THERE IS, THE EASIER IT IS TO KISS—

I want to add that there might be a cultural disconnect regarding the haircut. Many of the TWST fans I’ve interacted with are predominantly English-speaking—and the kind of haircut Rollo has is rarely seen in those circles. I wasn’t as shocked or as put off by his hair at first because (at least from my own cultural background) it’s not uncommon to see little boys and young men with similar-looking hairdos. I’m more used to seeing it around, so I’m not as offended by it. This is also true of Rook’s bob cut, which is not typically found in western cultures on men but has a place in Asia. (Of course, there’s going to be people from the same background as me who think Rollo’s hair is ugly. I’m only speaking for myself in this post, not them.)

I personally find Malleus, Jack, and Trey's hair to be much more unappealing than Rollo’s 💀 Malleus and Jack basically have mullets, while Trey’s is super short and reminds me of a freshly mowed lawn.

[thatonebirdwrites]

For the distracting ask: 10 & 16

Hiya! :D

10. Favorite animal?

Cat. I'm tempted to write a short bit of Witchy-Lena turning into a cat now. It's one of my favorite tropes.

When Lena didn't send her typical afternoon text, Kara's worry meter jumped a thousand percent. Part of her brain always worried for Lena. In her defense, Lena's a soft, fragile human who the universe keeps trying to murder, and it's almost a full time job trying to keep her alive.

Since the Crisis and the multiverse reset -- Kara will always be salty about Lex making himself a hero -- keeping Lena alive proves a trifle easier. Less people hate the Luthors, plus Lena developed magic, which was awesome. Lena, however, did not agree with Kara.

"It's half-nonsense, Kara," Lena grumbles as she glares at the sparking bowl in front of her. Why it's sparking, Kara doesn't know, but the effects look rather neat from her view. Sort of like fireworks for ants.

"Not everything relies on logic. Even science." Kara wraps her arms around Lena and kisses the side of her neck. Her girlfriend leans back against Kara with a disgruntled sigh. "Think of what you call quantum mechanics. The probability fields don't always function according to your mathematical constructs."

"Since when do you know quantum mechanics?"

"I told you I was the youngest in centuries admitted to the Science Guild," she says smugly.

Lena turns in her arms and lays her hands on Kara's cheeks. "Yes, you did. Still processing that fact I suppose." She smiles and tenderly kisses Kara. Behind them, the bowl continues to spark, like a mini firework show to herald their new relationship.

Lena may have magic now, but that didn't mean she couldn't be easily killed. It simply became less likely.

At least until the Nxly crisis, where Lex showed his true colors and damaged half the city, angering and scaring the residents. A few attempts on Lena's life happened after that, which Kara quietly dealt with to avoid stressing out her girlfriend.

Despite that, the amount of death threats to Lena's life was in the single digits! Way better than Earth-38.

So really, Lena not texting at her usual time shouldn't be a big deal, but it's also the day she planned to practice her magic with Nia.

Which Kara hasn't heard from either.

Her worry ramps up another thousand percent. Anything could happen with Nia involved. As much as Kara has done her best to mentor Nia, chaos still erupts around her in ways that surprises.

So Kara dons her supersuit and launches herself off the Tower's balcony. Tuning her ears to Lena's heartbeat, she at first can't hear it anywhere.

Oh no. No. She shifts to listening for Nia, and she hears Nia's voice from Central Park.

"Aw, aren't you a cutie!" Nia sounds amused, but Kara can't hear Lena's heartbeat anywhere near Nia. She soars closer, and there, in Nia's arm, is a black cat, whose heart beats way too fast. The cat scrambles to get out of Nia's arms, but Nia holds the cat firmly. "Look, I know it's not comfortable, but I can't lose you here. Kara will have my head!"

"Nia?" Kara lands and looks from the cat to Nia. "What's going on? Where's Lena?"

Nia yelps and spins to face Kara.

That's when the cat chomps on Nia's thumb.

She shouts, and the cat goes flying out of her hands.

Kara zips forward and barely catches the feline in time. "Hey, hey, there," Kara coos. She cradles the trembling cat and strokes between its ears. "It's okay. I got you. You're safe."

Her voice soothes the cat, and its heartbeat slowly calms. It still tucks its nose into the crook of Kara's elbow, which she finds incredibly cute.

"Dammit, Lena," Nia mutters. "I'm just trying to help!"

"Lena?" Kara looks at the cat then at Nia. "Wait, this is Lena?"

Nia tugs a Kleenex from her pocket and wraps her thumb in it. "Yup. Spell went awry. One second she's right there." She points to a round spot of brown in the field of green with a large brown book lying face down next to it. "And poof! Gold smoke, and there's a black cat!" She makes a mock explosion with her hands. "I grabbed her before she darted away. I figured we didn't want to lose her in a park."

"Huh. So how do we change her back?" She keeps stroking Lena's fur, and the kitty calms further under Kara's ministrations.

"No idea. But I'm sure her mother's grimoire has something." Nia picks up the book and dusts it off.

The cat whines and taps its paw against Kara's bicep.

"What is it, Lena?" Kara holds her at eye level. "Can you talk?"

Lena makes a huffing noise and pats Kara's left cheek with her paw. Her tail jerks erratically.

"Do you have an idea?"

The noise sounds almost like a yes. As if to emphasis her whine, her paw taps Kara's other cheek.

"Okay. Let's get you to the tower. Then we'll fix this together." Kara tucks Lena against her chest. "I'll meet you there, Nia."

Anyway, there you go. I might dust it off and finish it later if folks are interested. :)

16. Favorite instrument?

Ohhh, this is a very hard question. I adore clarinet, but I also love cellos. And I have a soft spot for Ukuleles -- especially baritone and bass ukuleles. Bongos and Dhjembe's are also a favorite.

I picture Kara as a singer, guitarist, or drummer. (Korra too). Lena (and Asami) fits perfectly with cello, viola, or pianist. To answer the question for my favorite ships. :)

Thank you for asking!

[sgrumby]

“How can we breathe?”

“Force field,” Barry replies, his legs dangling over the rim of the TARDIS. “Keeps the bad guys out and the oxygen in. I, uh, wouldn’t be able to answer the phone without it.” He reaches up sheepishly and pops open the hatch on the door to reveal a rotary phone.

Lup gives him a look that he’s beginning to realise means she thinks he’s being tremendously stupid. “Why couldn’t you wire it in to the console? Or install a door so it opens from the inside, even?”

“Hey, have you seen that?” He changes the subject with his usual tact. “Look, wow, supernova.”

She grins and sits down next to him, kicking her feet in the vacuum of space. “It is pretty.”

“I should think so,” he grumbles. “Take a girl halfway across the universe and a million years back in time and all she can do is criticise my phone.”

“I’m just saying, I thought the Time Lords would’ve invented better phones! It’s rotary, Barry, it’s from the sixties!”

“It’s retro,” he insists. “It fits the police box aesthetic. Did you miss where it says PUBLIC CALL on the top?”

“Did you miss where it says PULL TO OPEN?”

“Shut up.”

“Why is it a police box, though?” She asks. “That seems… very sixties. You’d be right at home with my gran.”

“Chameleon circuit got stuck,” he says. “She’s designed to change her outside to blend in. I could fix it but, honestly, I like the blue. Plus, uh, it used to be real hard to find the door on a rock or a tree or - if there was nothing else around sometimes she’d materialise as a blade of grass, or whatever, and then I couldn’t even get out. I’m not sure if she was messing with me, or if she was designed to do that, or - it’s just easier this way.”

“It’s nice, actually,” she says. “Comforting, somehow. It feels sturdy. I can’t imagine it as a rock or a tree.”

He pats the floor next to him, and the engines go dwummmm. “She used to be different inside, too. All white and sterile. She had these big roundels - it was really weird. I don’t know who designed the UI, but it wasn’t good. As soon as I figured out how to redecorate I got on it.”

“You designed the coral?” Lup hadn’t really questioned the organic-looking arches and pillars. They’d been low on her list of priorities when she’d found herself in a time machine, and then the question had just fallen by the wayside.

“Well, I mean, I gave her a brief. I wanted it to feel more comfy, you know? This is my home, not a science lab. Well, it’s a lab, a little bit, but it’s - you know what I mean.”

“Wait, wait, gave her a brief?” Lup looks back in at the console, with its mess of wires and mismatched switches and knobs. She’d assumed that was the result of a few decades of Barry conducting haphazard repairs, but now he mentions it, they do look a little like some kind of sophisticated nervous system. “How sentient is this ship, exactly?”

Barry pulls a face, hesitates, and shrugs. “I dunno.”

“What!”

“Well, like, I told you that she’s soulbound, so she’s intelligent to some extent. I have a degree of control over the interior, and - I always kind of feel like she is. Like, I can do everything right on the console, and I’ll find myself halfway across the universe from where I asked her to go.”

“That’s a broken satnav, Barry, not sentience.”

“But it’s always where I need to go,” he elaborates. “Like, there’ll be someone who needs help, or a distress call, or something neat to go and see. Like this! This supernova. I’ve never been here before, and I basically just told the TARDIS that I wanted to show you something ro - something cool.”

He blushes at his slip, but Lup’s wrapped up in her thoughts.

“So, what, you just said “make me something comfy” and she made big coral pillars?”

“It’s a little more elaborate than that, but yeah, pretty much. I don’t know either, really. She’s… eccentric.”

“And the car seats?”

Barry shrugs again. “No idea. I needed somewhere to sit, that’s what I got.”

Lup hums, unhappily. “Can she see us? Feel us? I don’t like the idea that we’re walking around inside a sentient being.”

“I don’t think she minds. She can lock you out, if she likes. One regeneration I got a haircut she didn’t like and she wouldn’t let me in til it grew out. I was trapped on Gorvon Six for months.” The engine makes another dwummm noise, and Barry scowls. “It’s not funny!”

Lup can’t help but laugh at the expression on his face. “The more I learn the more I realise who’s in charge here.”

“I’m in charge!” He protests. “I’m a Time Lord! You know they used to grow TARDISes like bonsai? In little pots?”

“Oh, you’re getting pushed around by a bonsai?”

“I’m gonna go find Taako,” Barry grumbles. “Maybe he’ll be polite and respectful.”

Lup gives him a look.

“Okay, yeah, fine,” he concedes.

She laughs again and turns back to the star, gleaming brilliantly before them. The light plays across her face, reddy-orange, making her hair seem to glow and her eyes seem to sparkle.

Barry’s seen beauty in the universe. He’s seen nebulae, the births of stars, watched the sunrise on Heloyus, which orbits in a complex path between thirty different suns and, once every ten thousand years, sees a simultaneous thirty-sun sunrise. And yet, somehow, watching Lup…

“Want to grab pizza?” He offers.

“Shit, yes,” she grins. “Alien pizza?”

“Future pizza,” he counteroffers, jumping up from the floor of the TARDIS. “November 18th, 2045. The restaurant opened that day and burned down the next, but it’s the best pizza I’ve ever had. I pretty much singlehandedly earned them their money back, cos I keep parking the TARDIS in different places and ordering takeaway. You should see the look on the delivery guy’s face every time he sees me and my enormous blue box in a different area of London, all on one night.” He holds a hand out to help her up, and she takes it gladly.

“How do you order takeaway! You don’t have an address!”

“I just tell them the street,” he says. “It’s not like there’s a lot of blue boxes lying around.”

She considers that for a second. “Okay, yeah, that’s fair, I guess. What’s your order? Hawaiian?”

He narrows his eyes, hands frozen above the console. “How did you know that?”

“Shot in the dark. You seem like you’d go nuts for pineapple on pizza, is all.”

“What does that mean?”

“Alien tastebuds,” she says with a shrug. “I’ll grab Taako.”

“So rude,” he murmurs, and flips a switch on the console, setting the rotors whirring once again as Lup skips out of the room.

[discet]

Was Joe Sparrow planned to show up in the Newtopia Arc, before the Journal was released?

It's interesting to not have him now because our heroes can't easily travel back and forth to one location like in Canon. They have to be a bit more tactical in the route they take. Plus it lets Sasha use the skills she grabbed while being on the road with Yunan, which is fun to see.

In a way this kinda fixes a problem I heard people talk about with Joe. In that, he sort of breaks Amphibia's scale because the characters get to pretty much instant transmission to anywhere in the world. It's a complaint I never agreed but I always found it interesting.

Was Joe Sparrow planned to show up in the Newtopia Arc, before the Journal was released?

He was! I actually had a whole bunch of neat bird lore in my back pocket before the journal came out.

Tamed birds were going to be an extremely rare and valuable resource in Amphibia. They bonded to a rider for life. There was going to be a young starry eyed member of the knight guard who was Joe's rider in the AU. I was going to heavily implied was killed by Andrias in canon to gift Joe to Marcy. (He didn't do the same with Sasha in the AU since in their manipulation game he didn't want to show how important the box was to him.)

Ultimately when the book came out, the idea of there just not being a stable group of flyers simplified a lot of things. It was a lot easier to justify why Sasha and Yunan were on foot.

In a way this kinda fixes a problem I heard people talk about with Joe. In that, he sort of breaks Amphibia's scale because the characters get to pretty much instant transmission to anywhere in the world. It's a complaint I never agreed but I always found it interesting.

Yeah, I don't think that's on Joe, Early season 2 establishes the scale in Amphibia through the road trip to the capital. Joe traveling to the radically different environments in season 2 also establishes how far away they are from the familiar set pieces of Wartwood and Newtopia.

I think 3b really messes with the scale of the setting more than anything. Specifically Root of All Evil, Newts in Tights, and Beginning of the End.

The first two the locations feel increadibly generic and its hard to guess if they are supposed to be in the valley (like most of 3b) or a great distance from the valley, looking abroad for recruits. They seem to be going by cart so how far could they be? From what I recall the dialogue feels like they are far from home, but it doesn't really feel grounded in a place like the road trip episodes from 2a did

The more egregious offesnder though is Beginning of the End. Which, despite being a favorite of mine for the rest of what happens, has the entire resistance army marching, on foot, from their base under the Plantar's house in the valley to just outside the gates of Newtopia in less than a day(You can see the ruined capital behind Andrias's army). This kind of breaks everything since it took Anne and the Plantars what felt like Weeks in Season 2 to get there casually and at least a week to get back with no distractions.

[kay-elle-cee]

Re: the oneshots posts!

I am super pro posting separately. It's always been like that. FF.net actually forbids multiple oneshots in multichapter format, if I'm not mistaken.

I believe that posting and archiving fics is supposed to accommodate the reader, more than the author. And as a predominantly short story reader (and writer), I can attest that it's much easier to find what you're looking for in a much bigger pile of stories, but where each one has its own length and tags and summary, than it is to rummage through multichaptered collections.

Plus I think short stories deserve love and visibility each in their own right!

The only advantage of grouping the short stories together is that the author's page looks less cluttered, I guess? But it's like - having your clothes neatly organized in a wooden closet. It looks nice and neat, but if you're looking for something, you have to open it and make a mess. Whereas putting everything separately is hanging them in an open rack. It's no coincidence that they have open racks at the shops! They may look messier, but it's easier to pick and choose. And readers want that option. :)

Just my two cents 😊😘

I love this, Anna, thanks for chiming in! I’m definitely not someone who uses the search function often on ao3, but you make really good points. I’m definitely thinking about this leading into Jilytober since I’m doing the 31 prompts again (though, in my head I definitely like, see it as a collection around a theme even though they’re independent from each other plot-wise.)

(And yes I know that’s what series are for but the thought of adding 31 fics in one month gives me hives 😅)

[pup-pee]

HAIIII :3 SPINS U!!!! HOW DO U MAKE UR BUTTONSSS, THEYRE SO NEAT ^_^

HAWOO!!! SPINS BACK @ U TYSM AA （＾∀＾●）ﾉｼ

NGL MY PROCESS IS SO MESSY(as in IM MEsSY & CANT EXPLAIN COHERENTLY) BUT ILL TRY 2 EXPLAIN IT!

((this got unnecessarily long bc i like 2 ramble so im doing this))

so-SO 1st is that all i was just handed a cookie hold on ok cookie ate i 4got what i was OH RIGHT OK SO ALL OF MY DRAWINGS R 1000 x 1000 pixals! or most @ least, so i have a consistent size 4 each of my buttons

HERES THE TIMBER BUTTON IM MAKING!! i dont use bigger canvus bc my phone will explode in not the silly way but i also like how it turns out!

i draw everything in ibis then like copy + paste it in2 google docs where i can size them! i usually make them a bit bigger than whats listed, 4 example 2.5 inch buttons r printed in 2.55/2.6 inches if that makes any sense (￣▽￣)"

i also select break text bc i tetris them around

then i print them out & use a cookie cutter thing 2 cut them out! i have a button pressing machine(all manual bc im not that rich) so its all about sandwiching from there

i could fill the whole page w/that pink background to give me a "cleaner" result but honestly i dont think it changes anything? as long as u dont see the white on the front. but it IS easier 2 cut it out if the border is thicker(which is y i add a border in the 1st place plus it looks neat!)

((this 1 got messed up in printing but since im not selling it i rly dont care LOOK @ THE CUTIES!)

sometimes the machine cramps up or i will 4get the film ontop so i have 2 redo the entire process again but i like repeated activities!

ISTG THEY LOOK SO MUHC BETTER IRL MY CAMERAS JUST SHIT & I HAVE NO LIGHT LSKAHFKD BUT YEAH!!!

did this make any goddamn sense? i hope so. btw my button machines name is huey :3

this coouldve been more of an ask on how i draw my buttons but ong thats even mroe boring so- dsakjdghj cause it literally jsut consists of me listening 2 wtnv dramatically & drawing @ like 1 am 4 4 hrs straight

KHFSKAG ANYWAYS I HOPE THIS ANSWERED SOMETHING!! SRRY 4 THE LONG(GER) POST TY 4 HTE ASK AGAIN! q(≧▽≦q)

[ladyappletun]

Pokémon Improvements I Loved

Gold to Ruby

The MUSIC! I never thought I was the biggest fan of RSE's soundtrack (I think my favorites are DPPt, HGSS, and XY), but just hearing the improvement in the quality of the music, seeing how the composers could play with more instruments and parts to make the music more dynamic, was really cool. I was particularly fond of the Dive theme.

RUNNING SHOES!!! It is soooo nice to be able to go fast without getting on and off the bike constantly. I'm not sure running had to be associated with an item, especially these days, but just the fact that you can run at all and run so easily was wonderful.

Being able to choose your gender. It's kind of wild how, 20 years ago, having the choice between a boy and girl player avatar was a big deal, especially because games nowadays are kind of moving away from that (e.g., in Animal Crossing New Horizons, you're prompted to choose your "style" instead of your gender, and you can change it at any time). But for me at least, being able to play as a girl is nice. I could mostly ignore the fact that you have to play as a boy in RBY, but in Gold and Silver, there's quite a bit of gendered language and it just took me by surprise. My favorite is when you battle Blue; before the fight, he says "Ready, Johto boy?" P.S. I know you could play as a girl in Crystal, but since I played Gold as my Gen II game, this is the first time I'm getting the option.

The game makes it much clearer when an attack misses and when an attack doesn't affect the opponent. In Gens I and II, if an attack misses or it doesn't affect the opponent (like, using a ground move on a flying type), the game just says "It didn't affect ____!" It was really unclear to me, so I'm glad they finally changed it in Gen III.

When you're going to teach a Pokémon a new move, the game shows you a screen with all its current moves and the new one. You can see all the moves' power and accuracy, so you can make an informed choice about which moves you want your Pokémon to have.

The little pop-ups that tell you what route or town you're (again, I know this was added in Crystal, see my point on gender above).

Every city has unique houses, which really sets them apart from each other.

Dive is a really cool concept as an HM. Unfortunately, I didn't end up using it that much, because I didn't have enough patience to deal with the slow movement speed. But it's such a neat idea! Diving underwater to discover new Pokémon and hidden caves (especially as a part of the Regi Trio side quest) made me feel like I was discovering an uncharted new world. I'm looking forward to diving more in ORAS, where your character will hopefully move faster than in the originals.

Double battles! As I've said before, I'm not a huge fan of the meta game, but double battles give a lot more variety for Pokémon. It's nice to just have a different style of battling in the main game from time to time. Plus, at least in later games if not this one, you can team up with a friend in multiplayer battles, so battling with your friends can be a teamwork experience or an adversarial one.

Every Pokémon has a unique sprite in the party menu. It's nothing particularly mind-blowing, but it's a nice touch.

The PC's Pokémon storage system! God, it is so much easier to organize your Pokémon into little boxes instead of having a bunch of lists to navigate. It makes the Boxes feel much bigger, too, like you can store more Pokémon than you used to.

[frankzcollection]

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[a-pale-azure-moon]

Random TotK Thoughts #5

Sheesh, it's been forever since I made mention of my progress. I'm bumping against the 200 hour mark and I am somehow still not bored. At all. I'm not done with the main story either, though I've found all the Dragon's Tears and done the four regional phenomena. I'm at 143 shrines completed, 83 lightroots found (finally making some progress in mapping the Depths), and 402 Koroks collected (no I am not aiming to find all of those, just what I need to get all the inventory upgrades).

I'll cover my thoughts on the Dragon's Tears in a different post, so this will be primarily about the Gerudo section and what happens when you complete the four regions.

-The Gerudo section started off a bit disappointing with the main obstacle being a sandstorm again, only worse than before. I did get pleasantly startled encountering Gibdos though, given that it's been awhile since their last appearance. Glad that I had a ton of fire fruits on hand!

-I'm relieved that Link no longer has to change clothes to enter Gerudo town, because that got annoying in a hurry when it was still required even after clearing the Divine Beast in BotW. I do miss having the disguise itself though, since he looked very cute in it, plus it was free heat protection even if its defensive stats sucked.

-Seeing the Gerudo hub as a ghost town was great for establishing the creepy atmosphere. And then finding the underground shelter was neat, if a bit predictable. I'm not saying I want the Gerudo to come to harm, but finding out everyone's fine chilling underground does undercut some of the spookiness of the zombie village above.

-Riju got a lot taller. Everyone in this game is taller than Link except for small children (and I think Robbie and Josha?), which is hilarious to me. Her ability is pretty cool, though really none of the other three come close to matching Tulin's utility.

-I really enjoyed the segments where you protect Kara Kara and then Gerudo Town from the Gibdo hoards. They fun and frantic but not in a way that felt overwhelming. I wish there was a way to repeat the town siege to see if choosing different groups to protect different gates made things easier or more challenging.

-I also liked finding and networking the various mirrors in the desert. It felt more in the vein of a classic Zelda puzzle, and then that shot of the Lightning Temple rising out of the sands was appropriately epic. I also liked that you confront the boss outside before she retreats to the temple. That was more interesting than the lame minibosses in the Goron and Zora sections, or hunting down random mooks in the Rito section.

-I'd heard stories that the Lightning Temple was the one most like a classic Zelda dungeon. I can see where people said that, but...eh, it's still definitely a BotW/TotK dungeon. Networking mirrors/manipulating light beams was a nice nostalgic callback, but I thought it was done better in previous games. (particularly the Ikana Canyon/Stone Tower area in Majora) The Temple certainly had a grand scale that I appreciated, but it seemed very empty, and once again it was just a matter of figuring out how to reach certain points so you could use the Sage's ability to activate a device. I finished this dungeon the fastest of the four.

-Queen Gibdo was a chaotic boss that was satisfying to beat but also very annoying, especially since I spent a good part of the fight chasing Riju down. It wasn't nearly as annoying as Mucktorok (thank god), but Colgera definitely sits as the best boss of the four regions, and the competition isn't even close.

-Why did we have to watch the same post-dungeon cutscene four times? There had to be a way to modify this part dependent on whether or not you've completed another region already. I've been craving some new insights or information about the Imprisoning War but each time I got bupkis.

-Overall, I give the whole Gerudo scenario a B+. I can't definitively say that I liked it better than the Zora section, but I liked it just as much.

-Naturally, I had to spend several hours running around hunting for shrines and farming for materials before I returned to Lookout Landing. The whole "evil Zelda" thing is the weakest part of this game's story; even if I hadn't already found all the Dragon's Tears at this point, I was never fooled into thinking this was the real Zelda. I suspect that no one else was either. I wish they'd cut out this thread entirely, or at least re-worked it so it was far less contrived.

-I like that they removed "Zelda" from the blood moon cutscene after this event. That's a nice detail.

-The best part of chasing fake Zelda was that I got to collect a bunch of monster parts quickly. I also found some great weapons scattered throughout the castle that I missed on the cursory pass I did much earlier on (I'm still carrying around the first Dusk Bow I found sometime after I finished the Wind Temple).

-I enjoyed the Phantom Ganon fight. It might've been more of a surprise if I hadn't already encountered him from the Grabby Hands, but at least this wasn't just a bland repeat of those encounters. Liked having all the Sages show up for a Power of Friendship moment too.

-I'm obsessed with the demonic horse Ganon was riding in the following cutscene. I desperately want to be able to tame and catch that beast because it looks amazing. I'd give it an ill-fitting name like Sugarcube and parade it all around Hyrule.

-I've just barely started the fifth Sage quest, in that I found the special clothes and cleared the storm from the sky islands. Since I'm invested in trying to clean up the remaining shrines and lightroots, it'll probably be awhile before I finish this quest. Even with Mario Wonder and the Mario RPG remake looming, I'm still enjoying TotK too much to want to rush to the end. Yes, even after 200 hours. It's going to easily overtake my BotW playtime at this rate, and that's assuming there really won't be any DLC.

[wormsgame]

In September of 2015, Worms 4 released... no not THAT Worms 4. Not to be confused with Worms 4: Mayhem in 2005 (but not your fault if you do), this was the sequel to Worms 3 (the mobile game, not Worms 3D) and was an attempt at making the definitive Worms mobile experience, seeing how Worms 3 didn't really do much to make it more mobile friendly other than improved controls. The game also has a weird sorta polygonal artstyle.

Shorter matches, smaller landscapes and teams of only 3 worms with only 1v1 matches matches available. not the best for a Worms game but understandable for what they were doing. Its definitely meant to be a "pick up and play" sorta deal, with menus being extremely easy to quickly get into a match, unfortunately also meaning a lack of most scheme options which sucks. Asynchronous play was also removed though, which is kinda weird for what they were going for. Classes and Cards were also removed but we all kinda saw that coming.

Most of the weapons & utilities are returning ones from Worms 3, plus the Flamethrower. Alongside those, there were 2 new weapons at launch, being Hailey's Comet, a teddy bear that causes an exploding girl to drop down from the sky and the Dice, which the size of the explosion depended on the number it landed on. Two more were added in updates, being the Voodoo Doll, which if an enemy hurt they'd be delt the damage back to them, and the Cracker Jack, a close range Christmas cracker weapon which exploded.

Due to the more mobile focus, there's a lot more "mobile gamey" elements in it, such as a prize wheel and loot crates that give you items. These can contain cosmetics or one of the games' main additions, Loot Upgrades.

Loot Upgrades are badges you unlock from crates and work as upgrade for cosmetics and weapons that come in 4 tiers. For hats and gravestones it's a case of them starting out simple in design, then with each upgrade more is added on before finally the final upgrade makes them animated. For weapons it increases the power of them and sometimes have visual differences, with the final upgrade making them either poisonous or emit fire.

Another new addition is factions, where you choose to join either the the red or blue faction at the start of the game, with "Faction Battles" occuring where you fight players of the opposite faction to earn Faction Tokens, with the winning faction getting a prize. There is also a campaign, where you fight across 5 islands to claim territory for the faction you picked, unlocking more weapons as you go along.

There are also "World Events", which are events that occur sometimes on the world map. There is one for each island and you fight on a special map as you represent your faction. There are also daily challenges where you complete objectives to get awards. Also forgot to mention this earlier but you're also able to individually customise each worm on your team, same goes for weapon upgrades, neat.

So, is this the definitive Worms mobile game? Well, it is definitely the most mobile friendly but if you're looking for a regular Worms experience on mobile, maybe go to the other ones.

I mean, is this even a sequel to Worms (2007) anymore? Life could've been so much easier if they just called the XBLA version Open Warfare too.

I think this might've been the longest post on the account. How the hell.

[assumptionprime]

I vibe with this interpretation.

I think it also explains why I might like Dark Souls 2 the best of the trilogy. It is trying to invent some new things, try some different stuff. Playing the greatest hits is fun, and I enjoyed DS3 a lot. But I didn’t know what to expect from 2. And I enjoyed a lot of what it tried.

Not all of it, mind you. The hollowing mechanic might sound neat from a story perspective, losing your humanity bit by bit the way it is described in the lore. But in practice it’s just Demon’s Souls’ mechanic but slower. Making the game harder to play the more you die never works. The torch timers effectively don’t exist once you’re a little bit into the game. Some of the bosses are kinda boring (looking at you, Old Iron King).

On the plus sides: I love Majula: I’m a sucker for gathering a group of friendly people in a quiet little village in basically any game. And I like most all the characters there. (Saulden is the best Crestfallen, don’t @ me). I enjoyed Lifegems. Weapon upgrades were so much easier and cleaner. I like that the story basically completely drops all the stuff from DS1. Those characters and places are gone, lost to history. What does Gwyn, Lord of Sunlight mean to the Bearer of the Curse, trying to find a way to save their failing mind from this curse? What does he mean to Lucatiel, your friend slowly losing herself the same way? To Vengarl, who found peace and contemplation by spending untold years as a decapitated head sitting in a forest? Nothing! Long ago King Shitdick the Fire God fucked over the world, but what matters now is that you all have to try and find a way to live in it. DS1 is about the start of a terrible cycle, DS3 is about ending it, and DS2 is about the people caught in the middle of its vicious repetition. DS2 feels like it knows there’s going to be a DS3. The story already began, and they can’t end it. So it decides to be about the middle.

DS2 could have just been DS1 Again, but they made some swings and I love it for that.

I think Dark Souls 3 is the most “self-aware” Fromsoft game, only possibly topped by Elden Ring. With Demon’s Souls, Dark Souls and Dark Souls 2 they’re still figuring stuff out, and Bloodborne was very experimental, but Dark Souls 3 says “alright you know what this is” and just lays it on really thick.

Some have called Dark Souls 3 uninspired, and to a point it’s true that it reuses a lot of stuff, while Dark Souls 2 made more of an effort to invent new things, but I think the game is making a point. More than any other game in the series, DS3 is playing the hits. It languishes in the tropes the series itself established, plays around with them and creates variations on them, but retains their core. It’s almost joking about how repetitive it all is.

You know the drill, says Dark Souls 3. Here’s your hub area, here’s your firekeeper, here’s your standard covenants, here’s Patches, here’s the Onion Knight, here’s all the weapons you know and love, here’s a mimic in the very first level, here’s a stormruler fight, here’s a boss that evokes Big Hat Logan, and here’s a boss that strongly evokes fan-favorite boss Artorias. One of the major bosses is literally wearing the skin of one of the bosses from Dark Souls 1. It’s all a rehash, but it works, because it knows it’s doing it. It’s the point, it’s central to the plot: the world has repeated and repeated itself to perpetuity and it’s breaking down and it can’t go on, so it’s time for it all to come to an end.

Dark Souls 3 is a statement on franchises, how they repeat themselves and stagnate, and it indulges in its own legacy to an almost comical amount, but it also says “this has to end somewhere”, and that’s the note it leaves things on. The final boss is an embodiment of the franchise itself, an amalgamation of people who have perpetuated the cycle, symbolizing every single person who’s contributed to the franchise’s continuation, and by defeating it, you lay the series to rest. The fire can’t be linked any further. The cycle breaks.

Finally, in the DLC, the idea is taken further, leaving the game on a statement of hope. One day, a new world will be created, it says. A little game called Elden Ring will sift the ashes, taking a lot of the tropes and running with them, and leaving some to rest where they were. Using the blood of the Dark Soul to paint a renewed experience.