#its like capitalism for cute animals

[goredoesstuff]

looking up animal jam classic trade economy stuff and holy shit some of these things are expensive damn

i dont remember there being capitalism when i was 12 ._.

[synnthamonsugar]

american tiktok-to-rednote refugees are inventing forms of orientalism that would make a 18th century european aristocrat's head spin.

[jin-jamm-desu]

*°•_:JJK Headcanons:_•°*

;_;_;_;_;_;_;_;_;_;_;_;_;_;_;_;_;_;_;_;_;_;_;_;_;_;

!!!Fluff, ❌🍋(no smut)!!!

Featuring/Pairing: Itadori Yuji, Fushiguro Megumi, Kento Nanami, Inumaki Toge

(These are the (some) main people I absolutely know how to write for,

please give me ideas if you don't see someone/thing you'd like to see. <3)

*::*::*::*::*::*::*::*::*::*::*::*::*::*::*::*::*::*::*::*::*::* °×•×°×•×°×•×°First Date°×•×°×•×°×•×°

Itadori Yuji: ° Your first date and 1 month' aversarry (1 month' anniversary) is gonna take place at a cat/pet cafe.

° No exeptions

° Itadori is gonna have a ball with you regardless of where your first date is, but he know how much you like cats/(other animals).

° All of his attention is on you as you take pictures of the animals and eat the cute food.

° He can barely take his eyes off of you <3

° He fell first and fell harder.

° He is the type of guy to bring you a bunch of unnecessary gifts (like Gojo) at random times

° Except his gifts are cuter and personalized (unlike Gojo)

° Love language is definitely Acts of Service and Quality Time

° He just loves seeing you happy and safe and that's all that really matters to him at this point.

° Honest to God, brags about how cute you are to anybody who'd listen: his friends, his teachers, your pets, somebody's child, random pictures YOU NAME IT

° Takes you to the movies afterwards (he looked for good movies with the help of Junpei (😭💕))

° Somehow ate 3 (full size) plates of food at the cafe before you had to ask him, "HOW DID YOU EAT ALL THAT? ARE YOU OJAY??? YUJI ITS BEEN 15 MINUTES SINCE WE SAT DOWNNN!!??!??!!"

° Gives you a soft kiss on the hand and then cheek once you get home

° Your name is filled with hearts and stars on his contacts bc it's cute

Fushiguro Megumi:

° He didn't know how much was too much so he took you for a cute park-picnic date

° He makes sure to bring lots of water and fresh fruit because its midday.

° He also brought (favorite cake flavor) to share <3

° Likes to look at all the dogs he sees and tell you everything he knows about them

° He blushes so hard when you compliment/flirt with him (if you dyed his hair he'd look like a damn tomato)

° (my headcanon) He talks about how he'd like to be a veterinarian when he gets older because he doesn't want animals to live the same life he lived at one point

° His point blank resting glare scares off anyone who tries to talk to the both of you

° Keeps getting the sneaking suspicion that Itadori, Nobara and Gojo are talking about him (he got really irritated at one point, that's how he knows)

° Has the cutest giggles when a bee lands near your nose

° Brings butterfly/dinosaur charms for you because he thinks you look cute when you talk about them.

° Leaves the picnic area better than he found it because he's just responsible like that

° Takes you too a pretty garden area where he gifts you (favorite flower)

° Kisses your hand goodbye (I faint)

° Told his classmates and teacher that the date was nice and nothing else (💀)

° Your contact has a picture he secretly took of you and thought was cute

Kento Nanami

° The epitome of class

° I swear he just keeps raising the damn bar

° Picks you up in the late afternoon/ evening

° Dinner at a nice restaurant (I think it's French/Louisianan cuisine)

° He bought a present for you because he saw it on the way to his car to pick you up

° A nice walk to set up for a good conversation

° He made sure that everything was so perfect, found a great path (walkable in flats/heels) that you can see the stars when you look up

° Calls you - My Lady - (see that capitalization?)

° Wanted to bust out in his singing voice when he heard MCR playing from somewhere (he's a diehard fan at heart and we all know it)

° Very excited to tell you about how much he likes bread (he prefers fresh made over store bought and loves to laugh at the silly designs on his sourdough)

° Almost choked on his spit when he thought he saw Satoru somewhere but it turned out to be flowers or sum.

° It was Satoru, he wanted to be a nosy bat and see what Nanami was doing since the couldn't annoy him today

° Very attentive to little details when you describe things things you (dis)like so he can be ready for future dates

° In his bag he definitely has chapstick, a notepad (he's so orderly), some mints and he made sure to pack a pair of slippers for you just in case your feet hurt at any point

° He's such a gentleman and he's so nice and respectful to the servers during dinner

° Makes sure to walk you to your door once he gets you home safely

° Puts a 💕 next to your name in his contacts.

° (Gojo is called 'The Annoying One 🤞😒' in his contacts, the only other one with emojis)

Inumaki Toge

° This chronically online ass mfker.

° He challenged you to a Fortnite battle

° It's a gaming date.

° So much mogging. You hit him with a 🗿🔥🐺 and he got quiet

° SALMONNN!!! 😭😭🙏

° POLLACK ROE 😤😡😤😤

° Rice 💕🥰😚😍

° MUSTARD LEAF¿¿‽‽!!¿??

° Then Super Smash Bros™

° Soon y'all we're laughing your asses off at the villager prisons on your newly created Minecraft server.

° The unhealthiest amount of junk food known to man kind

° I'm convinced he consumes Redbull and gummy bears like water and air.

° When a creep kept pressing you on the internet he took over as your big strong man (he's shorter than 5'9, I checked 💀😭)

° Legit kept calling himself The Skibidi Alpha Pack Leader™ and how much he want (the creep) to join his gang of Loners™

° Uses (🗿🙏🗣️🗿🌶️💬🥇📢🩼🎯🍃🐺🌘) religiously and unironically

° In all seriousness he does love you though. He's so glad he has someone he can laugh with and talk to (using text to speech- ofc it's set to Gigachad Voice)

° Absolutely the best at lifting you up when your sad because you humor has been marinated in the TikTok algorithm and is peak

° When he calls he uses facetime so you can see his reactions and his eyelashes that are always on fleek

° He passes little notes to you when he can't express his words through ingredients: "Your laugh is pretty <3",,, "That (game)skin is so cute, it goes well with your weapon",,, "Thank you for coming out with me, I like you a lot<333"

° Afterwards he gifts you little trinkets from when we was at the mall one time.

וװDid you like it?°×•× וװGot requests/recommendations?°×•×

*::*::*::*::*::*::*::*::*::*::*::*::*::*::*::*::*::*::*::*::*::*

[hobiebrownismygod]

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE MORE SUNSHINE/INNOCENT READER X HOBIE ITS MY LIFELINE I NEED IT PLEASEPLELPSPLZOLSPSLSPSLSKLSPSLSLSLSLSLSLSLZLZLLZLZPLSSPLSL PLEASDEEEEEE IM BANGING ON THE CASTLES WALLS HURUEHEGEH🙏🙏🙏🙏

this took me forever to respond to I'm sorry 😭 im glad you like this trope tho! Thank you for requesting <3

Hobie Brown x Sunshine!Reader

☆ It took his S/O months to muster up the courage to tell him they liked him only for him to straight up go "cool. Are we a thing now?"

☆ They're not one for confrontation and can get pretty shy so he's always there to be the blunt one!

☆ For example, when one of their coworkers kept calling them the wrong name, and they were too shy to correct them, Hobie was the one who told them and made sure the coworker learned his S/O's name properly 😭

☆ His S/O was extremely embarrassed but there was nothing they could really do about it at that point (Hobie was extremely proud of himself for doing that and made sure they knew it)

☆ His S/O doodles whenever they get bored, especially on their arms and legs. They draw cute little animals and flowers and things like that and Hobie absolutely loves them.

☆ He likes to carry around a marker with him so if his S/O ever gets bored, they can draw! He always has his arm out ready to let them draw on him, because even tho his S/O is a little hesitant about it, Hobie LOVES letting them draw on him. They're like little mini tattoos that remind him of them!

☆ Whenever he goes and puts graffiti on walls and buildings outside, he brings his S/O along so they can draw one of their little doodles on the side!

☆ Whenever someone that knows Hobie sees one of those murals/spray paintings, they can always tell it was his because of his S/O's little doodles in the corner!

☆ He also taught his S/O how to spray paint so they could come with him. When he first taught them how to spray paint, they weren't able to figure out the right amount of pressure to put on the spray, so he'd hold their hand and help lead them in the right direction for the first few paintings

☆ He would stand behind them, one hand on their waist, the other hand holding the bottle steady while his S/O stood in front, eyes slightly squinted as they sprayed the paint all over the walls, getting it everywhere

☆ He loved getting to wipe the paint off their face after every painting. His S/O never understood how so much paint could get on them in such little time, but they didn't mind. Hobie was always there to clean them up.

☆ His S/O also loves to read and is always curled up in bed reading a book in their free-time. They're a very expressive reader, and their face always changes whenever a new character pops up or when the plot starts to thicken. Hobie loves watching his S/O read.

☆ Sometimes, when he's really craving some affection, he'll come up behind them and cuddle them while they're reading, nuzzling his head into their shoulder while they smile, eyes glancing down at him before going back to the pages

☆ He'll also let his S/O curl up in his lap, or use him like a comfy chair while they read. He's a pretty skinny, boney person, but he can turn into the softest chair when he wants

☆ Hobie hates phones. He hates when people are on their phones when with friends. He hates when people are looking at their phones when he's trying to talk to them. His S/O knows this and makes sure to never have their phone out when he's around, so he can have their full attention. He loves that.

☆ He loves when his S/O listens to him. He could rant on for hours about whatever he wants, whether its capitalism, or some new gizmo he's building, but his S/O will always be there to listen to him, nodding along and smiling.

☆ Sometimes when he's been talking for a long time, he'll suddenly realize just how lucky he is to have someone so attentive with him. He'll stop talking and his S/O will be confused for a moment, only to be pulled into a hug and a kiss within seconds, trapped in his long lanky arms.

☆ He loves giving his S/O surprise kisses, watching their expression light up and their face turn hot. He'll come up from behind them, arms wrapping around their waist and pulling them in, to leave soft kisses peppering along their cheeks and lips.

☆ Sometimes he'll hide when his S/O comes home, just to jump out from around the corner and tackle them to the ground, covering their face in hundreds of sweet pecks.

☆ And on some rare occasions, his S/O'll attempt to do the same. Sadly, his spider-sense keeps him from getting surprised, so he always knows when it's gonna happen. He pretends to get surprised anyways, because he thinks it's cute when his S/O giggles while on their tiptoes, trying to reach his lips.

⋆｡°✩

Taglist: @therealloopylupin2099 @rinverse @l0starl @daydreaming-en-pointe @itsparis-07 @vileviale @puff-hugs @d0uble-tr0ubl3 @lauryn2558 @choccymilkdrinker @sunasslut69 @ask-1610-miles @ask-1610miles @axels-garden @eli21345 @miniaturesuitfox @spotconlon55 @riris-radioactive-panther

[abductedlawnchair]

*ranting and raving and stomping on rooftops and flailing my arms about* HUMANS ARE AMIMALS!!! WE ARE ANIMALS!!! QUIT ACTING LIKE WE'RE NOT!!!

I am so goddamn tired of society acting like we're not!!! I am so goddamn tired of us as a society acting like we are above all the other animals!!! I do not care that we are the apex!!! We are fucking ANIMALS!!! Like, just take a step back and observe us like we have our own nature documentary on Nat Geo or something. Maybe with David Attenborough or whatever, idc. Just imagine it.

We are a species of apes that just so happened to gain the ability of extremely complex and abstract thought, capability of language, an almost absurd level of self-awareness, and the type of intelligence that allowed us to discover, invent, and develop tools. A species of apes that just so happen to have such a crazy level of curiosity that we have the capability to learn about the world around us, and beyond.

The way we learn and develop is fascinating. If you observe a toddler from that standpoint, watching them interact with the world around them, you'd see how natural curiosity is to us, in our human nature. Neil deGrasse Tyson has literally said that children are beings of chaos because they're curious and learning about the world around them.

We all have children in us, just like we have our ancestors in us!!! Our brains are wired like theirs. Relatively, we have been in this state of society for an extremely short amount of time!! Our brains and nervous systems are still wired to survive and keep us safe from predators and other dangers!!

We are social creatures!! We need love and connection to survive!! We can't do things on our own. The only reason we ever got to where we are is because we work together and communicate and share knowledge. The way society is right now is too isolating!! Humans aren't meant to be fighting for a place in society!! Haven't you seen zookeepers?? Or anyone who cares for nature in any capacity?? We have an incredible capacity for compassion and caretaking, because we have the capability to know and understand the inner workings of ourselves and countless other species!! Caretaking and compassion is literally an innate human trait!! We're supposed to take care of each other and the world around us!! We literally are capable of pack bonding with ROOMBAS, for fucks sake!! Little robots that our ape brains see moving around on its own, being part of our homes, and thinks "little guy is alive... I love him"!!! Isn't that beautiful???

We were an evolution of Mother Earth, Herself, to grow Her and expand Her and care for Her!!! Whether you believe in intelligent design or just the absurdity of it all, it still happened like that. We have the capacity to care for Her in an evolved level, yet we're fucking it up so badly right now.

Indigenous cultures have always been on the right track. They've always been right about this. They have always known that we are all pieces of the same organism, just like the atoms and cells and organs and electricity in your body are all part of one body!!

And btw, culture is another HUGE part of us being social creatures!! Being expressive and creative and connected!! That's part of our nature!! We're meant to sing and dance and laugh together!! That connectivity of us being a collective is So Important!!! Making fun of people for being "sheep", or having "herd mentality" every single time is so stupid because yes!!! Yes that's EXACTLY how we are supposed to be!!! We are social creatures, remember?? The whole point is that we do things together!!!

I know how society is rn isn't the end all, be all, but it just breaks my heart that this Capitalism shit goes against some of the most beautiful parts of humanity!! We are animals!!! We are cute and curious and compassionate and social and we need warmth and sunlight and sustenance from the earth and water and sleep and shelter from the elements!! We have instincts just like everything else!! We came from the dust and we will return to the dust because we will always be part of the Earth, just like all the other animals!! And somehow, despite all odds, despite how robotic Capitalism wants us to be, our human nature seeps into everything.

Take care of yourself! You are an animal, after all! <3

*climbs off rooftop... for now*

[magicalgirlypop]

reviewing all the magical girl anime i watched this year

2024 was a year i got into lot of media. i decided to expand my horizons by watching more magical girl anime because i realized compared to some mg fans the amount of mg anime i've watched is relatively few. so i set out to make a long watchlist of mg anime and out of those, i've finished a few. so i'm going to review all the magical girl anime i've managed to watch this year. i'm counting magical girl anime that came out this year, and old magical girl anime i watched this year.

magical girl anime that came out this year

wonderful precure

lets start with this year's precure season. wonderful precure was a show i never thought i'd like as much as i did. to be honest i didn't really care for the theme of animals and i wasn't as invested in it at first. i wasn't one of those "it has no physical fights therefore its BAD!!" people but i just wasn't drawn in at first. but it ended up surprising me with how well written it was. mayu's and yuki's episodes in particular were really good. komugi was lots of fun to watch. and i actually ended up liking the m/f romance that i was skeptical about. satoru was a wonderful addition who helped in his own way despite not being a precure and his relationship with iroha developed naturally and was so sweet that i ended up being drawn to them. these last two episodes in particular have been... well, wonderful. i know precure gets into dark territory sometimes but i didn't expect them to cover the topic of a pet dying, which can be so devastating. and episode 45 is probably my favourite in the franchise so far. i'm surprised that i ended up liking this season MORE than hirogaru sky (probably helps that there isn't a baby taking the spotlight from more interesting characters). wonderful precure is a cute and fun show with some heartwarming moments and while i'm excited for an idol themed season next year, i'll be sad to see komugi, iroha, mayu, yuki, and satoru leave.

himitsu no aipri

this is... a mixed bag for me. initially, i was excited for this show because it gave me aikatsu friends vibes, the artstyle was nice, and it was the first idol show i'd watch as it was releasing. it started off pretty strong too and had the potential for some good story beats with the mystery of who tsumugi was. but... it was very slow paced for my liking. i don't mind slow paced, more slice of life stories, but aipri was not meant to be like that. it really felt like nothing was happening in a bunch of episodes. and it lacked that dramatic flair common to all pretty series. i will admit, i adored mitsuki and himari's friendship. and its also not disappointing in the yuri department. ig another thing that makes this show such a mixed bag for me is how long the subs take to drop, which just.. makes me lose interest in the show. but maybe that's a skill issue on my part.

acro trip

probably my favourite show released this year. there wasn't a single episode where i didn't laugh. chizuko is such a cute lesbian bby and her fangirling over berry blossom was adorable. berry herself was really cute, and i love how she acts like a normal teenage girl despite being idolized by chizuko (example, when she didn't let chroma see her hair because she cut her bangs a milimeter too short and was self conscious), and chroma was such a girlfailure of a villain, i love him and i didn't expect that doomed yaoi between him and mashirou. all three mcs were such a joy to watch. i honestly can't think of anything bad to say about this show other than it was too short and needs another season.

magilumiere co. ltd.

a unique take on the genre, where being a magical girl is a job and all the mcs are adults working for a small startup company. it certainly did come out at the right time as this is the year i dealt with Adult Struggles so the mcs were more relatable to me. i enjoy the bond between all of the employees at the company. and i do enjoy those little jabs at capitalism they make with koga's character, with him seeing a profession that's supposed to help people as only a profit making scheme. i'm really glad its confirmed for a season 2.

mahonare

this is the prettiest show released this year, no exaggeration. the pastel colouring and the storybook feel of the show makes it such a joy to watch. its definitely one of the more slower paced shows released but the unique characters make up for it. this show gives me little witch academia and witch hat atelier vibes. i would say that the slow pace of the show works against it being only 12 episodes because there's so many story beats set up that would be unable to complete in a small timeframe without feeling rushed. so i hope this show gets confirmed for multiple seasons.

the magical girl and evil lieutenant used to be archenemies

i only watched one episode of this show and i did like what i saw back then. i almost supported the main couple... until i found out that byakuya was a teenager and shun was a grown adult and then all my interest in the show went down the drain. i wanted to pick it up again but from what i heard its.. not that great. so definitely one of the weaker shows released this year

old shows that i watched this year

full moon o sagashite

this show is what i'd call "almost perfect". the themes of what it means to live and how to live your life knowing you don't have long to live? touching on how the music industry is not a squeaky clean place and how certain people will play dirty to get on top? the dilemma of the shinigami who grow an attachment to mitsuki, who they're supposed to reap the soul of in a year? and the added detail of mitsuki being a mere child? also the amazing music? it has all the ingredients to be a perfect show. the one thing holding it back from being a 10/10 anime is the FUCKINGGGG ROMANCE! there is not a single romance in this show that isn't problematic! i can excuse mitsuki having a crush on eichi because she's just 12. but there is no excuse for eichi, a 16 year old boy, falling in love with a 10 year old girl. and don't get me started on takuto fucking kira. it wasn't enough for him to fall in love with a 12 year old, but said 12 year old was his FORMER BANDMATE'S DAUGHTER! HIS DEAD BANDMATE'S SICK DAUGHTER! if i was aoi i would rise from the dead to beat the shit out of takuto for that. and its not like its a minor thing i can ignore, the romance plays a major part in the series. full moon would've been perfect as a show about living your life to the fullest with the little time you've been given if it just got rid of the awful romance. one thing i will say, that episode with the old man who can see the shinigami and knows he's about to die? its one of my favourite anime episodes period, no exaggeration, its such a beautiful episode that embodies everything i love about the show.

wedding peach

i'm sorry but this show was a chore to get through. i wasn't expecting anything progressive because its a show released in 1994. but even then i really didn't enjoy watching it. i can complain about how heteronormative the show is but i'm gonna excuse it because again, it was released in the 90s. but for what it is? its still such a BOREFEST. for a show all about romance, none of the main couples interested me. yosuke was just another jerkass love interest i just couldn't get into. takuro gave major incel vibes during his whole arc and was only slapped with hinagiku because he couldn't get momoko. yanagiba was probably the most interesting but that's not saying much since i couldn't get invested in him either. but the thing that bothered me the most was how shallow the friendship between the girls felt. see, this is a genre where female friendships are front and center and given just as much importance as romance. but in wedding peach, i didn't feel like the mcs were friends. they were willing to throw each other under the bus for some guy and the only time their friendship comes up is when the plot needs a power of friendship moment. its definitely not the worst mg show i've ever watched but its not one of my favourites either. i feel if i watched this show as a teenager i probably would've liked it more.

yume no crayon oukoku

i'm honestly not sure this counts as a magical girl show but some people do count it as one so i'm including it here. i really enjoyed this show. i love that the main character was really flawed and the point of the show was for her to get rid of her bad habits. it made her feel more real despite the show taking place in a fantasy kingdom with talking animals and objects. and i like how she never completely gets rid of her bad habits either, because she's a child and she can't become perfect overnight. and although i'm tired of jerkass magical girl love interests, something about cloud endeared me. he reminded me of syaoran li from cardcaptor sakura, who's my favourite mg love interest ever. and the villain for the first arc was hilarious, every time he was onscreen was a joy to watch. the show did remind me of ojamajo doremi in a few ways, but when i looked it up yume no crayon came out before ojamajo doremi so, i feel maybe ojamajo doremi was inspired by this show. but anyways this was a cute, feel good show and i enjoyed it.

kamichama karin

this is the most chaotic magical girl show i've ever watched and i loved every minute of it. of course many people know it from THAT frame, but the show itself is as chaotic as the infamous frame makes you expect. the story is just all over the place and normally that would make it frustrating, but there's something so charming about kamichama karin that just makes it work. the plot twist was just a whole mindfuck but that's what i'd come to expect from the show. the villain made for a lot of funny moments in the show. i realize i've become picky about magical girl main couples though because i was not feeling karin and kazune at all. i've grown tired of jerkass love interests, and kazune fits the "guy is an asshole to girl because he likes her" trope which i've come to hate. and his sexism really dampens my enjoyment of the show. i get that he's a child but still. but kazune's jerkishness wasn't so much of a problem that i couldn't enjoy the show because he does seem to grow out of it by the end.

machikado mazoku

and finally the most recent show i've finished. i have to say, shamiko and momo are already one of my favourite mg ships. i really enjoy how they care for each other despite shamiko declaring multiple times she's momo's archenemy. the story was also pretty interesting. i did enjoy how it was the demon girl who had the cheerful personality while the pink magical girl, who we expect to be cheerful and friendly, had a more withdrawn personality before she met shamiko. the mystery surrounding sakura was also interesting. i'm definitely gonna check out the manga someday. i need more shamimomo in my life.

and that's all the magical girl shows i've watched this year. here's hoping next year i have the time to get into more shows.

[bundoesnotcompete]

Reader is isekai'd into star rail but instead of your body its otto apocolypse's. Im not real impressed with this one personally but its nearly 4k words so here you go.

Violence ahead. Also errors and lore inaccuracies to be expected. Maybe ooc? No main pairings

Waking up to somewhere other than your bed is bound to give anyone a heart attack. Waking up on another planet is enough to instantly kill anyone from shock. Yet, here you were, gaping like an idiot in front of a mirror.

Not only were you on some no name planet, but your looks had changed. You were a spitting image of one Otto Apocalypse, down to the purple outfit you were wearing. If you put your hair fully down you looked like Loucha, but you pushed that to the back of your mind quickly.

You pinched yourself again. You didn't wake up. You put your hands on the edges of the sink and took a deep breath. The sound you released was closer to a quietly dying animal.

"What the hell is my life?" You whispered to yourself.

What you were supposed to do? You had nothing! You had no money, no clue to what your doing, no housing! You were homeless! The only comfort you had was the fact that you were cute and not programmed to drop loot.

You startled as something touched your ankle. Frantically looking down, you saw a wisp of faint purple colored smoke moving towards you. The tendrils playfully wrapped and played around your feet. The tendrils seemed to whisper faintly. You kicked them away and they disappeared in faint smoke.

Sighing, you left the public bathroom you were in. The sun was beginning to set and you were not tired. You took a left and began to wander. The streets were rather empty as you wondered. The signs were in a language you couldn't read so you couldn't keep track of where you were going.

You were ashamed to admit it, but you had dumpster dived in order to find anything that may be of use to you. You had found something that you assumed was money and a really cool rock. The sun continued to set far slower than you were used to as you continued to wander and dig in the trash like some sort of deranged raccoon.

You were approaching what looked to be a train station by the time the sun had fully set. The interior was beautiful and well kept. The floors were shiny enough to show your relfection.

There was an older woman standing at the desk who was talking to what you assumed was her coworker. She turned to you and smiled as you approached the desk. You looked to the sign above her and cried internally. How were you suppksed to get anywhere or know you were going if you couldn't read?!

"Hello! Where will you be heading today?" She greeted you kindly. Your cheeks turned red with shame as you tried to figure out what to say. The station was deserted at this time of night so at least it would be just her and her coworker to see you suffer. The wisps were returning around your feet.

You set everything you found in the dumpsters on the desk and took a shakey breath. You ignored her confused and stunned face.

"I cannot read." You looked away from her, trying to ignore the heat rising to your cheeks. "Where would i be able to go with this?"

She gave you a look of pity and she examined what was in front of her. She hummed.

"This isn't enough to get you anywhere dear." You deflated. "But, I will cover the rest of the cost to send you to the capital since you almost have enough for that. Do you need someone to get you onto to the train?"

"Ah, I think I may have it from here. Thank you ma'am. Is it the next train that is going to the capital?"

"Yes," She slid the really cool rock back to you as she put change in the drawer behind the desk. "Do take care of yourself dear. Things will get better. Have a seat, the train will be here in an hour."

The next hour you napped on the bench of the station. The station was rather cold as the ngiht went on. The loud blaring of the train's horn woke you and you boarded the train when it stopped. You were greeted by a man and he took you to a table to be sat. The rock sat heavily in your pocket.

"Here is your seat. Madame Ru told us about your situation." Heat flushed back to your cheeks in embarrassment as the man spoke. What situation?! Did you really look that bad when you got your tickets?! "Don't worry, we will take care of you until we reach the capital. Everything is already paid for so do not be afraid to order when meal time comes."

You sat in the seat in front of the table the man led to you to.

"We will be parting…." The intercom came over loudly as the man began to speak again.

"Would you like some tea or water?" You nodded, looking out the window. The train was really nice for the cheapest option.

"We are departing…." The attendant nodded and left as you zoned out. You lost count of time as you stared emptily out the window. The train began to move. A steaming cup WA set in front of you.

"Here you go, kid. I got tea for you." You gave thanks as you took the mug. "The next meal will be after our next stop in two hours. If you need anything I will be in the front of the cart. Do not hesitate to ask." The man's tone was sympathetic. You felt like you were taking advantage of the people around you.

The attendant walked off. The cart around you was empty. You stared at Otto's reflection in the tea. The empty blankness you were feeling was festering into something worse. Otto was nice to look at, but you wished you were back into your body.

The churning in your stomach got worse as you thoughts turned south. You stood and headed for the front of the cart to find the bathroom. When you asked the attendant he pointed you in it's direction.

You threw everything you had in you up as you sobbed quietly. It was too much. The intense ringing in your ears was all you could focus on and the other noises outside the restroom made everything worse. The wisps were back and they gently rubbed your ankles and then your back as you sat on the floor. Though their smokey form wasn't much use, the kind touches gently calmed you.

The roaring waves of anxiety turned to a mostly calm ocean. You didn't kick away the wisps as you stood up and cleaned your face off. The pure anxiety faded back into the empty numbness of before. Deciding you looked decent enough, you left the restroom and headed back to your seat. You ignored the look the attendant gave you.

Taking a few more sips of your tea, you drowsily gazed out the window. A quick nap was in order, you decided.

Jerking awake from your nap was unpleasent. It was almost as bad as finding out that you were still here in this horrible dream. The hustle and bussle of the people boarding the train woke you up. The tea in front of you having gone cold.

"It is unlucky that we didn't catch that…."

"Did you hear what happened…."

"I heard that the Astral Express…."

You could only catch tailends of conversations as people boarded. You turned your attention to the windows again as you looked out towards the woods the train had stopped in. Well, the woods by the station at least. The chime of the intercom was ignored in favor of looking down at the cool rock you had found earlier.

It had soft shimmering pinks and purples for the colors. It was mostly smooth and round, and it only had a few raised edges. It looked to be a natural rock. You could see people be seated next you out off the corner of your eye.

You turned back to the window and absentmindedly ran your fingers over the stone. The train was beginning to move again.

It wasn't long until a woman had come around and started setting what looked to be menus on the tables. You were getting hungry, hopefully the menu had pictures.

The menu did not have pictures. You wanted to cry. A small detail was about to break what little spirit you had left in you. What kind of menu didn't have a single picture?! The shit cake that was your day was getting worse. It was like you couldn't get a single win in.

"Oh wow, I'm so glad that this is paid for! Look at all these good options!" The girl in the seat next to you marveled at the menu. Yes, just rub salt into that wound why don't you? It seems you were going to have to wait for the attendent to come back so he or she could read to you.

"I've heard that this planet is known for its Lobster-Rat. If i get it will you get something else? Then we can try two things!" Another teen's voice came from the table next to you.

"What are you going Mr.Yang?" Dread filled you stomach. No, please don't let them be who you think they are. You knew those voices sounded too familiar. You couldn't comprehend what was said next, to busy fighting down your nervousness. If this was Honkai: Star Rail, then unless you managed to get lucky, you were toast. It would be you luck that you'd get into trouble. The menu in your hands was trembling. The attendant woman from earlier came to get their orders.

She turned to you and you knew you were going to have to face the crew next to you.

"Oh! I see your tea has gone cold. I will get amother one for you. What will you be having to eat." She asked. You couldn't even bring yourself to be shameful of your lack of reading skills. You had bigger concerns like not crying or getting angry at this whole mess.

"I cannot read." You managed to get out, your voice wavering on the verge of tears. "Would you mind reading it?" The attendant didn't comment and read the menu to you. In the end, you decided to go with the spiderfish soup. Hopefully, it didn't kill you.

As the attendant left you managed to discover who it was sitting at the booth across from you. March 7th, Stelle, and Welt Yang sat in the booth. You died internally as you saw them. It was just your luck that you got isekai'ed into the Honkai Universe. You looked towards your cold tea.

"Are you alright? You look really pale." March's voice fluttered into your ears. You needed sleep. Sleep and a warm meal. Even if it did not solve your problem it would make you feel so much better.

"I've been better. Its been a rather rough day." You responded truthfully. "Don't worry about me, though. How are you?" The conversation soon turned into small talk. It was odd how just simply talking to someone was making you feel better. The small talk continued for awhile even as the food was brought out.

"May I ask what brings you here?" You asked as you finished your meal.

"Just some sightseeing." Welt said, stacking his and March's empty plated and bowls into a pile. You had a feeling that was mostly a lie but decided to not pry. You didn't want to make the man more uneasy then he already is. You were sure seeing a literal spitting image of Otto Apocalypse had to be off putting. Especially since you two had differing personalities. Is that how he felt when seeing Loucha?

"What about you? Do you live here?" March said excitedly. Stelle watched you curiously from where she was piling food into her mouth. To be honest or not to be honest, that is the question. Eh, you had nothing to lose by being mostly honest.

"I don't live here, no. I just kinda ended up here. I've been struggling to get off planet. It is hard when you cannot read, yknow?"

"You can't read?" Welt questioned.

"Not this language. My home planet's language is found nowhere else." You thought about it, did Earth even exist in this universe? "Its gone now, so it doesn't matter."

"Oh." A heavy silence set between you and the table.

"These days i am just hoping to see the glaxay and maybe find a home." Preferably away from all the fighting. Far, far away from the fighting.

The wispy energy that was happily curling at your feet seemed frantic now. They seemed to be unsettled by something. By what, you wondered. Now that you noticed them you had a sinking feeling.

The train seemed to hit something but it never went off rails or stopped. The bump only knocking stuff around and startling the passangers. The dread that was pooling in your stomach got worse. Why was this your life? Couldn't you go a single day without something bad happening?

"What was that?" Stelle had just finished her meal when she asked.

"I hope it's nothing bad. I really hope its just some minor bum-" You didn't get to finish your sentence and the train screeched too a stop and caused everything to slide.

There were footsteps on the roof. The crew next to you seemed to prepare for something to happen. The wisps at your feet whispered incoherently, but seemed aggitated. You had no weapons to fight, but at least you had the comfort of your wisp buddies being with you. Maybe the really cool rock could defend you?

The footsteps stopped above the hatcb above your cart. It sat on the otherside of the roof away from your side. It slammed into the floor as someone kicked it in and entered the cart. Multiple heavily armed people entered through the newly made hole and seemed to search for something. They scattered out into the cart and looked both in luggage and at people. They took only credits but left any other valuable things alone.

Two approached your end if the cart. The crew next to you seemed ready to fight the closer the two beings got. The wisps at your feet grew angrier. The whispering was growing more audible and clear. They were itching for a fight. You didn't want to fight.

Something told you that whatever gods were here were laughing at you. Aha especially. You just knew that you were about to be caught up in something you wanted no part of.

You were right, the two paid no attention to the crew next to you when they turned to you. The wisps were calling for blood and danced aggressively around both your and the two in front of you feet. You didn't want to fight or kill. The thought of killing didn't bother you like it would've normally but you still knew that you should always be a last resort. Thst little unsettling thought was put to the back of your mind as one of them spoke.

"Grab them."

Ah hell no you were not about to be kidnapped. The last resort quickly became first resort as you launched yourself at the speaker. A fight was quick to break out. You slammed the speaker into the crew's table and barely dodged the bigger ones hands. The one now dubbed Spaker was quick to recover and try to fight you. Even though they had weapons they seemed more keen on fist fighting you. Were you that valuable?

The fight attracted the attention of the other boarder that was standing in the front. You paid no attention to them as you fought the other two. The back of the gun they had was quick to connect to the back of your skull after speaker pushed you towards them. The crew took this as their cue to jump in the fight while the boarders were distracted with you.

The wisps took great offense to your downing. They zipped by your line of sight as you hit the ground from the blow on your head. While you didn't see much of what was going on, you knew the crew was fighting. You would help them if you weren't so disoriented. As you attempted to sit up, someone grabbed you hair and pulled you up into a sort off kneeling position. You hit then as much as you could.

The whispering was worse.

"Use us and destroy him. We crave violence towards the enemy. Use us. We will help." The wisps were sorrounding the man pulling you away from the fight. He remained unaware is the extreme danger he was in. "Kill him. Its us or him."

The pain in your head was worsening as he got closer to the hatch. Panic was filling your mind. How were the wisps going to help.

"Let us take care of him for you. Please let us do it for you." Tears were filling your eyes a fear took hold. "Just imagine your asleep in a nice pool. We will take care of the rest." You closed your eyes and tried to do as they said. It was difficult among the pain but whatever you had conjured in your mind was enough to let them take control.

It was easy let yourself float away from the pain and emotion after that. It was easy to remain unaware as you floated in the great wavey nothingness. The purple waves whispered around you. It wanted you to help someone, but who?

"Do you think-" Stelle's voice seemed to echo in this place and it woke you slightly from your drifting.

"Look! Their waking-" You could feel yourself floating back to the top of the water. Feeling yourself regain movement. In a split second you felt everything again, pain included. Groaning, you cracked open your eyes. Why did you feel sticky?

You touched your face and ask that came off was red. Oh dear.

"It is okay. Your safe now." Welt's face came into view as he spoke. You looked around. The entire floor seemed to be covered in the red stickiness. You seemed too be in the place you last remembered being. "You took a heavy blow. Are you able to stand by yourself?" You wanted to say something, but your body wouldn't allow it. You could see the wisps come back into view.

"Sorry. Sorry." They seemed to whisper over and over. What were they sorry for?

"Mr. Yang they don't look so good." March said, looking pale. Why did she look scared? You shifted onto your side and sat up. Whatever this red paste was it was sticky and strong smelling. Your mind wanted to register that it was blood but the exhaustion from possesion caused it to struggle. It would file it for later then.

You attempted to stand but was to wobbily to do so on your own. Welt grabbed your arm and helped you stand.

"S'rry." You managed to mumble out.

"We need to get you out of here. March, you know where they are taking others right?" You didn't see the girl mood as Welt spoke. "We will go there with them."

The next hours blurred together and when they finally let you rest you were out like a light.

"Ask them. We can keep an eye on them in case it happens again…."

"I know it isn't easy, but thank you for giving them a chance…."

You cracked your eyes open to see a hospital ceiling.

"Wakey Wakey!" March's voice was soft as she whispered excitedly. Her beaming smile was blinding. What had happened?

"I got some water over here." Stelle was on your other side. You nodded and March helped you sit up. You took some sips of it and while it felt like liquid glass, it was also somehow soothing.

"What happened?" You asked.

"You don't remember?" Stelle replied. You shook you head.

"I remember being dragged away after the fight, but nothing after that." A heavy silence filled the room.

"Oh, not much happened after that. We fought them off and then brought you here." Something in Stelle voice was off. Was she lying? Whatever, it didn't matter now. The door to your room opened to reveal a rather tired looking Welt.

"Look! They are awake and hopefully for alot longer this time." March said, flopping back down into the chair next to you. "They don't anything though."

Welt adjusted his glasses. He stood in front of your bed with clothes in his hands.

"Im glad to see you awake. Your old clothes were ruined so the nurses are allowing you to have some." He set the clothes down at you feet. They were neatly folded and looked like hospital scrubs. "Is it true that you do not remember anything?" What was this an interrogation. Just what did those wisps do?

"I remember the fight and being dragged away, but everything is," you paused trying to find the right words, "muddy." That wasn't quite what you were going for but it worked. "Thank you for helping me back there. I don't know why they wanted me so bad." Welt seemed to sigh.

"Your welcome. I wanted to ask a question. You said that you did not have a home, correct."

"That's right."

"Would you like to join the Astral Express?"

Your eyes widened at the question. You knew these people for just a few hours and they are asking you to join them. You should say no, but March was giving you puppy eyes.

"I wouldn't want to impose." You responded.

"It is not an issue. You do not need to join us if you are not comfortable. You've only known us for a few hours."

You sat there for a moment, dazed. Everything was happening so fast, but you were now obviously in danger. If someone wanted you then as much as you don't want to admit it being on the road was the safer place to be.

"If it is not a burden, then i would be willing to join. I don't know what i can do to help you all but i can do my best."

Thus, after you were released from the hospital, you set off as a new member of the Astral Express.

Dan Heng was nice in his own private way. He remained wary of you, though.

Welt seemed to keep anxious eye on you. You didn't blame him, you did look like someone that brought him unpleasant memories. He seemed to warm up to you as he got to know you more. Especially once he helped Himeko teach you to read.

Stelle and March seemed to be conjoined at the hip at times. Stelle was a human raccoon, but she showed empathy and was happy to happy to talk to you. March gladly helped you expand your wardrobe. Her sunny and bubbly personality made her easy to talk to and get along with.

Himeko treated you kindly and was beginning to teach you how to properly read in the standard script. She was like a mother in some ways and an aunt in others. She helped March choose clothes for you. PomPom was happy to have another aboard the train and treated you nicely.

Things were looking up for now. Everyone seemed to adjust to you being in the train. Though it took some getting used to your new looks, you come to accept them.

All was well for now. All until a man named Loucha met you.

[itsbenedict]

Games I Played In 2024 And Whether Or Not I Thought They Were Good (Part 3/4)

[1] - [2] - 3 - [4]

More of them! I've been doing these roughly in chronological order so I'm going to have more to say about these ones probably.

Another Crab's Treasure

Haaaaaah. Mixed feelings on this one!

The idea is that it's a Dark Souls game, only, like, vibrant and colorful and ocean-themed. You're a hermit crab who's trying to get his shell back! Cute!

First off: if you get this game, do not get it on the Switch. It is broken on Switch. Like, crashes regularly, freezes up on simple object interactions, drops frames all the time... it's rough. I've seen LPs of people playing the PC version, where it looks and plays much better, so that's probably what you want to do instead. I'm shocked Nintendo let them release it on their store in this state.

And... that kind of colors my perception of the gameplay, too, because it turns out soulslike difficulty gets way more frustrating if you're usually dying to the game freezing up during an enemy attack, or the camera getting stuck where you couldn't see the tell animation, or some other technical issue that completely wasn't your fault. I was fighting the game every step of the way.

That said, I can easily see the version of the game that works, and the gameplay's pretty fun! The various shell powers, the rolling mechanics, and the smart enemy design make it really smooth to play when it's actually running at full FPS. The environment design is also really good, and overall it's very well-executed.

Hated the story, though. What a mess. It's... totally thoughtless doomer nonsense, whose primary message is "capitalism bad!" while completely failing to depict any capitalism and instead having the government be bad. It's all half-formed ideas from people with no model of how the world actually works- just a vague sense of anger at powerlessness and disenfranchisement, directed at incoherent strawmen. The speech where the evil corrupt mayor tells you that laws exist to make it legal for him to kill anyone who defies him is especially eye-rolling- as is the strawman of techno-optimism who shows up as the surprise final boss. Just idiotic stuff.

None of its metaphors even work on its own terms- like the thing where pollution is a nebulous force of corruption caused by greed in the hearts of the crabs who hoard trash, except that the greedy trash hoarders live in the clean colorful heights and the poors with no trash live in the polluted undercity with too much trash. Wait, what? Yeah.

Fun though.

Loop Hero

This one was really cool! It feels like there's some potential it had that it didn't realize, but I enjoyed it as a smaller experience anyway.

The idea is... the world's been destroyed, and you can sort of bring it back by remembering. As you walk along this desolate looped path autobattling enemies in search of a boss, you can put down tiles that change it- biomes that spawn different types of monsters, buildings that give you buffs, and terrain with global effects. As you progress, you unlock more types of tiles, and learn synergies between different types of tiles that create new effects.

There's a lot of these, and they're really cool. Like, put down nine mountains or hills in a square, and bam, you get a tall peak that spawns harpies to fight. Or put forests next to a lightning tower, and get burning forests that, uh, I think lower everyone's HP or something? Place a light source next to a field, and it blooms with flowers, doubling its XP bonus or whatever it is those do.

My problem I think is just that there's not enough of them. Each type of tile has between two and four different kinds of interactions with other tiles, and you don't really get too many elaborate combos. Most types of tiles ignore each other. I kind of wish there'd been a little more depth to these systems, with more surprising interactions with older terrain types as you unlocked new ones. Let me run a river past a spider nest and get diving bell spiders, or put a storm tower next to a vampire castle to spawn frankensteins! The surprise tile synergies were the most exciting part, and there was definitely room to include more of them.

The story had some kind of cool things to say about, like, the weight of creation, passing judgment on the world, deciding what has the right to exist. I don't know that it really explores it fully, but there's something there!

Hades II

Yep, this thing's in early access! And no surprise: it's good as hell. I've wasted far too much time in it.

Gameplay-wise, it's going to be pretty familiar if you've played Hades, but there's a few major changes. The most impactful, I've found, is that you only get one dash. No upgrading it with the mirror or getting more from Hermes- you get one, and then can hold down the button to run slightly faster if you gotta move fast. This makes Melinoe play very differently from Zagreus, who favored getting in close and overwhelming foes with a flurry of blows before zipping back out with dashes when things get hairy. Melinoe needs to stay safe a lot more than Zag does, and relies on her ranged options to do so.

(There's also a few other tweaks- every attack comes with a charged version that costs mana from a mana bar, olympian calls are replaced with "moon blessings", and of course all the weapons are new and take some getting used to- but the dash is the biggest thing.)

The story, this time, is fascinatingly weird. It concerns a war between the gods and the titan Chronos, and... it's not entirely clear if you're on the right side of it. They play up how callous and evil the gods are with respect to mortal life, and have multiple supporting characters who put this concern front and center where Hades 1 kind of sidelined it. But Melinoe is this weird, uptight honor student type of character with a strong sense of propriety and familial loyalty, and kind of doesn't care about that compared to her quest to rescue her family.

It keeps, like... dropping hints that you're not really on the right side, here? Chronos is personally unpleasant and loathsome, but you keep getting little hints that what he's actually doing is an improvement over how the gods were running things. Various character arcs seem to be headed in a "the gods suck and you should stick up for your non-god friends" direction, but...

...I mean, they can't actually do that, can they? Just, structurally! It's a roguelike, meant to be infinitely replayable! Hades 1 had a pretty elegant resolution to that problem, reframing the gameplay as something that can fit without the central conflict, but I can't imagine how Hades 2 could possibly do that. An entire section of the world takes place on a fleet of ghost ships sailing to join the war effort! Even Melinoe failing to grow and just winning seems incompatible with the game continuing. A good chunk of the game doesn't exist without the conflict! I don't see how they can possibly put a bow on all this, and I'm excited to see how they try.

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door

My favorite game from my childhood has received an updated rerelease on Switch... and they did it right. You gotta check this out.

I've talked about why TTYD is great before- I think one of the first posts on this blog, waaaaaay back in the day when my posts were bad and you shouldn't go looking for them? But the upshot is: the battle system uses small numbers, and you can figure out exactly what kind of damage you can dish out and take in a given turn, and plan your risk-taking and resource management around it precisely- in a way you can't really do when you've got big damage numbers with RNG ranges of outcomes. All the risk is in the execution of your guards and special moves, which let you attempt harder inputs in exchange for more favorable outcomes, with a chance that you'll fail because you fucked up,

Going back to it after so long... honestly, with fresh eyes, the writing isn't quite as lively as I remember? Like, I remember a big reason I was disappointed by later PM games was that there were no partners, or that the partners didn't really talk or figure into the story. But... honestly, TTYD does have that same problem, outside of the chapters where those characters are introduced. Once someone's In Your Party, their relevance is kind of over, and they all deliver pretty similar filler lines while out. That's something they could maybe improve on in a proper sequel.

Still, the writing generally remains sharp and very funny, and the variety of scenarios it throws at you are great. And the remake adds a few things that really enhance the experience- like new remixes of the battle theme for every chapter, and extra animations for every character, even the random background nobodies. You can hit NPCs with your hammer and they'll play a little "hey, ow!" animation now! Different characters get different dialogue bleep sounds! And they added a warp hub for backtracking, so the General White quest isn't so tedious! And a warp pipe between Creepy Steeple and Twilight Town, to cut out like an hour of pointless backtracking! All the changes they made were really smart.

(Including: putting Vivian's trans stuff back in the script, after it was cut in the original localization. Good on you, Nintendo!)

Pokérogue

I was weak. I held out two months, and then gave in. And I regret everything.

This fucking thing ate multiple months of my life. It's... infuriatingly addictive. It boils the Pokémon experience down to this ultra-tuned flow state, with accelerated levelups and mechanics to streamline the game into a roguelike form factor, and it's so goddamn tight. Every moment of it is setting you up with a thing you can do next, so there's no stopping points- just new goal after new goal after new goal. It totally hijacked my brain until I beat the damn thing into submission, doing absolutely everything it's possible to do in it.

Except "ever voluntarily using Skwovet", because fuck that thing.

Don't play this. It's bad for you.

Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree

Technically not a new game, but the DLC is basically an entire new game, with a map about the size of the base game and its own progression system and story.

I don't have too much to say about the DLC itself! It's More Elden Ring. Miquella's story is cool and tragic, the final boss was a terrifying surprise, and the new environments and enemy designs were sick as hell. If you liked Elden Ring for those things, there's more of it here! 'Nuff said.

What stuck out to me was... I started a new character and a whole fresh playthrough of the game, because I didn't know what the entry point to the DLC was. And while last time, I built a strength-focused warrior with tons of HP, this time I decided to try out a totally different build and play a squishy wizard with ranged attacks. And the game was so different like that! Still balanced, still fun, but completely a different game.

Instead of being about getting in close, staying in close, and sticking around for a long time while finding openings to attack, it became about staying at a safe distance, dodging projectiles, and retaliating with nuke spells to end fights before bosses could get much of a chance to hit me. Some areas that were a huge problem for me before were trivialized by my reusable ranged blasts, and some areas that were no trouble were suddenly a difficulty cliff because there was no way to be effective at range. I'm surprised at how much of a transformation it was! Impressive feat of design.

WEBFISHING

This is a cute little multiplayer fishing game based off Animal Crossing's fishing system. It's a relaxing little second-screen game without too much going on! Not too much to say about it- it does what it sets out to do. Kinda wish they'd tried a little harder for some of the fish "jokes", though- a lot of them are anti-humor about not having a joke for this one. I will retaliate by... not having much of a review for this one.

DEATHLOOP

This thing was fuckin' cool. You're an amnesiac trapped in a time loop- but not just any time loop. The people on this island came here specifically to trap themselves in a time loop, where they could kill each other and live out hedonistic fantasies with no consequences, but something fucked up and now only you and a crazy lady who's trying to kill you are actually experiencing the loop. For everyone else, it's their first day, and they don't take kindly to you trying to break the loop and ruin their fun.

In order to break the loop, you have to kill a bunch of important assholes (called "Visionaries") who've somehow anchored the loop to themselves. But you've got to do it in a single day, and they're scattered all over this huge island- so you've got to come up with a plan. Find ways to manipulate where they'll be at what times, when they'll be vulnerable, and line up that perfect killstreak.

It's fun stuff. Initially, it seems impossible- they're too spread out, too inaccessible, too heavily-defended. But as you work on figuring them out one at a time, you learn lots of little details about gaps in their defenses, ways to fuck with their routines, and traps you can set for them so they'll die without you needing to be present. It's like a mystery game, even though the minute-to-minute gameplay is a pretty standard stealth action shooter.

(Said gameplay's pretty fun on its own- though weirdly, the starting pistol pretty much kills everything in the game in one headshot and has perfect accuracy, so I'm not sure why they bother giving you other guns. I upgraded to Frank's SMG which is basically the same gun but it reloads instantly, and basically never needed to use anything else.)

The story's... a little weird. It tries to focus on the relationship between Colt and Julianna (your also-looping nemesis trying to stop you from breaking the loop), but like... she's not... there, except as an annoying random superboss encounter that sometimes spawns in the middle of you trying to do other shit. She's just a voice over the radio that snarks at you and doesn't have any relationships with any of the other characters.

So like, ultimately you learn a twist about who she was to you before you lost your memory, and she explicates her reasons for wanting to protect the loop, and there's like, some decent character work being done there?

Buuuuuut, in attempting to foreground this character dynamic and make it the main resolution to the game, they kind of forgot to give a satisfying resolution to anything else. Like, these seven people you spend the whole game obsessively stalking and learning everything about so you can efficiently murder them in one go... don't really get a resolution other than being anticlimactically murdered. And there's like no resolution to like, what is the loop and how does it work and why did it get fucked up and what are the stakes here. It's all so meticulously done that I get the impression some writer somewhere answered these questions while plotting it, but they just either didn't put any of it in the game, or I missed something huge.

One negative I will say is: this thing made my old computer overheat like instantly. I had to build a proper gaming PC before I could run this thing- and that was in fact my main motivation for building it, was because I wanted to play this game without my laptop melting. Not really playable on smaller machines, even on minimum settings.

-

One more coming down the line, for the games I played but didn't beat this year, and that should do it!

[1] - [2] - 3 - [4]

[spiribia]

other new nuka world animals rating

cave cricket - 3/5. they made the face weird in a generic cartoon bug way. i get that this is a highly mutated animal and that many fallout animals are stylized, but i still think they chose to remove her cuteness.

rad rat - 5/5 nice model and looks good in motion. nothing too exciting, but just about all you could ask for

bloodworm - 3.5/5 EWWWWWWWW

gatorclaw - 2/5 as a mutated american alligator and 4/5 as a deathclaw variant. the appeal of alligators to me is that they are long, low, and short limbed, and long snouted, so for me this is like watching them put a tiny dachschund head on a proportionally jacked long armed bipedal body. i would also hope an alligator design would capitalize on the infamous jaws of the animal, but in this form it barely bites at all and attacks with its arms

ant - 4/5 quite cute.

[probablyasocialecologist]

TikTok was where I learned about SHEIN. For a while my For You page, which had accurately identified my interest in fashion’s more material impacts, served me videos of sustainable fashion influencers decrying SHEIN’s wretched labor and environmental practices. The textile industry is the second-largest polluter in the world, they said, and of all the fast-fashion producers, SHEIN is by far the worst offender. SHEIN uses toxic chemicals in their clothing production; SHEIN mass-produces fabrics like spandex that never decompose (at this point an image would flash across the screen: an overflowing clothing landfill, or a mountain of discarded clothes in the Chilean desert so large it is visible from space); SHEIN exploits and endangers its factory workers. Employees earn $556 a month to make five hundred pieces of clothing every day, work eighteen-hour days, and use their lunch breaks to wash their hair — a schedule they repeat seven days per week with only one day off per month. A more nuanced TikToker might point out, briefly, that conditions in SHEIN factories are not necessarily unique, or that focusing on suppliers — rather than the larger systems of Western consumption and capitalism that create these conditions — is a fool’s errand, but the platform isn’t built for that kind of dialogue. I clicked on the comments and invariably read ones with several dozen likes saying, “I’m so willing to die in shein clothes.” Before long I was watching SHEIN hauls. There are millions of them — the tag #sheinhaul has been viewed a collective 14.2 billion times on TikTok. In each haul, a woman rips open a plastic bag filled with smaller plastic bags filled with small plastic clothing. Sometimes the woman holds up each garment and narrates its merits, but often the clothes are disembodied, laid flat on a floor or a bed in an accidental stop-motion animation. A stretchy red skirt on a furry white carpet is replaced by a strapless watercolor bustier with a deep-V neckline. A zebra-print skirt is followed by a matching pink two-piece set, with a short-sleeve cardigan and miniskirt constructed from a fabric that looks like bubble wrap. Sometimes a haul is five pieces, and sometimes it is too many pieces to count. The garments appear and disappear in seconds, edited to the beat of a trending song. Rarely do we see the clothing on a body. Usually brand familiarity accrues in a slow drip, building from obscurity to instant recognizability over the course of months or years as a designer’s work intersects with the zeitgeist and gains traction on social media. SHEIN was different. One day I’d never heard of the retailer and the next it was inescapable: in thousands of outfit videos, on millions of social media feeds. The clothes weren’t distinct or cohesive; what united them wasn’t style but price. All those SHEIN hauls entered my feeds with such ubiquity that they began to feel like they’d always been there. I’d opened a door to a new part of the fashion internet: a place where girls bragged about their ultra-fast-fashion purchases, delighting in the cheapness of the garments. Here, SHEIN was the obvious choice for new clothes. Why not, when you could buy on-trend pieces at lightning speed for less than the price of a cup of coffee? It was uncanny to bounce between videos: here was a girl showing off her new halter, here was another girl giving a litany of reasons why it was unconscionable to buy clothes for so little money. Didn’t these TikTokers hear one another? But then again, how could they? “This is what we keep missing here in the whole conversation about sustainability in the industry,” Nick Anguelov, a professor of public policy from UMass Dartmouth, said to a Slate journalist writing about SHEIN in June. “We keep failing to understand that our customers are kids and they don’t give a fuck.”

[rowebug]

What exactly do u like about walle (i’ll draw u eve if i ever find the time)

BOY.

the topic of "what would happen to earth if all humans disappeared" has always been interesting to me, and although its not technically the main focus, its one factor that intrigued me.

i love how its a great example of show, don't tell. wall e and eve don't have humanoid facial features, but they still convey so much emotions through their body language and eyes

i love how it takes a jab at capitalism and overconsumption

i love how this movie is animated. i love looking at the little details- especially in wall e's home (truck? YOU PROBABLY KNOW WHAT I MEAN). i love looking at all the little trinkets he's collected. i like looking at the layout of the axiom. ALSO the space scenes (wall e on his way to the axiom and the 'define dancing' scene.

i love the way they show how wall e influenced the people (and robots) he interacted with. he shared his own curiosity with them, and helped them realize that there is always room for exploration.

i LOVE the soundtrack. i listen to it on spotify when I'm studying, cleaning, or even just to sleep. i love listening for recurring themes, and listening to the instruments that play. define dancing is absolutely stellar, and bubble wrap is such a fun track to listen to.

and i absolutely adore both wall e and eve's development throughout the film. the way wall e looks at eve with puppy eyes. i love that it's wall e's silliness that intrigues eve. i love wall e's excitement in showing her the things that he loves, including his favorite movie. THE SCRIPT. OH HOW I LOVE THE SCRIPT.

this scene is so cute. wall e you stupid little lovesick fool ❤️❤️ (that's me. I'm the lovesick fool)

even though he annoys eve at first, she still cares about him. she still makes sure he's okay. its so funny to see eve try to tell wall e to stay put, but he's a stubborn little shit (affectionate) and tries to help anyway. when wall e gets freaking tased, and his memory chip (?) is messed up, she chooses helping him over her own directive. wall e becomes her priority, her directive. once he's okay then she can continue on.

holo detector scene :(( wall e gets crushed and eve wasn't right there to help. even when the plant successfully registers, it doesn't matter, because HEY is he wasn't fucked up before HE SURE IS NOW. there is such an urgency in the way she fixes wall e (fantastic scene by the way. it really is satisfying to watch and listen to).

unfortunately, in the process of fixing him, he lost what made him special; his humanity. all his trinkets are just more pieces of debris to throw out. they hold no importance to him anymore. hello dolly is just another sound in the environment for him to ignore. and eve is just another life form to not bother. even if it seems like she is trying to interact with him, the best thing is to move on and follow his directive. it's heartbreaking to watch honestly. eve desperately trying to get him to remember anything, the little moments they shared, anything from before. she even holds his hand (he doesn't technically have any but ykwim), but he still remains soulless. when it seems clear that wall e isn't coming back, she gives up. she got to fix him. at least she got to know him. now it's time to move on.

eve gives wall e a little kiss/spark as a goodbye and moves away. surprise surprise, because we can't just leave the kids watching devastated, wall e comes back 🎉🎉🎉

lets assume that the spark sort of rebooted wall e into remembering, it doesn't matter, because now he's back, and they both have feelings for each other. AND YOU KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS!! *explodes into a bunch of glitter particles*

I love wall e's character, he is such a boyfail i lob him 😢😢 he's passionate about collecting little trinkets, he's a curious little guy, he's clumsy as hell and he's somehow the last one standing. autistic wall e is so important to me chat HELP MEE

eve is such a girlboss and we love her for it. polite little lady I LOVE HER DESIGN. she gets frustrated easily and honestly, I can relate. she's really determined in whatever it is she needs to do and she DOES IT. if you asked her to find someone she'll do it, no matter how much legal trouble she gets into. it's so silly how she carries wall e hebwjevwjev

i adore their love story so much eve and wall e are the literal embodiment of me and the bad bitch I pulled by being autistic. they are my favorite ship that falls under the girlboss x boyfail trope. THEY MEAN SO MUCH TO ME I LOVE THEM WITH ALL MY HEART ❤️❤️ they really are my comfort ship of all time nobody will ever make me hate walleve <3333

[mirupiico]

HELLO your art is delicious amazing stunning showstopping!!!!!!!!!! i absolutely would love to hear more about your oc <3 she's literally so cuteeeeee

(also i love your breakdown on the accents!!!! like yes give me as much lore as possible)

Ah, you sweet sweet soul. You have opened the floodgates fully. I don't think you understand, I AM OBSESSED WITH THIS OC.

So my Field of Mistria OC's name is Emilia Goldhart and she's from the Caldosian Empire! Since the game is still in early access, aspects of her lore will likely change depending on the more we learn about the world building of the game. With what little info we have, I HC the Caldosian accent to be more or less the same as Scottish English. I am a massive linguistics and dialects nerd, so having an OC from far away from the main town whose accent provides both a point of charm and a language barrier that melts over time is super fun to write. To super simplify her background...

She was a street rat adopted by an adventurer's guild, doing whatever quests she could handle for her age in exchange for room and barebones food. A basic bed and bread was all she really needed, and she did whatever she could to maintain her basic needs. By the time she got into her teens and her body started filling out a little more, they started sending her on more serious assignments -- a femme fatale for hire. She was tasked with luring in men who owed debts to others, and would "collect a debt" (lowkeyjustmurder) on her client's behalf. She was taught to charm others easily, sharpening her natural wit and love for banter. And most importantly, it certainly paid better than petty theft and small monster killing for sure. Her training in this field made her very adept with knives and daggers specifically, and she has a distinct fondness for throwing knives. She would often wear the one nice attire she owned, a red dress, and tie her abundance of red hair into a tight and heavily braided bun, having to infiltrate densely packed late-night fancy galas to find her target. It got to the point where the pattern of seeing a woman in a red dress at parties where men died started a rumor that if a rich man or a scammer died overnight, he must've spent the night with the Maiden in Red.

However, having to put her life on the line and entertain weird rich older men just to survive was getting old. She wanted to escape, but she knew she only really was suited for harm, and had no real prospects for any other kind of work. It wasn't until a particularly auspicious day that she saw a flyer for a free farm available in backwater town she'd never heard of called Mistria. Before any of her bigger more adept peers could find it, she stole the flyer and left the guild in the dead of the night, following the map on the back of the paper...

Emilia post-moving-to-Mistria is a much happier girlie. She makes fast friends pretty quickly with Celine, Reina, and Adeline, often staying over at Celine's house with them for tea and gossip and giggling. Her favorite part of farming, however, are the animals. Her first animal, a duckling named Finnegan, was a gift to her from Hayden, the farmer/rancher that lives at Sweetwater Farm (due west of the player farm). She treats Finnegan like its her own human baby, carrying him around in her overalls pocket until gets too big to fit. The first day she got him, she just sat at Sweetwater farm with him and cried, watching him exist, baffled that he was real and cute and hers and perfect.

Emilia's accent when she first comes to town is extremely thick. The vast majority of the townsfolk don't understand her most of the time when she first moves in, but after hanging around with her girlies (Reina, Celine, Adeline) they start understanding her a little better. Terithia, and Balor, having been well traveled, also understand her a bit better than the others to some extent. Despite having been in the capital for some years, she never really talked to anyone or got close enough to anyone for that to change. It's not until her move to Mistria that her accent begins to wade slightly, however she will often slip back into it deeply if she's feeling any kind of heightened emotion like sadness, rage, or intoxication. I'd made a chart of her accent, but I can also reiterate it here:

Based on the example sentence: "Where do you live? I don't know."

First arriving to town / After a few beers too many: Lots of lexical Scotticisms, very heavily rhotic pronunciations, uses SSE grammar patterns. Only Terithia and Balor can really understand her fully. Example: "Whaur dae ye bide? Ah dinnae ken."

Months into Mistria: Fewer lexical Scotticisms, but the rhotic pronunciations and grammar patterns in there. More understood in town both from her being around more and her Scotticisms being dropped on occasion. Example: "Where de ye live? Ah dunno."

She also has a pretty significant crush on the farmer next door. Emilia isn't really used to just... overt sweetness? So from how brutally kind Hayden is to her on a regular basis, she starts softening up to him and his endearingly goofy love of animals. And, since her usual manner of getting chummy with someone involves a lot of flirty banter and teasing, she really enjoys how notably he responds to being hit on. Making him blush becomes a hobby at one point, though it's all fun and games until he starts figuring out ways to return the favor.

They're totally not dating though. They're definitely just bantering for fun. It's completely platonic and friendly no matter how red either one gets. Totally.

Also she's barefoot the vast majority of the time, with the exception of being in the mines, when it snows, or when its too cold outside.

And that's it! She lives rent free in my head, and I have multiple AUs and fics and shorts written about her that I haven't posted anywhere yet. I love her so much it makes me insane. Thank you for the ask!!!

[mariacallous]

Everyone, it seems, wants a piece of Moo Deng. The baby pygmy hippo is barely two months old and already famous. So beloved on TikTok, Instagram, and X is Moo Deng that workers at Khao Kheow Open Zoo, the place in Thailand where she was born, are doing all they can to keep up with her fans’ appetite for more. They post videos, photos, updates. They also welcome thousands of visitors a day and find themselves having to defend Moo Deng when tourists throw shells at her while she’s just trying to chill.

Moo Deng, a name that means “bouncy pig,” has probably been all over your timeline lately—on Sephora makeup tutorials, on X’s main feed. She was born in July and in the past few weeks has become the Internet’s New Favorite Animal. A tradition almost as old as the internet itself, Favorite Animals—Maru, any of the dogs on the shiba inu puppy cam, those two llamas who just happened to run free the same day everyone was trying to decide what color The Dress was—come into the public consciousness seemingly out of nowhere. Some, like Doge, stick around; others disappear, or simply outgrow their cuteness, within a matter of weeks.

All of which makes capitalizing on their fame a matter of some urgency. It seems heartless to think of animals this way, but if their owners don’t, someone else will. Perhaps that’s why zoo director Narongwit Chodchoi told the Associated Press this week that the zoo has begun the process of trying to trademark and patent the hippo to avoid her likeness getting used by anyone else—a smart move considering Moo Deng mugs, T-shirts, and other merch are already popping up online. Income from these efforts, Chodcho told the wire service, could “support activities that will make the animals’ lives better.”

Moo Deng might need it. Fandom is getting a bit out of control these days. As pop stars like Chappell Roan have amassed online and offline fame, they’ve also had to use their platforms to ask for space from boundary-less fans and stalkers. Social media celebs like Drew Afualo, on whose podcast Roan appeared to talk about the subject, also tell stories of being approached in public by people who simply know them from the internet.

It may seem odd to compare them to Favorite Animals, but the ways in which people feel entitled to their time aren’t that far apart. Everyone wants something for the ’gram, even if that something is a living being with its own sense of agency. One of Moo Deng’s most popular TikToks has 34 million views, and zoo staff have had to limit her visiting time to five minutes on Saturdays and Sundays to keep too many people from trying to get content of their own.

Trademark protections may be the best way for Moo Deng’s caretakers to ensure others don’t cash in on her viral fame. When Jools Lebron made efforts to trademark her “very demure, very mindful” meme, one of the hurdles that emerged was that it’s hard to claim ownership of a phrase. As Kate Miltner, a lecturer in data, AI, and society at the University of Sheffield’s Information School, told me at the time, memes with audiovisual elements, like Nyan Cat or Grumpy Cat, are easier to register. “People will invariably try to make money off of viral or memetic content, as we've seen time and again,” Miltner says when asked about trademarking the baby hippo, adding that the Cincinnati Zoo has already done this with Fiona the Hippo. “It's smart of the Khao Kheow Open Zoo to (at least try to) ensure that they’re the ones that do so.”

Lebron seems to be figuring out how to market her moment, and Moo Deng’s keepers seem to be doing the same. Being online in 2024 means living in a state of near-constant vulnerability. You could get hacked or turned into a humiliating deepfake. Having a public opinion on a video game or The Acolyte could turn your mentions into a hellscape. And that’s what happens to filthy casuals. When you’re an ascending pop star or a baby hippo the weak spots multiply, because the world always seems hungry for more of you. It’s possible to protect yourself, even monetize yourself, but you can lose yourself, too.

Like Boaty McBoatface, Moo Deng was named by the internet. The zoo held a poll on social media. Unlike McBoatface, Moo Deng is a living thing; she’s a member of an endangered species and needs protecting. Moo Deng is more than a meme.

[avoxrising]

Just noticed… Joannha (no clue if I spelled her name right) doesn’t call y/n “feral” she calls her “feisty” cause it’s not demanding her (from what I assume) AND ITS SO FUCKING CUTE

Yes! Johanna calls her Feisty because she views her as an actual human with feelings and a personality, not as a wild animal like the capital views her (Y/N likes the nickname btw). I think Johanna relates a lot to her as in Johanna’s games she started off playing the weak card before going haywire with an axe which definitely labeled her as “crazy” in the eyes of the capital. She understands the trauma of losing her family to Snow and the other horrors of being a victor that both Y/N and Finnick have had to face. Plus we all know that Johanna loves nicknames!

[lavaflowe]

JTTW READING CLUB CATCH UP

Pt. 2

@journeythroughjourneytothewest

Chpt 4 Thoughts:

•the fighting immediately at the gate should have tipped everyone off this wasn’t going to go well💀 doomed from the start

•the hand holding with Gold star of Venus and Wukong I am not okay, I’m exploding it’s so cute

•Holy shit the poem about Heaven is LONG

•Wukong handles being called a bogus immortal very well?? I thought he would be angrier about that… I guess he knows its true tho🤷‍♀️

•Wukong is fantastic at his job- the best horse girl around (for the 2 weeks he was there lol)

•tantrum™️ kicks over his desk and smashes everything with his ruyi bang, causes property damage and LEAVES

•interesting that I’ve seen a lot of adaptations have him release the horses and do a mini havoc in Heaven

•love that it’s just 2 random demons who suggest 齐天大圣 to Wukong, not anyone important or anything JAKDJSJ

•HE QUITS AND THE JADE EMPEROR CALLS FOR HIM BE CAPTURED BECAUSE HES A MONSTER??? HUH???(I thought Gold Star stepped in but I GUESS I WAS WRONG)(capitalism smh /j)

•NEZHA APPEARANCE WHOOOO

•Spreading Flower axe sounds so cool, prime design material

•”eyes glowered strangely like burning stars; past his shoulders two ears, forked and hard; his voice resounded like bells and chimes”<- poem about Wukong, so lovely

•Theme I’m noticing: Wukong treated like an animal until proven otherwise (makes sense but also not)

•asks Nezha whose little brother is he, and Nezha immediately spits back like 3 insults JAKFJSJSJ, he is not here to mess around🔫

•3 HEADED 6 ARM FIGHT: WUKONG v. NEZHA

•the old bait and switch then smashing Nezha’s shoulder (flash back to all the paintings of Nezha running off while holding his broken arm💀)

•Love that Wukong called himself the little brother of the fraternal 7

•Gold Star Of Venus more like Master Negotiator/Mediator

•….is Gold star lying??? WUH

•”Peace and Quiet” and “Serene Spirit”- it’s like they don’t know that’s gonna bore the shit out of Wukong💀 like watching a train wreck in slow motion- HES NEEDS ACTION AND SOMEONE TO PLAY WITH

Chpt 5&6 under cut:

Chpt 5 Thoughts:

•uses all his free time to make more friends

•Gold Star realizes that he may get bored so they give him an extremely tedious task that will also probably bore him JAKDJAJAJD

•HELP HE JUST STARTS EATING ALL THE PEACHES WHAT- he behaved for probably like 2 weeks (again) and then decided he couldn’t wait any longer to try the OLDEST AND RAREST FRUIT IN THE GARDEN!!! AND HE PICKS MULTIPLE, NOT JUST ONE

•I’m yelling he does this multiple times

•okay but him playing around and eating making him tired and taking a nap on the branches when he’s 2 inches tall?? Adorable, no longer mad he ate all the peaches, he’s just a little guy

•ah so he only ate the really good ones. Ofcourse.

•Gently breaking the news that he’s probably not invited to the banquet 😬

•immediately freezes the peach maidens- WHY??? WHAT WAS THE REASON???

•Identity theft smh

•he is feeling….mischievous

•RESIST UR IMPULSES OH MY GOD

•he is so wasted he accidentally wandered into Laozi’s lab

Wukong: I’ve never met Laozi….now is for SURE the perfect time to make friends, when I’m so drunk I can’t walk straight

•He keeps putting things in his mouth, very monkey™️ of him

•IMMEDIATELY sobered up and knew he was in deep shit

•he lived in heaven for over a century 👀👀, Wukong says half a year- so maybe like 175 days?

•he goes back to get wine for his monkeys 🥺🥺

•next day/year Everyone one complains about the Havoc LMAO, they just kept coming, I know the Jade Emperor is distraught HAJDJAJ

•Wukong was going to straight up ignore the heavenly army they sent if they hadn’t busted down his door😂

•all his demon Allies were captured while he did a 1 v 6 with Nezha and the 5 Devarajas

•Wukong starting to get lost in the sauce, doesn’t care his ally’s were captured as long as his monkeys are okay

Chpt 6 Thoughts:

•Guan Yin Rolling up their sleeves to fix this mess

•”nothing but an invitation to disappointment” THE DRAMATICS

•I wonder if the Greek constellations were actually listed or if that was a translation choice??

•interesting that he outlasted Moksa instead of outwitting him- I feel like there’s a deeper meaning to that

•Guan Yin: I have a solution…..call in your Nephew

Jade Emperor: GENIUS

•Erlang is PUMPED to fight Wukong

•something something Erlang Shen is HAWT

•Erlang Shen: I’m here to kick your ass and arrest you

Wukong: your MOM

Erlang already swinging:

•Warform fight pt 2: Electric Boogaloo

•”they darted as stars to fill the sky”

•Erlangs eye being called the Phoenix Eye sounds SO COOL

•spotted bustard has no standards-I stand by the whore joke

•Erlang having fun with their fight LMAOOOOO

•HELP WHY DID HE WASTE TIME ENTERING A TEMPLE??? WUKONG PLS💀💀 UR ARMY IS GONE AND YOURE CORNERED NOW IS NOT THE TIME

•Wukong defeated with an assist from Laozi and Xiaotian

•stabbed for his crimes

•it’s execution time

•really loved that the poems were used to describe all of the fights

[animalinvestigator]

any manga recommendations?

yessss oh my gosh always, gladly. so honored you would ask little ol me about such a thing... i haven't been reading much lately so here's just a little list of things ive picked up in the past few months or things i've liked for a long time..... all of them are on mangadex so just look em up... Im editing this to put them under the cut sorry i didn't do it before ive been on the clock for like 4 hours and im tired Lights cigarette

fool night yasuda kasumi !!! it's currently ongoing and i recently got caught up... if i had to describe it in two words.. "post-chainsawman." it's very similar in a lot of ways, but has very different priorities.. what i really like about it is that it has kind of a tighter focus on the "poverty and capitalism" angle that chainsawman definitely covers but doesn't really devote its full attention to. in a world where the sun no longer shines, plants can't grow, so humans are constantly at a deficit of oxygen... to combat this, government facilities offer a payout to desperate people who can't afford to live if they allow themselves to be "transflorated" -- basically fed on by a magical spiritual plant that will eventually kill them and release oxygen in their stead. one such desperate person undergoes the procedure only to find he has the special ability to communicate with transflorated bodies after theyve passed... and then he becomes a Plants Detective and shenanigans ensue. Super good it made me cry... art is beautiful..... definitely worth a read if youre looking to pick up something ongoing

babel no toshokan by tsubana - stumbled upon this after reading the artist's other work "wakusei closet" on a whim... this shorter story is much preferred and has engraved itself deeply on my heart. a girl with a strange set of beliefs about reality enters a strange relationship with a boy who can read everything that's ever been written just by touching an identical sheath of paper..... seriously so good. give it a go if you want something short and sweet

planet laika & scorched earth of love by mayuri yoshida, this is a short manga and one shot bundled with it that has been one of my favorites for like FOUR YEARS NOW!!! mayuri yoshida's sickly cute animal people + loving intricate lineart combine to create a really unique visual aesthetic. its about the titular laika , as in, the dog launched into space, who has since become the ruler of a planet of dogs, and her plot to take revenge on humanity. also she has a lesbian wife. the one shot is so good too SO DONT MISS IT!!!

anyone who has heard me talk about comics for the past year or so probably knows i've been trying to get Just yknow everybody on earth to read dead dead demon's dedededestruction by inio asano. nothing i could ever possibly say about it could do it justice it's seriously my favorite manga of all time. it's about being in love with your best friend and the end of the world and aliens and politics and the internet and stuff. asano's art is truly breathtaking and unlike anything else on earth, the characters are all infectiously lovable, and it's just like... endlessly life affirming and heals my heart in a way i have a hard time articulating.

and last one... not strictly manga but i have really enjoyed keeping up with wanan's webcomic no home recently... its a long one, but i read about 275 chapters of it in like 3 days, because it's that hard to put down, LOL... extremely inspiring character writing and also just insanely fun, eunyung became an all time favorite character of mine on impact and it has one of those casts where you can't help but have fun watching them be together in literally any situation. it's about a bunch of kids with shitty family situations trying to figure out to learn to live with eachother. its an extremely good example of mundane character drama being written so compellingly that it will make you start slamming your head on walls at work. Speaking from experience.

miscellany... everyone tells you to read witch hat atelier, do it its good... everyone tells you to read dungeon meshi do that its good... Chainsaw man part 2 is getting crazy right now ...... uhhh... i have a billion more so if none of those interest you let me know and i'll share more. thank yew so much for your interest in my opinions and i hope there's something here you can appreciate!!!~~