#lot of details I had to cut but I'll find other places to add them

[goshdangronpa]

“The beats of the beginning will stay the same.” That’s what I said last week. But rewatching justonegamr’s playthrough of SDR2 convinced me that “Starting the Game with Despair Disease” is a real misnomer. I want to break down the first three days of “I DISAGREE: An Ibuki SDR2 Protag Swap AU,” showing what those beats are like from Ibuki’s POV. Along the way, I’ll illustrate the impact that moving the Despair Disease to Chapter 1 would make, show how these events push her to the protagonist role, and even reveal who suffers from the disease in this AU.

Fear of Dying: The AU Narrative's Chaotic First Three Mornings

Morning 1

Ibuki Mioda introduces herself, excited for her very first day at Hope’s Peak Academy. She’s concerned that the school won’t take kindly to the newly minted Ultimate Light Musician’s shift to heavier styles, but otherwise she’s eager to make friends, have new experiences, and live her best life.

The first 20 minutes of SDR2 play out from her POV, with the same overwhelming disorientation. When Hajime faints, Ibuki assumes he dropped dead, foams at the mouth, and drops like a domino. Mikan Tsumiki wakes her up quickly, doing her duty as Ultimate Nurse.

Ibuki’s only out for a minute. Everyone’s still at the beach, making character introductions more like THH than the original SDR2.

An unseen moment from the latter narrative plays out: Byakuya Togami, the most clear-headed of the bunch, tells everyone to pair up and fan out. Ibuki takes her rescuer around the islands, eventually winding up in a supermarket. It’s there that they meet the now-revived Hajime Hinata, escorted by the chill and kind Nagito Komaeda.

The rest of the prologue plays out the same: everyone reconvenes at the beach, shares their findings, expresses unease. Usami pops up with presents as promised, and Ibuki’s first to dismiss the Usami Straps, then first to grab a swimsuit. She and most of the rest relax enough to take a dip … then Monokuma enters the picture. Ibuki doesn’t faint this time, but she does foam at the mouth again.

Morning 2

As she says in SDR2, Ibuki doesn’t sleep a wink out of sheer dread. She still tries to maintain her good humor, though she understands why it takes two separate visits from two different people to drag poor, terrified Kazuichi Soda out of his cottage.

Also like in SDR2, she totally approves of Byakuya proclaiming himself the group’s leader and protector. He seems reliable, and his presence is impressive.

After Byakuya shows everyone the suspiciously bomb-shaped countdown timer that appeared in Jabberwock Park overnight, Nagito makes the same speech about the need for everyone to strengthen their bonds. Unlike certain others, Ibuki doesn’t find it cringe. It becomes her motivation for hanging out with her classmates in her free time (as opposed to, say, playing music or napping). Let’s say she uses her FTEs to shoot the breeze with the delightfully dutiful kendo master Peko Pekoyama and get schooled at a favored hobby by the too-chill-to-function gamer girl Chiaki Nanami.

Evening 2

Just when she’s ready to take a pre-dinner nap, Ibuki hustles to the park for Monokuma’s little show. The reveal about the theft of their memories from their time at Hope’s Peak makes Ibuki foam at the mouth again. Mikan’s getting concerned for her health, but freaking out seems normal for such a freaky situation!

When Monokuma adds that there’s a traitor in the group, Mikan takes her turn to freak out, insisting it’s not her. Ibuki thinks nothing of the outburst, silently agreeing with Byakuya that the bear must be making it up. As with Hajime in SDR2, though, she can’t help thinking that because of Monomi’s tampering, Monokuma’s right about one thing: “You guys don’t really know anything about each other.”

As everyone heads back to their cottages, Ibuki catches up with Byakuya. She’s got an idea: if no one really knows each other yet, how about an icebreaker? They should throw a party, and Ibuki can provide the entertainment. Byakuya approves. Sleep comes a little easier, and she’ll send invites out in the morning.

Morning 3

Nagito doesn’t have time to hatch a scheme and send a threatening letter to Byakuya like in SDR2. Instead, the cast find him at the restaurant, where he accuses anyone in sight and thought of being the traitor, a robot, someone else in disguise, and other crazy conspiracy theories.

Kazuichi is already there, too, his boiler suit unzipped to reveal surprising musculature. The most cowardly classmate is now openly challenging Monokuma to a wrestling match, giving Akane stiff competition for sheer recklessness.

Chiaki must’ve gotten a really good sleep, because she’s hyperactive now. Worse, the gamer’s salty side comes out. Her surliness gives even the openly dangerous Fuyuhiko Kuzuryu pause.

All this might be easier to deal with if Peko Pekoyama was around. Fuyuhiko goes to fetch her, and Mahiru Koizumi - whom Fuyuhiko had implicitly threatened to murder the night before - sends Hajime with him. They have to carry her in: she’s too laidback and apathetic to care about anything.

It’s just been a series of upheavals for Ibuki. Each attempt at optimism and enthusiasm is completely rebuffed by forces beyond her control. Now it looks like several of her peers are already snapping! Then Monokuma reveals that they came down with a weird disease, and then Mikan calls for volunteers to help treat these patients. Ibuki immediately steps up. If there’s anything she can do to help - and to get some small bit of control over this constantly shifting situation - she’ll do it. And that’s how Ibuki Mioda becomes a protagonist. I’ll move on to how the Despair Disease progresses in the next installment.

Prev: Starting the Game with Despair Disease

Next: Group Bonding in the Time of Despair Disease

[madraynesims]

The Sims 2 PSP Cut Content: Part 1

I had been looking for the best way to implement this info on the Sims Wiki (but these are cut Sims, so there's not really a place for them? Or maybe someone else can do it). I've also been working on some videos talking about them. (I love watching these types of videos and prefer that visual format) but at this rate who knows when I'll finish it. So here we go! If you love Strangetown and crave any ounce of lore that you can get like me, here's a few townies. They even have their own secrets! Please read p6tgel's post to get all the info about the cut character TA7, everything I know about him is over there, so I don't have anything to add here. All I'm going to say is... I remember wanting to find out so badly who Mister Smith's friend was after playing The Sims 2 PSP for the first time. I'm so glad they actually did add more to the story. Learning more about the alien society and getting another title (like Pollination Technicians) just makes me want a Sixam neighborhood even more lol go read about it!!

Missing Kine Society Cult Members

Tunak Tun

Tunak is the only cut character that I could find photo evidence of in an old screenshot. He is a cut Kine Leader (like Sara Starr), as seen in his brown robe talking to Bull Dratch. The schedule file for the Kine Dairy indicates that Tunak would have spawned only during the day.

Unfortunately, it's a view of his back, but his character file confirms this appearance. (just want to say... the details on the Kine robes are actually beautiful. The crunched down quality we got in the final release makes them look like rags) Gender: 0 = female, 1 = male. The eye color is only specified if they're not the default brown. (I'll be using the Sims 2 PC to recreate them, as it shares a lot of assets with the PSP version)

Tunak Tun's Details

Bio: "A member of the Kine Society." social = 7, intimidation = 1, personality = 1, His social and intimidation scores are on the lower end for Deadtree locals, so social games aren't as difficult. He has the Air personality type. His topic sets (interests) are cow, cow milk, cow bell, cow beast, full moon, and crystal ball. A visual of these:

Tunak Tun's Secrets

 (Personal): "Has been known to sneak in a burger or two on the sly."

 (Intimate): "Likes to wear loose robes for that 'fresh and ventilated' feeling."

 (Dark): "He actually just made up his other two Secrets. He's a pathological liar."

According to the game code, Tunak Tun would also count towards the goal to "Earn the Trust of a Kine Leader [Relationship 4]", just like Sara Starr and Sinjin Balani.

Zen Mu

Zen Mu is regular Kine Society member that wears a white robe. The schedule file for the Kine Dairy indicates that Zen would have spawned only during the night.

I went through every face template available in the Sims 2 PSP CAS and I can't find Zen Mu's (might be hidden like some hairs/clothes are) and I don't see the stubble hair in the PC version.

Zen Mu's Details

Bio: "A member of the Kine Society." social = 7, intimidation = 1, personality = 2, Their social and intimidation scores are on the lower end for Deadtree locals, so social games aren't as difficult. They have the Water personality type. Their topic sets (interests) are cow, cow milk, cow bell, and cow beast. A visual of these:

Zen Mu's Secrets

 (Personal): "Severe lactose intolerance has made her unpopular in the Kine Society."

 (Intimate): "She is deathly afraid of cows, but don't let the cows find out … they thrive on fear."

 (Dark): "When she meditates, her power animal is a horse … the highest form of Kine blasphemy."

Interestingly, Zen Mu's gender and character model is male, but all 3 of Zen's secrets uses she/her pronouns. Small fun fact - Personal Kine robe for the player: It looks like we would have received our own kine robe at one point, probably after passing inspection, according to the item list file (item 72). Now, we can just go to a wardrobe and buy a robe ourselves.

Extra fun fact that I randomly like to talk about on my twitch streams, but I don't remember if I've said it over here? These two award winning cows were actually given names by the devs in the Kine Dairy level spawning file. Bessie and Gertie! <3

[thunderclangens]

hii i'm mod velvet

they/them, adult

I used CatGen to create custom moooostly canon accurate ThunderClan in ClanGen. This ClanGen takes place right after the battle with BloodClan, the moon Squirrelkit and Leafkit are born. Old faces like Firestar and Cinderpelt are back with their clanmates, along with Ravenpaw, Barley, Princess and Smudge outside the clans (and some StarClan and Dark Forest Spirits!) . There's a lot of canon divergence, including cats that were omitted entirely and some timeline tweaks, which are detailed below cut. Some cats I added for funsies; this ThunderClan includes a spared Scourge grappling with his actions, Swiftpaw, and Snowkit!

Allegiances Save File Editing Guide

Omitted Cats:

General Note: A lot of cats who were dead before the events of The Prophecies Begin are not here. I'd honestly love to add more guys into StarClan and probably will, but the absurd amount of Unsavory Relationships created by the gnarled family trees of early Warrior Cats would literally make the game less fun. So a lot of cats like Redtail and Spottedleaf or Lionheart do not have parents coded into the game, and minus Thunderstar and Jake, no cats from before TPB are in StarClan. Maybe one day I'll make a living document custom ThunderClanGen, but this is just for fun, and so I'd like to steer away from that. The other clans are present, as in RiverClan, ShadowClan, and WindClan Exist in the Game, but since ClanGen only allows you to toggle the allegiances for one clan plus cats outside the clans, their warriors aren't coded into the game. This (unfortunately) includes Tawnypaw.

This is an entirely self indulgent AU and so a few cats who I just straight up don't like aren't here. Some cats didn't make it because I wanted to keep the roster small. The following list of cats are cats who were alive during the time this is occurring, but were omitted from ThunderClan:

Bramblepaw, Ashpaw, Dustpelt, One-Eye, Dappletail

"Revived" Characters: (canon names are italicized)

Swiftstride (Swiftpaw), Snowpaw (Snowkit), Frostpaw (Scourge)

Timeline Changes:

Longtail was blinded in the battle against BloodClan. This is so I don't have to go in and mess with code moons into the Gen and possibly mess things up/corrupt the entire file. I also didn't want to create a situation where he never goes blind - he is a canonically disabled character and I'm not going to leave it up to a coinflip/rng to honor that.

Sandstorm is deputy of ThunderClan, chosen after Whitestorm's death in the BloodClan Battle. Greystripe never occupies the position.

Snowpaw (Snowkit) is training to be a warrior. He is apprenticed to Sandstorm.

Swiftstride (Swiftpaw) survived the dog attack, sustaining many severe wounds including a lost leg.

Cultural/Canon Changes:

Cats who are disabled can decide on their role in the clan. Longtail remains a warrior after being blinded. Snowpaw eagerly pursues the path of a warrior. Cinderpelt isn't forced to become a medic. Her chronic pain and injury makes warriorhood difficult to pursue, and her time spent recovering in the medic's den with Yellowfang foster a love for healing. Both of these things inform her own choice to be a medic. As a person who has recently had to scale back on or entirely quit major passions of mine because of my own chronic pain, this story line means a lot to me. Sometimes our disabilities do keep us from walking the path in life we want, and that's okay - we can still find happiness and fulfillment just like Cinderpelt.

Queens can become deputies/leaders and leaders/deputies can have kits without being expected to give up their positions.

[vampire-meta-knight]

Goth DIY: Altered Clothing part 1

Since some of you crafty goths were interested in seeing the clothing I've altered, I decided to compile it all in one place! I hope I can inspire your creations,give you ideas, and teach you new techniques. This will be a long post, since I've been making alterations to my clothing since high school, which also means some of these projects aren't as polished as others, since they were made when I was newer to DIY and have mistakes I've since learned from, but that's okay! Goth doesn't have to be polished and perfect, and don't let the fear of mistakes stop you from creating!

I've already done posts about the shorts and pants I've gothified, so part 1 will focus on t-shirts, camisoles, and button-up shirts. Part 2 will have sweaters, skirts, and dresses. Some alterations are as easy as adding safety pins or lace trim, and others involve more sewing. Lots of these are very beginner-friendly projects and take less than an hour. All of these items were completely plain when I got them--anything metal, lace, embroidered, or painted that you see was added by me. I'll add more about each garment in the image descriptions. As always, feel free to message me if you want better or more thorough instructions or DIY advice. I'm here to be a resource to my fellow crafters! <3

(Also, please pardon the cat hair and my hair on the clothes--I don't take perfect pictures. A couple pics are also old since those shirts are in storage so I could make room for my winter wardrobe, so you'll notice a change in backdrop and a dirty mirror.)

Let's start with t-shirts and camisoles! Use an old shirt, a thrifted shirt, a shirt from Walmart, etc.! I like to get plain unisex t-shirts from Walmart and paint on them using freezer paper stencils, bleach them, shred them, and/or add safety pins to them. The camis also came from Walmart, and I changed the necklines and added lace trim to make them cuter.

To make a sweetheart neckline on a cami, you can cut it, or you can just pinch the middle and sew it into place (I did that for all of them except the black and white one--that one ended up a little lower-cut than I meant it to, so I decided to stick with the pinching method). The lace trim I used on the black camis isn't stretchy, but still works just fine, as long as you pin it into place while you're wearing the shirt and stretch the shirt a bit as you sew to maintain stretch in those areas. Stretchy lace, like I used on the pink and red camis, works a bit better, but is harder to find. I still like pinning the lace while I'm wearing the shirt to get the placement down, but if you wear a bra, make sure you're wearing the one you plan on wearing with the shirt while placing the lace. I found it doesn't sit right with bras that fit a little differently than the one I based the placement on.

The long-sleeved Emily the Strange shirt has a neat detail, albeit a wonky one because my placement is a bit off sometimes. You'll notice two little striped triangles at the bottom. I cut slits in the shirt and added triangles of striped stretchy fabric, then sewed zippers over top of them to hide the seams and add extra detail. I also sewed the zippers on with red thread for contrast.

My button-ups are a bit more involved. I treat them like how I treat shorts--patches, lace, embroidery, pins, grommet tape, D-rings, charms, chains, oh my! The pink one is my most recent, and I'm so proud of it. All of the patches came from ToothxNail on Etsy, except the Rat King patch, which came from Katiewhittleart on Etsy. The flowers on the collar were buttons that I glued onto flat-back pins from a craft store (I used E6000 glue). Made super quick collar pins that I can remove when washing the shirt or put on something else when I want.

The orange button-up was by far the simplest. I just added lace trim to the cuffs and cropped it (it had been high-low, but I wanted to wear it tucked into a skirt and the long back was annoying me). I also added collar clips with a chain that I got at a craft fair, but that's more like styling an accessory with it than altering it, since I can just un-clip them.

The leather jacket is old and doesn't fit well, so I don't wear it anymore, but I kept it because it was my first leather jacket. Adding the sew-on studs and faux-fur trim on the neck took the longest. You'll also notice that a mouse chewed a hole in the outer shell on the pocket.

Part 2

[heartnosekid]

well, friends. i’m sure a good lot of you have seen this post. i was denied today. i have to contact a lawyer and i don't even know how to begin advocating for myself outside of simply contacting the firm an ex-friend of mine used to obtain disability.

if you would rather not read the whole vent, i completely understand. but if you would still like to provide answers or support to me, here are my main issues.

i need advice from others who have been denied disability and have gone through a lawyer to obtain it. i need advice on what to do about getting started with victim advocacy. that's about it, i reckon. i love you all. my dm's are open. you will be blocked if you clown.

and yes, i realize my stim blog is not the place to talk about this. i understand, but this is my largest audience and i feel i would be a fool to not post this somewhere it may be actually received.

tw for mental health talk / long vent under the cut, particularly of the despairing kind, and also mentions of CSA / CSAM, psychosis, and my general disabilities. if this post needs more trigger tags, please let me know and i'll add them.

my whole life i have been treated as if i am not struggling because i can do the bare minimum to keep myself alive. i can survive, but never thrive, and even surviving now has become difficult. i can't feed myself regularly, my guardians do that for me. i can't stand for longer than a few minutes at a time without extreme duress and pain, which makes cleaning, showering, and going out super difficult and beyond draining. i can understand abstract concepts and certain ideas and am emotionally intelligent, but i struggle heavily with understanding money or how government works, particularly when it comes to laws and loopholes. i don't know when i'm "being had", as it were, and others have pointed this out to me throughout my adulthood. it feels as though this entire disability journey has been me "being had". they gave me something to cling on to, the possibility i may be able to receive real help, and it seems as though they basically knew the whole time they were going to deny me again. for the fourth time. i know that is unrealistic but, it does feel that way.

i wrote several full length books when i was a child / young teenager, and had two published. i won't share the titles because i have outgrown what i wrote and find them childish and frankly embarrassing, but everyone upon learning that i have written and had novels published, immediately jumps to the conclusion that i am some kind of self-sufficient, incredibly intelligent and capable person. i have never once been able to effectively take care of myself. without my guardians, i wouldn't be able to manage money, insurance, bills, cars, groceries, among other things. i don't even halfway understand how insurance on anything even works despite having been shown how it works.

i can see something, be "taught" to the best of someone's ability, and i will still not be able to learn. this has been a constant issue throughout my life, and the american public school system has continually helped these issues perpetuate. all schooling has done is teach me how to parrot back concepts and ideas, remember them for a limited amount of time before losing them to the void, and not how to fundamentally understand and learn them or utilize them in daily life. even higher education was like this, and i was not able to thrive throughout my experience with college despite making mostly okay grades (i cheated and lied a lot, okay. i'm not proud of it but i felt i had to get through or i would be severely punished). i had to a sign an agreement that i personally still do not fully understand to "obtain" my associate's degree, and i do not know why despite the fact it was explained to me, in detail. the information has not registered, and i now no longer have anyone that was involved in said agreement to explain it to me. everyone i say this to is like, "what? that doesn't make any sense." and i'm like. yeah. it doesn't, and i have zero ability to explain it to them in a way that makes sense.

i mention my associate's degree because i am sure in some form or fashion it was used against me in the disability process, since i was "able to complete higher education". also it should be noted i did an early college program. also probably has been used against me. also cheated through most of it.

people have always considered my kind of autism to be hyper competent, since it appeared that way when i was a child, despite showing several signs that i was struggling with a math-centric learning disability, called dyscalculia. i have since deteriorated to the point of barely having the knowledge a young adult should have, about how life works financially and honestly in general.

i have extreme fear about what may happen to me without proper assistance. my guardians will be able to take care of me for some time, but after that? that feels like a black hole to me. it doesn't exist nor will it while i am under-assisted, and this black hole fills me with utter despair. i try not to let it permeate my daily life, so as to not dwell in a future that doesn't exist yet and has the possibility for change. but god. it fills me with literal existential dread, and it is becoming so much more difficult to ignore the older i get.

a lot of factors have been used against me my entire life to deny me assistance, and these reasons being yet another factor has really dredged up a lot of shit from my past.

this is besides the point, but i also learned recently that CSAM was made and distributed of me when i was a child and wow. that has hit me in ways i cannot even describe. part of me is like, why was i not allowed to know after the fact, even when i became an adult? i was directly involved. why did no one tell me my abuser was convicted for counts of spreading CSAM, and that they lied directly to the court system about their inappropriate actions with me? i was disenfranchised in more ways than one by more than one person on allowance of my abuser, and i am just now hearing about it. i don't know how to deal and i don't know how to get started with victim advocacy in my area.

but at the same time, whilst being treated as severely more competent than i am, i have also been infantilized relentlessly, by nearly everyone around me. how does this make any sense. i feel incredibly stupid and uninformed and at the same time privy to things about my disabilities others are not, while not being able to effectively communicate it. i feel i am screaming and begging for help, nearly at my wits end with a lot of things, and all of it is reading as "owie booboo" to anyone who could do anything to help. i feel i am falling through the cracks, and i fear having to crawl back up through them. i fear i won't make the trek. i fear i will lose motivation and let myself rot. it feels like no one in a position of power has taken a true effort to really help me and i cannot help or advocate for myself. i am very scared.

on top of all of that stuff, i am withdrawing pretty heavily from cymbalta, experiencing heightened panic attacks every day, PNES (psychogenic non-epileptic seizures), more episodes of psychosis and hallucinating than i'm used to, all of my mental and physical issues are out of control, and now this disability stuff. i also won't be able to see a psychiatrist for...maybe a week or so more, so no bridge meds till then.

these last couple weeks have just really kicked me down. thank you for reading if you got this far. i appreciate you more than you know and i have no idea where i would be without y'all and this blog. i love you all so very much.

-ish

[robobarbie]

Sorry if this was mentioned before somewhere, but how do you go about writing the script & choice branches for your stories? Do you tend to get a premise first & then build characters around it, or the reverse? How was it like working with multiple writers for BP, and getting their different takes to become cohesive into the overall plot? (Asking more out of behind the scenes curiosity/fascination with different writers' processes so ignore this is you wanna)

How do you go about writing the script & choice branches for your stories?

For big projects (like BP + AAI), before I start the script, I always have a mildly detailed outline for each day -- but I don't feel married to it. I then take one day at a time and just write whatever comes to mind in a google doc, and I often do veer off within each day from what the outline had indicated. Sometimes the conversations just flow differently as I'm writing them out, and that often ends up being some of the most natural writing.

Choice branches are placed in areas where I feel like it would make sense to the player, like, an answer to an open-ended question. Or, maybe an option to learn one of two things about a LI. The important stuff though always stays out of either-or branches to make sure the player sees it.

We'll often plug-and-play different choice branches/lines as we implement the game though, because you really can't know how dialogue will feel until you see it with all the other assets. The pencil skirt line in toaster's route was on-the-fly add, for example.

Do you tend to get a premise first & then build characters around it, or the reverse?

I tend to go premise -> characters. OCs are not super important to me on their own honestly, and I can't name a single one I have that hasn't been created purposefully to fit a story. I'm notorious for not fleshing out my characters a lot in my head, despite trying to write them realistically and caring quite a bit about them being "right".

How was it like working with multiple writers for BP, and getting their different takes to become cohesive into the overall plot?

I'll give them one of those day-by-day outlines for a route and then let them do whatever they want with it -- so, the overarching plot is determined largely by myself (with brainstorming help from friends!) and that keeps it all pretty narratively cohesive. It also helps that each of the routes I outline has virtually nothing to do with each other, so it gives the writers more freedom to go crazy.

So, the writers are free to take that outline and veer off it if they wish like I do. All that I ask is that they generally hit specific plot beats and have a general similar writing style as everyone else so it isn't too jarring route to route. I find that letting people do whatever the hell they want with my stuff has led to some of the best parts of the project(s). My editing hand on other people's things is suuuuuuuuper light. Like, I really only cut lines for brevity as I'm adding them into the game. And that itself isn't frequent.

[chevvy-yates]

[NC_RES]_00001731 mercs_night_scharfenberg_002_scorp.file ///core:_scorp.file\\\

—

⚠️ READ: Please do not repost/reupload any of my friend's art here or to any other platform, or Arki, Ryder and Ivarr will hunt u down ;P

Pics done by the amazing @dreamskug. 🤍 🤍 🤍 Arki belongs to @nervouswizardcycle. ❤️ Ryder belongs to me. ����

—

Give me your faith, something I can believe in And you'll be my family, my brother, my friend Tell me a truth that I find not deceiving Teach me a lesson that I understand Build me a shelter, a place I can dwell in Show me a future that I can enjoy Give me a reason and I'll be your fellow Show me the target I have to destroy Exterminate annihilate destroy Show me my leader and I'll pledge obedience Whisper the name of the enemy mine Blessed be my fate and my tools of expedience I'm going to fulfill what's my mission divine Exterminate annihilate destroy

song link behind the cut (I recommend it)

@dreamskug thank u so so so so so so much for doing those pics! (I owe u aaahh). I expected it would be amazing but THIS up there is eVERYTHING. It's like a lil story. Like the boys get their info at the Afterlife, ready to go and fuck up some gonks, annihilate, exterminate and destroy – just to let everything sink in afterwards with a cigarette, a swig of whiskey enjoying the view of Arki's old home district.

and yes another gift for @nervouswizardcycle thanks to you Dream! <3

—

some thought I want to add bc I'm a bit emotional about them too:

Arki and Ryder share a special bond. One that is a bit hard to explain without going into detail. But so much is said: Ry and Arki share a lot together, yet they are different. Only they are able to relate to each other's anger and pain they both feel inside. Once they talked the friendship grows so tight that Ryder will let Arki into 'his family' (the team), let him be 'his friend' and sees him like 'his brother'. Arki had a hard time to become friends with Ry. The opening up 'gave him reason' enough, to be 'his fellow' and make everything right, get rid of both their pain and to fulfill Ryder's most wanted wish: to be free and have his own will again. Ofc Ryder will do the very same for Arki. @nervouswizardcycle and I will do our best to get it into written form and shown in vp in future! So stay tuned.

[bungiri]

FINALLY got around to doing a slight redesign for wren and figuring out how i wanna draw her SO HERE SHE IS !!!

posted some close ups way under the cut bc i didn't realize how small my handwriting is IM SORRY

if u don't know her yet here's my stardew valley expanded based farmer oc her name is wren <3 she's a half witch who isn't very good at magic, but is more capable than people tend to think.

EDIT: ok i still get likes on this as of the day i’m editing this post so i thought i’d mention that this is outdated asfk. if ur at all interested in seeing wren’s new intro page u can find it here although it’s not as detailed as this one is

the only person who consistently believes in her and has never doubted her is her father, alejandro, who is an experienced adventurer based in pelican town. he is well known in various guilds (specifically the castle village guild) for not only his physical strength and mastery of the sword, but his optimism and abilities as a natural born leader. since he's a member of the guild in pelican town, he'd often bring wren to town since she was a little girl all the way to the present day.

on the other side, wren's mother, dolores, is much more critical of her and has had high expectations of her since childhood. she expects wren to practice her magic by the book and strive for perfection. protective and often overbearing, dolores wants wren to remain in their small town without consideration for her daughter's desires. the two of them bond over their love of fashion and dolores often spends a lot of time making clothing and accessories for wren to wear by hand.

as much as i want to make this an infodump about her Lore, i don't wanna give away too much bc i wanna do vague art about it first !!! she has 2 very good reasons for running away to the farm and is quickly overwhelmed as she tries to adjust to her new life and make money. she isn't gonna quit though because she doesn't wanna have to do the Walk Of Shame back home and admit to anyone that she couldn't do it. thankfully some of the townspeople (marnie, marlon, pierre, gus, linus) are familiar with her and help her out in her first few weeks.

i don't have a clue what isaac's backstory will be like but the idea that he and wren are childhood enemies is drilled into my brain LMAO. they haven't set aside that childhood beef because when they reunite as adults they're still snarky and hostile towards each other. isaac thinks she's a spoiled nepo baby who has only gotten accepted into the pelican town guild + is being considered for castle village entry because her dad is so cherished in the scene and he thinks they can't outright say no to her. he also believes that she's not cut out for Adventurer Life™️ and that she should just stick to farming and failing at magic or whatever it is she does. wren can also be very reckless (she gets it from alejandro) which isaac believes can possibly put not only herself but other people in danger (Valid Point). wren is stubborn though and is sick of people doubting her. isaac has never been particularly nice to her in the first place so why should she listen to him fr !!! however things happen and they eventually smooch so ?!?!?? enemies to lovers.

idk what Else to add pls do ask questions if u want,, i'll definitely be doing more art of her soon

CLOSE UPS !!! not very detailed thoughts just some notes hopefully u can read it

[seventh-district]

Could've left me just the way you found me, but you came and put your wings around me. You went out of your way, to fix what you didn't break.

This song is so incredibly Sam & Darlin' coded and no one can tell me otherwise.

[lots of lyrical analysis below the cut] [there's also a short little fanfic blurb of them stargazing down there too (this post got really out of hand lmao)]

For those not fully caught up, note that the following commentary contains various spoilers for Sam and Darlin's stories.

Note: Unfortunately this song is gendered, using the word 'girl' several times. Which sucks a little bit for immersion purposes, not only for keeping Darlin' gender-neutral, but also because I see this song as a duet between them, and Darlin' obviously wouldn't be addressing Sam with the word 'girl' either. So! As with most songs on their playlist, we're just gonna mentally omit any gendered terms we come across.

Side note: Frustratingly, this is one of those songs that didn't really even need to gender the subject in the first place. No part of the story or message is lost without it. But alas, many songs are like that, and so the playlist-makers of the world shall continue to suffer. [/lh]

Anyways, preamble's over. It's lyric time now yay!

Sam's Part

I was a ten-year train wreck

Technically for Sam I suppose it was 13 years, but ten is close enough (and 'ten' admittedly flows a lot better in the rhythm of the song than 'thirteen' would.) Anyways, we're not here to split hairs, (I have to remind myself), we're just here to point out similarities.

In Sam's Dec. '22 HBW, he says "For the last 13 years or so I haven't had to care too much about how I look. Seemed a little redundant after turnin', considerin' I didn't wanna be around much'a anybody anyway."

I think he's mentioned or alluded to that roughly 13 year period of time more than once, but that's the one I remember best so it's the example I'm using. There's still about 4 Sam audios I've yet to listen to as of making this post, so if I'm missing some Key Lore I'll edit this later. But for now, I don't think Sam has given many specifics on exactly how bad things got during that time. Luckily, 'train wreck' is a pretty broad and subjective term, so it easily covers any degree to which he may have fallen apart during those years.

It also feels like a very 'him' way of quickly brushing over the details of his past/his hurt, as he seems to tend to do with Darlin', (not all the time ofc but it's still something I've noticed) putting his own hurt on the backburner to prioritize and attend to theirs. Even outside of his dynamic with them, I think as a healer, it's something he learned to do. And now he does it with everyone. Put on a brave face, compartmentalize things and unpack them later, etc. I could go on and on but there'll be time for that in other posts I'm sure. For now, lets get back to the song at hand.

With a last-call longneck

Due to personal reasons, I've yet to decide if I want to HC him as having used alcohol as a coping mechanism during that time. I don't recall him having mentioned alcohol much, if at all, (maybe one mention of whiskey that I don't have time to find right now) so I don't think it's necessarily canon that he did, but it's certainly possible. My personal preferences aside, I'll admit it makes for some good additional angst. (And- self-indulgently- it makes some other songs on my playlist for them more fitting.) So, for the sake of this song, let's imagine that he did.

I was searchin', I'd been hurt real bad

This one feels pretty self-explanatory given what Alexis did, (and, if you wanna get even angstier with it, whatever his family did earlier on in his life) so there isn't much commentary to add on my end.

I HC that in spite of 'not wanting to be around anybody', he- like Darlin- still had a tiny part of himself buried deep down that was, in a way, 'searching' for someone to find solace in. (No this isn't me projecting onto them both haha what are you talking about-)

Movin' on, gettin' sidetracked One step forward and five back

This is generally applicable enough that I don't feel the need to give too much of a specific example. Anyone who's recovered or is recovering from trauma knows this non-linear, back-and-forth struggle well already, and I'm sure he was no stranger to it.

If I were to give some examples though, I could point to Darlin's (and subsequently, Sam's) encounter with Alexis at the summit, or the shit that Quinn dredged up about Fredrick and threw at Sam in the interrogation room. Those are both more recent examples and I imagine these lines of the song to be coming from a place of him prior to meeting Darlin', but still, they're some instances where I'm sure he felt like the past was pulling him back in. I'm sure that there's been many throughout those 13 years that we were never witness to.

Not your fault, I was scared to fall

This line reminds me of their 'Cuddles and Confessions' audio. I don't think he ever explicitly said he was 'scared' per se, so afaik there's no specific line I can quote, but in that and every audio prior, he was obviously hesitant to admit, perhaps even to himself, that he was gradually falling for them. Even after the initial confession, there's certain limits of his (e.g. biting) that he carries for far longer, and some that I (and others) HC that he'll carry forever. So this line feels to me like him reassuring Darlin' that his reluctance isn't the fault of them, but his past.

Darlin's Part

You were the star in the pitch black Shine the way on the way back

We don't have any canon instances of them comparing Sam to a star, but I can see it being something they'd say (perhaps less poetically, but the sentiment would be there) one night while laying up on their roof watching the stars with him. Maybe they're dead-tired, talking nonsense with lidded eyes at the end of a long day, fighting sleep in favor of more time spent with him.

"What- what're you pointin' at Darlin'?"

Their hazy focus is trained on the brightest star visible in their line of sight, arm stretched out to the sky above them. "That really bright one, to the... to the left."

Sam does his best to follow their less-than-specific directions of 'to the left', their pointed finger doing little to help given the difference in perspective. Luckily, after all these years, he knows this stretch of night sky like the back of his hand, so it isn't hard to locate the brightest one. Ghosting his fingers up along their arm, he takes their hand in his and brings it back down to earth. "Okay, yeah, I see it now. What about it though?"

"That's you." They say, matter-of-factly.

"That's me?" He questions, humor in his tone.

"Mhm." They nod with finality, blinking slow.

Sam considers the odd statement for a moment before gently correcting them. "I'm uh, I'm pretty sure that's Sirius, actually."

They scoff. "I am being serious."

Sam stifles a laugh into their hair. "No- no I mean- like... what's another name for it... Oh! It's also called the Dog Star."

"C'mon Sam, at least call it the Wolf Star if you're trying to turn this around on me..."

He shakes his head and readies himself to explain further, but they cut him off before he can start. "But no- no, this one isn't about me. That's you."

He decides to play along, finding something endearing in their overtired nonsense. "Okay... then would'ja be so kind as to explain to this confused old man just how, or why that star is me?"

Their frown is audible in their voice as they latch onto the wrong part of his sentence. "You're not old, Sam. ...Do I need to tell Asher to kick the jokes down a notch?"

He smiles at their over-protectivity. "There'll be no need for that, now. Was just a joke, darlin', I promise."

They huff, but thankfully shift focus back to the prior topic. "It's... I dunno. It's just you, Sam. It's... bright. Light. Something warm, out there in the cold dark. Standing out amongst all the rest. Calling to me, stealing my attention. I... I didn't come out here looking for it, but there it is. ...There you were. In the dark. The only bright thing I'd seen in... fuck, in years. Years of chasing fleeting warmth, tripping over myself in the pitch black, falling into... places 'n people I shouldn't have. You were the light in that darkness. Even there, surrounded by the ghost of him. You outshone it. Your warmth didn't hurt. I didn't have to squint when I looked at you. You weren't the blinding sun. You were the brightest star I'd ever seen. You guided me back home."

In the back of their mind, they recall something they once heard, something about light, and time, and distance. Space. Something about... how you can see a star that's already burnt out, because it's light hasn't reached earth yet. The ghost of a star that's already died. Only still perceptible thanks to time, and distance.

They remember Sam's words, once whispered to them on this very roof.

"Whatever your choice is... I'm not gonna live forever. I made that decision a long time ago."

They think about dead stars.

They think about time.

"...-lin'? Darlin'?" Sam's calloused hand slides up their forearm, pulling them out of their thoughts. "There you are. Think I lost ya' for a minute there... you good?"

They look up at Sam, concern creasing his features, shadows cast across his face from the light of the dying stars above him.

They reach out, pulling him down into them. Burying their face into his collar, Sam's concern grows when he feels it saturate with tears. A human might struggle to hear their words, muffled against the thick fabric, but his hearing catches it just fine.

"Don't burn out too quick. Please. I still need you here. I don't- I don't wanna be left in the dark again. Please, please Sam. Don't leave me here. I'm not selfish enough to ask you for forever, but please. Not yet. Not yet. Not yet."

.......Whoopsies! Really, genuinely didn't mean to improv an entire scene there, good god. Also didn't mean to swerve hard into angst at the end but uh. that's what came out! so I'm rolling with it lmao. Aaanyways let's move on, it's getting late and this is a song analysis post, not a fic.

Out of nowhere, answered all my prayers

'Out of nowhere' reminds me of Sam's words from the same HBW video I referenced earlier. "You came into my life like a damn wreckin' ball. There was no preparing for that, clothing or otherwise." While those were Sam's words, not Darlin's, I still feel like they feel similarly to how suddenly Sam came into their life as well. (Not in a bad way, mind you!)

[the significance of 'answered all my prayers' edges into my own personal more headcanon-y/personal/OC-ified Darlin' territory, so we can just gloss over this one for the sake of at least attempting to keep this more universally applicable]

Picked up the towel that I threw in Took in a heart that was ruined

Again, largely self-explanatory I feel. (*proceeds to explain anyways*) I imagine that Darlin' was at the point of throwing in the towel, hellbent on a solo-mission to find Quinn regardless of the danger it posed to them. I doubt they were looking toward the future anymore, (to reference Sam,) fully willing to throw themself at their problems until they really did break.

The specific use of 'ruined' hits hard here, because after everything they went through with Quinn, and especially after he recounted it all to Sam in that interrogation room, I imagine that they really, truly did feel ruined.

Showed me the past ain't a tattoo Loved me even when you didn't have to

These lines in particular make me sick with emotion every time I hear this song, because I feel like they hit the nail on the head for how Darlin' feels.

I'll be here citing various quotes all night that I feel showcase that sentiment, but we don't have time for that! So instead I'm just pointing to the entirety of 'Quinn's Aftermath' video, and leaving you with this single quote from it.

"Everything that he said reflects nothin' on you, and everything on him."

Equally Applicable Lines

And I don't know why Why you saw something in me, baby But you saw right through All the pain, and you came and saved me Yeah, I know you didn't leave me lonely Weren't the one that put the heartbreak on me Picked up the pieces It wasn't the mess that you made Could've left me just the way you found me But you came and put your wings around me You went out of your way To fix what you didn't break

Again, I think these lines are all pretty self-explanatory, and are just as accurate coming from either one of them. To me, at least, their entire dynamic is that they saved each other, in their own ways.

(But I will admit, the final verses about 'going out of your way to fix what you didn't break' are definitely conjuring up memories of Sam in the early days, literally going out of his way to visit and heal Darlin' after their fight with the two vamps. In general, his continued/repeated healing of them after they once again hurt themselves is the very literal definition of fixing what he didn't break.

But! While we may have more blatant examples of Sam being 'the fixer' so to speak, I think he'd argue that Darlin' has done plenty fixing of their own. Physical wounds aren't the only things that need healing, after all.)

-------

[shameless self-promo of my Sam & Darlin' playlist for those few of u interested enough to make it to the very end of this wall of text. if u liked this then u might like some of the other songs on there soooo maybe go check it out and maybe perhaps give it a follow so i can get a little serotonin boost or dopamine or whatever the chemical is that's released when Number Go Up. ...okay that's it i hope u enjoyed my fixation-induced ramblings! thank u and goodnight]

[animehouse-moe]

Heavenly Delusion Episode 13: The Journey Continues And Begins

Like many, this wasn't the final episode I was expecting from Heavenly Delusion, but it's an episode I'm really satisfied with. As a mystery series driven by character progression, it does an outstanding job of completing important character arcs while giving plenty of teasers as to what still lies ahead for them all. So, it's not anything grand or climactic, but it does an incredible job of capping off the incredibly strong season that it's given viewers, and I'd love to dive into that a little bit.

⚠️Warning: Discussion of Sexual Assault⚠️

The content discussed will not directly reference the actions, but the scene is built upon this act, so read at your own caution/risk if sensitive to these topics.

The episode starts off with Anzu, Taka, Mimihime, and Shiro walking around outside of the academy, believing it's still a part of the test. It's nothing special as it's mainly showing the children's curiosity at the scale of the world that exists outside of their confines.

What's more interesting, and mostly due to comedy and storyboarding, is Sawatari, Aoshima, et al's conversation about Tokio's child. Though they do a rather good job at presenting the idea that Tokio only had one child, and that the other is in fact a clone or some other genetically altered child. But anyways, I like the stretched perspective, and I like how they place the characters in it to isolate Sawatari and Aoshima during their monologues/speeches to increase that sense of anxiety thanks to the people present.

Following the waffling of this pair, we return to Maru who's left anxious and concerned about Kiruko not returning yet, which produces some really great scenes.

This part of the episode gets somewhat sketchy and stylized, as smearing is used very liberally throughout to further the feel of movement through the scene, and Maru's mission of finding Kiruko.

Here's just one example of that smearing. It's very strong and noticeable, but since it's used so much, it blends really well with the episode at large. Though being action heavy it also gives the episode plenty of opportunity to use it.

I think a more interesting example is the piece of Maru's shoes coming over top of the camera as he walks into the facility. Very easy to not smear here, but it adds a lot of feel to the very short cut, with the relative speed of Maru's foot as it comes right overtop of the camera being conveyed very well before the shoe properly comes into view and returns to being on model.

And then there's the combat, it does a great job of blending, and the direction works great in drawing out the best in the smears. We're not getting a look at this fight from a distance, but rather up close and personal, focusing on the specific pieces of it, so that smearing really helps with the perceived pace and strength of it all.

Also, I love how they approach the combat here. Whether it's tied to the overall idea of how Maru should fight, or if it's because he's seeing red, he's obviously outmatched by the challenger in this fight. The way he holds himself, and how he dodges and reacts. It's all very inhuman, which I think is a really great detail.

Now, for the hardest part of the episode, Kiruko. Truthfully, I think they do a good job with the scene. Not the best, given how it plays out in the end, but with all the pieces and possible outcomes, they convey a very candid and emotional experience that peers into Kiruko as a character.

So once more, content warning for this area, but I'll try to keep it as clean as I can.

We start this sequence with Kiruko beneath a spider's web, which is an unsurprising piece of symbolism to show how they're trapped in this situation.

The imagery quickly changes though as Kiruko retreats further into themselves to find their big sister Kiriko, and a really great piece of symbolism occurs. Trapped in the body of their sister, a body which still retains memories of its past, Kiruko wants nothing but to be with their big sister. For Kiriko to return and say everything's going to be alright, that you'll be okay.

And it's also one of the first and only real pieces of Kiruko accepting their feminine body, as the bedsheets that hide Kiriko's body and separate it from Kiruko's mind turn into something akin to a pink and fluttering dress. For how terrible the act is, and how harsh it is to Kiruko, it does a surprising amount to push their character forward and allow them to face the identity crisis that they've been putting off this entire season.

Though we don't linger all too long on this sequence as Maru finds Kiruko, and shortly after Robin stumbles into the picture as well. The following scene has two really big pieces that I think are crucial to our characters here.

The first is how Maru ignores Kiruko to go after Robin to make him pay. He leaves Kiruko vulnerable and alone in that room to hunt down the man who put her there in the first place, rather than helping and freeing Kiruko. It is the arguably incorrect choice to make in the situation, but it's very in line with Maru's character and so plays into the moment quite well.

Then there's this one of Kiruko shortly after. Knowing that Maru's arrived, and that they'll be safe, Kiruko frees themselves. It's a bit of a terrible piece of symbolism for Kiruko's submission to Robin through these acts. That because of their past, because of the terrible things Robin's done to them, and the hatred they have for themselves, they further avoid the situation by remaining passive through it.

Now, they wouldn't have escaped in the first place thanks to the staff/guards, but there was nothing that was stopping from them attempting to flee in the first place, which is the important piece.

Anyways, in a cathartic moment for viewers and Maru, Maru nearly brings Robin's life to an end, but Kiruko stops them. Kiruko does the (sort of) right thing in this moment, but it's clear that the feelings and emotions tied to Haruki's childhood remain engrained in their mind and influence their decision.

What I really liked here though was the use of the theme of hands once more, making a call back to episode 8 with Maru's comment on how he only brings death and violence with them. I really really love their commitment to this overarching theme that appears through the season.

But, we don't stick with Robin and Maru for long, as we return to Tokio and Sawatari through the Noah Project. There's not a great deal of stuff to talk about here, other than Tokio's "ability", if you can call it that.

At a glance, it's cool, but I think if you dive deeper you get a lot more out of it. Tokio is the first of the Takahara Academy children to give birth. She's the first mother of these genetically engineered children for the sake of immortality. Her ability is awakened/used to protect her child, and encases the both of them (alongside the director) in some sort of protective layer almost. It's pretty clear that Tokio's ability is tied to her existence as a mother/parent, but I also think it's a sign or symbol of how the Hiruko came to exist. Tarao's died, and he's left behind that core, but we haven't seen anything about him turning into a Hiruko just yet, so there has to be a trigger that causes them to turn into Hiruko. So what if, and this is just a big if, Tokio's powers awakening/being used is the catalyst for the birth of Hiruko from these children to begin?

Of course, we don't find out in this episode what it is that's happening to Tokio, as we move onto Mimihime and Shiro who are trying to make their way back to the academy. Nothing of great importance to viewers that I want to pick apart, but I love how neatly they tie up the beginnings of romance between Mimihime and Shiro, with this really beautiful shot.

It's actually really cool, as the director of photography has been extensively chatting about it over on Twitter. Highly recommend checking out what they've got to say (in English!) about the moment.

And back to the future, for the rest of the episode basically. We find Kiruko perched at the edge of the river with Maru waiting behind her. This is the part that I find a bit of trouble with, as Kiruko says a lot of important stuff in her monologue about their childhood and the challenges of coming face to face with the reality of the situation and having that dreamy past to look back on come crashing down. But Maru ends up talking about how he loves Kiruko. And don't get me wrong, the idea of sharing love and cementing Kiruko as their own person that's separate from Haruki and Kiriko is important, and I really admire that piece of Maru's speech. But I think conveying it as a romantic love puts a stain on what's just happened. Yeah, I do know that not everything will be perfectly displayed by fictional characters that aren't perfect, but I also feel that if you're going to include those more terrible aspects in your work, that you need to fairly and properly address them, and mixing romance into a heartfelt moment that builds upon those darker pieces doesn't feel like the best thing to do.

Anyways, here's a nice piece of symbolism of Kiruko feeling alone in the world now that she's seen who Robin really is, and how he was only ever looking at Kiriko, and how after Maru's speech of accepting and loving Kiruko, she feels like she has someone in this world to lean on. Really endearing piece that finalizes the bond this pair have shared since the start of the story.

Similarly, the shift in colors is a really nice touch as well. The first image is very gray, dim, and dull, while the second is far more vibrant and colorful. Reflects Kiruko's emotions and mental state quite well, in my opinion.

Now, the episode may be on its way to finishing, but that doesn't mean that this story is over. No, there's far more mysteries and curiosities to it, starting with the locked door Robin was trying to get into.

That's right, a monster. Not a Hiruko though. Think back. Carefully consider the pieces that we've seen through this season so far. There's not been a single Hiruko with black skin. They've all been white, and had discernable eyes/features that mimic prior aspects of themselves. This.... thing has none of them and is directly linked to the dismembered person next to it. Could it have something to do with the plant studies they found in this building? Could it be Robin's own attempt at a Hiruko? I'm unsure, but it opens the door to a new atrocity.

Similarly, at the very end of the episode, we see a slightly older foursome of Anzu, Taka, Shiro, and Mimihime being taken to shore. This confirms that the Takahara Academy we know of is on an island, and that in "saving" these children, they're effectively introducing the Hiruko to the mainland.

What I find interesting with this is that it introduces a max of two Hiruko, in Taka and Anzu, but we also know that this isn't true. Only one out a pair of children will become a Hiruko in the way that we know them, and we know that Shiro helps stave off Mimihime's transformation. Because of that, we have a maximum of a single transformation between Taka and Anzu, which definitely doesn't account for all of the Hiruko that we know of. Considering the fact that these Hiruko are based around the abilities of the children themselves, we know that at some point, characters like Kuku and maybe Ohma (? Forget if it's been confirmed that they're the Hiruko from the underground garage) make their way across to the mainland at some point or another.

And with that, the season comes to a close. It's not an 11/10 episode that knocks your socks off with crazy revelations or curtains being drawn open, but I absolutely think it's still deserving of praise for how well it closes out several character arcs while continuing to expand the world that our two eras of characters explore. Endless mystery and oddity continue to unravel from the incredible tapestry that Hirotaka and Ishiguro have woven together through this story and its adaptation. I'm incredibly hopeful for a second season in the future, but I also hope that they take all the time in the world to produce it, especially as the anime is hot on the heels of the manga, which provides incredible opportunity for tighter cooperation on the material.

And if my statement wasn't clear in this episode or the previous, Heavenly Delusion is absolutely the crown jewel of this season, and the frontrunner for the standout anime of this entire year.

[rustyvanburace]

Awhile ago, I found sprite rips of nearly the whole cast and NPCs in SMT IV (on Sprite Database). Since I had noticed that the sprites have different heights, and was so enamored by their attentive detail, I decided to make a little height chart for fun and for my own purposes. I even went a step further by slightly rotating bits so the sprites would be standing a little straighter and be slightly more accurate. This was what I had when I posted it (barring Flynn since he wasn't on the sprite sheet):

You'd think something like this would be pretty cut-and-dry. But at the time, I was messaged by someone who was actually bothered to see Jonathan taller than Walter. Their argument was that Jonathan's sprite has noticeably bigger proportions, as though appearing closer, and thus couldn't be an accurate representation of his height. And that since Walter is slouched, he would appear shorter than he really is (which I already did try to correct anyway).

Those are fair assessments and I noticed too that Jonathan's sprite is off compared to everyone else. I was told that I should downscale Jonathan a little to around Walter's shoulders, which I did. But to be perfectly honest -- and I mean this with respect to differing opinions and personal preference -- I wasn't too convinced by their argument and it actually bothered me being approached like that and told how the sprites should be. As though I had made the sprites. They're Atlus's own sprites.

And truthfully, that still bothers me even now. Everyone is of course entitled to their own personal preference and interpretations of characters -- I am hugely supportive of that. But it never sat well with me being told that Jonathan *has* to be shorter and that the game's own sprites were wrong, when I never even asked for their input. It actually left me feeling pressured to portray the characters a certain way in my work.

I don't believe that person actually meant any hostility and I'll ask to please don't bother anyone about this. However, as this did leave a negative impact on me, I would just like to break down my own observations and interpretations of the cast for my own sake.

First, I should add that the in-game sprites were probably not made from scratch, but are most likely downscaled versions of Masayuki Doi's artwork (with some minor edits to give them more natural poses). So of course, the first place to look would be Doi's own artwork.

A lot of this person's argument centered around the characters' proportions, particularly how even Doi's artwork has skewed proportions and are not accurate to scale. Their assertion was that Jonathan's artwork is disproportionately larger and that, when properly measured, he would actually be shorter than Walter.

So I looked into it myself. I took some incredibly high-res artwork of the Samurai -- these are likely press release assets and are the closest I can possibly get to having the unaltered originals. (You can find these on the Fandom MegaTen Wiki.) These are of equal resolution. I lined them up to compare:

(Pro tip: Paint.NET can open WebP files if you wanna compare these yourself. Or just use a site to convert them.)

I asked a couple other people to look at these with me. And we agreed: with all due respect to Doi as a professional artist, the proportions in the artwork ARE weird and (to my eyes at least) are not even equally proportionate to the characters themselves. Others have pointed out that Walter's upper half looks disproportionately smaller to his lower half, and I partly suspect that Jonathan's head is bigger than the rest of his body (even when considering the size of his hair).

Nonetheless, I tried my best to measure the artwork with the 8 heads rule. I even opted to measure a version where I tried to fix Walter's slouching. Granted, not perfectly.

I will fully admit that my attempts at measuring are far from perfect and have issues, as can be seen by the uneven feet measurements (though I partly suspect that may be on Doi). I've also tried measuring these with fixed proportions and found those were even more uneven. If anyone else could take a better shot at this, go right ahead.

But if my measurements can be trusted, then it would appear that they are approximately of equal height. Or at the very least, there wouldn't be a very big difference. Walter could be a bit taller if he straightened up, but I honestly do not think he is slouching too terribly where the difference would be huge if he wasn't.

But also to be frank, these are awful images to measure from lmao. The 8 heads rule really only works for figures that are front or side facing and standing perfectly straight, neither of which applies to these. The angles, poses, and even the uniforms make these very difficult to properly measure and gauge. I honestly don't believe that the artwork are reliable to work with. As I and others have observed, Doi's proportions vary and the artwork may not even have been drawn to scale. This is not at all indicative of Doi being a "bad artist", especially when the proportions seem more purposely stylized for visual effect. I am sure I would find the same thing in Kaneko's own work as well. But aside from this being a good exercise in general art study, my take away from all this is that the artwork just cannot be relied on for a conclusive scale.

All that said, I'm honestly not too bothered by the measurements not working out. Because, when looking at everything else, it's actually clear to me that Atlus had very deliberate intentions in the portrayals of their characters.

As I mentioned earlier, the sprites are doubtlessly shrunken down versions of Doi's artwork. And the sprites actually have some really diverse heights when you look at and compare them all, like Kaga being so small and Skins and Infernal Akira being incredibly tall. Now yes, all of these suffer from the same issues as the artwork in that their proportions vary or their poses would be hard to measure -- but that isn't even the point. The point is that the sprites' heights still vary next to each other and are not all exactly the same. That convinces me that Atlus did take careful consideration in scaling the sprites and had specific intentions for how the cast should be depicted. They're not perfect, but these are hardly what I'd call careless or sloppy.

Yes it can still be argued that Jonathan's sprite proportions are off, because they are. But that doesn't mean that there is no merit to his sprite or that it is inaccurate to what Atlus *intended* for him. The fact they made his sprite as tall as it is tells me that this is the height they intended for him, irrespective of his proportions.

What of Walter then? I do think Atlus actually did take his slouching into account when scaling his sprite (they did for Navarre's sidequest sprite). In that case then, if he straightened up, he would still just be about equal height to Jonathan.

And if so, that would actually align with the game's illustrated cutscenes:

Walter's slouching is a lot more noticeable in the second image, but as already mentioned, I still don't think he'd be much taller than Jonathan or even Flynn if he wasn't.

Since it may as well be brought up, there is also the official side-by-side promotional image as well. This one isn't as good since everyone is in a vaguely triangle-like formation, but this gets thrown around a lot too in debates, so may as well include it for what it's worth.

Now of course, it also needs to be said that Atlus aren't always consistent themselves and there's been instances of character heights varying in other media. Yet regardless, there is a recurring trend that can be observed in the sprites, the cutscenes, and the artwork if my measurements are at all accurate. As far as my own observations are concerned, Jonathan is either of equal height or just a little bit taller than Walter. And to be utterly frank -- I am much more inclined to believe the parent company's own portrayals over someone else's preference.

At the very end of all this, none of this really matters. Fans can portray a fictional character any way they want and there is nothing wrong with that. And -- unless Atlus were to release a book giving the cast's exact heights or were to make a full 3D remake that clearly shows this (both extremely unlikely) -- then who are we to really say what their heights truly are?

No, not even I. Despite my observations made here, I am not going to insist that any of this is true or canon, because I simply do not have the cast's exact canon heights in numbers lmao. This is not meant to tell people how they should portray Jonathan or Walter or anyone else, but merely my own observation. I am not going to tell people how they should portray, draw, or write them. Jonathan or Walter can be short, tall, or in the middle however anyone pleases in their own portrayal and headcanons. That is the beauty of fanworks and personal interpretation of a fictional work.

But just as much as I cannot tell someone they cannot have a short Jonathan, it is also equally not right for someone to tell me that I (or anyone else) cannot have a tall Jonathan. What bothered me about all this was not the person's own personal preference, which is theirs to own and I respect that. But the unsolicited insistence that Jonathan *must* be short, that this is canon, and positioning themselves as right while throwing shade on people who headcanon Jonathan as tall. I frankly found it all very arrogant.

Maybe I am no different by making this post though. But at least I have been able to express my *own* thoughts on the matter when I couldn't before, irrespective of what anyone thinks. Again I must stress to please don't go bother anyone about this. None of this really matters in the end and people are entitled to their own personal interpretation.

And if Atlus does come out and finally gives us canon heights for the cast, then I will happily accept that and be thrilled for new info about my favorite game. But until then or if ever, none of these characters have truly definitive heights and we simply cannot make that call. None of us are "right" or "wrong".

[ichigoli]

Yumi and The Nightmare Painter Shadowbox Master Post 1:

The Yoki-Hijo

I am head over heels for making these Cosmere Shadow Boxes. I would love to find a better mold than the 4" coasters but for now they are so pretty! I don't even know what I'll do with them but for now I'm happy the exist.

To begin, I once again sketched out a design trying to focus on strong silhouettes, and cut out each layer on a different piece of card stock. I decided to go with warm colors to push the heat of Yumi's environment and give some good contrast to the Painter Box coming soon.

Learning from the Mistborn Shadow Box, I was worried about such delicate shapes floating in the resin and messing with the depth. So I tried something that worked out ok with a fabric backing I did for a commission for a friend. I painted the paper cut outs with resin and let them cure on a silicone mat to hopefully give them some more rigidity and less buoyancy in the resin.

I wanted to lean in to the "traditional" vibe that Yumi's side of the story has, so I included real natural elements as part of the resin inclusions.

Real pressed flowers and gravel give the work a more grounded (sorry) element which will contrast nicely with what I have planned for Painter. I also decided to have some fun with it and "stacked" some rocks up the sides. The flowers floating in the sky are such an iconic part of her world that I had to include them.

I didn't take pictures of the individual layers going in this time around because, thanks to the resin painted over each piece, the long curing time between each layer became unnecessary so the process was a lot faster this time around (yay, we're learning!) But you can see the added flowers and some of the gems acting as stand ins for the Hijo floating around the stacks. I know they aren't "book accurate" but I wanted just the tiniest bits of Cyan and Magenta in Yumi's piece. (Keep an eye out for their parallels in Painter's piece)

I'm really fond of the way the resin soaks into the light card stock like water. It creates a very specific kind of translucency that lends itself to the "atmospheric fade" that creates a light illusion of distance and depth.

A quick check through the bottom to preview how it all looks before we add the resin on to the final backing paper layer...

The pale lemon yellow paper pics up a lot of depth from the resin soaking in. I also swirled in the littlest bit of gold luster-dust and a drip of orange ink to the corners for a little depth of color before putting the paper down and more resin over top.

And the final reveal:

A little flat with the simple background, but that's expected. The contrast is exactly what I was hoping for. I mixed a little bit of the glow powder seen beneath the Shadow Box there to help boost the reflectivity of light which can be seen bleeding up around her knees a little bit which I hope helps evoke that heat her land is known for.

When backlit, the rein soaked into the card stock gives the whole scene an almost dreamy quality as the stone stacks fade but Yumi remains stark and crisply focused.

A few close ups of details and how lovely the layering looks peeking through the open spaces.

<3

No preview of Painter yet, I am still trying to puzzle out a good silhouette for him that will show what he's actually doing when he's hunched over a canvas without being able to use internal contours... but I can share that I bought some EL wire and hope to line his piece with real hion lines!... once I figure out how to make the wire Cyan and Magenta along the places I want it to go.

Once Painter is done, I don't plan to stop. Maybe Warbreaker next... or Stormlight, though I have other plans for that behemoth.

Real talk: Anyone who wants to float an idea, I wanna hear it. These are too fun to stop. (I could maybe even be talked into parting with one if the situation arises)

[n7punk]

She-ra (2018) Con-Exclusive Merch & Giveaways

I'm assembling a master post of all officially-produced merch for the SPOP reboot, but it's focused on information. I have a separate post focused on promotion-exclusive items, and this post is dedicated to detailed information for the ambiguous middle ground: con exclusives. Some of these were given away and some were for sale.

If I get additional information on any of these specific items, I'll edit the post to add it, but if I find anything new then it'll go in a reblog addition as I've hit the image limit on this post.

Sometimes you have to click photos to see full images, as many are cut off due to varying dimensions. Any [x]s will lead to the source of the images, usually secondhand listings that will eventually become defunct. I use the best photos I can find.

Pins/Buttons:

The buttons (first two images) were at NYCC in 2018. [1st] [2nd].

Han Cholo sells a lot of pins on their website, but the four on the right were exclusive at SDCC one year (concept photo in the final reblog here, this post chain in general has a ton of photos of She-ra merch from a mix of sources). [3rd]

Misc:

A foam tiara (2 photos) and a (seemingly foam and plastic) flat sword were at NYCC 2018 & 2019 and SDCC 2019. [2nd], [3rd]

There aren't any good photos and I'm at the image limit anyway, but there are pictures in the final reblog here of knee-high socks that were given out at promo events (possibly cons) and in reviewer/influencer promo packages. They're patterned after She-ra's uniform and have a cape on the back. Any details on this would be appreciated if you know them.

Temporary tattoos (far left) and stickers (middle left) were at NYCC 2019 and maybe also Power-Con. Coloring sheets and hair ties were at either NYCC or Power-Con. The coloring sheet is watercolor with paint squares provided at the top of the sheet. I believe the hair ties came in three colors (purple, pink, and blue) and the long post* has good photos of the pink one. If you want to look at approximately ten pixels, this listing has all three colors. [1st] [2nd] [3rd]

Bookmarks were available at SDCC one year and likely any other locations that had the books (Power-Con, etc). [x]

Collector card sets featuring 16 of the characters were given out at cons, possibly SDCC 2018. First image is the front of the packaging, second is one of the cards, and the third is the back of the package. [1st] [2nd] [3rd]

Posters:

Buckle up, this is the final, longest part. Posters were at many conventions and some designs may have been available at multiple cons. I mostly want to catalogue the designs here and will list a con just when I know it. Most listings online are of fan reprints unless otherwise specified.

The first four (left to right) were available at SDCC 2019. The 4th & 5th are the front and back of the same poster, which was probably also distributed at places like Power-Con or wherever they sold the books (since it's a Scholastic poster). [4th] [5th]

Here are clean social media uploads of the 2nd and 3rd image. The 2nd was also the cover image for season 3 and the front of the DVD for seasons 1-3.

The character mini prints in the bottom right [6th] seem to have been given out at multiple cons. They were probably at SDCC (year unknown) and/or Power-Con (year unknown). The collector card designs roughly followed their design pattern.

All three of these were at SDCC WonderCon. The first was 2019 and the second was probably 2018. The 3rd was supposedly at 2023 but was (probably) 2018 unless they still just had a bunch of extras laying around. WonderCon also had a variant of the 4th poster from the SDCC section above, but I can't find good photos of it and there's going to be a third variant of it further down too, so at this point I think you get it.

The first design is the cover image for season 2.

The first was probably at NYCC 2018. The right two were given out at a NYCC 2019 panel, as well as sent out with an exclusive statuette to family bloggers to promote season 4.

The first design is the cover art for season one. Its design was also used for a shopping bag at Anime Expo 2019 (photo in the final reblog here). The second one is the cover image for season 4.

Distribution currently unknown (if there ever was one). The second image is the cover for season 5. I'll edit on the distributions if I happen to find them, but I'm fine with what I've got here. I could have missed one or two posters, but since their distributions mostly amounted to handing out flyers, they're hard to find.

[sanguineshade]

Just saw a BDSM educational post and it reminded me of how I had to bring up the topic to my mother the last time I was complaining about my ex.

Basically, what happened was, I have no good things to say about my ex. She's asked a couple times over the course of these months "what I learned from this relationship" (which was my first) and my only response was "I learned I deserved better and that I need to look for someone who will care for me how I care for them".

On our last talk, she proceeded to reply that this was "too narrowing", to which I gently explained it was not, and all the ways I cared for my ex that he didn't return even when I desperately, verbally asked. I ended this by concluding it was a matter of emotional maturity (not saying he wasn't mature, just that we were at different points, with different needs, and he could not meet mine), and that in hindsight, I should've not started that kind of relationship with him, since he never even filled out his document.

And then I had to explain the Document.

You see, I put it shortly to her, I made a document detailing the kind of things I was interested in, sexually. I described what places I felt I'd like to be touched, the things I'd like to do, the things I was open to try and the ones I would decline. I made it readable, with separated topics, and had a blank version for my then-partner to simply fill out. I knew he didn't like to write much so I made it easy to check options, with minimal writing. I gave that to him, and he never filled it up.

She was flabbergasted that I'd do such an un-romantic thing, describing it as "detached" and "like work" and "who would want to sign a document before having a relationship, where did you get this idea from?"

I paused for a moment. "Do you know BDSM?" She did not. I explained what the acronym meant. She was not happy as she asked what that had to do with anything, and where I heard of such things. "Well," I started from the beginning. "You know about 50 Shades of Grey, right?"

I explained to her how, in the boom of the book's popularity, the most important aspect every critic brought up was how the story was, in fact, not displaying BDSM as it advertised, but instead abuse. I proceeded to relate how that got me to read about BDSM, and how consent and guidelines and communication were such an important part of it, how "scenes" need a lot of prep work and how people deeply care for each other.

There was nothing quite like the joy I felt as her expression mellowed, especially as I reminded her that it was my first relationship, and I came up with the document as a guideline, as a safety, as a way of communicating my needs and to hear back from my partner. "But he didn't fill it" she replied, now fully supportive of the document. "Why did you still date him?"

It cut a little deeper than I expected, even now, reminiscing of those words. "It was my first time," I remember shrugging, "and I trusted him."

That was the end of it. I'd love to have a happy ending to add, about how I moved on and found a wonderful person who filled their Document and I am now in a loving relationship with, but there's none of that. Maybe I'll never find anyone who'd do this for me. Maybe my level of maturity doesn't have a match, and my needs are too much for any partner to deal with. Honestly, the only thing I need as I'm typing this is a job, so I could have at least a semblance of financial security. I couldn't care less about intimate relationships right now.

But, all that said, I really wanna thank the BDSM community for all their teachings on consent, and trust, and on how to make things good for all parties involved. I could see the understanding in my mom's eyes with my (honestly probably mediocre) explanations. Of course she knew the difference between a relationship where you feel safe and one where you're just going with the flow, but I could tell she became aware of it while I was talking. I'm sure we both came out of that conversation with a little more knowledge in our minds.

[drill-teeth-art]

Since you think about cassetticons, and Frenzy and Rumble specifically, a lot; do you also consider their relations with Soundwave, not just between the two? Related, are there any Soundwave ideas and headcanons you'd like to share, perhaps? = 3

I don't post that much of my writing very often other than summaries of my plot ideas and headcanons, but I actually have been writing about a cassettes and Soundwave origin story just in my spare time for fun! I'll put an excerpt from that under the cut with some other headcanons! But in summary, my headcanon is that Soundwave met the cassettes it carries over time on Cybertron before the war.

First it met Ratbat, who is older than it and an appraiser of spare parts and vintage gadgets. Ratbat took a liking to it and decided to stick with it on its personal quest to find some other cassettes to work with too. Then they met Rumble and Frenzy in a stretch of wasteland separating the duo's old work site from large Cybertronian cities. The two had been crossing the wastes in search of a Cybertronian legend of a cassette home city that would be safe and welcoming to them. During their journey, they had the displeasure of working with a handful of scummy carriers who screwed them over, so they were extremely skeptical of Soundwave at first. But it was the first carrier they met to already have a cassette, so they decided to give it a chance. Soundwave was very surprised when they first leapt into battle to protect it as Ratbat kept it out of the way for emergency repairs. But it had been patient and compassionate as they grew to trust it, so they protected it. Down the road, it met Ravage and Laserbeak and Buzzsaw. I'm still ironing out headcanon details on Soundwave meeting those three, but they also boil down to Soundwave just being an all-star carrier who is sweet to its cassettes.

The Arrival: Soundwave + Cassettes Fan Origin Story (excerpt) content warnings: mentioned betrayal by unnamed carrier, mention of injury and repair, (if there are other content warnings I should add for this excerpt, feel free to let me know)

Ratbat descended towards a small, makeshift camp a ways outside of town and set them down gently before touching down on the ground beside them. They both wobbled a bit on their treads, so Ratbat took them each by a hand. “Come on. Soundwave will get you each a generous portion of energon and look you over for repair,” Ratbat said and approached the tent. Rumble wrenched his hand free and grumbled a bit. “Repair?!” “Yes,” Ratbat turned his head to face Rumble and looked at him quizzically. “You both look battered. You should at least let Soundwave check your vital systems.” Frenzy whined a bit. “Can’t you do it?” “Yeah. I don’t want any carrier’s, good for nothing, articulated servos poking around my hardware, got it?” Rumble hissed. Ratbat understood their anxiety. He knew it wasn’t about Soundwave. They hadn’t even met Soundwave yet. They seemed to have been brutally betrayed by their last carrier, so he figured they wouldn’t be too keen on a new one. But they did need repairs. “I can only do so much as I’m not a repair specialist. Soundwave is excellent at cassette repair, so I think you should let it give you a look. I promise, if you say to stop something, it will. And I’ll stay there with you the whole time.” The two cassettes still looked skeptical. “It repaired my reels recently,” Ratbat told them. Reel repair was a very delicate process. The cassettes knew that very well. They only had their reels repaired once or twice at their old job site, and they hadn’t let a single carrier do it for them. Ratbat nodded when they looked at him with surprise. “Yes. One of my tape reels slipped out of place when I was blasted out of the sky by some trigger happy jerk,” he explained and the two cringed at the thought, knowing how much that hurt. “But Soundwave put it right back in place. Not a bit of damage to my other hardwave. See?” He opened up a panel on his chest plate for them to see. They leaned in a bit. His reels were neatly in place, and Frenzy pointed a bit where a few small parts had been replaced since the replacement parts were a lighter color than the rest. Ratbat nodded again and closed up his chest panel. “That must’ve taken a few cycles…” Rumble said, surprised at the skilled repair job. “Indeed,” Ratbat replied, smiling softly. “But Soundwave cares very much. And as you can tell, it took the time and effort to do the repair just right. So I assure you, if you allow it to do your repairs, it will not harm you.” The two cassettes looked at each other and nodded a bit. “Where’s this Soundwave bot? We wanna meet it,” Rumble asked. “Just through here. In the tent,” Ratbat gently took Rumble’s hand and led both cassettes inside the large tent. Rumble and Frenzy were surprised to see Soundwave right inside. It probably was close enough to have heard the whole conversation, and the cassettes weren’t sure if it had tuned it out or not. When they entered, it turned its head some to face them. They flinched a bit. It was the biggest carrier they’d ever seen. “As I told you over our frequency, these are the bots who were at the auction house. They need some energon and probably repair as well,” Ratbat nodded at Soundwave. Rumble was about to protest that they didn’t need anything from any bot, but he felt his fuel tank grumble and kept his mouth shut. Soundwave nodded at Ratbat and then took out and offered Frenzy and Rumble each a full, big cube of rich energon, something they’d never even seen before. Rumble accepted the offered energon excitedly. He figured he should be more skeptical of the fuel, but he was too low on energy and tired to care. Frenzy grabbed his arm to make him wait for a second, holding their cube in their other arm. He paused as they dipped their finger into their cube to test for hazardous materials. They waited for a few seconds and pulled their finger out. They nodded at Rumble, signaling that it was clear to drink, and they both started to eagerly drink the energon.

End Excerpt

I realized I hardly got into my Soundwave specific headcanons. Mostly focused on the relationships in this answer, but I hope you enjoy :D Thank you for the ask!

[hypnotisedfireflies]

Prompt Update

Hi everyone! Okay, to help get my head on straight and bring you all up to speed on what this is looking like, here's quick rundown of what's happening with these.

First I just have to say I still haven't picked myself up off the floor: thank you all so much for being so supportive and interested in Driftersverse. I never expected this and then comments, asks, prompts etc just mean so much. And I really do want to do them (and all the love) justice by getting to as many as I possibly can but I am quite behind and need a rich benefactor so I can quit my job to catch up, lol.

Some stats: so far I've had 46 recorded prompts, plus a few casual conversations that didn't make it to my spreadsheet. Of these, we've had six stories combining about 15 prompts from about 12 different people. Then there's been a handful addressed here on Tumblr as drabbles/thoughts.

I have a lot to go. O_O This is what's coming up, but that doesn't mean anything not mentioned here isn't happening/won't be addressed in an ask/won't suddenly appear. I don't do one shots well and prefer to work prompt ideas in with each other to create a larger story. So it sometimes happens that I don't have an idea for something, but then another prompt sails in and they feed off one another.

Details below the cut ...

THE AU

This will start on the morning of 28 September 2003 and is a Driftersverse AU of Tess and Joel meeting without the end of the world. It will probably be written a lot slower than usual stuff and hum along in the background while I continue to write canon-AU-Drifters stuff, so maybe like ... updated weekly or something. It has a 20-chapter outline so far and isn't done so ... yeah, there's that.

Bonus: There has already been a preview of this story buried in one of the others, if you can find it. ;)

THE SUPPLEMENTARY STUFF

In writing all the extra material it made me realise there were a couple of things I overlooked in Drifter's Dawn. I promise not to George Lucas my own shit but I really think it will strengthen the story to add this supplementary material in. It's already kind of there but it's not pronounced enough and I think it's important. It will occur early in the extant story.

Bonus: There may also be an additional later chapter just before Boston.

THE OC/SUPPORTING CHARACTER COLLECTION

So something I never expected was that my OCs would get so much love? That makes me just ... guys. O_O;;; There have been a few requests for stories that focus on these guys (still mostly with a Tessjoel bent) so I thought I would group these into one collection and it, like the AU, can hum along and be added to gradually. Characters featured here so far include Lachie and Rachel POVs, plus some supporting canons getting their own POV chapters like Maria and Ellie.

Bonus: Lachie-finds-out-what-Joel-did is probably the first one I'll write.

THE OTHER STUFF

Then there's the other prompts that don't fit into the above categories that I'm really excited about writing - I'm going to try and priortise ones taking place prior to TLOU as my prompts so far have leaned heavily in the post-TLOU arena and I want to address some of the earlier ones.

Bonus: I had a prompt for more top!Tess and that may be one of the few one shots I do write because YES.